REMEMBER ME, IRENE: An Irene Kelly Mystery - Hardcover

Burke, Jan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684803437 ISBN 13: 9780684803432

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1996

Synopsis

Investigating the murder of an old college teaching assistant, Irene Kelly and her detective husband Frank discover that the victim had an old score to settle with some of the area's most powerful citizens

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Reviews

Newly married Southern California newspaper reporter Irene Kelly (seen before in Dear Irene, etc.) doesn't immediately recognize the bum on the bus stop bench who says he knows her. A few weeks later, meeting with some old friends, she learns that he was Lucas Monroe, her statistics teacher in college. That same night, she drives a friend home to find the woman's wealthy husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. The next day, the longtime Las Piernas city manager resigns, refusing to give a reason. While tracking that story, Irene hears that a closed circle of the city's rich and powerful men will convene in secret at a local restaurant. Dragging along her homicide detective husband, Irene crashes the rendezvous and is there when one of the men has a heart attack. She then discovers that each of the men at the meeting has been visited by Lucas and presented with a copy of a photograph. Tracing the connections among the city bigwigs, Lucas and the photograph, gutsy Irene gets to the bottom of a mystery that takes on the tangled history of a city's development. Burke is in top form here. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Old masters of the classic mystery knew how an enigmatic central character can focus tension and raise the stakes. But Las Piernas News-Express reporter Irene Kelly's latest adventure features a cast of nothing but such enigmas. There's Lucas Monroe, Irene's old sociology teacher, now a street-person who, unrecognized, stumbles across her just days before his sad death in an abandoned high-rise; Dr. Andre Selman, the brilliant sociologist who got Lucas dismissed for cheating and Irene seduced into membership in the ranks of the SOS (``Survivors of Selman''); Nadine Preston, the grad student who's been missing ever since Lucas's fall from grace back in 1977; Allan Moffett, the Las Piernas city manager who seems to be retiring one step ahead of the lynch mob; and John Jones, a.k.a. Two Toes, the homeless schizophrenic who's appointed himself Irene's guardian angel. All of them are obviously tied to a long-standing land fraud scheme and a rash of suicides. But with the corruption spread as thick as molasses, it's hard to care which of these prize petunias is finally going to end up taking the fall. Too much of a good thing in Irene's fourth case (Dear Irene, 1995, etc.)--a big, ambitious novel that sinks under the weight of its evil cargo. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Burke's Irene Kelly series just keeps getting better. Her latest has the smart, sassy news reporter married to her longtime lover, cop Frank Harriman. One day at a bus stop, Irene has a disturbing encounter with a homeless wino, only later discovering that the man, Lucas, was once her close friend, a gifted statistician who managed to get even the math-impaired Irene excited about numbers. Lucas has obviously fallen on hard times, so when Irene gets a cryptic message asking her to meet him, she's curious to learn more. But when she goes to the rendezvous, she discovers his dead body--and opens a Pandora's box of troubles. Delving into Lucas' murky past, Irene learns that he was the innocent victim of a plot involving a corrupt land-redevelopment scheme. Determined to clear Lucas' name, Irene launches her own no-holds-barred investigation. Exciting action, clever dialogue, solid writing, and a smart, likable heroine produce a well-deserved thumbs-up. Emily Melton

The inimitable Irene Kelly returns, this time as the wife of detective Frank Harriman. Irene receives an urgent summons from an old college teaching assistant but when she arrives, someone has killed him. As she seeks the truth, more dead bodies appear. A welcome and inviting read.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684803437
• ISBN 13: 9780684803432
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304