Fresh Meat: Swift Run by Laura DiSilverio

Swift Run by Laura DiSilverioSwift Run by Laura DiSilverio is the third in the Charlie Swift humorous mystery series (available November 27, 2012).

Swift Run is an appropriate title for this third installment in Laura DiSilverio’s Swift series. In this fast-paced novel, Charlotte “Charlie” Swift returns to work after suffering a bullet-in-the-tush to help her hapless partner Gigi Goldman find her husband, Les. Lots of running and hijinks ensue.

Gigi takes center stage in this novel when her husband—ex-husband—disappears. The twist is that Les has already disappeared, jumping the marriage-and-family and heading to Costa Rica with a sexy woman named Heather-Anne Pawlusik. So there Gigi is, trying to learn the ropes of private investigation work, keeping what’s left of her fragile family together, when Heather-Anne waltzes into Swift Investigations to hire her to find Les:

“Now, Gigi, I know you were probably a little pissed at me and Les— ”

A little? I blinked at her. I was horribly hurt and depressed. Les leaving was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

“—but these things happen. It’s nothing to hold a grudge over.” She looked at me like I was being unreasonable. I was about to tell her again to get lost, but she withdrew a roll of cash from her purse, and I heard Charlie’s voice in my ear telling me a paying customer was a paying customer and we didn’t have to like everyone we worked for.

While Gigi may not owe Heather-Anne a Decaffeinated Mocha Hazelnut Supremo, Les is the deadbeat father of her children. So she takes the case, much to her partner’s dismay. Charlie Swift comes out of her convalescence (not entirely disappointed to be back to work) to help Gigi—who really, really needs some assistance.

Gigi manages to track Les down to Aspen, but he takes off again. Say one thing for Les Goldman: the boy can make a run for it.

Unfortunately, Heather-Anne is not quite as quick and winds up dead in a hotel room. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect. Including Gigi, Gigi’s ex-husband, and Gigi’s son Dexter. Then there are all the suspects out in the world: Heather-Anne’s roommate, Heather-Anne’s sugar daddies, Heather-Anne’s ex-husbands…and, of course, all of Heather-Anne’s marks.

Now Gigi and Charlie have to figure out the tangled mess of their final client’s past and find her killer in order to clear struggling Swift Investigations of any possible suspicion.

DiSilverio has switched the point of view in this third Swift novel—normally the reader is up close and first-personal with Charlie Swift, the former Air Force investigator. This time it’s Gigi’s stream-of-consciousness, sometimes dizzying thought process we follow. Gigi’s reasoning is fast and furious…and even though the reader can follow every step of her brain some of her insights are amazingly, surprisingly, and delightfully unexpected.

A young woman with her dark hair in an up-do, wearing a wedding dress so tight I could practically read the label on her undies, had her arm tucked into Wilfred Cheney’s arm. There wasn’t so much gray in his beard, and he wasn’t in a wheelchair, but it was the same man. I leaned closer and studied the bride, who was younger and plumper than Heather-Anne, and brunette to boot.

“Do you think that’s Heather-Anne?” Charlie asked, eyeing the photo doubtfully.

The bride’s hand rested on the groom’s arm, and I could make out a flawless French manicure, even in the black-and-white photo. “It’s her,” I said, pointing to the manicure.

Together, Gigi and Charlie work to hunt down the person who murdered Heather-Anne. Between various Goldman family arrests, interviews that result in potential gas-station explosions, confrontations with half-naked men, and all the way around Aspen, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and back down to Colorado Springs they track down the pieces of the puzzle. The story starts twisty and fast…and doesn’t even think of slowing down until the last page.

See more coverage of new releases in our Fresh Meat series.


Jenny Maloney is a reader and writer in Colorado. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in 42 Magazine, Shimmer, Skive, and others. She blogs about writing at Notes from Under Ground. If you like to talk books, reading, publishing, movies, or writing feel free to follow her on Twitter: @JennyEMaloney.

Read all posts by Jenny Maloney for Criminal Element.

 

Comments

  1. georgiann

    A fantastic story line would love to win a copy

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