Nantucket Sawbuck

November 10, 2014
Ostentatious and totally corrupt, Preston Lomax, owner of a McMansion on the Massachusetts resort island of Nantucket, has plenty of enemies in Axelrod's engrossing first novel, all of whom would love to see him dead. These include his drunken sons, Eric and Danny; his unloved daughter, Kathleen; his two-timing wife, Diana; and carious unpaid drug dealers, bookies, and call girls. It comes as no surprise when Kathleen finds Lomax murdered and his mouth stuffed with "Nantucket Sawbucks" (local slang for $100 bills). Nantucket police chief Henry Kennis, who recently arrested Eric and Danny in a barroom brawl and stopped Diana for speeding with married housepainter Mike Henderson in her car, investigates. Numerous other crimes involving housebreaking, illegal drugs, and teen suicide distract the chief, and many suspects and bystanders are unflattering stereotypes not likely to endear the author to his home island's Chamber of Commerce. Nonetheless, this is a promising start for a new author.

December 1, 2013

Privileged residents of the tony island of Nantucket never give much thought to the service personnel who populate their homes and businesses. But when Preston Lomax, a particularly power-hungry mogul, dies violently in his bed, all bets are off as to who hated him the most. Rumors had it that Lomax was planning soon to abandon all his domestic responsibilities and considerable debt, but someone put the kibosh on his plan. Queue up, suspects. Nantucket's police chief, Henry Kennis, is new to the island, but he brings a wealth of experience from his stint as an LAPD detective. Interviewing the islanders, Henry learns too much, and one person is definitely not afraid of authority figures. VERDICT Axelrod's promising debut introduces a protagonist who will remind readers of Robert Parker's sleuths. The two-part story structure ("Premeditation"and "Post Mortem") also gives readers an Ellery Queen type of opportunity to "help solve" the crime. A genial first-person narrative makes this police procedural easy and fast.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2013
A ruthless entrepreneur cheats everyone but death. Preston Lomax is proud of the number of people who'd like him dead. He's been unfaithful to his wife with all three of her sisters and many of her friends, bugged his sons' apartments, forced his daughter Kathleen to play "Guess My Mood" all her life, used his money to barge into Nantucket society, and conspired with a local developer to break ground for a shopping mall on former conservation land. His plan to pre-empt the investigation into his shady business practices by skipping town without paying his creditors fails when he's found dead with a four-way screwdriver in his chest just before Christmas, leaving Nantucket's police chief, Henry Kennis, with a long list of suspects. A series of flashbacks spotlights the editor of a local paper that Lomax bankrupted, a painting contractor embroiled in blackmail with his vengeful mistress and Kathleen's boyfriend (who's sleeping with her mother), and Kennis' own girlfriend. The police chief, a shrewd California native, carefully navigates the roiling currents of Nantucket society and persists, despite the danger to himself and his family, in this smart procedural. Although shifts in chronology and point of view further complicate an already dense plot, Axelrod has a gift for characterization and a strong lead in Kennis. Nantucketers might bristle at the cynical portrait of their home, but his mystery debut gives the island as much personality as its varied inhabitants.

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December 15, 2013
Preston Lomax put the filthy in filthy rich. He humiliated his sons, ignored his daughter, belittled his wife, and failed to pay what he owed his drug dealers. And he didn't even consider paying the countless painters, plasterers, and construction crews who worked on his estate all summer. So when he's murdered in his newly renovated Nantucket home, the suspect pool is understandably deep. New to the island, Police Chief Henry Kennis uses good old-fashioned detective work to narrow down who on the island had the most to gain from Lomax's demise. With only an unarmed alarm and half-smoked cigarette as evidence, Kennis never lets up. Even after the case is seemingly wrapped up, one unsolved little detail draws him back in and places him in the middle of the worst moral dilemma of his career. Kennis is an honorable small-town cop whom readers will root for. Novelist Axelrod, son of screenwriter George Axelrod (The Seven Year Itch and Breakfast at Tiffany's), is a Hollywood veteran who currently lives on Nantucket Island, where he writes books and paints houses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)