March 1, 2018
A routine case pulls a private eye into the criminal world when the woman she's been following is suddenly murdered.People who show up out of the blue at Roxane Weary's door rarely bring good news, so she doesn't expect much from her former lover Tom and his colleague Detective Sanko. They're looking for information on Marin Strasser, who just so happens to have been Roxane's most recent job. Marin's fiance, Arthur Ungless, hired Roxane to tail her for a few days because he feared she was having an affair before they were even married. Roxane didn't think much about the time she spent watching Marin shop and wander around town--the subject seemed too disconnected from anyone to be having an affair or even a casual friendship--but she didn't mind billing Arthur. When Roxane and Arthur met to discuss the case, he insisted even more strongly on the need to follow Marin but couldn't produce the money he'd promised Roxane in the first place. Again, Roxane thought little of it until Tom and Sanko inform her that Marin's been shot and killed and that whatever information Roxane has could be the key to finding her killer. Though not strongly invested, Roxane, feeling for Arthur, does a little digging of her own, uncovering what appears to be a secret life or two in Marin's past. Who was Marin Strasser after all? Roxane doesn't try to mix her own personal life with her work apart from her friendship with Shelby, a teen whose life she saved in more ways than one (The Last Place You Look, 2017). But the more closely Roxane investigates Marin, the more whatever danger Marin was involved in threatens to leach into Roxane's life and put her loved ones in peril.This book doesn't have the dark creepiness that made Lepionka's series opener successful, but her characterization of her heroine's interpersonal relationships remains spot-on.
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March 5, 2018
The shooting death of interior decorator Marin Strasser, the fiancée of Roxane Weary’s current client, Arthur Unglass, drives Lepionka’s twisty second mystery featuring the Ohio PI (after 2017’s The Last Place You Look). Arthur hired Roxane to find out whether Marin was cheating on him, and he’s now the main suspect. Roxane, who can’t believe he killed her, discovers that Marin had a criminal past and, in her volatile adult son, a partner in crime. But was she up to no good, or had she turned her life around? Either way, Roxane is determined to prove Arthur’s innocence, but she is soon in way over her head. Roxane’s self-destructive tendencies, such as frequent drinking and a fraught on-and-off romance with the beautiful and mercurial Catherine Walsh, whose help she enlists, only serve to complicate matters. That Roxane has an alarming habit of diving headfirst into dangerous situations only makes her more fascinating. Fans will no doubt look forward to her next case. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
Starred review from March 15, 2018
It starts as a routine case for Ohio PI Roxane Weary. Sixtyish printshop owner Arthur Ungless suspects his live-in fianc�e, Marin Strasser, of having an affair, so Roxane tracks her and finds nothing. Days later, Marin is murdered, with Arthur the prime suspect, since the pair had a loud public argument the night Marin was shot, and a gun he owns is missing. Not believing in Arthur's guilt, Roxane keeps digging for more information, and it's like pulling on a loose thread that causes everything to unravel. A shootout at the print shop leaves Arthur wounded and a young woman dead with her father seeking vengeance, a situation that links to Roxane's probes into Marin's background, which turns up strained family relationships that spawn crimes ranging from real-estate fraud to attempted murder. Worst of all, Roxane's activities begin to threaten her mother and her former lover, and her freewheeling method of operation also may damage her close relationship with Detective Tom Heitker, the former partner of her late father. With this successor to her highly praised debut, The Last Place You Look (2017), Lepionka is setting a high standard for crime fiction with the complex Roxane Weary at its heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)