False Profits

Rating:
Summary: Excellent amateur sleuth!
Review:

For seven years, 30-year-old divorcee Tucker Sinclair has worked for the financial advising firm Aames & Associates as a management consultant and is now being considered for a partnership. However, her risk taking methods make others within the firm somewhat nervous. Though since completing her work with Dr. Polk, a neurosurgeon, who was in need of capital expansion, Tucker feels confident she'll get it.

That is until the Doctor turns up missing, money can't be accounted for and the firm is being sued for 11 million dollars!

To make matters worse - her original files, which prove the claim is incorrect, are missing, and her Aunt Sylvia who has conveniently moved in with her dog suddenly claims the Malibu beach cottage that Tucker's grandmother left to Tucker in her will, is hers! What Aunt Sylvia doesn't reveal is that the land the cottage sits on is worth about 2 million.

Faced by a wall of secrecy, Tucker has too many unanswered questions, leaving her with no choice but to investigate the crime or face criminal charges of fraud and embezzlement. She has one week in which to clear her name, identifying Polk's accomplice and the person who helped alter her business plan, while Mo Whitner threatens to turn her into the FBI, which could probably turn up an insurance scam as well.

Tucker isn't going to waste a second, and finds herself investigating the crime-desperately hunting for clues. Her amateur sleuth skills lead to a number of high-level individuals, as well as her ex-husband, Eric, her own staff, the doctor's insane receptionist, and confrontation with autopsy photos.

False Profits is not only the author's debut novel, but is well written, fast paced and fresh. The result is a book you have difficulty leaving once you begin its reading. Sinclair Tucker, the fiery heroine would make Jessica Fletcher proud! Patricia Smiley is a talented author, and certainly one to keep an eye on - in a sequel perhaps?

Reviewed by Betsie


Rating:
Summary: fine amateur sleuth
Review: Her mother and her dog Muldoon live with financial planner Tucker Sinclair in her beach cottage in Los Angeles. Tucker expects to make partner in the firm Aames & Associates especially in light of her recently completed grueling work with Dr. Milton Polk, who needed capital to expand NeuroMed, a testing facility using cutting edge techniques. She expects this campaign to be very successful as was her previous assignment.

When she enters the office of Gordon Aames, Tucker expects accolades and an offer, but instead is told that a NeuroMed investor is going to sue the firm as part of a class action suit for eleven million dollars. It is obvious that Polk copied and changed the prospectus and report, but Tucker cannot find the original. Not long afterward, Polk's body is found in the bay, an apparent suicide. Tucker believes her client was murdered; when one of her contacts is killed next, she realizes she must find the missing report before she joins the growing obituary list.

The heroine of FALSE PROFIT not only does not want to be a sleuth, but feels uncomfortable in that role as her expertise is finance investigations. However, she also knows she has little choice, but to find the missing report or face FBI charges of fraud and embezzlement, which would mean jail time as conviction would be a certainty (at least in her analytical mind). Thus, this cleverly plotted debut amateur sleuth filled with quirky characters makes believers that a desperate Tucker would reluctantly search for the proof of her innocence as opposed to hiring a pro; this leads to readers admiring her spunk, determination, and will want more tales starring Tucker.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: wacky LA mystery
Review: Rebeccasreads recommends FALSE PROFITS as quite a good evening's read -- a womanly mystery, with detailed domestic & business scenes, explanations of financial dealings &, yes, romance for our single heroine, who has some old fashioned ideas about honor & dignity, although for the hardcore mystery reader, the police procedures will be a bit vague..

Tucker is a typical amateur investigator, hunting for clues to a murder that might very well get her whacked too, especially as there's lots of money (or not!) involved. She's got a wry Los Angeles sense of humor, a naive sense of danger & some unique ways of getting out of it.

FALSE PROFITS is a well written pulp mystery -- good for a commute or two.


Rating:
Summary: Truly a Profitable Read!
Review: This book is exceptionally well done. It is one delight after another. The metaphors, allusions. phrasing and colorful rich dialog are certain to appeal and titilate any reader. The characters are well devloped and come alive rounding out the good story that is unraveled.The most entertaining read in 2004.

Rating:
Summary: A West-Coast Stephanie Plum...
Review: Tucker Sinclair doesn't have a bad life, really. Sure, she's recently divorced, and her flamboyant mother and her dog, Muldoon, have moved themselves into Tucker's oceanfront cottage. But she's at the top of her career as a consultant at Aames & Associates. She's been made a senior manager, and she's one step away from partnership.

But that's when things start to fall apart. One of Tucker's clients-Dr. Milton Polk, a neurologist with the dream of creating a high-tech clinic-cheats investors out of millions of dollars, and the investors are blaming it on Tucker. To make matters worse, Tucker's files on the project have mysteriously disappeared-as has Dr. Polk. Suddenly, not only have Tucker's dreams of partnership vanished, but she's also jobless-and the only way to salvage her job is to do a little sleuthing to find the missing files that will clear her name.

Fans of other chick-mysteries-like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series-will love Tucker Sinclair. She's a character that anyone can relate to-she's sometimes tough and independent, yet she's sometimes a little too impulsive for her own good, and she sometimes even gets lonely. Surrounding her is an only-in-LA cast of characters-including her spiritually-charged actress mother, her boozy neighbor, and her neurotic assistant who took up knitting on the advice of his therapist. Tucker's adventures in seedy Hollywood diners and rich men's closets will have you hooked and looking for more-and the few ends left untied at the end of the story suggest that this isn't the last you'll hear from Tucker Sinclair.


Rating:
Summary: Smiley's imagination and wit keeps the reader guessing
Review: With her humor and imagination permeating each page, Patty Smiley introduces the reader to a carnival of interesting characters percolating through all the corners of Los Angeles. Her protagonist, Tucker Sinclair, is full of life, wit, and intelligence--someone you'd really want to know. Smiley kept me guessing up until nearly the last page of this clever "who dun it," and the intoxicating puns and fanciful repartee kept me smiling even when the goings got rough. I was thoroughly entertained!