Trade - Off - Softcover

Maxine O'Callaghan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373261918 ISBN 13: 9780373261918

Publisher: Worldwide Library, 1996

Synopsis

Savvy California private investigator Delilah West is hired to find the teenage daughter of Benjamin Wylie, but things turn nasty when Delilah discovers the murdered body of Kate Sannerman, her client's neighbor. Reprint.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Another missing daughter in Orange County--how do any of those girls live long enough to have daughters of their own?--in a case that quickly turns nasty when PI Delilah West (Set-Up, 1991, etc.), leaving Benjamin Wylie's upscale home, trips over the corpse of his next-door neighbor, Kate Sannerman. Delilah's fears that Tamra Wylie's involved with the killing leave her impatient with the routine inquiries Wylie's authorized, and next thing you know, she's confiding in her dislikable police academy classmate Gary Hofer--and then getting her walking papers from Wylie. But she's not unemployed for long, since debt-ridden Robb Sannerman, who Hofer thinks killed his wife, hires her to help out in his defense. Back in the saddle again, Delilah is soon standing up to Wylie, bullying lesser suspects, threatening the police, and practicing with her new handgun while she waits for some sign of Tamra and her bad-news boyfriend Lee Gersky, who just may have been supplying Kate with blow. The mystery's too flat and unsurprising to provide serious competition to Kinsey Millhone, but no-nonsense Delilah turns in solid second-tier work. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Delilah West is a spunky California PI who calls for, and sustains, comparison to Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone. Hired by a wealthy Orange County lighting manufacturer to find his runaway teenage daughter, Delilah smells something putrid coming from the house next door. It's the battered remains of a woman, not the daughter, but a friend and neighbor who was also more than friendly with the missing girl's deadbeat boyfriend, who's also AWOL. The murder and the missing persons don't come together until Delilah, fired by her first employer and deciding to work for the murdered woman's husband, finds herself targeted by a truck in an isolated parking lot. Her discovery that drugs may link those missing and murdered also raises a prime crop of grungy young suspects. At the same time, Delilah works hard to resist the advances of a handsome local land developer and friend of her deceased husband. The resolution may be slightly too slick but the neatness fits the brisk characterization and smooth plotting.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Worldwide Library
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0373261918
• ISBN 13: 9780373261918
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 252