Prescription for Murder By E. E. Smith

by Sandra Murphy

Details on how to win an ebook copy of this book at the end of the review.

Lexie Smith, the private investigator aka Girl Gumshoe, is back. This time she’s vacationing in Majorca with the delectable Harry from Scotland Yard. It’s a romantic setting, blue water and sky, warm sun, and finally, time alone. When Harry proposes, Lexie says yes in spite of previous misgivings about the suitability of marriage in general and a trans-Atlantic marriage in particular. After all, her agency, Discreet Inquiries, is based in Sacramento, California. The plan is to be married immediately and worry about the rest later.

Even as Lexie gets dressed in her wedding finery, a telegram arrives that will change everything. It says come quick, Mother’s ill and is signed Mary. On the face of it, that makes sense. Unless you know that Lexie hasn’t spoken to her sister Mary in a year or so and their mother died three years ago.

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The wedding is off and so is Lexie–off to Sacramento, that is. Who sent the telegram and why? When Mary’s found, she denies all knowledge of the message. She’s quit school, isn’t paying the bills (like the electricity) and has put the family home up for sale.

It turns out the message was sent with the purpose to intrigue, by Lexie’s old friend, Nikki. It seems that Nikki was heard to threaten a US Congressman who conveniently (or maybe not) turns up dead within a few days. He’s been poisoned and Nikki’s fingerprints are at the scene.

The Congressman was a big backer of internment camps for the Japanese during the war. Nikki, being Japanese, was not. Is it enough of a motive for Nikki to kill him? There are other suspects–like the Irish Mob who had a great interest in how the Congressman voted. His wife loved him but knew of his affair. The cad spent most of his (their) money on his mistress and made no secret of it.

Image source: Phoenix International, Inc.

When a second death occurs, things just get more complicated. Mary, who could be mistaken for Lexie unless they are standing side by side, is kidnapped by the Mob as an encouragement for Lexie to do a job for them. It seems that Boyo, the Mob’s enforcer, has fallen in love with an Irish lass named Maureen. She has red hair, green eyes and pale skin, so could Lexie go to Belfast and bring her back to marry Boyo? With that tiny bit of information to go on, what could possibly go wrong? An awful lot.

With plane trips back and forth, the appearance of “Kit” Carson, FBI agent who thinks Lexie should be the white-picket-fence-and-lots-of-kids kind of girl instead of a Girl Gumshoe, Mary, the sister no one knew she had, Daisy the dog (ever so popular and a good tracker), Maureen, a dock workers strike and poor Harry, left at Scotland Yard as well as at the altar, it’s no wonder Lexie is rethinking her choices. What’s next for her? Readers can only hope for another book to tell all.

To enter to win an ebook copy of Prescription For Murder, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Prescription,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen September 20, 2014. U.S. residents only.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. While writing magazine articles to support her mystery book habit, she secretly polishes two mystery books of her own, hoping, someday, they will see the light of Barnes and Noble. You can also find several of Sandra's short stories on UnTreed Reads including Bananas Foster.