In The White Russian Caper by Phyllis Entis, which is set in 1979, Damien Dickens gets a phone call from Stephane Major, the director of the Miss America pageant, that the reigning Miss America has not shown up to her latest engagement at his hotel, which hosts the pageant. Since it is too early to call the police, Dickens goes to the hotel and into the suite reserved for Miss America, only to find the suite ransacked. He opens the door of the closet and finds Cynthia Mills, Miss America, naked and seriously injured as she has been stuffed into the closet. She motions to Dickens to pull up the carpet, and he finds a coin that she entrusts to him. Dickens’s wife, Millie, recognizes the coin as Russian from the czar era.
This leads Dickens to visit a Russian professor at Princeton who is a serious coin collector. Learning that this coin is highly valuable, Dickens goes toward the hospital to visit Cynthia, and he disappears. After a while, Millie gets a call that Cynthia Mills, Miss America, has died. She is going to have to take over the investigation into her husband’s disappearance and the death of Miss America herself.
I listened to The White Russian Caper after having enjoyed, the previous book in the series, The Green Pearl Caper, and I enjoyed this book more than the first. The plot takes dramatic turns and gives us plenty of excitement without creating undue tension in the listener. It uses first person narration by Dickens until the PI gets kidnapped and then turns to third person narration focused on Millie’s investigation. I was impressed by the quality of the shift, which Entis manages smoothly. The storyline moves along its many twists in a smooth manner. Then just as we think the book is wrapping up, a new twist takes place, creating more drama.
I also liked the way the characters are drawn in this book, making them each seem real and effective. I had fun following Damien Dickens as he pursued his investigation and was amused at Stephane Major and his obsession with Miss America. The book also deals with a hotel magnate in Atlantic City who wants to build a giant casino hotel in both Atlantic City and Hollywood, Florida. I thought it humorous that in this character, the book depicts Donald Trump, but with a different name. But my favorite character was Millie Dickens, who proves herself to be both capable and determined, yet full of compassion and sympathy for others.
Tom Lennon performs the audio edition of this book, and he does an effective job of making the book enjoyable to listen to. Much of the book contains a first person narration by Dickens, and Lennon sounds just as I would imagine the seasoned detective to sound. He uses good expressions without using too much energy, suiting the spirit of the book.
I really enjoyed The White Russian Caper and thought it excellently written, with lots of creative angles to it. I liked the compelling characters and the fun plot. I give this book five stars!
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the narrator, but that had no effect on the content of my review.
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