Caper

April 26, 2010
Stanley Hastings, an endearingly inept New York City PI whose usual fare is interviewing prospective slip-and-fall clients for a negligence lawyer, gets involved in a multiple-murder case in his breezy 17th outing (after 2007’s Hitman) from Edgar-finalist Hall. Hastings accepts an assignment from Jennifer Weldon, an attractive woman who’s afraid that her 16-year-old daughter, Sharon, is working as a call girl. The investigator’s surveillance links Sharon to Congressman Jason Blake, who takes her to his Fifth Avenue apartment. Later, the pair hop a train to Philadelphia. When Hastings intervenes to rescue Sharon, he ends up an object of interest to the NYPD. The complications, including two corpses, pile up as Hastings makes one error in judgment after another. Hastings remains an appealing hero, even if the denouement doesn’t live up to the promise of the plot’s initial premise. Readers who can easily suspend disbelief will most enjoy this light whodunit.

June 1, 2010
PI Stanley Hastings ("Hitman") falls for a beautiful woman who wants him to keep her teenage daughter out of the clutches of an older man. Of course he believes her story and gets himself into a ton of trouble with the law. VERDICT Though Hall tries to make his protagonist look like a good guy with honorable intentions, Hastings will strike most readers as too stupid and self-absorbed to be much of a sleuth. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 3/1/10.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2010
New York private investigator Stanley Hastings needs a change of pace. The only jobs his boss, personal-injury lawyer Richard Rosenberg, gives him are routine trip-and-fall cases. So when a beautiful woman comes to Stanley and asks him to rescue her teenage daughter, Stanleys knight-errant genes kick into overdrive. Mom thinks daughter may be turning tricks. OMG! Stanley first tries the scared straight technique he remembers from an old movie. It doesnt go well. Then he slips the kid a Mickey to spirit her away from the man who seems to be her lover-clientand he gets hauled in on a kidnapping charge. Then a congressman involved with the girl ends up dead, and Stanley is tapped for the murder. No good deed goes unpunished in Stanleys world. The latest Hastings mystery is typical of the series: charming, funny, and cleverly plotted. Stanley is the living embodiment of the old Rodney Dangerfield punch line: I dont get no respect. His boss thinks hes a goof, his wife disregards him, and his NYPD connection addresses him as moron. Readers just root for him. Engaging reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)