Milan is as likable as ever, his adventures as formulaic.
“I suppose,” muses Milan Jacovich, “when you’re in the business of messing in other people’s lives moral dilemmas come with the license.” In this 13th outing for Cleveland’s Marlowesque shamus (The Dutch, 2001, etc.), the moral dilemmas are particularly sticky. What to do, for instance, about the beautiful woman arguably out of bounds, the trusted friends who just happen to be mob-connected, and the vengeful murderer with whom he can’t help but empathize? It all begins when Common Pleas Judge Maureen Hartigan hires Milan to recover property conned from her by an Irish charmer whose brogue was as broad as his character was spurious. Was, that is, because soon enough Brian McFall (alias Jamie O’Dowd, alias William Poduska) turns past tense, shot to death in a shabby motel room. Near his corpse is a piece of paper with Milan’s name scrawled on it. Nowhere near, however, is the jewelry, the cash, or the envelope with certain family photographs Judge Hartigan had asked Milan to recover. A pair of dispiriting developments soon follow. One: Enter fire-breathing Lt. Florence McHargue, head of Cleveland PD’s homicide department, whose fickle tolerance for Milan is manifest mainly when she wants his help. Two: Fretful Milan now doubts that the Hartigan family is really what those purloined photos show. He’s right, of course. But before he learns for sure, his own name will flirt with the Irish Sports Pages—in Cleveland, the newspaper obituaries.
Milan is as likable as ever, his adventures as formulaic.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-28661-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/Minotaur
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.
The creator of Paterson attorney Andy Carpenter’s dog-friendly mysteries launches a new series starring several of Andy’s friends and enemies, including the canine client he represented in Dachshund Through the Snow (2019), with a supporting role for Andy himself.
Judge Henry “Hatchet” Henderson, whose courtroom has provided the arena for so many of Andy’s shenanigans, is threatened with blackmail, and he wants the newly formed K Team—retired cop Corey Douglas; his canine partner, Simon Garfunkel; Andy’s fearsome investigator, Marcus Clark; and Andy’s wife, Laurie Collins—to identify and neutralize the threat, which he plans to keep confidential by paying Andy a dollar to take the case as his lawyer. At first the team’s inquiries into which of Henderson’s recent cases (the manslaughter conviction of ex-boxer John Lowry? The freeing of self-confessed embezzler Nina Williams on a legal technicality? The acquittal of Ponzi-scheming broker Drew Lockman?) provoked the blackmail lead nowhere. Then they lead to hints of a financial manipulation conspiracy on a grand scale. By the time they lead to Equi-net, an electronic communications network that handles securities trades for people who’d like to keep them private, five people have been murdered, with more slated to follow. The one place they don’t lead is to continued confidentiality, as Henderson learns to his sorrow. The net of deceptions, double-crosses, and professional assassinations gets pretty knotty, but although the conspiracy involves an awful lot of guilty parties, the gimmick behind all their criminal activity is appealingly simple. Through it all, Corey serves as an investigator and narrator every bit as ebullient as Andy and a lot more diligent. In fact, longtime fans may wonder why Rosenfelt saw the need to create a new series that follows the pattern of Andy’s 20 successful cases so closely. If he thought Paterson needed more wiseacre crime fighters, he was undoubtedly right.
Don’t be fooled by the brand-new packaging. If you liked Rosenfelt’s rollicking previous series, you’ll like this one too.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25719-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An appealing, three-dimensional heroine and some clever plot twists make this an enjoyable, quick read.
In this mystery novel, somebody’s been killing the proprietors of a prestigious inn, and the newest innkeeper is determined to find out why before she becomes the next victim.
Doyle (The Infidelity Pact, 2008, etc.) is a self-described “foodie” and an avid cheerleader for the quaint village of East Hampton, New York, and she indulges both of these passions in this first installment of her new Hamptons Murder Mysteries series. Recently transplanted from California following a nasty divorce, 35-year-old protagonist Antonia Bingham has bought the Windmill Inn from the estate of Gordon Haslett, who died suddenly, apparently from a heart attack. An inventive, passionate chef, Antonia has just reopened the inn’s restaurant when she learns from two of her regulars, Len and Sylvia Powers, that the circumstances surrounding Gordon’s death were suspicious. Worse, he wasn’t the first owner of the inn to experience an untimely death. Now, strange things are happening to Antonia—someone removes a stepladder while she’s installing a light bulb, someone locks her in a supply closet, and more. Her new buddy, Joseph Fowler, a 60-something widower, joins in the amateur sleuthing as they try to sort out the possible motives of a multitude of suspects; Gordon, they discover, was universally disliked. Doyle is an enthusiastic guide for Long Island’s East End village; she details each street and shop, the spectacular beaches, and the unique play of sunlight that has been a siren call to artists for more than a century. She also gives readers plenty of opportunities to vicariously indulge in every mouthwatering bite that Antonia and her restaurant patrons consume—especially if the item is loaded with butter, sugar, or some other comforting dietary no-no. Doyle also pays careful attention to housing décor, wardrobe selections, and the hairstyles of every character, which perhaps stems from her experience as a screenwriter (Intern, 2009). The generally smooth prose maintains a gentle pace, although there are one or two unnecessarily awkward lead-ins, such as “an odd incident occurred that unnerved Antonia and once again gave her pause about her own mortality.” The dinner-table gathering of suspects isn’t an original device, but it’s fun and satisfying nonetheless.
An appealing, three-dimensional heroine and some clever plot twists make this an enjoyable, quick read.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9972701-4-3
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Dunemere Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
