The Hammett Hex by Victoria Abbott

The Hammett Hex by Victoria Abbott ISBN-13: 9780425280355 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: Oct. 4, 2016

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Book collector Jordan Bingham has been able to swing a romantic trip to San Francisco with Officer Tyler “Smiley” Dekker on one condition—she must return with a rare copy of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest for her irascible employer, Vera Van Alst. For his own part, Smiley is full of surprises. He’s a Dashiell devotee himself—excited to be in the city of Hammett’s hard-boiled heroes like Sam Spade and the Continental Op—and also announces he plans to visit his previously unmentioned estranged grandmother, who lives in an old Victorian on Telegraph Hill.

But the trip goes downhill fast when Jordan is pushed from a cable car and barely escapes death. And when a dark sedan tries to run the couple down, it’s clear someone’s after them—but who? Just like in Hammett’s world, nothing is quite what is seems...


My Review:
The Hammett Hex is a "cozy" suspense novel. It's the fifth book in the series. This book did not spoil the whodunits of the previous books, but you'll probably understand this novel better if you've read the previous books.

So what is a cozy suspense? One where I never worried that the main character was really in danger, but she was in danger and had one near miss after another. It's intended to be mildly humorous, which tended to negate actual suspense. The story was about discovering who was after them and stopping them.

Considering her relatives are crooks, I found it odd that the heroine wasn't more suspicious of certain things. As in, I suspected certain people and things much more quickly than she did, and she suspected some people that weren't even acting odd. Also, some aspects of the story were wrapped up pretty quickly at the end. Still, I enjoyed the story.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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