“A welcome addition to this tough genre.” The New York Times Book Review“In recent years women private eyes have become big business, as anyone who’s been following the fortunes of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky can attest. Thanks to their success, the way has been opened for many other women to write mysteries uniquely their own. A fine example is Janet Dawson.” The Denver Post“Janet Dawson’s new … Post
“Janet Dawson’s new kid on the block, Jeri Howard, another Californian, is a kindred spirit of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op character.” USA Weekend
Filipino-American professor Lito Manibusan is dead, murdered in a San Francisco parking garage. His body was found by a fellow Cal State history professor – whose daughter is Oakland private eye Jeri Howard.
Several months after the funeral, mystery woman Dolores Cruz shows up on campus, claiming to be the dead man’s widow. Dolly wants the professor’s papers, but they’ve already been turned over to Dr. Manibusan’s next-of-kin.
Jeri discovers the pattern of death and deception leads from the Bay Area’s Filipino-American community all the way back to the Philippines and World War II.
After all, the past never dies. It’s just covered up.
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I really enjoyed both the characters in the book and the ‘mystery’; the writing is excellent, easy to read, well researched, interesting – a page turner. I’m glad to note there are quite a few books in this series!
Good read.
Even though it was based on the Philippines culture, the premise of the book applies to all cultures. It was interesting that at one point it is mentioned that things would stay the same as long as the old men lived–in other words they would carry on with their views and biases as long as they lived. One character wisely points out that some of young people will perpetuate the old men’s attitudes.
I have read 3 of this authors books and loved each one of them. I will be reading the others soon.
This book has way to much history in it. I have to skip whole pages.