Practice to Deceive (Holland Taylor Mystery) - Hardcover

Housewright, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881504041 ISBN 13: 9780881504040

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997

Synopsis

St. Paul investigator Holland Taylor finds himself pursued by a hired killer when he tries to recover money for an elderly woman cheated out of her life savings and must untangle a complicated web involving prominent people and large investments.

About this title

About the Author

David Housewright lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Reviews

When you're in business to bilk sweet old widows out of their life savings, you deserve whatever happens to you. So when St. Paul shamus Holland Taylor's parents ask him to go after the $287,000 that trusting Irene Gustafson gave to investments counselor Levering Field, and when Field and his smiling attorney Monica Adler tell Taylor that Mrs. Gustafson will be dead long before a court ever orders him to pay her a penny--and besides, he's prudently placed all his assets in his teenaged daughter's name--he figures he's well within his rights in ruining Field's life. And that's what he and his cross-dressing computer-expert friend Steve (a.k.a. Sara) VanderTop set out to do. Some of their harassments are ingenious, others merely satisfyingly petty, but soon they've got Field crying uncle. Sadly, that's practically the last thing he does cry before Taylor, followed closely by the cops, stumbles over his dead body. Homicide chief Lt. Anne Scalasi turns Taylor loose when he can prove an alibi, but his troubles are just beginning. For one thing, somebody's shooting at him, too--and with the same .32 that killed Field; for another, he's getting a double dose of all the dirty tricks, from unwanted pizza deliveries to threatening phone calls, that he pulled on Field. With Field dead, who could be looking for revenge? And who could possibly want both Field and Taylor dead? Housewright follows up his Edgar-winning debut (Penance, 1995) with a greased-lightning tale of scam and counterscam that's still bubbling merrily when the fat lady sings. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881504041
• ISBN 13: 9780881504040
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 287