Customer Reviews

False Profits

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tucker Sinclair thinks she's on the fast track to making partner at Aames & Associates, a Los Angeles based business consulting firm. She just has one last interview with her boss before the announcement.

That interview doesn't go anything like she expects, however. Instead of reviewing her performance at the firm, Gordon announces that she and the company are being sued for some work she had done for Dr. Milton Polk. Dr. Polk had come in wanting Tucker to write what he told her to write and was less than pleased with her honest business evaluation. Now some investors in his medical company are saying they were defrauded and are suing to recover their money.

Tucker thinks she doesn't have anything to worry about until she discovers the original report for Dr. Polk is missing. When he turns up dead, she really starts to panic. Can see find the documents and save her career while dodging a killer?

I am a sucker for books set in Los Angeles, and this one proved to be fun in that regard. As a mystery, it fell a little flat. The plot was a little too convoluted for its own good. It makes sense, but it needed a little more time to be ironed out. Tucker was fun to spend time with, although I felt she was very naive, especially when it came to her ex-husband. The side kicks are wonderful, from co-workers to her actress mother and the mother's dog.

Honestly, my complaints feel like rookie mistakes. I certainly wouldn't mind spending more time with Tucker and her friends. I just hope that the plot has been better developed next time.

For seven years, 30-year-old divorcee Tucker Sinclair has worked for the financial advising firm Aames & Associates as a management consultant and is now being considered for a partnership. However, her risk taking methods make others within the firm somewhat nervous. Though since completing her work with Dr. Polk, a neurosurgeon, who was in need of capital expansion, Tucker feels confident she'll get it.

That is until the Doctor turns up missing, money can't be accounted for and the firm is being sued for 11 million dollars!

To make matters worse - her original files, which prove the claim is incorrect, are missing, and her Aunt Sylvia who has conveniently moved in with her dog suddenly claims the Malibu beach cottage that Tucker's grandmother left to Tucker in her will, is hers! What Aunt Sylvia doesn't reveal is that the land the cottage sits on is worth about 2 million.

Faced by a wall of secrecy, Tucker has too many unanswered questions, leaving her with no choice but to investigate the crime or face criminal charges of fraud and embezzlement. She has one week in which to clear her name, identifying Polk's accomplice and the person who helped alter her business plan, while Mo Whitner threatens to turn her into the FBI, which could probably turn up an insurance scam as well.

Tucker isn't going to waste a second, and finds herself investigating the crime-desperately hunting for clues. Her amateur sleuth skills lead to a number of high-level individuals, as well as her ex-husband, Eric, her own staff, the doctor's insane receptionist, and confrontation with autopsy photos.

False Profits is not only the author's debut novel, but is well written, fast paced and fresh. The result is a book you have difficulty leaving once you begin its reading. Sinclair Tucker, the fiery heroine would make Jessica Fletcher proud! Patricia Smiley is a talented author, and certainly one to keep an eye on - in a sequel perhaps?

Reviewed by Betsie

Tucker Sinclair is a successful management consultant working in fast paced Los Angeles. A big 11 million dollar deal she's working on with a big name client goes awry and Tucker finds herself with a whole lot of blame pointing at her and a bullseye on her forehead.

Tucker begins a fast moving adventure of dead bodies, shady investors, annoying ex husbands and a cranky old aunt who is trying to take claim over Tucker's beach home over some bad family history.

The mysterious business plan gone bad takes on a life of its own and takes over Tucker's life sending her running all over town to solve this who done it before time runs out.

Patricia Smiley's first novel is sure to capture many fans cheering for Tucker Sinclair with False Profits. Readers will be hoping and waiting in anticipation for more.


Patricia Smiley's first novel, False Profits, packs a punch of memorable characters, a fast paced mystery adventure and a fantastic heroine.

Her mother and her dog Muldoon live with financial planner Tucker Sinclair in her beach cottage in Los Angeles. Tucker expects to make partner in the firm Aames & Associates especially in light of her recently completed grueling work with Dr. Milton Polk, who needed capital to expand NeuroMed, a testing facility using cutting edge techniques. She expects this campaign to be very successful as was her previous assignment.

When she enters the office of Gordon Aames, Tucker expects accolades and an offer, but instead is told that a NeuroMed investor is going to sue the firm as part of a class action suit for eleven million dollars. It is obvious that Polk copied and changed the prospectus and report, but Tucker cannot find the original. Not long afterward, Polk's body is found in the bay, an apparent suicide. Tucker believes her client was murdered; when one of her contacts is killed next, she realizes she must find the missing report before she joins the growing obituary list.

The heroine of FALSE PROFIT not only does not want to be a sleuth, but feels uncomfortable in that role as her expertise is finance investigations. However, she also knows she has little choice, but to find the missing report or face FBI charges of fraud and embezzlement, which would mean jail time as conviction would be a certainty (at least in her analytical mind). Thus, this cleverly plotted debut amateur sleuth filled with quirky characters makes believers that a desperate Tucker would reluctantly search for the proof of her innocence as opposed to hiring a pro; this leads to readers admiring her spunk, determination, and will want more tales starring Tucker.

Harriet Klausner

Tucker Sinclair was named after Sopie Tucker. This is not necessarily relevant information, and it certainly gives one no real insight into Tucker's character. It does say something about Tucker's mother, Pookie, who is off-stage but certainly a presence for much of False Profits.

Tucker is trying to make partner at Aames and Associates, "as a management consultant, a sprt of business doctor handling everything from financial facelifts to red-ink bypasses." She thinks she has a good shot at it, until one of her more unpleasant and obstreperous clients, Dr. Milton Polk, decides he wants his "group's eleven million dollars back, plus attorney's fees." As one might surmise, this does not bode well for Tucker's shot at partner. Life gets more interesting when she can't find a copy of the business plan she put together for the good doctor. It only crosses Tucker's mind that one of the other people up for partnership might be stabbing her in the back after she has pretty much worked through any other, however unlikely, alternative. And then Dr. Polk turns up very dead, drowned, with a hole in his forehead. His office staff is devastated and not very helpful, considering that Tucker's name is on some medical test results that Tucker doesn't ever remember having done.

In the meantime, her ex-husband Eric is insisting that he needs to talk to her about their relationship. Tucker, for reasons which may make sense to her but not to me, seems to think he wants her back. It is at this point in the book that I decide Tucker is way too naive to be doing what she's doing, either personally or professionally.

False Profits is an amusing book, once one accepts that Tucker needs a guardian. I had no trouble with the plot or the characterizations (other than Tucker). The love interest takes a while to make an appearance, even if the reader knows more than Tucker about what Eric is really looking to talk to her about; the love interest would be much more interesting if there were more of him earlier in the book.

Perhaps I've just read a few too many mysteries lately where the female detective doesn't have the business sense that God gave a turnip. And/or assumes that the man who used to be in her life wants to be there again, when any reasonable woman would know just how unlikely that was. Perhaps I just had a bad several days trying to get interested in what was going on in Tucker's life. For whatever reason, including that this may not be the best mystery ever written, I just couldn't get engaged by Tucker, didn't care if she ever figured out who killed Milton Polk, knew fairly early on who the bad guy was even though the only clue was the sheer predictability of it all . . . for whatever reason, I won't be in any hurry to read more of Patricia Smiley. If you enjoy naive young women who put themselves in danger, knowingly, and think that leaving a number on their cell phone will do for a back-up . . . go for it. I'd rather read Virgina Lanier for the fourth time.

Rebeccasreads recommends FALSE PROFITS as quite a good evening's read -- a womanly mystery, with detailed domestic & business scenes, explanations of financial dealings &, yes, romance for our single heroine, who has some old fashioned ideas about honor & dignity, although for the hardcore mystery reader, the police procedures will be a bit vague..

Tucker is a typical amateur investigator, hunting for clues to a murder that might very well get her whacked too, especially as there's lots of money (or not!) involved. She's got a wry Los Angeles sense of humor, a naive sense of danger & some unique ways of getting out of it.

FALSE PROFITS is a well written pulp mystery -- good for a commute or two.

This book is exceptionally well done. It is one delight after another. The metaphors, allusions. phrasing and colorful rich dialog are certain to appeal and titilate any reader. The characters are well devloped and come alive rounding out the good story that is unraveled.The most entertaining read in 2004.

I am a recovering Judge the book by the cover girl. I picked this book up thinking that the "miami vice" colors of the cover would actually have a disapointing read in between the covers. I was wrong.

I will also admit that I love romance/chick lit, and that a good mystery is sometimes too much for me to bother with. I am so glad that I made an exception for this.

The herione, Tucker Sinclair, is a hilarious, normal and engaging female. She draws you in from the first page with her witty mental banter as well as verbal. The mystery part eases you in with the details, nothing as confusing or saturated as Mission Impossible or The Bourne series. ( I always feel like I missed something at the end of those movies, like I fell asleep for 3 minutes and missed the part where the bad guys was revealed!)
This is well thought out, mapped out and understandable. You may not see the end coming a mile away, but when you look back at the end, you'll understand how you got there!
Enjoy!

I have read several books by this author, Patricia Smiley.
They are fun, entertaining and always make me laugh.
And, after all, Laughter is the best medicine, it is
priceless and benefits you in many ways.
So, give this book a try......

Good book. A real page turner. Really made want to read "Cover Your Assets" (Second book in this series).