Immediate Prospect of Being Hanged

Patt Starbuck is an investigator for young, ambitious DA John Michael Keough. When a juicy murder takes place in the posh old town of Woodedge in Boston's suburbs, just as a seat in Congress may be opening up, John Michael takes the case himself and assigns Patt to run an investigation parallel to that of the local police, desperate for publicity and political advantage. It might be nice if they get the right guy, too. In a secondary thread, we are treated to the history (going back to 1640) and sociology of Woodedge, including the important families, the Chesleys and Pattersons. The victim, Rebecca Carpenter, found strangled in her Mercedes at a lovers' lane parking spot, is the last of the Chesleys, leaving a vast fortune of assets and land. Patt, himself, has an old familial relation -- his full first name is Patterson, and his father, obsessed with the wealth and social standing lost when the ancestor of their branch of the family had sold off his birthright in Woodedge, had been found shot in the woods near the town, a presumed suicide. So it is with both interest and trepidation that Patt delves into the rich slacker lives and tawdry affairs of the Woodedgers. Is it the buff and handsome yard boy who vanished the day of the murder, and may have been having an affair with Rebecca? Is it the golf-playing husband, eager for control of the full fortune, though he's wealthy in his own right? Is it Dodge Patterson, a distant cousin of Patt's and close friend of the Carpenters, who is also rumored to have had an affair with deceased? As Patt investigates who's been doing what, and who's been doing who, and alibis develop holes like a lace doily, and the DA's plotting and demands for a "good" (newsworthy, not necessarily guilty) suspect become shriller, and the women of both the office and the town treat Patt like a delicious chew toy, we are treated to a most satisfying read. I would not argue against a 5* rating for this one, but somehow it left me the slightest bit cold. Perhaps it's just that sometimes the descriptions are a bit too detailed, getting in the way of the salient facts and also obscuring occasional bits of nice, dry humor.