Death and the Delinquent [Mass Market Paperback]

B.J. Oliphant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 1992

Shirley McClintock is vacationing in New Mexico with her friend J.Q., her daughter Allison, and Allison's schoolmate April. While exploring a mesa on muleback, a sharpshooter wings Shirley's mule, sending her into the hospital with a crushed knee, and kills April. Down but far from out, Shirley wrestles with a mystery that's as deadly as a rattlesnake . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fourth Shirley McClintock mystery has an appealingly picturesque New Mexico setting, but the surroundings do not often come into play. The plot centers on an accident in which April, the young companion of McClintock's foster daughter, is shot and McClintock injures her leg in an accident and is debilitated for the remainder of the story. No one seems to miss the dead girl much, least of all her parents. Those sentiments may be understandable, since she is portrayed completely unsympathetically, as both a brat and a thief. On the other hand, everyone is interested in a small golden horse found in her possession, and her death seems linked somehow to both the kidnapping of a prominent local resident's newborn child and the theft and resale of Native American pottery. McClintock prevails in the end, but it is hardly credible that, besides doing the cerebral work necessary to catch the villain, she manages to physically trap the bad guy while still on crutches. In a disturbing subplot, McClintock falls into an AIDS panic--subsequently found to be unjustified--when she learns that the doctor who operated on her leg is gay. Oliphant wrote Deservedly Dead.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Shirley McClintock is vacationing in New Mexico with her friend J.Q., her daughter Allison, and Allison's schoolmate April. While exploring a mesa on muleback, a sharpshooter wings Shirley's mule, sending her into the hospital with a crushed knee, and kills April. Down but far from out, Shirley wrestles with a mystery that's as deadly as a rattlesnake . . .

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett; First Edition edition (December 23, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449147185
• ISBN-13: 978-0449147184
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner, September 28, 2000

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Sheila L. Beaumont (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Death and the Delinquent (Paperback)

This fourth book in a deftly written and very entertaining series features a change of locale. Shirley McClintock, friend J.Q. and foster daughter Allison are staying at a guest ranch in northern New Mexico. Of course, wherever Shirley is, things happen: a shooting that leaves the unpleasant daughter of a shady Middle Eastern businessman dead and Shirley hospitalized (she gets a new knee!); the kidnapping of a rich family's newborn son; the murder of a Pueblo woman; and the discovery of some valuable Indian pottery. As a onetime New Mexican, I really enjoyed the vivid evocation of the Land of Enchantment and its mix of cultures. Like all of B.J. Oliphant's mysteries, this one features intelligent, appealing characters and plenty of the sort of dialogue that makes you think.