Requiem for a Dealer

Brodie Farrell ##6

by Jo Bannister

You can waste a lot of time looking. . . . Or you can pay me to find it for you.

Brodie Farrell is a busy woman, what with running her one-woman firm Looking for Something? and raising her daughter. So on her night off, all she wants is to spend a relaxing evening teaching her friend Daniel Hood to drive. But the evening takes a disturbing turn when Daniel hits a young woman who seems to appear out of nowhere. The girl, Alison Barker, is mostly uninjured, but before she runs off she accuses Daniel of trying to kill her.
The other man in Brodie's life, Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon, isn't much help; he's too busy investigating a dangerous new drug called Scram. But when Alison Barker turns up at the hospital, not as a result of the car accident but because of the lethal amount of Scram in her system, Jack is forced to get involved. Alison claims that the death of her father, a local purebred horse dealer, was murder---and that unless someone helps her, she'll be next.
Brodie once again finds herself torn between the two men in her life---Daniel believes Alison's story, Jack doesn't. It's up to Brodie to infiltrate Alison's world of show jumping and discover the truth herself, before it's too late.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2006

About the author

Jo Bannister lives in Northern Ireland, where she worked as a journalist and editor on local newspapers. Since giving up the day job, her books have been shortlisted for a number of awards. Most of her spare time is spent with her horse and dog, or clambering over archaeological sites. She is currently working on a new series of psychological crime/thrillers.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I moderately enjoyed this book. It took a little getting into, but the last 100 or so pages are pretty grabbing.

Pros:
Bannister has done a good job with characterization. I haven't read any of the rest of this series, but from the beginning, the three main characters were painted really well to the point where we could probably recognize them on the street if we needed to. None of their development was surprising, and they each had their own traits that made them stand out.

Cons:
While I like being able to solve the mystery, I knew who was a part of it and how it was going down about 25-30 pages in, and that was a little soon for me.
Also, there were times when I felt the author was just trying to meet a certain word count and came up with some ridiculous sentences.

Overall, I give this a 3-star rating and would recommend it to anyone that likes mysteries and is looking for a quick read.

[Carolyn Crocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back on track--Brodie's involvement with horses, a troubled young woman, and designer drugs is interesting. The humor is back, and the suspenseful climax does not disappoint. And the 3 main characters move forward in their lives, stories, and complications.

"The cats of unease were walking up and down Brodie's spine with their claws out." p.183

"'I'd rather be an optimist who's sometimes disappointed than a pessimist who never is.'" p. 210

"It had been an expensive debacle, always one bee short of a sting.' p.240

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I haven't read any other books in this series, I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.

[ryki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the turnout of the events and I didn't expect the ending.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A corpse is found on a hill in the outskirts of Reykjavik. It looks like it has already been there for a long time, but the excavation goes terribly slow because a team of archaeologists is carrying out the work. In the meantime inspector Erlendur and his colleagues try to get a picture of what happened 50 to 70 years ago. Slowly but surely they find out the awful truth. In between the story line of the investigation, there is another storyline about a family consisting of a father, mother, 2 brothers and a handicapped sister. It soon becomes apparent that something horrible happened in the family and this is written down so vividly that I had to put down the book a few times because it nearly became too much. An in the meantime Erlendur's drugs-addicted daughter Eva Lind is in a coma and he finally finds the courage to tell her what he feels for her. In short, this is a wonderful, sensitive thriller with a lot of psychological insight, well-developed storylines and beautiful descriptions of the various characters.

[Mamatufy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel & Brodie are involved in unraveling the mystery surrounding a young woman's almost drug overdose. Alison is convinced her father was murdered & now she's next. The drug in question, Scram, is an imported drug that killed 2 & the police are scrambling to figure out how it's getting in & stop it before it gets out of hand. There's a lot of tension between Brodie & Jack at the end regarding Daniel & his safety which leads to a huge blow-up. Also, there's a shocking end for this one.

[Cris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I'm still reading this series. I don't really like Brodie or Deacon or even Daniel. But something about their interactions keeps me coming back.

A contemporary mystery that's not cozy but lacks the graphic, horrific nature of the crimes committed in many of today's works.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a bad sign when you're hoping a novel's main character gets hit by a bus. A very bad sign.

[Marcie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first Brodie Farrell Mystery I read. It was so good I went on to read the entire series.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book

[Jane Auringer Danjin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What could be more fun? Horse crazy females, a mathematician with a heart of gold and an independent woman detective working and living with a somewhat dour cop in Ireland. I enjoyed it very much

[Jane Auringer Danjin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the horsey setting in this one of the Brodie series.

[Gary Van Cott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was a pretty good book but the way the main plot played out was the most obvious of any book I have read in a long time.

[Sue Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should be a 3.5. Decent mystery. My first read by this author - I would read again but author is Irish so some words are not familiar.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much time is taken telling me what the characters think instead of showing me what they think.