F.M. Meredith, Fringe Benefits

Fringe Benefits

F.M. Meredith

Tigress Press, Jan 2007, $13.95

ISBN: 097716019X

Rocky Bluff, California, police officer Cal Sylvester detests his rookie partner Gordon Butler whose features seem so girlie to the rugged veteran. However Cal, does cede the loser has one hot wife that he plans to make more than an acquaintance with. Soon after that first meeting, Cal and sexy Darcy begin a tryst as both seeks excitement not to be found in this sleepy town, twenty miles from Ventura.

However, after a few months of heat, Darcy makes it clear to Cal that she expects more from any man who desires her. Cal is obsessed, but does not earn enough as a cop to keep Darcy in the style she demands. In spite of having young daughters at home, Cal plots the perfect murder to obtain the money he needs to keep Darcy. He will kill his wife Lee Ann but set it up so a troubled teen Adler "Patch" Costello, Jr. will take the fall though a serial rapist that is stalking the town could prove handy also.

The third Rocky Bluff Police Department (see FINAL RESPECTS) is a terrific tale of an egotistical cop who behaves amorally in the best of times but goes over the edge even for him due to the lure of an avaricious woman. Cal is an interesting protagonist whose ego is in the stratosphere, but it is the femme fatale that steals the show as Darcy uses men like puppets on a string. Mindful of the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity (based on a James M. Cain novel), sub-genre fans who enjoy twists in their police procedurals will appreciate this tense thriller as they wonder whether Cal will go through with the homicide-frame and if, yes, will justice fail.

Harriet Klausner