Genre: Mystery
Four Stars
Guilia Falcone-Driscoll has just taken on her first impossible client: The Silk Tie Killer. He’s hired Driscoll Investigations to prove his innocence and they have only thirteen days to accomplish it. Talk about being tried in the media. Everyone in town is sure Roger Fitch strangled his girlfriend with one of his silk neckties. And then there’s the local TMZ wannabes—The Scoop—stalking Giulia and her client for sleazy sound bites.
On top of all that, her assistant’s first baby is due any second, her scary smart admin still doesn’t relate well to humans, and her police detective husband insists her client is guilty. About this marriage thing—it’s unknown territory, but it sure beats ten years of living with 150 nuns.Giulia’s ownership of Driscoll Investigations hasn’t changed her passion for justice from her convent years. But the more dirt she digs up, the more she’s worried her efforts will help a murderer escape. As the client accuses DI of dragging its heels on purpose, Giulia thinks The Silk Tie Killer might be choosing one of his ties for her own neck.
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Guilia Falcone-Driscoll is an ex-nun who owns her own investigative agency, courtesy of her husband, a detective, who went back to the police force. Guilia has made the agency her own, and is very good at what she does. She is smart, methodical, and doesn't let personal feelings interfere with her job.
However, that could be put to the test this time out. She has taken the job of finding out who really killed Loriela Gil, the girlfriend of Roger Fitch, an arrogant and smug man that Guilia does not like, but both Fitch and his attorney insist Fitch is innocent. It seems that after a wild night out, both her client and his girlfriend returned to their condo to 'sleep it off,' and when he awoke the next day, she was dead - strangled with his silk tie. Hence the appelation of "the Silk Tie killer." Yet I don't really understand that; it would seem to me that this name would be given to a serial killer, not someone who had used a tie to kill one person. If that were the case, then all murder cases would be dubbed (in the news, of course) 'the Ball Peen Hammer killer,' 'the Telephone Cord killer,' etc. See what I mean? And since she is the only person Fitch is accused of killing, well then, it doesn't make any sense to call it that. However, I digress...
Convinced that this case will not compromise another case in which Fitch may or may not be involved, which is embezzling from a company that also employed Miss Gil and several of the other suspects, Guilia believes it may actually help her find the culprits who have been doing the embezzling. While she has a top notch crew with her employees Zane and a very pregnant Sidney, along with a temp named Jane, she also employs the help of her husband with information when she needs it.
During her investigation of the murder she must interview witnesses who bring insight into the relationship between Loriela and Fitch, and even though he has confessed to quite a bit of what the witnesses are telling her, there are extra bits and pieces that fall into place, which bring her closer to the truth of who killed Loriela and why.
While watching Guilia put everything together we see a woman who not only pays attention to detail, but is able to collect all pieces of a puzzle and put them in the correct order. She is methodical in the way she does it, using her insight into human body language coupled with the concrete information she has gleaned while investigating.
This is an altogether satisfying mystery; it keeps you interested and following the clues, trying to piece it together yourself before Guilia puts the final pieces in place. If I have any complaint, it would be that I would have liked to have known more of why Guilia decided to leave the convent. As it is, we are only given bits and pieces throughout the book. Recommended.
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