Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Collar Robber: A Crime Story Featuring Jay Davidovich and Cynthia Jakubek - Hillary Bell Locke

Collar Robber: A Crime Story Featuring Jay Davidovich and Cynthia Jakubek
Hillary Bell Locke
Poisoned Pen, May 5 2015, $24.95
ISBN 9781464203367

Transoxana Insurance Company assigns loss-prevention specialist Jay Davidovich (see Jail Coach) to insure their client Pittsburgh Museum of Twentieth Century Art wins their case from claimants demanding remittance based on the Nazis forcing their late relative to sell a masterpiece.  If they lose, Jay knows his firm would have to cover the $50 million lawsuit.

Also in Pittsburgh, Willy Szulz retains lawyer Cynthia Jakubek (see But Remember Their Names) as an intermediary negotiating a deal with the museum in which he will sell to them proof that the 1938 sale was legit and not under Nazi duress.  At the same Sean McGeoghan hires Jakubek to persuade the museum’s attorney Tally Rand to annul his Catholic marriage so that Sean can wed his fiancée who happens to be the counsel’s estranged wife.

The first merged Davidovich and Jakubek Pittsburgh crime story is an intriguing drama due to avarice amoral miscreants who loathe everyone and everything except money.  The tropospheric greed of this support cast dominates the storyline; mindful of “Money” sang by Pink Floyd: “…Money, so they say is the root of all evil today; but if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're giving none away.”


Harriet Klausner

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