Death in Pacific Heights: A Carly Paladino and Noah Lang Mystery (San Francisco Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Ronald Tierney (Author)

Book Description

Series: San Francisco Mysteries | Publication Date: April 1, 2009

From the creator of Deets Shanahan - Carly Paladino, a newly established PI, has a case: the death of the daughter of an old and moneyed Pacific Heights family. A mysterious young man is arrested for the murder, but Carly suspects the real murderer is inside the Hanover mansion. Meanwhile, streetwise private eye Noah Lang gets involved, but he struggles with the consequences of his last assignment. Can he put this behind him and come up with a solution to murder?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tierney's less than impressive first in a San Francisco mystery series introduces a pair of PIs. Carly Paladino, who's just quit her job with a large Bay Area security firm, lands her first solo case: investigating the death of Olivia Hanover, a teenage girl from a socially prominent family whom someone injected with a fatal dose of morphine. Paladino's search for an office leads her to PI Noah Lang, who's looking to share his work space. Conveniently, Lang is helping the defense attorney representing the police's prime suspect in the Hanover case. Meanwhile, a suspicious husband hires Lang to keep an eye on his possibly wandering wife. When Lang hears the gunshot that claims the woman's life, he can't buy into the official line that the death was a suicide. Some prosaic prose (Life goes on and it doesn't, she thought, whether you like it or not) and insufficiently interesting lead characters put this a cut below Tierney's Deets Shanahan series (Asphalt Moon, etc.). (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Leaving her job at a large security firm, successful PI Carly Paladino is hired by a wealthy San Francisco family to find their missing daughter. Noah Lang, a far cry from her former employer, offers her space to set up shop, and they form a partnership that has all of the makings for a superior series. Tierney, author of the Deets Shanahan series, has a winner here.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727867288
• ISBN-13: 978-0727867285
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,812,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anticipation Rewarded, June 30, 2009

By 

Roy Johns "Bud Johns" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Pacific Heights: A Carly Paladino and Noah Lang Mystery (San Francisco Mysteries) (Hardcover)

As a confirmed fan of Ron Tierney and his Deets Shanahan novels I approached Death in Pacific Heights, Tierney's first in what is labeled "a new San Francisco mystery series", with both anticipation and trepidation. Why shouldn't there be trepidation? After nine books I've come to regard Deets, his lady friend Maureen, his occasional partner Howie and his bartender cum old friend Harry as friends of mine. Intriguing people can be complex and take some time to know so why shouldn't that be the case when meeting Tierney's new private investigators Carly Paladino and Noah Lang.
But somewhere just before the midpoint of Death in Pacific Heights I realized that different though they are from Deets et al Lang and Paladino make for good reading and they are as up to conveying Tierney's complex plotting, principles and wit as the Shanahan crew has been doing. On top of that this long-time San Francisco resident is willing to bet that Tierney will surprise most readers--Bay Area residents, visitors whether frequent or occasional and those who have been there only via written and filmed images--with the places he takes them, even the ones they thought they knew.
There should be enough Intrigue, Violence, Police Procedure, Humor (both subtle and a couple of instances approaching belly laugh level), Travelogue and Social Class Cage Rattling to attract just about any reader of mysteries aside from the Publishers Weekly reviewer who commentary had a sense of "skim the pages, get the characters' names and the basic plot, then write the alloted number of words".