The Scent Of Murder
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
Robin Light was behind the fish tanks of her Syracuse pet shop when the teenager walked in the door. With her electric blue hair, corpse-white lipstick, and in-your-face nose ring, Amy Richmond wasn't the type you could forget. But her appearance paled beside the message she had for Robin, "Murphy said you'd help me."
Murphy was Robin's ex-husband who'd lived fast and died too young. And now, his 15-year-old daughter Amy was in trouble recently named the prime suspect in the sensational murder of her wealthy stepfather. Suddenly, the inveterate sleuth finds herself moving through the edgy, drug-infested world into which Amy has disappeared. Hitting up on her street connections, Robin plugs into a secret network of strippers, addicts, and runaways, where a low-life named Toon Town appears to be calling all the shots, and where Robin has to find a terrified young girl, before it's too late.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pet-store owner Robin Light, last seen In Plain Sight, fends off rodents of the two-legged variety when she tries to help a street girl. Amy Richmond blunders into Robin's Syracuse, N.Y., pet store, Noah's Ark, with a ferret in her bag and asking for help. She claims that Murphy, Robin's deceased husband, told her to go to Robin if she ever needed anything. Then the girl flees from two pursuing policemen. At first reluctant to get involved, Robin reconsiders when she learns that Amy is Murphy's daughter. Robin agrees to meet when Amy calls again; but, instead of Murphy's daughter, she finds the corpse of Amy's legal father. While trying to track down the skittish Amy, Robin explores the volatile relationships among the other family members: Brad, the dead man's brother and partner in the Syracuse Casket Company; Brad's son, Frank; and the dead man's son, Charlie. In a story that never flags, Block shines a harsh light into ugly corners of modern America, where abandoned children escape loveless families through drugs and crime while self-absorbed adults lie, cheat and steal to get a little more of what they already have. The animals in Noah's Ark, including the boa constrictors, seem the most civilized creatures of all in this complex, satisfying story of family greed and corruption.
