The Devil's Own Game

August 19, 2019
Hogsett’s amusing third outing for former part-time librarian Allie Harper and Tom Bennington III, a blind professor who won a $550-million lottery jackpot (after 2018’s Murder to the Metal), gets off to a rousing start. Another blind man, Kit Wade, has a verbal altercation with Tom after leaving the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he attended the Touch Tour. After the two men part, Wade is shot dead in the street. When evidence suggests that Tom was the intended victim, the couple reactivate T&A Detective Agency, their dormant firm whose name alone never fails to bring snickers. Their approach to sleuthing is more slapdash than traditional—it’s joked that they should be called “the loose cannon vigilantes.” But Tom’s enhanced senses, honed since becoming blind, come in handy. The appealing Allie and Tom are determined to be responsible wealthy people, giving away more money than they spend. But money also requires the couple boost their security. Readers will agree that Allie and Tom are a lot of fun to be around. Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Literary.

September 1, 2019
Think winning the lottery would make your dreams come true? Think again. Since blind college professor Tom Bennington won $550 million in the MondoMegaJackpot, his life and that of his love, Allie Harper, have been, well, interesting. They've fought off killers and launched a detective agency with the ill-advised name of T&A (Murder to the Metal, 2018, etc.), made new friends, hired bodyguards, and become patrons of the arts. At a Touch Tour for the blind, they encounter Kip Wade, who's both blind and nasty. When he's shot dead by a sniper near the museum, an uncomfortable question arises: Did the killer think he was Tom? Olivia Wood, the Cleveland Homicide officer who catches the case, soon becomes a friend who's willing to work with them and their bodyguard, retired cop Otis Johnson. Security footage leads them to a woman pretending to be blind, who'd handed Allie a note before the shooting, and to Tito Ricci, who'd failed to steal Tom's millions and is now out for revenge. Both these suspects will die; when Tito is found brutally murdered, the police assume the sniper has struck again. The killer announces that he wants money, but he's in no hurry to collect, and the suspense drives Allie to bouts of hysteria. Her attempt at therapy is to take on a new case, and one arrives on cue. The unpleasantly clueless woman who formerly owned their lakeside mansion claims that her husband has faked his death and is planning to kill her to take over her trust fund. No sooner has T&A gone into action than the sniper makes a move, and a dangerous cat-and-mouse game ensues. Overlapping plots, sometimes humorous, often confusing, undermine a promising mystery full of interesting characters.

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