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FAMILY BUSINESS
BY JANET LAPIERRE
Review by Diana Bane
This Review Appeared First on DorothyL |
Janet LaPierre often writes about Port Silva, a fictional area
to the north of Mendocino that is quite different from what
people in other parts of the country usually think of as California.
In real life, as opposed to fiction, that part of the Golden
State is equally unique, and she captures its flavor quite
well in her current mystery novel, FAMILY BUSINESS.
Patience and Verity, a mother-daughter team of private investigators,
become involved in two separate disappearances that may or
may not turn out to be related. One of these is particularly
odd, in a place-appropriate way: a young man seems to jump
off a precipitous ocean-side cliff during an anti-violence
demonstration, but his body is never found. Both these disappearances
occur against a background of restrained turmoil created in
the wake of 9-11's acts of terrorism.
The mother and daughter, though related by blood, are quite
different in their personalities and in their approach to crime-solving.
Yet they are similar in their sense of values, and it is rewarding
to watch them work out the conflicts as their investigations
unfold. More of a why-did-it-happen than a who-done-it, FAMILY
BUSINESS will make you think. One of the things you will certainly
think about is how much our world has changed since September
11, 2001 and how deeply those changes go in our lives, even
in a quiet, isolated place like Port Silva.
I want to thank Janet LaPierre for this book, and Perseverance
Press for bringing it to us in a trade paperback so beautifully
made.
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