Chill Factor

From Library JournalDixie Flannigan, an attorney turned bounty hunter, gets an overdraft notice from her bank for $5000. This alarming news brings her to the bank just in time to witness Edna Pine, a good friend and neighbor, robbing it. Edna makes off with a substantial sum but is gunned down by the police after "disposing" of the money. Two previous "Granny Bandits" have pulled off similar heists--one with equally fatal results. Dixie is determined to find out what's really going on--when, suddenly, the cops who gunned Edna down start getting killed, and Edna's son is arrested for the murders. Fans of Rogers's previous Dixie Flannigan novels (Bitch Factor and Rage Factor) will certainly enjoy Chill Factor. A small degree of sex and violence will make this book a bit too hard-boiled for some readers, but, overall, this is a typical adventure for D.A. Flannigan. Recommended for all mystery collections.-Alicia Graybill, Polley Music Lib., Lincoln City Libs., NE Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsDixie Flannigan, Houston bounty hunter, nabs the ``skip'' she's been tracingher fifth such catch in a two-week periodturns him over to the cops, and heads for home thinking she's had a good day. Wrong. On opening her mail she finds a bank notice indicating a shortfall in her account of some $3,000: serious money indeed to hard-working Dixie, whose residence has always been south of Easy Street. But the financial wrangle is mild compared to the tangle it leads to. Zoom in now on Dixie sitting in Bank Manager Len Bacon's office trying to get solvent again when a glance through his window has her blinking in disbelief. It's not just that a heist is in progress. It's not only that a neatly dressed, grandmotherly type is the perp. Most astonishing, it's that the armed robber is Dixies neighbor Edna Pine, her warm-hearted, sweet-natured, longtime friend. It gets worse. Edna makes off with the money, is chased by the police, and theninconceivablykills a cop before being gunned down herself. What's going on? An off-the-wall way to commit suicide, explain the media sages, but Dixie doesnt buy it. Urged on by Edna's son, she launches an investigation that takes her into strange byways and confronts her with unsettling ambiguities, most centering on the mysterious Colonel Jay and the paramilitary counterculture group hes brazenly named The People. Smart, feisty Dixie shines throughout her third adventure (Rage Factor, p. 29 , etc.). Too bad Kinsey et al. got there before her and used up so much of the freshness. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.