In The Middle Sister, Salvo is hired by wealthy matriarch Greta Manning to locate her middle daughter, mid-20's wild child Lillie, a girl who is prone to disappear for days at a time when she is throwing a tantrum with her mother. This particular battle resulted in Lillie being cut off financially from Mommy's money, and since she was still a year off from her trust fund disbursement, it seems she may have resorted to other, less savory means of making money. Long story short, after a bit of digging, Jack and Lillie's older sister, Zara, find Lillie's corpse. While Jack has essentially failed to bring Lillie home safe and is therefore released from his duties, he can't let this particular case go quite yet. He begins the process of digging through the lives of her cling-on, loser boyfriend, Rod Damien, her closest childhood friends, Viola and Nikki, and a few predatory people that seem to have been on her periphery. One such person is Cinnamon Strauss, a one-time celebrity TV fitness instructor, but now someone who is on the sidelines of Lillie's social circle and could have been one of the last few people to see her alive. Also on Salvo's radar is Marty Trask, a nightclub owner and apparent gangster who has taken a special interest in Lillie. There's no shortage of folks who could have been involved in Lillie's death, even if it is just allowing her to slip away during an overdose, but Jack is determined to get to the bottom of things, if just for his own peace of mind. In the course of his investigation, he'll step on quite a few toes, piss off some cops (both old friends and new enemies), and he might just dig up a long-buried secret that connects to another unsolved murder. All in a day's work in sunny L.A.
I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery and read it in a couple of sittings. Jesse Miles has a light, easy style to his writing and the dialogue is engaging. I have been to L.A. many times and I really enjoyed the local flavor injected throughout the book. This is a great vacation book and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a future Jack Salvo mystery.
