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Review by Arlene Germain
Fall Guy by Claire McNab
A Carol Ashton Mystery

Claire McNab’s sixteenth addition to the Detective Carol Ashton Mystery series, Fall Guy, finds the Detective Inspector at yet another scene of the crime. However, the victim was neither shot, strangled, poisoned, nor stabbed. Mega-millionaire, wily entrepreneur, and practical joker extraordinaire, Milton Ryce has plummeted to his untimely death when both his main and reserve parachutes fail to open. An expert skydiver who maintained his own equipment, Ryce realizes all too late that his last joke will unfortunately, if not deservedly, be at his own expense. His last conscious thought falling through the clouds was, “This couldn’t be happening to him!”  [Page 2]

Ashton and her right-hand man, Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke, have been summoned from Sydney to take charge of another high-profile case. Enduring a three-hour car ride to Hash’s Creek, they are met by a rather irritating and ineffective Sergeant Huffner, whose lack of proper police procedure does not bode well for a speedy resolution of the case. The investigation is further complicated by a variety of suspects: a drug-addled daughter, a-wanna-be-like Dad son, a mysterious wife, a scheming mistress, a few questionable business partners, and a foppish gossip columnist, just to mention a few.

As the story progresses, various motives surface, additional suspects are added to the list, and new witnesses come forth. Ashton and Bourke work diligently both to shorten their stay in the scorching Australian backcountry and to bring to justice any and all who may be guilty. Add to this scenario, the facts that Ashton’s latest love interest, Leota Woolfe of the FBI, has concluded her counter-terrorism assignment and returned to the States, alone, and her elderly environmental activist aunt has “volunteered” Ashton’s home for a small gathering of a few hundred sister protesters. As always, the good Detective Inspector has more to handle than just a little thing called murder.

McNab has created a worthwhile addition to her long-running Ashton series. The plotting is deft and the events flow naturally and seamlessly. There are enough plausible twists, turns, and surprises to keep the reader guessing and engaged throughout the course of the novel. The prose is tightly constructed and retains the flavor of previous books in the series. Conflicts are astutely created and satisfyingly resolved.  Those readers who have enjoyed McNab’s previous entries will be especially pleased with the last few scenes.

Carol Ashton appears more comfortable with herself in the midpoint of her life with this latest installment.  After ascertaining some information from the recalcitrant Sergeant Huffner, she responds to Bourke’s teasing comment with, “I’m aging fast, Mark. Have to wring every little advantage out of my blond charm while I’ve still got it.”  [Page 7]  She is still the efficiently calm investigator and competently deliberate interrogator, but the author has exposed and softened some of the emotional edges of this career woman which allows the reader to more fully comprehend the character. Her tendency toward the terse response and sardonic retort still display that Aussie charm and wit. However, McNab has created an intriguing sub-plot involving more of Ashton’s personal struggle and her realization that making truthful life-changing decisions may terminate one episode while enabling her to re-visit another.

Fall Guy is an appealing and satisfying mystery experience. The reader is fully engaged from the intensely suspenseful prologue to the reasonable yet unexpected conclusion. McNab has succeeded in expanding her enormously likable major character and again has included those recurring secondary characters that are part of her professional and personal life. At the same time, the reader is introduced to another cabal of the most loathsome and repugnant people which befits the mystery genre. After having read Fall Guy, the reader will be as anxiously awaiting the release of the seventeenth installment in this outstanding series as this reviewer.

ARLENE GERMAIN is currently a book reviewer for the OutLook Press, Lambda Book Report, the Midwest Book Review, the Independent Gay Writer, the Golden Crown Literary Society newsletter, The Crown, and the JustAboutWrite.com Newsletter/e-zine. She is also a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. A former English teacher who resides in Massachusetts with her partner and two dogs, Arlene enjoys travel, music, film and theater, writing poetry, golf, and the beach. Feel free to drop her an email.

Rating: (on a scale of 1-5, with one being poor and five as excellent)
Fall Guy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire McNab is a transplanted Aussie, living in Los Angeles and has published over 50 titles. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton, star of the self-titled mystery series, was introduced in Lessons in Murder, published in the U.S. in 1988. Little did Claire know, but she and Carol would grow very close in coming years, publishing sixteen Carol Ashton mysteries thus far. Click here to visit Claire's Web site.

Fall Guy Author: Claire McNab Category: Mystery Paperback: 173 pages Published: December 2004 ISBN: 1594930007 Retail: $12.95 Publisher: Bella Books Click here to buy FALL GUY

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