Nancy Martin - Sticky Fingers

Sticky Fingers

Nancy Martin

Minotaur, Mar 29 2011, $24.99

ISBN 9780312573737

Through his intermediary, naive attorney Marvin Weiss, incarcerated gangster Uncle Carmine asks his niece Roxy Abruzzo to kidnap her former high school classmate museum curator Clarice Crabtree. Roxy declines to abduct the snotty snob. Though she does odd jobs for her behind bars mob boss relative to pay her bills, the architectural salvage consultant prefers to stay out of jail as a snatch is a felon; besides Roxy is raising her daughter Sage who is entering college soon.

A few days after her declination, Pittsburgh Police Detective Bug Duffy escorts Roxy to a homicide scene. A corpse has been fished out of the Ohio. She identifies the victim as Clarice. Unable to resist, Roxy investigates as she assumes her uncle hired someone else to take care of Crabtree. Having her back is kindhearted man-mountain Nooch Santonucci and Rooney the dog.

Containing her sex addiction while trying to be a model for Sage and struggling with how to deal with the father of her daughter chef Patrick Flynn as well as her mob-infested family, Foxy Roxy makes for a zany Pittsburgh crime thriller. The unusual story line is fast-paced from the moment Weiss offers Roxy employment and though over the top of The Point, fans will relish the second Abruzzo amateur sleuth (see Our Lady of Immaculate Deception) as nothing seems to go right for the foxy heroine.

Harriet Klausner