Synopsis
When tough, sassy California P.I. Delilah West is hired to find a missing teenager, the apparently routine case becomes complicated by a slick, sexy land developer and a dead body in the yard next door
Reviews
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.
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.
Delilah West, Orange County's counterpart to Santa Teresa's Kinsey Milhone, returns in the fifth in the series. Her latest adventure is well up to speed. While contacts provided by highly attractive Erik Lundstrom have certainly helped business, Delilah still has her doubts about him. Fortunately, work keeps her from thinking too much about it. When wealthy resident Benjamin Wylie hires Delilah to find his missing daughter, she politely tries to refer him to the police, but he insists on privacy. Delilah takes the case--only to stumble across the corpse of the daughter's next-door neighbor. Thus, the plot thickens, especially when the daughter's boyfriend, suspected of drug dealing, also disappears. Fast-paced, well-plotted, and featuring a vivid picture of Southern California living, Delilah's latest caper belongs in the must-read category. Stuart Miller
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
