A FINE ITALIAN HAND (AN INSPECTOR CHARLIE SALTER MYSTERY) - Hardcover

The ninth outing for personable Charlie Salter (Final Cut, A Sensitive Case, etc.) of the Toronto police finds him coping with the stabbing/garrotting slaying of actor Alec Hunter in a lakeside motel. Although Hunter was rumored to be a heavy gambler, the feelers that Charlie sends out indicate that Hunter was not killed by the mob over IOUs. What then? Turns out, Hunter said he was going to the track to cover up his trysts at the motel. With whom? Cast members have no idea, but as Charlie checks out previous performances, he uncovers a suicide that occurred while Hunter was playing Brighton. Further investigation reveals that it may have been murder rather than suicide, and Charlie now has two cases on his hands. Moreover, while trying to discover who took the secobarb pills from the dead actress's room, Charlie locates another beauty in Hunter's past--a blackmailer who bled him dry--and a good deed that may have killed him. A bit more intricate a plot than usual, and a nifty one at that, enlivened by a bittersweet encounter with an old girlfriend while wife Annie is off on Prince Edward Island. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In his ninth appearance (the most recent was Final Cut ), Toronto police inspector Charlie Salter has a hard time focusing on the case of a murdered actor. Salter is suffering either from spring fever (he keeps smelling nonexistent lilacs) or a midlife crisis: his thoughts turn often to aging and death while his wife is away on Prince Edward Island tending her father, who has had a stroke. Actor Alec Hunter was stabbed and garroted in a sleazy lakefront hotel; evidence points to a mob-style rubout. Connie Spurling, who was the victim's possessive lover and agent, says she had given him $1000 to pay his gambling debts, a suspiciously small sum to lead to murder. Meanwhile, Salter must also deal with the bribery charge made against a new friend in the gambling squad, and with the dilemma of Sgt. Ranovic, whose pregnant girlfriend is resisting his suit of marriage in favor of remaining a single mother. The agreeable Charlie penetrates a web of deceit to link this case to the earlier death of an actress. But the contrived plot falters due to undeveloped characters and a notable lack of suspense.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.