Medusa: A Pacific Northwest Mystery

Wow. Talk about action. Every scene crackles with energy, and impending or actual disaster, so much so that the novel threatens to implode under its own ambition, but it never does. Give Moody credit. A lesser writer wouldn't have been able to handle a tenth of the plot elements in the book. But as it stands, Medusa is three hundred-twenty-five of the fastest pages you might ever read.Medusa is filled with excitement, pathos, and humor. More thriller than whodunnit, it's the best book yet in the series, though it's probably not the best place to start. I think the book (and the deaths of some characters) might lose some impact if you're not already familiar with the characters.Thank you, Ms. Moody, for another fine effort.

In Elliot Bay, twelve-year old Tim Diamond and his two friends and next door neighbors, Henry and Pearl are playing pirates on the family yacht, the Caprice. The next thing anyone knows is nine-year-old Pearl is missing and presumed drowned. Henry swears that he saw Tim tie her up, push her in, jump into the water and hold her head under until she was dead. On the basis of Henry's testimony, Tim is arrested and though he is out of jail, he is wearing an electronic bracelet.Tim's brother Bart calls Venus in Hawaii and begs her to come home to figure out what is happening. Venus, an undercover agent with the United States Fish and Wildlife agency, uses her police powers to horn in on the local investigation. The further she digs, the more she learns that her brother's story about a giant jelly fish taking Pearl away is true and the players in the game are some of her old enemies in the Russian Mafia. Much blood will be shed and many lives will be lost when the authorities try to bring all the guilty parties to justice.MEDUSA is a fascinating crime thriller with plenty of action, a touch of romance and some family humor to keep the tension levels at a certain level. The heroine risks her own life and freedom to make certain the guilty parties pay for what they did to her family. She is feisty and courageous protagonist and readers will adore. There are many sub-plots that tie back to the central theme of innocent children who trust the wrong people and pay the price.Harriet Klausner