Just Enough Light to Kill (Fiddler & Fiora Series) [Paperback]

A. E. Maxwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2010 | Series: Fiddler & Fiora Series

Named by TIME magazine as one of the best suspense novels of the year

“Fiddler is to California what Spenser is to Boston and Travis McGee is to Florida. Tough, smart guys who know that sometimes, what looks like paradise, is pure hell.”—Paul Levine, best-selling author of Illegal

“Maxwell’s work is engaging and wonderfully articulated.”—Robert B. Parker

“Maxwell’s style is sexy and hard-hitting.”—Publishers Weekly

Back in print, the fourth Fiddler & Fiora crime novel. When an American customs agent who once saved Fiddler’s life dies suspiciously on the US-Mexican border, Fiddler heads south to look into the death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of the three previous novels about California private eye Fiddler (Just Another Day in Paradise et al.) will probably overlook some rehashing of earlier adventures here, but new readers may balk. The day that narrator Fiddler becomes aware that he is under surveillance, he also hears of the death of Aaron Sharp, a border agent who'd once saved his life. Having received a message that Sharp's death wasn't accidental, Fiddler heads for the California-Mexico border. Fiddler's ex-wife and current live-in lover Fiora is trying to take over an Orange County investment bank and is very unhappy at his exposure to danger. Before he knows it, Fiddler is hip-deep in a racket that smuggles aliens across the border, and he learns that he and Fiora are next on a mysterious hit list. Eventually, he discovers that it's all part of a plot by charming, ruthless Russian agent Volker (Fiddler's old nemesis and Fiora's ex-lover) to take over the bank so that the Soviets will have an insider view of California and U.S. high-tech firms. While the action is fast-paced, the plot seems padded. Some interesting characters appear (a rich widow is wonderfully vulgar), but Fiddler's charm wears thin with sentimentality.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Named by Time magazine as one of the best suspense novels of the year! --Time

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Busted Flush Press, LLC (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935415026
• ISBN-13: 978-1935415022
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,995 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 More than Enough Character -and-Action to Satisfy!, June 25, 2001

By 

Gary Scott Nunley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Enough Light to Kill (A Fiddler and Fiora Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

The husband-wife team calling itself A. E. Maxwell (Ann and Evan Maxwell) has produced not only two of the most memorable characters in the general area of "hard-boiled private eye" mystery fiction, but also sufficient action and colorful loacles to please virtually any "hard-boiled" fan.

While Fiddler is as tough and streetwise as any addict of private eye fiction might wish, his former wife (and still best friend and lover) Fiona certainly has enough strength, brains-and-ability and mysterious "talent" of her own (not to mention, of course, the requisite exotic beauty!) to provide an intriguing balance.

As this excellent series unfolds, for example, readers learn more about Fiddler's own very human (and colorful) past, including sharing with him both the memories and "inheritances" left him by his smuggler uncle. By turns sensitive-and-understanding but also brutally direct-and-violent, Fiddler fills his "formula" gumshoes just fine, thank you, with sufficient surprises and differences to keep readers intrigued.

The same is true of Fiona. Her hot temper and even hotter capacity of love (always bordering on eroticism!) -- plus her high (and also high tech) intelligence and business acumen (often bordering on ruthlessness!) -- join with hints of her Celtic mysticism and romantic past to create a female character every bit as challenging and involving as the male. No mere "sidekick" this (sometimes) femme fatale!

If there is any criticism to be leveled at this series (and it certainly wouldn't be concerning its colorful settings, ranging from the "good life" of the well-heeled California Gold Coast to Napa Valley and Santa Fe), it could only be that most of the novels are now out-of-print -- and that no more seem to be forthcoming.

For shame, "A. E."!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fiddler and Fiora are Fun!, February 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Just Enough Light to Kill (A Fiddler and Fiora Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

Anyone who likes Ann Maxwell will enjoy these books she has written with her husband Evan. They are interesting, and very well done. I have read the whole series, and have been hoping they would give us another story about these interesting detectives. The stories can be read singly, but it is great if you can read them in sequence, since references are sometimes made to previous events.