cover image No Regrets, No Remorse: 
A Sydney Simone Mystery

No Regrets, No Remorse: A Sydney Simone Mystery

R.F. Sharp. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (216p) ISBN 978-1-4642-0043-4

Smooth prose makes up in part for the lack of likable characters in Sharp’s debut, winner of the first Poisoned Pen Press Discovery Mystery Award. Attorney Oscar Leopold sets out to defend his former law partner, Roy Flagler, against a murder charge after “Big Jack” Burdine, an unscrupulous Palm Beach, Fla., lawyer, dies in a boat explosion and suspicion falls on Roy, who was having an affair with Jack’s wife. Oscar turns for help to his former lover and current roommate, Sydney Simone, who, unbeknownst to him, secretly runs Human Pest Control, a business in which she eliminates those she considers the scum of the earth. Sydney, a tough young woman with piercings, attitude, and skewed morals, will remind many of Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. The more mild-mannered Oscar comes off as a rather wimpy fellow, whose most daring act is to aggressively smoke in a nonsmoking restaurant. (Nov.)