Kissing Arizona

December 13, 2010
Stoic Sarah Burke, financially hard hit by a bad divorce, investigates two cases in Gunn's middling third mystery to feature the 13-year veteran of the Tucson Police Force (after 2009's New River Blues). A friend and former partner, Artie Mendoza, who assisted Sarah with a substance-abusing family member, asks her to help identify a box of human bones found in an alley. The puzzle of who they belonged to and how they ended up there overlaps with her handling of a double homicide. Frank Cooper, who ran a family chain of house supply stores, apparently shot his wife, Lois, before turning the weapon on himself. The couple had been feuding over Frank's plans to expand the business, but Burke's digging casts doubt on the murder-suicide theory. Solid prose isn't enough to make up for a less than distinctive lead.

January 1, 2011

Domestic and social upheaval plague Tucson detective Sarah Burke.

Who would want to murder the Coopers? The inoffensive couple has been married for years. They're partners in a successful home-supply business (two stores and expanding) and solid citizens, according to everyone. But what at first appeared to be a murder-suicide turns out to be a setup. Now it's up to Sarah Burke, with 13 years on the force (New River Blues, 2009, etc.), to set matters straight, a task that requires her to deal with non-talking siblings Tom and Nicole; super-efficient store manager Phyllis; and the parties identified only as Cheeks and Tasty Toes on Mr. Cooper's very private computer. Meanwhile, another case surfaces: Whose bones are those embedded in a cement-filled plastic tub on the other side of the tracks? Sarah's worried when a snitch ties them to stash-house honchos. In addition, she has her own woes at home now that her household's expanded to include her boyfriend Will, her stroke-victim mom Aggie and her adopted daughter Denny. A parallel storyline concerns the plight of Mexican illegal Vicky Nuñez, whose several border crossings end in her deportation and her desperation to relocate to Tucson.

Solid procedural fare with perhaps a slight overemphasis on Sarah's domestic arrangements.   

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011
Feisty Tucson cop Sarah Burke is back in another outing thats as much a commentary on modern social issues as it is a crime story. While Sarah is juggling three hot casesa drug bust gone wrong, the murder-suicide of a local couple, and the discovery of a box of human remainsshe also struggles with her home life, what with her adopted niece needing a room of her own, Sarahs mother suffering a stroke, and boyfriend Will Dietz urging Sarah to move in with him. Mixing the multifaceted plot lines with reflections on illegal immigrants, prostitution, blended families, work-life balance, working mothers, and the effects of the economic recession, Gunn somehow manages it all with panache. Fans of Mullers Sharon McCone, Graftons Kinsey Millhone, and Paretskys V. I. Warshawski will want to add Gunns Sarah Burke to their list of female sleuths to follow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011

Domestic and social upheaval plague Tucson detective Sarah Burke.

Who would want to murder the Coopers? The inoffensive couple has been married for years. They're partners in a successful home-supply business (two stores and expanding) and solid citizens, according to everyone. But what at first appeared to be a murder-suicide turns out to be a setup. Now it's up to Sarah Burke, with 13 years on the force (New River Blues, 2009, etc.), to set matters straight, a task that requires her to deal with non-talking siblings Tom and Nicole; super-efficient store manager Phyllis; and the parties identified only as Cheeks and Tasty Toes on Mr. Cooper's very private computer. Meanwhile, another case surfaces: Whose bones are those embedded in a cement-filled plastic tub on the other side of the tracks? Sarah's worried when a snitch ties them to stash-house honchos. In addition, she has her own woes at home now that her household's expanded to include her boyfriend Will, her stroke-victim mom Aggie and her adopted daughter Denny. A parallel storyline concerns the plight of Mexican illegal Vicky Nu�ez, whose several border crossings end in her deportation and her desperation to relocate to Tucson.

Solid procedural fare with perhaps a slight overemphasis on Sarah's domestic arrangements.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)