Forge, Nov 2002, 24.95, 254 pp.
ISBN 0765302039
In Puerta Del Sol Mick “Brew” Axbrewder does his best to drink himself to death in order to obliterate the memory of killing his brother. The commission yanked his private investigator's license because the man his brother was chasing had a gun and would have killed him. He didn't do jail time because the man his brother was chasing had a gun and would have killed him when Brew intervened. When he is sober he works for Ginny Fistoulari, his one time sleuthing partner and lover.
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He must sober up and tackle the disappearance of his niece as her mother hires Ginny's firm because she knows that Brew will work harder than anyone else will even without the impetus of killing her daughter's father. Ginny and Brew discover that nine girls in six different schools have disappeared when they were isolated from other schoolmates and adults. Seven of the girls were found dead from a heroin overdose after working the streets as a prostitute. Gin and Brew must find Alathea before the same fate befalls her.
THE MAN WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER reaches rock bottom when the novel opens but the reader sees flashes of good in this tortured person, as he seeks sobriety in order to find his niece. A lifetime won't be long enough for Brew to forget that he killed his sibling but working the case gives him glimpses of a redemption that could be his if he turn his life around and works for the common good. The mystery is creatively designed and organized and Gin and Brew mix well together, but what else would anyone expect from Stephen R. Donaldson.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner