It is December 2059 and St. Nick is very
much dead on a street in Time Square. Humans, without parachutes, don’t do well
when they go over the side of a building. In this case, when he went out a
window and jumped from the 36th floor of the Broadway View Hotel. Witnesses
report he was yelling “Ho, Ho, Ho” as he came down before crash landing on an
innocent bystander who had the worst timing to pass by.
For Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her
partner, Detective Peabody, their latest case is the deaths of Max Tubbs (Santa
Claus in full outfit) and Leo Jacobs (innocent and unlucky bystander). Dallas
designates Peabody as the primary on the case though she will, of course,
heavily assist and guide the case.
Clearly some “recreational
pharmaceuticals” were involved as it was definitely not a suicide. Through
questioning Dallas learns that a group of coworkers pooled their money to rent
a suite and buy some drugs from a dude known as Zero. The plan was for a
holiday party. Nobody was supposed to do anything heavy drug wise. Certainly,
nobody was supposed to die. Zero runs a club nearby. He is also her first clue
on a case that is small potatoes compared to what is coming.
Dallas went through a lot in her
childhood. The horror of her brutal past comes back in bits and pieces.
Sometimes it is a crime scene that brings back what long has been buried.
Sometimes it is the victim and what they went through. In this case it is the
form of a long forgotten foster mother, Trudy.
Trudy, from long ago in Texas, shows up
at Dallas’s job to get reacquainted. There was extensive media coverage after
the last case and Trudy saw some of it. So, she knew Dallas was now in NYC and
brought the family. Seeing her in the present violently rocks New York City
Police and Security Department Lieutenant Eve Dallas to her core.
When she gets herself back together, she
realizes that Trudy is in town for one thing and one thing only. She wants
money. No doubt she wants a lot of money. She wants to use Dallas’s past as
leverage to get paid. She did not count on Dallas and Roarke refusing. That
wasn’t the only thing she did not count on.
What follows is another fast-paced read.
Part mystery, part thriller, the action flows forward at a steady pace as
Dallas, Peabody, and others solve their latest case. The year is 2059, but
folks still murder for the classic reasons. In this case, greed kills.
My reading copy came in digital format by
way of the OverDrive/Libby app and the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
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