Called to Kill

by Joan Albarella

The Reverend Nikki Barnes finds herself helping her old friend from Vietnam, Trang. In the process her life is threatened and she solves a tragic murder mystery. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883061288
• ISBN13: 9781883061289
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Rising Tide Press (AZ)
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Twice is nice!

Of all the accolades I could offer...all the complimentary adjectives I could bestow...and there are plenty...the highest compliment I can give for any book is this. I read it twice. Each and every page. I hadn't intended to. I wanted to do up a review as soon as I read it the first time, it was that compelling. Time passed and some months later I picked it up again, meaning to just leaf through it...re-acquaint myself with the characters, you know. Anyway...next thing, I'm right back into it. Nikki, Trang, Ginni, Magpie...each and every character, no matter how small their role, is captivating and entertaining. Ms. Albarella jam packs each page with riveting action, complex relationships and, yes, even the odd sexual romp! A wonderful book by a woman who obviously has great insight into the human condition and leaves the reader feeling satisfied and uplifted.

Quirky Characters Make the Story

The story is an essential part of the human experience. The person who held the tribe spellbound by the fire knew that. The teacher who calms a disruptive class with the words, 'Once upon a time...' knows that. And so does Joan Albarella, in her second Nikki Barnes mystery Called to Kill. What makes a story, any story, engage or disengage its audience is its characters. In Called to Kill, Albarella gives the reader an assortment of characters to care about. It's not just the central character who resonates with the reader (Nikki Barnes is a unique detective -- lesbian Vietnam vet, Episcopal priest, and university professor), it's also the series' supporting characters (Max, Nikki's fellow vet turned detective, and Ginni, the doctor who is Nikki's partner) and a wonderfully quirky Falklands War photographer named Magpie York. Magpie, in fact, is one of the best quirky characters I've encountered since Buddy Bustamente, the dim-witted, outrageously dressed mobster in Les Roberts' Full Cleveland. A slight woman, she has a personality that expands beyond her size to change the chemistry of any room she enters. Also impressive is Trang, the Vietnamese woman Nikki saved, in a flashback, in the first book, Agenda for Murder. She has exactly the right combination of toughness and humanity one would expect in a person who's endured a horrific war and made a grand new life for herself. The story begins with Trang's plea to Nikki for help and moves at a rapid clip through Western New York, the Buffalo area mob, and the toples-bottomless dancing industry in Fort Erie, Canada. There's murder, betrayal, frank eroticism, and more murder in a fast-paced mystery that skirts the line between a cosy (Agatha Christie, Murder She Wrote) and hard-boiled (Kinsey Milhone, Spenser, V.I. Warshawski). Called to Kill is time well spent.Also recommended: Darkness Peering by Alice Blanchard (a strong woman detective) Agenda for Murder by Joan Albarella (Nikki Barnes' debut) The Wheel of Desire and Other Intimate Hauntings by Gary Earl Ross (short stories both erotic and macabre)