Played! by Michael A. Kahn

Played! by Michael A. Kahn --- 230 pages

Michael A. Kahn is an intellectual property attorney, a professor at the Washington University Law School, and a mystery novelist best known for his Rachel Gold series, and occasionally for other mysteries with attorney protagonists. All his stories are set in St. Louis and/or Chicago, and part of the fun is identifying persons, places, events and customs unique to those locales as they show up in his books.

This latest tale is one of the "other" mysteries not part of the Rachel Gold series but always featuring at least a cameo appearance by her.

In "Played!" the story revolves around a nerdy workaholic attorney intent on bringing down a personal injury shyster who's been running a double scam for years, cheating both the insurance companies he sues on behalf of his injured clients, and then cheating his clients on the money he collects from the insurance companies.

Unbeknownst to our legal champion, his gullible younger brother, sidelined by a motorcycle injury from the pro baseball career he dreams of, has gotten involved with the shyster's third wife, who needs a fall guy to get around her prenuptial agreement by staging her own kidnapping and collecting ransom money in place of a divorce settlement.

Kirkus Reviews says: ". . .the spectacle of these ornaments of the Missouri bar attacking, undermining, and double-crossing each other provides brisk, sprightly entertainment, and the hapless defendant’s baseball background comes into play just when it’s most needed."

A great read to enjoy in a cool place on a hot summer day with a glass of something frosty at hand.

Click HERE to read the full review from Kirkus Reviews.

The Dead Hand: A Rachel Gold Mystery by Michael A. Kahn

The Dead Hand: A Rachel Gold Mystery by Michael A. Kahn --- 227 pages

The tenth book in local attorney/author Michael A. Kahn's clever mystery series features St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold and an abundance of St. Louis references that will add to the enjoyment of local readers.

In her busy law practice, Rachel has handled any number of legally tricky cases and earned a reputation as "tougher than every smart lawyer in town and smarter than every tough lawyer." In “The Dead Hand,” she will need both attributes in order to win two different but tricky cases based on an arcane and obscure bit of Anglo Saxon property law called "The Rule Against Perpetuities."  In one case the trophy widow of a wealthy lingerie manufacturer is attempting to claw back the property deeded to her predecessor in the divorce settlement. In the other the estranged son of a wealthy financier is trying to invalidate the trust created for his much younger half sister by claiming she's not his father's daughter.

Along the way Rachel discovers an unsuspected homicide and meets a man who just might offer her a second chance at love.  Another winner for Kahn.

Click HERE to read the review from Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the St. Louis Jewish Light. 

Face Value by Michael A. Kahn

Face Value: A Rachel Gold Mystery by Michael A. Kahn --- 253 pages

Attorney by day and author by night, St. Louisian Michael A. Kahn has just published his ninth Rachel Gold mystery. He says it didn't start out to be a Rachel Gold novel, it began as a "homage" to Sherlock Holmes with the character of Stanley Plotkin, a genius afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome and autism. Stanley works in the mailroom of Warner & Olsen, a powerhouse law firm located in downtown St. Louis. When a promising young associate in the firm falls to her death from the adjacent parking garage after leaving work late one night, the police and the medical examiner rule Sari Bashir's death a suicide. Stanley knows otherwise, but struggles to convince anyone to take his evidence seriously because of his disability.

At this point, Kahn realized, he needed someone who would listen to Stanley, and that character was, obviously, Rachel Gold.  Rachel gets involved because Sari interned with her during law school and Stanley's mother is good friends with Rachel's mother. When Sari's cousin and father ask Rachel to review the police file because they are convinced Sari would never take her own life, she can't refuse.

The police are convinced it's suicide because Sari was working a high pressure job, there is no one who benefits from her death, and the attorneys with whom she worked at the law firm all have alibis for the night of her death.  But when another associate at the firm who was friends with Sari confirms that she was worried and concerned about something that wasn't quite right in one of the assignments she was working on at the firm, Rachel finds a wedge to get inside the smooth facade of Warner & Olsen.

The solution  to the mystery of Sari's death involves the Facial Action Coding System, a scientific method of analyzing the muscles involved in facial expression to identify a person's true emotional and mental state. It also involves a complex financial product being used in a Ponzi scheme to defraud investors. With the help of Stanley and other friends of Sari at the law firm, and Rachel's loyal friend Professor Benny Goldberg and her mother (Widow Gold the Elder), Rachel and Stanley achieve justice for Sari.

Loaded with sly literary allusions, St. Louis landmarks and local customs, this a a welcome addition to an intelligent and funny series.  

Click HERE to read an interview with Michael Kahn talking about Face Value.

Click HERE to visit Michael Kahn's web site.

A Captain for Laura Rose by Stephanie Grace Whitson

A Captain for Laura Rose by Stephanie Grace Whitson - 325 pages

A Captain for Laura Rose is an apt title for this novel for it has duel meaning as both a captain for the steamboat Laura Rose and a captain for it's pilot/owner Laura Rose White.  On it's first trip upriver for the 1867 season, the steamboat Laura Rose faces unimaginable tragedy as illness strikes down it's captain and his mother, leaving the captain's sister Laura Rose orphaned and full owner of their late father' boat.  Determined not to give up her home, Laura Rose faces the adversity of paying off her father's and brother's debts, both of which require her to make one more trip upriver or loose the Laura Rose.  Coming to her assistance is her brother's friend, Finn McKnight and his sisters, Fiona and Adele.  Together they make the perilous journey from St. Louis to Fort Benton, Montana on the Missouri River.  The experience forever changes the four main characters and unites them forever.

Overall, I enjoyed this book.  Each character is believable and fills a unique role in their journey.  During the first part of the novel, as the Laura Rose prepared for its journey, readers have the opportunity to understand the role of St. Louis in river travel and see the city as it was for the era.

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld - 416 pages

This novel intrigued me initially because of it being set in St. Louis.  While I like local references and inside elements in a story, it gets a bit excessive in this one.  Most people don't think in brand names for stores and restaurants or use the true names for highways and bridges when describing getting from one place to another.

The narrative centers on twin sisters Kate and Violet and their relationship.  A mild earthquake strikes St. Louis and Violet (who is a self-proclaimed psychic) goes on television predicting a devastating earthquake will hit soon which complicates both of their lives.  I found myself sympathizing initially with Kate but she gets more and more unlikeable as the story goes on.  The first two thirds of the book is a very intriguing character study of the two sisters and their relationship together and with outsiders in midwestern suburban America.  The last third takes the plot in a different direction that illustrates that personal relationship "earthquakes" can be just as devastating to an individual as a natural one.  

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld- 400 pgs.

Daisy and Violet are not your typical twins.  They are not close, don't do everything together and will go weeks without talking to each other.  There is one thing they have in common:  psychic abilities.  When Violet predicts that a massive earthquake will hit their hometown of St. Louis, it sends shock waves through Daisy's life that have nothing to do with an earthquake.  St. Louis people will get a kick out of the references of well-known landmarks like Blueberry Hill, Wash U and the Arch.  Some other fun mentions include Schnucks, Bread Co. and Kaldi's coffee.  These references make an intriguing read even better.

Dying in Style by Elaine Viets

Dying in Style by Elaine Viets, 279 pages

If you have not heard, Elaine Viets is coming to the Windsor Branch of the Jefferson County Library on Saturday,  November 9th at 10 am.  She will be signing copies of her new book, Fixing to Die, the 9th book in the Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper series. Dying in Style is the first book in the series.  This was the first book I have read by Elaine Viets.  I must say I really enjoyed this book.  Her books are set in St. Louis which makes them all the more fun to read.  In her mystery shopper series, Josie Marcus has the most interesting job of being a mystery shopper.  She has many disguises she wears to do her shopping. She is given assignments all over St. Louis.  In this book, she is accused of killing Danessa,  a high end purse designer who is found dead in one of her upper class stores. Not only is Danessa found murdered, but also her live in love, Serge.  Now, Josie must rush to find the real killer.

The Flinch Factor by Michael Kahn

The Flinch Factor: A Rachel Gold Mystery by Michael A. Kahn --- 287 pages

Michael Kahn's quirky series of legal thrillers featuring attorney Rachel Gold and set in St. Louis combines local color, sly humor, fast-paced action, and clever plots in one guaranteed engrossing and enjoyable package.

Since Kahn has a full-time day job as an attorney specializing in intellectual property rights, fans have to wait patiently for the appearance of each book in the series, but it's always worth the wait. The Flinch Factor is another winner.

In her previous outing, Rachel became engaged to be married; in this book, she is a very recent widow with a small child and two teenage step-daughters she has taken under her wing. She's also in the middle of a lawsuit, representing a working-class neighborhood trying to fight off a developer who is asking the city for eminenet domain and tax increment financing to redevelop this "blighted area" as a swanky gated community. It appears to be a lost cause, since the city and the developer have the law on their side, so Rachel's last hope is the judge that has been assigned to hear the suit; a judge so notoriously flakey he's known to the entire St. Louis legal community as "The Flinch Factor."

Then Rachel reluctantly agrees to take on another hopeless case: the strange death of Nick Moran, a local contractor adored by every woman whose house he has remodeled. Nick was found dead of a drug overdose in his truck, parked in an isolated area notorious for gay hook-ups, so the police came to the obvious conclusion. But Nick's younger sister is convinced her brother was neither gay nor a drug user.

When Rachel begins digging into the case she finds various bits of evidence that just don't add up to an accidental death. And to her surprise, she discovers a number of connections between Nick's death and the developer in her lost cause lawsuit. Too many connections, in Rachel's opinion, to qualify as coincidence.

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sisterland: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld --- 397 pages

This novel is getting a lot of rave reviews, and I did find it thought-provoking, although perhaps not for the reasons the author intended. For St. Louis readers, there is some fun in catching the many local allusions, a kind of literary poke at the insularity that many newcomers find either comical or exasperating. I have to wonder if Sittenfeld intended local readers to see this as another layer of the novel aimed just at them, since it seems to be satirizing the kind of subtext that such markers provide in our conversations. But is it just a quick way to place a new acquaintance in context, or is it stereotyping?

I don't read a lot of contemporary "literary" fiction, especially the kind that seems particularly aimed at affluent women and teens. This story is about identical twin sisters with "senses," Violet the rebellious one who embraces her differences, and Daisy/Kate the conformist one who just wants to be normal. Their lives folllow different trajectories, yet they can never quite repudiate the bond they share.

When Vi becomes a media sensation because she has predicted a major earthquake is about to hit St. Louis, Kate is torn between embarrassment and dread that her sister's "sense" may be right. Kate, despite being portrayed as a 30-something wife and mother, is essentially immature and self-absorbed, convinced the world revolves around her, and entirely uninterested in anything outside her own little bubble.