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Swift Run (Charlie and Gigi Mystery)
by Laura DiSilverioCover Artist: Steven Nobel Review by Joseph B. Hoyos Minotaur Books Hardcover ISBN/ITEM#: 9780312623814 Date: 27 November 2012 List Price $25.99 Amazon US / Amazon UK Links: Author's Website / Show Official Info /
Unfortunately, Heather-Anne is found strangled in her hotel room and Gigi's teenage son, Dexter, is implicated. As they swiftly run across a snowy countryside searching for clues, Charlie and Gigi discover horrible secrets about Heather-Anne and Les. Secrets that will put themselves and their loved ones in grave danger. I love Charlie and Gigi but I wouldn't hire them to find anything of mine that was missing. I'm convinced more than ever after reading Laura DiSilverio's Swift Run (following Swift Justice and Swift Edge) that Charlie and Gigi are the most bumbling, oddball duo of detectives I have ever met. They are swift to get in trouble with the police; they are not swift to solve a crime. If Laurel and Hardy or Felix and Oscar established a detective agency, it would be like Swift Investigations. Swift Run has a lot of slapstick humor and hilarious high jinks. Most of it involves the pudgy, klutzy, fashion-challenged Georgia "Gigi" Goldman who hales from Atlanta. She's the proverbial disaster waiting to happen. Charlie spends a lot of time, and money, bailing her out of trouble. Swift Run begins as your typical sweet cozy but quickly escalates into an intriguing mystery when the comedic duo discovers that there is more to the seductive, whorish Heather-Anne than meets the eye. The more I read about Heather-Anne, the more I loathed her (I believe most other readers will agree) and was glad she had been murdered. However, her killer must not be allowed to go unpunished. As more and more dark secrets are unearthed about Heather-Anne, the closer Charlie and Gigi are to finding out who is pursuing Les and who strangled Heather-Anne. Les is another character who deserved whatever horrible fate befell him. If he'd stolen millions from me, I'd want him dead. The more I read of Swift Run, the more difficult it was for me to put it down. I found myself reading the last pages after midnight when I should have been in bed trying to recover from a sinus infection. This cozy has an abundance of action and comedy, but it also has some romance. In Aspen, Colorado, Gigi has a brief fling with her ex-husband, Les. Is he using her or does he really miss her? It's obvious that Gigi misses the family unit they once shared together. This entire relationship made me ponder the importance of family values. Meanwhile, Charlie, who spent seven years in the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI), is swiftly edging closer to her hunky neighbor, Father Dan Allgood, an Episcopalian priest. At a muscular 6’5”, he is all good. He helps her during her investigation. Together, they are stranded in a blizzard near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and are forced to seek shelter at a closed gasoline station. One can only hope that their relationship is taken to a new level. What about her friend, Detective Connor Montgomery? Well, it seems he's too busy for her. Laura DiSilverio's Swift Run is highly recommended for fans of cozy mysteries, especially those involving female detectives. It has the tender romance and light-hearted comedy one would expect in a cozy. However, the mystery itself becomes rather complex, intriguing and sometimes horrifying. Swift Run made me think of Bob Rafelson's 1987 film, The Black Widow, starring Theresa Russell and Debra Winger. Its poster tagline is: "She mates and she kills." The bumbling duo of Charlie and Gigi finds themselves trapped in a sticky web of murderous deceit and betrayal. We'll all be laughing while they try to untangle themselves from this mess before the spider bites them dead.
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