cover image Final Closing

Final Closing

Barbara Lee. Thomas Dunne Books, $22.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-312-16762-2

Evocative descriptions and succinct prose add some pleasurable depth to this clever whodunit as Eve Elliott, in her second outing (Death in Still Waters), discovers that being a real estate agent in Anne Arundel County, Md., can literally be murder. Eve, along with dozens of other female brokers, attends a self-defense seminar after one of their own, attractive but ruthless Rose Macklin, is found murdered after showing an exclusive home. Obscene phone calls also have everyone on edge, as Eve, working in the office of her septuagenarian aunt, Lillian Weber, is trying to make some life-altering decisions. Should she return to the hectic world of New York advertising or stay in small-town Pines on Magothy, with her budding real estate career, a delightful house complete with two adoring dogs and a romance with the much younger Will St. Claire? Decisions are put to the side, however, when Eve finds the body of colleague and single mom Leslie Ballard. The cast includes philandering Hamm Hammett; insecure pastor Jack Hardwick; antagonistic realty secretary Joyce Nichols; and others. Then Eve, determined to help the police, is eventually attacked herself. A Chesapeake Bay storm parallels Eve's meeting with the killer in a turbulent finale that solidly seals the deal in this tightly wound mystery. (Sept.)