Dunlap’s creation of occupations for side characters that seem to exist solely to help her heroine (Switchback, 2015, etc.)...
A stunt double and Zen student adds sleuthing to her resume as she asks what might have driven her brother out of town.
In spite of her job as a stunt double, Darcy Lott’s life doesn’t seem all that interesting. Maybe it’s because she’s been absorbing all the mellow energy from her Zen teacher, Leo Garson, or because her long-lost brother, Mike, has finally returned to San Francisco. Whatever the reason, events seem to pick up, even though her interest may not. Darcy discovers that Mike’s twice been sideswiped by a car and is convinced that someone’s after him. After sharing some enigmatic bits of noninformation about whom that might be, Mike disappears, but not before telling Darcy that he can handle it. Darcy, who’s not so convinced, tries to figure out who might want to attack Mike, though she’s working at a disadvantage given her limited knowledge of his life. She’s got help, after a fashion, in the form of some of her siblings, whose descriptions read like career day at a grade school: John the cop, Gary the lawyer, Grace the epidemiologist. Though her siblings want to lend a hand, they don’t have much more insight than Darcy does, and she ultimately has to depend on her own cunning tempered by her Zen take on what Leo might say. Darcy’s investigation is thrown into overdrive when she begins to suspect that her siblings may also be targets. Is the mystery about Mike, or is something bigger afoot?
Dunlap’s creation of occupations for side characters that seem to exist solely to help her heroine (Switchback, 2015, etc.) makes sense given that her writing focuses more on ends and means than enjoying the journey.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8601-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.
All of Lake Eden is agog when the police chief’s secretary takes a tumble from the penthouse of a condo complex.
Fabulously wealthy Roger Dalworth has pulled out all the stops for the grand reopening of the Albion Hotel, his new luxury condo project. A caterer from Minneapolis! Red Velvet Surprise Cupcakes from The Cookie Jar for dessert! The evening is so grand that The Cookie Jar’s owner, Hannah Swensen (Cinnamon Roll Murder, 2012, etc.), in eye makeup and pantyhose, decides to tour the Albion’s posh penthouse, complete with its outdoor garden. Hannah is luckier than Barbara Donnelly, whose own tour of the penthouse ends in a headfirst plunge to the parking lot. Barbara survives, much addled, leaving amateur sleuth Hannah to decode her ramblings about her brother (Barbara is an only child) and a furry white monster that lurks in her hospital room. Hannah soon has her own worries. She finds Dr. Bev Thorndike, her former rival for local dentist Norman Rhodes’ affections, in her red Maserati at the bottom of Miller’s Pond. Even though Dr. Bev has recently become engaged to Roger, her death puts Hannah very much on Detective Mike Kingston’s radar screen. Can Hannah find the real culprit before Mike ends the discussion of whether he or Norman will be the one to wrestle her to the altar by putting her in the slammer instead?
Even when she’s in pantyhose, Hannah’s grit and quick thinking once more save the day.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8034-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.
Murder crashes the party.
Mia Carina would like nothing better than to see her dad, Ravello, a made man in Donny Boldano’s mob, go straight. When she hears he’s won the Belle View Banquet Manor from hard-luck gambler Andre Bouras in a poker game, she rushes back from Palm Beach to help him run the place, hoping it will provide her dad with enough legitimate income to allow him to cut his ties with the underworld. Despite its dated décor and bone-shaking proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the catering hall has panoramic views out its windows that make it a worthy rival to the overpriced event venues in Manhattan—which Mia’s outer-borough friends drive her nuts by calling “the city.” (“Queens is the city” is her perennial retort.) And she proves her borough cred by moving in with her nonna in Astoria. But running a catering hall involves more than dealing with bridezillas like Alice Paluski, who’s determined to make her wedding bigger and better than her twin sister’s, or with momzillas like Barbara Grazio, Alice’s prospective mother-in-law, who’s determined to make the groom’s side of the wedding outshine the bride’s. She has to wrangle an ever changing cast of chefs, sous-chefs, waitstaff, decorators, DJs, and the occasional stripper, who all bring a host of quirks and baggage to the banquet table. She also has to deal with more than one corpse. It takes all of Mia’s considerable ingenuity to keep Ravello’s first legit enterprise from becoming a ticket right back to the slammer.
Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico’s series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2534-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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