GLORIA WHITE – Murder on the Run. PI Ronnie Ventura #1. Dell, paperback original; 1st printing, July 1991.

   According to page one,Ronnie Ventura is the half-Mexican daughter of a pair of jewel thieves, Somehow she is now a PI, According to the short bio at the end of the book, this is Gloria White’s first novel. Of these two statements, the first one is more than a little unusual, but it’s actually the second one that’s hard to believe. This is a good book, and if I had any say in the matter (which I don’t), I think it could easily be nominated for Best First Novel in anybody’s league.

   It begins like this. Ronnie is out running near Golden Gate Bridge one morning, when she spots two men struggling, One pushes the other into he water, and  once she has been seen, she is pursued by the one who did the pushing, Luckily she gets away,

   Two problems arise immediately: (1) the body is not discovered right away, and (2) she has recognized the person who did the dumping as Pete August, a PI who once worked for the D.A.’s office, and who also has worked for the police department – in other words, he’s a fair-headed, high profile boy with all his former connections still in intact.

   Snubbed by the police, Ronnie keeps working. More deaths follow, but she soon manages to get a homicide detective names Philly Post interested. This is a lady who doesn’t give up, and the story has both ginger and snap.

   There is even an unexpected twist ahead. The only problem is the ending, It’s too predictable. A little too obvious. I saw it coming, One good twist deserves another as the saying goes, and I didn’t get one.

   Don’t get me wrong. This book is as good as any of the other female PI novels I’ve read in recent months, and some of them were as good as those by men, (A number of them have been even better.)