Free-spirited independent insurance adjuster Fifi Cutter is back in the saddle in Freeman’s entertaining follow-up to 2007’s Murder... Suicide... Whatever
. A private charter jet carrying two Singaporean businessmen crashes after taking off from Van Nuys, Calif., when Jim Farnswell, a mentally unstable ex-airline employee, shoots the pilot. Parts of the fuselage land on a Winnebago, killing its occupant, Earl Dean Rayburn. In the subsequent lawsuit against the airline, Fifi’s friend Victoria Jane “VJ” Smith represents Rayburn’s wife, and Chinatown lawyer Reg Wong represents the families of the businessmen. Reg hires Fifi as a document clerk to help with trial preparation, but shenanigans involving a missing tape and Farnswell’s past lead Fifi into some very tight spots. To complicate matters, Fifi finds herself falling for Daniel Boatwright, a cute single lawyer on the wrong side of the case. At times, insurance claim details slow the plot, but outrageous humor, sharp courtroom details and biracial Fifi’s struggles with her extended family more than compensate. Author tour.
(May
)
