Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
Brady employs private eye Gordon Cahill, who learns what is bothering Albert, but dies in a car accident that looks more like deliberate murder before he can meet with Brady. Knowing that Gordon concentrated on Albert's Southwick, New Hampshire cabin, Brady travels there, but stirs the pot enough that someone else is also killed. Cops in two states are interested in Brady, his unidentified client, and solving two homicides.
SHADOW OF DEATH is a strong Coyne entry, perhaps the best in the last decade. The story line moves at a rapid pace as Brady is caught between client confidentiality and the homicides. The support characters propel the tale forward while Brady seems refreshed as if he rolled back the clock twenty years. Fans of the hero or the New England who-done-it scene will enjoy William G. Tapply's latest story runs on all cylinders.
Harriet Kalusner
The Wrong Stuff Sharon Fiffer St. Martin's, Nov 2003, $24.95, 320 pp. ISBN: 0312314140
Antiques dealer Jane Wheel uses her home as her warehouse so personal things tend to vanish amidst the forest of items. Her son knows first hand the frustration of simply putting something down and not finding it for seemingly centuries afterward. Jane vows to do better, but she also works in Bruce Oh's private investigative firm, which means even less time to catalogue and clean up the house.
As Jane struggles at home, Bruce's wife antique dealer Claire admires a battered chest but the owners, believing it's trash, simply want to save money and effort to cart it off so they give it to her. Claire feels she has obtained an extremely rare Westman Sunflower Chest. She sells her treasure to dealer Horace Cutler, another dealer and takes the item to get it restored. However, when Horace receives his goods he goes wild calling Claire a cheat as he insists the chest is a fake. Not long afterward someone kills Horace and the police suspect Claire committed the homicide. Bruce and Jane set out to prove his spouse is innocent while traveling the cutthroat antiques' world seeking clues.
The who-done-it is fine, but takes a back seat to the strong cast. Jane is a delightful heroine struggling between clutter and oxygen with amusing asides at the beginning of each chapter that will amuse readers especially the pack rats who throw away nothing. Just ask her son about that. Jane's friend Tim Lowry adds humor and further insight to the apprentice sleuth. Sharon Fiffer provides a jocular private investigative yarn that the cozy crowd will believe is the right stuff.