Murder Among the Rich
It was the location that first drew me to the Wine Country Cold Case series from Karin Fitz Sanford. I’m glad it did since I enjoyed Running on Empty, the second.
This series features Anne McCormack, a former FBI agent who is now running an estate liquidation business in Santa Rosa, California, and getting involved with the occasional cold case for the local police as a part time detective. She often finds herself working with her uncle Jack, who was a detective for the city before he retired, since he still comes back to work on the occasional cold case as well.
This book finds Anne getting involved with the Pardini family just as Lino Pardini dies unexpectedly. While most of his family is involved in a winery in the area, Lino had set himself apart as an attorney turned financial adviser. His death brings one of the cases Jack couldn’t solve back to the forefront. Lino’s previous wife vanished and then her remains were found almost exactly a year later. Jack always suspected that Lino was involved, but couldn’t prove it.
While Jack begins to poke around in the old case again, Anne finds herself drawn to Renee, Lino’s younger widow. As the Pardini family is pulled into shocking news, can Anne help figure out what is happening?
If you pick this book up looking for a traditional mystery, you’ll be disappointed. Now, please read what I’m saying very carefully. The drama going on with the Pardini family takes up much of the page time as well as what it means for Anne and others in the community. Yes, we do get resolutions to the mysteries I’ve teased and some others that pop up. And this doesn’t mean that the book is any less compelling. I was drawn into the story and usually had a hard time putting the book down.
You can think of this more as a crime drama than a mystery. Crime and mystery are involved, but it doesn’t dominate the story. Having said that, I did find the resolutions to the mystery elements as satisfying as the rest of the story.
And it works because of the characters. We see the story from several different character’s points of view, and that helps pull us into the drama. These characters are well drawn and we can’t help but feel for them and want to see them come out on top despite the circumstances they find themselves in.
I will say there were times a few minor details the author got wrong bugged me. It’s funny, I’ll read right by some things, but others stick out to me. But they weren’t a big deal overall.
The author freely admits that she uses a fictional version of Santa Rosa for these books, and I certainly understand that. Having said that, I got a kick out of seeing real places and road names pop up in the book. That’s always fun.
Yes, this book is a little darker than a typical cozy, with some of the language, etc. that goes with it. However, it is kept to a minimum, which is nice.
While mystery purists might find Running on Empty frustrating, those looking for a compelling crime novel will enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by. In order to combat spam, I moderate most comments. I'll get to your comment as soon as I can.