Junior Bender, burglar and occasional fixer for the L.A. crime world, makes his sixth appearance (after
King Maybe) in this funny, fast-paced mystery. It's the week before Christmas, and Junior is forced into investigating the sudden increase in shoplifting at the Edgerton Mall for one of the mall's owners, a dangerous Russian gangster. When the corpse of a shopkeeper surfaces, it's clear that something even more nefarious is going on amid the rundown stores. In between dodging bullets and detecting, Junior fits in a little Christmas shopping and soul-searching as he gets to the bottom of the case.
VERDICT Hallinan offers up everything readers could want in a hard-boiled crime novel with an action-packed story and a cast of colorful characters. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/16.]
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