Monday #Review - McCall Company: Emboozlement by Rich Leder #Mystery #Comedy

Series: McCall & Company # 3
Format: E-Book, 394 pages
Release Date: September 8, 2017
Publisher: Laugh Riot Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Humor / Mystery

ONE SLIPPERY SPORTS BAR EMBEZZLERTWO DEAD DECADENT DIVORCE LAWYERSMCCALL & COMPANY ON THE CASE

PI Kate McCall was warned to stay home, stay put, and stay out of NYPD business. But someone is killing Lowry Lowe lawyers, and Kate is sure her father’s murderer is pulling the trigger. At the same time, former Major League relief pitcher Steve “Blue” Stark wants her to catch the crook embezzling big bucks from his West Side sports bar. 

Kate can’t help but get in the game.

The problem is the killer is cluing her in before murdering each lawyer and she’s falling for Blue as fast as he’s becoming her prime suspect. 

Can Kate and her crackpot crew catch her father’s killer before all the lawyers are dead? And will she find real love with dreamboat Blue? Or will she have to lock him up for stealing his own money?

If she comes through the kidnappings, she might beat the odds.

Emboozlement, by author Rich Leder, is the third installment in the author's McCall & Company series. As with the previous two installments, this book picks up right where the previous one left off. 45-year old Kate McCall is on a mission. 10 weeks ago, her father, Jimmy McCall, was brutally murdered by a corporate assassin, and she wants payback. Kate inherited Jimmy's business called McCall & Company Private Investigations which has come with some strange and bizarre cases; including a chain smoking lawyer named Mel Shovelson who appears literally out of nowhere every time Kate gets into trouble; which is to say a lot.

In typical Leder fashion, Kate has more than her hands full in this installment. She agrees to help former Major League Baseball player Steve "Blue" Stark find out who has been embezzling money from his sports bar called Blue's Sports Bar. Going undercover as a management specialist, Kate is up against the wall since anyone and everyone could be guilty, especially Blue. The former player has stirred up something in Kate, but when all is said and done, can they still maintain the fire and passion, or will it all go down in flames like Kate's previous lovers after she discovers the truth? 

If that weren't enough, she has also found herself in contact with the assassin who killed her father and a group of others. Kate has antagonized the assassin with text messages, and now he wants Kate to play a game with him. He is the cat, she the mouse. He has a job. A job that will eliminate Lowry Lowe lawyers one at a time unless Kate can figure out a way to get to the killer first. But, with NYPD Homicide Detective Lew Logan chomping at her ass trying to get Kate to say the hell away from his investigation, and her son Matthew, who just happens to be an Assistant District Attorney, belittling and scorning her every move, Kate will once again be forced to use the most comedic resources you can imagine. 

Kate assembles the eccentric tenants of her brownstone that she manages known as the House of Eccentric Ticks, and her histrionic acting troupe from the D-Cup Musicals to help her crack the cases. Meaning things get strange, and down right hysterical. Kate and Fu Chen are like the Abbott and Costello of this series. If you have no clue who Abbott and Costello are, please Google them. Fu has saved Kate's ass 4 or 5 times. He has been with her at the most dangerous points in this series. He is a badass who just happens to be Kate's maintenance man and co-star. Oh, yes, Kate and her Ticks are making a move this time out. You just have to imagine what a group of the most eccentric group of characters ever written is up to and go from there. 

Now the sad part of this review. Apparently, this is the final novel in the series. I am not at all happy with that. I am not happy because there is a HUGE plot hole that hasn't been resolved. I am not happy because the author leaves readers with hopes of yet another Kate and crew case when she accepts an even more curiouser case. However, as sad as I am regarding my negatives, I will encourage you to pick up this series and read it. Leder is an amazingly entertaining writer who has created the most creative, the most zany, the most interesting cast of characters in a long while. Kate is the most ambitious character I have read about. Not only does she manage a brownstone, but she boxes regularly, she acts in way off Broadway plays, and she does it all without bitching and moaning that she has no time for herself.

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