Splitting Heirs - Softcover

Hanson, Rick

3.05

40 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575663651 ISBN 13: 9781575663654

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1998

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Desperate for money, Adam McCleet is beside himself with joy when he learns that Graden Porcelli, the Salmon King of Oregon, has made him a beneficiary in his will, but there is one stipulation--unmask the heir that is a murderer in a month or lose out on the money, in a zany and hilarious mystery. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

The process server whom becalmed sculptor Adam McCleet has been avoiding isn't trying to repossess Adam's chattels; he's notifying him that he's due for a legacy under the terms of late salmon king Graden Porcelli's will. But the terms of the will- -Adam's due for equal shares with Porcelli's other six heirs if only he can get evidence that'll produce an indictment in an unsolved murder, victim and date unspecified--almost make Adam wish it had been a repo man on his doorstep. The sad fact is that the other six heirs--Porcelli's batty widow Amelia, his Tourette's-afflicted son Harrison, his dimwit nephew Sam, his quiet niece Tia, his salty old partner Tiger Jorgenson, and his veteran plant manager Whit Parkens--seem to have a very short shelf life, and as Adam's stake in the Porcelli fortune spurts up (it starts at $2.1 million and rises with each demise of his fellow-heirs), his chance of reaching payday approaches the vanishing point. Adam's only hope is to solve the 40-year-old murder of Porcelli's onetime benefactor Harold Mann--if Mann was murdered, if there's any evidence after all this time, if this is even the murder the salmon king had in mind. Meantime, Adam will have to contend with such minor setbacks as getting stuck with the Celebrity Hotel's Anthony Perkins room. Not as funny as Adam's first three cases (Still Life, 1996, etc.)--but the unaccustomed attention to the suspect heirs helps focus Hanson's bustling energy. -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

When Graden Porcelli, the salmon king of Oregon, dies, ex-cop and struggling sculptor Adam McCleet is summoned to a reading of the eccentric multimillionaire's will. Via posthumous videotape, Porcelli explains to the half-dozen heirs that there is a killer among them, and he's hiring Adam to find out who it is. If Adam reveals the killer in less than 30 days, he will receive an equal share of the $15 million estate. Doubling Adam's workload is the task of discovering who was killed and when. The fourth McCleet mystery is as funny and cleverly plotted as its predecessors, but it also reveals a dark side of Adam, who reacts violently when he encounters a hired killer who refuses to talk. The dialogue is sharp, the characters wonderfully eccentric, and the Pacific Northwest setting an effective backdrop. Wes Lukowsky

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