CHOKE POINT: A ROSCOE BRINKER MYSTERY
JAMES C.MITCHELL
ISBN# (10) 0-373-26581-6/ (13) 978-0-373-26581-7
November 2006
Harlequin-Worldwide Mystery
225 Duncan Mill Rd., Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9
Paperback
$5.99
253 Pages
Mystery
Rating: 5 Cups

April Lennox is a reporter for the Southwest News Consortium, an agency that sells mostly stories concerning labor disputes and loves whistle blowers. April is a rebel with the fervor of the young and righteous, and the guts to go where angels fear to tread, despite her moneyed background. When one such whistle blower turns up dead at a riot after a final four basketball game, she seeks out a private detective and shares her suspicions of oppression and substandard wages. Forewarned against going to Mexico alone, she none-the-less, fearlessly goes anyway and turns up dead. Who is she supposed to meet and why are they both killed?

Roscoe Brinker is the ex-border patrolman turned private detective April contacted before her death. Feeling guilty for not accompanying her down to Mexico, he starts to investigate her story and makes a visit to an old friend while there. Hector is a drug dealer who played baseball with Brinker back in high school, and with his pull, he promises to see what he can find out about the deaths of the undocumented Mexican national, and April Lennox. Brinker goes to see April’s father in Los Angeles and finds a despondent man, rich beyond measure, living in a sterile house devoid of warmth. When asked why there is to be no autopsy he gets no answer. Then he gets a call from Hector’s man Vicente who tells him he is being tailed and the game is on. Who is tailing Brinker and who hired the tail? What does John Lennox know about April’s death that he is not saying?

Brinker and his contacts uncover ties to big conglomerates and factories based in Mexico making huge profits and paying pennies on the dollar wages. He found out that a couple of employees have tried to organize a union who then subsequently turned up missing and later dead; their relatives are scared to speak of their knowledge. Working with Hector’s man, Brinker speaks with employees who know the dead workers and a plan begins to take shape. What ultimately happens will vindicate April’s death, he hopes.

Mr. James C. Mitchell has written a tight and imaginative mystery full of dead bodies, improbable puzzling business connections, and dirty dealings in high places. April is your typical young righteous reporter trying to right the world’s wrongs while Brinker is the worldly-wise detective who has seen too much and done much worse. The story captured my interest, and kept me enthralled till the satisfying ending. The minor characters are interesting, providing their own colorful input to a story rich in background motives. I enjoyed Mr. Mitchell’s story telling style, and look forward to his next foray across the border.

Kathy
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
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