"Fabulous crime thriller"

After retiring from her job as a research professor at a California college, physicist Gloria Lamerino returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts. In her late fifties, she met the love of her life homicide detective Matt Geneva and after a two-year courtship, she moves into his home. Matt undergoes a physical that reveals he suffers from prostate cancer.

Meanwhile Gloria, a police consultant, is forced to work with Matt's partner on a case that is very close to her heart. Her goddaughter M.C. Galigani, who left her teaching and research position in Houston, believes that her abusive ex-boyfriend Jake Powers is stalking her. Her former coworker Wayne Gallen is the one who shows up at her apartment warning of the danger she is in because of a misdirected email. When a private investigator posing as a student of M.C. is found murdered in Revere, Gloria really starts to worry. Between taking care of Matt and connecting the dots on an illegal medical experiment run by someone who doesn't hesitate to kill those who get in his way, Gloria is busier than when she worked two jobs on the Pacific coast.

Two of the reasons Camille Minichino's mysteries are popular is that they are intelligent and believable. The heroine is a police consultant who handles herself in a professional manner, which gives her legitimacy to readers who appreciate some realism in their novels. Superb plotting, likeable characters and enough romance to appeal to fans of that genre turn THE CARBON MURDER into a fabulous crime thriller

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 10, 2004

Summary

Gloria Lamerino's goddaughter, Mary Catherine Galigani ("MC" to her friends), needs a change in her life. She decides to move back to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts, thereby ridding herself of both an abusive relationship and an unfulfilling job in Houston, Texas. At least that's the plan. When two homicides disrupt MC's peaceful return to Revere, Gloria applies her not inconsiderable detecting skills to help the police solve the crimes. At the same time, Gloria must face the medical problems of her partner, Detective Matt Gennaro, and the next steps in their relationship. In this sixth periodic table mystery, Gloria delves behind the scenes into the worlds of nanotechnology and show horses, and unwittingly uncovers a crime ring larger than the distance between Texas and Massachusetts.