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Summary
Summary
Jim Rockford finds himself entangled in a dangerous mess when a seventeen-year-old girl claiming to be his daughter shows up on his doorstep and asks for his help in discovering what has happened to her mother, who she thinks may have been killed by her stepfather.
Author Notes
Stuart M. Kaminsky is head of the radio/television/film department at Northwestern University in Illinois. He is also a writer of textbooks, screenplays, and mystery novels.
The more popular of his two series of detective novels features Toby Peters. Set in the 1930s and 1940s, the Peters books draw on Kaminsky's knowledge of history and love of film by incorporating characters from the film industry's past in nostalgic mysteries. Murder on the Yellow Brick Road (1978), for example, features Judy Garland while Catch a Falling Clown (1982) stars Emmett Kelley as Peters's client and Alfred Hitchcock as a murder suspect.
His other critically acclaimed series chronicles the cases of Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov. Kaminsky's detailed studies of Russian police procedure combined with aspects of life in Russia have earned the Series an Edgar nomination for Black Knight in Red Square (1984) and the 1989 Edgar Award for A Cold Red Sunrise (1988).
Stuart Kaminsky was born in Chicago in 1934 and died in 2009.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Jim Rockford returns with his trusty Firebird, without his deceased father and with Angel, his con man pal, in a loose and lively second adventure (after The Green Bottle). Jim's trashy beachfront trailer home becomes a safe haven for Melisa Conforti, the teenage daughter of Jim's former lover Rene. Melisa shows Jim a letter, signed by Rene, that indicates Melisa is his daughter. Jim, having recently lost his beloved father, Rocky, is inclined to believe her. Melisa is in trouble. Rene and her husband, Michael, were hiding out, protected by federal agents after witnessing a mob murder. The first 30 pages or so move gently as Kaminsky works to establish the easy rhythmic mayhem of Rockford's life. Then Rene is killed, the feds seize Melisa, and a poetry-loving hit man named Wright enters the picture. Rene and Michael aren't who they say they are; the feds may not be on the level; Jim comes a little too close to working for the mob; and dead bodies keep turning up in car trunks. All this keeps Jim away from Angel's side, as his good buddy manages to set himself up as a portrait painter of Spanish extraction and great fame. As with all Angel scams, this artist pose has a decidedly limited shelf life. Edgar Award winner Kaminsky (author of the Toby Peters series, the Abe Lieberman series and the series starring Russian Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov) is a stellar talent and shows great skill in creating a carefully updated version of the much-loved TV PI. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
When Jim Rockford discovers that the girl he finds sleeping on the deck of his trailer just may be his daughter, he feels obligated to help her determine if her mother, Jim's old flame, has been murdered by her husband. Armed with little but a letter from the girl's mother and a fatherly sense of obligation, Rockford launches an investigation, which soon entangles him in a web of Mob informants, poetry-quoting hit men, crooked cops, and a compromised witness-protection program. While Rockford investigates, Angel Martinez runs a scam in which he pretends to be a descendant of the Spanish master Velazquez and paints portraits of the well-heeled. It's an amusing subplot that Kaminsky--author of the long-running Toby Peters mystery series--deftly weaves into the more menacing main plot. Much like William Harrington's Columbo series (see review on p.782), Kaminsky takes a popular television character, adds depth and more intricate plotting than the small screen permits, and delivers an entertaining and immensely satisfying reading experience. --Wes Lukowsky
Kirkus Review
His father may have died, but Jim Rockford won't be alone for long. Kaminsky's second revival of the TV series (The Rockford Files: The Green Bottle, 1996) starts off with a teenager popping up out of nowhere claiming to be his daughter, heavy with suspicions that her missing mother, Jim's long-ago lover, was murdered by her husband. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
A teenaged girl shows up on Rockford's doorstep claiming to be his daughter and asking for his help: her stepfather may have killed her mother. The second title in the "Rockford Files" series, this is substantial fare for fans of the old TV show. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
