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WORKING STIFF
by Tori Carrington
Forge, September 2008
351 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0765317443


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In this fourth installment in the Sophie Metropolis series Sophie must track down a nicely prepared corpse missing from her aunt's funeral home. She is also engaged in seeking to prove the innocence of one Johnnie Laughton, who grew up in the projects and is now about to be tried for the murder of his socially prominent girlfriend.

Greek-American PI Sofie Metropolis is a likable lead character for a series, and WORKING STIFF hits some charming notes in this overcrowded tale of murder and mayhem. However, with any book that seeks to provide some backstory and leave some of the story open-ended for future novels, details are left hanging and parts of the story unresolved. Moreover, one very important hair-raising shootout goes unexplained entirely, leaving some readers (like this reviewer) questioning just why it was added in the first place.

The challenge of any series is to tie up enough loose ends to make new readers coming to any particular book in the series curious to read more and not feel cheated by unexplained events. Similar plot devices with a dog, a cat, and, yes, neighborhood vampires are likely to leave readers scratching their heads and wondering just what the significance of those plot devices might be (if any).

This is not to say that there isn't plenty to like about the feisty Greek-American detective and her extended family who seem to grace nearly every event, large and small. Her romantic adventures, particularly with a Greek-American baker, are enjoyable; her relatives (an aunt owns the funeral home where the missing corpse case begins) are worth getting to know better. Even her neighbors and employees have interesting personalities that enrich the story.

While the two cases Sofie Metropolis works in this book are strong material for the novel, the problem is just that there are so many balls in the air at any one time that it seems inevitable that some are bound to come crashing down on author Tori Carrington (the actual joint writing team of Lori and Tony Karayianni). There are so many characters, events, and subplots that, when added to the humorous approach and the romantic entanglements that are thrown in for good measure, it all becomes a bit too much. Sadly, in WORKING STIFF what could have become a dynamic sum of the whole instead becomes weaker as a result of too many parts.

Reviewed by Christine Zibas, December 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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