Greasing the Piñata

September 1, 2008
Maleeny smoothly mixes wry humor and a serious plot without sacrificing either in his third Cape Weathers mystery (after 2007's Beating the Babushka
). When Jim Dobbins, a recently retired California state senator, and his drug-addict son, Danny, disappear in Mexico, Dobbins's estranged daughter hires San Francisco reporter-turned-PI Weathers to find them. Weathers journeys south of the border only to learn that the mutilated bodies of father and son have surfaced in a Puerto Vallarte golf course's alligator-infested pond. Aided by his Triad-trained associate, Sally Mei, Weathers pursues a case that reaches from a Mexican drug cartel to the San Francisco mob as well as the city's boardrooms. An appealing hero, well-crafted villains, snappy dialogue and an energetic plot show that Maleeny, while not quite in the same league as Robert Crais or Laura Lippman, is a definite contender in the private detective subgenre.

October 1, 2008
When a U.S senator and his son are murdered in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the senator's daughter hires intrepid San Francisco PI Cape Weathers ("Stealing the Dragon"; "Beating the Babushka") to investigate. Cape finds that every road leads to political payoffs, financial machinations, crime bosses wanting to eliminate the competition, and a cracking good mystery. The repartee between Cape and his Asian Triad-trained assassin sidekick, Sally, offsets the violent and often casual killings of a number of characters. Definitely not for the faint of heart but just right for readers who like a gritty crime novel with a labyrinth of plot twists. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 8/08.]

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