First line in the book: At Mike Downey's wake the coffin was closed.
My thoughts: This time, piano-playing P I Bill Smith comes to the forefront while Lydia takes a back seat in the second book of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series. At the behest of his old mentor, Bobby Moran, who runs a security business, Bill goes undercover to investigate the killing of a security guard at the Bronx Home for the Aged in a gang-infested territory in the Bronx. What he then uncovers is a startling web of corruption in the world of non-profit organizations and the evil wrought by money and the giddying power of knowing you can get away with it!
Likeable characters, rich and rewardingly plotted, exciting at every turn and a first-rate read. I am impressed with her poetic diction which is so vivid it awakens my imagination. Her detailed descriptions of nature, buildings, people, scenes can only come from one who knows what they are writing about. This book is a true blue dee-tec-tive story in the way a P I is supposed to detect and find answers for his client with a lot of legwork and asking questions and if you started with Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys in the past and want to know how much detection has evolved and changed since those heydays, then this is the series to get you back into it. I love a good P I story and I am not saying it lightly.
I can see why this book won the Shamus Award (awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction genre novels of the year) for the "Best P I Hardcover Novel" category in 1996. This book could be used as a textbook/reference book for students in writing programs.
Rating: 5/5
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