Customer Reviews

Short Change

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This is the third entry in the Tucker Sinclair mystery series, and it is just as much of a good read as the earlier ones. Tucker is a management consultant, her primary expertise rescuing businesses in trouble; the fact that she is a smart, resourceful woman with a knack for getting herself into - and hopefully out of - trouble is just a bonus. Her latest client is a p.i. named Charley Tate, a retired LAPD bomb squad sergeant. As Tucker is attempting to turn his business into one that actually earns him a profit, Charley is hired by a woman who identifies herself as Eve Lawson and tells him she fears she is being stalked, and pays him a $1,000 cash deposit to find out who has been following her. Tucker reluctantly agrees to assist him. Then, in short order, the woman disappears, and a wanted embezzler, whose name and description fit that of Eve's boyfriend, is found murdered, and Eve becomes a suspect in the murder; it appears that either she killed him or she's to be the killer's next victim.

Of course, there are the requisite number of personal preoccupations, e.g., Tucker's boyfriend, a handsome homicide detective with the LAPD, who seems to have had a relationship with a Deputy DA who thinks the relationship is still present tense; and a paternal relative who claims that Tucker's father is someone other than the man her mother married. While trying to deal with these distractions, Tucker becomes increasingly involved in the investigation of the murder and the whereabouts of Charley's client, imperiling herself in the process. There are questions of fraud, corporate greed and shady property dealing, though the tone is mostly light and the writing funny. Tucker is a good-humored and capable woman who is surrounded by a mother named Pooky who runs a yoga studio one of whose employees is named Petal; just possibly a father who goes by the name of Peaches LaRue; a West Highland terrier who was adopted and who is therefore referred to as a "used dog," et al - an altogether charming bunch, in a book whcih is equally delightful and fst-moving.

(Also available as CD)

Los Angeles business consultant, Tucker Sinclair, has left corporate America and is trying to build her own business. She's currently working with Charley Tate. Charley is a P.I. who is also trying to get his business off the ground. But Charley's been sidelined by a hit-and-run driver (and a wife who rather he spent all of his time with her) and Tucker steps in to save the day.

Eve Lawson is a strange woman. It's as if she stepped out of the 1980s. She breezes into Charley's office and hires Charley to find out who is following her. The question is: who would want to follow a writer who is working on a book about the post-World War II real estate boom in Los Angeles?

But while Charley's back is on the mend, Eve's boyfriend turns up dead and Eve goes missing. Tucker had better start working overtime to solve the crime before anyone else dies. And while she's at it, Tucker has to build her own business, save Charley's, salvage what's left of her own love life and figure out a way to get her conniving aunt off her `back.' Auntie Dearest wants to evict Tucker from her ocean digs--and it might be that Tucker's mama will have to save the day.

Short Change is a fast and fun romp into Tucker Sinclair's world. She's smart, savvy and unique with enough dysfunction to make her a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to Patricia Smiley's next Tucker Sinclair novel. I want to see what happens with Deegan.

Armchair Interviews says: A new mystery series worth reading.

Management curmudgeon Tucker Sinclair left her corporate job when the partners failed to support her during a murder investigation. She opened up her own business and scrambles to build a solid client base. Ex-cop turned private investigator Charles Tate asks for Tucker's help; ergo she gets sucked into one of his investigations. Evie Lawson asks Charles to help her because she thinks someone is stalking her. They are to meet, but she is a no-show; Tucker as a favor to Charlie goes to Evie's house, but she is not there either.

Tucker's police officer boyfriend describes a homicide victim to her, who is Evie's former lover; Evie is a person of interest to the police. Charlie is in a car accident so he asks Tucker to continue to help him on the case. Evie's stepbrother demands Charles find her before she harms herself as he insists she is mentally unstable and probably suicidal. Tucker discovers that Evie is holding up the construction of a multi-million dollar development project by refusing to sign away her property. She now knows why seemingly everyone is desperately seeking Evie, but like the others on the hunt she has no idea where the woman hides.

Though the tale can turn a bit confusing with the universe searching for Evie, readers will agree that Patricia Smiley has written an appealing amateur sleuth mystery due to the intelligent, determined, and caring heroine. Charles provides comic relief when the tension looks overwhelming especially as the taut noose chokes Tucker. There is a lot of action in this fast-paced tale, but it is the characters especially tough and tender Tucker who make SHORT CHANGE a fun investigative thriller.

Harriet Klausner

The Booklist review above likens the heroine of this book, Tucker Sinclair, to Stephanie Plum. I didn't think of Steph at all (loved that series in the beginning), but immediately compared the story and its narrator to Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone (another series I really enjoy). This book has the same overall tone as that in Grafton's series: adult, not too goofy, more serious than funny but with good light moments. Also, both series have interesting secondary characters, and both narrators have the same professional, calm, slightly idiosyncratic and likable personality.

The plotline is a little bit undercooked, and could have used a bit more meat, but is still interesting and I definitely was caught up in the twists and turns and revelations. It satisfied, and was enjoyable. The mystery could have used a little work, but overall made the grade. The ending, however, was slightly ridiculous, and I immediately fell out of the story, reminded that I was reading someone's fictional creation, not a true story. Altogether though the ending was satisfying. The mystery is not a hard Ian Rankin or Michael Connelly mystery with gruesome deaths or serial killers, but neither is it like the cozy foodie/knitting/catsitting plots that have been so popular lately. I'd say it's not too breezy, but not too horrifying.

I recommend SHORT CHANGE to fans of Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series, early Stephanie Plum (the first two or so books in the Plum series) and to mystery readers who enjoy a good straightforward story (but twisty mystery) with not too many gimmicks or slapstick characters/situations. The book gets a little close to slapstick in one or two places, but is still nowhere near current Stephanie Plum levels.

Good for a quick, fast read. Just enough meat to it to satisfy. Recommended.

Tucker Sinclair decides to help a detective-friend, and she becomes deeply involved in a murder mystery.

I listened to the book on CD while driving across country. The book was interesting, engaging, and enjoyable. Although I like to think I can predict and solve well, the book had surprising twists and turns. I found it easy to picture the images painted for this likable character.

I recommend this book, and I'd gladly read another in the series.

This review pertains to the audio version, read by Allyson Ryan. I think this would be a very entertaining read, but it is a lousy "listen." The reader does not differentiate well between characters and she has a habit of dropping the ends of words and sentences. This is just my personal quirk, but she pronounces contractions, such as wouldn't and couldn't, as "woodent" and "coodent" like some cutesy four-year-old. Although the novel is set in California, several of the characters have southern accents for some unfathomable reason. It's just more annoying than entertaining, reinforcing my conviction that good readers are amazingly talented folks.

Patricia Smiley's mysteries have been favorably compared to both Janet Evanovich's and Sue Grafton's successful string of novels, and for good reason. Her books are well paced, and the stories evolve organically. Most importantly they're just plain fun to read.

As if that isn't enough, the setting of Smiley's novels leads to a comparison with another author, this one from a bygone era. Smiley captures today's Southern California as effectively as Raymond Chandler did in the `30s and `40s. But where Chandler sometimes employed pseudonyms for real locations - Bay City for Santa Monica, Idle Valley as an amalgam of various San Fernando Valley neighborhoods - Smiley's landscape is as accurate as a Thomas Brothers map. You could follow her directions down Sepulveda, La Cienega, or the 405 and see the very offices, restaurants, and denizens she describes so convincingly. Along the way she gives us bits of local South Land history, all the while conveying the very essence of what it means to be an Angelino.

In "Short Change", Smiley's latest effort, heroine Tucker Sinclair is caught in a web of deceit fueled by greed. This time she must appease competing land moguls, decipher a manipulating psychopath, and locate a troubled, missing client. And that's just during work hours. In her personal life Tucker is forced to confront her own lineage, even as she squeezes in a little love of her own. All of this is accomplished with the protagonist's signature wry humor and very human self-doubts.

Smiley gets better with each book, and Short Change is her best yet. As much fun as a fast ride along Mulholland Drive in a top-down Boxter.

--- Steve Long

Patty Smiley has again created a fast-paced and exciting read about Tucker Sinclair, a business consultant who does "business" and "consults" --- sometimes together, and sometimes not. The many characterizations will draw you in to her well-woven story line.