Alex Matthews

This was my first Cassidy McCabe mystery even though it is the 9th in a series and I was impressed. The characters are real - flaws and all - especially Cassidy and her husband , Zach Moran. Cassidy is a therapist who knows she has control issues in all aspects of her life - she wants to be in control of any situation. Zach is a crime writer who is having problems with his new editor - who happens to be an individual that Zach fired years ago.

In addition to the conflict going on in their own life, they have rented Zach’s condo to a schizophrenic who swears she saw a murder. Delia, the tenant, has disappeared. She’s been off her medications and “The Dark Angel” is after her.

Did a crime really occur or was it just a delusion since Delia hadn’t been on her meds. Cass feels an obligation to find out besides she just can’t stand to have an unsolved mystery. The only way she can question residents is to work with Jane, the 74 year old security chair person of the building. Jane is a retired school teacher and she wants to be equal partners - maybe even in charge - of their investigation. Cassidy has major problems with doing an investigation with a partner. This does lead to some problems that they work through during their partnership.

During the next several days they interview everyone in the building. There are just no strong suspects. Did a crime really take place or was it just a delusion. The police had been called the night Delia made the claim but then they seemed reluctant to really investigate after finding out a mentally ill person off her medications made the allegation. Detective Roloff warns Cassidy to mind her own business and stay out of the way. Apparently there was evidence in the drain of the storage closet where Delia claimed a body had hung. Also Miles Gerlinsky is missing. Cassidy gleaning as much information as she can from Detective Roloff gets the impression that the police believe a body had been cut up. No way, no how is she not going to get involved now.

More and more information slowly comes out of all the interviews - Miles wife was having an affair with one of the other residents - was Miles having an affair with Sandra - looked like it - then it is discovered that Sandra was his sister that not even his wife new he had. Henry, another resident was the only friend that Miles seemed to have and he was very aloof. Then our duo find out that Miles had a son that he abandoned when the child was young. The son now a teenager was seen attacking Miles a couple weeks earlier.

So many leads but not enough evidence. On top of the investigation Delia contacts her several times because Cassidy has “white magic” and can protect her from the Dark Angel. Cassidy meets up with her a couple times in the hopes of convincing Delia to let Cass take her to a hospital to get some help. Each time Delia slips away before Cass can help her.

Then Cassidy is abducted out of her own house after being beaten. Luckily, because of the alarm system in her house the police were able to apprehend her abductor - who just happened to be Miles secret son. Information keeps coming making the picture muddier and muddier right up to a very action-packed ending.

I found Murder’s Madness to be a very intriguing read. Every page contained something to keep the story moving whether it was the mystery itself or Cassidy and Zach’s relationship and their own problems. This story was complete. It wasn’t just a mystery and every page was dedicated to the murder. It had other sub plots that were interesting in themselves. Even though this book is part of a series, it was developed well enough that it was not necessary to read the first in the series to understand the characters.
… (lisätietoja)