Harvey Baltimore is the private investigator willing to take a chance on Alex. He is a dour man and restricted to a wheel chair as a result of multiple sclerosis. Alex’s first case concerns the airline industry. One of Majestic’s competitor airlines is experiencing a serious problem with a group of first class stewardesses who have been organized into a prostitution ring.

Inasmuch as the ring operates among the frequent flying First Class passengers, the airline wants enough evidence to compel the resignations of the stewardesses, but does not want the publicity that would accompanies prosecutions. Since the union protects the employees, it is also the general feeling that the union will go to the mat for the women at the least hint of trouble.

Alex goes undercover as an airline stewardess to investigate. Her time is spent flying and then pulling overnighters in surveillance of the stewardesses under suspicion. She has collected a large number of photos in the weeks of this ongoing investigation, but the employer airline is getting restless for results.

Alex has identified the ringleader and most of the members, but needs more than stewardesses living beyond their means and partying with first class passengers to satisfy the client. Thus she sets a course to bring the ringleader’s attention upon her in order to get closer. As she succeeds in each step she takes, Alex enmeshes herself deeper and deeper into this ugly world. Stumbling from the revelations of blackmail and murder, the book grows more and more complicated, almost to the point of…what, if anything, can come next?

I have mixed feelings about First Class Killing. While I enjoyed the author’s humor and the intimate insights into the workings of the airline industry, it was hard to like most of the large cast of characters. The pacing was odd; although it rushed from one event to the next, I still felt as if I were sprinting with the elephants. The constant voice shifts from active to passive and back created a story that was disjunctive and often laborious to read.

It is clear that the author knows the airline industry, as well as being equipped with a savvy street sense in the telling of this very complex novel. The diverse pros and cons meet in the middle, leveling it to an average rating.

--Thea Davis