Genre: Mystery/Woman
Sleuth
Description:
“In this fifth and final installment of the Peri Minneopa Mysteries,
Peri has had enough. She’s closing her business, marrying her detective
boyfriend, and settling down to a life of ease–until her brother shows up,
accused of a murder he swears he didn’t commit. Now she’s back in the thick of
things, investigating the death of an engineer who may have been stealing
techno-secrets from other companies. Her relationship with her brother is an
icy one, at best, and she struggles with her ambivalence, as well as her desire
to leave investigative work behind. Digging around in people’s lives is
reasonably easy, but when the bullets start flying, will Peri be able to keep
her promise?”
Author:
A native of Illinois, Gayle Carline moved to Southern California years
ago. She’s written in magazines about her favorite hobby, horse racing, as well
as a humor columnist for her local newspaper. After years of doing that she
added novelist to her list, writing the first of her Peri Minneopa mystery
series.
Appraisal:
This was my first time reading a book in this series so I can’t compare
it to prior books, but I liked the character of Peri a lot. She’s more real than
a lot of fictional detectives. She has plenty of doubts, both personal and
professional, but they aren’t so bad as to prevent her from doing a good job of
detecting. This story has a bit of a tech thriller kind of story line that’s
intertwined with the main mystery, the murder of an engineer. Add to that a
complication and additional story line due to Peri’s long-absent brother being in
the middle of this mess. I want to call him her estranged brother, which might
be a fair description, or maybe not. The strange part of “estranged” definitely
fits their relationship though, which only complicates things more. Throw in
Peri’s close relationships with law enforcement, including her fiancé, other
police officers and her friend, the coroner, and she’s able to get information a
typical PI wouldn’t be able to. All in all, a fun, intense read with a lot of
unique aspects I don’t typically see in a detective story.
FYI:
While the fifth book of a series, I haven’t read the prior books and
felt that this story stood alone.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 75-70,000 words
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