Loyalty

Starred review from March 25, 2013
What starts, in Thoft’s dazzling first novel, as a missing-persons case for Boston PI Fina Ludlow—the search for her sister-in-law, Melanie—swells through layers of familial secrets, lies, and betrayals to something approaching Greek tragedy. The Ludlows’ dysfunctionality is no secret to Fina, the lone surviving daughter and nonlawyer in this clan of high-powered ambulance-chasers, for whom she works as an in-house investigator. When Fina digs into Melanie’s troubled marriage to her brother Rand, she begins to discover disturbing—and dangerous—links to the city’s criminal underbelly, from mobster Mark Lamont to Back Bay madam Bev Duprey. Fina’s two hunky friends with benefits, Det. Cristian Menendez and exotic masseur Milloy, join her on an adrenaline-pumping chase. Although Thoft tips her big bombshell too soon, readers will be eager to see more of smash-mouth Fina, a hard-boiled throwback equally comfortable shooting from the hip or the lip. Agent: Helen Brann, the Helen Brann Agency.

March 15, 2013
Thoft's debut novel introduces a new female private investigator operating out of Boston who often rebels against her wealthy, overbearing and successful family. Josefina "Fina" Ludlow works as a PI for the family law firm, which specializes in medical malpractice. Her father, Carl, the firm's top lawyer and family patriarch, is both self-consciously stylish and disapproving of his only daughter, especially since Fina flunked out of law school. Her three brother--Rand, Scott and Matthew--are all lawyers who work alongside their dad in the family firm. When Rand's wife, Melanie, doesn't return home one day, Fina and her family are plunged into an investigation and public relations nightmare that ends up involving a normally discreet call-girl service, a gaudy and overbearing female investigator with the Boston police, and Fina's niece, Melanie's and Rand's daughter, Haley, a beautiful but troubled kid whose parents have been too busy fighting with one another to pay attention to her needs. In Fina, Thoft crafts a not particularly original female investigator: She's beautiful, she can fight, she has sex with lots of good-looking men, she wolfs down junk food, often employs poor judgment and bucks the establishment. Although Fina has the occasional astute turn of phrase, many of her techniques read like they are straight out of a private investigator's manual, and most of the action fails to ring true. Thoft's writing is clean and crisp, though, and she weaves the story together without too many stutters, although few readers will fail to figure out key plot twists fairly early in the action. She also commits the mistake of incorporating relentless descriptions of both the clothing and hairstyles of the various characters. As for Fina, while Thoft works hard to make her flawed and interesting, mostly she comes across as rash, sloppy and neither moral nor particularly good at what she does. Thoft's first effort provides a competent storyline that, while it fails to break new ground, promises to improve over time.

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May 15, 2013

Fina Ludlow is a law school dropout who now works as an investigator for her Boston family's high-profile personal injury firm. When she's summoned to the office by her father, who rules firm and family with an iron fist, he gives her the news that her sister-in-law, Melanie, is missing. Fina begins to suspect the worst when days go by and Melanie doesn't turn up. Her father and her three brothers want to keep this from the police and the media, which eventually proves impossible. As Fina uses her considerable contacts to dig deeper, she begins to suspect that her family might be more involved with Melanie's disappearance than she initially thought. Events soon turn very dangerous for Fina, and she begins to question how far she'll go to protect her family. VERDICT Thoft's promising debut introduces a significantly flawed but tough new PI and offers up compelling suspense, while the smooth prose keeps things moving right along. Some readers may question some of Fina's decisions and methods, but this mystery wrapped in family drama should please fans of contemporary suspense of the more hard-boiled sort.--Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family, goes the saying. Boston PI Fina Ludlow knows this all too well. When her sister-in-law Melanie goes missing, Ludlow probes the depths of her high-powered lawyer family in search of answers. No one is above suspicion, and Melanie's husband, Rand, is at the top of her list. Was infidelity the reason behind Melanie's disappearance? Rand insists he wasn't unfaithful, but Ludlow knows how slippery her brother can be. Ludlow works to gather information from those closest to her sister, from her best girlfriends to her beautiful teenage daughter, who seems to be engaged in some dubious behavior of her own. Ludlow has the shrewdness of her parents and siblings (she knows getting information often requires descending into the city's underbelly), but she has compassion, too. Fans of the Kinsey Millhone mysteries will enjoy this engaging, if a bit predictable, debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)