Vera Kelly : Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht
Vera Kelly : Lost and Found
Rosalie Knecht
4 Stars
Genre:
Pages: 198
Published: 28 June 2022
Publisher: VERVE Books
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Publisher's Blurb
It’s spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave their cozy Brooklyn apartment for an emergency visit to Max's estranged family in Los Angeles. Max’s parents are divorcing—her father is already engaged to a much younger woman and under the sway of an occultist charlatan; her mother has left their estate in a hurry with no indication of return. Max, who hasn’t seen her family since they threw her out at the age of twenty-one, prepares for the trip with equal parts dread and anger.
Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate—the sprawling, manicured landscape; expansive and ornate buildings; and garages full of luxury cars reveal a privileged upbringing that, up until this point, Max had only hinted at—while Max attempts to navigate her father, who is hostile and controlling, and the occultist, St. James, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over at dinner when Max threatens to alert her mother—and her mother’s lawyers—to St. James and her father’s plans using marital assets. The next morning, when Vera wakes up, Max is gone.
In Vera Kelly Lost and Found, Rosalie Knecht gives Vera her highest-stake case yet, as Vera quickly puts her private detective skills to good use and tracks a trail of breadcrumbs across southern California to find her missing girlfriend. She travels first to a film set in Santa Ynez and, ultimately, to a most unlikely destination where Vera has to decide how much she is willing to commit to save the woman she loves.
Upon arriving, Vera is shocked by the size and extravagance of the Comstock estate—the sprawling, manicured landscape; expansive and ornate buildings; and garages full of luxury cars reveal a privileged upbringing that, up until this point, Max had only hinted at—while Max attempts to navigate her father, who is hostile and controlling, and the occultist, St. James, who is charming but appears to be siphoning family money. Tensions boil over at dinner when Max threatens to alert her mother—and her mother’s lawyers—to St. James and her father’s plans using marital assets. The next morning, when Vera wakes up, Max is gone.
In Vera Kelly Lost and Found, Rosalie Knecht gives Vera her highest-stake case yet, as Vera quickly puts her private detective skills to good use and tracks a trail of breadcrumbs across southern California to find her missing girlfriend. She travels first to a film set in Santa Ynez and, ultimately, to a most unlikely destination where Vera has to decide how much she is willing to commit to save the woman she loves.
Review
On a visit to Vera’s girlfriend Max’s family home, she discovers that Max’s father is really not happy with the direction that his daughter’s life has taken. When Vera wakes up the next day she finds that Max has disappeared. With no help from the family and just a confusing telephone message to go on, Vera sets out to track down Max in her own inimitable way
This is book 3 in the Vera Kelly series but is the first one that I’ve read. It works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel as anything you need to know from the previous tales is slipped in whenever it is needed.
The main characters are well defined and ably supported by a small collection of quirky secondary ones that keep it all interesting.
The plot starts slowly but picks up speed following Max’s disappearance and then races to its frantic conclusion as Max’s investigations lead her to a family conspiracy designed to keep her apart from her true love.
This is book 3 in the Vera Kelly series but is the first one that I’ve read. It works perfectly well as a stand-alone novel as anything you need to know from the previous tales is slipped in whenever it is needed.
The main characters are well defined and ably supported by a small collection of quirky secondary ones that keep it all interesting.
The plot starts slowly but picks up speed following Max’s disappearance and then races to its frantic conclusion as Max’s investigations lead her to a family conspiracy designed to keep her apart from her true love.
The Author
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