Readingomnivore Reviews

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Nancy Means Wright’s BROKEN STRINGS is one of her Ruth Willmarth mystery series published in 2013. It was a free or inexpensive Kindle purchase, featuring Fay Hubbard, from whose point of view the reader sees most of the action.

Fay Hubbard is 57 years old, a divorced actress who lives in Branbury, Vermont, on a farm owned by her cousin Glenna, who’s gradually losing her eyesight to glaucoma. Fay has temporary custody of three foster children and milk goats belonging to her friend Ruth Willmarth that she’s tending while Ruth is on honeymoon in Ireland. Fay’s grandson Ethan, her daughter Patsy’s son, also lives with them. The story opens with Fay in a puppet performance with Marion Valentini of her revised Sleeping Beauty. After a short break, Marion experiences a severe reaction and dies of what turns out to be taxine poisoning; taxine comes from yew, which is highly toxic. Trouble is, how was it administered? Marion’s husband Cedric Fox behaves suspiciously, her step-sister resents her very existence, and she’d been getting threatening letters. But the police seem inclined to let the death go as accidental, so Fay involves herself.

I’ve read to 33% and give it up. I just don’t care about the victim or the protagonist. Fay is a strange combination of a pushover (in her dealings with Cedric and especially with Rudolph J. Wolfgang, father of one of the foster children who shows up fresh out of prison and is allowed to move in) and stubbornness (refusing to let the police do the investigation of Marion’s death). She enlists the foster children in spying on her suspects. She uses handyman Willard Boomer to help continue the Valentini Marionettes, and she manipulates Lt. Ronald Higgins of the Branbury PD to let her sit in on the murder case.

I have trouble getting over the basic improbabilities of the plot. The first is that Fay would be allowed to take over three foster children and to move them to a new home at Glenna’s farm while the approved foster parent is gone for an indefinite period. I doubt that police would simply consider Marion’s death accidental when it’s clear she was poisoned, just because they don’t at first see how it was administered. Another is that Wolfgang would have been given the name and address of his son’s foster parent and he be allowed to approach them without any supervision or prior arrangement with Fay.

So far, setting is generic. It could be happening anywhere, any time.

BROKEN STRINGS pulls on many of the cliches of the cozy genre. No grade because not finished.

 

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THE CORNISH COAST MURDER by John Bude (pseudonym of Ernest Carpenter Elmore) was originally published in 1935, in the midst of the Golden Age of mysteries. It was published in e-format in 2014.

Reverend Dodd, vicar of St. Michael’s-on-the-Cliff, and his friend Dr. Pendrill meet for dinner on Monday nights to discuss and share crime novels. When Ruth Tregarthan finds her uncle and guardian Julian Tregarthan shot to death in his study at nearby Greylings, they have the opportunity to participate in a genuine murder investigation. They aren’t pleased, because Ruth and Ronald Hardy, the ex-soldier whom she’s been seeing are the chief suspects. Inspector Bigswell of the Greystoke CID is active and intelligent, and he generously keeps Reverend Dodd informed, but as soon as he comes up with a theory that fits the evidence, additional information comes along to destroy his logic. Who did kill Julian Tregarthan, and why?

Characterization in THE CORNISH COAST MURDER is much stronger than usual in mysteries of its age, particularly that of Reverend Dodd: “...he was fired with an ardent glow of curiosity and interest. One side of him warred with the other. He felt that it was abhorrent to look upon crime, especially murder, as anything more than foul and unthinkable. At the same time this little devil of curiosity kept on tugging at his sleeve demanding attention. Yes--he must confess it. Apart from the tragic human aspect of this case he was deeply absorbed in an explanation of the mystery. The detective element in him was spurred to new energy now that he was in the midst, not of a mystery story, but a murder in real life. It was wrong of him...sinful even, but that little devil was stronger than his conscience. He wanted to find out. He wanted to solve the problem of Julian Tregarthan’s death....”

THE CORNISH COAST MURDER is one of the early mystery novels that used a real place as setting, rather than fictional Wessex or Midshire (or Midsomer). Understanding its setting is essential to understand how the murder was committed. Atmospheric passages help to create a true sense of place. “The sun was now well above the sea and the morning was full of that sweet tang which is, invariably, the aftermath of rain. A few sea gulls, pivoting white against the sun, sped and circled over the grey rocks of the coast. Their mournful cries mingled with the tinkle of a sheep-bell, where a scattered flock was feeding on the rising common behind the church. Beyond the sombre, box-like contours of Greylings, the Atlantic ran out to a far horizon like a glinting sheet of lead, whilst nearer in the slow swell glittered with thousands of tiny diamonds and broke into long advancing lines of dazzling white foam.”

My biggest complaint about THE CORNISH COAST MURDER is with the plot. Solution to Julian Tregarthan’s murder comes through Reverend Dodd’s specialized knowledge of the past, information that the reader only receives in the climax of the plot. There had been no reason to suspect the person who eventually confesses.

This isn’t playing fair. The puzzle aspect is emphasized by Bude’s having Inspector Bigwell construct and knock down several ingenious explanations for how the murder came about.

An interesting example of a Golden Age mystery by a little-known writer. (B)

 

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THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS NAME is the fourth in Eric Wright’s series set in Toronto and featuring DI Charlie Salter. It was published in 1986.

When her friend Nancy Cowell is raped and murdered and, after two months, the Toronto Homicide Squad has made no progress in finding her killer, Gerry Wellman shows up in Salter’s office demanding action. Gerry is Salter’s first wife, and she threatens a media blitz unless the police demonstrate that they’re working the case. Salter’s boss, Superintendent Orliff sees this as a chance to advance his Special Duties Centre, and assigns Salter to look into Homicide’s investigation, expecting to find that all possible had been done. Instead, Salter solves the case.

One of the things I enjoy about this series is the sense given by Salter’s family life that he’s a real person, complete with family traditions and troublesome relatives, just like us all. THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS NAME is set during Christmastime, and Salter’s busy, but he shops for just the right gifts and worries about how his father and Annie’s parents will meld over Christmas Eve through Boxing Day at his house. His father is a handful: “The old man was suspicious of Annie’s life-style, and she had to tread a fine line to avoid seeming, on the one hand, to put him down, and on the other, to patronize him by acting to create a common ground. If she served beef bourguignon when he came to dinner she risked his regarding it as one of those bloody Italian concoctions full of garlic, a waste of good food; if she called it ‘stew’ he took it as an attempt to feed him on the cheap with a dish his own wife had made only when they were short of money. Nowadays she served him roast beef summer and winter, and he made jokes about the fact that it was all the Salters ate.” (31) Characterization is consistently strong. It’s good to have a protagonist who’s a dynamic character--Salter’s mellowing both personally and professionally as he’s working for a boss whom he respects and getting his career back. For this reason, it’s good to read the series in order (which is why I read THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS NAME now instead of holding it for Christmas 2014 reading).

Wright creates a vivid sense of various areas of Toronto: “The house was on Montrose Street, south of Bloor, an unimproved three-story building on a street that had been well kept without too many signs of gentrification. Italian and Portuguese, Salter guessed, as he noticed the odd dead tomato plant in the front yards, the clean and occasionally gaudy paintwork--green fences picked out with red corner posts--and evidence that many of the women were at home. In the front yard of the house next to the one he sought here was a small shrine to the Madonna, lit by a ring of colored lights.” (55-6)

Wright plays fair with the plot, where identifying the killer involves Salter’s questioning, listening, and spotting discrepancies in statements. The Homicide Squad had forensic evidence but, without a suspect, forensics can do nothing.

THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS NAME is an excellent addition to the series. (A)

 

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Joana Starnes’s THE SECOND CHANCE has awkward subititle, A PRIDE & PREJUDICE and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Variation, that’s somewhat misleading. While various characters from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY are included, the only developed characters are Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It was published as a free or inexpensive Kindle edition in 2014.

THE SECOND CHANCE opens at Netherfield while Jane Bennet is there ill with her cold. Darcy is still upset over Wickham’s planned elopement with Georgiana, who’s spending time with her aunt Lady Malvern. He’s aware that he’s in love with Elizabeth Bennet but feels her family so far beneath his own in status and behavior that he’s unwilling to consider marriage. When Mr. Bennet collapses with what sounds like a stroke and it’s uncertain how long he may live, and when Darcy learns that William Collins, Lady Catherine de Burgh’s parson, will inherit Longbourn, he does not want Lizzie to be forced into marriage with Mr. Collins to provide a home for her mother and sisters. Darcy arranges for Farrington Lodge in Devonshire, which he’d inherited from his childless aunt, to be transferred to Mr. Bennet outside the entail on Longbourn. The Lodge is presented as an anonymous legacy from one of Mr. Bennet’s friends at Cambridge. Mr. Bennet passes away soon after the double wedding of Jane Bennet to Charles Bingley and Mary Bennet to William Collins. Elizabeth, Kitty, Lydia, and Mrs. Bennet go to Farrington Lodge, situated near Barton Park, where they become friends with Sir John and Lady Middleton, Lady Middleton’s mother Mrs. Jennings, the Dashweood sisters Elinor and Marianne, and Colonel Brandon.

Colonel Brandon is a friend of Darcy’s cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, who pains Darcy exceedingly with reports of Brandon’s regard for Elziabeth Bennet, leading Darcy to realize that he can’t bear for anyone else to marry her. In the meantime, Brandon rescues Marianne Dashwood from her fall on the hillside, and they fall in love despite the difference in their ages. When Brandon receives word of Eliza Williams’s treatment at the hands of John Willoughby, he and Willoughby duel (referred to but not depicted). Lucy Steele is in Brighton, where she’s used her connection with Lady Ainsfield to present herself as an heiress; she’s persuaded to elope with a handsome young man who promptly deserts her when he learns her true financial status--George Wickham (story also reported but not depicted).

Mrs. jennings takes the Bennet and the Dashwood sisters to London, where Darcy encounters Elizabeth in a park and determines to court her, only to wait too long to call; she has departed on the tour of Derbyshire with the Gardiners. On the trip she visits Pemberley and meets Georgiana. In the meantime, Edward Ferrars, cut off by his mother from his inheritance as first-born son, becomes engaged to Elinor Dashwood, and Lydia Bennet marries Robert Ferrars. Multiple misunderstandings and frequent movement between houses keep Darcy and Elizabeth apart for much too long, before the tender wedding at Longbourn and the epilogue that takes them twenty-five years into their marriage.

How much angst is too much? That’s the critical question in THE SECOND CHANCE. It goes on and on, particularly for Darcy; there’s almost as much for Elizabeth.The courtship is almost a comedy as Darcy rushes about trying to catch up with Elizabeth as she travels without indicating to others the reason for his dashing hither and thither. Occasional shifts in point of view away from Elizabeth and Darcy do little to advancing development of other characters. The characters are essentially the same as presented by Austen but, by changing the Wickham and Willoughby stories, Starnes denies the cause of Marianne Dashwood’s curbing her excessive sensibility and of Elizabeth Bennett’s realizing her own pride and prejudice.

THE SECOND CHANCE is solid enough, especially as fan fiction goes. That is the problem--it’s long and very solid, unleavened by the wit and humor of Austen. (B-)

 

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Michaela Thompson’s HURRICANE SEASON was originally published in 1983 but is available as a free or inexpensive Kindle download.

HURRICANE SEASON set in fall 1952, for no particular reason that I can see except bootlegging. Much of the economy of St. Elmo, Florida, appears to be based on the manufacture and distribution of moonshine. At 28%, there are at least three dozen characters, most of whom are simply names and Southern stereotypes. The county sheriff’s closing his eyes to the bootlegging in exchange for campaign contributions; the local Methodists have a youth minister who’s slightly cracked on the subject of loose women; the local Congressman’s living in a new house built for him by lobbyists and campaign contributors; the Congressman’s daughter is the local tramp who’s trying to break up her lover’s marriage; the Congressman’s opponent in the upcoming electiont thinks the Congressman’s daughter may be encouraging the International Communist Conspiracy; local bootleggers, the Calhouns, have their still dynamited by a competitor; a mysterious stranger is acting suspiciously around one of the operating stills; a faithful African-American housekeeper raised the Congressman’s daughter and opposes her way of life. The general impression is a setup for Deliverance.

The strongest part of HURRICANE SEASON is the sense of place: “[Tourists] want palm trees and hibiscus; St. Elmo has scrub oak, and miles of saw grass through which salt streams meander, and acres of pine woods. It has broad, slow-moving brown rivers lined with cypress swamps. Water is a presence, and people live in connection with it. They fish, or haul in oysters, scallops, and shrimp. On the back road, there are fisheries built on pilings over the water, corrugated iron oyster shacks, shrimp boats with swathes of net. People travel by boat where the roads don’t go--across the bay to St. Elmo Island or down the sloughs deep into the swamp. The beaches near St. Elmo are wide and white, unmarked except for the curving line of the sea wrack. Jerry-built piers, weathered to soft gray, stagger into the bay, and on them an occasional fisherman flicks a line.” (1-2) This, however, just isn’t enough.

No grade because not finished.

 

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Cliff Black’s FACE IN THE CREEK is the revised edition of THE MOKI POT MURDERS originally published in 2002, released in e-format in 2012. It is the first in his Four Corners mysteries featuring G. Dan Corbin, mathematics professor at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and sometimes private investigator. He is the first person narrator.

Corbin has considerable history and baggage. His parents disappeared when he was sixteen years old; his older brother disappeared seventeen years ago after discovering that what they’d been told about his parents flying to Bahrain was false; his beloved wife Camille died a year ago from brain cancer. “Camille and I met at sixteen and married at eighteen. We were like two runners of the Heavenly Blue Morning Glories we planted wherever we lived. Over the years we had twined around each other and struggled for light and space but always with that tightly-wound support. When Camille died, her runner was ripped from mine, tearing leaves and bruising my stem. The leaves might grow back, but there would always be an imprint from our years together, and scars from our parting.” (20) Corbin’s mother had been half Apache and one-quarter Cherokee, so he’s conflicted about his Native American heritage and scared of coyotes, the Apache trickster figure. Corbin is a believable Everyman caught up in a situation of which he knows nothing as he goes to help his niece Lori Koropynski Grey Horse Beckwith when she calls that her husband Travis is on the run, suspected of killing a man in Squaw Canyon. As he tries to clear Travis, he uncovers fake Anasazi pots, tax evasion, a whole series of murders, political corruption--and almost dies for his troubles.

The complications in FACE IN THE CREEK keep multiplying the further Corbin investigates, to the point that the plot is over the top. It not so much concludes as ends with all except one of the active killers dead; there’s no sense of closure, since all the other conspirators are still in place. Corbin travels all over the Four Corners area down to Phoenix, so a map showing the relationship of towns and roads would be a big help.

Sense of place is outstanding, even without a map. “In the distance loomed the dark, mysterious hulk of Navajo Mountain. To the right and closer, the smoke stacks of the coal-fired Navajo Power Plant pierced the sky. The rest of my horizon was red sandstone. I felt like a fugitive in an alien land.... Clouds turned the sun off and on, while dust devils blew dirt and weeds around. Across the runway, a jack rabbit left the shade of one small bush and hopped slowly to another. High in the sky two ravens circled. A coyote would complete the picture. I told myself to forget that. I was an educated man. Shape shifters and tricksters were primitive superstitions.” (235)

FACE IN THE CREEK could be tightened by fifty pages or so to strengthen the plot; secondary characters could be cut to those essential to carry this plot. Because I began the second in the series before reading this, I know that many will recur, but it’s not essential to introduce all characters in every book in the series. Still, not a bad beginning to what may become a good series. (B)

Note--I received a most gracious response to my review of RITUALS from Mary Anna Evans, pointing out that in New York, arson and related crimes are under the jurisdiction of the state fire marshal's office, since they're the experts in a complex field. I appreciate her clarification of my ignorance of regional practices. I therefore am changing my grade to A-, and I recommend RITUALS highly.

 

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Holly Chamberlain’s TUSCAN HOLIDAY was a free or inexpensive Kindle download. At 25% it’s mostly Elizabeth Caldwell, 42, and her daughter Marina Caldwell, newly graduated from college, on a two-week tour of Florence. They alternate as first person narrators.

So far, all that has happened is Elizabeth’s kvetching about her mother Jane and her daughter. Elizabeth doesn’t like Jane’s bossiness in the guise of “helping;” she doesn’t like Marina’s fiance Jotham, who’s a self-satisfied, controlling prig; she’s disappointed that Marina is merely enduring the Tuscan trip that she’d planned as a last bonding experience for them. Marina, in turn, kvetches about her mother’s failure to marry longtime boyfriend Rob Wayne when he proposed; she tries to convince herself that Jotham isn’t a boor and a bore; she spends more time texting Jotham than enjoying the holiday. Nothing of any import happens.

I’m filing this under “non-mystery fiction” because I don’t know if it’s supposed to be romance, mystery, romantic suspense, chick lit, or a fairy tale. The most appealing element of TUSCAN HOLIDAY to this point is its sense of place, which isn’t saying much. I’m too old to keep waiting around to see if something’s going to happen. No grade because not finished.

 

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Kathi Daley’s BIG BUNNY BUMP-OFF is one of her cozy mystery series featuring Zoe Donovan, manager of a wild and domestic animal control, rescue, and rehabilitation center funded by her boy-friend, computer software multimillionaire Zac Zimmerman. She is the first person narrator. BIG BUNNY BUMP-OFF was a free or inexpensive Kindle download.

Porter Blakely may be the most hated man in Ashton Falls. He uses his position as president of the local bank to enforce his will, even to demanding to play Jack Frost in the community Easter pageant, and to defrauding people to whom he’s made loans or given investment advice. When Zoe finds him shot to death in the bank, she involves herself in the investigation out of curiosity and the desire to be sure the correct person is arrested for the murder. The title comes from Zoe’s seeing someone in a bunny suit fleeing the bank just before she finds the body.

BIG BUNNY BUMP-OFF embodies many of the criticisms of the cozy mystery genre. Zoe has no reason to be involved in the investigation, yet Sheriff Salinger welcomes her participation and shares the evidence with her. She questions townspeople and gets answers, when the reaction in real life would probably be more on the lines of “none of your business.” There is a superfluity of characters with good reasons to want Blakely dead; none of them are developed, and several are not given full names. This installment presumes familiarity with previous books in the series.

There’s no sense of place. The setting is given as Ashton Falls, a tourist town on the lake. State or even section of the country is given, though it’s far enough north to have significant snow in April and it’s a long way from New York.

Most of the book is concerned with the relationships between Zoe and Zak and between her friend Ellie Davis and Rob ____, who must decide whether their relationship will continue; with the impending birth of Zoe’s sister Harper and the relationship between her parents Madison _______ and Hank Donovan; and with the impending birth of Morgan, daughter of Jeremy Fisher, assistant manager at Zoe’s Zoo. The mystery plot is all told, not seen. Chunks of exposition necessary to convey information to Zoe are clumsy. Nothing in the mystery plot draws a reader in, and the resolution is secondary to Harper’s birth.

BIG BUNNY BUMP-OFF wasn’t worth the time it took. (D-)

 

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Amazon’s introduction of “Jules Poiret in Lord Hammershield Dies” says:

BBC-researcher Margaret Osoba has come up with the theory that Agatha Christie was inspired to write her famous character by stories written by the turn of the century thriller writer, Frank Howel Evans. In 1909 when Agatha was 19 and had already begun to write, Evans published a story about a heavyset detective named Jules Poiret with much of Hercule Poirot's mannerisms and speech patterns (New Magazine, 1909-10) The title for her play "Mouse Trap" was inspired by Evans’ book "Murder Trap".

Margaret Osoba gives a full listing of Frank Howel Evans’ writings in her articles, “The Strange Case of Monsieur Poiret,” in the June 2000 edition of the Book and Magazine Collector (No. 195, pages 27 to 31) and in her earlier biography of Frank Howel Evans in the April 1993 edition of Country Quest (Vol. 33:No. 11, pp. 28-29: “Old Pawray-the roots of a detective”).

Frank Howel Evans' books, mostly crime fiction, were written between 1917 and 1930. His A Girl Alone (1917) and The Murder Club (1924) both had American editions as had his play, “The Wrong Side of the Road.”

Frank Howel Evans' contributions to magazines came in Union Jack (1906-08: Sexton Blake stories), in Penny Popular (1913) and in Champion (1923-2A4). Under the nom-de-plume of "Crutchley Payne" he contributed to Chumand.

He also wrote a number of stories for the stage. These reflected his acting experience.

The 1906 Christmas Double number of Answers summed up his career: Frank Howel Evans is one of Answers' most valued contributors. A large proportion of the humorous illustrated articles, which are so popular a feature of the journal, are from his pen. His first profession was the stage, but after many and varied experiences, he turned to journalism in which calling after the usual early struggle for recognition he has met with much success and may be considered one of the leading humorists of the day.

Frank Howell Evans’s “Jules Poiret in Lord Hammershield Dies” is a short story that does involve a character much like Christie’s later Hercule Poirot. Jules Poiret is French, short and rotund, depends on his mind to solve problems, loves his comforts, uses the great reveal to expose the criminal, and grooms his mustaches. He has a faithful friend, Captain Henry Haven who’s a sucker for a pretty young woman, and he works closely with Inspector Watkins of Scotland Yard.

Lord Hammershield invites Captain Haven, son of an old friend, and Poiret to a shooting party in Scotland attended by his sisters Mrs. St. Albans, who keeps house for him, and Miranda Monteith, whose husband died abroad and left her destitute. Mrs. Monteith is inordinately worried about her son Giles, Lord Hammershield’s heir. Also present are Mr. and Mrs. James Reynolds. Reynolds is Lord Hammershield’s partner in a business about to be sold, a decision that will leave Reynolds broke. There’s also the mysterious Miss Diana Faulkner, who seems repulsed by Lord Hammershield’s attentions, so why is she there? When Lord Hammershield is stabbed to death and the lodge is cut off from the police, Poiret must solve the case.

It truly is very Christie-like. Or perhaps more accurately, Christie sounds very Evans-like. No grade, but very interesting as a bit of literary history.

 

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Gloria Ferris’s CHEAT THE HANGMAN was a free or inexpensive Kindle download published in 2011. It’s set at Hammersleigh House in Blackshore, Ontario. It features as first person narrator Lyris Pembrooke, of the numerous Pembrooke clan of Bruce County.

Lyris has recently inherited Hammersleigh House, its valuable antique contents, and a trust for its upkeep and maintenance from her uncle Patrick Pembrooke, though she will not have clear title for 25 years. She’s also inherited Arthur Conklin, general factotum extraordinaire, who’s been at Hammersleigh since 1948. In removing dozens of stuffed animals of all sorts to storage, Lyris discovers in a hidden closet the mummified body of young Tommy Pembrooke, a toddler who disappeared at a Pembrooke family reunion in 1943; when searches failed to turn up his body, he was assumed kidnapped by an intruder who stole a valuable Meissen figurine. Lyris is determined to find out what happened to Tommy. She’s also dealing with a contemporary intruder at Hammersleigh House, thefts of antiques, a housekeeper with an abusive husband, the massive upcoming Pembrooke family reunion at which 200+ relatives are expected, impending downsizing at her job with the Blackstone Hydro Commission, developing psychic powers and meeting her spirit guide Leander, her demanding ex-husband, and her relationship with handsome Chief of Police Marc Allaire.

Psychic ability nothwithstanding, Lyris is a believable character with plenty of realistic baggage from her childhood and marriage. She’s frank about herself: “Over the years, I have been accused of having a short attention span, being too curious, having an overactive imagination and acting with disregard for the sensibilities of others. This last comment was the opinion of several of my older relatives, who in my view greatly exaggerated. ...Whichever characteristic was dominant that day, it was not within my power to walk away and mind my own business. I mean, think of it. A hidden door, nailed shut, set into the wall of a tower room in a century-old house. Who could resist the temptation to pry it open?” (5) Lyris does have TSTL moments--she doesn’t keep her cell phone with her within Hammersleigh House even though the house contains only two telephone handsets, both on the lower floor of a three-story plus attics house, she goes wandering around it in the dark when she knows someone’s entering the mansion in the night, and she doesn’t listen to what Marc tells her to do when the intruder comes back--but she grows and becomes stronger during the course of the summer. Other characters are well fleshed out and authentic.

The plot operates on two levels--the circumstances of Tommy’s death in 1943 and the events of the present. Ferris foreshadows the disclosures of the identity of the intruder(s) without spoiling all the surprise ending.

Ferris creates Hammersleigh House as a believable place. “My bedroom overloaded the senses, both by its size and by the proportions of the furniture. The bed was a four poster and matched the highboy, armoire, cabinets, bureaux, chiffoniers and several other unfamiliar pieces, all looking like some crazed woodworker had mated Gothic Revival with Late Classical to beget this Early Hideous result. Dragons and other mythical creatures writhed their way up the bedposts and legs of the chairs and highboy, while a row of frilled and feathered pineapples crested the armoire that soared to within a millimetre of the twelve-foot ceiling. It was typically Victorian and terrifying to wake up to each morning.” (29-30)

CHEAT THE HANGMAN is a good summer vacation read. (B+)

 

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Anne George’s MURDER BOOGIES WITH ELVIS is one of her Southern Sisters mystery series available in both print and e-format. The sisters are Patricia Ann Tate Hollowell (“Mouse”) and Mary Alice Tate Sullivan Nachman Crane (“Sister”), soon to become the bride of Sheriff Virgil Stuckey of St. Clair County, Alabama. Mouse is a retired English teacher, and Sister is a wealthy diva. Mouse is the first person narrator of their adventures.

When Virgil’s son Virgil Jr. (aka “Buddy”), an Elvis impersonator appears at a charity benefit at the Alabama Theater, one of his fellow impersonators falls into the orchestra pit, dead of a knife attack carried out on stage in view of the audience, with the killer glimpsed by Buddy’s brother-in-law Larry Ludmiller, another of the Elvises. The killer doesn’t know that Larry can’t see without his glasses, so he’s later attacked and left for dead in the theater. Mouse is arrested after she finds the switchblade in her purse. The dead man Griffin Mooncloth is a Russian ballet dancer from NYC who knows local dancer Dusk Armstrong who also appeared at the benefit; Mooncloth had called Sister’s lawyer daughter Debbie for an appointment scheduled the day after his death. Why had he been in Birmingham, and why did he need a lawyer?

I don’t expect the plot of a Southern Sisters mystery to be terribly realistic, so the whimsical MURDER BOOGIES WITH ELVIS isn’t a surprise. This is one where humor and the sense of place overcome the improbability of the action. It’s easy to suspend disbelief and just accept the motive and identity of an out-of-left-field killer. Much of the story line is the planning for Sister’s upcoming wedding, compete with full length sunflower yellow gowns for the bridesmaids and magenta for matron-of-honor Mouse.

What’s not to like about a book that begins “I was lying on my stomach under the kitchen sink, eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich and listening to Vivaldi’s “Spring” when icy cold hands grasped my ankles.” (1) Mouse is realistically practical and down to earth; Sister is over the top but still believable.

George’s sense of place, particularly her depiction of Southern folkways, is spot-on. “Not only did I have the sinus, but I was depressed. There’s tacky, there’s common, and there’s common as pig tracks. Being arrested for suspicion of murder and being handcuffed would have to rank in the latter category. Grandmama Alice was probably flipping over in her grave right this moment in spite of the fact that I was innocent. On her list of common as pig tracks were such things as chewing on a toothpick and, God forbid, smoking in public. Compared with those,being arrested would warrant the creation of a whole new category.” (150)

MURDER BOOGIES WITH ELVIS is a quick lively read, excellent for a warm afternoon on the porch with a glass of sweet tea. (A-)

 

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BONEFIRE OF THE VANITIES is another in Carolyn Haines’s Sarah Booth Delaney series set in the Delta country of Zinnia, Sunflower County, Mississippi. It was published in 2012 and is available in both print and e-format.

The main story line in BONEFIRE OF THE VANITIES has Delaney Detective Agency (Sarah Booth and best friend and partner Tinkie Bellcase Richmond) hired by Marjorie Littliefield through their friend and Zinnia psychic Tammy Odum. She’s convinced that the much married and fabulously wealthy Marjorie is being conned by Sherry Westin, sometime medium who promises spiritual guidance from the departed to enable the wealthy to control the world through their investments and policy-making. She and her mother Brandy Westin, former madam of Pleasure Zone, a prominent pre-Katrina brothel in New Orleans, own and operate Heart’s Desire, a secluded, guarded compound in Layland, Mississippi, where Marjorie is staying. Marjorie wants to contact her daughter Mariam who drowned many years before, to find out if her son Chasley murdered Mariam. Sarah Booth and Tinkie go undercover at Heart’s Desire as private maids to Marjorie, to discover deceptions and criminal activities on many fronts.

The plot goes over the top Haines adds in a hired kller after another of the guests, resulting in the death of two women. Haines adds in kinky sex, ghosts other than Jitty appearing to Sarah Booth, angst over Graf’s resistance to Sarah Booth’s detective career, and an attack cat named Pluto for more excitement. The main story line ends with a completely un-foreshadowed surprise ending. With the presence of the family ghost Jitty, the supernatural has always been an element in the novels, but BONEFIRE OF THE VANITIES takes the paranormal component up a notch.

Sarah Booth, as first person narrator, is by far the best developed character. She’s explicit about her character: “My folks had taught me to always assume responsibility for myself. No matter how much I loved Graf or how much he loved me, I need a job. My self-respect was bound up in my ability to support myself and take care of the things I loved. To do otherwise would be a slap in the face to generations of Delaney women.” (8) She’s independent and stubborn enough to pull frequent TSTLs. Tinkie is a stereotypical Steel Magnolia. Other characters are not well developed, particularly the Westins.

Setting and sense of place are the strongest elements in BONEFIRE OF THE VANITIES.The opening line is strong: “There are times when every woman needs to sit on the porch and listen to Emmylou Harris.” (1) Haines is good with atmosphere. “The land of Dahlia House, lush with waist-high green cotton that’s forming into bolls, stretches as far as my eyes can see. The marvel of Mississippi’s September is not lost on me. No matter how tragic my life, the land exists far beyond my momentary troubles. While the loam holds the hope of the future, it is also saturated with the past. In my despair, I drift through scenes: Graf and I riding through the fields at sunset, my mother’s laughter, my father walking down the drive toward me, Aunt Loulane holding my hand in the backseat of a funeral car. So many images crowd the fertile soil.” (2-3)


BONEFIRE OF THE VANITIES is a pleasant enough read, if you suspend disbelief and don’t look too closely at the mechanics of the plot. (C+)

 

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DYING WISHES is one of Judith K. Ivie’s Kate Lawrence mysteries. It was published in 2012 and was available as a free or inexpensive Kindle download. It features Kate Lawrence and her partners at Mack Realty, Charlene “Strutter” Putnam and Margo Harkness.

Mack Realty represents Vista View, an upscale retirement community in Old Wethersfield, Connecticut, that features all three levels of care from independent living to assisted living to nursing home. Business manager Ginny Preston becomes concerned that first Angela Roncaro and theItn Margaret Butler, both in their sixties and in apparently good health, die in quick succession of what their personal physician Dr. Lars Petersen declares to be natural causes; she asks Kate to check out her suspicions. Circumstances look strange as they find multiple similarities between the deceased women.

It’s hard to say much without giving away the plot, which I don’t want to do, except to say this isn’t so much a mystery as a consideration of the morality and legality of assisted suicide, along with discussion of the possibility of life after death. I feel cheated. There’s little sense of place

Kate, as first person narrator, is the best developed of the characters, but Strutter and Margo also come across as believable adults with a similar sense of responsibility. “Despite my affection for Ginny Preston, I had glossed over her misgivings about the deaths of Angela Roncaro and Margaret Butler as quickly as I could. Still, they niggled the back of my mind, as unanswered questions will do. Why else had I reacted so strongly to learning of the Henstocks’ physician’s connection to Vista View? [Margo says:] ‘Because on some level well feel responsible for those old darlin’s if they move into Vista View, so we have to make sure we’re not sendin’ them into the lion’s den.’ “ Other characters are one-dimensional, viewpoints more than people.

I’d prefer, when I want to address the issue of assisted suicide and end-of-life issues, to do so in nonfiction. (D)

 

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Dean James’s CRUEL AS THE GRAVE was available as a free or inexpensive Kindle download first published in 2000. It’s in limited third person narration through the eyes of Maggie McLendon, a 25-year-old Ph.D. candidate. It follows the precepts of the Victoria Holt-Dorothy Eden-Mary Stewart school of early romantic suspense.

Maggie’s father Professor Gerard McLendon has been estranged from his wealthy, dictatorial father Henry McLendon of The Magnolias, Jackson, Mississippi, since before his mother Magnolia’s death some twenty-five years before. When his aunt Helena writes that his father is dying and wants to see him, Gerard and Maggie go and meet with him briefly before Henry McLendon is beaten to death with a baseball bat. Henry had talked with his family--his siblings including his twin sister Henrietta McLendon Butler, his younger homosexual brother Harold, and his youngest sister Helena, his sister-in-law Lavinia Culpepper, his niece Sylvia Butler, and his illegitimate niece Claudine Sprayberry, all of whom live in The Magnolias--about his late wife’s death, originally thought to have been an accident; he’d also summoned his attorney to change his will. Also on the premises is a mysterious young butler Adrian Worthington, who’s obviously attracted to Maggie, and cousin Ernestine “Ernie” Carpenter, who shows up early the morning after Henry’s death. Maggie, Helena, and Ernie pool information and investigation to uncover the McLendon-Culpeper family secrets that led to the deaths of Magnolia and Henry McLendon and Lavinia Culpeper.

***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***SPOILERS***

Every disclosure in the development of the plot of CRUEL AS THE GRAVE is telegraphed and should be familiar to anyone who’s ever read any of the early romantic suspense or Gothic novels of the 1950s-1960s. The only cliche missed was having Adrian Worthington be an illegitimate cousin of Maggie’s, and James seemed to be setting that up, since Helena had borne an illegitimate son she’d been forced to give up for adoption. The identity and motives of the killer are obvious early on. There’s little sense of suspense, and the action is all told, not seen. Police investigation of the murder of one of Jackson’s wealthiest men and prominent social leader is unbelievably close to nonexistent; what little is shown does not follow standard procedures for crime scene investigation or interviewing of witnesses.

The sense of time in CRUEL AS THE CRAVE is skewed. On the one hand, James details practically every separate breath Maggie takes; on the other, her and her father’s arrival, meetings with Henry, his murder, and Lavinia Culpeper’s murder happen within 48 hours; Henry’s funeral is the next day, his will is read, and Maggie discloses the killer’s identity that evening. The epilogue, in which Maggie assures Adrian that there are airline flights between Jackson and Houston, Texas, is two days later. It seems much longer.

Characters don’t move beyond stereotypes. Maggie is the standard romantic suspense heroine--smart, beautiful, determined. Perhaps because of his ambiguous status as possibly Helena’s son, Adrian is even less developed, though he does turn out to have a Ph.D. in English literature with a specialty in Jane Austen, working as a butler to support himself as a writer. There’s not a sense of any of the family as real people.

Southern setting seem obligatory to writers of stories involving convoluted family relationships and secrets, but using a Southern setting requires correct use of its culture and its speech patterns. None of the characters--Maggie and Gerard are from Houston, Texas, the Culpepers and McLendons from Jackson, Mississippi--show any trace of Southern diction or syntax. Foods served for the dinner welcoming Maggie and Gerard are the only indication of a Southern locale, and this is negated by the lack of a reception following Henry McLendon’s funeral. This is an important folkway that would NOT be omitted in Jackson, Mississippi. A strange touch was Henry’s bedroom decorated in grey and mauve in tribute to his Mississippi State alma mater’s school colors; MSU’s colors are maroon and white, so a genuine Bulldog probably wouldn’t would recognize the allusion.

The last straw was Maggie’s choice of her favorite Audrey Hepburn film, The Lion in Winter, to view their first evening in The Magnolias. Her performance in The Lion in Winter, made in 1968 with Peter O’Toole, John Castle, and Anthony Hopkins, won KATHERINE Hepburn an Academy Award.

The only reason I finished CRUEL AS THE GRAVE was to see if I’d figured out the plot correctly. I had. Don’t bother. (D-)

 

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Ken Klopper’s A QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE was a free or inexpensive Kindle download published in 2012. It’s the first in his Judge Ment series set in South Africa. I’m not assigning a grade because I’m giving up at 30%.

To begin with, there’s no sense of place. The country is not named until 25% in, and there’s no explanation of similarities or differences from British or North American police and court procedures. No cities or localities are named to help establish the physical setting.

Characters are not developed. The protagonist is High Court Judge William Ment (“Judge Ment,” get it??), who’s described as a paragon of all legal and personal virtues. He’s implacable in the pursuit of justice, unorthodox in the courtroom, yet always right and never reversed, handsome and appealing to women, a devoted husband and father, morally impeccable--he knows his secretary is in love with him and regrets it, but he has been and remains strictly professional in his working with her. Much too perfect to be realistic. In contrast, Detective Captain Jack Olivier has been stuck at the same rank for ten years, and he’s desperate to bring his name to the attention of the promotion board.

The time sense of A QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE is difficult to follow, beginning with a golf match months after the murder, as the defense is preparing to appear in court, then it cuts back to the murder, repeating this several times for the period leading up to the trial. So far, point of view shifts between Ment; Ment’s friend, psychiatrist Peter Carstens; the victim Catherine Reece; the alleged killer Jonathan Andrews; Ment’s secretary Alicia Carmichael; Olivier; Alfred Barnes, advocate appointed to defend Andrews; and Julia Coombes, prosecutor. When these two sets of movements combine, they make following the action difficult without adding much to characterization.

One passage early on encouraged me to think that the writing would improve: “Barnes wound the window down slightly to take in the fresh air. The smell inside the prison always made him feel nauseous. Men and women packed together in an overpopulated area, all seemingly smelling the same. Yet the air was always intermingled with other smells; food produced on a large scale for masses of inmates, sanitizing agents used to disinfect the hallways and public places, and then the peculiar smell of fear and uncertainty. Barnes would have laughed if someone told him that fear had a distinct smell, but as an advocate he had learned to recognise it. It was stale and slightly sweet, almost like the smell of decay; a mixture of sweat and other bodily fluids excreted when the stress levels were very high for extended periods. He imagined that it would be very detectable in the trenches in a battlefield, or in a hospital ward for the terminally ill. Just about anywhere where there was a reason for on-going fear. Groups of people anticipating on uncertain and unpleasant occurrences. Most definitely found in a prison cell for those awaiting trial.” (24-5) Unfortunately, my hope proved unfounded.

 

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Laraine M. Lebron’s BUSTER’S LAW was a free or inexpensive Kindle download published in 2008. It’s one of her Animal Shelter novels.

Lucy Hickey-Rios is the first person narrator of BUSTER’S LAW, a reference to the New York law that makes certain animal cruelty cases into felonies and makes prosecution easier. She’s the Executive Director of the Mercy Animal Shelter, a position she’s held for a year after having been a volunteer there for years. An escalating series of attacks and threats culminates in her discovery of the remains of one of the caregivers in the shelter’s crematorium. But was Elizabeth Banks really the intended target, or does the killer plan to go after Lucy?

BUSTER’S LAW is a quick read, and the plot is simple. The prologue introduces a psychotic who’s out to get “she” who stopped his tormenting animals; he decides to remove her. When the incidents begin at the shelter, Lucy is the obvious target and, equally obviously, the killer is someone associated with the shelter. Much of the story involves back stories on some of the animals and the problems of running a shelter, animal cruelty, feral cats, and disgraceful owners.

Lucy is a believable character, dedicated to her job and the animals, both tender and tough enough to do such a difficult job. Other characters are less well-developed, but most are sympathetically handled, especially Officer Aretha Morgan and Detective Vincent Sacchi who respond to the shelter’s calls.

BUSTER’S LAW gets a bit preachy about the crisis in animal care in this country, but it does work as a mystery with appropriate foreshadowing and motivation. It’s tightly focused on Lucy, so there’s little additional exposition needed. Lucy’s on the scene for the discovery of all the problems. There’s little sense of place.

While not especially memorable, BUSTER’S LAW is pleasant enough. (C)

 

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THREE-DAY TOWN is one of Margaret Maron’s Deborah Knott series, but it’s set in New York and includes Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD from her other series. It’s available in both e-format and print.

A year after their marriage, Judge Deobrah Knott and Major Dwight Bryant of Colleton County, North Carolina, are finally getting their honeymoon--a week in a luxury apartment in New York. As a favor for her sister-in-law Kate, Deborah’s carrying a gift from Kate’s friend Jane Lattimore to her daughter Anne Lattimore Harald; Anne is in New Zealand for six weeks, so Deborah arranges to turn the package over to her daughter Sigrid Harald. When Sigrid arrives to pick it up, Deborah discovers the body of Phil Lundigren, building superintendent, who’s been hit on the head, apparently by a robber who’s taken small gold boxes and the valuable sculpture she’d brought to New York. Deborah and Dwight inevitably become involved in the investigation as they continue their honeymoon.

Point of view in THREE-DAY TOWN moves between Deborah (first person), Sigrid Harald, and Dwight Bryant (both limited third person); this reduces the need for chunks of exposition as well as revealing character. Characters are mostly well developed, especially the three protagonists. All are believably human with the baggage accompanying adulthood. Deborah pulls a distressingly TSTL when, observing an extra garbage bag on the pavement outside the apartment building, she goes to investigate herself instead of awakening Dwight or calling Sigrid. This isn’t her first rodeo!

The identity of the killer is somewhat foreshadowed, but the plot is a play on the Father Brown story of the invisible man--the person so familiar that he/s overlooked. A small subplot involving Deborah’s nephew’s alleged posting on Facebook is a play on the same motif. Deborah’s TSTL may have been a device to escape the cul-de-sac of the plot.

Maron makes good use of the setting, with appropriate atmospherics and physical description to evoke New York City. She’s also spot on about Southern folkways: “Had Phil Lundigren’s death happened back in Colleton County, I would now be taking his widow a plate of homemade sausage biscuits, a casserole, or a cake I had baked myself. Food is the universal offering for a house of mourning when all the relatives pour in and need to be fed. Doing something tangible for the bereaved allows friends and neighbors to feel a little less helpless in the face of death. Hell, I’d even carried a casserole to a presumably grieving widow only to later learn that she was the one who had planned her husband’s murder.” (204)

THREE-DAY TOWN may not be as strong as some others in the Deborah Knott series, but it’s an interesting variant since it includes Sigrid Harald, and it’s definitely worth a read. (B)

 

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Diane Greenwood Muir’s ALL ROADS LEAD HOME was available as a free or inexpensive Kindle download. It is the first book in her Bellingwood series. It features Polly Giller, who’s recently returned to Iowa to renovate the old Bellingwood School building into a multi-function center to include an artist’s retreat, community center, bookstore, and crafting shop. I’m assigning no grade because I have no intention of finishing the book.

At 11%, the book has consisted of a series of clunky introductions of not very appealing characters. A local welcoming committee consisting of four women arrives with foods for Polly; each gives a potted summary of who she is. They insist on putting the food away, and one, Andy Saner, proceeds unasked to organize Polly’s pantry. Another asks point blank how much the commercial stove cost. Their leader Lydia Merritt looks to be taking over Polly’s life, insisting she attend a play with the group and attend a slumber party afterward, with three women old enough to be her mother. Polly goes along. Nothing explains Polly’s abrupt decision to leave her career as a librarian in Boston to return home or why, having done so, she’s allowing such intimacy to total strangers.

To this point, the most exciting events in the book are Polly’s interior monologue on the proper Iowa etiquette for going to the front or to the back door of what used to be her family home (fortunately the housewife comes out so Polly doesn’t have to choose) and a workman’s inadvertently seeing Polly’s purple underwear in the dirty clothes basket. Be still, my beating heart! ALL ROADS LEAD HOME is said to be a murder mystery, but nothing yet suggests a potential crime. There’s no sense of place.

There’s not enough going on in plot, character, or setting to make me want to continue.

 

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Lynn Osterkamp’s TOO NEAR THE EDGE was a free or inexpensive Kindle download published in 2006. It features Cleopatra Sims as first person narrator, a Ph.D. clinical psychologist in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in grief counseling.
Cleo’s perfected a method whereby some of her patients can contact their departed ones for closure. As for herself, the only spirit she’s contacted more than once is Tyler, a surfer dude who appears to her occasionally and speaks to her in surfer metaphors. When fellow psychologist Elisa Bonner asks her to counsel Sharon Meyer, a recent widow whose husband Adam was pushed over the edge of the Grand Canyon, she becomes involved in much more than she anticipates.

*****SPOILERS******SPOILERS*****

Too much is going on in the plot of TOO NEAR THE EDGE to be believable. There’s over-medication at the nursing home where Cleo’s grandmother, an Alzheimer’s patient and prominent Boulder artist, resides; its medical director Dr. Ahmed hands out drug samples like candy and writes way too many Oxycodone prescriptions. Erik Vaughn, fitness trainer and nutritionist at Shady Terrace Nursing Home, is promoting a get-rich-quick scheme of buying herb seeds, growing the plants, and selling them back to the company for medical use; he’s courting Sharon and using her son Nathan to get close to her. Sharon’s father Dr. Daniel Waycroft, distinguished professor of psychology at the university, is having increasing problems getting his behaviorist research projects approved by the Internal Review Committee, and he’s opened an illegal research facility and project in Mexico. Enough already. The Ahmed and Waycroft story lines are reviewed, but Erik escapes after promising Cleo that he will be stalking her and that he will pay her back. This is obvious set-up for a sequel. The book is longer than the plot needs. The paranormal element could easily be omitted and all the information provided by the various spirits acquired through appropriate records search.

Cleo Sims is not a very attractive character. She’s 37 years old, has been through the therapy / counseling required of doctoral candidates in psychology and psychiatry, and has been in practice for several years, but she still reacts in a teenaged knee-jerk reaction to anyone who challenges her or gives her advice. She seems to delight in pushing men’s buttons, including both her boyfriend Pablo _____, a policeman whose advice she seeks but then ignores, and Erik. “I wasn’t inclined to worry too much about what Waycroft might have in mind for me. After a lifetime of arguments with my own father, I’ve learned not to be intimidated by bluster and demands of anything. Waycroft’s pompous assumptions that i was a flake or a fraud made me more interested in helping Sharon, just to show him how wrong he was.” (35)

Despite her smarts, in trying to discover what happened to Adam Meyer, Cleo never gets a copy of the police report on his death; she doesn’t Google Erik Vaughn or check with the appropriate licensing board for information on Dr. Ahmed; she has access to an ITT expert but, when she needs to know what’s on Adam’s password-protected computer, doesn’t consult him. Then, after Adam reveals the password and they discover the information on Waycroft’s Mexican research, she pulls a massive TSTL in going with Elisa and Sharon to confront Waycroft, resulting in her being shot (a graze only), Sharon knocked out, and Elisa taken hostage and seriously injured in a car wreck that kills Waycroft. I’m not enough impressed with Cleo to want to follow up on the series.

Setting is easily the strongest element in TOO NEAR THE EDGE. Osterkamp uses atmosphere to both evoke place and to reveal character. “As i walked into the main lobby, the air-conditioning hit me with a cold blast. ... Like the temperature, everything in the Shady Terrace lobby is artificial--plants, flowers, fake store fronts that have the look of an old-fashioned barber shop or ice-cream parlor. The theory is that old people will feel more comfortable in the cozy environment of their past, but to me it has always felt like a stage set without a play.” (36)

Sorry, but I can’t recommend TOO NEAR THE EDGE. (D

 

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CRAZY LIKE A FOX is the third book in Shannon Hill’s Lil and Boris mystery series, published as a Kindle download in 2013. It features Sheriff Littlepage Eller of Crazy, Virginia. She’s ably assisted by her deputy Boris, a feral cat who adopted her and accompanies her everywhere.

CRAZY LIKE A FOX opens with Lil locked in the trunk of an old car; she’s been kidnapped and nearly dies from hypothermia in an old moonshiner’s cabin before she’s rescued. The plot includes identifying the kidnappers, two of whom--the local men--are murdered, disclosing Eller financial manipulations of the ransom, and discovering the insider who got by Boris to kidnap Lil in the first place. Hill plays fair in giving the reader the evidence as Lil receives it, and she includes a neat little twist.

Hill’s using Lil as first person narrator gives much insight into her quirky, believably human character, and it allows for much of the humor of the series. “Waking up in the back of a car is never as ambiguous as, say, waking up in the back of a pickup truck. Usually the worst question you have to ask yourself when you wake up in the back of a pickup truck is, ‘Where the hell are my clothes?’ Another favorite question when you wake up in the bed of a pickup is something like, ‘What happened to all the beer?’ The one I hear most often is, ‘What do you mean, I’m getting a ticket? I’m not even driving!’ “

One of the strengths of this series is the sense of place. Hill has Southern folkways and the Southern story-telling voice down pat. “Most people in Crazy run to what’s called American cuisine, meaning boxed or canned or fried, and lacking subtlety if not calories. Somehow Italian and Mexican are okay, especially if it’s from a chain restaurant, but even Chinese takeout was a bit of a stretch. Aunt Marge once brought hummus and pita to a church picnic, and been accused of trying to feed people dog food.” She explains one facet of Southern speech: “ ‘Bless his heart’ is, as far as i can tell, a sort of genteel Southern code phrase used to cover everything from ‘bless his heart’ to ‘drop dead in flaming agony, pestilent vermin’.”

I particularly enjoyed Hill’s Author’s Note in CRAZY LIKE A FOX: “People have asked me where I get my ideas for incidents and characters in the Crazy stories. You know that shy, sensitive kid with glasses who sits in a corner with a book at all the family reunions? Fear her. She’s isn’t reading. She’s taking notes.”

CRAZY LIKE A FOX is a quick, funny read. (A-)