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DEAD LIFT
by Rachel Brady
Poisoned Pen Press, December 2010
250 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 159058810X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Emily Locke visits Claire Gaston in jail, where she is awaiting trial for the murder of a prominent cosmetic surgeon, as part of her investigative work for Richard Cole, who is her boss and friend. Cole is working for the law firm that defended the people who kidnapped Emily's daughter and killed her husband. Cole neglects to mention this to Emily when he puts her on the Gaston case. Emily is, quite understandably, upset. Her connection with Claire, a connection difficult to explain, overrides her revulsion for the law firm and the lawyer in charge of Claire's case.

Jeannie, Emily's childhood friend, is in town; she proves to be quite helpful to Emily in this investigation. Claire lived an upscale life, and Jeannie blends in far more easily than Emily ever could. Jeannie is able to get Emily into places, social milieus that would be closed to Emily otherwise.

Claire is not the most helpful client. She answers questions, sometimes, but the answers are not always complete and don't serve Emily well in terms of finding out what really happened to Wendell Platt. It's unclear to Emily whether Claire is assuming that Emily knows more than she does, particularly about the level of society involved, or if she just doesn't understand how unhelpful she is being. Either way, Emily finds herself going down one blind alley after another.

Brady is good at creating characters. Emily's daughter is a peripheral character, really. Brady conveys Emily's fear of losing her again by being overbearing, her awareness of the loss Emily's other "parents" must be feeling, and her internal battles to let go so she can get back this daughter; she does this without beating the reader over the head with all the tensions. Brady is also quite good at taking the reader down one path, toward one goal, all the while directing the plot toward an entirely different and seemingly unrelated goal. The crime at the heart of DEAD LIFT is scary, particularly to those with vulnerable family. Her skill at presenting this crime in the context she does is amazing.

§ P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, November 2010

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