Blowing Smoke

An intricately plotted story with red herrings galore. The corking-good plot will keep you turning the pages until the very end. An outstanding addition to a wonderful series. --Booklist

Blowing Smoke

Getting involved with the rich and their problems is never a good idea, as far as amateur P.I. Robin Light is concerned. But when the mercury is rising to a steamy level, the bills are unpaid, and the investigation promises real money, the only answer is yes.

Robin figures the case to be a no-brainer: the three adult children of an eccentric heiress, Rose Taylor, are convinced their mother is the victim of a scam operated by a psychic named Pat Humphrey, who has just earned a large place in Rose's will. Assuming the woman is a fraud, Robin pays her a visit and is startled to discover that Pat could be the real thing--and that she knows far more about the Taylor family than she admits. . .enough to get her killed.

As the air grows thick with the promise of rain, the case takes one shocking turn after another, plunging Robin into the dark secrets and twisted loyalties of a troubled family, where money may not buy happiness, but it can be a powerful motive for murder. Now, Robin's own premonition about the rich is coming true, because a cold-blooded killer is about to turn the dog days of summer into the most dangerous season of Robin's life.

"Interlocking mysteries and layered family secrets nudge Block's seventh toward Ross MacDonald territory." --Kirkus Reviews

"This female PI ranks right up there with the tough-guy detectives in taking her lumps and dishing them out as well." --Library Journal