Angel's Cove (Harry Rice Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: A good who done-it
Review: Former private eye Harry Rice enjoys owning a Florida beachbar. Hisbest bartender, Carla Meadows, has temporarily gone to ANGEL^RS COVE, Texas because her father, Charlie, abruptly died there. Carla quickly realizes that she last spoke to her father after the official time of death. Her inquiries only lead to someone threatening her life if she does not back off from her search.

Desperate, Carla calls to ask her employer to help her learn what happened to Charlie. However, she abruptly hangs up on his answering matching without completing her request and never calls back. A worried Harry travels to Texas to see if he can assist Carla. He quickly learns that Charlie, who was a very honest individual, was unwelcome by the eccentric townsfolk. He also knows that some person wants to insure that the truth behind Charlie^Rs death (and that of the police chief) remains buried.

The second novel in the Harry Rice series is a very good who-done-it, but fails to live up to its incredible predecessor. Harry is a strange interesting duck, but, at times, can get on reader^Rs nerves. The secondary characters are all delightful and the murder mystery is well designed and fun to read. Bottom line is ANGEL^RS COVE is a good book, but Allan Pedrazas^R debut, novel, THE HARRY CHRONICLES, a lot more.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: poor
Review: The Harry Chronicles was a most promising first novel by a talented author. Angel's Cove does not bring back the Harry that we enjoyed in Pedrazas first book. In Angel's Cove we get an existential Harry revisiting puberty. Throughout a completely predictable plot, we see only glimpses of the talent Mr. Pedrazas displayed so liberally in Harry Chronicles. Carla's character development was one of just a few bright spots in the book. Pedrazas rallies toward the end of the book and sets the scene for a big ending. Unfortunately the ending that he uses is weak. Overall, the book was bad enough to make me dig out my copy of The Harry Chronicles to make sure I hadn't overreacted to that book. The good news here, however, is that if you go back and re-read Harry Chronicles, it's just as good as the first read.