Death and Taxes: A Jill Smith Mystery - Softcover

Dunlap, Susan

3.39

127 ratings by Goodreads

9780440214069: Death and Taxes: A Jill Smith Mystery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440214068 ISBN 13: 9780440214069

Publisher: Dell Publishing, 1993

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Until someone put a poisoned needle in his  bicycle seat, Phil Drem was the meanest, most  nit-picking IRS agent in Berkeley,  California.

But when Detective Jill Smith began searching  Berkeley's backwaters for the tax man's killer, she  found a different picture of Drem: a caring Drem,  whose once-beautiful wife was "allergic to the  world" and whose friends and enemies, old  hippies and would-be entrepreneurs, enjoyed a  ghoulish pastime called The Death Game. Did the Death  Game KO Drem? Was someone's schedule a motive for  murder? And what about a CPA who drove a red Lotus  ruthlessly and guaranteed his clients they'd never  be audited?

Only one thing is for  sure--somewhere in Berkeley's colorful backwaters,  a killer is still on the loose. And for a  detective who loves her city, doubts her lover, and has a  knack for solving the toughest of crimes, finding  the truth is about as inevitable  as...Death And  Taxes.

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About the Author:

Susan Dunlap is an award-winning mystery writer. She was employed as a social worker when an Agatha Christie novel inspired her to try her hand at writing mysteries. Six manuscripts and six years later, she published Karma(1981), which began a ten-book series about brash Berkeley cop Jill Smith.
Since then, Dunlap has published more than two dozen novels and several short stories. Her other ongoing characters include Vejay Haskell, Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, and Zen student/stunt double Darcy Lott. Dunlap helped found Sisters in Crime. She lives near San Francisco.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Homicide detective Jill Smith of Berkeley, California (A Dinner to Die For, etc.), has plenty of suspects after the murder of implacable IRS auditor Philip Drem--though his wife Victoria, her immune system shattered and living in one germless room, isn't one of them. Instead, Jill's efforts are focused on exercise guru Lyn Takai; Scookie Logan, whose flourishing business was axed by Drem; overaged hippie sculptor Mason Moon; and entrepreneur Ethan Simenon--all partners in the rundown Inspiration Hotel and all mercilessly pursued by Drem, as was flashy tax-accountant Rick Lamott. Jill's frenetic sleuthing is further muddled by her personal angst with boyfriend Howard, until a flabby sting operation finally nabs the killer. By this time, though, the audience may have departed, having decided that intricate tax scams make even less scintillating reading than their own 1040s. Dreary stuff. -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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