Private Investigator Ronnie Ventana tells us the story: she's in a bar hearing the greatest jazz of her life from saxophonist Match Margolis. It's Match's comeback and he has written exquisite new numbers. What began as a grand night out ends in tragedy. Ronnie feels herself grabbed from behind. It's Match, sinking to the floor and dying in front of her. A knife wound in his back could have come from almost any of the packed crowd of fans and musicians.
Ronnie is no fool. She is unlucky in that the one policeman who really doesn't like her (or does he?) gets the call. She agrees not to interfere in the police murder investigation. Then the blousy hard-faced widow hires Ronnie to sort out some of Match's debts. Ronnie gets to hear rumours, like the one in which Match whispered to her the name of his killer before he died. So Ronnie gets very nervous. It seems she can't stay out of the case after all - what with the killer stalking her.
f you like lively female American P.Is, then you'll like Ronnie. Single with a persistent ex, she has the obligatory tough male minder in Blackie Coogan, ex-boxer and babe magnet. Crucially, like V.I. Warshawski, Ronnie also has her dead parents to help her, for both the police and the underworld have a soft spot for her ex cat-burglar father.
Gloria White handles the staples of P.I. crime fiction very deftly in Death
Notes. There are some well fleshed-out characters and memorable encounters.
The merry widow and the sinister group of pals surrounding Match make for an
exciting read.
-----
Susan Rowland
This is the fifth book about Ronnie Ventana, previous adventures are - Murder
on the Run, Money to Burn, Charged with Guilt and Sunset and Santiago.