Debbi Mack

The original collection had 5 stories thus the title. When it was reissued, Debbi Mack added a 6th story as a bonus but did not change the title thus creating yet another book where mathematics works in a weird way.

"Deadly Detour" is a detective story with the protagonist trying to be too witty and ending up caught into a sticky situation. The end was somewhat predictable but it was a nice twist anyway.

"The Right to Remain Silent" introduces us to a prosecutor who wins a case but for some reason his consciousness does not allow him to stop digging. As expected nothing is as it seems and the final twist turns the story on its head.

In "A Woman Who Thinks", a psychiatrist gets a bit too obsessed with a new patient after some similarities to an old case start emerging. Of course, everyone does have a separate agenda in the tale so things don't go very well for Dr. Fein at the end.

"The People Next Door" is a short story about a neighbor who is too curious about her neighbors - while having her own secrets. It kinda works because it is short although it almost telegraphs its twist from the start.

"Sympathy for the Devil" - an innocent and a naive wife, her best friend, a supposedly cheating husband, a seedy detective. Figuring out who tells the truth is not the easiest thing for anyone in that story. The wife was a bit too naive even for fiction - which was needed for the story to work but made it unsatisfactory in some ways.

The bonus story "The Woman Who Knew Too Little" is supposedly a parody and homage to Alfred Hitchcock. There are some hints but... it feels flat - a client lies to a detective (what a surprise!) and the detective tries to solve the case and figure out the lie. The premise is sound, the execution simply did not work for me - it relied on witty answers too much and almost none of them landed. The fact that it was full of cliches, played for the laugh too often, was expected - being a parody and all.

It was a short collection (the longest story was probably ~30 pages) but it did not make me want to find the author's other works. It is competent but none of the stories was memorable or had any real depth in them.… (mehr)

A simple domestic abuse case turns deadly when the alleged abuser is killed, and Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into a complex case of murder and identity theft that has her running from the Mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to discover the truth about Melanie and her ex-boyfriend.

The storyline was somewhat complicated but this was still a quick and easy read. I liked Sam and her feistiness. Although not that suspenseful, I enjoyed the book and would read another from this author.… (mehr)

Fast Paced Action Suspense Murder Mystery

Really liked this one. Read it over two evenings and found it difficult to put down.

The fast pace kept it interesting and with a likeable lead character it was a joy to read.

My only quibble is the ludicrous names of some of the other characters which broke the ‘suspension of disbelief’ at times, at least for a Brit - maybe they are common names in the US

This is a bang on 4 stars - not a 3.5 rounded up and those stars are fully earned… (mehr)