From Publishers Weekly
McInerny's fifth Andrew Broom title (after Mom and Dead) tees off on the seventh fairway of a country-club course, where wealthy investor Edgar Bissonet, apparently the victim of a heart attack, is found dead. But lawyer Broom suspects the man died elsewhere and was moved. Was he murdered? Wyler, Ind., is a cozy town where such a question can cause a stir. After the police gather enough circumstantial evidence to arrest Edgar's son for murder, Broom, unconvinced of his guilt, agrees to defend him. Broom also sends his nephew Gerald to gather information about the beautiful young woman to whom the elder Bissonet seems to have written love poems. The fact that the poems, which were stored in the man's computer, have now vanished-as has a copy of the autobiography Bissonet pere was writing-strikes Broom as suspicious. More accusations and even a false confession add a few gentle curves to a solid outing marked by McInerny's sharp ear for gossip and his keen, affectionate eye for small-town social stratification.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Better known for his Father Dowling mysteries, McInerny is also the author of a charming series featuring Andrew Broom, a lawyer in the small town of Wyler, Indiana. This fifth installment of the Broom series boasts all the familiar McInerny trademarks: economical prose, sharp and succinct character sketches, a slightly sardonic sense of humor, and a satisfying plot. When the elderly Edgar Bissonet is found dead on the seventh fairway at the local country club, the medical examiner suggests that asphyxiation could have caused a heart attack--meaning that poor old Edgar was murdered. The evidence points to Edgar's son, Matthew, who hires Andrew as his lawyer. Convinced that Matthew is innocent, Andrew and Gerald, his nephew and partner, embark on a defense strategy that reveals numerous skeletons in the Bissonet closet. This Americanized and updated version of the English village mystery will delight all fans of the cozy subgenre. A professor of medieval studies at Notre Dame, McInerny does a superb imitation of a country lawyer.
Stuart Miller
