Book Review: False Profits

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

False Profits     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Patricia Smiley
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character
Series: Tucker Sinclair # 1
Mysterious, Nov 2004, $23.95, 292 pp.

Her mother and her dog Muldoon live with financial planner Tucker Sinclair in her beach cottage in Los Angeles. Tucker expects to make partner in the firm Aames & Associates especially in light of her recently completed grueling work with Dr. Milton Polk, who needed capital to expand NeuroMed, a testing facility using cutting edge techniques. She expects this campaign to be very successful as was her previous assignment.

When she enters the office of Gordon Aames, Tucker expects accolades and an offer, but instead is told that a NeuroMed investor is going to sue the firm as part of a class action suit for eleven million dollars. It is obvious that Polk copied and changed the prospectus and report, but Tucker cannot find the original. Not long afterward, Polk’s body is found in the bay, an apparent suicide. Tucker believes her client was murdered; when one of her contacts is killed next, she realizes she must find the missing report before she joins the growing obituary list.

The heroine of FALSE PROFIT not only does not want to be a sleuth, but feels uncomfortable in that role as her expertise is finance investigations. However, she also knows she has little choice, but to find the missing report or face FBI charges of fraud and embezzlement, which would mean jail time as conviction would be a certainty (at least in her analytical mind). Thus, this cleverly plotted debut amateur sleuth filled with quirky characters makes believers that a desperate Tucker would reluctantly search for the proof of her innocence as opposed to hiring a pro; this leads to readers admiring her spunk, determination, and will want more tales starring Tucker.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner