End of the Line
A Parker Noble Mystery
Mike Manno
Review: Mike Manno's second mystery to feature homicide detective Jerome "Stan" Stankowski and his state attorney liaison Parker Noble, End of the Line, has the mismatched duo investigating the murder of a man found on bus.
The dead man is R. J. Butler, a former banker now working as an insurance claims adjustor. He had been fired from his previous job on suspicion of embezzlement when funds turned up missing. Stan is assigned to the case, but is joined by Parker when his boss, the Attorney General, who is friends with the bank's president, urges him to wrap things up quickly. But are the two crimes related? Despite the pressure from all sides to make an arrest, Stan and Parker don't want to jump to conclusions that aren't supported by the facts ... especially when those facts seem to lead in opposite directions.
End of the Line is a locked room-style mystery in that an impossible murder seems to have been committed: how could a man be shot on a bus without any of his fellow passengers being aware of it? A combination of whodunit plus police procedural, Stan and Parker systematically and methodically interview all the witnesses (such as they are, since no one seems to have seen anything) and potential suspects (those who may benefit from R. J.'s death) ... which is a minor problem for the book, causing it to move along slowly at times.
Parker and Stan are the central characters in the book, and their interpersonal "buddy cop"-type relationship is quite entertaining. That, and the well developed murder mystery plot, are sufficient to recommend the book. But these positive elements are diluted by passages of Stan, randy guy that he is, constantly on the lookout for his next romantic conquest. ("Even for a cop, it's hard to keep one's mind on business on the time. After all, how many red-blooded twenty-nine-year-old American males would rather think about a corpse on a bus than a couple of co-eds in tight jeans.") The introduction of a reporter -- also on Stan's radar -- looking for her next scoop adds little substantive, despite her being a recurring character.
Acknowledgment: Five Star Press provided an ARC of End of the Line for this review.
Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in End of the Line:
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End of the Line by Mike Manno
Publisher: Five Star
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1-59414-863-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-863-7
Publication Date: June 2010
List Price: $25.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): R. J. Butler is a banker … or was a banker. After being promoted to manager of his bank's downtown branch, R. J. was fired when the bank was sold and the new owners discovered an embezzlement.
When R. J. is found murdered in a city transit bus, police immediately make the connection between his murder and the bank embezzlement and the state police special investigations unit is assigned to investigate. The lead investigator is Detective Sergeant Jerome (Stan) Stankowski. Assigned to "advise" the investigation is Deputy Attorney General Parker Noble, Stan's persnickety nemesis from Murder Most Holy.
R. J.'s widow, Linda, a former cheese-cake model, is undergoing drug rehab therapy through a local hospital with her apparent lover and therapist Bob Maxwell. R. J. and Linda's divorce was pending at the time of his murder.
R. J.'s first wife, Ann, is now engaged to the nephew of a local Mafia-type, Johnny Capo, who Parker, as a prosecutor, had sent to prison. To accommodate his family's desire that the nephew, Chris Roncolli, be married in the Catholic Church, Ann filed for a Church annulment of her marriage to R. J. The annulment was granted, but R. J. (partly out of spite) appealed the decision to Rome, which may delay Ann and Chris' wedding plans several years.
Stan is "aided" in the investigation by newspaper reporter Buffy Cole, and also receives some "moral" assistance from a bank teller, Kitty Quinn, and by Teri Barkley, the niece of one of Parker's old classmates, as he and Parker try to piece together the disparate clues to solve the murder.
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