Requiem for a Dealer: A Brodie Farrell Mystery (Brodie Farrell Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Jo Bannister (Author)

Book Description

Series: Brodie Farrell Mysteries | Publication Date: December 12, 2006

You can waste a lot of time looking. . . . Or you can pay me to find it for you.
 
Brodie Farrell is a busy woman, what with running her one-woman firm Looking for Something? and raising her daughter. So on her night off, all she wants is to spend a relaxing evening teaching her friend Daniel Hood to drive. But the evening takes a disturbing turn when Daniel hits a young woman who seems to appear out of nowhere. The girl, Alison Barker, is mostly uninjured, but before she runs off she accuses Daniel of trying to kill her.
            The other man in Brodie's life, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, isn't much help; he's too busy investigating a dangerous new drug called Scram. But when Alison Barker turns up at the hospital, not as a result of the car accident but because of the lethal amount of Scram in her system, Jack is forced to get involved. Alison claims that the death of her father, a local purebred horse dealer, was murder---and that unless someone helps her, she'll be next.
            Brodie once again finds herself torn between the two men in her life---Daniel believes Alison's story, Jack doesn't. It's up to Brodie to infiltrate Alison's world of show jumping and discover the truth herself, before it's too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Bannister's riveting sixth mystery about professional finder Brodie Farrell (after 2005's Breaking Faith), Brodie's driving lesson for her friend Daniel Hood, a mild-mannered math teacher, comes to a screeching halt long before he's anywhere near the speed limit in their hometown of Dimmock, England. A young women dashes into the street, collides with the car and instead of accepting their help, accuses Daniel of trying to kill her before stumbling off into the dark. Daniel will cross paths again with the girl, whose story also interlocks with an investigation Brodie's boyfriend, Det. Supt. Jack Deacon, is conducting into a potent new illegal drug that's landing teens in the hospital and morgue. Bannister artfully works Brodie's, Daniel's and Jack's relationship issues into her carefully plotted tale of drug dealers and murder. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Jo Bannister

“Bannister is one of the genre’s best.” ---Booklist

The Depths of Solitude
“Suspenseful.” ---Publishers Weekly

Reflections
“What makes this mystery so compulsively readable is its sinister, disturbing tone and the perceptive psychological insights Bannister brings to her characters.” ---Deadly Pleasures

“Bannister is one of the undersung treasures of the mystery genre, and it’s high time she got the attention she deserves.” ---Chicago Tribune

True Witness
“Poignant and chilling psychological thriller.” ---Publishers Weekly

“In a novel full of well-developed, interesting characters, Bannister builds a complex case with plenty of surprises that will keep readers guessing about what really happened until the very end.” ---Booklist

Echoes of Lies
“Bannister scores high on character with her persuasive insights into the psychological responses to pain.” ---The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (December 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312362110
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362119
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,936,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Obvious plot, irritating characters, July 23, 2007

By 

Lucy Bregman (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Requiem for a Dealer: A Brodie Farrell Mystery (Brodie Farrell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I agree with the author of the "Ugh" review. What's charming about people who find one another continuously irritating, because they certainly are - and who, to keep the plot going, do dumb, dumber and yet even dumber things?

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ugh..., June 6, 2007

By 

Olivia (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Requiem for a Dealer: A Brodie Farrell Mystery (Brodie Farrell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Being a fan of Dick Francis, I love a good mystery especially if it has to do with horses. This is the first of Ms. Bannister's books I have read, and I'm happy I borrowed it from the library rather than buying it.

First off, as a mystery, this book is awful. I guessed the entire plot a good couple of hundred pages before her characters did, which is not good in any book, let alone a mystery novel. Her characters are either mean, or complete push-overs. This bichromatic view of characters is carried over into many other aspects of the book as well in an annoying black or white rigidity.

Secondly, as a book that deals with horses, Ms. Bannister has some disparaging opinions of both horses and horse-people. At the beginning of chapter 15, she talks about how most horse people are good with horses and bad with people, because they are used to "retaliating" when a horse kicks rather than trying to figure out why it kicked. Then she goes on to say that if you're the type of horse-person that tries to find out why it kicked rather than just immediately punishing the horse (I'm not saying punishment isn't a useful tool, but it needs to be deserved first, and in order to find out if it's deserved, the trainer needs ot look at why the horse kicked), you inevitably let the horse get away with whatever it wants to. This is indicative of a very close-minded, oldworld view of horsemanship, and horse-people in general, and I'm appalled that she would write a fiction work centered around horses and yet have nothing good to say about either them or the people that partner with them.

3.0 out of 5 stars Mystery: designer drugs labs and horse circuits, November 11, 2007

By 

D. Merrimon Crawford (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Requiem for a Dealer: A Brodie Farrell Mystery (Brodie Farrell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Brodie Farrell is giving driving lessons to her friend Daniel Hood when a woman in black runs out in front of the car. The mysterious woman disappears and then turns up in the hospital loaded with the new designer drug Scram. Alison Barker claims she knows nothing about it and someone must have given it to her in attempt to kill her. Her father, she claims, did not commit suicide but was murdered. The police are trying to locate the source of the Scram and neutralize the first lab in the country before it spreads. The police dismiss concerns about any danger to Allison, claiming she is not psychologically stable. Their interest in Allison is only as a source to locate the new Scram lab in Dimmock. Brodie and Daniel, however, investigate her claims. The path leads to big money and high stakes equestrian circles --- and danger.

REQUIEM FOR A DEALER resembles a police mystery based on the characters and a slightly hard edge tone. Brodie Farrell, a professional finder and Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon are more seasoned to the hard realities of the crime world than the amateur sleuths found in cozy mysteries. Daniel Hood is a good man, a man of honor, providing a nice contrast to some of the other harder-edged characters. Readers are likely to guess easily the direction in which the investigation heads but may find an unexpected twist or two at the end. The puzzle here lies not so much in who committed the possible crime but how to catch them. The history of the horse business in England intrigues since it varies from the US horse world, although this aspect leaves the reader wishing the author had developed this aspect of her novel more than one paragraph.

While REQUIEM FOR A DEALER may not present a suspenseful race to the identity of the culprit, it provided an entertaining and distracting read. This book would be a good choice for the beach or busy times of the year when one wants to relax with a book but may have to stop and start reading or be distracted. The mystery is easy to follow and remember.