Title: Crazy for You
Series: Soho Noir: Book Four
Author: T.S. Hunter
Publisher: Amazon/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 116 Pages
Category: Cozy Mystery
At a Glance: Crazy for You ends on a warm note of love and family that has been present for some time but is now on full display for all to see. This affection coupled with the crimes and the investigations make these books a cozy and entertaining read any day of the week.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER RUNS SMOOTH
It’s 1987, and Soho is in the grip of another hot summer. While working part-time in The Red Lion, Joe finds himself agreeing to help a notorious gangster search for her missing girlfriend.
Antonia The Gecko Lagorio is daughter to the ruthless but ageing gang boss, Tony The Lizard Lagorio. When her girlfriend, Charlotte Fenwick, goes missing, Antonia turns to Joe for help, believing her to have been kidnapped by a rival gang.
Charlotte Fenwick is daughter to multi-millionaire, Charles Fenwick—who also happens to be one of Freddie Gillespie’s bigger clients. Keen to keep any hint of a scandal out of the public eye, Charles Fenwick had already asked Freddie to recruit Russell and Joe to help him find his daughter discreetly.
With both of them on the case, Joe and Russell find themselves trying to stop a turf war between the two rival gangs while uncovering all manner of dark secrets about the missing heiress and her troubled life.
Meanwhile Freddie Gillespie has a run in with an old foe that could see him lose both his job and his relationship with Russell.
Review: Russell Dixon and Joe Stone are back and as engaging as ever in Crazy for You, book four in T.S. Hunter’s Soho Noir mystery series.
The novelty of titling each of the novellas after a song from the 80s, the time period in which the mysteries are set, has not worn at all thin. In fact, it has upped the enjoyability factor in the overall series as Hunter fuses each title with its corresponding mystery; this one involving a spoiled little rich girl, an Italian mobster’s daughter, and the son of a rival Irish gang. The tangled web of deceit that’s woven gets even messier when feelings and an unhealthy obsession are involved, and then a disappearance—that may or may not be a kidnapping—takes on a more obvious tone of criminality when a ransom note shows up that points fingers in increasingly confusing directions, which, in turn, threatens to set off a gang war the likes of which no one—including, seemingly, the gangs—wants. The father/daughter relationships give some good fodder for contemplation as well, and as is expected, it’s up to Joe and Russell to step in and solve the mystery of Charlotte Fenwick’s disappearance in the way only our heroes seem capable of doing.
Plotted out sparingly but with more than enough substance to engage enthusiasts of the mystery genre, Hunter propels Joe and Russell into their investigation with all the tenacity and care readers of the series have come to expect. We are even treated to a new relationship in this installment, between Russell and attorney Freddie Gillespie, who was introduced in the last book and figures situationally here. A genre romance this isn’t, but there is still a deep-seated gratification that our dear Russell has finally found someone with whom to share his time.
And, of course, this wouldn’t be a Soho Mystery if Russell’s arch-nemesis, Detective Skinner, didn’t make an unwelcome appearance—on the perimeters of the story this time—to try to start trouble.
Among Joe earning full credit for solving this mystery, and then risking life and limb to make sure there were no accidental deaths involved, there is the warmth of the found family he and Russell have become, along with Freddie, and Ron, the landlord of the Red Lion, as well as Ron’s son Scott (aka Miss Terri), and Paul (aka Patty Cakes). Crazy for You ends on a warm note of love and family that has been present for some time but is now on full display for all to see. This affection coupled with the crimes and the investigations make these books a cozy and entertaining read any day of the week.
You can buy Crazy for You here:
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