Firewall

September 30, 2019
In West’s engrossing third Emma Streat mystery (after 2009’s Overkill), widowed former opera singer Emma is in snowy Boston looking forward to a Caribbean vacation with an ex-lover, Lord Andrew Rodale, an undercover crisis solver for the British Secret Intelligence Service, when she gets a call from her godmother, Caroline Vog. Caroline, who’s in her 80s and has no other family, asks Emma, the only person she can trust to handle a sensitive matter, to come to New York City to help put a stop to a blackmailer threatening to expose a secret in Caroline’s past. Emma agrees to come to the rescue. Caroline suspects her first husband, Pierre Hallam, is the culprit, but further exploration reveals him to be just a small player in a conspiracy to possess a cutting-edge computer program capable of penetrating even sophisticated security measures and firewalls. Coincidentally, Lord Andrew has Pierre under surveillance, and he and his team agree to join forces with Emma. The suspense mounts as Emma is thrust into the world of cybercrime and dangerous intrigue. Only the somewhat saccharine ending disappoints. Readers will hope it won’t be another 10 years before the next installment.

November 1, 2019
Bostonian Emma Streat is a former opera singer who lost her voice, became a full-time wife and mother, pursued her husband's murderer, and has continued with her amateur sleuthing. In her third outing, she's preparing to meet former lover Lord Andrew Rodale for an assignation when her beloved but imperious godmother, Caroline Vogt, needs her help. Caroline, an aging heiress and socialite four times divorced, has just paid a million dollars in blackmail to keep a youthful secret quiet. She suspects her first husband, Frenchman Pierre Hallam, of being behind the plot, and she wants Emma to investigate. The need becomes more urgent after Caroline is attacked in her exclusive Manhattan apartment. So begins some serious globe-trotting, as Emma follows leads to various European locales, sometimes with Rodale, who's connected to British Secret Security. In the process, Emma reunites with her first crush and takes on another new calling. A fast-moving romp enhanced by its settings, with an appealing, unprepossessing woman of a certain age as protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)