Randall Hicks Baby Crimes

Baby Crimes

Randall Hicks

Wordslinger, Aug 2007, $13.95

ISBN: 9780979443008

In San Diego County, thirty-three years old Toby Dillon enjoys being the assistant tennis pro at the affluent Coral Canyon Country Club where he also practices as an adoption lawyer, but his two professions never merged until now. Nevin and Catherine Handley, parents of his teenage tennis sensation Lynn, hire him to "clean" up a mess when his Human Minds Software was just taking off during the beginnings of the dot com boom. They arranged with their pregnant uninsured office assistant Melanie Dubravado to fake her name as if Catherine was carrying the child; after the birth they would take home their "natural" daughter and raise her. Someone is sending them letters warning them to tell the truth or else.

Toby figures that the couple defrauded the insurance company, falsified a birth certificate, abducted a child, and who knows what other crimes were involved. He agrees to work on legalizing the adoption sixteen years after the switch. However, the case takes a dangerous twist when someone murders Nevin while Toby's investigator Gil the gardener traces a money trail to the Cayman islands and Toscanaro the garbage king who is subsequently murdered too.

Filled with several other stunning but plausible spins beyond that described above, the second adoption legal thriller is an exciting tale that climaxes with a triple play twisters. Toby is terrific as he enjoys his two professions although that has alienated him with his parents especially his father. The whodunit is cleverly devised especially the second homicide while the audience will commiserate with the hero as he aces his way through a strange adoption case although a short "visit" with his late grandfather seems too metaphysical of a backhand for this fine thriller.

Harriet Klausner