Little mystery and less suspense. But Eddie’s relaxed recollections of his seventh canter around the Vegas nostalgia track...
For Americans who loved or admired John F. Kennedy, 1963 was indeed a very bad year, but it doesn’t seem to have been so hard on Kennedy's friend Frank Sinatra, despite the kidnapping of his son Frank Jr.
Though he’s a friend of Frank’s, it takes quite a while for Sands pit boss Eddie Gianelli to get a call from him. First, Eddie’s got to help Joey Bishop’s co-star Abby Dalton recover some indiscreet pictures photographer Barney Irwin had snapped of her when she was young, innocent and naked. Backed up by Brooklyn behemoth Jerry Epstein, Eddie breaks into Barney’s place but finds nothing more risqué than cheesecake shots. So, when Barney holds out for more money than Abby’s willing to pay, Eddie gets Jerry to lean on Barney. This whole contretemps, complete with gunsels and murder, is no more than a curtain raiser for the abduction of Frank Sinatra Jr. by a crew that demands $240,000(?!) for his safe return. Distraught, Frank begs Eddie to make the drop-off, and the result is gratifyingly routine for the good guys, though a little frustrating for thrill-seeking readers. Eddie steadfastly insists that he’s not a private eye, and indeed, this time his detection is limited to noticing and interpreting a list of names on a sheet of paper intriguingly headed “Nov. 22.”
Little mystery and less suspense. But Eddie’s relaxed recollections of his seventh canter around the Vegas nostalgia track (Fly Me to the Morgue, 2011, etc.) are a perfect nightcap for fans who don’t want to elevate their pulse rate before dropping off to sleep.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8191-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Utter non-scents.
Die-hard Yankee candle maker Stella Wright (Murder’s No Votive Confidence, 2018) gets caught up in a trans-Atlantic murder plot.
Stella thoroughly enjoys her trip to Paris even though her mother, perfume expert Millie Wright, who’s scheduled to speak on a panel entitled “The Art of Scent Extractions” at the World Perfumery Conference, gets preempted by a murder. Sadly, once they’re back home in Nantucket, things get even weirder. Stella receives an anonymous note threatening her mom if Stella doesn’t turn over a secret formula hidden in Millie’s bag. Her mom can’t help because she’s in the hospital courtesy of an overenthusiastic attempt by Stella’s cat, Tinker, to befriend her. While trespassing on a suspicious sailboat, Stella meets U.S. Agent Sarah Hill, who warns her that well-known anarchist Rex Laruam plans to disrupt the upcoming Peace Jubilee using a stolen formula he secreted in Millie’s bag after he stabbed the agent guarding it back in Paris. Ignoring the advice of her friend Andy Southerland, a Nantucket cop, to leave detection to the professionals, Stella tries to unmask the elusive Laruam. As she spies on a bevy of unlikely suspects, the plot spirals further and further out of control: There’s a Canadian couple staying at an Airbnb run by Stella’s cousin Chris who whisper sweet but suspicious nothings in the dark, a shovel-wielding schoolmarm, a gang of old geezers who have a collective crush on Millie, a surprise 30th-birthday party planned by Stella’s beau, Peter Bailey, and an even more surprising impromptu airplane ride.
Utter non-scents.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2141-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.
A plucky group of early-20th-century detectives (Murder on Trinity Place, 2019, etc.) takes on the Black Hand.
The leads include Frank Malloy and Gino Donatelli, former police officers who started a detective agency after an unexpected legacy made Malloy a wealthy man; Malloy’s wife, Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy society family who runs a maternity clinic for the poor; and their nanny, Maeve, a budding sleuth who works in Malloy’s office. All of them leap to attention when Gino’s sister-in-law Teodora reports that Jane Harding, a worker at the settlement house where Teo volunteers, has been kidnapped by the Black Hand, who are notorious for abducting the wives and children of anyone who can afford to pay ransom. The New York Police Department is corrupt, and the local Italian immigrants never report crimes. Mr. McWilliam, who runs the settlement house, had asked Jane to marry him, but she’d asked him to allow her to experience more of the single life before deciding. Seeking clues, Sarah visits Mrs. Cassidi, an earlier kidnapping victim who’s refused to talk to anyone, in hopes that her nursing experience and sympathetic manner will get results. Mrs. Cassidi admits to being raped but knows little about where she was held captive, a quiet place in a house where she could hear children. Soon after Nunzio Esposito, a leader of the Black Hand, tells Malloy that no one’s been taken from the settlement house, Jane suddenly reappears but refuses to discuss where she’s been. Lisa Prince, Jane’s well-to-do cousin, reluctantly agrees to take her in even though Jane’s jealous of her wealth and can be unpleasant to deal with. When Esposito’s found murdered in a flat he rented for his mistress, Gino, who’s just arrived on the scene, is arrested. Now the clever sleuths must solve both the murder and the abductions to clear Gino’s name.
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0574-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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