Title:
Over a
cliff
By
Author: Jean A. Davidson
Tag line: Someone had been in a big hurry to
get rid of Randolph Dunlop. Question
was, who?
Police characters: Detective Josh Adams and Detective Tony Donato.
The gist: The story starts out with the
detectives watching the funeral of a millionaire, Dunlop, who had died a week
earlier of a car crash where he lost control of his vehicle and careened over a
cliff. The police knew, but not the
public, that someone had cut Dunlop’s brake lines. At the end of the funeral
service three people remained, Dunlop’s second wife Carolyn who was almost as
young as Dunlop’s daughter, his daughter Victoria who did not get along with
her step-mom, and Carolyn’s brother, Fred, who lost a fortune taking the advice
of Dunlop. After Dunlop had married, he
changed his will cutting out his daughter and leaving it all to his new wife. After the funeral the detectives met with the
three relatives and announced that it was not an accident that killed Dunlop
and that someone has sabotaged this car. Victoria pointed a finger at the new wife,
calling her a greedy gold digger. The
new wife accused the daughter because she was angry that dad had changed his
will. She added that Victoria’s boyfriend knew all about cars and that if
anyone tampered with the brakes it was him.
Then Victoria turned on Fred, claiming he must have done it because he
was angry about losing all his money.
Fred told the police he had heard Victoria yelling “I wish you were dead”
to her father the day before he died.
Victoria denied saying that.
Detective Adams received a cell phone call from the police department
saying that they had found a fingerprint on the car in an unusual spot and he
now knows who did it.
Crime scene: Tampered car.
Clues: A fingerprint in an odd spot.
Suspects: The 3 relatives. (WW loves three suspects.)
Red herrings: The changed will. The lost fortune. The daughter wishing her dad was dead.
Solution: The new wife did it.
Even before her fingerprint was found she gave herself away by accusing
Victoria of tampering with the brakes, a tidbit of info no one else knew except
the police. She said she killed him
before he could change his will back to his daughter.
My two cents: “Question was, who?” Well, duh. Extremely
uninspiring, unimaginative tag line. The
killer gave herself away by knowing a fact that only the perp would know. ((yawn))
Once you read that you might as well not even read the rest of the
story. Why can’t we have some fun,
imaginative, interesting, makes-you-think kind of clues? We really don’t need two detectives now, do
we?
