Jericho Cay

March 7, 2011
In Wall's tantalizing 11th mystery set in South Carolina's Lowcountry (after 2010's Canaan's Gate), inquiry agent Bay Tanner takes on a celebrity client, true crime writer Winston Wolfe, who's looking into the two-year-old disappearance of reclusive millionaire Morgan Tyler Bell. Wolfe's convinced Bell's alive and passing himself off as Terry Gerard, Bell's personal assistant who went missing at about the same time from Jericho Cay, a private island Bell owned off Hilton Head. Bay and her husband, Red, a former sheriff's deputy, join Winston in exploring Jericho Cay, where Bell's Jamaican housekeeper, Anjanette Freeman, supposedly killed herself before Bell and Gerard vanished. Wolfe leaves Bay and Red stranded on the island, and later vanishes after making a nervous phone call to Bay for help. The investigation takes some strange twists before this well-done game of cat and mouse reaches its satisfying conclusion.

March 1, 2011

The South Carolina lowlands are a little lower than usual in p.i. Bay Tanner's newest case.

Ever since a hurricane hit the Palmetto State, Bay Tanner has been busy overseeing the restoration of her Hilton Head dwelling along with her family home that houses her half sister Julia (Canaan's Gate, 2010, etc.), her caregiver Elizabeth Shelly and Bay's beloved housekeeper Lavinia. When Bay is approached by Winston Wolfe, a wealthy and successful true-crime writer, she and her partner Erik, along with Bay's husband Red, a former police officer, are initially happy to take up the unusual case at a pay rate far above their usual charges. Wolfe claims to need research for the book he's writing on the unsolved disappearance of Morgan Tyler Bell. The wealthy recluse's assistant Terry Gerard went missing at the same time, leaving only the dead body of the housekeeper to be found at his Jericho Cay retreat. According to Wolfe, Bell's distant cousin wants to have him declared legally dead. Wolfe produces a copy of a driver's license in the name of Gerard but claims the pictured man is Bell. Small wonder that Bay, Red and Erik become more uneasy as their investigation continues. Their client goes missing; Bay is threatened by Gerard; and Bell's island home is torched. Bay has problems of her own when her mentally challenged half sister's caregiver dies in a fall, but she is too involved to give up on Wolfe's convoluted and ever more dangerous case.

Wall's tense mysteries and Bay's complicated love life will doubtless keep her fans coming back for more.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2011

Return to South Carolina as PI Bay Tanner (Canaan's Gate) gets involved in a missing-person case that leads to so much more. [Regional author events.]

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2011
Several years ago, millionaire Ty Bell and his personal assistant, Terry Gerard, disappeared at the same time that Bells housekeeper killed herself. After finding a piece of evidence suggesting that Bell is still alive, true-crime author Winston Wolfe hires Bay Tanners Hilton Head detective agency to prove his theory. Wolfe clearly knows more than he is sharing with Bay and her partners, however, so when they come into possession of their clients briefcase, they make use of the information he didnt give them. When Wolfe also disappears after a cryptic phone call asking for help, Bay and company must look into the case from a new perspective. Meanwhile, Bay is still working on repairs to both her current and childhood homes after a recent hurricane, and she and her new husband are enduring a rocky patch. The plot twists, the nicely delineated setting, and the well-drawn, sympathetic characters, whose complicated personal lives keep readers following the series, all contribute to the appeal of this installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)