The Keys to the Vault
A Caroline
Baker Mystery
Jim
Colombo
Strategic Book Publishing (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-60693-768-5 (1606937685)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60693-768-6 (9781606937686)
Publication Date: January 2009
List Price: $25.50
Synopsis (from
the publisher): While playing hooky from her job as an independent
soybean trader at the Chicago Board of Trade, Caroline is approached by
a man looking for a lift into the city.
As they are driving to his downtown office, the stranger makes another
request: he needs her help in retrieving a sensitive file from his
office. Caroline agrees and easily collects the file, filling the rest
of her day with bathing suit shopping, fending off attempted purse
snatchings and giving a philandering boyfriend the boot.
It is only after this very long, very strange day that Caroline finally
opens the mysterious file. Its contents will not only spring
unlucky-in-love Caroline into the romance of a lifetime, it will plunge
her headlong into an international adventure with the fate of the
entire international banking system at stake!
Review: Jim
Colombo introduces Chicago commodities trader Caroline Baker in The Keys to the Vault, a book that
reads more like a fantasy/adventure tale than a novel of
mystery/suspense.
Caroline is filling her sports car with gas when she is approached by a
stranger, S. Bentley "Ben" Parker, who needs a lift into Chicago.
Ordinarily, she tells him, she didn’t give rides to strangers,
but her intuition tells her he's harmless, so yes, she will take him to
Chicago. It turns out that he needs more than a ride, he needs her help
in retrieving a sensitive file from his office concerning a woman named
Claudia Seiffert who is a person of interest in some suspicious
criminal activity. Caroline, always up for a bit of intrigue, agrees to
get the file knowing that if Claudia became aware that Caroline had the
file, she would be in grave danger. It takes Caroline just 35 minutes
to locate Ben’s office, find the file, and return to her car,
only to find Ben missing. She takes the file home and it reads like an
international spy thriller. But that's only the beginning. She soon
finds herself in London and Paris, in the midst of a love affair which
endangers her life, and trying to prevent the collapse of the worldwide
banking system.
The real problem with The Keys to
the Vault is that it is all just too unbelievable, even for what
is arguably escapist entertainment. No rational woman would do what
Caroline does, and even if the reader assumes Caroline temporarily
takes leave of her senses for a chance at adventure, there's still the
question of why. At one point she asks herself a most rhetorical
question, "Am I crazy?" For the story to be even slightly credible,
Caroline has to be grounded in some way, have a focal point upon which
the plot can evolve. And that's missing.
To be fair, The Keys to the Vault
is a quick and easy read, and for those willing to suspend reality for
an hour or two, it can be fun. But more likely than not, readers will
be rolling their eyes or shaking their head in disbelief at the antics
of Caroline Baker.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Keys to the Vault and to Jim Colombo for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read The Keys to the Vault? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
The Keys to the Vault
Strategic Book Publishing (Hardcover), January 2009
ISBN-10: 1-60693-768-5 (1606937685)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60693-768-6 (9781606937686)
Omnimystery keywords for The Keys to the Vault ...
Location(s) referenced: Chicago, Illinois, London, Paris.
