Appointment in May

Dave Garrett #5

by Neil Albert

Dave Garrett is always looking for work, but he wasn't looking for a job when he walked into the law offices of Charles Preston; he just wanted to drop off the brochure advertising his availability. But Preston needed someone for a domestic case and money was no object. It was simple enough on the surface: Pat Winter was fifty and had strained his back on a loading dock, leaving him with two herniated disks. Then his wife, Maria, announced she was moving out. Winter wanted to know who she was seeing; there was no doubt in his mind that there was another man involved. There was. That was easy enough to find out. But when Maria's car is forced off the road, killing her, the simple domestic surveillance turns into an increasingly complex murder investigation. From the upscale bars and boutiques of Philadelphia's South Street, to the quiet suburbs beyond the end of the Main Line, Garrett's inquiries take him ever deeper into a world of passions run amok.

Genres: Mystery

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

I am a trial lawyer, mystery writer, and retired foxhunter living in the Amish Country near Philadelphia. I started writing a series of mysteries in the 1990s and now I am returning to finish the series. I was very lucky to be published then, in the days when there were still independent bookstores and there was a chance to meet your fans face to face. As exciting as it was to be published, the best part was the fans, editors and other writers I met. Writing is far more collegial than people suspect.
I stopped the series in 1996 partly because I had run out of good ideas (I had plenty of bad ones) and because, at age 47, I had started riding horses for the first time in my life. Six months after my first ride I was fox hunting. It was very time intensive and the books went on the back burner. (And no, we do not kill the fox.) After twenty years and putting down my last hunt horse, I find myself with time on my hands and a need for a distraction.

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: PI Dave Garrett
SETTING: Pennsylvania
SERIES: #5
RATING: 3.5
WHY: PI Dave Garrett is scouting for work when he drops into the law offices of Charles Preston. Preston hires him to surveil a client's wife. The client, Pat Winter, is not exactly a lovable sort. When Maria is killed in a car accident, the plot thickens. Albert writes well, and I like the Garrett character. However, the conclusion was extremely weak. Garrett engaged in a tell-all session of how he solved the crime. However, the reader hadn't been provided with most of the information that he imparted which was unfair.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garret is hired as a private investigator by an old law firm friend, who thinks his wife is cheating on him. Suddenly, he finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation. This is a story that goes back to events in the wife's high school days, and there is also recent fraud and deception in the mix. Can Garret unravel the tangled mess and identify the killer? This was a good read, but the plot was hard to follow at times, and the final solution to the crime was really not related to the original investigation. Of all the books in this series, this had the weakest plot.

[Nella Goku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy mystery read. I haven't read the other books in the series, but you don't need them to grasp events in this book- only if you want all the backstory and character development.