Devastated by the deaths of her husband and infant son in a car crash that she alone survived, Casey Maldonado has taken to traveling, accompanied by Death, whom only she can see. She ends up in Clymer, Ohio, a small town devastated by the defection of a manufacturing company. She quickly becomes involved with Home Sweet Home, an organization that feeds struggling families, and she also takes a part in a local theater production. When she learns of the apparent suicide of a local woman, Ellen Schnieder, she begins an investigation, along with Ellen’s boyfriend, to prove that the death was actually murder. Complicating matters, the theater’s director seems to be in some kind of trouble with some unsavory men, and Casey is being pursued by executives from the car company who paid her settlement. An interesting premise (shades, almost, of The Fugitive) and a vulnerable but strong protagonist are the highlights here, though the character of Death adds an unexpected dimension. Views: 14
After fifteen years in prison, a disgraced spy hunts down the man who put him away Jack Mason is ready to kill. For fifteen years he has plotted revenge from his prison cell. He has exercised daily, keeping his body and mind fit, and learned all he could about computers, so that he can finally manipulate them at will. He will need to use all his mental powers to find Sobell, then merciless strength to kill him. An ex-CIA agent, Mason was jailed for spying on his country for the Russians. Sobell was the KGB colonel who recruited him and, when the scheme turned sour, sold him out. He is hidden somewhere in the United States, with a new identity courtesy of Witness Protection, and a mistress in the form of Jack's ex-wife. When Jack gets out of prison, he's going to take them both down—no matter what the cost. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Brian Freemantle including rare photos from the author's personal collection. Views: 14
Mystery-solving criminal lawyer Crang returns to investigate the disappearance of two rare books. Fletcher Marshall is a Toronto antiquarian book dealer, internationallyrespected in the business. One night, someone blows the safe in his officeand makes off with the contents, which include an infamous forged firstedition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguesethat is in itself a collector's item. Fletcher, who was still in the processof verifying the book, doesn't even know whether it was the real thingor a clever forgery (of a forgery). But rather than summon the cops toinvestigate the theft, he turns to his pal Crang, the nervy criminal lawyer,hoping he can retrieve the books before their owner gets wind of thecrime. The owner happens to be the richest woman in Canada and a toughcookie who could ruin Fletcher's career.Crang gets on the hunt, learning much about the trade in mustybooks and the lucrative business it makes for... Views: 14
From Publishers WeeklyGleefully subverting most of the rules of mystery fiction, Chesbro ( Dark Chant in a Crimson Key ) once again produces an extraordinary adventure for his singularly implausible (albeit surpassingly entertaining) dwarf detective, former circus star turned criminologist/sleuth and media darling, Mongo Frederickson. Mongo is visiting his brother Garth and his famous folksinger wife, Mary, when Sacra, Mary's former lover, arrives to claim Mary as his own. Mary is plainly terrified and believes Sacra is a witch. Because Mongo's former loves also include a practitioner of the black arts, he takes Mary's fears seriously. Meanwhile, out on the Hudson River, not far from Garth's house, a shipping company is dumping oil into the water and loading mysterious cargo for export overseas. When an environmentalist friend tries to obtain evidence, his body is ripped apart by propeller blades. With only one real suspect, the author is forced to weld Garth's domestic woes to the wider environmental concerns of the Hudson River. This kind of minimalist plot gambit could easily misfire, but Mongo and his cohorts form such a ruthlessly cunning, delightfully oddball crew that the reader remains engrossed. The action heats up, bodies are battered and the plucky Mongo gets to pilot a tanker through murky waters. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsThe 11th adventure in which Mongo Frederickson (Dark Chant in a Crimson Key, etc.) uses superior intellect, circus tricks, karate, magic, and pretentious metaphysical folderol to foil various scourges of Western Civilization--here, the loathsome Sacra Silver, who's intent on breaking up the marriage of Mongo's brother and sister-in-law, illegally polluting the Hudson by dumping chemicals from his daddy's fleet of tankers, and making a few zillion on the side by selling parched Kuwaitis shiploads of the (contaminated) Hudson. When both the Coast Guard and the police skirt responsibility for the filth--as well as the propeller- chopped body recently found in the river--Mongo sallies forth to waylay a tanker headed for the Tappan Zee. Despite a concussion, he succeeds--only to find his brother wired up to a homemade electric chair and his sister-in-law forced to commit mayhem to save him. Mongo, a comic-book hero sans pictures, again blathers on about witches, the supernatural, and his personal philosophy (Love, my friend, is the greatest mystery of all'')--all done in a manner destined to please the converted. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Views: 14
