GREASING THE PIÑATA
by Tim Maleeny
Private eye Cape Weathers investigates a double death in the family.
Once upon a time, Rebecca Dobbins had a proper set of close relatives. Now they’re gone, suddenly vanished, leaving her heartbroken and desperate for answers. What happened to her dad, a California State Senator, and her beloved younger brother Danny? Where are they? It’s not a case calculated to appeal to Cape, who has a long-standing, visceral dislike of politicians. Still, as every shamus knows, peepers can’t be choosers. And of course Rebecca is very pretty, and Cape is famously susceptible. He doesn’t break much of a sweat locating Rebecca’s missing persons. A week after tracking them to Puerto Vallarta, Cape has a sit-down with Mexico’s Chief Inspector Oscar Garcia, who tells him that the dead and dismembered corpses found on a local golf course are those of Dobbins and son. Does that meeting end the case? Of course not. Neither Cape nor Sally, his hard-kicking, Triad-trained sidekick (Beating the Babushka, 2007, etc.), is the type to quit a still-breathing investigation—not without page after page of biff-bang-bop, the chorus that so often accompanies an underimagined story line.
An amusing, often quite entertaining duo, Cape and Sally might truly shine given something more substantive than this disjointed farrago.