Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Girl In The Black Pajamas

Murder / Mystery / Suspense 
Date Published: July 2014

   
R&B Investigations is under attack. Their employee is shot in the back as he enters the building, and a hacker is trying to compromise their secure network. While the Boston police investigate the shooting, Bogie McGruder needs to find the culprit who is trying to put them out of business. Bogie and his partner Rose Jones can’t disclose their internet problems to the cops since Bogie is a hacker himself. Bogie McGruder returns to Boston with his four- year-old daughter Isabella. He joins up with Rose Jones’ uncle Walter who is fresh for Lompoc Prison. Bogie and Walter strengthen their firewalls while they try to determine who is behind the invasion. As the R&B team hones in on the culprit, they uncover several murders and discover a plot to wipe out the financial institutions in Boston. While Bogie is in Boston, his extended family in Palm Beach becomes enmeshed in a sex scandal that threatens to ruin lives and careers in the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office. Feeling like a wishbone about to snap, Bogie tries to handle problems in both cities while Isabella continues her quest for someone to teach her the Five-Point-Palm-Exploding-Heart technique as seen in Kill Bill Volume 2. This tale of murder, revenge and greed takes the reader on a whirlwind trip from Boston to Palm Beach and back.

The Girl in Black Pajamas is available in both print and ebook format. 

The Girl In The Black Pajamas (Mystery)
By Chris Birdy
Kindle
ASIN #BOOM9TZ4JW
$2.99
289 Pages
Rating 3-Stars

R&B Investigations is a computer-investigative service. What they do is often illegal, as they hack into accounts to follow money transfers and other activity for their clients. When one of their employees is shot entering the building, it looks like R&B may be under attack. Now they must find out who is targeting them. Meanwhile, the four-year-old daughter of one of the bosses of R&B is still studying kung fu, and wants to learn the Five-Point-Palm-Exploding-Heart technique as seen in Kill Bill Volume 2.

We are introduced to all the characters and their extended families and friends, making this a cast of thousands. Then we get to learn all of their backgrounds, and follow their soap opera lives. It also allows the author to explain to each one what is going on every time one pops up. Okay, all this adds words, but it weakens the main plot of the story, and trying to keep up with who’s who does nothing to enhance the plot or move the story along. What plot there is gets swallowed up by all the other stuff happening. And to imagine a four-year-old girl as a kung fu genius is a bit hard to swallow. I never read the first novel in the series, The Girl In The White Pajamas, but evidently she killed the bad guy with a sword in that one. In this one she shoots the bad guy. This girl is going to have a lot of mental problems when she grows up. I promised at least a 3-Star rating, and that’s what I gave the story. I read it through to the end, but I really didn’t want to. Nor can I honestly recommend the book to mystery lovers. More attention was aimed at the four-year-old kung fu girl, and too many side issues merely added to the already poor plot.

Tom Johnson
Detective Mystery Stories



No comments:

Post a Comment