Pilikia Is My Business
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REVIEW BY DAVID G. LAGRAFF
Pilikia is a Hawaiian word, and it means trouble. Yes, you're going to Hawaii in this one, but you can forget about the Hawaii you're familiar with, the one with the free Mai-Tai's included in the 8-day, 7-night tourist package. Instead, you're going into the real Hawaii, from the high society to the devious and violent underworld. And you're going in hard and fast, with a gun in your purse. Did I say purse? A good mystery needs a good P.I., and this one has Val Lyon, a tough private eye who happens to be a woman. She served time on a big city police force, got her tail caught in a high profile crack and did hard time. It's a tricky thing to strike just the right balance between hard and soft with a female protagonist, but author Mark Troy walks this delicate tightrope expertly. He manages to come up with a real and believable female private eye that everyone will enjoy prowling the streets with (think Janet Evanovichís Stephanie Plum). Pilikia Is My Business kicks off with P.I. Val Lyon answering the call to work for Brian Magruder, a wealthy lawyer who needs someone to protect Jean Pfeiffer, a honey-blonde high society mother involved in an ugly child custody battle. Jean and ex-hubby Jock Pfeiffer are fighting over who gets Nathan, the pimply 13-year-old prize of their now-finished bad marriage. The no-good father is a thick-necked bull with a bad attitude, too much money, influence and testosterone, and a history of violent abuse. As a pre-emptive strike, Jean has tucked the kid safely away, somewhere not even she knows about. Only her friends know for sure, and Jock begins working through her list of friends to find the kid. But Daddy Jock's idea of working through Mommy's friends involves killing them, and Val is hired to find the kid before daddy does. The plot is classic stuff, as labyrinthine and convoluted as the branches of a Banyan tree, and one you'll pleasantly agonize over trying to figure out. Just don't get too comfortable with your assumptions, which will constantly be proved wrong. And don't get too comfy with the other people in the story, who have a tendency to wind up dead, just when you least expect them to. Val Lyon is an interesting female character, one for whom the lines of self-identity and social definition are blurred. She is an enigma, but one with promise, and I hope to follow her further down those dark Honolulu streets as she wanders through the wreckage of other people's lives in search of herself. Pilikia Is My Business is a good, strong debut by a talented author. Add this download to the shopping cart, punch in your plastic number, curl up in front of your screen with a single malt scotch and enjoy. David LaGraff is the author of five envelope-pushing romantic suspense novels currently appearing at Wordbeams.com. Like the book? Agree? Disagree? Email LaGraff at dlagraff@concentric.net.
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