Blood Orange

April 8, 2013
Santa Barbara, Calif., PI Jaymie Zarlin, who normally looks into missing persons cases, investigates her first major crime in Keskinen’s energetically lurid debut mystery. The initial suspect in the rape and murder of teen Lili Molina, who had a lead role in the city’s annual solstice parade, is “mentally disabled” Danny Armenta, who was found crouching near Lili’s body. In her efforts to prove Danny’s innocence, Jaymie finds a city choked with corruption and an immigrant underclass hopelessly caught in the warped machinations of the rich. Devious society matron Celeste Delaney is a prime example; she obscures darker motives with an artificial benevolence and plays the master of ceremonies for her narcissistic nephew, Sutton Frayne III, and his set of hedonistic, dissipated party-goers. Those looking for sensation will find it all: gore, sweeping conspiracy, Gossip Girl–style teenage decadence—even a wink to Fifty Shades of Grey in the form of Jaymie’s romp with the powerful and mysterious Zavier Carbonel. Agent: Becca Stumpf, Prospect Agency.

March 1, 2013
A fledgling California PI, more accustomed to finding runaways than murderers, attempts to upend a frame-up. Jaymie Zarlin is an easy mark. When her former beau, Sheriff Deputy Mike Dawson, sends housecleaner Gabi Gutierrez to her, she agrees to look into the plight of Gabi's nephew. Danny, mentally slow like Jaymie's dead brother, has been found cradling the body of Lili Molina, the pretty young girl starring as Daphne in the Santa Barbara solstice pageant, and the cops figure he killed her. Jaymie finds many clues the SBPD overlooked and is soon sleeping with her pal, a high-powered nabob, for insights, ignoring the deputy's pleas that she be careful, and stepping on the toes of the rich, the haughty and the secretive. Her dog is brutalized, but her office gets better organized as Gabi takes over as her assistant, bringing the files up-to-date, making decent coffee and offering chocolate-filled pastries every morning. Acting on Jaymie's behalf, she also accepts a dognapping case Jaymie handles altogether more smoothly than Lili's murder, which will implicate a bratty son, a rebellious daughter, a closeted dad, a mother in denial, a wealthy aunt and her gun-toting assistants, and various men whose families have been privy to arcane, felonious solstice rites for generations. Danny will die, Jaymie will require rescue, and the Santa Barbara Fire Department will have to deal with a major alarm. But not to worry: Jaymie will figure out whodunit. More importantly, those chocolate-filled pastries will keep right on coming. Mark first-timer Jaymie as one more private eye California could do very nicely without.

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March 1, 2013

Lili Molina was thrilled to be this year's "Daphne" on the Apollo Guild's float entry in Santa Barbara's popular Solstice festival. But after the event, someone killed her in the dressing room and framed her friend Danny, a mentally ill teen, for a murder he never would have committed. Local investigator Jaymie Zarlin gets corralled into investigating by Danny's aunt. Jaymie's late brother was also mentally ill, and that seals the deal. Jaymie doesn't realize that she's coming up against some of the city's most powerful families until threats multiply, her dog is seriously harmed, and there's another murder. Problem is, Jaymie looks the wrong way--almost missing the one who plans to dispose of her next. The Greek myth of Daphne holds the clues. VERDICT Keskinen has launched a promising soft-boiled debut, one that definitely fits into the Sue Grafton mold. Her fiercely independent PI meets her challenges head-on, making the pages fly by.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
In two years as a private investigator in Santa Barbara, Jaymie Zarlin has specialized in finding missing persons; murder, she feels, is out of her league. But urged on by her old flame, Deputy Sheriff Mike Dawson, and the suspect's aunt, Gabi Gutierrez, an undocumented cleaning lady with aspirations, Jaymie agrees to look into the case of Danny Armenta, a mentally disabled man accused of the rape and murder of teenager Lili Molina. Since Lili was killed just after portraying Daphne on the Apollo Guild parade float in the annual summer-solstice celebration, Jaymie's investigationsaided by Gabi, who's set herself up as Jaymie's personal assistantcenter on the guild and take her into the haunts of the city's privileged class, where she uncovers a terrible tradition seemingly based on droit du seigneur. Jaymie displays a complex personality, persistent to the point of foolhardiness and conflicted about personal relationships, with the backstory about the death of her beloved, mentally disabled brother still to be revealed. A briskly told tale with escalating danger, this debut mystery offers a promising start to a likely series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)