Cathi Stoler Archives - Mostly Mysteries

If you like mysteries with an international and luxurious undertone, Out of Time, by Cathi Stoler, is your cup of tea. Or should I say champagne? Marina DiPietro and Nick Donahue are hired to find out who wants to kill or maim Devil Wind, a Kentucky Derby hopeful owned by Adnan bin Haddad, a billionaire from Dubai. Out of Time takes the reader traveling. From New York City to Kentucky horse country to Dubai—even to the Burj Khalifa, an ultra-luxury hotel on its own island.

Donahue is a professional gambler specializing in blackjack. DiPietro, a former MI6 operative, now owns her own private investigator agency in New York City. They solve crimes together and are a couple.

Bin Haddad tells DiPietro and Donahue that he must pay a king’s ransom to protect Devil Wind. Could the trainer or one of the others who care for the horse be in league with the blackmailers? Who is attempting this coercion?

But is that the real problem? Suddenly things get dicier. Bin Haddad is told that Samira, the sister of his trainer, and the daughter of an employee at one of his other businesses, has been kidnapped by Salifi terrorists, a splinter group of ISIS. And they want more than the stated ransom money for Devil Wind. A secret device made by ABH Technologies is now demanded for the safe return of Samira.

Can DiPietro and Donahue coordinate their efforts and solve these seemingly disparate problems? Can they keep the horse and the young woman safe?

Enjoyable Read

Out of Time is an enjoyable read with likeable protagonists. Sometimes this felt like two different plotlines, but Stoler manages to pull them together at the end. Although this is billed as a Nick Donahue adventure, he seemed to take a back seat to Marina DiPietro in this book. I look forward to future additions to this series.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Nick of Time, by Cathi Soler, Marina Pietro seduces Nick Donahue, a professional gambler, who’s in Venice to hit the casinos. Who is she and why does she want Nick’s help? Does she really work at Eurotec International, a global insurance company? Or is she really something else entirely? How and why does the deal Nick strikes with Marina to capture jewel thieves go so wrong and get him kidnapped and brutalized? And what do bankers at SuisseBank Ltd. have to do with anything? Are they crooked, too?

Nigel Phillips, a friend of both Nick and Marina, slips and slides in and out of the story. He works for the British government; exactly how is not specified, but most likely in intelligence (MI6). Luckily for both Nick and Marina, Nigel can extricate them from some dicey situations. The opaqueness around Nigel tends to bring Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock’s brother) to mind.

Nick of Time is a quick and enjoyable read. I enjoyed the characters but feel that Stoler could have provided a smidgen more background to each of the main characters. Also, when Nick goes undercover to a casino in Monte Carlo to catch one of the dicey bankers, the alias he’s given is Roger Moore. Really? Maybe a bit more imaginative thought would have been in order there. But overall, a pleasant, enjoyable, fast-paced read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and this is my honest review of the book.