Consumption and Real Estate
Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
It’s no vacation that brings Greg McKenzie and his wife, Jill, to the glistening white sand beaches at Perdido Key, FL. Architect Tim Gannon, son of the McKenzies’ closest friends, is fouind dead of a gunshot wound. Self-inflicted, says the deputy who investigated, a clear case of remorse over a design flaw in a beachfront condo that caused a balcony collapse, killing two people. It looks otherwise to Greg and Jill, who find plans missing, an obstinate contractor, a too-slick developer, and an inspector angry over a disrupted love affair. After two hoods work him over, Greg realizes Jill is in danger, too, and if this is a murder case, he had better solve it without delay.
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(out of 9 reviews)
List Price: $ 2.99
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#2 written by Ben F. Small 1 year ago
Review by Ben F. Small for Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
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When a close friend’s son, an architect, is found dead in a seaside park shortly after a balcony he designed collapsed, killing two people, the police assume it’s suicide. But the dead man’s parents and Greg and Jill McKenzie don’t buy it. He was staying in Greg and Jill’s Florida condo at the time of his death. When they go to investigate his death, they discover his original plans are missing: the hard copies stolen and the digital form deleted from his hard drive. But the “copies” in the hands of the developer and the general contractor show inferior materials and structure supports. Is this what the deceased designed? Were the plans altered to save costs? If so, by whom? Questions abound: Why did the inspector approve the inferior rebar and the defective concrete pour? What was a woman’s jacket doing in Greg and Jill’s condo, when the deceased was married and his wife was back in Tennessee? Why is the New Orleans mob trying to kill Greg?Jill is Greg’s ace in the hole in this fast-moving mystery. But he’s got only his Beretta when the chips are down.
Chester D Campbell’s DESIGNED TO KILL is one of the better mysteries I’ve read this year.
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#3 written by Ingrid Taylor 1 year ago
Review by Ingrid Taylor for Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
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“With the darkness and the music, all the laughter and chatter, no one noticed the crack in the concrete.”If that opening line of the Prologue doesn’t capture your attention and arouse your curiosity nothing will. What a portent to disaster. And it happens – the 15th floor balcony holding celebrants of the opening of The Sand Castle condominiums collapses. Unfortunately two of the revelers are plunged to their deaths, but a few people are saved. The local authorities decide the collapse was no accident and treat the area as a crime scene, much to the consternation of Tim Gannon, an Architect/Engineer who worked on the design of the building. He is stunned by the balcony collapse, but before Tim can look into the problem his body is found on a private beach area shot to death and the same authorities list his death as suicide.Tim’s parents are Sam and Wilma Gannon who have known Greg and Jill McKenzie for years. Being a father, Sam cannot accept the verdict of Suicide handed down about Tim. Remembering that Greg is an ex-agent of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Sam requests that Greg find out the truth behind the events that happened. But since a security tape of the parking area of the club shows Tim’s car and no one else, how did someone approach his car to shoot him? Greg really has his work cut out for him.Greg and his helpful wife Jill embark on their own private investigation that leads them into danger to themselves. But Greg still has his sharp investigative talents and starts uncovering clues one by one. Some clues are dead ends, or Red Herrings we might call them, but apparently other leads are close enough for someone to hire two hefty goons-for-hire to beat-up Greg severely and leave him with the admonition to stop nosing around. Of course this just clinches the fact that he and Jill are on the right track and are getting very close to the answer someone doesn’t want known.Wait until they discover there are several people that don’t want a lot of things uncovered.Mr. Campbell has written another page-turner. It was real hard not to peek into the last chapter to see who-done-it. He has filled the story with such convincing characters that are so fleshed-out as to appear alive. There are stolen plans, murder, love gone astray, back stabbing, mean goons and all kinds of skullduggery.I’m eagerly looking forward to the next Greg and Jill McKenzie adventure. But I sincerely suggest that you don’t miss this one. -Shirley Truax -
#4 written by Midwest Book Review 1 year ago
Review by Midwest Book Review for Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
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Chester D. Campbell is a consummate writer, and has spent his life penning pieces for newspapers, magazines, politicians, and the trades. His second career has been the military, where he served in two wars and retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is married, and has four children and eight grandchildren to dote upon.Greg and Jill McKenzie are just recuperating from their first murder case. This is Greg’s first case since he retired from his career as an OSI investigator and former lawman. Jill was kidnaped, and a resultant torn rotator cuff required the well known painful surgery and subsequent recuperation and physical therapy. But when their best friends’ son, Tim Gannon, is found dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound the McKenzies spring into action. It seems that Tim’s newly constructed condominium called “The Sand Castle”suffered a collapsed balcony and two hapless people plunged to their deaths. Tim is an architect whose plans for a beachfront condo called for reinforced rebar, but his plans have been stolen, and apparently the collapsed balcony failed. Greg and Jill gear up for what promises to be an extended investigation. Little do they know that they may become the hunted as they uncover shady dealings by almost everyone involved in the construction of the condo:
“‘Tim had a copy with him down here. It’s missing, too. He also had a laptop computer, which we found in our condo. The Sand Castle file had been erased from it. But Walt took the laptop back to Nashville and had a software recovery firm work with the machine. They recovered the file, so there’s a copy of Tim’s original specs available now. They show the larger rebars and the higher p.s.i. concrete, like Walt remembered.’”
Chester D. Campbell has done it again! That is, he’s written a thoroughly entertaining whodunit which incorporates his military knowledge and, in this case, architectural design. He manages to hang the specter of the wrongfully murdered young architect over a plot that moves along at a rapid clip with plenty of cliffhangers and well-defined characters. Greg McKenzie and his wife Jill are likeable characters who manage to transform retirement into a series of exciting adventures, all the while dealing with aging bodies and minds. A fine second effort!
Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer -
#5 written by Norman Goldman 1 year ago
Review by Norman Goldman for Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
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Have you ever wondered how safe it is when stepping out on the balcony of a high- rise condo building? Did the contractor strictly follow the architect/ engineer’s plans or did he try to cut corners in order to save a couple of dollars? You say that could not happen, as there are inspectors who make sure that the plans are followed to a tee. What if the inspectors are not doing their job properly?
All of the above and more, including a real estate company that turns out to be a Mafia front, are some of the themes readers will encounter in Chester D. Campbell’s latest thriller, Designed To Kill. Set in Pensacola Florida, Campbell’s heroes, Greg and Jill McKenzie, embark on a journey to find out if the death of the son of their good friends, Sam and Wilma Gannon was in fact a suicide, as the police stubbornly would have them believe.Tim Gannon was the architect/engineer of a fifteen- story condo, whose balcony collapsed one evening causing the death of two people. Shortly after the accident Tim was found dead in his car.
Using the investigative skills he acquired when he was working for the special investigations division of the Air Force, Greg together with his charming and very observant wife Jill piece together what actually happened on the night of Tim’s death.Working backwards, the McKenzie’s uncover many pieces of a puzzle leading them to some disturbing connections involving Claude Detrich, the contractor of the project, Evan Baucus, the President of the real estate company that is selling the condos, and Bosley Farnsworth, the inspector, who was supposed to watch that everything was above board when the building was being built.
To complicate matters readers are informed that the original plans of Tim Gannon have vanished and the computer file containing the plans was erased. Another set of plans has shown up that appears to have changed some essential building requirements.We often hear that crime fictions are nothing more than clever escapist puzzles. We start with a crime and then we proceed to find out who did it, why etc.
To a certain extent this may be true, however, what differentiates one from the other is the author’s ability to provide ample plot twists that effectively sustain the narrative tension until the last chapter. Here is where Designed To Kill shines, and perhaps Campbell has carved out his own unique literary niche to be followed by more of the McKenzie’s adventures into the world of crime investigations.Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com - Comment Feed for this Post
Review by Dawn Dowdle for Designed to Kill (Greg McKenzie Mysteries)
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Greg McKenzie and his wife Jill are asked by friends to go to Perdido Key, Florida, to investigate who killed their friends’ son Tim Gannon. The police believe it was suicide.
Tim was an Architect/Engineer in charge of construction of a beachfront condo complex called “The Sand Castle.” At a recent party, the balcony of the penthouse unit on the fifteenth floor collapsed killing and injuring people. He tried to help rescue people, but the police feel he was depressed from the collapse.
Greg is not a private investigator, but he was an agent with OSI (the Air Force office of Special Investigations) and an investigator with the DA’s office in Nashville. So he has experience.
As Greg starts investigating, he soon finds out there are missing plan, an obstinate contractor, an inspector who is angry over a disrupted love affair, and a very slick developer. Plus Greg is worked over by two thugs. Greg realizes Jill is in danger and that he’d better determine if this is murder and if so, get it solved quickly. But can he do it without either being hurt further or Jill being harmed?
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first in the series that I have read. Jill and Greg are terrific characters, and I would love to read more about them. The Florida setting was very enjoyable as well.
I liked all the twists and turns that the plot takes. It keeps you guessing right up to the end. He does a great job of tying up all the loose ends as well.
I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more in this series.