Greasing the Pinata (Cape Weathers Investigations) [Hardcover]

Tim Maleeny (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cape Weathers Investigations | Publication Date: December 1, 2008

A former U.S. Senator vanishes days after his son goes missing. When theyare both found dead on a golf course, body parts missing, in Mexico, the Senatoras estranged daughter Rebecca resolves to discover what happened.
Private investigator Cape Weathers doesnat really want the case. He canat stand politicians and doesnat know the terrain. But when it looks like the daughter may become the next victim, Cape crosses the border looking for answers.
Cape asks his deadly companion Sally, trained by the Hong Kong Triads, to watch his back as he stumbles onto a conspiracy that leads from corporate boardrooms in San Francisco to strongholds in Mexico. Together they confront a killer determined to bury the past along with anyone trying to dig it up.
Miles away from home and nowhere near finding the answers, Cape manages to get kidnapped, steal from the mob, piss off the DEA, alienate the local police, confound a computer genius, and somehow lose the client heas been protecting all along.
Greasing the PiAata is a novel about family, politics, and the devastating effects of tequila on a private detectiveas investigative abilities. It is the third novel in the Cape Weathers series, and the first to be published in hardcover by Poisoned Pen Press.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maleeny smoothly mixes wry humor and a serious plot without sacrificing either in his third Cape Weathers mystery (after 2007's Beating the Babushka). When Jim Dobbins, a recently retired California state senator, and his drug-addict son, Danny, disappear in Mexico, Dobbins's estranged daughter hires San Francisco reporter-turned-PI Weathers to find them. Weathers journeys south of the border only to learn that the mutilated bodies of father and son have surfaced in a Puerto Vallarte golf course's alligator-infested pond. Aided by his Triad-trained associate, Sally Mei, Weathers pursues a case that reaches from a Mexican drug cartel to the San Francisco mob as well as the city's boardrooms. An appealing hero, well-crafted villains, snappy dialogue and an energetic plot show that Maleeny, while not quite in the same league as Robert Crais or Laura Lippman, is a definite contender in the private detective subgenre. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

The third Cape Weathers mystery finds the private investigator crossing the border into Mexico, where a former U.S. senator has gone missing, and his son has been murdered. Faced with an assortment of adversaries, including a couple of tough guys, local law enforcement, a U.S. government agency, and an assassin with an esoteric style of killing, Cape summons his sidekick, Sally, the Triad-trained killer, to keep him out of trouble as they attempt to unravel an international conspiracy. The Cape Weathers novels are smart, snappily written, energetic mysteries starring an engaging hero. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 333 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; 1St Edition edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590585666
• ISBN-13: 978-1590585665
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Wait For The Next One, December 24, 2008

By 

David D. Verhoef - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greasing the Pinata (Cape Weathers Investigations) (Hardcover)

Cape Weathers is my Harry Potter. Just like my daughters so loved jumping into J.K. Rowling's world of a young wizard at Hogwarts I find the same joy slipping into Tim Maleeny's land of a wisecracking detective in Chinatown. My girls have Harry, Hermione and Ron in an old school outside London. I get Cape, Sally, Sloth and Linda in parts of San Francisco that won't show up on your AAA Guide. "A Cape Weathers Investigation" (as the series is called) is a place full of dark alleys and back rooms brimming with gangsters, good guys, codes and rituals. I have thoroughly enjoyed each book in the series and highly recommend Greasing the Piñata. Have fun. I know I did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tim Maleeny does it again, December 17, 2008

By 

David G. Urban (El Cajon, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greasing the Pinata (Cape Weathers Investigations) (Hardcover)

Tim Maleeny is quickly becoming my favorite writer of crime fiction. His hero is Cape Weathers, and in this tale Maleeny kept me turning pages the way the novels of Chandler and Hammett do. Detective Cape Weathers is an original. He is by turns hard-boiled and irreverent, with a wicked sense of humor. There is no other detective like him going, and the book is a joy to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asian thrillers, March 3, 2009

By 

S. C. Dawson "retired teacher" (Aurora, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greasing the Piñata (Cape Weathers Investigations) (Paperback)

Tim Maleeny's new Cape Weaathers' GREASING THE PINATA is a a well-plotted thriller. I read the novel concurrently with S. J. Rozan's THE SHANGHAI MOON. If you enjoy books with Asian themes, you will enjoy both.
I preferred Maleeny's over Rozan's, but that is because I like a lot of action and dialogue. Both novels have a white protagonist whose partner is Asian. Maleeny's Cape Weathers is colorful and gutsy as is Rozan's Chinese P.I., Lydia Chin. Both novels come highly recommended.