From Publishers Weekly
Set in 2002, LaPierre's crisply plotted ninth Port Silva mystery features mother-daughter sleuths Patience and Verity Mackellar (after2004's Death Duties), who once again must deal with violence in the picturesque Northern California coastal town. A rally against the march to war in Iraq turns ugly when several protesters struggling with police tumble off a cliff into the ocean. Among the casualties is Daniel Soto, a worker Verity has hired to help remodel her new home. Though Daniel is missing, he's presumed dead. But Soto's grief-stricken girlfriend, Grace Beaubien, refuses to accept his death and hires the Mackellars to find him—and to uncover the past he had never disclosed to her. Lending support are Verity's hunky boyfriend, Det. Johnny Hebert, and her engaging soon-to-be-adopted daughter, nine-year-old Sylvie. Blending contemporary issues and family conflicts with a solid mystery plot, the author reaffirms her fluid mastery of the cozy. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Description
In late 2002, with the prospect of war in Iraq looming, an unauthorized and peaceful anti-war protest march in Port Silva degenerates suddenly into a riot, filling the jail and the emergency room. Private investigators Patience and Verity Mackellar are hired to look into the background of one missing protester and find that he has none. But there is a family business, old secrets cover-ups and crimes lurking in the past. As the plot plays out, we learn the importance of good parenting, especially fathering of boys, and the necessity for children to know they are loved. As the W.H. Auden poem September 1, 1939 says, "...What all schoolchildren learn/ Those to whom evil is done/Do evil in return." Above all these issues is the nature of a democracy and its citizens? responsibility when their government defies their wishes. All shades of opinion are examined in this suspenseful novel, written by a master of the genre.
LaPierre goes well beyond the bounds of the traditional mystery, examining one of today’s most compelling issues ... quirky and likeable characters, well-drawn setting, and baffling plot ... excellent series. -- Marcia Muller, Vanishing Point
Another terrific Port Silva mystery, with a trademark intricate plot, fascinating characters, and above all, marvelous prose. She takes on complicated contemporary issues with aplomb. -- Ayelet Waldman, the Mommy Track mysteries
