Thank you, Midwest Book Review, for featuring this review!
"I can't leave you alone for a few hours without
somebody else being murdered."—Murder in Hand
REVIEW
Title: Murder in Hand
Author: Celia Conrad
Published 2012 by Barcham Books
ISBN 13: 978-0954623340
ASIN: B00A1O1YQE (Kindle)
Available on Amazon U.K. and Amazon U.S.
Author Website: Alicia Allen Investigates Web Site
Author Blog: Celia Conrad Blog
Lawyers aren't the most popular people, Miss Allen..."
—Murder in Hand
In her cerebral legal mystery, Murder in Hand, Celia
Conrad pulls her feisty London Probate/Estate lawyer heroine, Alicia Allen,
deeper into the quagmire world of unscrupulous attorneys, the unfortunates who
work with them and their unsuspecting innocent victims. In this third book of
the Alicia Allen Investigates Trilogy (AAI), Conrad hits her stride
as a bona fide puzzle master in the tradition of Agatha Christie. The easy-to-follow
plot line keeps readers guessing and the pages turning, while great pleasures
lie in Conrad's refusal--or perhaps inability--to write for the lowest common
denominator of brain power. Instead she aims for the highest.
If you want to roll with Alicia Allen...better bring your
A-Game (and some knowledge of the Classics wouldn't hurt).
Murder in Hand could be enjoyed as a stand-alone book if
readers don't mind not knowing the history between the justice-loving attorney
Alicia Allen and her adoring cohort Alex Waterford; her investigator friends,
Jo and Will; or her cultured elderly neighbor Dorothy.
The story takes off when Alicia's Italian American client
Fabio confides that he believes someone is trying to kill him. Fabio's
family ties span New York, England and Italy/Sicily; and when his sister
is killed in the midst of doing some family estate research in Italy, Alicia
embarks on a quest to find the killer.
"I can't leave you alone for a few hours without
somebody else being murdered."—Murder in Hand
As in Books 1 and 2 (A Model Murder and
Wilful Murder), Alicia leaps where proverbial angels fear to tread, resisting
Alex's concerns for her safety. and soon he is helping her sort the puzzle
pieces as the body count goes up (with the neat twist that as they hone in, it
is lawyers or their assistants who are now dropping dead).
Their relationship has matured into an easy partnership built on love,
trust and the potato chip that rhymes with "Tingles." It provides a
soothing stability that contrasts with the dark, random world of mayhem they
are navigating together.
"I generally advise my clients to make both
a British and an Italian Will."—Murder in Hand
All the AAI books turn on classical theater or operatic
references or clues. Murder in Hand pays homage to Gianni
Schicchi (which Puccini based on Danté's Divine Comedy), a comic
opera about a dead man's Will gone wrong, schemers and estate swindlers. And it
won't be spoiling too much to divulge that key action takes place in the
Italian town that hosts an annual Puccini festival.
The book's title is a double entendre. British police refer
to an investigation in progress as "in hand." And as for the other
meaning...well, you'll just have to read the book, won't you?
(Hint: Bone up on your Puccini!)
This review first appeared on Marlan Warren's blog: Dancinhg in the Experience Lane
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