Backfire - Hardcover

The police have closed the case of arson that killed wealthy semi-invalid Helena Skane at the Skane family compound outside Washington; they're holding Maria Rivas, the restaurateur Joseph Skane hired to look after his wife. Maria, hysterically mute ever since the fire, can't make bail, but she has a mysterious savior: the elusive ``Mr. Smith,'' who hires investigator Anna Peters (A Safe Place to Die, 1993, etc.) to gather evidence in her defense. Even though the compound is crawling with suspects--Joe Skane's long-engaged son, Tony; his big-spending daughter, Sabrina Bach; her husband; and of course the cook, the butler, the gardener, the chauffeur--there's nothing but Maria's fierce, handwritten denials to cast doubt on her motive (the affair Joe maintains they were having) or to implicate any of the other well-heeled Skanes or their underlings. Unless, that is, Joe turns out to be financing the expansion of his restaurant chain with Colombian drug money--a development that opens up a fertile new field of suspects even as it sends Maria, precipitately freed on bail, into hiding from some truly nasty guys (``He likes killing....And he likes doing it himself''). Hardworking Anna asks nonstop questions but makes no impression whatever. Nor does the rest of the cast of this easy-to- take page-turner, compounded equally of tabloid headlines and fairy dust. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Anna Peters, owner of Executive Security in Washington, D.C., is intrigued when she receives a check and then a mysterious call from "Mr. Smith," hiring her to assist a suburban Virginia public defender in the case of Maria Rivas, a nurse to the wealthy Mrs. Joseph Skane, now charged with the murder of her employer by arson. The circumstantial evidence strongly suggests Maria is guilty, but her refusal to speak since escaping the burning house leads Anna to conclude that the case is not quite as cut-and-dried as the police might like to think. Her investigation, not surprisingly, begins to turn up some rather dirty family laundry, a piece of which puts Anna and her client in deep jeopardy. Anna can best be described as someone with her head screwed on right--intelligent, observant, low key, but tenacious and with nerves of steel. Brisk pace, appealing characters, and good plotting only add to her attractiveness, while helping to make this eighth installment in the series another winner. Stuart Miller