Snake Oil
A Saxon Mystery
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In the Saxon mystery series. Wealthy and unlikable real-estate developer George Amptman hires Saxon to determine whether his young wife, Nanette, is having an affair. Saxon hates domestic cases, but the client seems so pathetic—and offers so much money—that Saxon agrees. And when her lover, a petroleum engineer, is found strangled with a silk scarf, Saxon finds himself hip-deep in the oil business. Saxon’s nemesis, Lieutenant Joe Di Mattia of the LAPD, thinks Nanette Amptman murdered her lover. But there’s no shortage suspects. The crusty old wildcatter who’s made and lost fortunes. The mysterious East Indian with a nasty pet cobra. The powerful oil baron who fired the victim because of his womanizing. And the exquisite movie actress more famous for her private performances than her on-screen ones. And there’s no shortage of motives, either—thirty-two million of them, all with dollar signs. Saxon ranges up and own the oil-rich beach areas of Los Angeles’s South Bay, facing a second murder, an attempt on his own life, and a wrenching examination of his own courage. A tender love affair with a strong, independent woman brightens his life, and his teenaged adopted son, Marvel, provides some much-needed moral support when the going gets toughest.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Author of the Milan Jacovic adventures, Roberts also writes expert procedural novels colorfully narrated by an L.A. private eye named Saxon, a likeable tough guy with a soft heart. Although he is put off by wealthy land developer George Amptman, the detective, needing money in order to support his adopted son, Marvel, accepts a fat fee to follow up Amptman's fear that his wife, Nanette, has a lover. The apparently simple case assumes grotesque proportions when Saxon discovers Nanette outside the house where her lover, Peter D'Anjou, has been strangled. Believing the woman innocent, the investigator shoulders the task of tracing the killer, starting with inquiries into why D'Anjou was fired from a job with an oil company. The assignment leads Saxon into dangerous corners but finally gives him the satisfaction of exposing partners in a criminal scheme.