THREE STRIKES, YOU’RE DEAD

By Elena Hartwell

When the words “private investigator” are used, readers have a familiar type of person they see in their own minds; whether that involves the familiar pipe of Sherlock Holmes or the harsh mouth of V.I. Warshawski (written by Sara Paretsky). Eddie Shoes, however, is her own special type of P.I., and one that readers have latched on to.

When this story begins, Eddie is all about having fun. She’s about to throw herself into a mother-daughter weekend with her mom, Chava, at a posh resort so they can celebrate Mom’s new job at a casino. (Mom is a card-counter, by the way.)

Unfortunately, the happiness of the situation dims when on the very first day, Eddie takes a calming hike by herself and ends up coming upon a campsite where an extremely injured man is lying. If that’s not enough, a forest fire breaks out and Eddie must struggle to help this man onto his legs so that they can both be free of the flames. Too far gone, the man simply hands Eddie what turns out to be a valuable rosary and tells her that his own daughter has gone missing. Right before passing away, he begs the P.I. to find her.

Waking up in the local hospital, barely surviving the fire, Eddie sits with her mother and mob-connected father while she tells her story to the local police, who begin their search for a girl they simply cannot find. But Eddie made a promise to a dead man. Problem is, except for the photo of this missing girl and a rosary in hand, Eddie has no more clues to go on.

A colorful character with a colorful family, it will be fun to see where this series goes next. It is not a surprise that Eddie has turned into a new “wanna read” P.I. in the mystery world.