Kirkus Review
A sanitation supervisor hits the streets in search of a killer who plies his trade in Manhattan's hidden courtyards. When Garry Thomason disappears on his early-morning trash run to New Amsterdam Mews, near West 48th Street, his ex-socialite boss, Anna Winthrop (Evil Justice, 2009, etc.) is more than a little worried. When his body turns up the next day in the former colonial stables, turned into quaint row homes, she throws herself into the investigation, much to the disgust of Elena Rinaldi, the NYPD detective assigned to the case. Anna's one step ahead of Rinaldi all the way. She ferrets out Garry's connections to shoplifting queen Tally Klaw and to Zeus, a shadowy crack dealer. And she finds a clipping that links Iraq vet Thomason to the rape and murder of teenaged Neda Majeed in Baghdad, as well as photos that tie him to a local pornographer. After Thomason's grandmother Evelyn is strangled in her apartment, Anna thinks the motive for murder must lie close to homeuntil a second body turns up in Amster Yard, a mews near East 49th Street. Unfortunately, day-care worker Yvette Ronson, who seems to have no connection to Garry's sordid world, is a harbinger of things to come. Soon, corpses are cropping up in cloistered communities from midtown to the Village, and Anna must cast her net ever wider to catch a killer with a taste for narrow places. Marshall crams enough crime into Winthrop's latest case to burst the strongest Hefty bag. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
New York Sanitation Department supervisor Anna Winthrop (Evil Justice, 2009; Death Is Disposable, 2008) has her hands full when one of her crew members, Iraq vet Garry Thomason, disappears while collecting trash behind Manhattan's New Amsterdam Mews. The next morning his body turns up in the middle of the mews. Anna and her police officer fiancé, Santos Reyes, begin investigating and uncover Garry's checkered past. His career included shoplifting, dope dealing, and grievous misconduct in Iraq. When more bodies turn up in other hidden mews, all agree that there is a serial killer out there. Anna becomes a target as she gets closer to solving the crime. She must also deal with her parents marital woes as her father battles alcoholism. This cozy offers an interesting bit of New York City architectural history along with an unconventional female detective. Perhaps there is not quite as much of the feisty humor on view in this episode as in the previous ones, but fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum will still find Anna's unconventional approach appealing.--Bibel, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Anna Winthrop, a New York City sanitation supervisor, gets involved in a murder case when one of her staff is killed on the job. VERDICT Anna is not the brightest of sleuths (she meets drug dealers in deserted parks at night), and Marshall clearly does not know how the NYPD works. But fans of previous series titles (Death Is Disposable; Evil Justice) will want. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
