Purdy's Back!: A Sandi Webster Mystery
By Marja McGraw
Wings Press, $16.95
ISBN: 1-5975-05-664-2

Private investigator Sandi Webster had every intention of turning down her mother's request to help her friend investigate a sixty year-old crime. A master manipulator though, Sandi's mom knows that Sandi will never be able to resist once she sees a picture of Prudy Lewis, photographed standing in boots, a fur coat, and holding a gun and cigarette. A private investigator with her husband in the nineteen forties, Purdy took over the investigation of the murder of their neighbor and friend Matthew Bremmer when her husband never returned from WWII. Purdy was one of the few female PI's of her time, and the unsolved case haunts her to this day. Bowing to the inevitable, Sandi lures her own boyfriend and partner Pete Goldberg into agreeing to meet Purdy in Arizona and complete her last unsolved case. What the couple doesn’t expect is for Purdy to be even more skilled at manipulation than Sandi's mother, and the pair of detectives find themselves driving, and then housing, Purdy back to LA as they begin questioning a cast of suspects who range mostly in the geriatric range.

Aided by their computer-savvy assistant Stan and his match-made-in-klutz-heaven hand model Felicity Dubois, Pete, Sandi, and Prudy track down the former teenaged suspects now turned into senior citizen suspects when Sandi receives threatening phone calls and dead rodents warning her off the investigation.

While Purdy often comes across as more irritating than admirable or realistic, this character-driven mystery entertains with its pace and humor. Some of the best written scenes are those depicting Sandi and her friends, as the dialogue is fun and lively and the characters themselves prove to be very likable. Sandi herself is someone who tends to get bulldozed by the older women around her, yet she humors Pete’s overprotective dictates. Overall, this is a quick read that will have readers eager to follow the exploits of Sandi's and her friends.

Review by CINDY CHOW

©2009 Lorie Ham. All rights reserved.