It's Raining Men: An Emma Price Mystery

Rand, author of Stealing for a Living and The One that Got Away, is back with another riveting Emma Price mystery. Price is an investigator with the New York Capitol Crimes unit, mother of two, and the girlfriend of a New York cop. Opening with Emma waking up in a hospital after a beating (her kids are visiting their father and his new wife in California), the story gets seriously scary quickly. She had been called late at night to meet her boss and good friend Dawn Prescott on a street corner. Once there she is accosted and kidnapped by two strange men who take her to an abandoned pier. They think she is Dawn. Emma is able to distract them long enough to dive in the water and get away. Later Dawn's body is discovered in a hotel room with the body of one of the men who kidnapped Emma. Dawn was working on the case of Arthur Nevins, in prison and on death row for over eight years for the murders of his wife, their daughter, and his wife's aunt and uncle. He claims his confession was extracted by threats of violence. A new expensive attorney is taking on his case, Jason Samuels, who can get anyone off. Samuels will not talk to Emma about why he is spreading tales of Dawn's incompetence, and he has ties to Gregory Chavitz, a film director who has been working with Emma's ex-husband Will, a film editor. Her son provides the tiny clue that allows her to make the connection that breaks the case. Emma is a mother--dealing with all the problems of a teenager and a two-year old--and also a tenacious investigator. Armchair Interviews says: You won't be able to put this one down.

When Emma Price, the lead investigator for the New York Capital Crimes division, comes to in hospital, after having been abducted and badly beaten she doesn't remember what happened or who did it. However, some of her memory gradually comes back and when she learns that her best friend Dawn Prescott, who is also her boss has been murdered, she works extra hard to remember everything that lead up to the attack that put her in hospital and she recalls that Dawn had called her, wanting to give her some important information, but she does not know what it is or what it's about. However, she believe Dawn's death is the result of a case they had been working on together and she's determined to figure it all out, no matter what the danger and there is that a plenty. Add to the mix that her fourteen-year-old son is having sex and her ex doesn't care, along with the fact that a case she'd been very involved with and concerned about has been taken away from her and you have Emma confronted on all sides with problems about to spin out of control in this dark and violent novel. But dark is good in a mystery and violence in New York today is all too real, as is this book that is oh so sublime. Reviewed by Sara Hackett, who just adore's her husband Jack Priest's books Ragged Man, Gecko & Night Witch.

I acquired this book for my personal library once I saw it recommended by Publishers Weekly, whose staff seems to have a psychic bead on just the type of nook I most enjoy. IT'S RAINING MEN, like the famous disco song by THE WEATHER GIRLS, tells of a mental and emotional landscape racked by tears, loss, frustration and sudden death. As THE WEATHER GIRLS told the age old tale, it never rains but it pours, and as Naomi Rand proves once again, Emma Price will never grow too old to be showered by emotionally unavailable men. Men who abuse her, who use her, who take her for granted, and indeed men who would like to kill her. The violence level is quite high, but that's to be expected in the third case involving 40ish Emma Price. Now she finds out that little Liam, her son, is having sex at age fourteen and when Will finds out (Will being the moviemaking former husband of detective Emma) he just laughs it off. Then, disturbingly enough, Laurence's son starts having feelings of hatred for Emma. How will the two families ever blend together with so much macho ignorance going on? As the book begins, thugs attack Emma and beat her nearly to death. Much of the remainder of the book she spends trying to heal herself inside and out and also to deal with the dishesrtening death of the one woman, Dawn Prescott, who understood and mentored her. I would say that if you lived in Merrick, Long Island, you might not appreciate the picture that Rand paints of your suburban getaway, but outsiders will smirk and be glad at least they don't have to live there. There are few surprises here, just a grim realism reminiscent of Dreiser or the fellow who wrote LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN.

I've read all the Emma Price series, and they just keep getting better. This one is sensational. Naomi Rand is a literate writer who spins a story but never loses sight of the fact that she's writing about real people in dire situations. Emma is a three dimensional character, and one of the bonuses in these books are the kids -- Rand writes children and motherhood like no one else...and there it is, right in the middle of a gritty, noir-ish tale. The story is fast-paced and believable, and she aces those New York settings.

IT'S RAINING MEN is the third in Naomi Rand's popular Emma Price mystery series that began with THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY and STEALING FOR A LIVING. Emma Price is an investigator with the New York Capital Crimes Unit and the mother of two children: Liam, age 14, and two-year-old Katie. Though her work is stressful and frenzied, she gets little help from her philandering ex-husband, Will. He has a new wife, new children and a new mistress, so when Emma discovers that 14-year-old Liam is sexually active, Will gives him an "atta boy" and Emma concludes that men are indeed from Mars. The positive side of her personal life is her boyfriend, Detective Sgt. Laurence Solomon, who goes above and beyond to make her life a little easier. While Emma's personal life is deftly woven into the story, it is definitely background for a noir tale that has it "raining men." For the most part, not very nice men --- starting with the men who attack her as the story opens, to the one who kills her boss in an apparent crime of passion; from the convicted murderer on death row whose appeal she is working on to the high-priced criminal attorney who snatches the case away from her. As she diligently traces each clue, she begins to uncover the ugly truth. The link between Dawn Prescott's death in a seedy motel room and the murdered family of Arthur Nevins becomes apparent as Emma discovers the connection among seemingly unrelated people: an ex-lover of Dawn's, a retired cop turned private eye, a powerful producer who had an affair with the murdered wife, and a police lieutenant who epitomizes the image of bad cops. Emma presses on despite threats from powerful, angry adversaries who have already killed to cover up their crimes. Despite an uneven opening that seems more complicated than it needs to be, Naomi Rand capably handles this intricate story. For a change of pace from the cozy reads associated with many female adventures, it's not too late to catch up on this series and get to know Emma Price. (...)