Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Fallen Angels-Alice Duncan

Fallen Angels
Alice Duncan
Five Star, Jun 8 2011, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594149597

In Los Angeles, Boston Brahmin Mercy Allcutt works as a secretary for former police officer turned private investigator Ernest Templeton. Mercy’s duties are supposed to be strictly office, but she sometimes gets involved in field work.

Currently she searches for her boss who has been hired by Persephone Chalmers to recover stolen jewelry. The secretary enters the Chalmers’ residence only to find the client dead. Searching for her employer, Mercy locates him tied up and gagged. She frees him, but the cops believe Mercy is covering for Ernie who is the only murder suspect. Mercy investigates by following the money trail as Ernie always suggests; this includes donations by the victim to the Adelaide Burkhard Emmanuel School of Religion.

Readers will enjoy Mercy’s latest 1920s Los Angeles mystery (see Angel's Flight) as the fascinating heroine is a sheltered courageous young female who works the investigation. Besides the deep time and place that readers will feel they are visiting inside a fun whodunit; it is the comparison between the gentle aristocratic Mercy and the kick butt street wise Ernie that makes the tale. She is cozy and he is nor.

Harriet

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