Cover Your Assets [Hardcover]

Patricia Smiley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2005

Tucker Sinclair's life has returned to normal after her first misadventure with murder in False Profits. But that's about to change when her old college flame, Evan Brice, strolls back into her life after a 10 year estrangement that began when he dumped Tucker to marry her closest friend. Evan is now a successful Hollywood agent who has acquired many mistresses and a love affair with drugs. When Evan is found brutally murdered, the police quickly close in on the victim's widow, who turns to ex-best friend Tucker for help. Soon, Tucker runs afoul of the detective in charge of the case and finds herself at odds with a biker gang and a narcissistic soap opera star in a race to sort the innocent from the guilty.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smiley's amusing second mystery to feature L.A. business consultant Tucker Sinclair (after 2004's False Profits) offers appealing characters and semiplausible Hollywood hijinx. When someone stabs to death Tucker's college heartthrob, Evan Brice, a failed poet turned successful film agent, in the seedy apartment he'd rented for quiet "work" sessions, the police call on Tucker. Tucker severed all ties with Evan after catching him in flagrante with her best friend, Cissy, whom he later married, but a love poem to Tucker discovered at the crime scene suggests Evan had his regrets. When Tucker pays a condolence call on her old friend, Cissy begs her to close up the illicit apartment. Cissy, as the chief suspect, has further need of Tucker's help in convincing the skeptical police that she's innocent. Predictable mayhem ensues after a prima donna soap star, one of Evan's ex-lovers, leads Tucker to a biker bar, a hostile environment for a nosey parker. Fans of Janet Evanovich (who praised False Profits) will find a lot to like in this entertaining romp.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Feisty Tucker Sinclair is back in Smiley's engaging follow-up to False Profits (2004). The L.A. financial advisor has left her former firm and started her own company out of her beachfront bungalow. Eccentric characters from the last adventure are back, including Tucker's actress mother, Pookie, a poster child for the New Age, and her current flame, Bruce, who's much better at feng shui than intelligent conversation. Also residing at chez Tucker is Muldoon, the Westie in need of Weight Watchers, who loves cashmere and Quarter Pounders with cheese. When her former fiance, entertainment agent Evan Brice, is murdered, Tucker feels grief--and is conflicted about seeing his wife, Cissy, Tucker's best friend until she stole Evan. The softhearted Tucker agrees to help Cissy, who is accused of murdering her husband. Myriad suspects unveil themselves quickly, from the actress Evan represented to the young girl who cleaned his apartment. Though a bit darker than Smiley's debut, this one succeeds on the same merits: snappy prose, a compelling heroine, and a healthy dose of suspense. A series that promises staying power. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition first Printing edition (November 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892960191
• ISBN-13: 978-0892960194
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,640,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and funny mystery with an engaging main character, July 27, 2009

By 

Sandy Kay (Twin Cities, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cover Your Assets (Mass Market Paperback)

Tucker Sinclair is a self-employed (or perhaps self-underemployed) management consultant. This is the second book in the series (False Profits is the first). I didn't get the first book before I read this one, but the author gave enough information that I didn't feel I was missing anything important I needed to know.

Tucker is a fun and funny character and she dives into the mystery of who killed her college boyfriend despite the warnings from the police to stay out of it because she doesn't believe the victim's wife (who was her best friend until she ran off with the boyfriend) is guilty. This isn't a "thriller" kind of mystery you read while anxiously turning the pages, but it is enjoyable following Tucker through her investigation and trying to figure out what happens next.

This book isn't quite as laugh out loud funny as the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich, but Tucker is the same kind of engaging heroine. I am going to catch up with the first book and then keep reading this series.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A likeable cozy, April 1, 2006

By 

Debra Hamel (North Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cover Your Assets (Hardcover)

In this sequel to Patricia Smiley's False Profits self-employed management consultant Tucker Sinclair finds herself tracking down the murderer of an old flame, Hollywood agent Evan Brice. The problem is that Tucker's search for a killer may lead her to the door of old friend Cissy Brice, the victim's widow, who had ample reason to want to see the last of her unfaithful, drug-addicted spouse. While annoying the police with her amateur sleuthing, Tucker has to contend with memories of Cindy's perfidy ten years earlier--Cissy had an affair with Brice while he was engaged to Tucker--as well as a host of other annoyances--starlets with skeletons, malevolent bikers, her ex-husband's impending nuptials, and her mother's increasingly organic lifestyle.

Cover Your Assets is a likeable enough cozy, nicely written and sporting the occasional pleasing turn of phrase. ("I waited until she turned her back before using my hand to fan myself with the same urgency Icarus must have felt trying to get across the Aegean.") My worry, though, is that the book may not be different enough to stand out from the pack of other likeable-enough cozies, that there is nothing that distinguishes Tucker Sinclair as an unusually eccentric or otherwise compelling protagonist. Perhaps more can be done in future installments in the series with Tucker's day job, which barely figures in the storyline here. (But is management consulting a sexy or quirky enough field to add much spice?) Still, a good read that's worth your while if you're shopping for a breezy beach book.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Witty, clever, persistent, and just plain lucky at times, December 28, 2005

By 

N. Larrabee (Tarrytown, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cover Your Assets (Hardcover)

Tucker Sinclair has started her own management consulting business, Sinclair and Associates; though she has yet to make enough profit to hire an associate. Tucker inadvertently gets drawn into another murder case, one of her ex-fiancé, who happened to be unhappily married to her former best-friend Cissy Brice. Cissy awkwardly asks Tucker to help clean out Evan's apartment. Tucker cannot help but follow the leads she uncovers while visiting the neighborhood. When she is not on the case, Tucker has to deal with her unpredictable mother and her dog Muldoon. Joe Deegan is still interested in Tucker; perhaps she is ready to give him a chance? Skillful writing, an uncomplicated plot, and quirky characters make this book an enjoyable read.