A Beer at a Bawdy House (Wild Onion Ltd. Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: A wll designed mystery
Review: Dealing with the devil means you must dance to his tune. However, when the individuals involved in the malevolent tango consists of a Chicago Bishop and his brother, the police department Organized Crime Division acting chief of detectives, one hardly suspects evil. Bishop Peter Keegan believes his half-brother Walter is nothing less than Satan personified. When Peter begins to receive blackmail threats involving an incident in his past as well as getting the sensation that someone is stalking him, the bishop feels Walter is involved.

Due to his sensitive position, Peter knows he cannot turn to the police. He has no idea what Walter wants, but figures his sibling will tell him when he is ready to do so. Instead of waiting and fretting, Peter hires Wild Onions, a private detective security firm to help him. The owners Kirsten and Dugan agree to take the Bishop on as a client even as they quickly understand that any dealing involving Walter is a struggle to survive.

A BEER AT A BAWDY HOUSE rotates the narration among three different players (Dugan, Kirsten, and Peter). The technique works very well as David J. Walker makes the three characters feel so genuine. Dugan and Kirsten will remind readers of "Hart to Hart." The flawed Bishop has insecurities that turn him into a human being. The mystery is well-designed and special.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Chicago, Cops, a Priest, P.I.s and a Mystery, It's all Here
Review: Nine years ago Peter Keegan stopped off at a topless bar for a drink, a fight broke out, he was arrested. An inconvenience, but not a big deal for most single guys, but Peter was a priest, is now a bishop and somebody is threatening to expose the incident. It would damage his career with the Church were it to come out, but why would anybody do such a thing? What could they possibly gain? Peter suspects his estranged half-brother, the acting chief of detectives of the Organized Crime Division in the Chicago Police Department.

He turns to Kirsten and Dugan for help. They are a husband-and-wife team-he's a lawyer, she's a PI-and together they run Wild Onion, Ltd., located in Chicago's Loop. Ex cop Kirsten is supposedly in charge of the agency, but she gets plenty of help, a lot of it unwanted, from Dugan, who can't stop worrying about her.

Right from the get go Kirsten has reservations about the case as she blames Peter's brother, Walter, the acting chief, for ending her father's career in the department, but they take the case and try their level best to unmask the bishop's tormentor, tracing Peter's problems back to a dark night in his past. Plus there are other forces at work here, like an anti government group, the enmity between the brothers and then, of course, there is a super twisty ending you'd never expect.

In more ways than one I was reminded of the old Thin Man series as I read though this delightful mystery. I don't know why, but I thought I'd be able to read for a bit, do my early morning chores, go downtown, make a bank deposit, have lunch with friends, then maybe read a little before I went to bed. But it didn't work out that way. The chores got put off till another day, the bank deposit got postponed till tomorrow and I missed lunch (didn't really want to go anyway), but fortunately I finished before dinner, because I was famished.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene