Hour Of The Knife - Softcover

Zukowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373261233 ISBN 13: 9780373261239

Publisher: Worldwide Library, 1993

Synopsis

While on vacation in lazy Dolphin Beach, New York private investigator Blaine Stewart finds an old friend's dead body in her car and is almost run out of town by a strangely hostile sheriff. Reprint.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Manhattan p.i. Blaine Stewart, following a two-and-a-half-year slide since her husband Jeff's murder, accommodates her law- partner/sister Eileen and heads for a Carolina coast vacation to get a grip on her life. But while in Dolphin Beach, she receives a frantic phone message from her college chum Amanda--who's murdered before she can return the call. A quick check reveals that Amanda's husband Boyd and their computer business, BAJ, were about to go under; also, the sheriff wants Blaine out of town fast; a cop with a clue for her is killed; and she's mugged, sniped at, threatened, and tortured--but pluckily holds on to two secret computer disks that Amanda had hidden for her. Furthermore, Dolphin Beach appears to be a major cocaine drop-site, and someone is leaning heavily on the insurance company to pay off five million on Amanda's life to Boyd. After a few arguments with her sister, Sheriff Price, and a handsome doctor, Blaine solves the murder but is so seriously wounded that she has a textbook-perfect near-death experience--from which husband Jeff sends her back (``You're not ready--it's not your time''). Irritating sibling squabbles, comic-book villains, and ineffective attempts at hard-boiled dialogue: clich‚-riddled debut. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers looking for a feisty and intelligent female detective will be thrilled with the heroine of Zukowski's sizzling debut. PI Blaine Stewart heads to a Carolina seaside town to do some business with college friend Amanda Johnson before beginning the vacation her older sister and business partner has ordered her to take. But instead of delivering a security report on BAJ, the corporation Amanda and her husband own, Blaine is faced with Amanda's murder. A brutal mugging doesn't deter Blaine from investigating; she also stumbles onto a drug ring but can't link it to Amanda's slaying. Then a sheriff's officer who has set up a secret meeting with her is fatally shot just before the rendezvous. Blaine is convinced that BAJ plays a role in both crimes, but the sheriff claims to have solved them: Amanda, he says, was murdered by a local retarded boy, the policeman killed in connection with drugs. Despite widespread pressure to go home, Blaine pursues her suspicions in the manner of stalwart sleuths everywhere. Zukowski's pacing is good and her characterizations superb.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Worldwide Library
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0373261233
• ISBN 13: 9780373261239
• Binding: Paperback