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Overview
When private detective Lucy Trimble is retained by Greta Golden to find the identity of the ominous lurking stranger who Greta is certain is following her, it doesn't appear to be too challenging a mystery. Lucy has no trouble learning who her client's pursuer is: a British investigator has been engaged to probe into Greta's life. But the question of what he is trying to discover about Greta, and why, begins to truly complicate the case. This revelation soon opens up further questions about Greta's own identity and, more specifically, the identities of her mother and father. Lucy's investigation leads her to Cornwall, England, where there still live witnesses to Greta's birth and her father's death. Lucy slowly begins to put the fragments of the puzzle together, but it is only when Greta joins Lucy in England that she is able to find the missing piece, and begins to confront her own rapidly evolving and more complicated personal life.
Synopsis
When private detective Lucy Trimble is retained by Greta Golden to find the identity of the ominous lurking stranger who Greta is certain is following her, it doesn't appear to be too challenging a mystery. Lucy has no trouble learning who her client's pursuer is: a British investigator has been engaged to probe into Greta's life. But the question of what he is trying to discover about Greta, and why, begins to truly complicate the case. This revelation soon opens up further questions about Greta's own identity and, more specifically, the identities of her mother and father. Lucy's investigation leads her to Cornwall, England, where there still live witnesses to Greta's birth and her father's death. Lucy slowly begins to put the fragments of the puzzle together, but it is only when Greta joins Lucy in England that she is able to find the missing piece, and begins to confront her own rapidly evolving and more complicated personal life.
Publishers Weekly
In his second Lucy Trimble mystery (after Death of a Sunday Writer), Wright--author of the popular Charlie Salter series--tests his unseasoned detective with a couple of perplexing cases. Canadian sleuth Lucy is hired by well-to-do Greta Golden to find out more about a man who is hanging around asking questions about her. When Lucy goes undercover and meets him, she finds out he's a fellow detective and gets him to reveal that he was hired by a British law firm to investigate Greta's background, as she may be an heir to a recently deceased and wealthy man. Greta has always thought she was an only child with no living relatives, so she is intrigued to learn she may have family members in England. She rehires Lucy, this time to fill in the gaps in her parents' histories. In Britain, Lucy exhumes an old story of two sisters and the man they loved, a tale of jealousy and murder. A subplot involving the odd behavior of a drugstore owner adds a riddle to this otherwise straightforward mystery. Though Wright's descriptions of Canada and England aren't exceptional, his well-rounded characters, lyric if low-key prose and subtle humor transforms Lucy's burgeoning caseload into a piece of satisfying suspense. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
In his second Lucy Trimble mystery (after Death of a Sunday Writer), Wright--author of the popular Charlie Salter series--tests his unseasoned detective with a couple of perplexing cases. Canadian sleuth Lucy is hired by well-to-do Greta Golden to find out more about a man who is hanging around asking questions about her. When Lucy goes undercover and meets him, she finds out he's a fellow detective and gets him to reveal that he was hired by a British law firm to investigate Greta's background, as she may be an heir to a recently deceased and wealthy man. Greta has always thought she was an only child with no living relatives, so she is intrigued to learn she may have family members in England. She rehires Lucy, this time to fill in the gaps in her parents' histories. In Britain, Lucy exhumes an old story of two sisters and the man they loved, a tale of jealousy and murder. A subplot involving the odd behavior of a drugstore owner adds a riddle to this otherwise straightforward mystery. Though Wright's descriptions of Canada and England aren't exceptional, his well-rounded characters, lyric if low-key prose and subtle humor transforms Lucy's burgeoning caseload into a piece of satisfying suspense. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Death of a Sunday Writer (Foul Play, 1996) introduced a new series featuring a part-time librarian who inherits a Toronto detective agency. In her second case, Lucy Trimble searches for a suspicious man who has been asking questions about her client, a pottery wholesaler. Recommended for all collections. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Al Janta
Once again Wright shows himself to be a master at snagging onto the little burrs that work themselves into the fabric of a relationship. He portrays the unspoken, almost subliminal conflicts from a female perspective and does so with uncanny accuracy. The Mystery Review