Jane Tesh, Hard Bargain

Hard Bargain

Jane Tesh

Poisoned Pen Press, January 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 159058354X

In Celosia, North Carolina, former beauty queen Madeline "Mac" Maclin continues her efforts to make a living as a private investigator, buoyed by her recent solving of a murder case (see CASE OF IMAGINATION). One of her cases is personal, as she hopes to prove to her beloved room-mate Jerry Fairweather that he is not at fault for the deaths of his parents in a fire over twenty years ago; in fact, she thinks his sister is the culprit, or knows more than she is letting on about the deadly inferno.

Mac's other two cases are professional. She searches for inventor Kirby Willet, who vanished without a trace, but not before he hid a large cache of money. Her other investigation involves the poison death of director Josh Gaskin at a horror film shooting at a "bat" house inherited by Jerry from his late uncle. However, as she finds a wealth of suspects in the Gaskin homicide, Mac begins to see ties to her other investigations, but doubts the puzzles could mesh so well together.

Though difficult to keep score of the support cast, as Mac is fully employed with her three cases, she is a delightful protagonist who holds the several subplots together, and in fact brings them into a cohesive private investigative thriller. Readers will enjoy the former beauty queen's laments about no respect for her brain, which contrary to popular opinion is four-times her bra size. The inquiries are cleverly designed to bring out the best and worst traits of the heroine.