Greasing the Piñata

September 1, 2008
Maleeny smoothly mixes wry humor and a serious plot without sacrificing either in his third Cape Weathers mystery (after 2007's Beating the Babushka
). When Jim Dobbins, a recently retired California state senator, and his drug-addict son, Danny, disappear in Mexico, Dobbins's estranged daughter hires San Francisco reporter-turned-PI Weathers to find them. Weathers journeys south of the border only to learn that the mutilated bodies of father and son have surfaced in a Puerto Vallarte golf course's alligator-infested pond. Aided by his Triad-trained associate, Sally Mei, Weathers pursues a case that reaches from a Mexican drug cartel to the San Francisco mob as well as the city's boardrooms. An appealing hero, well-crafted villains, snappy dialogue and an energetic plot show that Maleeny, while not quite in the same league as Robert Crais or Laura Lippman, is a definite contender in the private detective subgenre.

October 1, 2008
When a U.S senator and his son are murdered in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the senator's daughter hires intrepid San Francisco PI Cape Weathers ("Stealing the Dragon"; "Beating the Babushka") to investigate. Cape finds that every road leads to political payoffs, financial machinations, crime bosses wanting to eliminate the competition, and a cracking good mystery. The repartee between Cape and his Asian Triad-trained assassin sidekick, Sally, offsets the violent and often casual killings of a number of characters. Definitely not for the faint of heart but just right for readers who like a gritty crime novel with a labyrinth of plot twists. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 8/08.]

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2008
The third Cape Weathers mystery finds the private investigator crossing the border into Mexico, where a former U.S. senator has gone missing, and his son has been murdered. Faced with an assortment of adversaries, including a couple of tough guys, local law enforcement, a U.S. government agency, and an assassin with an esoteric style of killing, Cape summons his sidekick, Sally, the Triad-trained killer, to keep him out of trouble as they attempt to unravel an international conspiracy. The Cape Weathers novels are smart, snappily written, energetic mysteries starring an engaging hero.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)