cover image Hunting for Hemingway: A DD McGil Literati Mystery

Hunting for Hemingway: A DD McGil Literati Mystery

Diane Gilbert Madsen, Midnight Ink (www.midnightinkbooks.com), $14.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7387-1953-5

A real-life literary loss—in December 1922, Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, left a valise at a Paris train station containing manuscripts of 22 stories, the beginning of a novel, and 20 poems—provides the enticing hook for Madsen's uneven second mystery featuring Chicago insurance investigator DD (Daphne December) McGil. DD is shocked to learn that an ex-boyfriend of hers, noted Hemingway expert David Barnes, has received the missing valise from an anonymous source. After the discovery's reported on the news, David's shot dead. DD, who recently visited David, becomes a suspect, and the Hemingway manuscripts (or are they forgeries?) vanish again. As DD works to clear her name, she gets lucky in the helpful hunk department with Mitch Sinclair, a computer expert assisting her on a case involving stolen software. Unfortunately, this second case lacks the interest of the search for the Hemingway treasure. A lackluster denouement doesn't do the premise justice. (Sept.)