If you enjoy a good P.I. story, you have to read Ingrid Thoft's Fina Ludlow series. Rooted in the Dashiell Hammett and Ross MacDonald tradition, Fina is younger, hipper and female but the intricacies of plot and characters hark back to the golden age of mystery. Get on the bandwagon now, and just hope that Thoft has many more stories to tell.

I don't often give 2 stars to things I finish, but I was bullheaded enough to think that by finishing this book, I would finally understand why this protagonist was worth 400+ pages or why the crime was worth unraveling in a book. Nope. Finished and I still don't know.

I really enjoy the characters in this series but this particular installment felt a bit over long and drawn out.

The mystery, meh. It may not deserve 4 stars, but I just love this character.

I hated the first book in the serious, was surprised that I liked the second, and quite enjoyed the third. Thoft seems to realize what made her character Fina so hard to like and filed down the edges enough to keep her interesting but not completely ridiculous.

A 2015 staff favorite recommended by Jane.

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too many diet soda mentions

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to nab the ARC of Ingrid Thofts' first Fina Ludlow mystery. Today I finished the latest (#3) in the series, and it's only getting better. I thoroughly enjoy the way Fina unravels the mystery. She's such an incredible creation, tough, funny, extremely competent, as well as being compassionate and fierce. All these qualities shine through in Ms. Thofts' writing. My only caveat would be, this particular story had alot going on and, consequently, took a bit longer to wrap up towards the end. I was, luckily, enjoying it, so it wasn't a huge setback. However, it was a bit of a bummer that I didn't get to see everyone get their due, or figure out, truly, how the lawsuit was going to ruin so many people that everything unfolded just so. Small small complaint to an otherwise sparkling story!

Fina is hired by Bobbi, the mother of Liz, who is discovered with a head injury after being attacked in her own home. Liz dies a few days later. She had been planning to sue the university she attended and played soccer for, after suffering health issues arguably as a result of playing with concussions. (As a side issue, since soccer is a non-contact sport, I would imagine concussions are quite rare, but anyway...) Fina assembles a list of suspects and contacts and basically hassles them in rotation and very very gradually discovers the truth. (Or most of it anyway; the third person in the bomb plot is not discovered).

I forget exactly how the second novel ends, but the ploy to banish Rand to Florida rather than have him prosecuted for child molestation/statutory rape appals me. The side story with the evil "Greta who only wants a kidney" was a welcome distraction at times. Very readable, with humorous touches.