Chutes And Adders: A Robin Light Mystery (Partners in Crime) [Paperback]

Barbara Block (Author)

Book Description

Series: Partners in Crime | Publication Date: July 1, 1995

Running a small pet shop that sells a variety of small animals, widow Robin Light becomes the chief suspect in a murder case when her partner is killed by a poisonous saw-backed viper that arrived in an unmarked package. Reprint. AB. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This sharp-edged and wry mystery takes off quickly when an employee of Robin Light's marginally profitable pet store in Syracuse, N.Y., dies painfully after opening a package containing a highly poisonous and aggressive snake. It soon becomes apparent, however, that the most venomous creatures in Block's debut novel are the two-legged kind. Robin, recently widowed when her criminally inclined husband Murphy died of a cocaine overdose, becomes prime suspect in the killing when $50,000 is found hidden away in the store, leading the thoroughly nasty cops to assume that Murphy was trading in protected animals. When Robin finds another $20,000 hidden in her apartment, she begins a search for the killer that leads her into bizarre interviews with a street thug (who later winds up beaten into a coma), a neighbor (who ends up dead, pushed off his balcony) and a sadistic zookeeper (who wisely remains silent); a smarmy lawyer and a sinister landlord add spice and complications. What seems to tie all these disparate folk together is the Latin American religion of Santeria--truly an odd practice to be popping up in bitterly cold upstate New York. Robin is an engaging, if stubborn and reckless, amateur sleuth whom readers will look forward to meeting again.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Troubling events fall like dominoes on pet shop owner Robin Light after the drug-related death of her beloved husband. A poisonous snake mailed to the shop bites and kills one of her employees, placing her under police suspicion; she discovers cash and a gun, which are subsequently stolen by a Latino who gets bashed in Robin's shop; and she discovers that her husband smuggled endangered animals for money, for which she is blamed by some bad-attitude cops. Full of action and excitement-Robin subsists on chocolate and coffee-this new series debut works because of its slightly exaggerated plot, one that teases reader credibility just enough.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821749978
• ISBN-13: 978-0821749975
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, October 19, 2001

By 

CMBohn "cmb" (Orem, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chutes And Adders: A Robin Light Mystery (Partners in Crime) (Paperback)

With a Punny title like that, I expected a book with a little humor in it. I was wrong. This book is dark, depressing, and not very engaging. Robin Light is taking over her dead husband's pet store. He died, not from a nice heart attack, but from a cocaine overdose. That sort of sets the tone for the whole book. I know some people like their mysteries to explore the darker side of human nature, but I just want to be entertained. I finally gave up. I skipped ahead so I know whodunnit, but really, by then, I didn't care.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good!, July 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Chutes And Adders: A Robin Light Mystery (Partners in Crime) (Paperback)

This book was the first Barbara Block book I read and it was very good. I could not believe who the killer was it was a total shock.