Books about Lamerino from Amazon.com

Why physicist Eric Bensen is murdered in his suburban Boston laboratory, scientist-turned-crime-consultant Gloria Lamerino is called in to investigate A former colleague of the victim, her understanding of Bensen's breakthrough research on hydrogen and superconductivity convinces police detective and almost beau Matt Gennaro that this is a high-stakes crime with no shortage of suspects.

Bensen's research is a other lode with enormous potential for utilities and big business. But even nasty threats and the ransacking of her apartment don't deter Gloria from exposing large-scale tampering, deception and fraud by the members of Bensen's team. When the person with the most to gain from Bensen's death is murdered, as well, it takes her most brilliant analytical skills to identify a killer -- equally determined to make sure this case is Gloria's last..
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In fact, someone does--an elderly janitor at a government-funded lab in Revere, Massachusetts--and when the homicide cops investigate, their first reaction is that they need the expert assistance of someone who knows her way around the table of elements. That would be Gloria Lamerino, retired-physicist-turned-scientific-consultant to Revere's police department, and the feisty, adventurous, intelligent heroine of Minichino's provocative and original series of mysteries.

It isn't long before Gloria develops a hypothesis: The lab's hush-hush lithium experiments aren't the only secrets she'll uncover before her research project is done, if she lives so long. After all, one man's dead already--and lithium can be very deadly.

Featuring an engaging, not-so-young heroine with both brains and hips; her lovable boyfriend, Matt Gennaro; and a quirky, believable cast of Italian-American characters, this thoroughly gripping thriller is clever and precisely plotted enough to rival Agatha Christie . . . if she'd only had a Ph.D. in physics and a Yankee twang..
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Minichino, a retired Berkeley physicist, is up to element number four in The Beryllium Murder, which finds her shrewd physicist-sleuth, Gloria Lamerino, drawn back to the Bay Area. Gloria suspects that Gary Larkin's death by beryllium poisoning at Berkeley University Laboratory is not, as the police have decreed, a tragic accident. What better way to justify a trip to see old friends and colleagues? But when she arrives, her friend Elaine begs her to look into the disappearance of a missing teenager; as Gloria digs deeper into Manuel Martinez's mysterious absence, she finds a peculiar connection between the high school student and the dead physicist. It appears that Manuel has been profiting from certain scientists' computerized indiscretions by indulging in a spot of "hackmail." Subatomic particles aren't the only things that behave peculiarly in Gloria's world; her fellow physicists seem to have a lot to hide.

The mechanics of the mystery aren't particularly riveting, but readers will forgive Minichino her tendency to supply Gloria with clues on a silver platter (the Berkeley police seem unusually willing to share evidence with a private citizen). Clad in comfortable knit pants ("Only fifteen more [pounds to lose] and I'd be down to the upper limit for 'medium-frame males' on the insurance charts. Never mind that at five-three, I was actually a small-frame female") and sporting one of her myriad collection of lapel pins, Gloria is a refreshing mix of stubbornness and insecurity, and readers will cheer her deductions no matter how they may arrive. The climax of the novel finds her skittering gingerly across a toxic waste dump; in between chuckles, you'll probably find yourself trying eagerly to remember just what comes after beryllium, and rejoicing that Minichino has at least 111 elements left to work with. --Kelly Flynn.
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