October 26, 2017
This book was recommended to me by a longtime friend. I trusted her judgment when she told me I would enjoy this author and book. Elena Hartwell captured my attention with One Dead, Two to Go. This is the first book in a series featuring a Jewish (but not practicing) private investigator in Bellingham in the northwest corner of the state of Washington in the United States.“Eddie Shoes” was born Edwina Schultz in Spokane Washington. Her mother Chava was a teenager when Eddie was born. Her father Eduardo Zapata deserted his family before Eddie’s birth. In her late teens, Eddie leaves her Mom and sees her irregularly thereafter. Her father is not in her life at all.
As the story opens, Eddie is a self-employed P.I. in Bellingham, on her own since the suicide of her Seattle based mentor a couple of years earlier. Her cases are relatively simple – she specializes in divorce related opportunities. While on a case involving a male owner of a Chevrolet car dealership, she sees him leave a seedy hotel with a woman, Deirdre, who is not his wife. Good news for Eddie, bad news for her client, Kendra, the wife. The next day, the Deirdre is found dead and stuffed behind a wall in a deserted building.
Eddie feels guilty because she may have been the last one to see her alive. Kendra keeps showing up in Eddie’s life for several days and is always in tears. As the story unfolds, Eddie realizes all is not what it appears to be. Her mother, Chava, shows up looking like she had been beaten up. Then her long lost father enters the picture as a Mafioso from Las Vegas, Nevada. An incredible story of money laundering and a financial scam then unfolds. To complicate matters even more, Eddie’s former “boyfriend” shows up in Bellingham as the new homicide detective for the Bellingham police and he is the investigator in Deirdre’s death. Most of the violence is off-screen except for the final three way shootout that is more Keystone Cops than Dirty Harry.
Mystery readers can rejoice at this newcomer to this genre. Hartwell is a terrific new voice in the detective novel category whom I plan to follow. If you like Janet Evanovich, you will find this author worth reading.
GO! BUY! READ!
–Jim Harris, retired book sales rep
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Hi Jim,
Somehow I missed this when you posted. What a lovely write up – thank you!