Double Take

July 15, 2021
A second case for San Diego shamus Madison Kelly finds her suddenly awash in job offers. The one she picks is a doozy. Pharmaceutical sales rep Travis Moore's girlfriend, Hillcrest Holler reporter Barrett Anna Brown, disappeared five days ago. The police have limited interest in something that happens all the time, and Travis is willing to advance Madison $5,000 to spend a week looking for her. Within hours, Madison has a lead: half a dozen death certificates Barrett requested copies of. Greg and Isabel Thomas, Jason and Rebecca Brady, and Rex and Tammy Hacks all died in accidents that claimed the lives of both members of each couple. The same person, Crystal Ladessa, is listed as handling the paperwork on all three of their estates, and Joseph L. Viceroy, the lawyer Crystal works for, has set up charitable trusts as secondary legatees for each of the childless couples. Holler editor Cornell Jones says he knew Barrett only professionally even though a telltale photo shows the two of them together in a restaurant in Mexico. Madison, who notices early on that she's being followed everywhere she goes, clearly thinks she'd be a superhero if she had more upper-body strength. But she's too busy itemizing dates, addresses, architectural details, and the brand names of her boots and flak jacket to consider why her client might be lying to her over apparently innocent details or, once the case heats up, to return calls and texts from surfer Dave Rich, her maybe boyfriend, and married SDPD Detective Thomas Clark, who'd like to be more than her buddy. The upshot is as predictable as the solution. The single best thing about this flawed, likable mystery is the sly clue buried in its title.

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August 23, 2021
In Breck’s intricately plotted sequel to 2020’s Anonymous, La Jolla, Calif., PI Madison Kelly, who has earned a reputation for locating missing people when others have failed, takes on a desperate new client, Travis Moore. Travis tells Madison that his girlfriend, Barrett Brown, who works for a local newspaper, has been missing for five days and the police are doing nothing to help. Madison accepts his retainer, vowing to find Barrett and bring her home. As she digs deeper into the Barrett’s life, Madison begins to identify strongly with her: both are fiercely independent introverts who won’t shy away from danger. The tension rises when Madison realizes a surveillance team is following her every move. Meanwhile, she worries about the possible return of her breast cancer, which resulted in a double mastectomy three years earlier, and how this news will affect her relationship with her neighbor Dave, “the surfer who was her on-again, off-again boyfriend and all-the-time love of her life.” Breck, herself a licensed private investigator, makes Madison a convincing heroine. Readers will look forward to seeing more of her. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group.

October 15, 2021

The sequel to Anonymous, by licensed private eye Breck. Travis Moore begs San Diego--based PI Madison Kelly for help: his girlfriend, a reporter named Barrett Brown, has been missing for five days, and the police don't seem to be looking for her. While Madison tracks Barrett's last steps, someone is tracking Madison. She quickly picks up her tails, but it takes another PI to tell her how they're finding her time after time. It's only when she gets to the small newspaper where Barrett works that she finds a story that might have led to the woman's disappearance. Barrett was looking at death certificates in three cases of couples dying in accidents, three months in a row. The death certificates were all signed by the same person. When Madison finally finds the missing woman, she leads a killer right to Barrett. Now, both women are impediments to a killer's plans for millions. Madison's concerns about a cancer recurrence may bother some readers, and Madison's emotional handwringing and tears become repetitive Madison's emotional handwringing and tears as she insists she has to look for Barrett become repetitive. VERDICT Recommended for libraries where the first book circulated well or for die-hard PI fans.

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