Review - U is for Undertow

TITLE: U IS FOR UNDERTOW
Author: SUE GRAFTON
Hardcover
Detective Mystery Series
ISBN: 978-0-399-15597-0
In April 1988 Kinsey Millhone is doing paperwork in her office when a young man named Michael Sutton walks into her office with an unforgettable story. Two decades earlier he believes he saw the kidnappers of a four year old little girl whose case is opened but is a cold case. Michael was just a boy and thinks that he saw them bury the body he even talked with them.
However Michael has only had a flirting moment with the truth as his past makes him not the best witness. Kinsey feels sorry for him and agrees to take the case for one day then she will decide. To make a long story short he is the boy who cried wolf and she is curious about the case. It takes work and research but she goes to the location of where the body is supposed to be buried and she has help from the police and Michael but what they dig up is the body of a dog and the dog's nametag.
Here is where we go from 1960 to 1988 and here is where Kinsey keep wondering about the dog and why it is buried in this spot. She can't let go of it and she retraces the steps to the past with trepidation. Has the story unfolds we start to see that the most perfect families are hiding something and we start to see that Kinsey's own past is not without it's moments of surprise.
It goes to show that even a private detective such as Kinsey who pretty much thinks she has seen and heard it all can still be surprised. We have the privilege of chapters being dedicated to present families, past families and as each family reveals a little more about themselves each of their stories lay the groundwork for what happened to a four year old little girl. The kicker is this is not the first child to have been kidnapped a week before her kidnapping another little girl was kidnapped but returned for a ransom. Was the first child a trial run for the second kidnapping or was the second child a victim of circumstance?
I could not tear myself away from this story every character is multi-layered, each person interviewed sheds a new perspective, we even see how killers can be extraordinary and what happens when one person can start a chain reaction in other people's lives that can never be reversed. We can see the results of bad karma and the real meaning of freedom in the 60's what parents go through when their children refuse to take responsibility for their own lives and actions. When friends betray each other, how heart are broken, what divorce really does to a child and how awful and cruel adults can be to each other. More to the point in this book we see real people whose lives are shattered and will never be the same. We know by the end of this story that everything means something and nobody is left unscathed by what our fellow man does it is a powerful story and it is a tragically beautiful story.
This mystery is an awakening of the soul and a cry for justice. Before to you think this book might have topics you don't like read let me reassure you that there is no child rape involved or anything of that nature no it's about justice and the effects our lives can have on others. Other people we do not know have never met the roads not taken the choices that were made of circumstance and the repercussions one day can have for many decades.
If you think you do not belong in this world or don't count then read this book it will change your mind. This is one of Kinsey's most powerful cases and it's one that will be an eye opener for many a person who thinks they are a misfit in either family or society.
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Pamela

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

Okey-dokey, so I was wracking my smallish-sized brain, trying to think of something to write for this blog in July, and coming up blank (I was practically blogged to death in June, since that’s the month HUNGRY SPIRITS came out). However, something just happened that points out both the magic and the mayhem of publishing: cover art!

PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL is an historical cozy mystery that’s going to be published by Five Star in January of 2011. So today (June 23) I was sent the cover art for review. Mind you, Five Star is one of the few publishers who listen to authors when it comes to cover art. Here’s the cover, and I think it’s gorgeous:

There’s only one thing wrong with it. Wanna take a guess at what it is? Well, then, I’ll tell you. That lovely cactus on the cover is a saguaro, a cactus that only grows on Arizona’s Sonoran Desert! Fortunately for me, Five Star actually pays attention to its authors, so I requested they maybe replace the saguaro with a blooming yucca. Mind you, a blooming yucca might not be the most gorgeous flower in the universe, but it is New Mexico’s state flower, and both the Pecos Valley and PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL are in New Mexico. A yucca. None of your fancy-schmancy poppies or roses or irises for us, by gum. I think our state insect is the scorpion, and I’m pretty sure our state bird is the buzzard. Actually, I know our state bird is the roadrunner, but you hardly ever see them here any longer. In fact, the only time I ever see roadrunners anymore is when I visit California. Go figure.

This little mishap made me think of other cover-art snafus I’ve either experienced or heard about over the years, and I thought I’d share. Carola Dunn, whose Daisy Dalrymple books are set in the 1920s, only in England, once had to have the cover artist change the uniform of a guard at the Tower of London because he was wearing the emblem of Queen Elizabeth II, and up to that point in time, there had been only one Queen Elizabeth. Christina Dodd, who is a wildly successful romance author, was once given a cover that showed the heroine with three arms. I’m not kidding. And I, during what I laughingly call my writing career, was once given the exact same cover art for a book (GABRIEL’S FATE) that I’d been given for A GAMBLER’S MAGIC. I tried and tried to convince my editor that the cover was a duplicate, but by that time Dorchester was no longer interested in me (because they’d decided to dump me—story of my writing life), and it took intervention from my agent to get them to pay attention. My editor at Dorchester apologized and said he thought I was “just being cranky.” Right. Anyhow, they changed the cover to one of those generic western-romance covers that’s probably been seen on a hundred other books—but at least it wasn’t a duplicate of one of my own covers.

Hmm. Now there’s an idea: give an author the same cover for all of his/her books. That way, the public will always know if their favorite (or not-so-favorite) author has a book coming out. Unless they think it’s an older book from the author. Okay, so that’s a bad idea. Forget I mentioned it.

Anyway, on another book of mine, a romp featuring the soul of a guy named Chester Pease, which accidentally ended up in a jug of corn whiskey and was drunk by a certain individual (the first Harry Potter, as a matter of fact, which points out yet another bout of mayhem in my writing life), the cover gods gave the book a blood-red cover with a goblet of what looks like blood and an overlay of a guy who looks like a zombie. The reviewer for Romantic Times actually called me at home and asked me why the cover was so grim when the book was so funny. I couldn’t tell her, ‘cause I didn’t have a clue.

In the overall scheme of cover art, however, I must say that, while my career has been floating belly-up in the goldfish bowl of publishing for lo, these many years, I’ve been given some really great covers. My all-time favorite so far is the cover for HUNGRY SPIRITS. I had a good deal to do with that cover, by the way (I’d pat myself on the back, but I can’t reach). In the book, poor Daisy Gumm Majesty (our heroine) has to teach a cooking class (Daisy; who can burn water), and I used as reference a book called 65 DELICIOUS DISHES, published by the Fleischmann Yeast Company in 1919 (I had to get their permission to use the title of the book, but that’s yet another story). Here’s the cover of the Fleischmann book:

And here’s the cover Five Star’s cover artist came up with:

As far as I’m concerned, what the cover artist did for this book was pure magic!

For the next Daisy book, I’ve sent Five Star another picture, a Norman Rockwell painting that appeared on a Saturday Evening Post cover in the 1920s. I hope someone will create another HUNGRY-SPIRITS-like cover for that one. It is, by the way, GENTEEL SPIRITS, which will be published in July 2011. GENTEEL SPIRITS has Daisy acting as spiritual advisor to an egotistical actress, and this is the picture I sent to the cover gods at Five Star. I hope they can do something with it that turns out as well as the HUNGRY SPIRITS cover did:

For some reason known only to God, seeing the covers of my books for the first time is the very most exciting part of the entire publishing biz. Which, given the state of my career, is probably a really good thing.

Guest Blogger - Dorothy Howell - Keeping in real in your mystery

KEEPING IT REAL IN YOUR MYSTERY

            Mystery readers are smart.  They like well-crafted stories, engaging characters, and interesting settings.  Most of all, they like puzzles – solving them, that is, and that’s what puts the magic in the mystery.

            As writers it’s our job to put a whodunit together that has just enough clues, red herrings and misdirection to keep the reader interested.  We want them to engage with our sleuth, follow our clues, weed out the unimportant details, and try to solve the crime as our story unfolds.

            So it’s important that we authors give our readers the tools with which to do this.  We have to play fair.  We have to intrigue our readers without alienating them.  Here are three things to watch out for:

Coincidences.  Billions of things are happening in billions of places simultaneously in the world.  That’s life.  That, however, is not good fiction. 

Actions in a fictional universe must feel plausible to a reader.  True, readers are willing to suspend belief but that will stretch just so far.  Too far, and your reader is liable to toss your book aside and pick up another. 

If you’re relying on a coincidence to make your plot work, you should probably go back and start over. 

Withheld information.  Mystery readers are all about solving the mystery alongside the sleuth.  To do that, the author absolutely must reveal information to the reader at the same time the sleuth discovers it.  

Don’t wait until the final reveal to have your sleuth announce a crucial piece of evidence.  The reader will feel cheated – and rightly so. 

Stupid characters.  We’ve all seen those horror movies where the terrified young girl escapes the haunted house, yet for no good reason keeps running back inside.  And how about the amateur sleuth who’s confronted by the killer but won’t simply call the police?  Haven’t we all seen these and thought, “What an idiot!”

Don’t make these mistakes in your mystery.  Give readers a character to root for who will make the same sort of decisions the rest of us would make.  Or if your character simply would not act that way, be sure you’ve given the reader a very good, compelling reason why he/she wouldn’t. 

Mystery readers have high standards.  It’s our job as writers to live up to them. 

Happy reading!

Dorothy Howell

www.DorothyHowellNovels.com

Best New Show

Best New Show:

As far as I'm concerned the best new show on for t.v. this summer is MEMPHIS BEAT it's funny, realistic and it has something for everyone. The first episode has the topic of elderly abuse, the abused woman is someone who is well known and she hardly says a word of any words throughout the episode. She doesn't have to the bruises speak for themselves and our detective is a homicide cop who loves his mother and has a way with women (NOT ) well NOT according to the woman one in paticular who is his boss and don't get me started on the lamp he brings to work. When his boss let's him know that it's not acceptable to have it in the department it's very amusing how he finds an answer to the problem.

I can't remember the homicide detective's name but he's the same character that plays Earl in My Name Is Earl, his mother is someone who is lucky to have him as a son as I suspect she is going to be trouble in future episodes.

If you like a little mystery with your fun and a lot of southern charm then this is the show for you. MEMPHIS BEAT has it's own brand of edgy and it will add fun to your summer.

Pamela

Review: Murder Can Crash Your Party

TITLE: MURDER CAN CRASH YOUR PARTY

Author: SELMA EICHLER

Paperback mystery series

Obsidian publisher

Pub date:2008

ISBN:978-0-451-22384-5

Desiree Shapiro is a PI in Manhatten and nobody is more surprised than Desiree when she is asked to speak at a mystery writer's convention. Of all places it's in Connecticut and since she is not sure where her and the love of her life Nick stand she decided a few days away is just what she needs to gain perspective.  Speaking in public is a little lethel to Desiree but she pulls it off with style and wit. What she didn't expect more than being appeciated by a bunch of mystery writers is that she is approached my a very well known mystery author who is willing to pay her 24,940.00 all for reading belle Simone's unpulished manuscript and solving the mystery. Bell has written a whodunit and she wants Desiree to solve it one clue at a time. Belle will dole out the clues one at a time and as Desiree solves the mystery piece by she will then reveal who our murderer is and Desiree is just curious enough to take the job.

The thing is why is Belle so willing pay to have a homicide solved on paper and what is with the exact amount of money to be paid? Desiree is so focused on the manuscript that she forgets to call her niece Ellen and then when Desiree is struck with food poisioning Nick calls and proves why she thinks so much of him.  Of course while all of this is going on she also has to survive so she takes a case involving and an elderly friend who thinks his wife is cheating on him but the real mystery is what happens when there is a mystery within a mystery.

This story really is worth reading and both mysteries are excellent. I do not know if I could pull off writing a book of this calibur but Selma Eichler did miss a spoonful of ice cream or a dish of gossip and she definitely laid out every clue like a professional. This mystery should be used in teaching HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD MYSTERY as it's one of the best efforts by a mystery author that I have read in a long time. There is never enough time to read all the books we want to read but I would make time to read MURDER CAN CRASH YOUR PARTY this is a two for one mystery you won't want to miss!

Let's see if you can solve the murder before the last chapter and can you guess why the murders happened?

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Pamela James

Weekend Plans?

WEEKEND PLANS:

I plan to do nothing....nada.... this weekend this way if I miss my goals I won't feel gulity. What are your weekend plans? I have been on the run for a month and next weekend it's back to Kansas City so this weekend I am going eat enchiladas, strawberry shortcake, watch movies, cross stitch, email and laugh a lot. I am tired so I think this will be a mental health weekend. LOL

I want to finish reading LAST WRITES by Laura Levine, also read U IS FOR UNDERTOW by Sue Grafton, maybe I'll write some reviews but we'll see if I do it will probably be Sunday Night.

The PBS Masterpiece Mysteries are back so I'll watch that movie and I might be able to make a pretty good dent in my cat cross stitch project. Now if Frank wants to go someplace for an afternoon I won't argue with him as long as it's not to mom's this weekend.

There are a thousand things I could be doing like painting the bathroom, cleaning out the office closet (heaven forbif it hasn't done since we moved in six years ago) changing the living room around, cooking, cleaning out the frig (I did the pantry last night) and washing my car. Not going to happen this weekend. Most of it probably won't happen this coming week either since we'll leave town on Friday again so it may be a long goal to-do list.LOL

Okay tell us about your weekend!

Let the good times roll,

Pam

CONFESSIONS OF A COZY READER

CONFESSIONS OF A COZY READER:

My true confession is that I sometimes one in on one series and I HAVE to read all the books I can in that series. This has happened again with Laura Levine's mystery series. I've spent the better part of two months finding and reading all I can in this series. I love Prosac and since I lost my own two cats this past spring I cannot get enough of Prosac (Prosac is her cat), I love Jaine Austen's parent's especially their emails to her and I suspect my daughter could relate to that part if she read mysteries and if she read this series.

I have been in a better mood because of this series espcially in the last month. Authors your books do make a difference and often can be the difference between a terrible day and good day. Laura Levine's series helped me get over my grief of my cats and I couldn't thank her enough she is a wonderfully funny and uplifting writer and one who deserves to be recognized for her talent.

I hope everyone let's the good times roll today but if that isn't possible then read this series. It may not have the same impact on you that it had on me but it is still a good dose of happiness between the covers.

Hugs,

Pamela