The Plot Thickens

What does a female mystery writer do when she reluctantly collaborates with a guy on her latest novel and he disappears right before the kill date from the publisher? And what if he has withheld the key to the conclusion of the book? And what if the book can´t be published unless he signs off on it? The gal goes looking for the bum.

The determined heroine in Mud Blood written by Joan Del Monte is Vera Moonachie, an independent woman who agreed to co-write the book with Fulton Yee, a Chinese criminal lawyer, who has the supreme knack of alienating everybody he has ever met.

The cast of characters includes a dubious author turned actor, a narcissistic chef, a pain-in-the-derriere literary agent, three wacky women who had relations with Fulton, and a bomb maker. But Vera doesn´t go it alone. She decides to take a continuing education class called: "The Do-It-Yourself Private Eye" from a real life private detective who knows all the angles and who just might bend a few himself. Vera hopes she can learn how to track down the missing man. She gets a lot more than she bargains for.

The plot layers in the book are beautifully crafted. Just like the clues to the killer in the novel Vera is writing, there are layers to the real reason Fulton has disappeared. One layer centers on the Sacramento Delta where Chinese immigrants back in 1913, weren´t allowed to own land. (The Alien Land Law didn´t end until 1952!)

Author Joan Del Monte paints vivid panoramas of both Southern California and the Delta area. Raymond Chandler would be proud of her character´s mad dashes from Venice Beach to the San Fernando Valley, to the Civic Center, and then up to the Sacramento Delta. It´s a trip worth taking.

Mud Blood is fast paced, with three-dimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and a smart and feisty heroine who can stand on her own two feet.