Crooked Lane, 2016
ISBN 978-1-62953-599-9
Also available as an ebook.
Mid-list mystery author Rachel Goldman has just finished the
first draft of her fifth novel featuring missing-persons investigator Duffy
Madison. And then she receives a phone
call from a man claiming to be Duffy Madison, a missing persons investigator who
is currently working with the Bergen County prosecutors's office. To say Goldman is skeptical is putting it
mildly. Especially when he claims to
have no memories that go further back than 4 years--when Goldman's first book
was published.
They meet and she gets sucked into the investigation of a
missing mystery writer (A-list), which leads to the discovery that three other
mystery writers, in three states, had all gone missing and then been found
dead. Hmmm. Nicely constructed and written, and Goldman
manages to avoid the TSTL syndrome. Her
assistant (Paula Sessions) contributes by finding some rather strange facts
about Madison's past. And Goldman's
father shows up to help her and becomes an integral part of the story.
While this is not a perfect book (e.g., the name
"Remington Steele" kept intruding on my consciousness), it is very
well done. I wonder, however, how easy
it's going to be to keep the central theme of the book--"Who is Duffy
Madison?"--going for very long. This
one, at any rate, is is well worth your time.
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