Practice to Deceive

by David Housewright

Overview

A real estate scam tips Holland Taylor off to a widespread,
deadly conspiracy.

When a drunk driver kills her entire family, Florida retiree Irene
Gustafson is left rich and alone. Between savings and life insurance,
the death of her son and his family leaves her with nearly $300,000-a veritable fortune in a community where most live off social security.
Following the advice of Ann Landers, Mrs. Gustafson hands the money over to an investment manager. The returns are steady until he starts investing in Willow Tree, a low-income housing development on the fringes of the Twin Cities. The money vanishes, and Mrs.
Gustafson is destitute.
That's where Holland Taylor, St. Paul private detective, comes in.
His recently retired parents are Mrs. Gustafson's neighbors, and they want Taylor to recover the old lady's money. It seems impossible, but as he investigates Willow Tree he finds a twisted real-estate conspiracy with deep roots in city politics-and a vicious killer hired to protect the secret.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938473128
Publisher:	Forty Press
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	153,931
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

PI Holland Taylor is a former cop with an African American associate who covers his back, a high-level friend on the police force and a very smart lady who tries to keep him on the straight path. He also practices martial arts, brews exotic coffee and favors a special brand of local beer. But Housewrightwho won an Edgar for best first novel with Taylor's debut in Penance (1996)does more than merely echo Robert B. Parker's Spenser in this second episode: he tells a good story in a setting he makes his own. Taylor works out of Minnesota's Twin Cities, far from Boston; the black associate is Freddie (Sidney Poitier Fredricks), a venal and definitely downscale PI who wouldn't last two minutes up against Parker's Hawk. The cop friend keeps tossing Taylor into jail. The lady is Cynthia Grey, a lawyer who used to be a stripper. Taylor's martial arts practices may well compensate for his slight build. Housewright's plot is as open-faced as his genial homage. Asked by his father to help an 85-year-old neighbor recover the life savings stolen from her by Levering Field, an oily investment counselor, Taylor uses a cross-dressing computer genius to harass the swindler. But just as Field is ready to cave in, he's found deadand somebody with very good aim is also shooting at Taylor. Housewright's wit, while making the most of the bow to Parker, should earn him an acclaim all his own. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Brian Emerson returns with a deadpan Dragnet reading as Holland Taylor. This PI caper opens with a series of trite high school pranks as Hollands first attempt to squeeze out the embezzler of elderly Mrs. Gustafsons life savings. Millions of dollars and the reputations of high-profile Twin Cities citizens are at stake as a hired gun stalks Holland and key suspects Levering and Amanda Field. Housewright does a meager job of characterizing Taylor and Cynthia Gray, Taylors love interest cum lawyer, while others are left with cardboard personalities. Recommended only where recorded PI stories are very popular.Sandy Glover, West Linn P.L., OR

Library Journal

When you're in business to bilk sweet old widows out of their life savings, you deserve whatever happens to you. So when St. Paul shamus Holland Taylor's parents ask him to go after the $287,000 that trusting Irene Gustafson gave to investments counselor Levering Field, and when Field and his smiling attorney Monica Adler tell Taylor that Mrs. Gustafson will be dead long before a court ever orders him to pay her a penny—and besides, he's prudently placed all his assets in his teenaged daughter's name—he figures he's well within his rights in ruining Field's life. And that's what he and his cross-dressing computer-expert friend Steve (a.k.a. Sara) VanderTop set out to do. Some of their harassments are ingenious, others merely satisfyingly petty, but soon they've got Field crying uncle. Sadly, that's practically the last thing he does cry before Taylor, followed closely by the cops, stumbles over his dead body. Homicide chief Lt. Anne Scalasi turns Taylor loose when he can prove an alibi, but his troubles are just beginning. For one thing, somebody's shooting at him, too—and with the same .32 that killed Field; for another, he's getting a double dose of all the dirty tricks, from unwanted pizza deliveries to threatening phone calls, that he pulled on Field. With Field dead, who could be looking for revenge? And who could possibly want both Field and Taylor dead?

Housewright follows up his Edgar-winning debut (Penance, 1995) with a greased-lightning tale of scam and counterscam that's still bubbling merrily when the fat lady sings.

Kirkus Reviews