cover image The Good Daughter: An Angela Matelli Mystery

The Good Daughter: An Angela Matelli Mystery

W. W. Lee, Wendi Lee. St. Martin's Press, $19.95 (197pp) ISBN 978-0-312-11259-2

An intelligent, quirky female detective arrives on the scene in this mystery debut. Ex-Marine MP Angela Matelli sets up as a PI in her native Boston. Her first client, sent by a family friend, is ex-cop Tom Grady, who wants her to investigate Brian Scanlon, his daughter Sheilah's lover. A few days of digging uncover Scanlon's prison record as a violent activist in the 1970s and his connection to the International League for the Advancement of Peace, led by charismatic Seamus McRaney, who may have ties with the Irish Republican Army. The same day that Angela is assaulted and a journalist writing about the League is killed, Grady is murdered during an apparent mugging. Hired by Sheilah to probe her father's death, Angela is then dismissed by Scanlon but stays on the case despite the interference put up by both her own family and the detective assigned to the case. A good beginning for a promising new series. (Nov.)