CRAZY FOOL KILLS FIVE by Gwen Freeman

Crazy Fool Kills Five is the second mystery to feature independent insurance adjuster Fifi Cutter. When the novel opens Fifi finds herself with more time than work, so when her friend VJ offers her a paying gig as a document reader for Reg Wong--a local attorney who is trying a wrongful death suit that involves the hijacking and subsequent crash of a chartered airplane--she can't, as much as she wants to, turn it down.

It doesn't take long for Fifi to discover that the case is more than a simple wrongful death suit, and it's not just the good-looking attorney across the aisle, either. What Fifi finds is more than she bargained for. She uncovers an ugly plot to extort, a cabal of double-dealing insurance companies, and murder.

Crazy Fool Kills Five is a basic whodunit with a twist: Fifi Cutter. She is a study in sarcasm, dark wit, distrust, and anti-social behavior--she says, out loud, what the rest of us only think. Her unemployed brother Bosco acts as the perfect foil. He is laid back, cool, accepting and completely at ease with himself and the world. And the novel is at its very best when both are on stage.

The mystery here is light and it takes a distant second seat to the flamboyant Fifi, but the plotline is entertaining and well-drawn--my only serious complaint about the mystery was the lack of early identifiable clues to the killer's identity. When the culprit was uncovered in the final scene my first reaction was: Who? But the lack of motive and reference really wasn't as significant as it could have been because the fun of Crazy Fool Kills Five is about the journey and Fifi's role in it. It doesn't hurt that the journey is a lot of good, sarcastic, and light-hearted fun.