Gwen Freeman is talented and smart. The author has combined her various skills and created a funny, quick-witted mystery with a great lead character named Fifi Cutter.

Box Cutter

Freeman is not only an author, but an attorney and artist. Starting out as an insurance attorney, she decided on being a Renaissance woman and began writing. Her first novel MURDER...SUICIDE...WHATEVER introduced Fifi to the reading world. Her acrylic paintings have been featured in TV shows such as Boston Legal, Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond, as well as in major motion pictures.

Box Cutter

With all these talents, Freeman put them all to work in CRAZY FOOL KILLS. The irreverent Fifi and her half brother/ half uninvited roommate Bosco help out Fifi's Bennington College friend Victoria J. Smith-attorney for one of the deceased's relatives.

The story revolves around a million dollar wrongful death case against Skyblu Charter Jet Service whose deranged ex-employee hijacked and crashed a private plane, killing all 4 people aboard and an innocent unsuspecting retiree who was crushed by the remains of the fuselage while sitting on the porch of his double wide.

Fifi comes on-board as both a document clear/investigator and Mean Girl Friday to legendary Chinatown trial attorney, Reginald Wong who is the lawyer for the passengers on the downed airplane. Starting off by trying to get the goods on the man she's replaced as clerk for workers compensation fraud, Fifi winds up following the "money". Her investigation of Steve Burton, the less-than-invalid ex-document clerk and the wrongful death cases come together. Fifi and her brother Bosco get themselves involved in strange relationships, fake (then real and successful!) photography exhibits, extortion, kidnapping and several more murders.

Freeman adds some broken down car pursuits, huge dogs, a drunken judge, a crazy brother and a love interest for her amusing investigator and her brother to deal with-all at break neck speed.

As with many really good mysteries, just when you think you've got the plot figured out the author zigzags us around an unknown piece of information, real or perceived and leads us in a totally different direction.

CRAZY FOOL KILLS 5 is the second Fifi Cutter novel. I enjoyed the personality of our endearing insurance investigator-hopefully, since this seems to becoming a series, Freeman explains more of her background in detail. We know she has a good-looking half brother in Bosco, another half brother who is on the LAPD and a late father who was an attorney. Briefly, Fifi tells us that her mother was not much of a wife, mother or human being in general.

While the plot was more than interesting, I'd love for a bit more details on some of the other main characters-if only to round out and explain some of their actions/reactions to some of the predicaments that arise.

But this is a great vacation or rainy day read-Enjoy!

Crazy Fool Kills Five - A Fifi Cutter Mystery By Gwen Freeman

Box Cutter