Saturday, April 7, 2012

All Sales Fatal-Laura DiSilverio

All Sales Fatal


Laura DiSilverio

Berkley Prime Crime, May 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425248034



The IED in Iraq ended the military police career of Emma-Joy “E.J.” Ferris. Last year she obtained work as a security officer at the Fernglen Galleria in Vernonville, Virginia. As she rides her Segway on patrol, she knows crime is limited to nabbing customers who “forgot to pay” like the man using a “borrowed” cart to wheel out a purchase. She hopes to land a real police job rather than remain a mall cop, but her knee makes that unlikely and besides she is grateful for a job even working for the insensitive director of security Captain Woskowicz.



She arrives at the mall before it’s opened to find a corpse near the entrance. CPD detective Sergeant Anders Helland leads the investigation into the shooting murder of teenager Celio Arriagia whom she recognized from being with two other teens who seemed out of place at the mall. Although Anders warns her to stay out of real police work as he assumes her MP job was gate guard and her mall job is shop lifters. He is unhappy to learn the security camera was down as Woskowicz delayed fixing it. As EJ does grunt work for Helland on the case, she vows to solve the homicide with the unwanted help of her Grandpa Atherton especially when her boorish boss is killed.



The latest Mall Cop Mystery (see Die Buying) is an enjoyable investigative tale starring a dedicated heroine. In some ways Grandpa Atherton steals the show of this fast-paced whodunit as he and his granddaughter team up as mall sleuths.



Harriet Klausner

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