Tori Carrington, Foul Play

Foul Play

Tori Carrington

Forge, June 2007, $23.95, 317 pp.

ISBN 0765317435

Sophie Metropolis is a private detective in her uncle's agency who lives and works in Astoria, Queens. She is close to her family and is trying to figure out how to make her ex-fianc Thomas stop from pressing charges against Grandfather Kosmos. He assaulted him after learning that the diamond he gave him for Sophie's engagement ring was switched with a cubic zirconium. Sophie's friend, the owner of a restaurant, is under threat of being sued because a customer eating there found an ear in her soup.

The agency is getting a lot of missing pet cases and the manager thinks Sophie should investigate because the numbers are suspicious. The case that interests Sophie is the one involving Mets pitcher Reni Venezuela. His wife wants Sophie to follow him because he his had a dramatic change in his personality in the past two weeks. After following him quite a few times she is caught by his security detail and has to keep borrowing cases from friends if she wants to stay on the case. A reporter who is working on a story concerning Reni ends up beaten and taken to the hospital and Sophie is almost killed.

Readers who love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels will thoroughly enjoy Sophie's escapades as the heroine is an adorable and unique person who deals better with her professional life than she does with her personal one. She even rejects an Adonis looking Greek god who adores her because she is afraid of getting hurt. Tori Carrington captures the ambiance of a Queens' neighborhood to perfection while the mystery is well plotted with a surprise twist that readers won't see coming.

Harriet Klausner