Duplicity

October 24, 2016
Toxic family secrets again threaten Fina Ludlow’s future in Thoft’s desultory fourth outing for the usually dynamic Boston PI (last seen in 2015’s Shamus Award–winning Brutality). As the fiercely independent Fiona tries to figure out whether to make a deeper commitment to police detective Cristian Menendez, a single dad, she’s distracted by the return of her black sheep big brother, Rand, who sexually abused his teenage daughter, Haley. Meanwhile, paterfamilias Carl Ludlow, who runs the powerhouse personal-injury firm that employs Fina as an investigator and her siblings as lawyers, seems far less concerned about Haley’s precarious well-being than a case centered on the born-again evangelical Covenant Rising Church, with which the daughter of a very old flame of his has become deeply involved. Very little of what Fina starts to uncover about luxe-loving Pastor Greg Gatchell and his wife, Gabby, comes as much of a surprise, and the rising levels of menace and mayhem, including a church insider’s murder, all prove less than compelling. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency.

November 1, 2016
A Boston-based private eye returns for a fourth whirl when she infiltrates a megachurch.Fina Ludlow is a misfit in her own family; she's the only nonlawyer in the Ludlow law firm, and she hasn't settled down to a conventional domestic life. She's also the only one outraged that her oldest brother, Rand, is being welcomed back into the family after having molested his teenage daughter. Fina's father is more focused on doing a favor for an old flame, who wants to dissuade her grown daughter from transferring a large bequest to the Covenant Rising Church. Fina agrees to help out by getting the goods on charismatic Pastor Greg Gatchell. And goods there are: Gatchell and his wife, who enjoy a big house on the church property as well as two church-owned vacation homes, make frequent church business trips to Florida and the Bahamas. When Fina goes to Nadine Quaynor, one of the church leaders, for financial information, she finds Nadine dead on the floor. The victim's cousin used to date her husband, so was jealousy the motive for poisoning her with antifreeze? Or did Nadine discover something about the Gatchells? And who's taken out a contract to beat up Fina? Her cop friend/part-time boyfriend and her masseur/best friend/occasional bedmate try to help protect her, but Fina's not one to hide behind a man. While she's trying to get the real story about the church's charitable works and sorting out her tangled relationships, she's also building a case against Rand and whatever hold he has over their father. Whenever she builds up some momentum, though, it's time for her to settle back with one of her signature snacks. Add a not extremely convincing evildoer in this whodunit, and the result isn't altogether satisfying. Even if pacing and plausibility are still a problem for Thoft (Brutality, 2015, etc.), the renegade protagonist triumphs over her creator's occasional misjudgment.

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November 1, 2016
Boston PI Fina Ludlow is definitely riling someone. Her condo is ransacked, her tires are slit, she receives anonymous warning messages, and she learns there's a contract out to have her beaten up. The culprit is either somebody in her dysfunctional family or the cultlike Covenant Rising Church (she's investigating the group in order to dissuade the adult daughter of her father's former flame from giving the church a sizable bequest). Her brother, Randbanished to Florida after the family learned that he molested his teenage daughteris coming back to town, and Fina is out to get the goods on him to keep him away for good. And she's trying to figure out whether her relationship with Boston PD Detective Christian Menendez could ever work. Thoft's fourth Fina Ludlow outing (after Brutality, 2015) finds the tenacious Fina in fighting form, juggling personal and professional demands to attain justice despite the cost. A winning addition to an entertaining series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

Optioned for TV, Thoft's series starring tough-as-bullets Boston PI Fina Ludlow returns with Fina facing a client who insists that the money-grubbing Covenant Rising Church has brainwashed her daughter. Then a high-profile member of the congregation keels over and dies.

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