Book Review: The Kidnapping of Rosie Dawn

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Kidnapping of Rosie Dawn     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Eric Wright
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Kidnapping   Political Intrigue   Humorous   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Joe Barley # 1
Perseverance, Oct 2000, $12.95, 216 pp.

Joe Barley is a permanent part-time English teacher at Hambleton College in Toronto, Canada. He supplements his income with surveillance jobs for a small detective agency. His cleaning lady Helena, aware of Joe’s sleuthing work, asks him to find out if anything happened to one of her clients, Rosie Dawn, a kept woman missing for two weeks. Helena and Joe visits Rosie’s apartment where the superintendent gives the cleaning woman her pay from her former employer and informs her she is no longer needed there.

The answers leave a bitter taste in Joe’s mind. He is concerned about Rosie’s fate and begins investigating the situation. Joe soon finds the owner of the apartment, Mr. Hyde, who seems to have something to hide (no pun intended). Joe learns that someone kidnapped Rosie to get at Hyde. All parties want Joe to butt out, but he is unable to do so, which places his life in danger.

THE KIDNAPPING OF ROSIE DAWN is a book about kidnappers, prostitutes, and crooked politicians and businessmen, all converging into a humorous plotline. Eric Wright has the right stuff (pun intended) as he uses wit to keep his audience laughing in what is essentially an amateur sleuth tale. Joe owns the story line that will hook readers into seeking more novels starring this unique, likable individual.

Harriet Klausner

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