Steinbeck references add another layer to ‘Tahoe Rescue’
(August 4, 2024) — It must be summer: Todd Borg’s private detective, Owen McKenna, is back in one of his most captivating cases ever.
As fans of the McKenna mystery thrillers know, Borg whets our appetites with the first death (there’s always more than one) swiftly occurring in a brief prologue. “Tahoe Rescue” wastes no time in placing the reader next to the driver as she swerves her car from an oncoming vehicle. Her car leaves the switchback road, above Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, taking a series of horrifying vehicular somersaults before crashing into trees.
The mysterious crash and the victim’s last thoughts showcase Borg’s finesse at thrilling action. And that takes only two pages.
From that “accidental” death, we are introduced to McKenna’s sympathetic, possible client, a young woman, Livvy Parr, who has “a feeling” based on emails recently received, that her life is in danger.
Borg quickly connects Livvy to a prior client the faithful reader will easily remember. All the McKenna mysteries stand on their own, but it is a clever ploy on Borg’s part to give a nod to the past, which adds to the depth of a reader’s connection to McKenna.
The young woman happens to be the private secretary of the earlier car crash victim. Livvy doesn’t believe the crash was an accident. Until then, Livvy lived in her own apartment within the Tahoe mansion of the dead woman. The emails are threatening and demand she leave.
Wealth of information
McKenna’s sleuthing begins before taking the case. The fun part of the Tahoe mysteries is the wealth of information the reader acquires in between terrific chase scenes, clandestine plots and enough bad guys (and gals) to sink a ship. In this case, a pirate ship.
Before long, the mystery unfolds, involving a world-famous cosmetics company, the fractured family of the company’s founder, an FBI investigation of stolen art, a Tahoe sailboat offering theatrical pirate cruises, Central American gangs moving in on L.A. gangs’ Tahoe territory and John Steinbeck’s first novel, “Cup of Gold,” a story of piracy written while working as a young man at Lake Tahoe. That novel may hold the code needed to solve the murders, and the delivery of stolen art.
No McKenna mystery is complete without Spot, his loveable Harlequin Great Dane. Spot takes a big bite out of “Tahoe Rescue,” getting to sink his teeth into one or two bad guys. McKenna’s girlfriend Street, a professional entomologist, is also present, providing just enough heart to keep the romance going for another round.
If this is your first Tahoe mystery, you will be introduced to members of local law enforcement, who never hesitate to call on McKenna for help, counting on his experience as a retired San Francisco police detective.
My experience as a Borg fan is to recommend “Tahoe Rescue.” I’m now reading “Pot of Gold” to find that code.
Visit Sunny Solomon’s website bookinwithsunny.com for her latest recommendations or just to ‘talk books.’
Sunny Solomon
Sunny Solomon holds an MA in English/Creative Writing, San Francisco State University. She is a book reviewer for “The Clayton Pioneer” and her poetry and other writing has been published in literary journals, one chapbook, In the Company of Hope and the collection, Six Poets Sixty-six Poems. She was the happy manager of Bonanza Books, Clayton, CA and Clayton Books, Clayton, CA. She continues to moderate a thriving book club that survived the closure of the store from which it began. Sunny currently lives next to the Truckee in Reno, NV.