Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest mystery to feature John Thatcher of New York's Sloan Guaranty Trust is set mainly in Boston, headquarters of the commuter airline Sparrow Flyways. A product of airline deregulation, Sparrow is a nonunion operation surviving on horizontal management and project development teams. Mitchell Scovil, CEO and guiding figure of the founders, dreams of expansion, but a group of lower-level employees (and shareholders) is worried about their investment. When their arrogant spokesperson is murdered, the Sloan, holding 20% of unsalable Sparrow stock in a trust, becomes involved. While the redoubtable Everett Gabler examines the airlines books, Thatcher meets the various suspects, including a former partner now in line for the presidency at a large rival carrier, two other founders still at Sparrow and the energetic young woman who spearheads the employees' group. With characteristic humor (an employees' work stoppage backfires, tying up the entire Northeast corridor over Thanksgiving weekend) and in a clearly conveyed business context of takeovers and proxy fights, the pseudonymous authors, in their 21st mystery, can still keep readers guessing until the last pages. John Thatcher is as perceptive and charming as ever. Mystery Guild main selection, Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. (October) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Has it really taken Lathen 20 books about murder-in-business-settings to finally get around to the airline industry? Apparently so. And, once again, though banker John Putnam Thatcher pops up occasionally with a bit of insight (more observation than sleuthing), the absorbing focus is on the suspects themselves--as they continue to cope with business crises while undergoing the ordeal of a police murder-investigation. The airline is Sparrow Flyways of Boston, a small outfit with employee profitsharing (not unlike People's), founded a few years back by charismatic Mitch Scovil, quietly efficient Eleanor Gough, equipment-expert Clay Batchelder, and ambitious Fritz Diehl. Now, however, Diehl has left for a VP slot at a big airline, Mitch is yearning to expand Sparrow into cross-country flights, and his plan is being fiercely opposed by the employee/stockholders. So, when pilot Alan Whetmore, the shrill employee spokesman, is found murdered (bludgeoned with a company wrench!), Mitch immediately becomes suspect #1. Things become more complicated, however, once it's discovered that the dead pilot had been blackmailing some unknown someone--to the tune of $100,000. Also: who has a motive to mire Sparrow in scandal and send its stock plummeting? As often is the case with Lathen, the answers are less interesting than the questions. And readers keen on action probably won't be satisfied by the verbal sparring here--or by the droll mini-drama of an employee walkout on Thanskgiving eve. For Lathen lovers, however, this is a solid--if not superior--portion of the reliable, distinctive formula: fascinating business details, shrewdly sketched characters in nonstop conflict, and the comforting presence of wry onlooker Thatcher (whose trust division controls 20% of the Sparrow stock). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
