|
Publisher:
Avon Mystery |
Release
Date: January 27, 2004 |
ISBN:
0-06-105377-5 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Trade Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Mystery/Thriller – Police Procedural |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Kristin Johnson |
Reviewer
Notes: Kristin Johnson, the founder of PoemsForYou.com,
released her second book, CHRISTMAS COOKIES ARE FOR GIVING,
co-written with Mimi Cummins, in October 2003. Her third book,
ORDINARY MIRACLES: My Incredible Spiritual, Artistic and Scientific
Journey, co-written with Sir Rupert A.L. Perrin, M.D., is now
available from PublishAmerica. |
|
Cold
Case
By Robin Burcell
The
roles for women in mysteries improve. Perhaps Northern California
police officer Robin Burcell gets insight from being on the job
every day, and the result shows in her police procedural about SFPD
Homicide Investigator Kate Gillespie, who’s got a Katharine
Hepburn attitude. She has a sense of justice akin to Camellia “Mel”
Walker, PI, the heroine of another excellent police procedural,
The Cop was White as Snow, which sparked the Harbour Point
Mystery Series based on the real-life cases worked by retired PI
Joyce Spizer. We are women, hear us roar…we’re packing,
too!
The
only thing Kate seems to fear is commitment, even though FBI agent
and ex-cop Mike Torrance is her number one suspect in the theft
of her heart. Life is rarely tidy, even in fiction, and crime is
even messier. When Kate links the murder of a prostitute in a seedy
motel to mob boss Nick Paolini, her discovery leads to the murder
of Darwin Award candidate Earl Millhouse during a bank robbery three
years later. Since Kate is nearly killed in the riveting opening
at the seedy motel, she’s eager to solve the crime. Forget
about red herrings. Robin Burcell gives us red wigs, transvestites,
white roses, and a web of personalities whose relationships and
motives are more difficult to comprehend than US intelligence reports
on Iraq. Burcell makes the perhaps unintended point that this isn’t
“Murder, She Wrote,” and murder rarely fits a pre-arranged
formula, because life doesn’t. Certainly Kate Gillespie’s
life gets complicated by the attentions of her undercover assignment,
Nick Paolini, who is Tony Soprano, only smoother. We feel the lure
of Paolini but hope for Kate to get her love together with Mike
Torrance, along with a little help from Torrance’s Spock-like
female partner Jackie Parrish…but in the end, Kate and Torrance
bring the sweet mystery of life to a great conclusion.
Sassy
dialogue such as a line about Jackie needing a tight body suit (“That’s
what all the good-looking aliens wear on ‘Star Trek’”)
make this Cold Case a hot read that women in uniform and
their civilian sisters can cheer. |