the Sonora Blair series
The Debt Collector
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co
ISBN: 0440225329
November 2001
Sonora Blair returns in a case that pushes the Cincinnati detective closer to her emotional edges and allows Author Lynn Hightower to probe more deeply into her heroine's psyche than she has in her four previous suspense thrillers. This time the divorced mother of two investigates a home invasion in which an entire family striving to hold onto its tenuous grasp on the middle class is brutally murdered, except its youngest member, a 4-month-old infant. But before the baby's mother expires, she manages to whisper one phrase to Sonora: "The Angel came." Was it a heavenly messenger that comforted Joy Stinnet as she lay dying, or a more sinister visitor? Sonora's partner Sam doesn't put much faith in the deathbed declaration, but Blair isn't certain. As she investigates what turns out to have been a savage visit from a couple of thugs collecting on a bad debt, she gets a lead on the killers from an unlikely source: a retired cop with a reputation as a hero and a close connection with her own boss.
Although she's seen her share of murders, this case exacerbates all of Blair's fears for the safety of her own kids and the security of their surroundings. Hightower's skillful depiction of her protagonist's emotional vulnerability, especially the guilt every single mother feels about shortchanging her kids for her career, invests this well-paced mystery with particular resonance and showcases the author's increasingly multidimensional characterizations. The Debt Collector is a good read in a series that gets better with every new book. --Jane Adams
from Amazon.com
No Good Deed
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co
ISBN: 0440225310
Reprint edition (October 13, 1998)
Also offered in audio cassette
Lynn Hightower's female characters take no prisoners. Sonora Blair, tough-but-vulnerable Cincinnati police detective, knows the father of 15-year-old Joellen Chauncey is involved somehow in his daughter's mysterious disappearance. But Sonora's boss, partner, and colleagues think she's crazy. Dixon Chauncey is a devoted single father of three, and a mild, self-effacing milquetoast who's much too "squishy" to be a suspect. Sonora doesn't buy the official line--that Joellen got caught between two feuding scam artists involved in a thoroughbred swindle--not even when the girl's body turns up, along with an empty, blood-spattered horse trailer. Sonora won't ignore what her gut tells her. And when Joellen's diaries open up a whole new line of investigation tied into a missing children's network, she renews her efforts to find the crack in Dixon's façade. The plot is full of seductive McGuffins: the owner of a riding school who lands in the hospital minus a finger; a mysterious and sexy stranger hanging around the barn. The narrative meanders a bit, taking in Sonora's failings as a single mother to her own kids, her impulsive decision to buy a horse, and her overactive libido (which fastens itself on three different men in a little over 300 pages). But the book is crisply written, with resonant characters and a suspenseful narrative. It's a special treat for horse fanciers. --Jane Adams
from Amazon.com
Eyeshot
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks
ASIN: 0061096091
(November 1997)
Some days Cincinnati police detective Sonora Blair doesn't want to be a cop. Not when she has to tell the father of two young children that the body parts turning up along I-75 belong to his missing wife, Julia. Eight years ago she witnessed a murder that was never solved, but not forgotten. A murder in which the body disappeared, and no one believed her story. Years later, Julia thinks she sees the killer. Then Julia disappears. And a dangerous sociopath, left undisturbed for eight years, is back in business in Cincinnati.
from Amazon.com
Flashpoint
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks
ASIN: 0061094560
Reissue edition (November 1996)
Sonora Blair, a Cincinnati homicide detective and single mother of two, is summoned in the middle of the night to the scene of a particularly gruesome murder. There, a naked, hideously burned young man is handcuffed to the wheel of his car. A deathbed interrogation reveals the perpetrator to be a woman, and Sonora soon learns that the murderess has a history of torching her victims. After a series of suspenseful developments, it soon becomes painfully evident that the killer is watching Sonora's every move and that the detective and those she loves are potential targets.
from Amazon.com
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