Knock Off

by: Rhonda Pollero

Published by: Kensington Books (March 2007)

Reviewed by Sharon Broom

Finley Anderson Tanner (F.A.T. to a lot of people who don't like her) is a West Palm Beach twenty-nine-year-old paralegal with the Estates and Trust department of Dane, Lieberman and Zarnowski. She also has a black belt in discount shopping, but would die before she admitted it.

When Finley's boss (and chief ass of the law firm), asks her to look into the 'accidental' death of Stacy Evan's husband, she's at a loss how to do the job. Investigations are not what she does. What she does is shop, take two-hour lunches, examine her relationship with Patrick and search eBay for Rolex parts. She can't afford a Rolex, so she's building one--one stray part at a time.

Alas, Finley's not the 'boss' of her professional life and must investigate the widow Evan's claim. As Finley wanders through the labyrinth of clues, she learns that there was a good chance Evans was murdered. And the murder is connected to a medical malpractice case her law firm represented three years earlier. In order to save her life and her job, she must solve the crime. But the hunky, P.I. Liam McGarrity assigned to help her, isn't making her personal or professional life easier.

Pollero's Knock Off is a snappy, easy-to-read amateur sleuth mystery. But Finley is so shallow that it's difficult to care about her success in investigating the case or her personal safety. As her motivation to solve the case increases, she becomes more likeable.

There are numerous clues and connections between the deceased Evan's and the medical malpractice case, but it's disappointing when the murderer appears on stage for the first time in the last few pages of the book. It's impossible for readers to solve a mystery that way. I felt cheated. And frankly, the age and experience level of the murderer makes the plausibility factor of successfully committing the crimes at about a zero.

Pollero's story is interesting, but her choice of murderer and ending leaves the reader empty. The author is going to have to do better plotting and make Finley less shallow and more likeable.

The jury is still out about reading the second title in this new series.

Armchair Interviews says: Amateur sleuth mystery.