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Summary
Summary
Holland Taylor is a PI who does simple background checks and other mostly unchallenging cases. Still wounded by the long-ago death of his wife and daughter, and newly mourning a recently failed relationship, Taylor doesn't have much interest in more challenging work. But almost by accident, he finds himself in the middle of the crime of the century. Eleanor Barrington, the doyenne of a socially prominent family of great wealth, has been arrested for the murder of young woman. Emily Denys, the young woman, was her son's fiancé and Barrington made no secret of her disdain for the victim, convinced that she was trying to take advantage of her son and her family. Holland Taylor had been brought in to do a full background check on Emily, only to discover that her name and her background were all fabricated. Before he could learn more, she was murdered--shot in the head outside her apartment. Barrington had been overheard threatening to kill her son's fiancé and an eyewitness claims to have seen her kill Emily. But that's not the worst of it. Barrington's own son has even worse accusations to make against her. Caught in the dark tangle of a twisted family and haunted by his own past, Taylor finds that the truth is both elusive and dangerous.
Author Notes
Former newspaper reporter David Housewright left his job to pursue a full-time career in detective fiction writing. Housewright then introduced Holland Taylor, his recurrent main character in his books Penance and Practice to Deceive. He won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel and a Shamus Award for Best P. I. Novel for his writing in Penance.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Edgar-winner Housewright's welcome fourth outing for St. Paul, Minn., PI Holland Taylor, last seen in 1999's Dearly Departed, Holland tries to clear wealthy client Eleanor Barrington of fatally shooting Emily Denys, who was dating her son, Joel. The evidence is against Eleanor: she threatened to kill Emily, who was struck by a bullet from a nine-millimeter handgun, a weapon that Eleanor purchased years before, though it's now missing. Complications follow. Joel accuses his mother of the murder and of sexually abusing him; a neighbor claims that she saw Eleanor shoot Emily in the head; and the identity of the victim, whose past is shrouded in mystery, comes into question. A connection between Emily's murder and that of the mayor of Arona, Wis., puts Holland on a trail that involves a fracking company and a group of right-wing extremists. Meanwhile, Holland has to deal with Devon, Eleanor's volatile 16-year-old daughter, who seems to have a crush on him. The knots are many and messy, and Holland shows he has the wit and character to untangle them. Agent: Alison Picard, Alison J. Picard Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An impossible assignment leads Twin Cities shamus Holland Taylor, who's been sidelined ever since Dearly Departed (1999), to an even more combustible case in the past.Hired by socialite widow Eleanor Barrington's pet attorney, David Helin, to check out the bona fides of Emily Denys, her son's gold-hunting girlfriend, Taylor has barely had time to discover that her name isn't really Emily Denys when the case is propelled into more explosive territory by the fatal shooting of the subject. Now Taylor's supposed to find evidence that will exonerate his imperious clienta tall order given that Joel Barrington is certain that his mother killed his girl and that Emily's neighbor Alexandra Campbell actually saw her pull the trigger. The case seems hopeless until Taylor's friend and ex-partner, St. Paul Police Department Assistant Chief Anne Scalasi, tells him that the bullet fired from the missing murder weapon shows the same marks as the one that killed Todd Franson, the mayor of Arona, Wisconsin, a year ago. Naturally Taylor hikes out to Arona, which is gratifyingly populated with citizens who hated Franson because of his anti-environmental scams, his quarrels with the local cops, and his sex life. But what does this bumper crop of suspects in another state have to do with the death of Emily Denys, whoever she was?Housewright (Unidentified Woman #15, 2015, etc.) resurrects an appealingly troubled, self-tormenting hero who assures himself, "you're the most pathetic human being alive," even as he's dodging bullets, decking assailants, making nice to his neighbor's 11-year-old daughter, and coming up with a solution as dark as the mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After a nearly 20-year absence, Twin Cities private investigator Holland Taylor returns in a new novel. Set shortly after the third book in the series (Dearly Departed, 1999), the tale finds Taylor investigating the murder of a woman who didn't exist. The wealthy Eleanor Barrington had hired Taylor to do a little digging into her son's fiancée, Emily. Taylor discovered that Emily apparently was an assumed identity, but the girl was murdered before he could dig much deeper. Eleanor Barrington was accused of the crime, and, for many residents of the Twin Cities, if a member of the hated Barrington family were to be put away for murder, it would be just fine with them. But Taylor isn't so sure Eleanor is guilty. It can be tricky when a writer revisits a character after such a long time, but Housewright jumps right back into Taylor's world as though no time has passed; even his writing style feels the same as it did, which is no mean feat when you think of how much a writer's style can evolve over the course of two decades. Fans of the first three Taylor novels who have been longing for a fourth will be in seventh heaven, and this is also a perfect occasion for new readers to make the acquaintance of a smart, tough PI in the grand hard-boiled tradition.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist