David Skibbins, The Star: A Tarot Card Mystery

The Star: A Tarot Card Mystery

David Skibbins

Dunne, Feb 2007, $23.95

ISBN 0312361939

In Berkley, California, after vanishing for three plus decades as a 1960s radical gone underground, Warren Ritter resurfaces as a sidewalk tarot-card reader trying to stay out of trouble, but not always successfully. He feels good about meeting his married daughter Fran Wilkins and his grandchild Justin though not comfortable with her Santa Cruz cop of a spouse Orrin. Warren proves correct when Orrin leaves Fran taking their infant with him to his deeply religious fundamentalist parents to help him raise his son, as he claims his wife is unfit due to her bi-polar condition.

Not long afterward, Orrin is found murdered with Fran as the only suspect as she tried to kill herself; the police assume a suicide murder attempt with one homicide. Unable to stay out now that he has met his daughter and grandchild, Warren investigates while watching over Justin and eluding Orrin's partner Vespie who knows he has a perfect case against the wife and her fugitive father.

The third Tarot Card mystery is an interesting investigative tale in which readers learn plenty about Warren's father, sister, daughter and others in an extended family. The inquiry is fun to follow though it lacks the readings that made the previous two novels (see EIGHT OF SWORDS and HIGH PRIESTESS) refreshing. Still fans will enjoy following the escapades of a former radical activist as he tries to reconnect with his family especially with his offspring in trouble though his final approach to prove Fran's innocence seems over the edge.

Harriet Klausner