From Publishers Weekly
While it's a pleasant enough exercise to hang out with San Francisco PI Nick Polo (seen most recently in 1994's Beggar's Choice), this feather-light case is seldom fully engaging. Worse, by the conclusion, the narrative lapses into downright sloppiness. Polo is hired to tail a mysterious Russian woman who claims to be in possession of an ancient Greek coin that once belonged to the son of Genghis Kahn. The woman also turns out to possess several names, and she moonlights as an escort for an agency specializing in providing pretty and expensive girls from the former Soviet Union. Along the way, Polo gets to frequent Lickie's Massage Parlor; fend off the latest lusty young niece pushed at him by his tenant, an old Italian woman; meet shady antique dealers and even shadier government-trained PIs. Oh, yes, he also has a near-death experience. Kennealy doesn't put a lot of effort into maintaining the logic of his plot, but his agreeably light tone carries the story forward?except when Polo indulges in longwinded laments for the spiritual death of San Francisco.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
On the trail of an amulet worn by the son of Genghis Khan, Russian antique dealer Alexander Rostov hires private eye Nick Polo to track down a mysterious customer who may know the bauble's whereabouts. Soon Nick finds himself the object of a tail by Tim Dashuk, a young investigator who volunteers to help Polo find the amulet. Then Dashuk is murdered, and the cops connect him to Nick, who is soon awash in the detritus of the dead man's life. Matters are further complicated by Nick's elderly downstairs tenant, Mrs. Diamonte, and her insistent matchmaking. As always, Kennealy delivers hard-boiled excitement nicely dressed with humor and style. That's always been a tough combination to beat, but it's even tougher thanks to Mrs. Diamonte, who is the best, most engaging sidekick in mystery fiction. Fine reading.
Wes Lukowsky
