Sunday, January 8, 2012

Darker Than Any Shadow-Tina Whittle

Darker Than Any Shadow


Tina Whittle

Poisoned Pen, Mar 6 2012, $24.95

ISBN 9781590585481



Summer in Atlanta is the usual boiling with the heat and humidity forcing the Atlanta Zoo crew to feed ice cubes to the animals. Dexter’s Guns and More gun shop operator Tai Randolph’s BFF Rico Worthington asks Trey Seaver, a former SWAT cop turned corporate security expert, to watch the door at the club during a national poetry recital contest. In his Armani, Trey the human crime calculator agrees. Trey accompanied by Tai explains that Rico fears Maurice “Vigil” Cunningham, who just was freed on a technicality after spending four days incarcerated for a weapons carrying parole violation, will cause trouble.



A fire breaks out at the club. As people leave, Tai finds poet Lex Anderson, who replaced Vigil, dead. APD Detective Sandford Cummings believes Rico committed the crimes of murder and arson. Tai investigates with mixed help from Trey, who remains unpredictable since he lost a fight with a wall he crashed his car into two plus years ago.



The second Tai-Trey mystery (see The Dangerous Edge of Things) is an entertaining thriller starring a wonderful heroine and a somewhat brain damaged killing machine. Fast-paced, Trey wants Tai to stay out of the dangerous world of poets who could slay the enemy with a rhyme or two. Turning upside down the mantra “the word (computer) is mightier than the sword,” fans will appreciate Tina Whittles’ ode to murder and poetry as Trey says both can leave a person dead.



Harriet Klausner



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