by Carole Nelson Douglas

Just when things start to make some sort of sense, everything turns topsy turvy and the twists begin again. Temple Barr is on the verge of marriage with her ex-priest neighbor Matt Devine, while her ex-lover Max (presumed dead but actually not) is trying to recover his memory and identity in Ireland with the help of his mentor magician Garry Randolph. It may be that Max is not the only one who isn’t really dead! No one knows for sure, not even the reader!

While Matt is in Chicago working on a television version of his successful radio help line, Temple is embroiled in another madcap Fontana scheme to light up Las Vegas. Their latest venture is a Chunnel of Crime, which would link two of the Vegas hotels underground, creating a sort of mob/murder/ghostly/gold digging adventure ride. On board to help out are the remnants of a real gang of thieves, who become involved when their lakeside restaurant has to close because of lack of lake! The water shrinkage also exposes a pair of leg bones encased in concrete, all of which add to the atmosphere of mystery as Temple tries to put the jigsaw pieces of the puzzles together.

An apparently locked buried safe turns up during the underground excavations, prompting a Geraldo Rivera-like expose of what is in the safe! Unfortunately the steel and lead box only contains a body, and a fresh one at that—a magician who is linked to the mysterious Synth. Of course Temple cannot leave any mystery alone and she is soon embroiled in some dangerous doings indeed. It requires all the efforts of her feline private eye buddy, Midnight Louie, his family and a troupe black cats known as the Vegas Strip Irregulars to keep Temple alive and out of trouble.

  SJ Wolfe