Retribution

So far this is the only series I have read by this author. The characters are well developed and the story line moves along. I am a little familiar with the Sarasota area, so that does make the book more interesting to me. The books are perfect for a hot afternoon in the air conditioning. Although they stand alone, it is better to read the series.

Having read all the Toby Peters books, thought I'd give this a try. It's a good read that holds one's interest, even if the characters are not likeable. Lew is tiresome with his depression. I wanted Adele arrested. That author had no duty to protect her; don't know if Florida law requires one to report what happened to her, but this author was very stupid. What celebrity would allow a young girl in his home and what kind of foster mother would stay in the car outside? If the reader can get over the unlikeable characters, which anyone who reads Robert Parker has to do, then I recommend this book. Was going to give 4 stars, but Mildred Pierce is my favorite movie too.

Kaminsky's books always get under my skin, even when I pick them up at the worst times - when I'm half-awake, feeling distracted or just not prepared to lose myself in a good book. Even so, I usually can't put down a Kaminsky novel until the very last page. This time around, Lew Fonseca, a detective who's appeared in other Kaminsky novels, is trying to find out what happened to a young runaway named Adele. She is somehow connected to a very solitary and eccentric bestselling author and the loss of some valuable manuscripts. The mystery in this one will certainly hold your interest but equally compelling is Kaminsky's style. His books are lean and taut, with no wasted words or "padding" to lessen the drama and suspense...yet somehow he manages to create complex, believable characters and compelling mysteries as well. I'm always amazed at how well he pulls it off, book after book. With books costing as much as they do (the paperback edition of this one set me back 6.99) you might as well spend your money on a book written by a writer who is this good. Then, of course, you're going to want to buy more of his books...but trust me, it'll be worth it.

Five years ago, Lew Fonesca lost his wife Catherine in a terrible auto accident. The event all but ended his life. Lost and dead inside, he drove to Sarasota, Florida because there was really no other place to go. When the car died in front of a Dairy Queen, he stopped. But he didn't start living again. Instead, he started building himself a cocoon that isolated him from the rest of the world. Trained as an investigator for the state's attorney office in Cook County, Fonesca sets up shop as a process server, establishing just enough money to keep a roof over his head and provide the extravagance of buying videotapes of old movies. Despite his efforts to cut himself off, the world has a way of reaching out to him and dragging him back. Finding people professionally has a tendency to do that, and Ann Horowitz, his counselor, says that by choosing that line of work he's also choosing to find himself-even if he won't admit it. Still smarting from a slap from a Bubbles Dreemer, a woman he had to serve a summons to earlier in the day, Fonesca is approached by Marvin Uliaks, a local handyman that Fonesca know because Marvin cleans the bathroom once a week in the complex where he keeps his office. Marvin hires Fonesca to look for his sister Vera Lynn, who has been missing for over twenty years. She and her husband disappeared after the suspicious death of another young woman all of them knew. Some said that the woman jumped through a window and committed suicide; others insisted that Vera Lynn or her husband threw her out. Marvin doesn't tell Fonesca any of this in the beginning. At the same time, Flo Zink, one of the small list of friends Fonesca has, calls to let him know Adele, a girl that Fonesca rescued only a few short months ago, has disappeared. Prior to vanishing, Adele had been working with Conrad Lonsberg, a reclusive award-winning novelist, on her writing. Flo is currently sixteen-year old Adele's guardian, appointed by the state of Florida. Sally Porovsky, Fonesca's dating acquaintance, is also Adele's caseworker, so Fonesca ends up caught between Flo and Sally, trying to figure out how to get Adele to come back home. Fonesca takes up both trails with Ames McKinney, a seventy-five year old maverick cowboy with a penchant for action instead of dialogue and an arsenal large enough to defend a Third World country. The trail turns bloody from the onset. While Adele remains in hiding and burning the only copies there are of Conrad Lonsberg's unpublished manuscripts, which are potentially worth millions of dollars, someone begins looking for her, leaving a trail of bodies behind.Prolific mystery writer Stuart Kaminsky currently has four mystery series underway and adds new volumes to each. He began his writing career in 1977 with A BULLET FOR A STAR, the first Toby Peters mystery. The Peters mystery series currently has 22 volumes, is set in 1940s Hollywood (Kaminsky was also a film historian and college professor), and alway

Retribution is a classic mystery novel that is well written and well told. The details fit, the questions are answered, and the story moves. Lew Fonesca, a "bumbling competent" unlicensed private investigator, gets his man and affects everyone's life but his own. He is making progress, however, because it is when we help others that we help ourselves. This is an enjoyable book.