CASH CALL

A Stan Turner Mystery

Volume IV

ISBN 0-9666366-8-6, Trade Paperback, $14.95

Stan and Rebekah’s good friends, Don and Pam Blaylock, are in deep trouble. An imprudent investment in a Golden Dragon franchise and their son’s arrest for DWI trigger an avalanche of misfortune culminating with the murder of Luther Bell, the smooth talking, restaurant promoter responsible for their impending demise. While Stan conducts a preemptive investigation to prove his clients are innocent, he is inundated with lawsuits and claims from their growing list of creditors and must deal with the inevitable marital strife that threatens these once proud families. Then one of Stan’s old flames resurfaces and makes a play for Stan’s affections sending Rebekah in a rage that culminates in a confrontation with the intruder and a .38 special. A wrongful death suit worth millions, ancient Peruvian pottery filled with diamonds and a confrontation with the Mob round out this nail-biting legal thriller.

REVIEWS

Ca$h Call
A Stan Turner Mystery, No. 4 By William Manchee
Tops Publications – ISBN: 0-9666366-8-6 – Trade Paperback
Mystery / PI Lawyer

Reviewed by: Brenda Weeaks, MyShelf.Com
http://www.myshelf.com/mystery/02/cashcall.htm

PI Lawyer Stan Turner is back in his fourth mystery. “Cash Call” is written in the first person with Turner’s voice leading readers through his latest perplexing case.

Readers will discover that Turner isn’t a stereotypical lawyer, like those on television. He isn’t part of a large lawyer group, nor is he rolling in dough. He accepts clients who have had little, if any, money and shows compassion for those who have trouble paying their bill. He even accepts goods instead of cash for payment. In his personal life, he is a serious family man, intent on providing for his kids and being with them as much as possible. He is also a loyal husband, although his eye does wonder occasionally. Stan Turner is one of the best lead characters to come along
in quite some time.

In “Cash Call,” Turner accepts a case for a friend who seems to have made a deadly investment. Don Blaylock hires Turner to help him when the investment invades his financial life through a frozen bank account and bad checks. A
man named Luther Bell brought Don into a restaurant investment. In this investment, Don and the other partners receive one too many “cash calls,” which means they were expected to come up with cash capital each time the
restaurant has a cash flow problem or loses their interest. Someone wasn’t happy with the way Luther was handling things and made a call of a different kind.

Once the murder occurs, the mystery begins to unfold, taking readers down various paths of suspects and alibis. There is enough doubt and suspicion, along with other storylines to keep the pages turning. Again, Manchee has
provided readers with an impressive contemporary mystery to test even the most experienced sleuthing mind.

Ca$h Call

by William Manchee

Top Publications Ltd.
legal thriller mystery
ISBN 096636686

Review by Molly Martin

Entertaining read -- Highly recommended

Stan Turner again faces too little money, clients who won’t or can’t pay, a baffling murder, friends who need his legal expertise and lots of artifice. Turner and his wife Rebekah become friends with the Don and Pam Blaylocks. Before long both Blaylocks are facing legal and IRS problems. A poorly thought out investment on the part of Don Blaylock and a group of entrepreneurs in a Golden Dragon franchise has plunged them first into financial straits which is quickly followed by the murder of the unscrupulous restaurant promoter.

Stan is holding on to his legal practice by his fingertips as his creditors demand money he cannot pry loose from tight fisted clients. The Turner kids are growing up, Marsha is now 8 and her brothers are 10, 12 and 14. Stan accepts a boat as payment in kind from one of his ‘impoverished’ clients. The boat is another in a series of missteps Stan has made when it comes to client payments, Rebekah is furious of course.

The Blaylock legal problems mount. Stan faces the insistence of an old flame and Rebekah’s jealous fury. A wrongful death suit worth enough money to bail himself out of his own money hassles given Stan a little hope for a brighter future. Diamonds hidden in another ‘payment in kind’ set of pottery and just plain danger all are part of Stan’s days as he tries to unravel his own problems along with the hassle the Blaylock’s are facing.

Writer Manchee has set together another great setting of entertaining, convincing characters, predicaments and blunders. The tale Manchee weaves in CASH CALL brings us another great romp with full time lawyer part time sleuth Stan Turner. Turner has a lot of Perry Mason in his methodology without Mason’s perfect record. CASH CALL is a well written tale filled with many of the characters we have come to enjoy from the first works in this ongoing series. As the Turner children grow up we see Stan, Rebekah and their family much as our own. And that is in part what makes this series so engaging.

The reader is hooked immediately in the first sentence of this gripping, creative story theme. Transitions are handled well, with plot and sub plot all tied together in a believable manner. Manchee’s main characters are natural. Dialogue is not contrived as the characters work to resolve conflicts. Climax and conclusion are handled with usual Manchee skill. I can easily believe that Stan would have handled the situations he faced in CASH CALL exactly as is set down by writer Manchee.

Poor Stan and his ever present cash flow problems does manage to again prove his clients are not guilty of the murder of the smooth talking scoundrel who was the cause of so many of their money and other problems. The ongoing joke in the books concerning the ‘payment in kind’ fiascoes are just plain fun.

Writer Manchee continues to grow as a writer. Cash Call is a well crafted novel in the manner of the best of Ellery Queen, Gardner and Gresham. Dialogue is fast paced. The narrative moves smoothly from Stan and his personal situation to his interaction with clients, the romantically inclined gal who just will not accept no and even a mobster or two. It is posted at http://www.wordweaving.com/reviewjul39_02.html