Tag Archives: sleuth

Snap Shot by Meg Chittenden (2003) – BR00049 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Diana Gordon has retired from being a private investigator after being shot, and is living the simple life in Port Findlay, Washington running her own photography studio. But a local woman is murdered, and when Gordon finds the body, she can’t resist doing a little personal investigating. And she turns up links to her past and how she got shot — for taking a photograph of someone who didn’t want to be captured.

What I Liked

Diana’s character is relatively straightforward, and it is an interesting cast of sub-characters. Hard to tell if this will be a series or a one-off book, but it works either way. The politics of a photography show provide a nice backdrop, and this would work as almost-cozy, except for a little direct violence in two places.

What I Didn’t Like

Her partner in Port Findlay, Conor Callahan, is a bit neurotic and there is a major change in his perspective by the end of the book. Gordon doesn’t reveal her past to everyone as she goes along, and it is a “secret” that causes problems early on — for no apparent reason as she knows she’s going to have to spill eventually. Equally, the reason the photograph is causing problems is so obvious to the reader, it is grating to see our star investigator proceed through most of the book before figuring it out.

The Bottom Line

A great almost-cozy.

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (2002) – BR00048 (2005) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Tempe finds herself in Guatemala investigating a mass grave, and while she’s there, the local police decide to avail themselves of her forensics expertise to investigate four missing girls and one dead body in a sewer.

What I Liked

The cast of characters is large and there are some historical elements included related to Guatemalan history.

What I Didn’t Like

Tempe bounces around Guatemala too much, helping the only honest detective in a sea of corruption, and figures out missing girls, links to stem cell research, and takes her sweet time doing it. She even finds time to link it to her friends in Montreal, who just so happen to have gone to school with her detective partner in Guatemala. Beyond far-fetched, and casting aspersions on everyone she describes and the way they work, this one should have been a secret Reichs took to the grave. And finally, a bit of a spoiler, she rips off Janet Evanovich’s technique of not finishing the romance part of the book — you know she’s chosen someone but not whom. Stay tuned to the next in the series to find out which one, I suppose.

The Bottom Line

Pass on this one in the series.

Payment in Kind by J.A. Jance (1991) – BR00047 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Beaumont’s case with an up-and-coming ambitious partner focuses on a woman working at the local school board office who winds up dead — semi-clothed in a closet with a clergyman-turned-security guard and the hints of an affair.

What I Liked

The school board politics and the politics around the police station office are first-rate, and it is nice to see a positive side to the journalist character who constantly hounds J.P. A large cast of characters helps keep the story interesting.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-plot is a bit obvious and while the cast of characters is good, it leaves a bit of a feel of happenstance rather than expert detecting.

The Bottom Line

Solid but not quite awesome.

Until Proven Guilty by J.A. Jance (1985) – BR00046 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Beaumont finds himself investigating the apparent murder of a little girl, five years old. When the investigation leads to the girl’s home, and the cult that her mother is part of, things start to get a little weird. Add in the fact that he is still getting to know his partner, and the introduction of a rich and beautiful stranger to J.P.’s social and professional life, and the story starts to get a little odd.

What I Liked

I liked the woman in the story, and her obsession with those who murder little children. She shows up at the funeral, and you can vividly picture her arrival from the excellent prose.

What I Didn’t Like

The bits with the journalist are a bit stale in this book in the series, and some of the “getting to know your partner” tension is simply boring. Unfortunately, too, the “cult” comes off rather comical without any real depth as to why people might have gravitated towards this life.

The Bottom Line

Not the best in the series but a killer ending.

Blood Money by Thomas Perry (1999) – BR00045 (2005) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
May 25 2005

Plot or Premise

Jane Whitefield is happy in her new life as a suburban housewife. But then someone shows up at her door on the reservation, knowing that she used to be the-woman-who-makes-people-disappear. And this one needs to disappear — a young woman who worked for the mob, taking care of the house for an old man who was the mob’s moneyman with a photographic memory, keeping it all in his head. When the man escapes, and then gets whacked, Rita knows she needs help to disappear before the mafia finds her and wants her to tell the moneyman’s secrets — secrets only he knew. Jane doesn’t want to help, having left that life behind, but she has no real choice — the girl has come to her door, her real door, in her new life.

What I Liked

The plot deals with the mafia’s money, and their search for Jane. There is a strong sub-plot about the money, and while it is initially a little far-fetched, it takes the premise and breaks it down into manageable chunks that make it seem almost plausible.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the story is pretty predictable — Rita is flaky, and you know she’s going to flake out on the group long before Jane realizes it, or at least, long before she admits it to herself. As well, there is a trigger for the initial premise that I figured out in the first few pages, and yet no one else ever figures it out in the book, leading to a surprise for certain people for no real apparent reason. Finally, there is a long series of circumstances that are either Jane simply driving around the country or a series of near-misses for the mafia spotting her that never feel particularly tense.

The Bottom Line

Good book in a great series.