Secrets don’t stay buried forever.
After surviving a brutal attack by a deranged fellow employee, Jorja Knight is eager to start life over as a private investigator. Her first big challenge—shed expectations that things will turn out badly—or fatally. Her second challenge—find Johnnie Gorwitz.
Zosia Gorwitz escaped the horrors of WWII but not the guilt that comes with harboring a family secret. When new information surfaces that a nephew may have also survived, she hires Jorja, who harbors her own family secrets, to track him down. Jorja finds someone who seems to fit the bill, but something’s wrong.
Johnnie Gorwitz’s street buddies claim he’s gone missing, along with other of their pals. They know more but are afraid to talk. When another of their buddies goes missing, and a man known to Johnnie turns up dead, Jorja knows she’s backed into something deeper and deadlier than she ever imagined. Now someone wants her and her street informants dead.
After surviving a brutal attack by a deranged fellow employee, Jorja Knight is eager to start life over as a private investigator. Her first big challenge—shed expectations that things will turn out badly—or fatally. Her second challenge—find Johnnie Gorwitz.
Zosia Gorwitz escaped the horrors of WWII but not the guilt that comes with harboring a family secret. When new information surfaces that a nephew may have also survived, she hires Jorja, who harbors her own family secrets, to track him down. Jorja finds someone who seems to fit the bill, but something’s wrong.
Johnnie Gorwitz’s street buddies claim he’s gone missing, along with other of their pals. They know more but are afraid to talk. When another of their buddies goes missing, and a man known to Johnnie turns up dead, Jorja knows she’s backed into something deeper and deadlier than she ever imagined. Now someone wants her and her street informants dead.
Review:
This was a gently-paced private investigator mystery debut and, although I did absolutely love it, it was a very pleasant way to pass a few hours.
The information provided sets Jorja off on a seemingly simple and straightforward search that, honestly was mostly completed on Google. But there's much more to the story and pretty soon, Jorja is hunting for answers that were not on her initial to-do list, and paying for them out of her own dwindling funds. Before long, Jorja is doubting herself, her skills and whether or not she's finally lost the plot, but she can't seem to stop until she has the answers she needs.
This is Alice Bienia's debut novel and will be kicking off her Jorja Knight series. There is potential for character growth here and did I maybe see the tiniest (and my god I do mean tiniest) hint of a potential future love interest? Honestly, it was so small I could be wrong but if it had been a little more obvious it probably would have been enough to have me decide I'll definitely pick up the next one. As it is, I could probably take it or leave it.
Jorja's characterisation was very muted. I found her smart and intelligent, despite her own doubts at times, but other than that I don't feel as though I truly got to know her very well in this book.
In general, I found the book a little bit too putdownable for me; the pacing too slow, too much driving around not doing much. It took too long for that first hook of the mystery to sink into you, and then the climactic ending could have been SO much bigger and more exciting.
The writing itself was the best thing about the book for me, and what makes me not want to give up on this series entirely quite yet...
Standing in my Wonder Woman pose I stared into the mirror, unflinching eyes stared steadily back. I got myself into this situation, I’d get myself out. With my mojo somewhat restored, I locked up and strode to the elevator, hardly recognizing the put-together woman in the mirrored elevator doors. I reminded myself success didn’t come in a straight line. Ask any successful person and they’d tell you they suffered many setbacks along the way. The trick is to not let one of those setbacks stop you. Say… like getting killed.
I'd recommend this book to mystery fans who don't mind a lack of action (or perhaps don't even like action scenes) in their mysteries, to fans of PI sleuth tales, cosy mysteries and slow to steady-paced books.
3 Stars ★★★
ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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