Bill Kent, Street Fighter

Bill Kent, Street Fighter - In Philadelphia, Paulie Small is an accountant who knows how to move money around to get what the movers and shakers want done. He knows where all the bodies are buried as does his co-worker and lover Teal Cavaletta, who cares about the man and not his connections. One day while Paulie is outside Teal's home, he is beaten and dies at the hospital.

Shep Ladderback, the obituary writer at the Philadelphia Press, wants to write an obit about Paulie, but he is met with a wall of silence. Junior reporter Andrea Cosicki tells Shep that Teal, the mother of her friend Lucia, knows everything there is to know about Paulie. Before he can question her, someone beats her up and leaves her to die. While Andrea and Lucia try to find out who did this, Shep takes a different approach because he believes the murder and the beating are linked to a fraudulent real estate venture. Their joint investigation ends in a conflagration of violence that sends two people to the hospital in critical condition and reveals the identity of the killer, a person who nobody would guess is the perpetrator.

A bit slow moving at times, STREET FIGHTER is a clever investigative mystery featuring two journalists, one nearing the end of his career and the other just beginning hers. The steps they take to solve the crime and get the story are logical, believable and therefore very interesting. Bill Kent is a talented writer who focuses more on characterizations than action scenes.

Dunne, May 2005, $23.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0312328834

Harriet Klausner