Customer Reviews

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

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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".