THE JANUARY CORPSE

Disbarred attorney-turned-Pennsylvania p.i. Dave Garrett has only the weekend to prove that a man who disappeared seven years ago is dead so that the man's mom and sister Lisa can collect on his insurance policy. Was the vanished Danny Wilson murdered, and if so, by whom? His former law partner, Leo Strasnick, says their practice consisted mostly of civil cases, but then why is Garrett being tailed and warned off by mafia types? And what happened to the $100,000 Wilson had with him in his car? And was someone else with him? Abetted by the pretty but tough Lisa (she has no trouble shooting a thug, point-blank, in the foot as a warning), Garrett begins to suspect that Wilson's still alive. But then who died in that blood-splattered car? The unsurprising revelation may have readers flipping back a few pages and rereading Garrett and Lisa's romantic interlude—in disbelief. Workmanlike prose, routine beat-up-the-p.i. sequences, and a twist ending that fizzles. A disappointing debut.