Murder in Manhattan

Woods, Stuart: Dead in the Water, HarperTorch May 1, 1998 ISBN: 0061093491
,,City Attorney Stone Barrington is on the small island of St. Marks off the coast of Antigua for vacation. His live-in girlfriend is unable to join him. Since he is at loose ends, he attends the coroner's inquest into the death of Paul Manning, a famous mystery writer who was sailing across the Atlantic when, according to his wife, he died. She is arrested for murder because the island prosecutor has political ambitions of being the next prime minister, and a good murder case is just what he needs. Manning was heavily insured, and within a day or so, $15 million is paid to his estate and then transferred to a Cayman Island account. Barrington takes on Allison Manning's defense with the help of a local barrister. Best-selling author Woods (Dirt, LJ 9/15/96) knows how to entrance the reader with glitz, a good story, and lots of suspense. No one here is quite what he or she appears to be, and Barrington must use all of his legal abilities to save his client. This will be very popular and is for all libraries.\n-?Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-Univ. Heights P.L., Ohio\nCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. \n\nFrom AudioFile\nStone Barrington, Manhattan ex-cop turned attorney/investigator, stumbles onto a murder investigation while on vacation in St. Marks and defends the beautiful woman accused of the crime. Tony Roberts's careful and diligent interpretation of Barrington culminates in a superb and stimulating performance. Barrington's persona is tough, street-wise and just vulnerable enough to be sexy. As the overly ambitious prosecuting Minister of Justice, Roberts applies a proper British accent combined with a... read more --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. \n\nBook Description\nIn Dead in the Water, Stone has barely arrived in St. Marks, a lovely Caribbean island nation, on a sailing vacation when something very strange happens: A beautiful young woman sails into the harbor, entirely alone on a large yacht. Before long she is under the intense scrutiny of local authorities in the very considerable person ofSir Winston Sutherland, the minister of Justice. The problem is, though she arrived alone, she had departed the other side of the Atlantic in the company of her husband, a well-known writer, who is no longer in evidence. \n\nEvidence is what fascinates Stone Barrington, and before many pages have been turned, he is all that stands between the apparently innocent Allison Manning and the patently evil intent of Sir Winston, whose motives are unclear. What is clear is that the St. Marks' system of justice bears little resemblance to the American courts to which Stone is accustomed and that his smallest error could prove fatal to his client.

Condition;Good ,Paperback ,City Attorney Stone Barrington is on the small island of St. Marks off the coast of Antigua for vacation. His live-in girlfriend is unable to join him. Since he is at loose ends, he attends the coroner's inquest into the death of Paul Manning, a famous mystery writer who was sailing across the Atlantic when, according to his wife, he died. She is arrested for murder because the island prosecutor has political ambitions of being the next prime minister, and a good murder case is just what he needs. Manning was heavily insured, and within a day or so,15 million is paid to his estate and then transferred to a Cayman Island account. Barrington takes on Allison Manning's defense with the help of a local barrister. Best-selling author Woods (Dirt, LJ 9/15/96) knows how to entrance the reader with glitz, a good story, and lots of suspense. No one here is quite what he or she appears to be, and Barrington must use all of his legal abilities to save his client. This will be very popular and is for all libraries.\n-?Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-Univ. Heights P.L., Ohio\nCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. \n\nFrom AudioFile\nStone Barrington, Manhattan ex-cop turned attorney/investigator, stumbles onto a murder investigation while on vacation in St. Marks and defends the beautiful woman accused of the crime. Tony Roberts's careful and diligent interpretation of Barrington culminates in a superb and stimulating performance. Barrington's persona is tough, street-wise and just vulnerable enough to be sexy. As the overly ambitious prosecuting Minister of Justice, Roberts applies a proper British accent combined with a... read more --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. \n\nBook Description\nIn Dead in the Water, Stone has barely arrived in St. Marks, a lovely Caribbean island nation, on a sailing vacation when something very strange happens: A beautiful young woman sails into the harbor, entirely alone on a large yacht. Before long she is under the intense scrutiny of local authorities in the very considerable person ofSir Winston Sutherland, the minister of Justice. The problem is, though she arrived alone, she had departed the other side of the Atlantic in the company of her husband, a well-known writer, who is no longer in evidence. \n\nEvidence is what fascinates Stone Barrington, and before many pages have been turned, he is all that stands between the apparently innocent Allison Manning and the patently evil intent of Sir Winston, whose motives are unclear. What is clear is that the St. Marks' system of justice bears little resemblance to the American courts to which Stone is accustomed and that his smallest error could prove fatal to his client.

[SW: The Stone Barrington Mystery Series]

Details

Clark, Carol Higgins: Fleeced, Pocket August 1, 2002 ISBN: 0743412311
,,Los Angeles PI Regan Reilly crosses the continent to visit Manhattan, her parents, and lover (New York cop Jack "no relation" Reilly), but ends up with almost all of her time consumed by a murder mystery. Clark's breezy, choppy style she crams 81 chapters into a page count achieved with generous amounts of white space and cavalcade of eccentric characters are the sum of the book. Dithering friend Thomas Pilsner, president of the Settlers' Club in Gramercy Park, calls Regan when two of the club's oldest and wealthiest members die just before they were to give the club four diamonds valued at more than $4 million. The money would have allowed Pilsner to save the venerable but deteriorating club but, alas, the diamonds have disappeared. Convinced that the "accidental" deaths were nothing of the sort, Pilsner wants Regan to prove it and recover the missing diamonds. A nascent butlering school, a dating service, a histrionic movie director, a pair of grasping con men and a couple of stuffed sheep figure prominently in the cast. A strange collection of oddballs and schemers have made the Settlers' Club the focus of their attentions, and the author rapidly switches her attentions from one to another till they collide in a climactic scene in which the killer stands revealed. Clark's light touch can be entertaining, but those expecting a real solution to the murder might be disappointed.

Condition;Good ,Paperback ,Los Angeles PI Regan Reilly crosses the continent to visit Manhattan, her parents, and lover (New York cop Jack "no relation" Reilly), but ends up with almost all of her time consumed by a murder mystery. Clark's breezy, choppy style she crams 81 chapters into a page count achieved with generous amounts of white space and cavalcade of eccentric characters are the sum of the book. Dithering friend Thomas Pilsner, president of the Settlers' Club in Gramercy Park, calls Regan when two of the club's oldest and wealthiest members die just before they were to give the club four diamonds valued at more than4 million. The money would have allowed Pilsner to save the venerable but deteriorating club but, alas, the diamonds have disappeared. Convinced that the "accidental" deaths were nothing of the sort, Pilsner wants Regan to prove it and recover the missing diamonds. A nascent butlering school, a dating service, a histrionic movie director, a pair of grasping con men and a couple of stuffed sheep figure prominently in the cast. A strange collection of oddballs and schemers have made the Settlers' Club the focus of their attentions, and the author rapidly switches her attentions from one to another till they collide in a climactic scene in which the killer stands revealed. Clark's light touch can be entertaining, but those expecting a real solution to the murder might be disappointed.

[SW: Regan Reilly Mystery Series]

Details

Block, Lawrence: Hope to Die, Morrow October 2001 ISBN: 006019832X
,,Unlicensed PI Matthew Scudder returns after a three-year absence to investigate the murder of a wealthy couple savagely slain in their Manhattan townhouse. Matt's now 62, and his age shows in this relatively sedate outing. There's less violence than in many cases past, and the urban melancholy that pervaded his earlier tales has dissipated, replaced by a mature reckoning with the unending cycle of life and death. The mystery elements are strong. To the cops, the case is open-and-shut: the perps have been found dead, murder/suicide, in Brooklyn, with loot from the townhouse in their possession. Matt enters the scene when his assistant, TJ, introduces him to the cousin of the dead couple's daughter; the cousin suspects the daughter of having engineered the killings for the inheritance. At loose ends, Matt digs in, quickly rejecting the daughter as a suspect but uncovering evidence pointing to a mastermind behind the murders. Block sounds numerous obligatory notes from Scudder tales past the AA meetings, the tithing of Matt's income, cameo appearances by Matt's love interest, Elaine, and his friend, Irish mobster Mick Ballou and he adds texture with some familial drama involving Matt's sons and ex-wife. His prose is as smooth as aged whiskey, as always, and the story flows across its pages.

Condition;Very Good / Very Good ,Hardcover ,Unlicensed PI Matthew Scudder returns after a three-year absence to investigate the murder of a wealthy couple savagely slain in their Manhattan townhouse. Matt's now 62, and his age shows in this relatively sedate outing. There's less violence than in many cases past, and the urban melancholy that pervaded his earlier tales has dissipated, replaced by a mature reckoning with the unending cycle of life and death. The mystery elements are strong. To the cops, the case is open-and-shut: the perps have been found dead, murder/suicide, in Brooklyn, with loot from the townhouse in their possession. Matt enters the scene when his assistant, TJ, introduces him to the cousin of the dead couple's daughter; the cousin suspects the daughter of having engineered the killings for the inheritance. At loose ends, Matt digs in, quickly rejecting the daughter as a suspect but uncovering evidence pointing to a mastermind behind the murders. Block sounds numerous obligatory notes from Scudder tales past the AA meetings, the tithing of Matt's income, cameo appearances by Matt's love interest, Elaine, and his friend, Irish mobster Mick Ballou and he adds texture with some familial drama involving Matt's sons and ex-wife. His prose is as smooth as aged whiskey, as always, and the story flows across its pages.

[SW: Matthew Scudder Mystery Series]

Details

Jeffery Deaver. The Vanished Man (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel). Pocket, 20040701
0743437810 Amazon Review Presto! With a conjuror's flourish, the reliable Jeffery Deaver has pulled another winner out of his hat. The Vanished Man brings back Lincoln Rhyme, forensic investigator, and his sidekick Amelia Sachs, ex-model and beat cop, a team featured in four previous books. Their case begins with a murder in which the culprit, cornered in a locked room, seemingly vanishes into thin air. Rhyme soon realizes he's up against a master illusionist--and then acquires a conjuror of his own, a spunky apprentice magician, to advise him. The book is chock-a-block with magic lore and with details of the craft of illusion, which provide a fine complement to the engrossing forensic-science puzzles. The characters, as usual with Deaver, are little more than cardboard cutouts. Even Rhyme himself, a brilliant quadriplegic and former head of NYPD forensics, seems more a collection of characteristics than a man. But Deaver's cutouts are sturdy and well-constructed, and the book's plotting and pacing--featuring twist upon twist and reversal upon reversal--are nothing short of dazzling, reminiscent of Agatha Christie at her best. Deaver proves himself an accomplished illusionist, misdirecting your attention with one hand while slipping a firecracker down your pants with the other. --Nicholas H. Allison --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Publishers Weekly Fans of Deaver know that he works storytelling magic in his thrillers, not just the Lincoln Rhyme tales (The Stone Monkey, etc.) but also the stand-alones (The Blue Nowhere, etc.). It's fitting, then, that in his new, giddily entertaining story about quadriplegic crime fighter Rhyme, he casts as his villain a professional illusionist-and an apprentice magician as assistant to Rhyme and Rhyme's cop sidekick-lover, Amelia Sachs. The novel opens with the murder of a young female student at a music school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Caught in the act, the killer vanishes from a sealed room. Forensic and eyewitness clues point to a culprit with magic training; looking for expert help, Sachs encounters an aspiring illusionist, who goes by the stage name of Kara, who agrees to help her and Rhyme. The villain-revealed in passages from his POV as "Malerick," soon identified as a world-class magician with a serious ax to grind-commits further mayhem (including an attack on Rhyme), which looks like steps toward an act of consummate revenge. A subplot about a white power demagogue's attempt to assassinate the Manhattan D.A. who's prosecuting him grows to involve Malerick, giving the storyline twists-and twists and twists, through Deaver's masterful sleight of hand. Further subplots concerning Sachs's attempt to attain a sergeant's ranking, and Kara's relationship with her stroke-addled mother, as well as the customary difficulties of Rhyme's condition, add ballast to the gyrating main story line, rich in magic lore and lingo. This is prime Deaver. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition..

MM, Very Good

[SW: lincoln rhyme, jeffery deaver, mystery, deaver, illusionist, magic, suspense, book recommendations, illusion, mystery and suspense, mystery series,]

Details