Bad Bird

December 13, 2010
In Knopf's engaging second Hamptons mystery to feature defense attorney Jacqueline "Jackie" Swaitkowski (after 2010's Short Squeeze), Jackie witnesses the crash of a small airplane that kills pilot Eugenie Birkson, and later retrieves the camera case Eugenie tosses from the plane. It doesn't take much to pique Jackie's curiosity, and before long she's involved with tracking down information about Eugenie and the five photos on the camera's memory card. Her investigation uncovers a startling link to her own family's history as well as Eugenie's. The excellent supporting cast—Sam Acquillo, the star of the author's first four Hamptons mysteries; Jackie's boyfriend, Harry Goodlander; Southampton cop Joe Sullivan; computer guru Randall Dodge—provide valuable assistance when Jackie's efforts stir up threats. Domestic problems and Homeland Security issues enliven a plot with slick twists that should keep readers switching their bets to the very end.

December 15, 2010

If you think Hamptons attorney Jackie Swaitkowski's first case (Short Squeeze, 2010) had everything but the kitchen sink, wait till you see her second.

Moments before her private plane crashes into a Bridgehampton horse pasture, biker chick/pilot Eugenie Birkson tosses a camera bag out the side to land at Jackie's feet. Determined to insinuate herself into a case her cop friend Joe Sullivan insists is no case at all, Jackie quickly signs up Ed Conklin, Eugenie's mechanic and husband, as her client, even though everyone with a badge seems convinced that the crash was accidental. What do the photos on the camera's surviving digital card have in common? Convinced that they can help explain Eugenie's death, Jackie focuses on a picture of Delbert's Beachworld Deli, a shot of an unfamiliar landscape, and a group photo from a society fundraiser. Even before she's started to identify the Children's Relief Fund contributors—from political consultant Benson MacAvoy to Janie Wilson, the current proprietor of a long-established family nursery—and poke around among Eugenie's troubled birth family, the photo of Delbert's rings an unwelcome bell: a 30-year-old robbery-with-violence that ended with the conviction of Billy O'Dwyer, Jackie's own brother. As a bonus, she's attracted the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, who have their own reasons for seconding the message she's received via anonymous e-mail: "Back off or die, bitch."

Knopf takes his sweet time introducing the complications. By the end, though, he's piled on so many, some of them humdingers, that his cup runneth over.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2011

Southampton attorney Jackie Swaitkowski (Short Squeeze) is watching horses romp in a field when a Cessna crashes to the ground. The female pilot, who was killed, had only a moment to throw out her metal camera case, which Jackie rescues. What Jackie finds on a memory card will lead her into danger and a personally devastating case. VERDICT Knopf has a knack for big opening scenes that set the tone for his danger-fraught plots and draw the reader into the dysfunctional world of Swaitkowski, who drinks too much, smokes pot, and attempts to evade too-close relationships. As usual, Knopf shocks with an unexpected ending.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2011
As sole witness to the crash of a Cessna in the Hamptons, lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski retrieves the camera case that pilot Eugenie Birkson tossed out of the plane just before it exploded. Wanting in on the investigation, Jackie offers to defend Eugenies husband during the accident investigation, but her real interest is in the pictures on Eugenies camera. As she puzzles over the images, she finds faces she recognizes and is led back to her own damaged past and to her long-lost brother. Tenacious in pursuit of answers, Jackie takes up residence in her office after being attacked in her home. This sequel to Short Squeeze (2010) continues the series spun-off from Knopfs acclaimed Sam Acquillo novels. Jackie, a lawyer inclined to skirt the law, is persistent to the point of bullheadedness and sometimes too fearless for her own good. Readers may want to scream warnings to her in the suspenseful final pages of this fine hard-boiled crime novel, which effectively combines action and introspection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)