The Shimmering Blond Sister

September 20, 2010
In Edgar-winner Handler's enjoyable seventh mystery to feature New York film critic Mitch Berger and Dorset, Conn., police detective Desiree "Des" Mitry (after 2008's Sour Cherry Surprise), Des gets on the trail of a flasher who's been disturbing the genteel residents of Dorset's historic district. When someone bashes in the head of retired NYPD police officer Augie Donatelli, whom Des thinks is the flasher, Des finds herself a suspect because she had a public fight with the victim shortly before the murder. Her job is on the line, as well as the job of her father, the state's highest ranking black police officer. Meanwhile, members of the Seven Sisters crime family may be setting up in town. Once again, Mitch steps in to lend Des a helping hand. Series fans will have fun catching up with the latest twists in the always interesting relationship of this interracial couple.

September 1, 2010

Even in toney Dorset, background checks are advisable.

Connecticut state trooper Des Mitry has her hands full. A flasher is spending his weekend nights ringing the doorbells, but not the chimes, of the town's rich old ladies. He leaves no clues, escapes notice by everyone but his targets and evades both prowl cars and stakeouts. But Des thinks she has a fix on Dorset's wanker: Augie Donatelli, a retired New York City cop who became the live-in caretaker at the luxe Captain Chadwick House condos in the historic district, where he drinks too much and insults the residents. Des herself had a serious run-in with him, so when he's killed by a baseball bat just ahead of where she'd been out of sight tailing him, she becomes suspect No. 1 in his death. Her lover, Mitch Berger, a movie critic and sometime sleuth (The Sour Cherry Surprise, 2008, etc.), thinks the flashing and the killing are unrelated, but to prove it, he'll have to sip many iced teas with the local gentry, which include a childhood crush of his and the town's leading lady, and chug a few beers with Des and a cop on vacation from the Big Apple. Meanwhile, unseemly family pedigrees come to light. Des and Mitch romp in the shower, on the beach and between the sheets. And Dorset is once again restored to New England picture-postcard tranquility.

Though you're not likely to share Des and Mitch's infatuation with each other, you might just learn not to take everyone at face value.

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September 1, 2010

Black police officer Des Mitry (The Sour Cherry Surprise) is tired of chasing after the Dorset Flasher, who is terrorizing the matrons of the small wealthy Connecticut community. But when her prime suspect is murdered, she becomes the number one suspect. Now she needs ex-lover and Jewish film critic Mitch Berger's help, and the duo have their work cut out for them. With his interracial sleuths, Handler gives himself lots of room to exercise his sly wit in depicting the culture of an upscale, mostly white town. What the author does best is get into his characters' minds and make them real for the reader. VERDICT Gentler than William G. Tapply and less insightful than Philip R. Craig, Edgar Award winner Handler's seventh series entry is a good choice for a quiet evening.

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