"What Ben Cosicki was doing getting himself dead in the sarge's club, nobody could figure," and so the death of Cosicki-aka Benny Lunch- kicks off this brisk and entertaining new series. Benny is a political fixer with deep ties within Philadelphia's Redmonton district, where banks have history going back to the Revolutionary War but the train factory has been closed for years, where jazz dives rub walls with black evangelical churches and people know people. Someone in this tangled web of connections knows why Benny died, and Andrea "Andy" Cosicki determines to find the answers behind her father's death. Benny has used his contacts to get his daughter a job on the Philadelphia Press. There, she finds unexpected help in the person of the tabloid's veteran obituary columnist, N.S. Ladderback. This odd couple-feisty, athletic cub reporter combined with the aged, slow-moving thinker who hates to leave his immaculate desk-offers a pairing much like Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. As Andy runs around and tussles with the bad guys, Ladderback uses his knowledge of the city's past to point her in the right directions. Besides clearly knowing the ins and outs of Philly, Kent (Under the Boardwalk; Down by the Sea), an award-winning New York Times correspondent, has fun with the newspaper milieu. Readers are sure to want to know how Ladderback picked up his agoraphobia and see what new messes Andy gets into-in what one hopes will be a long series.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Andrea Cosicki lands her first reporting job with the aid of her father, a strange man who earns a living by setting up meetings between people and "facilitating" situations. Adamant about remaining out of the news, he nevertheless makes it when police find his body in an old, burned-out nightclub. Andrea first learns about his death from Shep Ladderback, a unique obituary writer, who subsequently assists her in investigating the foul play amidst paper politics, destructive goons, and a battered lover. Despite a somewhat overlong exposition, this first entry in a new series by New York Times reporter Kent (Down by the Sea) is recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
