This is #8 in the series of mysteries featuring John Corey, former NYPD detective and also formerly a member of a shadowy government anti-terrorism force. I haven’t read any of the other Corey books, but there are plenty of allusions to the earlier books sprinkled throughout this one – an estranged wife who is a lawyer living with her boss in New York City, wounds from being shot, credible fears of being targeted for assassination by Russian agents and a violent end to an earlier case in which his life was saved by Detective Beth Penrose of a Long Island county sheriff’s department. In this book he rekindles the romance that bloomed then and, at her urging, takes a job as a PI at Security Solutions, a private investigation company based in an old farmhouse at the tip of Long Island. Security Solutions recruits Corey to get his stellar creds on the letterhead. Could be an easy summer job.
But, of course, it isn’t.
Corey suspects from the start that Penrose wants him to join Security Solutions because she thought some illegal activity – blackmail, official corruption and possibly the murders of a former employee (whose death was ruled a suicide), a journalist and 9 prostitutes whose bodies were dumped on Fire Island – had a nexus in that farmhouse. Corey, a self-described “danger junkie” – is happy to be the mole.
It doesn’t take him long to form a plan – concoct an excuse to use one of the upstairs bedrooms (which probably were the source of some of the blackmail material) when no one was there, break into the office and basement, grab all the (suspected) incriminating evidence and cart it to the FBI in the city. The local police and judiciary had to by bypassed because it was believed that most were compromised by the (suspected) blackmail material.
I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who really wants to take on this book, but here are some of the problems I had:
- The entire book, save the final chapter, is preparation and planning for the big takedown. Planning is good, but why isn’t there any active investigations into the known and suspected crimes? It seems like Corey and Penrose both bought the corruption-blackmail-and-murder theory without a whole lot of supporting evidence. They risked their careers on the possible existence of evidence in the locked basement in the farmhouse?
- It is revealed at the end that the entire staff of Security Solutions suspected that Corey was a mole. If they felt that way from the very beginning, why did they recruit him to join?
- If the legendary “Thirsty Thursday” parties hosted at Security Solutions were the source of the blackmail material, why did the blackmailed judges and politicians continue to attend?
- The plan to grab the incriminating materials goes awry and no evidence is obtained, Yet the company is put out of business. Why? What evidence was there of any guilt?
Corey was a big fan of Nero Wolfe, the first detective series that I fell in love with. I admired the wise-cracking sidekick, Archie Goodwin, and it is obvious that DeMille modeled Corey after Goodwin. I really wanted to like this series, but, like the other DeMille books that I have read – Spencerville and The Cuban Affair – this book was all setup and no resolution. Is DeMille just too lazy to close the loopholes? I don’t know. And after 3 disappointing DeMille books, I don’t care.
4 out of 10.
