Amazon.com Review
Penzler Pick, February 2002: It's fun to see how Jo Bannister, already acclaimed for her solid police procedurals, has decided to update some of the conventions of the classic British mystery. In
Echoes of Lies she presents the first case featuring Brodie Farrell, a young woman who finds things for a living and has set out her shingle--"Looking for Something?"--in a small seaside town.
The problem, we quickly learn, is that Brodie (who's not a private investigator as such but who will, for a fee, locate missing people as well as lost objects) can't answer for what happens to the information she provides after her clients have paid the bill. In a positively harrowing first chapter, a young man is mysteriously and horrendously tortured, and in the more placid but no less shocking second, a guilt-stricken Brodie believes herself responsible for the several days of agony leading to this poor stranger's ghastly death that she's just read about in the morning paper.
What the truth really is, you'll have to read Echoes of Lies to find out. And even though a fair suspension of disbelief is required as the story zigs and zags its way to several levels of denouement, there's no question that quitting before the end is next to impossible. It's simply one of those books that keeps upending your expectations and making you demand to know how it's all going to come out in the end. --Otto Penzler
From Publishers Weekly
Deviating from her popular police procedurals (Changelings, etc.), British veteran Bannister introduces a new mystery series that's both fresh and different. Brodie Farrell, recently divorced and the single parent of a four-year-old, runs her own search service, Looking for Something? When a woman asks her to find a man in a photograph who she says has cheated her out of a great deal of money, Brodie, whose only prior detective experience has been limited to finding antique books and cranberry glass epergnes, accepts the case and soon tracks down and identifies the man as mathematics teacher Daniel Hood. After thugs torture, shoot and leave Daniel for dead, Brodie, plagued with guilt, dutifully reports her involvement to the police. When it becomes apparent that Daniel was an innocent victim, Brodie joins him in an investigation that will lead them into a world of the very rich where the life of a child is in jeopardy, money is all important and truth has no value. Lies abound from beginning to end in a plot that twists and turns until its surprising conclusion. As usual, the author skillfully juxtaposes a complex puzzle with insightful character studies. Particularly poignant here is the sensitivity with which she treats Daniel's psychological state as he tries to recover. Brodie is intelligent but sometimes impetuous, caring but sometimes overzealous. But then again, she's new at this work. Committed Bannister fans and those fond of psychological mysteries will welcome Brodie's debut.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
