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DEATH DUTIES
by Janet LaPierre
Perseverance Press, September 2004
288 pages
$13.95
ISBN: 188028474X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

This is one slow burner of a book. A couple of times I was on the point of putting it aside, as it's more than halfway into the story before the action hots up and there's any hint of tension. But in the end I was glad I hung in there.

Janet LaPierre's over-riding strength is her convincing portrayal of small-town California. The plot revolves around the hunt for some anonymous telephone callers who levelled accusations of paedophilia against an businessman 30 years ago. He subsequently committed suicide and now his granddaughter wants to get to the bottom of what happened. So the stifling feel of a town where everyone knows everyone else's business is very much the fore.

DEATH DUTIES is several books into a series featuring Verity Mackeller and her mother Prudence, who run a PI business. It took me a while to get the back story straight from what's obviously gone on before, so you might want to root out the earlier books first.

Verity's not that appealing a character -- she seems angry and on edge for no apparent reason. It's a problem at the start when Chris Larsen, an old schoolfriend, asks for her help -- Verity is irritable and abrupt before hearing what the case is, and it seems an odd way to treat someone she admits she liked. And why on earth is she working in a kitchen when she has all this money on the way from the sale of her house? She's also incredibly forgiving when Ronnie sacks her from this pretty mundane job. LaPierre, I felt, could have been a bit more generous to the reader when it came to fleshing out her main protagonist.

Prudence, on the other hand, is a much more interesting and rewarding character, but very little of the book is told from her point of view. She's calm and no-nonsense, and I would have liked to have seen more of her.

There's a good supporting cast -- I particularly liked Sylvie, Verity's sort of adopted daughter, and Jake the enigmatic and reclusive ex-cop. The baddies don't fare so well, so you'll probably guess whodunit, thanks to some fairly sketchy characterisation. But the book is an acceptable one to while away an afternoon with, particularly if you like a writer who can provide a strong sense of place.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, September 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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