Shadows

May 23, 2005
Saving Shadows, a historic Miami waterfront estate that's about to be bulldozed—annoying preservationists and reopening a 45-year-old unsolved murder—isn't enough to rescue its novel namesake. Staying in familiar Miami territory, Buchanan brings back the crew from Cold Case Squad
for this outing: Miami PD Sgt. Craig Burch and ragtag detectives Sam Stone, Pete Nazario and, this time, Joe Corso. Watched closely by their lieutenant and by the press, Burch and posse focus on the unsolved 1961 murder of Pierce Nolan, a legendary local scion and former mayor killed by a shotgun blast. With the help of Kiki Courtelis, an anxious preservationist, the team gains access to his long-shuttered estate—only to conveniently discover an antique trunk full of infant corpses. Subplots are forced: Nazario has instant feelings for Kiki; Stone spontaneously avenges the death of his parents; the workings of an illegal adoption ring comes to light. Retired journalist Buchanan (You Only Die Twice
) is a longtime Miami resident who won a Pulitzer Prize for her police reporting, but this outing lacks her usual attention to plot and detail. And there's not enough emotional motivation for cozy fans or real estate porn for historic house junkies.

February 1, 2005
The story of a mysterious house and a 45-year-old murder goes "hot" in this second in a series about the Miami Police Department's Cold Case Squad. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Buchanan lives in Miami. Six-city author tour.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Buchanan returns to the Miami specialized police unit she premiered in last year's " Cold Case Squad." She returns also to the cop humor and interjected war stories that she has been known for since her newspaper days. (Sometimes, though, her set-pieces, delivered as monologues in too perfect a style, with no interruptions by the listeners, seem unrealistic.) On the second time around for the Cold Case detectives, a woman seeking to preserve Shadows, a historic Miami mansion, tells the detectives that the 1961 murder of the then-owner of the property, a former mayor of Miami, will never be solved if the manse is bulldozed. The cops agree to search the house, one of the few South Florida houses with a basement, and, in a winningly chilling scene, find a cache of mummified human infants. This horrific discovery leads from a cold case to an ongoing one. Fast, funny, and shocking--all the characteristics of vintage Buchanan.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)