Tuesday, July 19, 2022

“I highly recommend “tunneling” through ‘Shadows and Lies’!” – “Shadows & Lies” (Carson Reno Mystery Series – Book 16) by Gerald W. Darnell

All Carson Reno Mystery Series Books are standalone novels. It is not necessary to read them in any particular order.
What happens when a rich client, three beautiful women, a shifty businessman, a gambler, and a missing spouse are all suspected of murder? The results are a merry-go-round of shadows and lies in a house of cards with clues almost as old as Carson.
Greed, blackmail, infidelity, murder, serial killers, and a twenty-year-old crime spin a tale that is practically unbelievable – with the truth masked behind a story that nobody wants told.
This old fashion ‘whodunit’ takes Carson Reno and his crew on a complicated adventure, which has too many victims and too many suspects.
Come along and help Carson find the clues and discover the truth as he tries to make sense of all the

Shadows and Lies

Eva Pasco

Book a Room at the Peabody Hotel

Having read my first Carson Reno novel, ‘Dead End,’ the 13th in this hard-boiled, detective Mystery series, I eagerly selected another—‘Shadows and Lies,’ the 16th standalone book. Drawn to the hallmark ring tones of the Sixties, and the aura of actual places cited by the author, I willingly booked a room at the Peabody Hotel for my reading sojourn.

The prominent Dumont family, proprietors of the prestigious Dumont Hotel chain under the auspices of Matthew Dumont, provide a strong case for Carson Reno to take on via his Drake Detective Agency at the Peabody. For starters, Matthew’s son Brigham’s third wife is missing. The first one died under mysterious circumstances. You’ll find out if the second was murdered by a serial killer or not.

Besides the whodunit, like Reno, you’ll want to know what else is going on—and why!

If all of the tantalizing tidbits of this novel aren’t enough for you—serial killers, a twenty-year-old armed robbery, murders left and right, greed, infidelity, lies, Mob influence, bogus security reports, and false identities—there are all the other hallmark ring tones of the Sixties you become privy to:

Constantly lighting up. Gumshoes wearing suits. Conducting biz inside a lounge or bar knocking back a few beers or Jack Daniels and coke. And, dig these character names: Cheese, Spider Webb, Tucker Baggett, Rags Tobin, and John Dho.

I highly recommend “tunneling” through ‘Shadows and Lies’! However, if Lydia Longstreet can’t get a straight answer from Carson Reno, I doubt any reader will either, as to why Marion Dumont’s pair of pantyhose was under his bed.