Friday, September 30, 2011

Promissory Payback: A Jane Perry Novelette, by Laurel Dewey


The Story Plant, ISBN 9781611880076, August 2011

Jane Perry is a Denver homicide detective, a recovering alcoholic with a painful marriage in her past. When she's called to the scene of a murder early on a Monday morning, it's just part of the job, and in keeping with her low expectations of the human race.

The victim is an attractive woman in her sixties. She was drugged and hogtied, and "Karma is a bitch" is written on her naked back in lipstick. The lipstick tube has been left near the body, and a chair is pulled up by the bed, as if the killer sat there and watched her die in pain and terror. The victim was found by her friend, a woman her own age who looks a decade older who is, she says, responding a little late to an urgent call from her friend the night before.

Jane works her way carefully through the dead woman's life, her relationship with her friend and her nephew; her investment activities, her impact on everyone around her. This is a well-executed little police procedural, and a great way to get a taste of the larger series of which it's a part.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

No comments:

Post a Comment