Tag Archives: series

Taxed to Death by Debra Purdy Kong (1995) – BR00089 (1999) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 7 1999

Plot or Premise

A tax auditor discovers fraud, revenge and murder.

What I Liked

The writing is pretty good and I love the premise of the protagonist (a Revenue Canada tax auditor).

What I Didn’t Like

I had difficulty with three things in the book. First, I found there were way too many characters to keep them all straight. Second, I didn’t like the relationship between Alex and Jillian, very hard to follow why this would be a romance that would “bloom”. Third, I just plain don’t like Jillian…the choices she makes, the rationale for her relationships and interactions with men, all of it made me feel like an accomplice to sexism. Altogether, it presented a challenge for realism, but it may also just be my personal preference to not read about a character like Jillian.

Disclosure

I am not personal friends with the author, but I have interacted with them briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Could have been better laid out with fewer characters.

Perilous Friends by Carole Epstein (1996) – BR00063 (1999) – 🐸⚪⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 5 1999

Plot or Premise

Barbara Simons is a newly unemployed airline exec with nothing to do. Bored, she jumps at a chance to help her fabulous friends with their problems — an ex-husband hiding money or uncovering a smuggling ring.

What I Liked

Better written than Reichs’ books in the same setting, and the overall story is interesting.

What I Didn’t Like

I hated most of this book — every character is one of life’s beautiful people, all wealthy, all extremely ravishing or handsome, and all amazingly beautiful, perky, effective at turning men’s heads deliberately and/or accidentally, and supposedly downright nice…not nice enough that you like them, but Barbara obviously thinks everyone else does.

But Barbara isn’t any better — she’s supposed to be this amazing go-getter businesswoman but she has been wallowing in self-pity for six weeks. She goes to fancy parties with the elites, but can’t relate to the average guy behind the counter at the 7-11 without going off on some trip. And while the story is interesting, the ending feels like it wraps everything up in a whirlwind 3 pages.

Finally, a small spoiler, there is a small sub-plot that ends on a “to be continued” basis, kind of like Evanovich does regularly with the Stephanie Plum series. I hate that with a passion — I like some resolution, even if there is an ongoing storyline.

Disclosure

I was not personal friends with the author, but I did interact with her briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Hate the characters, okay story.

The Dead Pull Hitter by Alison Gordon (1988) – BR00061 (1999) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
February 3 1999

Plot or Premise

Dead Pull Hitter feels like it picks up where Gordon’s non-fiction left off: the Toronto Titans have finished in fourth place the previous year and are starting to pull it together for a pennant race; the protagonist Kate Henry is a woman sportswriter who’s covered them for five years; she works for the Toronto Planet which is sandwiched in the news market between the stodgy World and the bimbette-littered pages of the Mirror. At times it was hard to remind myself that this was the fiction category!

What I Liked

The fun doesn’t really take off until after the first body arrives. Up until then, it is basically a baseball story. After that, the murder mystery takes hold. The clues are there for the finding: some obvious, others more subtle. Nicely written, and combines the baseball storylines with an appropriate emphasis on the mystery. And the cop-as-a-romantic-partner and mystery-antagonist-theme is alive and well in the book.

What I Didn’t Like

The start on the baseball story gives you a fairly large cast of characters that may be easy for a baseball fan to keep straight (i.e. player X is a catcher), but the names all seemed to run together for me. The baseball players also seem to have an enormously large and direct role in Kate’s life, which doesn’t seem to fit with her being a member of the objective sports press that covers them regularly.

Disclosure

I was not personally friends with the author, but I did interact briefly with her online.

The Bottom Line

Nice start to the series

Dying to Get Published by Judy Fitzwater (1995) – BR00075 (1998) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
August 18 1998

Plot or Premise

The main character, as-yet-unpublished author Jennifer Marsh, decides to plan a murder in order to liven up her writing. A touch of realism, or writing what she knows by planning it. But when the murder really happens, her plans make her suspect number one.

What I Liked

It’s an easy, quick-paced story, and Jennifer is a bit quirky. Nice, occasionally a dingbat, she has her moments, but quirky. She has a new romantic interest that adds some fun to the story, and lots of female friends who are supportive. Plus, the victim is obviously deserving of murder — a book agent. In addition to being well-written, with great storylines, there were some seriously funny moments that made me smile repeatedly (people seem to frown on you laughing out loud when you are by yourself reading on buses or in restaurants, so I held myself to grinning).

What I Didn’t Like

The book was a little tough for me to get into at first, and I initially hated the main character who talks to her future, as yet unconceived, child on a fairly regular basis as a plot device.

Disclosure

I am not personal friends with the author, but I have interacted with them briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Liked it enough to get the next one in the series

The Closet Hanging by Tony Fennelly (1987) – BR00068 (1998) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
July 4 1998

Plot or Premise

The supposed suicide of a land developer is complicated by some details that suggest murder, and spells trouble for Sinclair since he was recently seen having a large argument with the deceased. Unfortunately for Matt, he can’t remember the details because they have been wiped out by an epileptic seizure and the developer is found in a building owned by Matt’s mother. Matt investigates, partly to find out for himself what really happened.

What I Liked

Better written than the first one, including a much better quality of appropriate humour and the extra characters from the mob are well done, adding some interesting albeit tiny twists.

What I Didn’t Like

Slightly more graphic than the first, the plot is somewhat convoluted, and there is too much attention paid to Matt’s personal life which is too far removed from the mystery. The ending is rather disappointing from such a good writer.

Disclosure

I am not personal friends with the author, but I have interacted briefly with them on social media.

The Bottom Line

Great writing and fast-paced story