Susan Kandel, Shamus in the Green Room: A Cece Caruso Mystery

Shamus in the Green Room: A Cece Caruso Mystery

Susan Kandel

Morrow, June 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0060581093

Mystery author biographer and noted fashion plate Cece Caruso is providing consulting services to the In the Green Room movie production company filming her work Dash! The star, Hollywood hunk Rafe Simic looks great, and would make a dashing Dashiell Hammett, or for that matter Sam Spade, but the sexy actor refuses to read her book or any of the great late author's works, as he prefers surfing the waves. To help Rafe taste the part, Cece agrees to escort him on a tour of Hammett's San Francisco.

Not long after they arrive in San Francisco, the Los Angeles Coroner's Office asks Rafe to come home to identify a corpse of a woman who has his card on her. He says the deceased is his former girlfriend Maren Levander, and sister of his best friend and manager. With Rafe a person of interest, Cece investigates what the police suspect is a homicide made to look like a suicide, over the objection of fianc , police detective Peter Gambino.

Cece remains a refreshing protagonist who cherishes deceased mystery writers, and cannot help but get involved in clearing up ambiguities in their lives (see I DREAMED I MARRIED PERRY MASON and NOT A GIRL DETECTIVE), and landing in a modern whodunit. On top of a fine amateur sleuth investigation, Cece has personal disputes with her adult daughter and Peter. When the author tosses in Hammett to a superb tale, it leads to readers admiring Susan Kandel's amazing talent.