Baby, It's Murder

 

Oh man. The last Hammer novel. I think I might cry. Collins did an excellent job with this series. I'm totally in the mood to go back and reread "I, the Jury", though. I just might, it's been years.

At Velda's funeral (another reason to cry), Mike is reminiscing with Pat Chambers about a time when he went to Long Island to help Velda out with her younger sister, Mikki. Their mom broke her hip and is in a nursing facility, and seventeen year old Mikki has undergone a radical character change. She's dropped out of tennis, which she used to love, and lost a lot of weight. She stopped dating the long haired, motorcycle riding bad boy and is now going with upstanding society boy Second (he's named after his dad, so everyone calls him Second, instead of Garrett). The twists weren't very twisty (I saw them both a mile away) but they were fun nonetheless. 

It's the end of an era. RIP, Mickey, Mike, and Velda.