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Elaine Kelly is a beautiful young bank teller who is supporting her dying mother, both financially and emotionally. She is a favorite of many of the banks’ customers, especially Antonio Desirio, an old gentleman who makes a weekly deposit into a savings account of over a million dollars.

When Antonio is killed by a truck right outside the bank, Elaine acts on a rash impulse and transfers most of the man’s money into her account. She’s never done anything like that before, but she’s sure he is all alone in the world and she’s barely scraping by.

The police are investigating the accident, and Elaine is cooperating with the detective and doing some snooping on her own. Then a man comes in the bank, claiming he is Antonio Desirio, and tries to withdraw the money – but it’s already gone. The police freeze the account, but there are bad men after the money and they are targeting Elaine.

This fast paced shell game of misdirection, where it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad, is reminiscent of Good People by Marcus Sakey and Found Money by James Grippando.  The author’s previous novel, Moving Day, was also terrific.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

5/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

Kindle: THE TELLER by Jonathan Stone.  Thomas & Mercer (May 12, 2015).  ASIN: B00OV403US

Paperback: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (August 29, 2012). ISBN 978-1250035028. 384p.

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Dead-End Job Mystery (Book 13)

The fun continues, this time at the library, in Viet’s latest entry into one of my favorite mystery series. Being a librarian, this book holds a special place in my heart.

People return the most outrageous things along with their library books and Viets mentions several of my favorites. But the mystery here is based on a John Singer Sargent painting worth close to a million dollars that is inadvertently left in a book that is donated to the library.

When Elizabeth’s father died, the family donated his collection of books to the library. When she realizes the painting was in one of the books, she hires private eye Helen Hawthorne to find it.

Helen gets a coveted volunteer position at the small city library and gets to work. But other people are aware of the missing painting and don’t necessarily want it returned to its rightful owner, and are willing to kill to keep it.

Meanwhile Helen’s husband Phil, also a private investigator, is looking for a missing ruby and diamond necklace that was stolen during a private party, along with a golf cart. Yes, lots of folks in south Florida own their own golf carts. Some are used for golf, of course, but there are also communities where they are street legal.

I love the south Florida culture that Viets always infuses her mysteries with, and this time out she also inserts lots of interesting library trivia. Any library regular will love all the inside gossip.

Another great cozy mystery with lots of laughs, warm, wonderful characters and an intriguing premise. Don’t miss it.

5/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

CHECKED OUT by Elaine Viets.  NAL (May 5, 2015).  ISBN 978-0451466327. 288p.

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Byrne and Balzano #8

Mr. Marseille and Annabelle are young, good-looking, beautifully dressed, and exceedingly polite murderers. We meet them when they kill a teenage girl, pose her in macabre fashion on a freshly painted bench, and leave her with an invitation to a tea dance.

Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are assigned the case. On the day of the tea dance, two more bodies are found, this time with another invitation to a tea dance, along with a doll that is an exact replica of the first victim; things get progressively darker from there.

More bodies and more dolls keep Byrne and Balzano following a path that takes them tantalizingly close, yet the twists and turns keep coming as they are thwarted by this young couple time and again.

The relationships here are interesting; Marseille and Annabelle are an enigma, which is nicely juxtaposed by the relationship between the detectives, who have worked together so long that they can practically read each other’s thoughts.

Longtime fans of the series will not be disappointed; The Doll Maker is just plain good, creepy fun.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

4/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE DOLL MAKER by Richard Montanari.  Mulholland Books (April 28, 2015).  ISBN 978-0316244732. 496p.

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Hollywood, tinsel town, in the late 1930s is the setting for the novel by the versatile Ace Collins. It’s a time before computer enhanced special effects where giant studios created the images seen on the screen through human ingenuity. And big name stars made movies with an eye to creating diversions for people caught up in the horror of the great depression.

Shelby Beckett and her family have to leave their farm in Oklahoma due to drought and financial ruin. A situation made familiar by John Steinbeck in several of his books. Her father has been promised help in securing a job with a studio in Hollywood, and Shelby also manages to obtain a position in the wardrobe department as a seamstress.

Charmed by the stars, Flynn Sparks and his rival Dalton Andrews, two of the biggest luminaries working for the studio Shelby becomes exposed to the party atmosphere they exist in. She becomes familiar with stars like Clark Gable and Cary Grant. She is also attractive enough to possibly become an actress.

Collins utilizing the atmosphere of this era sets up a murder mystery involving a serial killer that selects starlets as his prey. Bill Barrester is the police detective assigned to catch the killer and at one crucial point asks Shelby to help him.

As in all Ace Collins’ novels the action is fast, the characters interesting and well fleshed out. The book is more a fast read than an engrossing one, but Collins very rarely disappoints and Hollywood Lost is no exception.

4/15 Paul Lane

HOLLYWOOD LOST by Ace Collins. Abingdon Press (April 21, 2015). ISBN978-1426771880. 320p.

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This is the second book in a planned trilogy set in a part of the South still rooted in deep racial division. It begins about the time of the Katrina hurricane and flooding of New Orleans. The first of the three novels, “Natchez Burning,” set the stage for the conflicts carried on in this book, with Penn Cage, the mayor of Natchez.

Penn, an attorney, is forced to defend his father Tom Cage on a murder charge in the slaying of Tom’s one time mistress and nurse in his father’s medical office. The nurse had moved out the area years ago after being raped by members of the Double Eagles, a terror group allied with the Ku Klux Klan. She lived in Chicago for many years and only came back when she was diagnosed with cancer so she could die where she grew up. The Double Eagle members and corrupt police accuse Tom of a mercy killing in order to ease her suffering.

Iles, although writing fiction, describes in detail the corruption existing in the area of the south under discussion. He indicates that Katrina forced many African Americans out of New Orleans when their homes were destroyed and powerful white groups plotted to rebuild the city in a different way. The plan only included more expensive homes and apartments in order to prevent the poorer Negros from returning. In addition white gangsters took the opportunity to assassinate their black rivals and take over their territory.

Touched on in the first book and brought out with more detail in this novel is the idea that the killings of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther king originated with the New Orleans mafia. Iles brings to bear a good deal of research into the John F. Kennedy murder. His knowledge of the ballistics, placement of individuals involved and planning describe a different scenario other than Lee Harvey Oswald as the sole assassin and sets up more of a conspiracy than originally thought.
Penn’s fiancee, Caitlin Masters, editor of a newspaper in Natchez owned by a group controlled by her father has her own part to play in bringing out facts and situations involved in the action. She meets and befriends the wife of an FBI agent investigating the John F. Kennedy killing’s New Orleans roots. Her friend is a world class news photographer and helps Caitlin with the development of the investigation.

The ending obviously sets up the third book coming in the trilogy. Iles writing is nothing short of mesmerizing and the over 800 pages flies by keeping the reader glued to the pages.

4/15 Paul Lane

THE BONE TREE by Greg Iles. William Morrow (April 21, 2015). ISBN 978-0062311115. 816p.