Burning March (A Dave Garrett Mystery)
When his former law firm's bookkeeper is killed in a blaze at the office, Philadelphia private eye Dave Garrett's former boss asks him to try to determine if the fire was an accident
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In writing mysteries that are both suspenseful and compelling, Neil Albert has staked out Philadelphia and its environs as private-eye country. His first Dave Garrett mystery, The January Corpse, was nominated for the Shamus Award as Best First Novel by the Private Eye Writers of America. His February Trouble won the kind of reviews that a mystery writer would kill for. With Burning March, he's back with a real sizzler of a detective story.A few years and one bad marriage ago, P. I. Dave Garrett had been disbarred as a lawyer. Going back to his old Center City law firm at the request of its number cruncher, the straitlaced and no-nonsense Emily Voss, was kicking up more unpleasant feelings than he thought he had under his tough skin. But the real kick in the gut came when he found out the lady wasn't in. She was out permanently - dead in a fire that had ravaged her apartment the night before. Nobody had to tell him that this was murder.The police, of course, called it an accident. His former partner, Tom Richardson, wanted Garrett to give the matter a closer look-see, just to be sure. But the reception his snooping got was as damp and bone chilling as the March wind whipping off the Schuylkill Expressway. Relations in the firm seemed more cut-throat than supportive, and the choice of new associates was puzzling at best: a pretty blond attorney, slowly learning the ropes in real estate, was confined to a wheelchair; and a recent law school graduate, with more arrogance than brains, who had family - as in Mafia family - ties.Garrett suspected Emily might just have found something under a rock she wasn't supposed to see. The guy with the shotgun who nearly blasted him to kingdom come later that day confirmed his suspicions that something shady was going on in the hallowed halls of jurisprudence. Now Garrett intended to balance the scales of justice and find Emily's killer - even if it took his .357 Magnum in one hand and a fistful of habeas corpus - or corpses - in the other.
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