Customer Reviews

Red Hot Murder: An Angie Amalfi Mystery (Angie Amalfi Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After Paavo Smith's dad died and his mother abandoned him, Aulis Kokkonen raised the preadolescent child and took him on three memorable occasions to visit Dr. Loomis Griggs at his Jackpot, Arizona ranch. Recently Loomis told Aulis about the suspicious death of a septuagenarian. In turn Aulis mentioned it to Paavo, now a San Francisco Homicide Detective. Paavo decides to investigate because he knows the doctor is not one to imagine things. The cop asks his fiancée chef Angie Amalfie if she wants to accompany him to Jackpot. Knowing very little about the childhood of her taciturn fiancé, Angie leaps at the chance to spend time in a place he still treasures.

Angie realizes right away several things about Jackpot, population 912. First she does not quite fit in; second Dr, Griggs is like a terrific grandfather truly welcoming her and Paavo with love; and finally she wants to hold her wedding here though she knows her upper crust mom will have cardiac arrest several times a day when she comes for the nuptials. That aside, Paavo believes the death of Hal Edwards is suspicious enough for him to make inquiries. However, he has more to be concerned with than a homicide as he thinks someone wants Doc dead and as always Angie joins the murderous mix that could prove COOKING MOST DEADLY as she tries to the CATCH A COOK.

The thirteenth cooking with murder is a fine investigative tale that will elate long term fans more than newcomers due to welcome insights into the "private" childhood of reticent Paavo. The audience will enjoy the "vacation" to the isolated Arizona ranch more for the time with Doc then trying to solve the well written murder mystery. Angie (and us) learns more about Paavo's past inside a fine investigation.

Harriet Klausner

Joanne Pence's Angie Amalfi is such a sweet young woman that I, as an older woman, would like very much to have around. She is so clueless and optimistic. I enjoyed all of the Pence's Amalfi series and only regret that there has been no new books in a while. I hope there will be more

Angie and her fianc? Paavo head to the Arizona desert to help out Paavo's friends. Angie thinks it could be a great setting for their upcoming nuptials and Paavo is concerned because he knows that Dr. Griggs wouldn't be imagining things.

When they arrive, Ned does not come to meet them. This is not like him. Paavo and Angie are staying at a local ranch. They find out that the owner, Hal Edwards, was found dead in a cave not long before. Turns out Dr. Griggs is the executor of Hal's estate. Contrary to what others think, Dr. Griggs does not believe Hal's dead was an accident. He and Paavo, a San Francisco homicide inspector, begin to investigate.

The local sheriff, Merry Belle, likes her nice quiet town. She doesn't want anything to upset that.

Hal's ex-wife and son are in town awaiting distribution of his assets. But, Hal's will has not been found.

Angie gets pulled into the investigation against Paavo's best judgement. Can they find Hal's killer and find out what is really going on without putting anyone else in danger?

I really enjoy this series. This was one of the best books in the series in my opinion. I liked the setting a lot. Arizona and the wild west feel of the setting really added to the story. The characters are wonderful. Angie and Paavo and the many local characters fit together very well.

I highly recommend this book and series.

[...]

Angelina "Angie" Amalfi and her fiancé, Paavo Smith, go to Jackpot, Arizona, to help out a friend. Paavo once lived in Jackpot and looked forward to seeing his childhood friend, Ned Paulson, again.

Hal Edwards was a long time resident in the town and one of the wealthiest around. After being missing for three months, his decomposing body is found in a cave out in the desert. "Doc" Loomis Griggs is the executor of Hal's estate and does not believe Hal's death was an accident. Doc wants Paavo to check things out.

*** This is Angie and Paavo's thirteenth mystery together. Readers get a clearer picture of Paavo's early life as they follow along with the story. There are lots of suspects to keep readers guessing too. I found this to be a good whodunit book, even though there is not much suspense within it. I had it figured out early on - WRONGLY. ***

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

>> On a bridge midway over the Colorado River, Angie Amalfi read the Welcome to Arizona sign. Her heart palpitated, her breathing quickened, and her feet tingled as a feeling of warmth, well-being, and certainty filled her. Above her head like a bubble in a cartoon strip, she was sure the words "Destination Wedding Locale" danced in red neon letters. << - Thus reads the first paragraph of RED HOT MURDER.

The natural flow of the opening of this novel gives the effect of setting out into a fresh, colorful story, even more than the sense of settling into a complex novel, though this 13th offering in the Amalfi series accomplishes both at grand prize levels. For me, a story offers all that is high magic in fiction; it goes beyond what a novel is, into realms of wonder & rainbows, like being in Oz instead of KS, without losing KS. There's something special about this book. The cover is almost too gorgeous for the mundane, dreary drudgeries of daily bread this planet (yes, that's a GOOD thing, Martha Stewart, and thank you for saying that, and for warming the sometimes drudgery of kitchen duties into the high art of home entertainment).

The first few pages of RED HOT MURDER ooze a mood immediately; I slipped from my world into the entertaining gambits of RHM in less than a split second, riding on a fresh sunbeam from sky to sand, as Pence described the scene:

>> The sky was a brilliant turquoise and the desert stretched out like a butternut sea of rolling sand and gravel, dotted with saguaro, barrel cactus, sage, and scrub. Precariously balanced red and granite rock piles, high crags, and jagged ridges of low-lying hills touched the horizon.<<

Exquisite syntax! Brilliant descriptive prose. This is what makes a story zap to life in a reader's mind.

It was easy to settle into Angie's peaceful pondering as she and Paavo began their journey to Jackpot Arizona. I may have actually sighed as Angie touched Paavo's arm in gesture of sympathy for his return to childhood angels and demons via this journey; and I may have levitated above my easy chair when Paavo accepted the sympathy with a simple, sensual glance away from the highway to sizzle a few-second-gaze on Angie sitting beside him in a Mercedes SUV.

Houston, it's a launch! (In Phoenix.)

As the journey pulled a halt in the gravel parking lot of a small-town diner, a few of Pence's legend, classic caricatures were already well on their way to being electrically-enhanced with Joanne's Frankenstein-jolt-wand, jump starting them off the pages and into my brain. A sleazy "La Verne" eased away from the diner counter, opening her scene as owner-operator (waitress) of the only café in town, da coffee & clues place settled in the middle of the 3 block main street of Jackpot. (I wondered when Shirley would show up.)

The scene was exquisite movie material; the images were crisp, clean and classic when Angie & Paavo stepped out of the Mercedes SUV and onto the edgy-slip of gravel in front of the Merritt Café. There are so many neon-light, mood scenes described so lusciously in RHM, I found myself pen checking too many passages to quote without retyping the book, and I needed a bigger Thesaurus so I could spout a few words other than "classic." I'll quote a snip of one these, so you'll recognize it when you see it; treat yourself by relishing the prose and pages around it:

>> High-heeled yellow sandals with only a thin strap holding them on the toes, touched the street. The driver held out his hand. <<

I savored the prose prior to and post the above prime statement. That scene gave one of the strongest descriptions of Angie and Paavo I've read in all 12 of the preceding novels in this series. As I saw this soul-mate pair clearly and classically, the only word coming to mind was:

"Movie-Screen."

I was thinking "film" in the same timeless-perfection of high-image-magic as I applied to the term, "story," above.

This # 13 has definitely stepped up another plateau. I'm in awe and so hopeful for RHM to soar in sales and raves. (I've posted a Listmania on this series, and reviewed each of the prior 12; most of those reviews have been honored with Amazon's yummy Spotlight.)

Angie's Point-of-View was stronger and more prevalent in this one. I see what Pence has done with POV as being just right for this story. I liked Angie's heated spiciness, which, to me translated into an appealing snarly-ness, and her spirited, kind, supportive, open-to-life-and-adventure self has come through again.

Loved the delightfully garish, designer Western outfit, and Angie's belief that she was truly "outdoor-sy." The continued play on the cowboy hat was well done, bringing it into focus here and there, especially noting its red straw attributes in perfect plot placements.

RHM seems to unfold in vivid Technicolor, contrasted to it's predecessors, and that doesn't diminish the 12 bks leading up to RHM. I believe in magic, in even more ways than this:

I believe that the color (symbolic and real) in RHM will not only sell it, but will return readers to be resold in brighter ways in the early books, seeing in them what had been missed before, maybe because we all continue to grow in consciousness and, as we do, we increase insight as well as intensity in many items and issues in history. I could slip into a tangent into metaphysics here, but won't. I. Will. Not.

Loved the scene where Angie "one-upped" Clarissa on wine. Was intrigued by the Waldorf food theme and interesting related historic tidbits linking that urban elegance to the desert mystique.

Each snippet of Pence's descriptive prose of the desert was crisply right on. This sentence was beautiful:

>>The sky was high and bright blue, the land quiet with the watery flicker of elusive mirages always just ahead.<<

This one was fresh and moving-image plush:

>>Rattlesnakes? Angie's head instantly took on the action of a Ping-Pong ball.<<

The vivid desert descriptions reminded me of a strangely mesmerizing nonfiction book, almost poetic in its "waxing" about the magic, beauty, and essence of the desert. The author was Joseph Wood Krutch, but I don't recall the title. He gave the desert such a spiritual intensity I was in awe of it, craving to experience it that way, but fearing I wouldn't be able to quite get there outside the pages of his book (or without chewing Peyote Buttons).

Angie's interplay with the mare, Ophelia, was hilarious. Pence gave character to an old nag! The horseback segment was high entertainment with Angie's reactions, and the way it drifted imperceptibly from funny, to serious, to haunting, and then very sad, was beautifully done. Loved the humor and surprises with the arrival of the Sheriff and deputy. Again the red hat popped up, adding just the right color spice. Grieving at the crime scene was dealt with in a natural way, which is tricky to accomplish within that awkward situation. Angie's sensitivity came out perfectly there.

Enjoyed immensely a tiny flash of a dark side in Angie when she gave no slack, hotly replied to a pushy question from Clarissa, "I've been busy." That was a snap to-cheer-for.

One of the scenes which drew me further into the story with laughter and anger, was Paavo's first interview with Sheriff Merry Belle (Mighty Butt). The lines, sneers, and mannerisms Pence gave this irritating ignoramus as the sheriff sweated to diminish Paavo, were absolutely perfect to have me flattening my mouth and picking up my imaginary baseball bat, or activating my quick-flipping slapping hand. Loved the way Paavo moved so easily from hot anger to not at all riled, as he began seeing the Sheriff's bluff & buzz, and discounted her lack of grace and generosity to the level to which it had made its descent.

Also enjoyed the description of Angie's bite into La Verne's unique cactus cake, a gourmet among hallucinogens, no carcinogens intended. Pence often gives more tangy detail to yucko tastes than good ones, but that does her comedy proud, and is right-on for this series. La Verne continued fleshing out nicely, weaving around suspects with her eyelid drooping, bumbling better than Columbo, cooking through tangents, worming herself into more than one subplot, as a potential suspect, or at least an entertainingly baffling buffoon.

I was intrigued and enthraled by the development of the historic Waldorf chef machinations intertwining to the Jackpot historic intrigue of ghosts from stagecoaches doing Bermuda Triangle dips, with all that connected to Angie's current work on her menu for the upcoming annual event in Jackpot. It should go without saying that this situation would connect with the murders, which made Paavo's relaxation a "we know different" deal between reader and author, about the innocence of Angie's being involved in historic research and current celebration preparations in Jackpot. Paavo thought that involvement would keep Angie safely away from the murder investigation. Uh huh. Sure. Within the pages of well-wrought fiction? I didn't think so.

Pence's style in this book seems to have turned to a rich butterscotch, compared to previous offerings. That flavor allowed a more sophisticated & fascinating interweaving of subplots around main plot. The intense style flavoring also allowed the characters to come forth even more naturally and intensely than in prior books. This observation does not diminish anything I've raved about prior novels in this series. I'm certain that when I reread them I'll notice and feel even more engrossing elements than I reviewed from original readings.

Due to more than the title similarities, I felt a few deja vu's between Pence's JACKPOT and Robert B. Parker's POTSHOT (see my review 11/1/05).

Differences in style include:

-- One of Parker's strong suits is his super-cool, smooth-jazzy dialogue rhythm, causing reading to feel like dancing, with heroes elevated just enough to appear to be living their plots on Olympus, gods practicing to incarnate as humans. Little do they know how much more difficult it would be as human to retain any type of rhythm or heroic gesture beyond the mundane.

-- Pence's strong suit is a warm, whole, rich complexity of plots, subplots, characters, descriptions melding into the essence and fact of a story which feels very much like a "real life" adventure most of us could actually live.

Here's another great description for baiting curiosity as well as pegging the essence of the character's feelings:

>> A thought struck her. A completely jarring, earth-shattering, mouth-dropping-in-amazement thought. Her heartbeat quickened. Her stomach fluttered. And suddenly, it all came to her like a bold of lightning. Eyes shining, face flushed, she smiled until she couldn't stretch her face any farther. <<

Is that a great exercise for avoiding a face lift, or what?

I was more deeply involved than my norm in the reading of this story, and I'm still digging for details as to why. I found myself measuring the remaining page thickness, not wanting to pass the half-way mark, because I wanted to be IN the reading of RHM for a long time. I didn't want to finish it and leave the characters and situations. As I've noted above, they were as entertaining as a good video, yet as rich and privately satisfying as a novel.

The plot of this book was definitely closer than previous Angie offerings to the prime-candidate-classics in The Mystery Genre in which plot and subplot convolutions are twisted and intensely mesmerizing, with each twist serving the murder resolution, and all character development, relationship expansion, and plot events working primarily toward that resolution.

From page 200 on I began reading without making notes. I had fallen in and wanted to give the Left Brain a rest. Close to end of the read, I became seriously concerned about what I could read next to match the satisfying intensity of RMH.

Loved RHM's deeper intertwining of multiple-machinations of characters and plot, and the setting had become a true home away from home. In contrast to Jackpot, San Francisco was almost feeling too cold, dreary, gray, damp; though SFO will always be a heart city for me. Enjoyed Angie's "Yes or No" conclusion of Jackpot as a wedding destination (read it to see which). Absolutely loved Angie's kicked up, spicy personality heat, food catastrophe hilarity, shoot out scene, Sheriff & La Verne character conclusions.

I decided to let my thoughts on this special novel incubate a little, then work around my notes to pull together a review. I was glad to have some time to ruminate this review before posting it, because it's a very special one to me, due only partly to the fact that Pence's Angie series is my favorite of any series I've read, and to the fact that this is my first ARC. Mostly, this review is special to me because this novel is very, very unique and very, very good.

When I finished the read I was left in a Right Brain, nonverbal state of awe. After a time of wide-eyed blank mindedness, random thoughts began surfacing, one of which was that I had loved the various uses, including metaphoric, of the cute ostrich critters. Loved the parts these birds played in a few of the final scenes.

A coup, a coup, a coup! And that's nothing to sneeze at! (Absolutely loved the sneeze scene and how it was handled.)

In RED HOT MURDER, Joanne has worked the classic mystery genre to its hilt, without losing the warmth and wholeness her series has developed and maintained, which is not often found in the classic/pure mystery offerings (though I'm finding the Miss Marple series much warmer and more sensual in descriptions that I had anticipated; see my Marple Listmania and my reviews of MURDER AT THE VICARAGE and AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL).

The resolution of the gourmet notebook was fantastic. That side of the real gourmet world, in the ultra-strange tastes and entrees, was well presented; I don't recall ever seeing this dark side of gourmet brought into a culinary offering before. Another great coup!

Watch this book. It's going places. You'll want to carry it in your bright, gypsy bandwagon, and store it in your mind where prime entertainment dwells in time-honored luxury.

Dancing in the streets, waltzing on my Laptop, "Get it, get it, get it!"
Linda G. Shelnutt