“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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What a convoluted and twisted story. It peeled like a large onion with a cast of people who would do anything to cover up the past. There are too many characters in the story to make it comfortable to follow. The author did extensive research on the history of the Philippines and the book is a little heavy with this information. The author is an excellent storyteller and if you can dig in deep to follow through till the end it is well worth it!!
Didn’t finish it. Just didn’t keep my interest
Good plot lines and very interesting history of WWII and the Philippines.
Well woven story.
You need to know the past to understand events of today! Good plot.
Wonderful characters, interesting twists, enjoyable.
A good mystery combined with culture change struggles make for a satisfying read.
Well written and very informative about Manila.
Thoroughly enjoyable with lots of twists and turns!!
The detective, her family, how her acquaintences become her friends, hard work, grit and imagination pull her thru.
This is a deep, involving and complex story that deals with past injustices alongside a current murder. When a history professor is killed in a car park, it looks like a random killing. Then a woman turns up at his university, claiming to be his wife and alarm bells begin to ring. It’s time to call in private investigator Jeri Howard, whose father was a colleague of the dead professor.
Pretty soon, it becomes clear that the professor left a package that the bad guys want. But who would want to kill a professor, researching historical events in his homeland, the Philippines? This is what Jeri has to discover and it’s a slow torturous trail through the Filipino community in California where many are related by blood and marriage.
Who can she trust and believe? Who has a motive to kill the professor? More than that, what is the motive? It seems the answer lies in his research and the package everyone wants to find.
It’s a well-researched story with a detailed background and history of the people involved and their roots. More than once, I struggled with the names of characters and their relationships as the story unfolded. As the story progressed, I began to recognise the key characters and relationships, which helped to make sense of the players and suspects.
This early confusion didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the story. The issues explored made this a private eye novel with a difference, which is always welcome, and added a depth to the background and characters that made the story more interesting and engaging.
This is the second book in the Jeri Howard series and I’m looking forward to reading more.
Well written…. good for aspiring Private Eyes to read… great learning…
A window into the immigrant world when connections to the old country still affect the lives of those who made it to the new world. Traditions, politics and relationships all tied together yet no changing because its the way things have always been done. Nothing can change until the old men die.
I learned a lot about Philippine culture and history. Very interesting.
I just enjoy reading this series. I like the California backdrop and the community building.
This is the first book I’ve by this author. I enjoyed the mystery of it and how so many characters could have been the killer. There were some surprises in it too. I knocked off one star because the narrative was very wordy. Some of this could have been left out…in my opinion. I would recommend this book.
Incredible detail.
Atmospheric; sense of place
I had to keep referring back as there were a lot of characters with similar names..confusing at times. However I thought that the book was well researched.
Original storyline and characters hold your interest.