File Under: Jeopardy [Hardcover]

Sarah Lacey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997

When an old friend who works for the National Criminal Intelligence Service drops by to see Leah Hunter for a few days and then suddenly disappears, Leah launches her own inquiry into the mob her friend had been investigating.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Series narrator Leah Hunter (File Under: Arson, Thomas Dunne Bk: St. Martin's, 1996), a sleuthing tax inspector in Bramfield, Yorkshire, becomes entangled in a missing-persons case that involves a one-time school chum. Once found, friend Jeannie admits working undercover for Customs but then winds up in the hospital, beaten, raped, and accused of taking bribes from the enemy. Leah vows revenge and targets the culprits for money laundering as well as assault, but her efforts to prove her one-time friend innocent annoy her detective lover and others. A nicely traditional police procedural, complete with a wryly antagonistic protagonist, a romantic subplot, and slightly convoluted action.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Days after popping up in Leah Hunter's life again, her old schoolfriend Jeannie Johnson, now a customs officer assigned to get the goods on a money-laundering operation, disappears. A loose end, it seems--except that the people who've beaten and drugged Jeannie within an inch of her life (one of them will return to close the gap) don't believe in loose ends. In rapid succession, they attack Jeannie's mother, two lowlifes she'd met while she was undercover, and two of her housemates. David Nicholls, Leah's CID bedmate, is satisfied that Jeannie was skimming from the thugs she was supposed to be investigating, but Leah, unable to believe the worst of Jeannie, drops her Inland Revenue chores to nose around among the customs types. And types they are. Leah's fourth (File Under: Arson, 1996, etc.) is pleasingly tart, but the supporting cast is too dim to make very interesting suspects. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; First Edition US edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312151276
• ISBN-13: 978-0312151270
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,088,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars England'd favorite tax inspector investigates a homicide, April 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: File Under: Jeopardy (Hardcover)

While waiting at the police station for Detective Inspector David
Nicholls to take her to dinner, English tax inspector Leah Hunter is
shocked when an old schoolmate, the ultra timid Jeannie Johnson is
brought into the precinct, fighting every inch of the way. Soon after
the altercation in the police station, Jeannie mysteriously disappears.
Jeannie's mother, fearful of turning to the police, pleads with Leah to
help her daughter. However, the older Johnson dies in a hit and run
accident before her arranged meeting with Leah. Subsequently, the
younger Johnson's body is found floating in a nearby canal.
...... Leah continues to investigate the two deaths. Threatening phone
calls start to haunt the intrepid tax inspector. She quickly resolves
the case, but is unhappy with the findings because they seem too
obvious, especially in light of the two killings and the phone calls.
She decides to follow the money trail to see where that leads. If she
does not quit or identify the murderers quickly, Leah may find herself
being the third victim.
...... Leah Hunter, in her fourth novel, continues to be an intriguing
amateur sleuth due to her sense of humor and English wit. Though David
seems a bit weak as a professional detective, FILE UNDER: JEOPARDY is
winning Final Jeopardy because it is a fast-paced story line with
numerous vile villains, plenty of action, and the astounding lead
protagonist, who makes the novel worth reading.

......Harriet Klausner