The Sirena Quest

Author, Michael Kahn is an attorney at law with a list of mystery novels under his belt.

He has created a wonderful series of mysteries that star his young attorney,

Rachel Gold.  She has recently left the world of big law firms and decided to start 

her own practice.  She has built a client base from the lawyers she has worked 

for in the past and they hand off the more controversial cases to her.

In his newest mystery, Sirena Quest, Kahn has given Rachel Gold nothing more than a cameo appearance, when the protagonist lawyer in this novel follows up on a lead that connects him to a previous case involving lawyer, Graham Anderson Marshall III and the first mystery ever solved by Gold involving Marshall’s pet Canaan and Wagging Tails Estates Pet Cemetery.  It is a clever plot point that reminds of us of Kahn’s earlier work but is a red herring because this book never has any serious crimes.  Though there are many travesties along the way that keep you guessing and wondering what will happen next.

This new novel, is a fun puzzle story.  The reader travels along with four men who are about to return to college for their 20th reunion.  They reunite in advance of the reunion on a quest to find a missing statue that has intrigued graduates of Barrett College for years. The reader takes a road trip with the characters.  Along the way each character has the chance to share their feelings and thoughts on the successes and failures in their lives.  

Ray Gorman did not end college on a positive note.  He left school and became a drug user and dealer.  He came clean and found his career as a shopping center developer.  He is talking to Lou Solomon the lawyer of the quartet.  He has had on the surface a pretty straight forward life.  He is a successful lawyer with two young children, but is looking for love.  The group member nicknamed, Bronco Billy followed a curious path and surprisingly has ended up as a school teacher and Gordie Cohen is Hollywood script writer, who hasn’t yet written a hit.

As they look back and discuss regrets they might have in their lives, Ray quotes Satchel Paige saying, ‘you can’t look back’.  Ray thinks that you are where you are today and you shouldn’t have regrets about how you got there.   He likens it to the Beatles song lyrics, “it’s a long and winding road.”  Ray tells the others his theory, “All I know is that if you trace my quote career path - or yours, or anyone who’s ever done anything in life - it’s gonna look like one of those Rube Goldberg contraptions where the ball hits the boot that spooks the dog that pulls the leash that’s connected to the bowling pin that knocks over the candle that starts the cannon ball rolling down an incline...Life happens.”

This is a fun light novel to read.  It will take people of a certain age down nostalgia lane with references to college life during the 1960s.  It also will have the reader thinking about where they are in life now.  Has life been good to you?  Have you achieved your goals and are you happy with where your career path has taken you?  Which made me think of the lyrics of the Frank Sinatra song, “My Way”.  “Regrets, I have few, but then again too few to mention…..”

So don’t stop at The Sirena Quest, go back and read all eight of the Rachel Gold mystery novels that predate this one.  They are each a wonderful way to spend some time reading cleverly written mysteries.  As you read through the series you are watching Rachel Gold develop as a character and grow as a person.  You will root for her successes and you might even think of her as a friend.

Michael Kahn, trial lawyer by day, mystery writer by night is the award winning author of the Rachel Gold mystery series and a stand alone novel, The Mourning Sexton, under the pen name Michael Baron.  He has also written several short stories.  He is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.  He is married to his high school sweetheart, Margi.

He is the father of five children and grandfather of four.