Book Review: Dead Man's Hand

Reviewed By: Jaynie - Australia

Dead Man's Hand     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Catherine Dain
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Private Investigator
Series: Freddie O'Neal # 7
Berkley Prime Crime, 215 pages/ $5.99

Freddie ONeal is a Reno Private Investigator with a penchant for getting herself in and out of trouble. She works out of her living room, usually with her two cats hanging off her desk. She hangs out at a casino and is one of the few Reno locals who gambles with any regularity, buying keno tickets with her meals. Freddies supporting cast are always interesting, and Im always fascinated by Freddies relationship with her mother.

Dead Mans Hand is the seventh and what looks to be the last in Catherine Dains Private Eye series featuring Freddie ONeal. This time around Freddie is out shopping with her latest boyfriend Curtis when the two are held up at gunpoint. The gunman panics and when Curtis is shot, Freddie retaliates with a bullet of her own. As she copes with the aftermath of the shooting, she is asked by a local minister, Mike Danken, to do some pro bono work and find out what a wayward husband has been up to. The case gets a lot more complicated when the bodies start piling up. Homicide Detective Ron Matthews gets frustrated with the case, and with Danken and Freddie, for sticking their amateur noses into it.

Comparisons to Grafton and Paretsky are unfair as Dain has created an original character who could hold her own with Kinsey or V.I any day. The writing sticks to a good pace and Dain integrates her unusual Reno setting well into the plot. This series just keeps getting better and better. I hope Dain returns to it at some stage as Id love to catch up on Freddie and see if this latest relationship lasts and what she is doing now. I highly recommend this series. Its useful to start at the beginning of the series but not necessary.

Jaynie - Australia

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jaynie - Australia