Synopses & Reviews
The Monkeewrench crew returns in a stunning new thriller.It's eighty-five degrees in the shade when Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth pull into the MPD parking garage. They're driving a tricked-out Caddy, repossessed from a low-level drug dealer. It's not a Beemer or a Mercedes, but it's got GPS, air-conditioning, and power seats with more positions than the Kama Sutra.
Things are heating up inside the station-house, too. The bomb squad's off to investigate another suspicious package at the mall, and kids are beating the crap out of one another and posting it on YouTube. And before Magozzi and Rolseth can wish for a straight-on homicide, the call comes in: a floater.
Soon they're humping it along a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, beyond the green places where families picnic and admire the views. They can see her- she looks like a bride in her white formal gown- face down, dead in the water. And so it begins.
Across town, Grace McBride's Monkeewrench crew-the computer geeks who, after making a fortune on games, are now helping the cops with anticrime software-have been recruited by the FBI to investigate a series of murder videos posted on the Web. It's not long before Magozzi, Rolseth, and Monkeewrench discover the frightening link between the unlucky bride and the latest, most horrific use of the Internet to date. Using their skills to scour the Net in search of the perpetrator, the team must race against the clock to stop a killer in his tracks.
Review
"[A] fast-paced and intriguingly plotted mystery."—
Boston Globe
"Polished and intriguing...complex and interesting."—Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"In the fifth Monkeewrench novel, the mother-daughter team of P.J. and Traci Lambrecht really hits its stride: a chilling premise; a supremely appealing cast of evolving characters; and dialogue that is brisk, witty, and authentic. Humor and humanity mix in this top-notch mystery, the best in the series."
—Booklist (Starred) on Shoot to Thrill
Review
If you haven’t been introduced to the Monkeewrench gang you are missing out … Tracy skillfully incorporates a diverse array of elements …while keeping the thrill level high and the writing sharp and frequently funny…. A top-notch title for series followers.—
Library Journal“The sixth Monkeewrench novel begins with a bang…Tightly plotted and highly plausible, with a solid cast of characters… A fine entry in this always interesting series.” —Booklist.com
“Exciting…The two main story lines converge in a gripping finale in the Minnesota woods.”— Publishers Weekly
“Terrorism and vigilantism form bookends to this latest Byzantine and knuckle-biting tale from the awesome Tracy. There is never a dull moment in this terrific, rapid-paced thriller.”
—Romantic Times
Review
“A writer who can walk that thin line between humor and serious crime.”—
Chicago Tribune
P. J. Tracy “makes me jealous.”—Robert B. Parker
Praise for the Monkeewrench Novels
“[A] smart thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A killer read in every way.”—People
“Icicle-sharp.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Fast, fresh, funny, and outrageously suspenseful.”—Harlan Coben
Synopsis
Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are bored - ever since they solved the Monkeewrench case, the Twin Cities have been in a murder-free dry spell, as people no longer seem interested in killing one another. But with two brutal homicides taking place in one awful night, the crime drought ends - not with a trickle, but with an eventual torrent. Who would kill Morey Gilbert, a man without an enemy, a man who might as well have been a saint? His tiny, cranky little wife, Lily, is no help, and may even be a suspect; his estranged son, Jack, an infamous ambulance-chasing lawyer, has his own enemies; and his son-in-law, former cop Marty Pullman, is so depressed over his wife's death a year ago that he's ready to kill himself, but not Morey. The number of victims - all elderly - grows, and the city is fearful once again." The detectives' investigation threatens to uncover a series of horrendous secrets, some buried within the heart of the police department itself, blurring the lines between heroes and villains. Grace MacBride's cold-case-solving software may find the missing link - but at a terrible price.
Synopsis
Computer game company founders Grace MacBride and Annie Belinsky—along with Wisconsin deputy Sharon Mueller—are en route to Green Bay, following reports of a serial killer, when their car breaks down deep in the northern woods. A short walk through the forest leads them to the eerily quiet town of Four Corners, where they find severed phone lines and a complete absence of any life. But the quiet is deceptive. Before they know it, they witness a horrifying double murder—and discover that this is only the beginning of a race to save their own lives…and countless others.
Synopsis
The FBI asks the ingenious Monkeewrench crew to help them find the chilling link between a dead bride found floating in the Mississippi and a series of gruesome murder videos posted anonymously on the Web- before the killer claims his next victim...
Synopsis
The Monkeewrench crew returns in a remarkable, heart-stopping new thriller. It begins with a floater.
When Minneapolis homicide cops Gino Rolseth and Leo Magozzi are called to a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, they see the bride, facedown, dead in the water. And when the Monkeewrench crew-computer geeks who made a fortune on games, now assisting the cops with special anticrime soft-ware-are invited by the FBI to investigate a series of murder videos posted to the Web, it's not long before the group dis- covers the frightening link between the unlucky bride and the latest, most horrific use of the Internet yet. Using their skills to scour the Net to prevent more killings, the team must race against the clock . . . before it's too late.
Watch a Video
Synopsis
On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith. A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen-year-old girl is discovered in a vacant lot, her throat slashed. Later that day, two young men are found in their home a few blocks away, killed execution-style. The next morning, the dead bodies of three more men turn up, savagely murdered in the same neighborhood.
As Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the three crimes, they learn that there have been similar murders in other cities around the United States. Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing to a suspect that shocks them to the core, uncovering a motive that puts the entire Midwest on high alert and Monkeewrench in the direct line of fire. Before it's all over, Grace and her partners, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, find themselves in the middle of a shocking collision of violence on a remote northern Minnesota reservation, fighting for their lives.
Synopsis
The Monkeewrench crew returns in a stunning new thriller.It's eighty-five degrees in the shade when Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth pull into the MPD parking garage. They're driving a tricked-out Caddy, repossessed from a low-level drug dealer. It's not a Beemer or a Mercedes, but it's got GPS, air-conditioning, and power seats with more positions than the Kama Sutra.
Things are heating up inside the station-house, too. The bomb squad's off to investigate another suspicious package at the mall, and kids are beating the crap out of one another and posting it on YouTube. And before Magozzi and Rolseth can wish for a straight-on homicide, the call comes in: a floater.
Soon they're humping it along a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, beyond the green places where families picnic and admire the views. They can see her- she looks like a bride in her white formal gown- face down, dead in the water. And so it begins.
Across town, Grace McBride's Monkeewrench crew-the computer geeks who, after making a fortune on games, are now helping the cops with anticrime software-have been recruited by the FBI to investigate a series of murder videos posted on the Web. It's not long before Magozzi, Rolseth, and Monkeewrench discover the frightening link between the unlucky bride and the latest, most horrific use of the Internet to date. Using their skills to scour the Net in search of the perpetrator, the team must race against the clock to stop a killer in his tracks.
Synopsis
Off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in software company Monkeewrench, thwarts an assassination attempt on a retired FBI agent. A few hours afterward in Minneapolis, a young girls throat is slashed. Later that day, two men are killed execution style. Minneapolis Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the three crimes, but the wave of murders across the country has only just begun. Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing to a suspectand a motivethat shocks them to the core. It puts the entire Midwest on high alert...and Monkeewrench in the line of fire.
About the Author
P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their first four novels, Monkeewrench, Live Bait, Dead Run, and Snow Blind have become national and international bestsellers.
P.J. Lambrecht is a college dropout with one of the largest collections of sweatpants in the world. She was raised in an upper-middle class family of very nice people, and turned to writing to escape the hardships of such a life. She had her first short story published in The Saturday Evening Post when Traci was eight, still mercifully oblivious to her mother’s plans to eventually trick her into joining the family business. She has been a moderately successfully free-lance writer ever since, although she has absolutely no qualifications for such a profession, except a penchant for lying.
Traci Lambrecht spent most of her childhood riding and showing horses. She graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield Minnesota, where she also studied voice. Her aspirations of becoming a spy were dashed when the Cold War ended, so she instead attempted briefly and unsuccessfully to import Eastern European folk art. She began writing to finance her annoying habits of travel and singing in rock bands, and much to her mother’s relief, finally realized that the written word was her true calling. They have been writing together ever since.