Publishers Weekly
Following her much-praised first novel, Confessions of a Deathmaiden (2003), Francisco delivers another outstanding stand-alone, a darker tale with some surprising twists. A Mexican fisherman makes a gruesome discovery on the beach not far from L.A.'s Marina del Rey: "I found the first arm. The second one washed up on Malibu Beach, seven miles north of here. The rest of the body must've gotten eaten by sharks." But whose arm? It would seem to belong to the alluring Laura Finnegan, who had a house on the beach and whom the fisherman used to admire through her window. Det. Sgt. Reggie Brooks of the LAPD is in love with Laura, as is real estate agent Scott Goodsell, who has asked her to marry him, but murder doesn't seem a possibility: Laura has quit her job and gone east to see her relatives. Or has she? Alert readers will suspect there's more going on than meets the eye, and further plot complications prove both serpentine and sanguinary. As in her previous novel, Francisco knows how to turn the screws: the adroit plotting and additional fillip at the end are sufficiently compelling to qualify this as one of the year's best mysteries. Agent, Philip Spitzer. (Sept. 22) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A disembodied corpse gives new meaning to the phrase "arms race."One arm's turned up in Venice Beach, a second in Malibu. Whose arms are they, and where's the rest of her? LAPD Detective Sergeant Reggie Brooks, sweating to keep the case from going cold, thinks he can answer the first question: They're the once lovely arms of the breathtakingly beautiful Laura Finnegan-"a Modigliani come to life," now vanished. Brooks knew Laura. Moonlighting as a martial-arts instructor, he not only taught her but managed to fall in love with her. Actually, it's been more a matter of obsession for someone who "never wanted a white girl before." But that's what Laura can do to men. There's the Mexican fisherman, for instance, who watched her windows longingly at night. There's her boorish boss and the nerdy accountant, both spellbound by her. And of course there's loathsome Scott Goodsell, a man you don't dump with impunity. He's changed from ardent lover to relentless stalker and, in Brooks's view, leading suspect. If Laura's been murdered, Brooks vows he'll bring her killer to justice. But what if she hasn't been? What if, in fact, the arms belong to someone else?Character bends too readily to the requirements of plot in Francisco's second (Confessions of a Death Maiden, 2003), reducing the good stuff to flashes.
Midwest Book Review
An exciting Hitchcock-like crime thriller...plenty of surprises to this powerful dark side of love tale.
Chicago Tribune
Beautifully sharp, understated writing.
Publishers Weekly
Following her much-praised first novel, Confessions of a Deathmaiden (2003), Francisco delivers another outstanding stand-alone, a darker tale with some surprising twists. As in her previous novel, Francisco knows how to turn the screws: the adroit plotting and additional fillip at the end are sufficiently compelling to qualify this as one of the year's best mysteries.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Truly surprising twists...Francisco tells the story tautly.
Wall Street Journal
Elaborately suspenseful...an absorbing tale of postmodern noir.
