REVIEWS FROM CARYL HARVEY
Caryl Harvey lives in the eastern plains of Colorado (Kent Haruf territory) with her husband of many years, her adopted sons and an ever-changing line of foster children. She writes non-fiction under her real name and fiction as Anne Caryl. Visit her author website to learn about her two newest "babies," THE GOLD TRAIN CONNECTION and BACK TO REASON. Caryl says of her alter ego, "She's the funniest little old lady I know."
CARYL'S WEBSITE
BUSY BODY
M.C. BEATON
Minotaur Books pb 10/11
"I heard you have a detective agency and I want to hire you. I'm the prime suspect."
The speaker is Miriam, a woman Agatha Raisin thoroughly dislikes, but a job is a job after all. The fact is that Agatha needs something to take her mind off the holidays and away from her failed romance with her ex-husband James.
Miriam is just one of the suspected murderers. There are many. The "murderee" is a man named John Sunday, an officer with the Health and Safety Board, who has managed to antagonize anyone who has a trace of holiday spirit. The suspects, among others, include a woman whose dog relieved himself in public, two couples whose Christmas decorations have been deemed "unsafe", a vicar who is halted in the act of putting a Christmas tree on his roof... and Miriam.
But then Agatha's employer dies in an apartment fire, and the detective shelves the case.
A short time later, a man named Tom Courtney shows up at Agatha's door. He is Miriam's son and he wants to hire Agatha to find out who killed his mother. It isn't that Tom and his sister were fond of their mother, but Tom wants to settle her estate. Now, with time eating away at the clues and the witnesses' memories, Agatha is back on the case.
And if sifting through ashes and clues isn't enough, two romances bloom in Agatha's garden, she must have a hip replacement, one of her employees struggles with an obnoxious roommate, a depressed young ex-colleague shows up on her doorstep... and James comes back into the picture. Well, at least Agatha Raisin isn't doomed to boredom. In fact, she's a real BUSY BODY.
M.C. Beaton is perhaps the best of cozy mystery writers. She may well be the most prolific. Most critics hail her as the heir to Agatha Christie. All that aside, the truth is Beaton is just plain good; her characters are all bigger than life and any of them would fit into the company of travelers aboard the Orient Express. Beaton takes her readers on a wild ride with her Agatha, a middle aged woman who smokes, swears and enjoys a drink or two. But Agatha is a hopeless romantic as well, and cannot bring herself to give up on the failed marriage to the love of her life. Readers who get caught up in the character cheer her on as she tries, "chins" up, to muddle through. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
AT THE END OF THE ROAD
GRANT JERKINS
Berkley Prime Crime Trade PBO 11/11
Traveling Eden Road was a risk, and Kyle Edwards reveled in risks. He was just a boy, after all, and didn't understand consequences. Maybe if he had, he would have admitted his part in things the day it started. But taking risks comes easily to boys; taking consequences does not. And so, when the speeding car slid in the red dust of Eden Road, swerved to avoid him and rolled, Kyle just stood watching as the wounded woman toddled toward him. Then, he ran.
Kyle's short life is full, of fearsome things and dark secrets. The woman is not the first. There are the teen-aged boys who bully him, the fire in the field, the sinister paralyzed man who keeps watch from his front porch, and now the police at Kyle's door. The woman has disappeared, the consequences are closing in, and so, to protect himself and his innocent sister Grace, Kyle invades the tortured world of a serial killer and becomes entrapped in its darkness.
AT THE END OF THE ROAD is Jerkins' second novel. His first, A VERY SIMPLE CRIME is being made into a movie - a coup for any writer and a testimony to his talent. Jerkins writes of dark places, and the house AT THE END OF THE ROAD is one of the darkest. Jerkins' pacing is flawless, looking away from the monsters while we readers slow our pounding hearts, then plunging back into the terror, leaving us stretching our necks and breathing hard again.
Jerkins wisely, and furtively, allows his readers to develop the characters for themselves, drawing upon their own memories of childhood. That is why they are so real, and why readers care so much what happens to them. It is also why AT THE END OF THE ROAD haunts its readers long after we turn the last page. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, with cautions for language and sexual references.