"Light, easy-to-read prose, self-deprecating humor, and constant action place this first novel - by a well-known adoption attorney - high on the must-have list."
-LIBRARY JOURNAL
For the full review, please read the July, 2005 edition of Library Journal
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"In this winning debut, Randall Hicks creates disarming adoption attorney, Toby Dillon. It's a comic mystery in the best sense of the words - funny on the surface, but dealing with the serious side of life just below. It's a web of intrigue, double-dealing and murder spanning from Hollywood to the bucolic town of Fallbrook to the south. The ride is fast, the resolution is satisfying and it's got one of the best 'first kiss' scenes I've ever read. Enjoy this tale. I did."
- T JEFFERSON PARKER
(Edgar Award winning author of Laguna Heat,
Silent Joe and California Girl)
Visit T. Jefferson Parker's website
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"Hicks has a wonderful voice and his writing is filled with humorous moments that offset the seriousness of what is going on perfectly. He has a unique style that while similar to others is truly his own. A terrific debut and I look forward to next year's Baby Crimes. I would strongly recommend this book."
-Jon Jordan
CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE
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"An energetic and remarkably adept thriller debut... Randall Hicks, in a fiction tour-de-force, has constructed a fast and furious whirlwind plot filled with laughs, heartbreak, unexpected twists, sudden turns, kidnapping, murder and a hell of a surprise ending... [O]nce I started reading, I could not put the book down."
-Yvette Banek
MYSTERY INK
(MysteryInkOnline.com)
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"Hicks has a wry and wonderful sense of humor that is integrated into the narrative... Where he really excels is in the development of the characters... I loved THE BABY GAME. What at first seems to be a comic romp turns into a heartbreaking and very humane tale of love, loss, friendship and betrayal. There are some great plot twists; the ending is touching and sweet and optimistic. THE BABY GAME is quite an accomplished debut, and I highly recommend it."
- MADDY VAN HERTBRUGGEN
(ReviewingTheEvidence.com)
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"These are some wonderful, true to life characters (even the bad ones) and despite the desperation of the situation, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments as well as some really sweet ones, too, including one of the best 'first kiss' scenes ever. An incredible first effort that I couldn't put down and didn't want to end. But it did, and it ended well. I'm hoping for more from this gifted new author."
-Stacy Alesi
BookBitch.com
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"What a delightful debut! Hicks, a noted adoption attorney, has a great voice and a way with telling a mystery... I couldn't stop reading even if I'd wanted to. This is definately a series that's begun well, with lots of room to grow."
-SARAH WEINMAN
(Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind at SarahWeinman.com)
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"Hicks's breezy mystery debut introduces Toby Dillon, an adoption attorney who has seemingly stumbled his way into a lifestyle unusual for an attorney but which suits him perfectly. . . The result is extremely satisfying as Hicks's facile prose converts technical expertise into a solidly entertaining mystery debut."
-Robert C. Hahn
ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE
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"One of the most engaging first novels I've read this year."
-Beth Fedyn
MYSTERY NEWS
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"This was described as a humorous novel, and that was not an exaggeration... this was a romp for anyone who loves to laugh. But there is a serious side to the book as well... The author is a highly regarded adoption attorney, and uses his skill to entertain. A sequel would be very much appreciated."
-MAGGIE MARY MASON
(Reviewing for Deadly Pleasures magazine)
Please see full review, scheduled for July edition
DeadlyPleasures.com
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"This may be Randall Hicks's first mystery novel, but he wrote about something he knows well, adoption. This gives the mystery a much greater depth and makes it all very realistic. While you find yourself putting together clues with the main characters, you will also find yourself very entertained. Much humor to lighten things up a bit. The result is a wonderful novel that you end up reading more than once. Excellent!"
-DETRA FITCH
Huntress Reviews
To read the full review, please visit HuntressReviews.com
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"The Baby Game is a fabulous tale that starts off as a simple family drama, but quickly turns into an exciting, action-packed thriller. Randall Hicks insures his exhilatating story line seems realistic with tidbits involving adoption so that the audience has a one-sitting, chilling investigative novel that feels as if it could happen."
-TheBestReviews.com
To read the full review please visit TheBestReviews.com
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"Belly up to the bar - here comes Hicks with a book with more twists than a drink-off. Like a martini, the wit is dry, the substance powerful, the subterfuge vermouth, the plot carefully stirred, and the garnish murder. I'll give it to you straight up: Good stuff!"
- BRIAN WIPRUD
(Author of Pipsqueak, winner of the 2002 Lefty Award for
most humorous crime novel; and Stuffed, new from Bantam Dell)
Visit Brian Wiprud's website
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"The plot developed by Hicks is a convoluted one with tantalizing clues dropped along the way, plus a sentimental touch woven into the ending. [A] well-told tale peopled with sympathetic characters."
-John A. Broussard
I Love a Mystery Newsletter (iloveamysterynewsletter.com)
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"THE BABY GAME is one of those rare books where the improbable works seamlessly. The serious parts make the hairs on the back of your neck tingle and the funny parts are laugh out loud hilarious. The plot is deliciously twisty and at the halfway point, I still had no idea who the bad guys were. The best way to describe it, THE BABY GAME is similar to Lawrence Sandres' McNally series, only a whole lot better."
-Jack Quick
BookBitch.com
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"[A] light and tasty treat... An engrossing mystery."
-MYSTERY SCENE MAGAZINE
(Due in the 2005 Holiday issue, due mid-November, 2005)
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"[T]wists and turns, surprises and comedy. . . this book is full of all that good stuff! This is a top-notch mystery with great characters and lots of laugh-out-loud funny bits. The main character is likeable and really well written. The story flowed well, and was punctuated with just the right number of twists and turns. I gasped, I laughed out loud, and I just couldn't put it down until I had finished the very last page."
I Love a Good Mystery
(ILoveAGoodMystery.com)
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"Yes, I know it's a cliche to say I couldn't put a book down and stayed up all night to finish it, but it also happens to be literally true. The Baby Game is such a fast, enjoyable read that when you come up for air and find that fifty pages or so have passed, you figure you'll maybe read on to the end of this chapter, and well, there go another fifty.
The first few pages had me laughing out loud, and I settled in to enjoy an author who clearly understood about reading as entertainment: pure, lighthearted pleasure. But then things got serious. Oh, the hero still got into absurd situations, taking it all with wisecracks and self-deprecating humor, but this became a deeper than expected story of people you believe in and care about, dealing with real problems. . .
This is a well-written and well-plotted story full of humor, humanity, and surprised to the very end. . . Thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommended."
-Kim Malo
MyShelf.com
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"If there is any justice in the world, The Baby Game will sell more copies than The Da Vinci Code."
- RANDALL HICKS' MOTHER
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Reviews for Baby Crimes
"Written in a beguilingly quiet manner, this is no cozy; once again, Hicks has produced an outstanding crime novel, a perfect follow-up to The Baby Game, which won the 2006 Gumshoe Award for Best Debut Novel and was a finalist for the Anthony, Barry and Macavity awards."
-Library Journal
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""Randall Hicks, the latest edition to San Diego's mystery fraternity, is one of the country's leading adoption attorneys. He's no slouch as a writer either, as this breezy and beguiling offbeat thriller amply demonstrates."
-San Diego Union Tribune
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"Randall Hicks has the three vital ingredients for mega success: great narrative, humor and style. This has the making of a great series. It's smart, sassy and with a streak of compassion. Best of all, Hicks has that rarest of all qualities, he's even better on your second reading."
-Ken Bruen (Shamus Award winning author)
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"Although written in a beguilingly quiet manner, this is no cozy; once again, Hicks has produced an outstanding crime novel, a perfect follow-up to The Baby Game, which won the 2006 Gumshoe Award for Best Debut Novel and was a finalist for the Anthony, Barry and Macavity awards."
-Library Journal
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"Introduced in The Baby Game, Toby Dillon, the newly minted attorney who specializes in adoption issues (and who works from his office at the local tennis club, where he is the pro), is a likable, underdoggish kind of lead. This time Dillon is hired by a rich couple to find out who's been blackmailing them about the illegal adoption of their 16-year-old daughter. Toby's investigation quickly leads to murder. Hicks, himself an adoption attorney, is a nimble writer, and despite their serious subjects, his Dillon novels are relatively lighthearted. His second effort is more polished than its predecessor, with more sharply realized characters."
-Booklist
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"When he's not sweeping the courts or running a serve-and-volley clinic, affable tennis pro Toby Dillon runs a small legal practice specializing in adoptions. Naturally, the very wealthy parents of one of his star pupils look to him for help when they decide to come clean about their daughter's less-than-legal adoption 16 years before. But fate - and a mob connection - intervene, and a simple case gets complex and scary. [] A clean-cut, clean-living, nice guy with two noninvestigator jobs, Toby is a rarity in the mystery genre.
-The Rocky Mountain News
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"Randall Hicks is not writing anything particularly original in these books, but he is nonetheless managing to turn some of the old standbys of P.I. fiction on their ears. Adoption is Hicks’ specialty away from writing (he’s a Southern California adoption attorney, just like his fictional hero), and it provides fertile ground on which he can revamp the private-eye novel in potentially interesting ways."
-January Magazine
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