Connie’s review of The Night Cafe by Taylor Smith
Thriller released from MIRA 1 Jun 08
Gun for hire Hannah Nicks agrees to take a job for her sister’s longtime friend. All Hannah needs to do is deliver a painting to a gun runner in Puerto Vallerta. This simple, well paying job goes bad when Hannah reaches the gun runners estate and finds everyone dead. Hannah hides the painting and returns to her home only to find her sister’s friend has been murdered.
Hannah finds the gun runner is alive and will go to great lengths to find his picture. Hannah is trying to figure out why he paid so much for a painting that is so unappealing, why everyone is dying and why everyone she knows is in danger from this man.
Hannah’s neighbors are a gay couple with an adopted special needs child. The guys are likeable and you don’t want to see them hurt because they are friends with Hannah.
Will Teagarden does much to explain Hannah’s problem and is an appealing characer with great charm. I like happy endings and this was mostly happy. One character was a loss and I would have enjoyed seeing him again. Over all interesting story from a new to me author I will read again.
Grade: B-
Blurb:
Hired by her sister’s friend, a gallery owner, Hannah sets out to transport a minor artist’s painting to its buyer in Puerto Vallarta. But when Hannah arrives at the delivery point, she finds the tail end of a massacre and is nearly killed herself. She hides the painting, fearing it is not a meal ticket but a death warrant, and flees back to the States.
But it only gets worse for her in L.A. The gallery owner has been killed, and Hannah is named as the murder suspect. In order to prove her innocence, she must hunt down the person who framed her…and uncover the secret of a deadly work of art.
Read an excerpt.
