Customer Reviews

Atlanta Graves

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gunnar Brushurd is a legend in his own time as the daring renowned owner of Peachtree Investigations, an Atlanta-based private detective firm. However, Gunnar is out of pocket, leaving Sunny Childs in charge of both the operational and financial operations of the company. While trying to ransom a stolen painting for a client, Sunny's perp is shot and the painting remains missing. She also learns that Gunnar has cashed a $100K CD that was used as collateral on a credit line at the bank.

The bank calls in the loan, giving Sunny four days to pay back the debt or they will foreclose the business. When she reports to her client that the painting was stolen, she cuts a deal to find the painting in exchange for a $100K. Sunny is determined to save the company and regain the painting, regardless of the obstacles tossed her way by dangerous felons who will kill anyone who crosses their path.

Readers will like the tough Sunny, who is an amalgam (not of DC and Marvel) of Scarpetta, Blake, and Milhorne. The convoluted plot yields many suspects, false trails, and red herrings, thereby guaranteeing an exhilarating how and who-done-it. Ruth Birmingham has started a terrific series that brings alive the mean streets of Atlanta.

Harriet Klausner

I read this book after I'd read the author's two following books about Sunny. Take my word, read this one first. The plot gets entangled and confused, but it is clear that Ms Birmingham has style. After this book, she sorts out how to do plots, and soars from 3 stars to 5 stars.

Atlanta Graves introduces Atlanta PI Sunny Childs. Sunny, part owner and operative for Peachtree Investigations is hired to retrieve a stolen painting. She spends much of her time fronting for absent boss, and Peachtree Investigations founder, Gunnar Brushwood, trying to keep the business solvent, pleasing her mother and dumping her married lover. Set in Atlanta, Sunny moves easily from Dunwoody and glitzy benefits to a ride on Marta to crime-ridden Southwest Atlanta. Author Ruth Birmingham offers a glimpse of Atlanta that makes you feel like she knows the territory (with one glaring error -- a character who majored in Criminal Justice at Georgia Tech). Like many mysteries, the title does not have any real relation to the plot but Sunny may eventually develop into a well-rounded character who could sustain a series.

This is my second Ruth Birmingham book. After reading this author earlier this year, I was looking forward to another entertaining read, which is what I got. Entertaining, but not enthralling. The book centers around Sunny Childs, an Atlanta private investigator who finds herself as the go between in a case involving a stolen painting and the ransom for it's return. After the "drop" goes wrong, Sunny finds herself right in the middle of the case and the stakes are raised when murder occurs. Add to this Sunny's attempt to save the firm from financial ruin and you have an entertaining but not very deep plot.

This is a fine debut detective novel by Ruth Birmingham, and it makes me look forward to reading more of her work. Her protagonist, Sunny Childs, PI, is clever, feisty, and always interesting, and the story is well-plotted, full of interesing twists and turns.

Birmingham succeeds in creating a tone that is hip and humorous and overall her style does resemble that of Sue Grafton. There's certainly room for more great mysteries with female protagonists, though, isn't there? It's also great fun to see a detective series set in Atlanta, a dynamic, cosmopolitan, and historic city.

The only drawback I found was the laborious "let me tell you how I did it before I kill you" passage toward the end of the book. I suppose this is pretty standard fare for detective novels, but I would like to think that this feature could be minimized.

Otherwise, congratlations to Ms. Birmingham for her inaugural effort.

This is an excellent book that is very similar to the V.I. Warshawski series by Sara Patetsky, but with an Atlanta setting. This could be the beginning of a best selling series.

Along the lines of Sharon McCone and Kinsey Millhone, there's great series potential here. However, I suggest Ms. Birmingham find herself a better proofreader because there were so many typographical errors that I started to find it distracting.