Review: Spinoza mystery #2 is a page-turner
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2011
This is a fast-paced mystery in J.R. Rain's Spinoza series. Spinoza needs to locate a dead body so that the DNA can be matched to her teen heir in order for him to inherit a fortune. Unfortunately, the body is missing from the coffin! Spinoza's investigation leads him to the creepiest places, one of which is inside the very empty coffin as he seeks clues to the body's disappearance. The flowing, clipped dialogue, the snazzy scene-and-sequel pacing of chapter openings and endings, the inevitable donut quest (necessary to solve most crimes, didn't you know?), and the Spinoza character unfolds even more as the mystery heats up, or should I say, chills down, with the search for the elusive body of Evelyn Drake. Spinoza uncovers some scary revelations during his investigation, assisted by a cameo from another detective of a connected mystery series. One of my favorite things in this short novel is the snappy dialogue, in the vein of old-school hard-boiled detective stories. And the ending is stellar, as always. A fast, fun read for a rainy night that will make you hungry for the next in the series. -- Eve Paludan, editor of Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My!