No Good Deed (Sonora Blair Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lynn Hightower (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sonora Blair Mysteries | Publication Date: October 13, 1998

It happened in broad daylight.  .  .  

The pretty fifteen-year-old had saddled up for an afternoon ride and never come back.

She was gone.  So was her horse.  Left behind was a splintered fence.  The tracks of a pickup truck.  A discarded riding boot.  And a great deal of blood.

As a mother herself, Cincinnati detective Sonora Blair knew she was looking at a parent's worst nightmare.  As a homicide cop, she tried not to think about what might be happening to the young girl right now .  .  .  or what the police would find if they didn't get to her in time.  

But nothing in Sonora's experience could prepare her for the chilling revelations that would emerge from this case .  .  .  or for the truth about other missing children, a lover's betrayal, and another unthinkable crime.  .  .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lynn Hightower's female characters take no prisoners. Sonora Blair, tough-but-vulnerable Cincinnati police detective, knows the father of 15-year-old Joellen Chauncey is involved somehow in his daughter's mysterious disappearance. But Sonora's boss, partner, and colleagues think she's crazy. Dixon Chauncey is a devoted single father of three, and a mild, self-effacing milquetoast who's much too "squishy" to be a suspect. Sonora doesn't buy the official line--that Joellen got caught between two feuding scam artists involved in a thoroughbred swindle--not even when the girl's body turns up, along with an empty, blood-spattered horse trailer. Sonora won't ignore what her gut tells her. And when Joellen's diaries open up a whole new line of investigation tied into a missing children's network, she renews her efforts to find the crack in Dixon's façade. The plot is full of seductive McGuffins: the owner of a riding school who lands in the hospital minus a finger; a mysterious and sexy stranger hanging around the barn. The narrative meanders a bit, taking in Sonora's failings as a single mother to her own kids, her impulsive decision to buy a horse, and her overactive libido (which fastens itself on three different men in a little over 300 pages). But the book is crisply written, with resonant characters and a suspenseful narrative. It's a special treat for horse fanciers. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

"Powerful."
--Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Dell (October 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440225310
• ISBN-13: 978-0440225317
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,515,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: No Good Deed (Sonora Blair Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a fan of good detective fiction. But sadly, I have found that many pieces of the genre fail to thrill and satisfy me the way Hightower has with NO GOOD DEED. After reading this book, I can easily place Lynn S. Hightower in the same category as John Grisham. Hightower's heroine Sonora Blair is both bewitching and believable. And the ending is a jolt! (As endings should be with any good piece of detective fiction.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm surprized I hadn't discovered Hightower earlier!, December 28, 1998

By 

Christine Smith ([e-mail]) (NE Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NO GOOD DEED (Sonora Blair Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Lynn Hightower spins a good detective/cop story. This one is set in the lower echelons of the horse business, and the auction scenes may break your heart, as they did that of the heroine, Sonora Blair. The plot was intricate and absorbing, had enough twists and turns to keep a veteran reader of this genre interested, and had good characterization, especially of the harried life of a working mother/police detective/single woman seraching for love & romance protagonist, Sonora. And I liked the setting of horsey Cincinnati, even though I'm not particularly horse-enamored. It made me want to take a drive through the area and look again at the marginal horse farms, not just the ritzy ones.

I liked this book well enough to go searching for other detective mysteries by Hightower.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars recommended, June 12, 2003

By 

David Group (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Good Deed (Sonora Blair Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was one of the most enjoyable mysteries I have read so far this year. Hightower's attention to detail is just right, making me feel at times like I was reading a true-crime book. I haven't read any of her other novels (yet), but if they're like this one, then this ranks with one of the best series on mystery fiction. I've docked the novel one star because an important clue was not discovered until the end.