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Rating: 
Summary: A Casino to Die for
Review: Reviewing; Casino to Die For
I especially like the sometimes quirky, often warm and always real qualities you gave your characters. Your dialogues were purposeful and clear. I enjoyed Jim and Jennies' monologues. They brought out strengths and weakness we're all heir to. The story, moved at a fast pace while it simultaneously entertained and educated.
As I entered into the last 20 pages, I felt sad letting go of the people and characters with which I'd become involved.
Then an idea struck "When's the sequel coming?"
Rating:
Summary: A Casino to Die for
Review: Reviewing; Casino to Die For
I especially like the sometimes quirky, often warm and always real qualities you gave your characters. Your dialogues were purposeful and clear. I enjoyed Jim and Jennies' monologues. They brought out strengths and weakness we're all heir to. The story, moved at a fast pace while it simultaneously entertained and educated.
As I entered into the last 20 pages, I felt sad letting go of the people and characters with which I'd become involved.
Then an idea struck "When's the sequel coming?"
Rating:
Summary: Well executed whodunit with lots of glamour and danger
Review: The duo of Lani Robson Remender and Mary T. Hoiness is one evolving from interesting personal histories. Remender is a descendent of pioneers who founded Mesa. Lani is an English teacher and amateur archaeologist whose husband is a lawyer. Hoiness is also an English teacher who comes from Italian immigrant parentage. She moved to Arizona in the 1960's to teach. She has been involved with Arizona politics, having campaigned for various incumbents.Jim Ryan is a defense lawyer who has just hired a new secretary, Jennie Bond. Although there is an obvious attraction, the two keep it in check. Jennie discovers a glitch in an Internet video phone Jim has purchased which sheds light on an insurance case he is working on. This case turns into murder reaching back to the Hohokam of Central Arizona, the mob, and the new Kamaho Casino, built on ancestral land. Shortly after the casino opens, Billy Horn Deer is found dead in his car, and his sister Connie Sue is the prime suspect. Ryan agrees to defend her and opens up a cache of rattlesnakes, some buried treasure, corrupt politicians, and the sins of his erstwhile girlfriend: "She looked at him with a cold glare, 'Yes, I paid him for investigative work. Why all the questions?' 'I just came from Glen Johnson's office. He's a detective in the Phoenix PD.' She nodded that she knew who he was. 'They have some tape recordings that they took form Charlie's safe after this death. Your name is on one cassette, and there's some sizzling dialogue captured for all time on the tape inside.'" CASINO works on many levels. It is a murder mystery most intriguing. The team of Remender/Hoiness dig up ancient Hohokam history to provide the motive. It's not too hard to come up with a cast of characters who each have their own agenda, and the team pull off excellent plot and character development. Numerous threads provide constant action, and the protagonists are in constant danger, just as they are drawn together and pulled apart by their emotions and circumstances. Arizona is an excellent setting for a mystery, and the two do a great job of covering local color (or cacti, in this case). CASINO TO DIE FOR is a well executed whodunit with lots of glamour and danger. It is an excellent read from a powerful pair of authors. A big thumbs up! Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer
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