Thomas Kaufman signs DRINK THE TEA

When private detective Willis Gadney begins to look for the daughter of a friend, he has no idea he’ll irritate a rising politician and his sexy aide, upset unknown bigwigs in a corporation, and force a security company to try to eliminate him. Gadney is “merely” trying to find a woman about twenty-five years old, name unknown, birth date unknown, location uncertain, for one of his few friends. When a woman he talked to is murdered and Willis is arrested, the stakes rise on this missing person case. The PI is attacked at a building linked to the missing girl, beaten by persons unknown, and ends up on the run with a woman he just met. A second body adds a baby girl to Willis’s problems. On the run, Gadney hides the baby with a couple he knows. Willis can relate to the baby girl because he grew up on the streets without knowing either his name or his birth date. The private detective is named for the first police officers to arrest him at age twelve. His birth date was assigned by the state. Thomas Kaufman has written a fast moving, entertaining story. He interweaves the main character’s past with the present events in a way that draws the reader into the story while making Willis Gadney a likeable, sympathetic character. I read the book over a weekend and recommend it to any reader who enjoys mysteries or the old fashioned hard-boiled detective stories.
-- Guest Reviewer Sandra Hale