Natasha’s jewelry is great and Janet takes the lot, making arrangements to pay the balance in a day or two.  She is shocked the next day when she learns the young woman has fallen,or jumped, to her death in the Catskill Mountains. The police, including Chevrona, a woman towards whom the usually straight Janet is having feelings, and who she believes reciprocates these feelings, close Natasha’s death as a suicide or accident and move on with other things. 

For no particular reason other than the gut feeling relating to a woman she just met, Janet thinks Natasha was murdered and begins to visit Natasha’s friends and family looking for some answers. Before long she has uncovered some odd friends that Natasha had made, her shady boyfriend Pavel, some incriminating pictures of Natasha and Pavel, and a house of ill-repute hidden deep in the Catskills with some men who think of nothing using strong-arm tactics to keep Janet away. 

Though there is no reason for Janet to get involved in the investigation that isn’t an investigation, it does seem strange that Chevrona is okay with, and even encourages, Janet to continue.  It’s also odd that Janet is the one who breaks the news of Natasha’s death to her good friend and her boyfriend. It is also odd that, even though the police consider the death an accident or suicide, Janet is able to walk off with Natasha’s computer and basically direct Chevrona to do things such as search downstream for Natasha’s cell phone. 

While Natasha’s death and Janet’s investigation are not well-thought out and the final solution appears pretty much out of nowhere, it is the characters in Janet’s life and ones she meets from Natasha’s life that carry the book. Janet has acquired a cadre of unusual characters – from Abba the diner owner to George, the gay nurse whose heart is broken on a daily basis. She also misses Josie, a teenager who was in her care for a while but who is now living with a draconian foster family. Her longing for Josie makes her think about her own mother and the daughter she gave up for adoption almost thirty years ago, and her decision to pursue these women in the future provides interest for more about Janet. 

Janet’s traditional, if boring, relationship with Zack is not fleshed out enough for readers to understand, beyond Janet’s say-so, why she is dissatisfied.  Her budding relationship with Chevrona is intriguing and again, offers something for readers to want to return to Janet’s world. 

-- Jennifer Monahan Winberry