It’s nice to report that Moe, who seems to live more deeply in his memories in every installment of his adventures, is...
The ninth time around the block for Brooklyn private eye Moe Prager (Hurt Machine, 2011, etc.) is a blast from the past in more ways than one.
Sloane Cantor isn’t really hollow. She just said she felt that way when she posted her tale of a traumatic jilting online back in 1999, when she was still in high school, and 911 phone banks lit up all over the city. It was all a lie—there was no Lionel who’d dumped her, no Victoria he had sex with in front of her—or, as Sloane would call it, an example of performance art. The furor at these revelations was so intense that Sloane changed her name to Siobhan Bracken when she moved to Manhattan. Now, she’s been missing from the East Village for a month, and her mother, Nancy Lustig, is worried. Since Nancy’s known Moe since his very first case, it makes sense for her to rope him into her search, especially since Moe, who’s hit bottom with the death of his fiancee, can use some distraction. What doesn’t make sense is Sloane’s, or Siobhan’s, behavior. She’s not dead; the woman whose corpse was found in her Houston Street apartment is that of her ex-lover, washed-up actress Millicent McCumber. And she’s once again headed for Web celebrity via a series of videos that show her bound and gagged, a photograph of an unidentifiable woman at her feet. Is she really in danger, or is this just another piece of performance art? And either way, what’s the point?
It’s nice to report that Moe, who seems to live more deeply in his memories in every installment of his adventures, is poised to escape his past at the end of this one. The out-of-the-blue revelations that wind up this atmospheric, bluesy case may leave readers less satisfied than he is.Pub Date: May 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4405-6202-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tyrus Books
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A high-country Presumed Innocent that moves like greased lightning. First of a welcome new series, though it’s hard to...
Rookie Twelve Sleep County Game Warden Joe Pickett’s not much of a shot, and he’s been looking like a goat ever since poacher Ote Keeley got the drop on him with his own gun during a routine arrest. But at least he’s doing better than Ote, who’s turned up dead on the woodpile outside Joe’s house. Joe’s search in Crazy Woman Creek canyon for the two outfitters and guides Ote was most recently partnered with ends happily, though violently, and suddenly Joe is the man of the hour. Longtime County Sheriff Bud Barnum nervously asks Joe’s assurance that he’s not going to support neighboring game warden Wacey Hedeman’s challenge in the upcoming election; trophy wife Aimee Kensinger, who really likes men in uniforms, invites Joe’s family to housesit her palatial digs for three weeks; and wily Vern Dunnegan, Joe’s predecessor, wants Joe to join him in pulling down big bucks from InterWest resources, the fat-cat corporation for whose gas pipeline Vern’s lining up local support. All this good news is only a front, of course, for a monstrous assault on Joe’s livelihood, his integrity, and his family—and incidentally on an inoffensive species long assumed extinct. In response, Joe promises one of the bad guys that “things are going to get real western,” and that’s exactly what happens in the satisfyingly action-filled climax.
A high-country Presumed Innocent that moves like greased lightning. First of a welcome new series, though it’s hard to imagine tourism-marketing exec Box topping his debut.Pub Date: July 9, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14748-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
PERSPECTIVES
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