The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 19 August 2013
by Camille Minichino
Another step deeper into the Periodic Table of the Elements, and Gloria Lamerino, the heroine of this murder mystery, returns to the west coast, where she spent 30 years as a physicist before retiring to her home town of Revere, Massachusetts. Now, it is a year after her retirement, and she has come back to Berkeley to visit with old friends and evaluate her choice of moving home. It is already pretty clear that, with her relationship with Detective Matt Genarro, she'll be going back to Revere when her vacation is over. Fortunately, along the way, there has been a mysterious death at the lab where she once worked. A scientist has died of acute beryllium poisoning, and Gloria is convinced it was murder, though the police have already ruled it an accident. One missing person is tossed into the mix, and Gloria is running around Berkeley pestering the several likely suspects who have worked with the dead man. Now, Miss Lamerino isn't a professional investigator, and in this case she is not working with the police. One supposes there is the risk of obstruction of justice here, but how far can an individual go to find the cause of a man's death? It is an interesting aspect of this otherwise basic murder mystery. Lamerino's character is a middle aged science nerd, with little social experience. She is awkward and yet self-aware, an interesting mix of introvert and heroine. Now, this book takes place in a familiar Berkeley. In fact, the fictional lab, BUL, where the murder takes place, is situated approximately where this reader works, on the hill overlooking San Francisco Bay. It is interesting to read a book set so deeply in a familiar landscape. Still, Minichino keeps it generic enough to keep any reader interested. It is a light page-turner, following the norms of mystery novels, but engaging with its scientific twists. (As of this writing, Minichino, with a recent e-book, is as far as Fluorine in the Periodic Table.)
Also by Minichino: [The Hydrogen Murder] [The Helium Murder] [The Lithium Murder] [The Boric Acid Murder] [The Carbon Murder]