Even without the hard core of logic that marks Sonora’s best cases, Hightower (No Good Deed, 1998, etc.) evokes a world...
According to Joy Stinnet, the last of the home-invasion victims to die—and her brutal, tender death scene is the first tip-off that Hightower’s fifth police novel is up to something special—the Stinnet home was broken into by two men and an angel. Evidence piles up at an almost indecent rate against the two men, olive-addicted sociopath Lanky Aruba and his nephew Barty Kinkle. But what is Cincinnati Police Detective Sonora Blair supposed to do about the angel? From her partner, Sam Delarosa, to her boss, Sergeant Crick, to Crick’s ex-partner Jack Van Owen, retired by a gunshot years ago but now back in the thick of this case, nobody agrees with Sonora that there must have been a third man in the Stinnet house, somebody who broke Barty’s tooth and hid Joy Stinnet and her baby under her bed. As the case hurtles on at Hightower’s accustomed breakneck speed, though, it’s increasingly obvious, at least to Sonora, that tracking and watching and arresting Aruba and Kinkle isn’t going to get to the bottom of the mystery. And that isn’t just because the Stinnets’ unpaid debts to updated loan sharks seem a pitifully inadequate motive for the nightmare of their deaths, but because Hightower is drawing close to the other kinds of mystery—to territory most cop novels would blanket with crime-scene tape and ignore.
Even without the hard core of logic that marks Sonora’s best cases, Hightower (No Good Deed, 1998, etc.) evokes a world richer in possibilities of guilt and redemption than most crime novelists’ unqualified successes.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-32360-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.
An Arizona accountant with a penchant for solving murders lands a fishy case.
Sophie "Phee" Kimball might lead a dull life if it weren’t for her mother, Harriet Plunkett, and Harriet’s neurotic Chiweenie, Streetman. As it is, Harriet lives near her daughter in Sun City West and has a wide circle of zany friends who’ve helped Phee solve several mysteries (Molded 4 Murder, 2019, etc.) while she’s been working for Williams Investigations along with her boyfriend, Marshall, a former police officer. While Phee’s visiting Harriet one day, Streetman dashes over to the neighbors’ barbecue grill and unearths a dead body under a tarp. As usual, the overwhelmed local police ask Williams Investigations to help—er, consult. Harriet’s main concern is getting costumes made for the reluctant Streetman, whom she’s entered in a series of contests starting with Halloween and progressing through Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, and St. Patrick’s Day. One of her friends is an accomplished seamstress who goes all out making gorgeous costumes that will beat an obnoxious lady who looks down on mutts. The dead man is identified as Cameron Tully, a seafood distributor, who was poisoned by the locally ubiquitous sago pine. At the first dog contest, Elaine Meschow has to be rushed to the hospital after she gets a dose of the same thing. The owner of a gourmet dog food company, Elaine is lucky enough to recover. After Streetman takes second place, Harriet’s team redoubles its efforts for the next contest while Phee and Marshall, who are moving into a new place together, continue to hunt for clues. A restaurant holdup and a scheme to use empty houses for hookups for high school kids add to the confusion.
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2455-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
This ran in the S.E.P. and resulted in more demands for the story in book form than ever recorded. Well, here it is and it is a honey. Imagine ten people, not knowing each other, not knowing why they were invited on a certain island house-party, not knowing their hosts. Then imagine them dead, one by one, until none remained alive, nor any clue to the murderer. Grand suspense, a unique trick, expertly handled.
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1939
ISBN: 0062073478
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1939
SEEN & HEARD
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