A Slash of Scarlet - Softcover

Nancy Baker Jacobs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671865048 ISBN 13: 9780671865047

Publisher: Pocket, 1993

Synopsis

A month of shopping days 'til Christmas, and Twin Cities' private eye Devon MacDonald, a woman as intrepid as she is intelligent, has a hard case of the holiday blues. But her latest investigation may be just what the doctor ordered--a chance to give middle-aged gigolo Brentwood J. Peters a taste of his own medicine.

The victims of Brentwood's romantic con game have asked Devon to help recover their money, and she's uniquely qualified to answer the call, knowing from experience what it's like to be betrayed and played for a sucker by the man you love. Her husband waltzed out of her life three years ago, and now he's looking to cut back in. Healing old wounds is never easy, but catching Peters with his pants down promises to take the edge off the pain.

From Minneapolis to Monterey, Devon follows a trail of bitter women and cleaned-out bank accounts. Posing as a wealthy young widow, she hopes to lure Peters into a trap. But the seduction quickly turns sour, leaving her with two dead bodies and a damning body of evidence ... pointing not only at her vengeful clients but at her own husband. It's a case of deceptively simple arithmetic: greed, jealousy, and revenge all add up to one of the more powerful desires of all time--a passion for murder.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Baker Jacobs is the award-winning author of 13 crime novels, including the Devon MacDonald private eye series; FLASH POINT (featuring arson investigator Susan Delancey) and STAR STRUCK (introducing "Hollywood Star" reporter Quinn Collins), both first installments in new mystery series, STAR SEARCH (a Quinn Collins novella); and seven suspense novels. Her latest suspense offering, RICOCHET, was chosen by the Mystery Writers of America as a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award.
As Nancy C. Baker, she's also written six nonfiction books on subjects ranging from black market adoption to breast cancer.
Nancy Baker Jacobs has worked as a private detective, a university professor and administrator, and a journalist. She lives on California's Monterey Peninsula.

From Publishers Weekly

St. Paul private eye Devon MacDonald follows her debut in The Turquoise Tattoo with this ingeniously plotted case. When two women show up in her office claiming to have been romanced and then bilked by the same con man--one Brentwood J. Peters--Devon's feminist outrage fuels her professional curiosity, and before long she has tracked down yet a third victim. Using clues drawn from phone records, charge-card statements and canceled checks, the feisty gumshoe picks up Peters's scent in a wealthy Monterey, Calif., neighborhood and heads west to set a trap for him, advising her clients to be ready to follow when she calls. Passing herself off as a prospective buyer of property on his street, Devon quickly establishes a relationship with Peters remarkably like the ones her clients have described. Her plan to lure him to a romantic cabin-in-the-woods getaway and there confront him with his three victims backfires horribly when someone slits his throat. Before she can determine the murderer's identity, Devon turns up still more victims of the con man whose misogynistic behavior gave the novel's women such good cause to welcome his downfall.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0671865048
• ISBN 13: 9780671865047
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256