In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a quirky and small beach
community, serious crime is not rampant. When Kenji Sole, a
wealthy woman with a healthy appetite for powerful married
men and kinky sex, is murdered, law enforcement from the
Massachusetts Attorney General on down to the state police
pressure the local Chief of Police to have Detective Frank
Coffin and Officer Lola Winters investigate. In a high-
profile murder several years ago, Coffin and Winters
distinguished themselves with their discretion and skill.
Frank Coffin and Lola Winters are amazed at the late
Kenji's ability to maintain and control a large stable of
lovers. It gives them a legion of suspects and an
admiration for Kenji's organizational skills. When they
discover that Kenji was secretly videotaping her lovers,
the wild search by the victims for the tapes becomes
deadly. Frank and Lola scratch away attempting to separate
the suspects' public personas from private while not
stepping on too many influential people.
Frank's personal problems and family interruptions cause
distractions he can ill afford. Lola was at his back years
ago and saved his life, but Frank does not want the event
to reoccur. Trying to stay focus, he and Lola sift through
the videos that include more information than either want
as they look for a desperate killer.
Jon Loomis' latest Winters and Coffin crime mystery
is a winner. The brisk plot is enhanced by the vivid
character development and the local color that surrounds
the town and its inhabitants. The main protagonist, Frank,
proves unpredictable as he winds through murder and his
multiple family dramas. Lola is the perfect counterpoint as
she struggles with her own relationship problems.
Jon Loomis’s sharp and witty debut, High Season,
starring Detective Frank Coffin, a onetime Baltimore
homicide detective who came back to his hometown after one
too many grisly crime scenes started to take their toll,
was one of The Washington Post’s best mysteries of
the year and an editor’s choice title for The New York
Times Book Review. Coffin had hoped that the move to
Provincetown, Massachusetts, would put an end to his panic
attacks, but so far, the quirky Cape Cod tourist town has
been every bit as brutal as the big city. Now in Loomis’s
winning follow-up, Coffin has to get a grip in order to
investigate the murder of one of the town’s most “popular”
women.
Beautiful and the heir to a tremendous
fortune, Kenji Sole had an active love life---a very
active love life. When she’s found stabbed to death on the
floor of her bedroom dressed only in a negligee, it’s
clear someone very close to her is probably responsible.
Since she didn’t care about her many lovers’ marital
status, Frank and his partner Officer Lola Winters have
their work cut out for them interviewing all of her lovers-
--not to mention their jealous wives---to find out who
killed the much-sought-after Ms. Sole.