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Title: predictable, pedestrian mystery
Review: This "femjep" mystery has all of the flaws of a beginning effort and few of the charms. The focus is really on the relationship between reporter Irene Kelly and detective Frank Harriman. Solving the mystery is almost incidental. And Irene doesn't do much investigating. Things happen to her and she overlooks obvious clues (e. g., the cable truck sitting outside her house for several days). She finds herself in far more physical danger than any one person would face in a lifetime, and yet the solution to the crime pops up when she isn't even looking for it. Burke has an annoying habit of trying to misdirect the reader -- which a mystery writer is supposed to do -- but in such a heavy-handed way that no reasonably intelligent reader is going to be fooled.
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