Red House (Filomena Buscarsela, #4)

0/5 ( ratings)

First she was a beat cop, then she was unemployed. Now, in Red House, K.j.a. Wishnia's dynamic Filomena Buscarsela has apprenticed herself to a New York City P.I. firm to put in the three years necessary to get her own P.I. license, something she needs to earn enough money to support herself and her daughter. Trouble is, she often agrees to take on sticky neighborhood cases pro bono rather than handle the big-bucks clients her bosses would prefer.

While helping out her more "senior" colleagues with her own superior investigative techniques bred from years on the beat, Fil agrees to look into the disappearance of a young illegal immigrant. Then, witnessing the arrest of a neighbor on marijuana possession charges that nearly turns into a shootout with the police, Fil is roped into finding out what went wrong. Trying to balance charity cases like these with bread-and-butter paying cases, not to mention single motherhood, Fil is quickly in over her head dodging bullish cops, left-wing zealots, and corrupt landlords in their working class Queens neighborhood.

All in all, it's a heady NY mix that mystery fans will applaud for its originality and suspense. K. j. a. Wishnia's mastery of the chaos of New York and the intense drama borne out of daily life in the melting pot of Queens makes for thrilling reading.