Though Amsterdam’s not as much fun as the geezers and innocents of Shames’s first seven novels (Welcome to Paradise, 1999,...
Since making his bundle back in Jersey, Pete Amsterdam’s leading a Key West regimen of late mornings, tennis, Chardonnay, and a p.i. license he maintains strictly as a tax dodge—until he meets the leggy blond client he can’t refuse, partly because showing her out would require him to bolt nude from his hot tub, partly because the charming she turns out to be an equally intriguing he, but mostly because his would-be client turns up dead the next morning on Tank Island. The late Kenny Lukens had run off to the Bahamas just as fast as his long, long legs could carry him after relieving his boss, Lefty Ortega, of two payroll pouches, one containing the night’s receipts from Lefty’s bar, the other something Lefty wanted back even more. Kenny’s friends and foes alike gang up on the reluctant Amsterdam, prodding him to discover just what Kenny had buried on Tank Island and why he came back to unbury it. Soon after lissome yoga instructor Maggie plies Pete with herbal tea, he’s scrambling off the side of her dry-docked trawler for a closer look at Kenny’s boat. Inspired by a note Ortega’s daughter Lydia passes him at Lefty’s funeral, he stares down her bodyguard to get into her condo. He even takes a turn at straight-up interrogation, questioning Lydia’s partner Mickey Veale about Ortega’s business. But before long, it’s his own curiosity and long-buried ambition that propel him toward full-fledged sleuthing.
Though Amsterdam’s not as much fun as the geezers and innocents of Shames’s first seven novels (Welcome to Paradise, 1999, etc.), his debut still gets him off to a worthy start.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50253-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
This superb series (The Dark Angel, 2018, etc.) never disappoints. Its patented combination of mysterious circumstances,...
An anonymous letter brings DCI Harry Nelson memories of past sorrows and present dangers.
The letter mentions a stone circle that harks back to the 20-year-old case of a missing child. Ten years later, another missing child introduced Harry to archaeologist Ruth Galloway when he asked her to examine some bones. That case began a working relationship that turned out to be equally productive in personal terms: A short-lived affair between the two produced a child, Kate, though Harry is married and has two grown daughters. His wife, Michelle, who accepts Kate in their lives, is about to give birth to a baby who may or may not be Harry’s. A new archaeological team working near the site of the original henge finds a stone coffin containing bones. The head of the dig is Leif Anderssen, whose father, Erik, was Ruth’s mentor all those years ago. As Harry continues to receive cryptic messages, the bones of what Ruth thinks is a young girl are found near the new dig, opening up yet another old case. The police think the body is that of Margaret Lacey, who vanished from a street party in 1981. The focus at the time was on her parents; her older siblings, Annie and Luke; and John Mostyn, a neighbor and odd duck who collected stones. But nothing was ever proven, and Margaret’s body was never found. The birth of George, Michelle’s son, puts more pressure on Harry, who loves his wife and Ruth in different ways, to stay in his marriage. Nelson’s team and some friends of Ruth’s use their own areas of expertise to search for clues from the past, but when the child of Annie’s daughter, Star, is kidnapped, the present-day crisis takes center stage.
This superb series (The Dark Angel, 2018, etc.) never disappoints. Its patented combination of mysterious circumstances, police procedure, and agonizing relationship problems will keep you reading, and feeling, all night.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-97464-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.
Notch another corpse for Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree (Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, 2019, etc.).
After slowly working its way out of the red, Jake’s sweet shop is now one of the linchpins of the revitalized business district of Eastport, Maine. But she and her partner, Ellie White, are less than thrilled when Henry Hadlyme, star of the food tourism show Eat This! offers to include The Chocolate Moose on his podcast Eating on the Edge! which highlights off-the-beaten-track purveyors of New England fare. Hadlyme seems a little slimy to Jake and Ellie, and his interest in their treats seems less than sincere. But when he calls Jake “missy,” that’s it; the two chocolateers boot him out of their shop. He comes back with a vengeance—or at least, his corpse does. It turns up in the basement of the Moose with a stuffed parrot pinned to its shoulder and a cutlass jabbed through its chest in a gruesome nod to the ongoing Eastport Pirate Festival. Jake would love to present police chief Bob Arnold with a convenient alternative to charging her with Hadlyme’s murder. And there’s no dearth of suspects: A surreptitious trip to the Eat This! production trailer lets Jake know that pretty much everyone involved with the show hated Hadlyme. But finding out exactly who croaked the curmudgeon—and offering the chief some proof—proves to be a challenge to Jake’s and Ellie’s ingenuity, health, and welfare.
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1134-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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