Swift Run - review

Ditzy and the Detective are back. Gigi Goldman and Charlie Swift are opposites but partners. Charlie is the no nonsense, experienced investigator and namesake of Swift Investigations. Gigi is her inexperienced and klutzy partner who often dithers about what to do and worries about her wardrobe and makeup as much as the investigation on which they are working.

Laura DiSilverio’s breezy mystery, “Swift Run” – the third in the series about the Colorado Springs PI firm - has the two back at it, this time looking for Gigi’s ex-husband Les.

High-roller Les Goldman, who had invested in Swift Investigations, thus making Gigi a silent, then active, partner, took off for a new life in Costa Rica with a blond bimbo named Heather-Anne. This left Gigi with two kids, an expensive house and lifestyle but little money. He also left behind a lot of unhappy people he had swindled.

Charlie is still recuperating from a bullet wound suffered during their previous investigation, so Gigi is running the office. In walks Heather-Anne. Gigi is dumbfounded, then even more so when Heather-Anne says she wants to hire the team to find Les, who has disappeared. The thousand dollars Heather-Anne offers as retainer tempts GiGi, despite her misgivings and dislike for Les and Heather-Anne, to take the job. Swiftly, we are off and running.

DiSilverio’s light-hearted style, make this an entertaining read - it is not hard-boiled crime fiction. The mystery is good and the plot works, though some willing suspension of disbelief for some elements is required.

Gigi tracks Les to Aspen, succumbs to his charms – she never seems to learn - but then he disappears again and Gigi ends up in jail. Misfortune just seems to follow this woman.

Finally freed from the ‘misunderstanding’, Gigi returns to Colorado Springs only to be confronted with another misfortune: Heather-Anne is found dead in her hotel room and Gigi is suspect number one.

Charlie, now back at work after recovering from her wound is determined that the team must find Les and the murderer (they may be one and the same), if only to try to clear Gigi.

Gigi (Georgia Goldman, thus the two Gs) is the partner who constantly ends up in zany situations. Before she can do anything she has to decide on and then make certain she is wearing the correct attire, after all your look is important and so is your clothing. She even has to have an ‘intervention’ when she is tempted to spend hundreds of dollars she doesn’t have on clothes and jewelry to calm her nerves after her incarceration. Good-hearted – she sees people and things through rose colored glasses - it is that and her klutziness and naïveté that often get her in trouble, some of which is hilarious.

Charlie spent eight years in Air Force Intelligence before starting Swift Investigations in the private sector. She knows what she is doing and usually gets it done. She was not crazy about taking on a partner, but circumstances dictated and now she is growing to like Gigi. She even has begun to see that Gigi does have some talent.

Charlie lives alone but there is that Police Detective Connor Montgomery and her next door neighbor, Episcopal Priest Dan Allgood.

Why did Les leave Heather-Anne and disappear? Who killed Heather-Anne? Was it Les? Or was it someone trying to get to Les?

How will Gigi and Charlie get to the bottom of all this? It will be a delightful swift run.

“Swift Run” from Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books went on sale November 27th.

Laura DiSilverio will appear tonight (Thursday, November 29) at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Highlands Ranch.