Sympathy Sentiments

Death Duties

Janet LaPierre

Perseverance Press

PO Box 2790, McKinleyville, CA 95519

ISBN: 188028474X $13.95

Janet LaPierre is a prolific mystery writer who has garnered nominations for the Shamus Award, the Anthony, and the Macavity awards as well as critical acclaim from readers and peers. LaPierre lives in Berkeley, and wanders around several counties for research with her trailer, laptop, and two dogs.

Cold cases are often the most challenging, and Patience and Verity Mackellar, Private Investigators, take on a thirty- year old case in Port Silva when Edgar Larson’s granddaughter asks them to investigate child molestation charges that Christina Larson feels sure her grandfather was innocent of. Chris has made a promise to her father on his deathbed, and she means to carry through. Unfortunately, Edgar committed suicide a few months after the charges were filed. One fact is plain. There were two anonymous calls to the police making the charges…one from a female and one from a male. As Patience and Verity investigate, it becomes clear that someone in town doesn’t want the investigation. When a woman Verity questions turns up dead of a gunshot wound in her pickup, the plot thickens and tongues wag:

SCOTT, Martin. Death and thraxas. Baen. 472p. c1999.0-7434-8850-4. $7.99. SA

The adventures of Thraxas, the brilliant private investigator of Twelve Seas, continue in this compilation of two novels, Thraxas at the Races and Thraxas and the Elvish Isles. In the first tale, Thraxas is accused of the murder of Senator Mursius and is constantly besieged with unrelated death threats. In the meantime, Deputy Consul Cicerius hires Thraxas to protect a hated Orc Lord at the Turas Memorial Race. Aided by Makri, the quarter-Orc/quarter-elf/half-human, bikini-clad swordswoman, Thraxas watches over the Ore Lord’s chariot for the famous race. When the Orc chariot rider’s prayer mat goes missing, Thraxas is charged with finding it. No Ore should race without the mat (due to Orc religious beliefs), and if the Ore Lord’s chariot is not able to participate in the race, Turai may lose its claim on deposits of copper. Thraxas must aid the Ores at all costs to protect Turai’s political interests.

In the second tale, Thraxas is visited upon by Vas-ar-Methet, an elf and old friend from the Elvish Isles, representing Lord Kalith-ar-Yil from Avula. Someone attacked his clan’s Hesuni tree with an axe and then set it on fire. The Hesuni tree records the history of an elves’ clan, and Thraxas believes that no elf would ever destroy such a sacred object. Vas’s daughter has been charged with the crime, and Vas vows that she is innocent. So along with Makri, Thraxas travels to the Elvish Isles to discover the truth and solve the mystery.