Sunset and Santiago

Ronnie Ventana Mystery #4

by Gloria White

Private investigator Ronnie Ventana is sitting alone on a bench in the middle of the night, at the San Francisco intersection of Sunset and Santiago. she is there to observe the grim anniversary of her parents' fatal car crash twenty years earlier--an "accident" that has never seemed entirely accidental to her. But then, there in the darkness, she notices two men dumping a body in the shrubs. and a young witness, who's also a friend, wants to get involved in solving the case, What had started as a midnight vigil--personal and poignant--turns into a public investigation of a very different crime, Now, without warning, Ronnie is up to her ears in a new case that snakes through a tunnel of civic corruption and brings her fresh revelations about her parents' long-ago double murder.

Genres: Mystery

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

San Francisco’s two-time EDGAR AWARD finalist GLORIA WHITE is the author of the VERONICA “RONNIE” VENTANA series which features a bicultural (Mexican/Anglo), rule-bending private eye whose deceased parents were cat burglars and who herself is a professional at compromising burglar alarm systems--only she calls it “security consulting.” Ventana is, according to Publisher's Weekly, "an appealing protagonist who engages in intelligent, stylish sleuthing.”

Published in the US, GERMANY, JAPAN, GREAT BRITAIN, ITALY, and audio book format, the series’ other multiple nominations include Shamus, Anthony, and Publishers Weekly's Audio Best of the Year.

Reviews

[audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the thing, which I tweeted about earlier today in a state of fury but: the used copy of this book I bought online is missing the last six pages*. (How exactly is that 'Very Good' condition? What what?)

But unless Ronnie does something tremendously uncool and out of character (sleep with Aldo, Post or Blackie, sober up or punch Marina in the head), this installment of the Ronnie Ventana series is easily up there with the first two, making Charged with Guilt an even more puzzling mis-step. But I really, really liked this book and in truth, it was more like a 4.5 star book than a straight-up 4.

Some reasons for this: the plot was *tight* and it made *sense*, and there was a lot of ex-boxer Blackie Cooper and there was Marina (who is awesome) and Ronnie was sometimes terribly flawed but in a very human way that makes me want to go drinking with her. It could've had more SF placeporn in it but so could a lot of things. It's a very good book, regardless, and one I'll be reading again sometime. AS SOON AS I FIND A WHOLE COPY.


*And those pages were torn out deliberately. With little edges. So much rage right now.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUNSET AND SANTIAGO - VG+
White, Gloria - 4th in Ronnia Ventana series

Private investigator Ronnie Ventana is sitting alone on a bench in the middle of the night, at the San Francisco intersection of Sunset and Santiago. she is there to observe the grim anniversary of her parents' fatal car crash twenty years earlier--an "accident" that has never seemed entirely accidental to her. But then, there in the darkness, she notices two men dumping a body in the shrubs. and a young witness, who's also a friend, wants to get involved in solving the case, What had started as a midnight vigil--personal and poignant--turns into a public investigation of a very different crime, Now, without warning, Ronnie is up to her ears in a new case that snakes through a tunnel of civic corruption and brings her fresh revelations about her parents' long-ago double murder.

Very enjoyable - best in the series so far.