Kat's Cradle (Kat Colorado) - Softcover

The third Kat Colorado novel (Katwalk, Katapult), a contrived affair, replete with Meaningful Chapter Headings, that concerns weepy Paige (formerly Pearl) Morrell, who hires the sardonically edgy Kat to find her unknown mom--her granny, who has just died, brought Paige up and said nary a word. The usual p.i. statistics- dredging discovers granny's twin daughters, Opal and Ruby, one now heading up an Omaha future-trends consultancy and the other squirreled away in a care facility. Are they lying about who's who, and does it relate back to their late teen years and one girl's illicit romance and the other's departure for the East? Paige's fianc‚, yuppie Paul, nearly kills Kat to get her to drop the investigation, and Derek, the business brains behind the trends company, romances her into virtual slow-wittedness. Two more deaths later, Kat unravels an unsurprising identity switch, turns a goodnight kiss into a shootout, and stares unblinkingly at Paige's crocodile tears. A calculated rendering of p.i. conventions, readable if not particularly original. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Outstanding among today's female detectives, PI Kat Colorado exhibits conscience and compassion, muscle and wisecracking savvy in an appealing and believable combination. Kat agrees to help presumed orphan Paige Morrell find out about her parents now that her grandmother Florence, who refused to discuss them, has died. Little by little, Kat peels away layers of the past, discovering that Paige's mother, one of twin daughters mistreated by Florence, may still be alive. Enhancing the story and complicating Kat's life as she travels to Lake Tahoe, Calif., and to Omaha are her lover Hank, her "self-appointed grandmother" Alma and her unstable best friend Charity, an advice columnist . In taut confident prose, Edgar Award-winner Kijewski ( Katapult ), who is Mystery Writers of American Nor/Cal vice-president, delivers an intricate plot to complete reader satisfaction.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.