WALL OF GLASS

by Walter Satterthwait ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 1988

Pleasantly low-key stoW set in New Mexico, where polite, smart, sometimes funny Joshua Croft works as a P.I. for the detective agency owned by wheelchair-bound young widow Rita Mondragon. Joshua pays special attention one morning to a newspaper report of the murder of Frank Biddle. The picture identifies Biddle as the nameless man who'd approached Joshua the previous day with an offer to return, for a fee, the $100,000 diamond necklace stolen from Derek and Felice Leighton. Biddle had worked for the Leightons, a rich, free-wheeling couple, parents of teen-aged Kevin and Miranda; had been fired some time before the robbery; and was known to associate with scary brute Stacey Killebrew--ex-con and professional burglar. Now Joshua, hired by the insurance company to track the necklace, finds plenty of dirt as he goes along--pornographic pictures with some strange bedfellows, drug-dealing, and a lucrative trade in sacred artifacts stolen from Indian graves. There are more killings before the surprising murderer is nabbed, and the necklace recovered from its prosaic hiding place. Author of a previous stow in paperback (Cocaine Blues), Satterthwait's style is easygoing and unpretentious. His plot hangs together; the violence is muted; his characters and the Santa Fe scene have some vitality, and, all in all, Joshua. Croft is a welcome addition to the P.I. roster.

Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION