The Boric Acid Murder: A Gloria Lamerino Mystery [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Camille Minichino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2002

A trip to the Revere Public Library proves fatal for thirty-six-year-old Yolanda Fiore. Her body is found early one morning at the bottom of the library's staircase. The evidence shows she'd been struck on the back of the head before her fall.

In this fifth Periodic Table Mystery, retired physicist Gloria Lamerino is not inclined to take on another murder investigation--her romance with homicide detective Sergeant Matt Gennaro is all the contact she needs with the Revere Police Department.

But Gloria will do anything for her lifelong friends and current landlords, Rose and Frank Galigani, operators of the Galigani Mortuary. So when their son John is arrested for murdering Yolanda, his former girlfriend, Gloria goes in search of the real killer.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Retired physicist and amateur gumshoe Dr. Gloria Lamerino returns in Minichino's fifth murder-by-the-elements mystery (The Hydrogen Murder, etc.), a largely inert mix of chemistry and crime. Though she's comfortably settled in her hometown of Revere, Mass., and relishing the affections of Matt Gennaro, a local homicide detective with "Al Pacino eyes," Gloria can't seem to keep her nose out of sleuthing. When John Galigani, the son of her beloved landlords, is accused of murdering a former girlfriend, Yolanda Fiore, Gloria's on the case to prove John's innocence faster than you can say "periodic table." Although Matt has to recuse himself because of his friendship with the Galigani family, he helps sift through clues and Lamerino's hypotheses. Was Yolanda killed because her newsletter Raid-iation exposed falsified data in Japan? Did her death stem from conflict over a questionable library expansion plan? Or did Yolanda uncover clues about a 55-year-old murder? Descriptions of boron as a neutron poison, radioactive wastes, Italian food and characters' fashion choices serve more often to slow than advance the plot. In addition, readers may find themselves lost amid generations of Italian names in this highly populated novel. Reading Yolanda's e-mails, Lamerino decides, must be like wading through something by Mario Puzo. But there's no denying the flair in Minichino's portrait of Italian Americans, or the charm of her energetic, quick-thinking heroine, who seeks both love and justice.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Improbabilities abound in Minichino's mystery series based on the periodic table of elements. Would there really be enough science-related crimes in a small suburb of Boston to warrant hiring a retired physicist to help police with "scientific" investigations? Would Dr. Gloria Lamerino, the series' fiftysomething heroine, really carry any clout when investigating suspects? Probably not, yet despite a shaky premise, Minichino makes the most of her scientific subject matter while crafting completely believable characters. Gloria is an endearing, full-figured physicist who enjoys a sweet relationship with police detective Matt Gennaro. This time the son of Gloria's close friends is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, who was fired from a lab where she investigated the use of boric acid in nuclear reactors. A variety of suspects turn up, including a vengeful library director, a crooked councilman, and a philandering PR executive. Minichino's insights into Italian American culture and her affectionate portraits of small-town life make this series as uplifting as helium. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 452 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786248106
• ISBN-13: 978-0786248100
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,586,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Big Disappointment, August 19, 2007

By 

Peggy Johnson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boric Acid Murder: A Gloria Lamerino Mystery (Gloria Lamerino Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I was very disappointed with this book, and really had to force myself to finish reading it. The story line is very contrived, motivation is lacking, the characters lack personality, and there is no chemistry between them, not even Gloria and Matt. And someone of her age should have more common sense than to put herself in danger, like the scatter-brained female detectives in today's chic lit, always rationalizing reasons for keeping information to herself and going out alone at night to meet murderers in dark deserted buildings. Her reasoning is a big cliche! I have to agree with the reviewer who said the plot is full of red herrings. In a good mystery all of the pieces should fit neatly together in the end. This one has a few too many irrelevant pieces left over.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Glory to Gloria and Camille!, July 12, 2002

By 

Aviva Brecher (Belmont, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boric Acid Murder: A Gloria Lamerino Mystery (Gloria Lamerino Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Reading this new "elemental" murder mystery by this talented and inventive physicist-author was again a treat. By now, reading how retired scientist Gloria Lamerino is coping with a blooming romance in middle-age, while immersed in crime investigations and targeted by murderous threats is like visiting with old friends. In her fifth mystery the author involved scientists and scientific uses of the title element (Boron) only incidentally, Alas! But she managed to come up with credible lethal mixtures of old history and passions enabled by the new (journalists and librarians searching the internet, nuclear power and nuclear waste, role models for coed highschools). The gentle mixture of the traditional (old friendships, family, love of food) and the novel (female scientist becoming a police technical consultant in her retirement) and the unexpected plot twists make this a wonderful read, with plenty of food for thought, for all ages.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb science who-done-it, May 12, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boric Acid Murder: A Gloria Lamerino Mystery (Gloria Lamerino Mysteries) (Hardcover)

When her fiancée died a few weeks before the wedding Gloria Lamerino packed her bags and moved to California where she taught physics at a major university for thirty years. Upon her retirement, she moved back to her home in Revere, Massachusetts when she meets homicide detective Matt Gennara. For the first time in three decades, she is in a serious relationship while also serving as a special science consultant to the police.

Matt and Gloria are eating dinner at the home of her good friends Frank and Rose Galigani when the police suddenly show up to take the son John of their hosts in for questioning in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Angel Fiore. Even though circumstantial evidence points to John as the murderer, Gloria knows he didn't do it and sets out to prove it with a little help from Matt.

Camille Minchino is a dynamite writer showing readers that life including sex remains strong after fifty. The heroine is gutsy and smart, as she is not afraid to find a killer among a plethora of suspects. The plot is intricately woven with enough red herrings purposely placed into the story line to keep readers from guessing who the real killer is. The BORIC ACID MURDER is a who-done-it that keeps the reader's attention so they won't miss out on the real clues hidden in the overall tale.

Harriet Klausner