Unsafe Keeping [Paperback]

Carol Cail (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1995

Reporter Maxey Burnell is co-owner - along with her attractive, infuriatingly irresponsible ex-husband, Reece - of an alternative weekly newspaper in Boulder, Colorado. Driving home late one night Maxey is nearly sideswiped by a runaway van - victim of a teenager's prank, according to the police. But soon after, her landlady, Mrs. Waterford, is killed in a similar accident, and distraught Timothy Waterford asks Maxey to look into his grandmother's death. As Maxey investigates, murder and mayhem get a little too close for comfort. The van incident was only the beginning, and before she's through, the complaints will include arson and attempted murder.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The hectic life of a Boulder, Colo., weekly newspaper owner is skillfully rendered in Cail's second Maxie Burnell story, following Private Lies. After almost being hit by a runaway van, Maxie agrees to write a story about a neighborhood group trying to stop a developer's plan to raze a historic bordello and replace it with condos. Maxie and her co-owner, also her ex-husband, hire her landlady's grandson, a part-time college student who wants to be a journalist. On her way to see the bordello, Maxie encounters a fire investigator at an arson site. The divergent threads of the plot begin to connect when her landlady is killed by a runaway vehicle and Maxie discovers the old woman was the owner of the historic house of ill repute. After the bordello is targeted by an arsonist, the plucky, insatiably curious Maxie jeopardizes her life to find out who is responsible.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Maxey Burnell, the female protagonist of Cail's series (Edited Out, Naiad Pr., 1994), owns a small Colorado newspaper with her ex-husband and loves the investigative reporting aspect of her job. She spearheads the search for a missing historic preservation-minded friend, tracks down a "runaway" vehicle that killed her landlord, and even gets herself conked on the head. All this action tends to distract her from the fact that her policeman lover has deserted her for another. Weak character development, decent prose, and moderately involving subplots make this a mixed bag. For larger collections only.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (July 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312291949
• ISBN-13: 978-0312291945
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,793,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Runaway cars, arson, and rezoning, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Unsafe Keeping (Hardcover)

Carol Cail's "Unsafe Keeping" begins when Maxey Burnell, co-owner of an independent newspaper, is nearly hit by a driverless van. Not to long after that, a similar incident results in the death of a pedestrian. At the same time, an arsonist has begun to set fires in the Boulder, Colorado, neighborhood Maxey calls home. Partially because of her role as a reporter but more because of a personal connection to the various incidents, Maxey investigates and finds that the clues seem to point to the struggle between preservationists and developers over a mansion that was once a prominent brothel.

While Maxey is trying to unwind the complicated but interwoven events, she tries also to figure out just where her ill-defined relationship with a homicide detective is going--if anywhere. "Unsafe Keeping" is certainly competently written, but it is too lean for much more. Though Cail works in a twist ending, the twist does not come off convincingly. The heroine-in-peril scenario that is rather hackneyed already makes an appearance here. While Cail at least avoids the problem of the heroine who rushes blindly into obviously dangerous situations, the convention seems too formulaic here, and the result is that the novel suffers. Certainly there are mysteries that are far less effective, but there are those that are far better, too.