Customer Reviews

The Hard Way: A Rachel Alexander Mystery (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries)

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The daughter of Gardner Redstone hires Rachel Alexander to find the person who pushed her father into the path of an oncoming subway train. The police are stymied and the daughter wants answers. Of course there are a few witnesses and Rachel begins interviewing them all. Rachel must listen and study the varied stories told to her by a little boy, a ditsy lady, an ornery little store owner, and a grandmother.

Rachel does not seem to be doing any better than the police did, so she decides to go undercover as a homeless woman. Her disguise is not very good though, so she asks Eddie Perkins, a war veteran who is living on the New York streets, to help her.

**** Author Carol Lea Benjamin has another winner on her hands with this, the ninth novel in the Rachel Alexander mystery series. This book is aptly named too. I found myself more interested in the lives of the homeless and how they cope than anything else, especially during the winter. An extremely well written story that will open the eyes of many readers to the homeless situation, while challenging their intellect. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This is number nine in this series featuring "Research Specialist" Rachel Alexander and her faithful pit-bull Dashiell. These books are a nice read. No blood and gore, no shoot- outs not even psychological thrills. Just good detecting work hitting the streets, working the clues from our heroine who just happens to "help" people. I've read all of the books in this series and I have yet to figure out how Rachel pays her bills. She refers to a previous life as a wife and a dog trainer, but I can't see how finding lost soles, or solving `cold cases" pays her bills.

Besides that there are plots to the stories and Rachel does keep the pace moving along.

This outing she is looking for the person who shoved a man onto the subway. She goes undercover as a homeless person in New York in the winter. She sees an entirely different side to the city she loves, even encountering her ex who doesn't recognize her. I thought that could have been left out, it seemed contrived.

Rachel follows the clues from the underground subways, to the ritzy shops to the homeless shelters and back to the why and who of the crime.

This is a soft mystery book, not a lot of action, but the pace does move along from clue to clue. The books are just long enough to while away a Sunday afternoon with a cup of cocoa. Any avid mystery reader can pick out the ending way before the last chapter; it just takes Rachel a little longer. There are moral issues involved and lots of commentary on the way of the world, so maybe this is Benjamin's soapbox.

In The Hard Way, Carol Lea Benjamin's ninth installment, Rachel must find a homeless man who is accused of murdering her prominent client's father. Gardner Redstone was waiting for the subway when someone pushed him into the oncoming train, tragically killing him. Gardner's daughter Eleanor has no idea who would want to kill her father, but several witnesses are claiming they saw a tall homeless man, with a tattoo on his hand, push Gardner.

Rachel decides the only way to find the killer, is to pose as a homeless person. While undercover, she meets a homeless man named Eddie, a soldier who fought in Iraq. Eddie can't remember his real name and is another lost soul on the street. Rachel forms an instant liking to this kind-hearted man and looks to him for help with her investigation. Together they roam the mean streets of New York looking for the suspect.

When Eddie becomes missing, Rachel's investigation takes a turn. She gives up her homeless persona, so she can work undercover in Eleanor's upscale leather store. Rachel investigates the people who worked closest with Gardner Redstone. In between working in the store, she questions the witnesses from the subway station. The witnesses' stories are all different. Something fishy is going on and Rachel needs to find out!

This was the first book that I've read by Carol Lea Benjamin and I loved it. Plenty of suspects kept me guessing whom the killer was. I loved the short chapters, which kept the story moving along at a fast pace.

I was surprised with the transition of taking Rachel from pretending to be homeless, to working in an upscale store with wealthy customers. I think the author was trying to compare the two different lifestyles of the rich versus the poor. Even though I understand the purpose for this transition, I would have preferred more of Rachel on the streets.

Overall, this was a great mystery that I would definitely recommend. I look forward to reading the other books in the series to get to know Rachel Alexander better.

Armchair Interviews says: Another good mystery worthy of your time.

Successful Owner of GR Leather on Fourteenth Street in Manhattan, designer Gardner Redstone is in the subway when he falls onto the tracks just as a train arrived. Seven witnesses inform the police he was pushed. However, they do not agree on much more than that the culprit was a tall homeless male. The cops fail to find the killer who they assume is a maniac.

Gardner's daughter Eleanor hires dog trainer and private investigator Rachel Alexander to uncover the truth and identify her dad's killer. To do so Rachel goes undercover as Eunice a bag lady. However, at first she learns how to survive being homeless when a veteran mentors her. That does not help solve the case nor does interviewing the seven though their eyewitness accounts begin to unravel. At GR Leather she learns two employees recently died, which makes the sleuth and her canine partner Dashiell wonder if the killer's motive was not a loose maniacal frenzy, but a disguised cleverly handled homicide related to the upscale leather business.

The whodunit and why takes a back seat to the comparisons between the two Manhattans; that of the wealthy vs. that of the street poor though a forced application of Thomas Carlisle's theory on the clothing of man takes somewhat away from the urinated formalwear compared with high quality leather. Rachel and Dashiell are at their very best when she meets the homeless Vet who though a bit off center teaches her the ropes of street survival. The murder mystery is fun to follow, but the interrogation of seven witnesses to the same event becomes a bit weary even if each sees things different. Still overall this is a fascinating tale as Rachel and the reader learns first hand what its like to walk in the ripped sneakers of a homeless person.

Harriet Klausner

When a business owner loses his life after being pushed onto the subway track in front of an inbound train, unlicensed PI Rachel Alexander is hired by his daughter to find the accused homeless man that each witness describes differently. None can claim they saw him do it. To find him, Rachel goes undercover with Dash, her pit bull, into the homeless community. She doesn't find the man. He finds her.

This book starts out thick undercover with the run-on thoughts of Eunice, a part I found a little tedious to get through, however interesting. Once I understood Eunice's role, the book picked up the pace and I looked forward to reading it every chance I got. Rachel has moments of introspection that increased my love for this character and made me sorry I've only read one other book in the series. I stumbled on the series this summer and will continue reading it and hopefully find time to go back to the earlier books.

Rachel Alexander and her dog, Dashiell are a team of private detectives. Yes, Dashiell is a very important part of Rachel's work. Most of us that have dogs realize how much a part of our lives they are and we treat them like the "kids" they are to us. When businessman Garner Redstone is pushed off the platform into the front of a subway train and is killed, Rachel receives a call from Redstone's daughter requesting that Rachel find out who did this terrible deed. It seems there were some homeless among those standing on the subway platform and could they have pushed Redstone? They were suspected and accused by many on the platform.

While seeing a bad fire among a group of people, some of who are homeless people that had lived in the burning building, Rachel wonders who could have set such a fire and put so many people out of a living area. Seeing all the homeless, she decided the best way to obtain information on this murder was to go underground and become a homeless person herself. Using "Eunice" as her homeless name and "Lookout" for Dashiell, she started touring the homeless areas near where the fire occurred. She was accepted by a few but rejected by most. Eunice didn't have the look or moves of a homeless woman. She had to learn--and fast! Some of the homeless took her under their wing and trusted her.

Rachel was in and out of underground living while attempting to find the stories of those on the subway platform at the time of the push murder. With the wife's knowledge, she took an undercover job in the exclusive store owned by the deceased and his wife. This store catered to only the high-class sector selling exclusively designed jackets, coats, purses, and ultra specialty dog coats! Rachel researched the files of all ex and present day employees trying to find someone that had any reason to kill Garner Redstone. Her research led her to several employees and others that had any reason to kill Redstone. Rachel made several trips to interview most of the people that could be suspected killers, including some of the homeless People.

Rachel had friends in the police department that got her information she was unable to find on her own. Dashiell was the talk and attention of all that met him, but he did not like some of them he met and made that known even though he wouldn't hurt them.

The Hard Way is a very good suspenseful read and it has some humor to lighten things up along the way. Rachel learns how extremely hard the homeless have it in their day-to-day attempt to exist. She ends up helping some of them in different ways. It has many surprises along the way including the ending as it wraps up the murder. A good read.

This is, to me, the best to date, even though I fell in love with Dash and his partner in book One. Her social commentary is right on, and the description of "Eunice's" daily treks were so engrossing I thought I was back in NYC. Time just flew, and there I was feeling seeing and grateful, that I have a roof over my head, food to eat, health insurance!!! and my family. Ms. Benjamin's stories are well done, packed move quickly, but even in the midst of the primary story line, she gives us a social commentary to "worry" on - that is a wonderful way to have an interesting story and remember others around us. I lived in NYC (as a consultant for the software firm I was employed by)for 6 months - June to Dec 23rd 1994 - I had the most difficult time ignoring the homeless and when we encountered a woman panhandling I always gave money - especially to those that I was close to in age, because, there but by the Grace of God, go I.

Ms. Benjamin does it again, another wonderful read, an engaging mystery that gives glimpses into worlds most of us never see. I felt cold when reading about the homeless out in the snow and ice and felt a different kind of cold watching the very rich waste their oh so disposable income. A thoughful and thought provoking read, I highly recommend it.

When Eleanor Redstone hires Private Investigation Rachel Alexander to find the man who pushed her father into the path of on oncoming subway train, little does she know how the case is going to effect her life. The police have no clues and after questioning the witnesses, who all seem to have just a different take on the situation, Rachel doesn't either. So she decides to go undercover as a homeless person.

While in disguise she meets and befriends Eddie Perkins, an Iraqi War vet who can't remember his real name. He has trouble remembering other stuff too. Eddie is homeless and living on New York's mean streets. With Eddie's help, Rachel is able to find the man who supposedly pushed Gardner Redstone in front of that train, but after talking to him, Rachel doesn't believe he did it, so she keeps looking and what she finds will not only surprise her, but you as well.

I like Carol Lea Benjamin's stories. She has a way of writing that makes Rachel seem human. I almost feel as if I know her. Ms. Benjamin also has a way of not only drawing you into her stories, but of making you think. In this book she does an excellent job of showing the readers, by virtue of Rachel's undercover jobs, the vast difference between the way the homeless and the wealthy live. I know it should be obvious to most, but I have to admit, until reading this, I hadn't given much thought as to how the homeless survive, especially in winter. Ms. Benjamin opened my mind to this without being even the least bit preachy. She did it in the context of a superb mystery, one I just know you're going to love as much as I did.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene