"What does a has-been Italian Pro Volleyball player do when she's blown her knee?"

Caitlin (Kate) O'Rourke tries to decide what to do with her life. She is 6'1" and 180 pounds, in her late 20s and has dark skin, black hair, and a nose like an eagle. She was a Italian Pro Volleyball setter/middle blocker until she blew out her knee. She was also a basketball player. She has been offered a coaching job and has a week to decide.

Kate owns Kehough's Irish Pub in Nashville, Tennessee with her brother Pat (a policeman), brother Seamus, and sister- in-law Mary Grace. Seamus and Mary Grace took her in when her parents died while she was still in school. She now lives in the apartment above the pub.

She witnesses Junior Lee Thigpen steal Delane Denning's purse. She agrees to go with Delane to Cove Creek, their vacation home, for a few days. Delane is too afraid to return to their home because her husband Matt will be out of town. All her keys and ID were in her purse. Junior will know where they live and they can't get the locks changed until the next day. Kate enjoys living like the rich for a few days. But she is happy to be heading home. When she stops to drop Delane at home, a terrible accident happens where Delane is killed.

Detective Ozzie Osborn is a tall black woman and her partner Detective Sykes is a white male. They are assigned to find the killer. They put out an APB on Junior. Kate tries to assist them but ends up alienating Detective Osborn on more than one occasion.

Eventually Kate ends up doing some investigating and helps solve the case. She still has to decide on what she'll do with her life.

This is a great first book in a new series. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more books with Caitlin O'Rourke. The author's descriptions of her and the other assorted characters in this book were terrific. I could see each of them in my mind's eye. They seemed very real to me and well as the relationships between the characters.

I must say that I had a good suspicion early as to who was behind the mystery. But I didn't see all the twists that he put in place until I was well and truly hooked.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to the next.

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted June 27, 2003

Summary

Caitlin (Kate) O'Rourke is not your typical Irish-American lass. At six-one and one-hundred-seventy-eight pounds, with dark skin, raven-black hair, and a nose like an eagle, the MVP setter/middle blocker on the Italian Pro Volleyball circuit is a has-been in her late 20s, prematurely retired due to a blown-out knee. She's bitter, dejected, and not sure of what to do with the rest of her life. Kehough's Irish Pub in Nashville, Tennessee, with its upstairs apartment, is home to Kate and, indirectly, provides a solution to her search. File this first book in the series under "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished." After Kate rescues a damsel in distress from a mugger, she gets roped into babysitting the woman until the locks are changed on the woman's house. But when Kate's charge is murdered on her watch, the former Irish step dancer, former star athlete, and now owner of a Nashville Irish pub sets out to find out who did it—and why.