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SON OF A GUN
by Randye Lordon
St Martin'sMinotaur, February 2005
288 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312291310


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Randye Lordon's SON OF A GUN is a quick and fluent read. It's not in the absolute top division, but it's a damn good tale all the same. It features New York City PI Sydney Sloane who breaks one of her own rules and mixes her personal life with her professional.

Sydney's a former police officer, so she can't help getting involved when her friend NYPD Captain John Cannady is found shot and badly wounded outside his house. John's the father of Sydney's godchild Lucy, and his wife Peggy is one of Sydney's best friends from college.

Police can't decide if it's a random attack, or whether there's someone out there with a grudge against John. But events take a different turn when Peggy receives a threatening phonecall from a man claiming to be the son she gave up many years back after a teen pregnancy. Naturally Sydney decides she has to pitch in and track the man down.

Oh, and if there isn't enough personal and private hassles battling it out, Sydney agrees that one of her employees Miguel can do some digging into the background of one Harold Hardy. He just happens to be a man with an unfortunate habit of losing former wives and is now destined to marry the mother of Sydney's girlfriend Leslie.

Lordon's a crisp and polished writer who can really keep a book moving and who's a consummate plotter. I found SON OF A GUN to be a page-turner full of strong characters (I particularly liked the Buddhist hitman!), even if the employees at Sydney's firm teeter just this side of kooky.

Where it was a touch tiresome was in Sydney's private life. I really didn't care about what happened between her and Leslie, and the seemingly obligatory love tangle was about the only thing to bog down the plot. Oh, and what is it with giving women men's names, yawn, yawn?

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, March 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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