Lost Luggage

August 1, 2017
A Brooklyn travel agent wins the trip of a lifetime and ends up in a world of trouble.Redondo Travel has been a staple of the close-knit Bay Ridge small-business community for three generations. So when Cyd Redondo arrives at the office one October morning to find a dead parrot on her desk, her first move is to call locksmith Gonzo Gonzales from four doors down and trade him four Circle Line tickets to change her locks. Her second is to check with Mrs. Barsky, owner of Pet World next door, to see if any of her inventory has gone missing. That's when she discovers the elderly owner's body on the floor of her shop. Cyd offers Dr. Paglia, the local medical examiner, a free room in Atlantic City (smoking, high floor) for information concerning her neighbor's demise, then leaves for the shore herself to spend a couple of days at the National Association of Career Travel Agents convention, where she hooks up with San Francisco chiropractor Roger Claymore. Cyd isn't too worried about the outcome of Mrs. Barsky's post-mortem because she assumes that after surviving four strokes, her neighbor finally succumbed to a fifth. In fact, all thoughts of Mrs. Barsky and Pet World vanish when Cyd learns that she's sold enough tours to Tanzania to earn a safari of her own. She's even more delighted when sexy Roger agrees to be her plus-one. Little does she suspect that lost luggage, courtesy of British Airways, will be the least of her challenges. Her clients are arrested, she's confronted by men with guns, and her first sighting of African wildlife is a king cobra who gets up close and personal. But what scares her most is a call from her Uncle Ray back in Bay Ridge telling her that Mrs. Barsky's been poisoned and she's the prime suspect. Thomas packs a whole franchise's worth of adventures into her heroine's debut, leaving readers to wonder what might be left for her follow-up.

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October 1, 2017

Cyd Redondo works for her family's travel agency in Brooklyn and yearns for adventure. Her escapades kick off when she finds her elderly neighbor, the owner of a pet shop, dead. After the funeral, Cyd escapes to Atlantic City for a travel agents' convention and has a brief fling with Roger Claymore. When Roger shows up at the Redondo Sunday dinner, she grabs him as her plus-one for an excursion she won to Tanzania. No trip could be more disastrous, with lost luggage, two elderly clients in an African jail, and Cyd hip-deep in the world of international animal smuggling while topping the suspect list for her neighbor's murder. Only an intrepid, self-sufficient woman could find her own way off the endangered list. VERDICT Thomas makes a rollicking debut with this comic mystery featuring an unconventional protagonist who proves to have the skills of MacGyver. With its sexy overtones, this fun, character-driven novel will appeal to Janet Evanovich fans. Readers who enjoy Betty Webb's "Gunn Zoo" mysteries will also delight in this adventure.--LH

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