Unwilling accomplice

Miranda "Munch" Mancini has seen, done and survived just about everything in her short, hard life. Now, in Seranella's stellar seventh novel about the Los Angeles mechanic, she has with luck and pluck achieved close to a normal life with her precocious and happy eight-year-old adopted daughter, Asia. But a phone call from Lisa, the "lazy, ornery, selfish" sister of Asia's late father, a one-time lover of Munch's, heralds a drastic intrusion. Lisa and her daughters, 15-year-old Charlotte and 11-year-old Jill, have left a witness protection program and want to see Asia. They bring a world of trouble with them. Soon Lisa is in jail, Charlotte is missing and Munch is coping with Jill as well as Asia while trying to track down a modern-day Fagin who will kill to protect his racket. Munch will have to call on several old friends, including ex-boyfriend and homicide cop Rico Chacón, in order to find Charlotte and protect her own. Avoiding preachiness and platitudes, Seranella expertly contrasts Munch's past life, her present one and her hopes for the future.