From Publishers Weekly
Carlson's eighth Maggie Ryan mystery, following Murder Misread , succeeds more for its insights into family dynamics than for its plot. The turbulent emotional conflict between Rina Marshall, a deacon's wife in suburban Maryland, and her mercurial teenage daughter, Ginny, is exacerbated by Ginny's awareness that she is adopted. Ginny runs away after lashing out at her grandmother and being scolded by aging widower John Spencer, guest of the grandmother's friend Marie Deaver. When Spencer's body is found near the town library, stabbed with Ginny's scissors, the troubled teen becomes a suspect. No one knows that she has fled to the Brooklyn home of her birth mother, whose identity she has surreptiously learned. Maggie Ryan, who as a teen had given up her infant daughter for adoption, poses as a reporter investigating Spencer's death and discovers that he was a small-time blackmailer who threatened several of Ginny's grandmother's friends, including his supposed romantic interest, Marie. The revelations of the real killer and the motive for murder are disappointing, although Carlson's realistic dialogue and compelling family drama provide reasonable compensation for the weak story line.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
When Rina Marshall's daughter, Ginny, suddenly disappears and a guest at her mother Leonora's bridge party, the very charming John Spencer, is found dead near the school library with Ginny's scissors skewering him, everyone is eager to find the teenager. Where is she? She leaves a message and says Philly, but, actually, the adopted Ginny has gone in search of her real mom--and turned up at Maggie Ryan's New York doorstep. To prove her illegitimate daughter innocent, the resourceful Maggie, in the guise of a magazine reporter, insinuates herself into the Marshall household, interviews the members of the bridge party, and nit-picks the dead man's life until she uncovers the real story: blackmail. He bilked everyone--from Rina, who didn't want the world to know Ginny was adopted, to Ginny's boyfriend's mother (drugs). While Maggie wrestles with the blackmailees, Ginny wrestles with Maggie's decision, 16 years before, to put her up for adoption. One more blackmailee comes to light before Ginny returns to suburban Maryland and she and her birth-mom come to an emotional rapprochement. Genuinely moving, and while Maggie is less bouncy than before (Murder Misread, 1990), she is more honest, and her outspokenness is a major plus here. Another strong entry in the Perfect Crime series. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
