Working Stiff-Tori Carrington

Working Stiff
Tori Carrington
Forge, Sep 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9780765351005

In Queens, New York, her Aunt Sotiria is panic stricken; someone abducted a corpse ready for display. She begs and demands and invokes their Greek blood ties to persuade her niece Sofie Metropolis, who runs a successful private investigative firm, to find the purloined body; before the mourners start arriving to view an empty casket. Sotiria worries that losing a stiff she was working on might prove bad for her business.

Sofie is also working on finding proof that proves low life Johnny Laughton is innocent of the murder charge of killing his affluent former girlfriend, whose body has never been found. She also prepares for the trick or treat crowd, her Greek-American mother wanting legal grandchildren, her broken hearted secretary and a necrophilia living like the dead next door. Life is good and normal for the sleuth as she enjoys quality time with Greek pastry baker Dino Antonopoulos and enigmatic Jake Porter.

The fourth Sofie Metropolis private investigative tale (see DIRTY LAUNDRY and FOUL PLAY) is as always an entertaining chick noir as the heroine works her Queens’ caseload including the personal hunks in her life. The story line hops around a lot as Sofie works the Sotiria plea bargain, the Laughton case, and her loved life while eluding her Greek-American momma’s demands. This is a fun urban mystery series.

Harriet Klausner