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Josie Prescott is finally beginning to relax and enjoy the gala she’s hosting for the Portsmouth Women’s Guild. There’s lots of money in the room, people are bidding on the antiques, and the only thing missing is her boyfriend Ty. Ty is out in LA taking care of a very sick aunt. Josie knows about putting family first. She and her father were quite a team until he died, and she still pays attention to all the life lessons he taught her. Life is good – and we all know there is no decent mystery in that. One of women Josie has been working with on this gala is Maisy Gaylor, who is poisoned in front of the entire room. Detective Rowcliff is not altogether sure that Maisy was the intended victim. He thinks perhaps Josie was the target all along. During the investigation, one of the most expensive items at the silent auction is stolen. Rowcliff is not impressed with Josie’s security system and thinks perhaps she has stolen the tureen. Rowcliff has a way of pushing Josie’s buttons at every opportunity. Of course, she does tend to set herself up by doing things like speaking to that nasty reporter, Wes Smith. Her trusty lawyer Max continues to ride herd on her and he keeps her from spending her entire time with Rowcliff pulling her feet out of her mouth. Not an easy job, and she must pay him a small fortune. DEADLY APPRAISAL will delight those readers who enjoyed the first book in the series, CONSIGNED TO DEATH. Josie still has way too much angst about the stupidest things, but they aren’t out of line for her character. She tends to lead with her tongue, and not think things through as much as a woman of her age and training might be expected to do. How did she get to be such a success in New York with that kind of behavior? The plot is fine, the setting is fine and DEADLY APPRAISAL is a very good second mystery novel. The only thing I personally found objectionable was relatively minor, but it jerked me right out of the story every time it happened. Cleland has named one fairly major character and two minor characters after characters in Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series. The names will jump off the page for anyone familiar with the series. Nice homage, perhaps, but annoying and disruptive to the narrative flow.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, April 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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