"Swift Justice" by Laura DiSilverio: Book Review

David

"Swift Justice" by Laura DiSilverio
Minotaur/Thomas Dunne, 290 pp., $24.99
Reviewed by David Marshall James


Here's a debut mystery with plenty of pep.

And Pepsi. It's the protagonist's preferred beverage. At least it's the high-octane variety, not the wimpified caffiene- or sugar-free varieties.

Charlotte "Charlie" Swift-- somewhere in her thirties-- of Swift Investigations in Colorado Springs has been plying her trade for five years. She doesn't work well with others (read: bosses); otherwise, she would have signed up for police work after eight years with Air Force Special Ops.

So, Charlie's flying solo and loving it until her Anti-Self appears one day in the bare-bones strip-mall corner office. Yes, this Antithesis is all bright designer colors, from pedicure to milady's dome, even if she's a bit on the squishy side in the physique department.

Gigi Goldman, Mom to two teenage bratosauruses, aims to be a P.I., as her husband's ditched her and fled the country with his hot young chick.

Moreover, as he was the silent (read: absent) partner in Swift Investigations, he's left his stake in the firm to his deserted wife, a former Southern hairdresser who's never met a Hallmark knicknack she didn't "ooh" and "aah" over.

Charlie-- who cannot afford to buy this interloper out-- believes that she'll shed herself of Gigi Goldman by sloughing off all the grunt work on her-- an undercover assignment in full costume at a burger joint, all-night stakeout duty, and process serving.

Nevertheless, Gigi rises to the occasions; rather, it's Lucy Ricardo to the rescue. After all, she's been pursuing her Ph.D. in all-situation-coping with those two terrible teens.

Speaking of motherhood-- the subject figures largely in the main plot, which concerns a runaway teen mother, custody issues, and a barrage of men who could be the father of the baby in question.

Author Laura DiSilverio revs up the motor in this lively mystery with two likable main characters and several appealing secondary ones, most notably a hunky Episcopal priest who resides in the church rectory next-door to Charlie's house, and a restaurateur with a jazzy joint down the strip mall from the Swift Investigations office.

If the author can just maintain the overall quality (style, characterization, plotting) she exhibits in this opener, then this series is really going for a ride.


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