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In my never-ending search for the lightest possible entertainment in reading, I have discovered an author that is new to me. His name is David Rosenfelt and he is the former marketing director of Tri-Star Pictures before becoming an author of novels and screen plays.

Rosenfelt has written five books about a lawyer named Andy Carpenter who lives outside of NYC in Patterson, NJ. Andy’s father was a district attorney of record and Andy grew up an only child in a very middle class life.

His first case and events surrounding that case, defending a man found guilty of murder and on death row, set up a whole cast of characters and circumstances that flow into his other four books.

I have thus far read: OPEN AND SHUT, FIRST DEGREE, and PLAY DEAD.

What makes this set of lawyer novels different than any other set? Rosenfelt has a wonderful sense of humor. His attorney’s voice is full of satire. His descriptive passages are sometimes almost poetic, as when he described his childhood trips to baseball games with Mr. Carpenter, Sr.

I am an animal lover. Mr. Rosenfelt has mirrored his own life with his character’s charitable work rescuing dogs, golden retrievers in particular. The Tara Foundation, in actuality has rescued over four thousand dogs. Mr. Carpenter’s favorite character is Andy’s golden retriever, Tara – a rescue from an animal shelter.

BURY THE LEAD, a book I have yet to read, was a Today Show Book Club pick, but ironically I heard about the first book I read, PLAY DEAD, from a regular caller on the sports radio show, “Finebaum.”


Respectfully Submitted,


Kathy Albers

David McCullough’s THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD was an appropriate read after we visited the National Park site in June. However, seeing the photos, dioramas, recorded memories of the survivors, and looking out from the huge windows of the visitors’ center did not bring the tragedy alive as did the book.

At the end of the last century, Johnstown, PA was a booming coal and steel town filled with families transitioning from rural to industrial societies. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort for the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. On May 31, 1989 when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, more than 2,000 people were killed.

McCullough’s compilation of facts and first person accounts of this terrible tragedy makes this a story worth telling and remembering.

After reading the book, I’d like to visit the sight again. I think I would “see” so much more.
Respectfully Submitted,

Kathy Albers

J. A. Jance’s JUSTICE DENIED is a long awaited J.P. Beaumont novel. Judy Jance writes with two voices. As an author who calls both Arizona and Seattle her home, she has written books that are set in the Arizona desert from the point of view of a woman detective.

The books that are set in Seattle are about a flawed male detective named J.P. Beaumont. My husband, friends, and I have always liked the Beaumont series so much better than her writings about a woman sheriff in Bisbee, Arizona.

This latest Beaumont was a little disappointing to me. This is a murder mystery of a death row drug dealer who had turned over a new leaf. Jance also dabbles in into what may be serial murders of sex offenders.

The day I spent with J. P. Beaumont was a day I should have been doing something more worthwhile.

I’d give this book a C+ at best and that’s a shame because I’ve always loved Judy Jance’s books that give a snapshot of life in the Pacific Northwest.

Respectfully Submitted,


Kathy Albers

I DID IT.

I read IF I DID IT: Confessions of the Killer . So much has been written about this book, actually reading it was almost redundant.

O.J. spends a lot of his time blaming his ex-wife for her own problems. I understand that this is what a lot of batterers do.

The chapter where he details the events leading up to and immediately after the murders is too explicit to have been imagined. O.J. does stop just short of explaining where he left his knife and bloody clothes.

Maybe he was hoping for a sequel.

I hope the Goldman family makes a great deal of money. I read in the paper that the Goldman’s confiscated O.J.’s Rolex only to find that it was a knock-off and not the real thing.

BONES TO ASHES by Kathy Reichs was a welcome publishing event. Kathy Reichs is the inspiration and executive producer of the TV hit series, Bones.

I was afraid I had lost a good read to television production.

I like the Temperance Brennan character and back story in Reichs’ books so much more than I enjoy the television character.

As I’ve stated before, I like to read about people who work in parts of the country with which I am unfamiliar. The subject of this book involved two of my interests: Acadia history and Hansen’s Disease.

I also enjoy reading about French Quebec.

Here are some pretty descriptive passages and clues that I enjoyed:

“Her English was accented, neither the flat, nasal twang of the Midwest, nor the vowel-bloating drawl of the Southeastern seaboard.”

“Finally, blue patches appeared and elbowed back the clouds.”

“For example, most people in the US say they stand ‘in line’ at the post office. In NY, people say they stand ‘on line.’”

About writing in one language and having it translated: “Difference in pronunciation might affect the rhyme scheme. Also clues are to be had in cognates, words that look like they should mean the same in both languages but don’t. The word ‘gift’ in German means ‘poison’ in English. ‘Embarazada’ in Spanish, but in Puerto Rico instead of saying I was embarrassed, I’d said I was pregnant.”

“Is there a word for the grass strip between the sidewalk and the road?” Only in Akron is it called ‘Devil strip.’”

“Dayclean is a Gullah term for dawn. And in the South ‘ailing’ is colloquial for being ill.”

See there is a little to be learned even in the reading of “lite” mysteries.

Alex Mindt's Male of the Species is pretty good—although I'll be right glad to reach the end of this spate of short story collections through which I've been slouching.

But I did like Mindt's stories because of a quirkiness that could turn sad or funny, a quirkiness that always started with a character: a black teenager who burns a cross on his family's lawn and fakes his own lynching to remind those around him that racism is still part of our society, the dancer who while dressed as an ape on his way to perform at a retirement party is given a traffic ticket and realizes how far off the mark his life has gone or a father who has always lied about his hunting adventures takes his son on a hunting trip.

As with any author with whom I'm not familiar, Mindt went through an accuracy test. He made two statements I questioned:

1) "I have this facility, in Santa Fe, the second oldest city in America." (page 4) Second oldest? Is it? A brief time on google told me it was the third. Second? Third? Why quibble? I'll give him a pass.

2) I knew I had him when he referred to "Nixon's 1962 concession speech." (page 158) Everyone knows Nixon ran for president in 1960, not 1962. What I didn't know was that he ran for governor in California in 1962—and lost. Point and game to Mindt.

And, as with most good writers, he had some well-turned phrases:

1) On our fast-paced, on the move culture. "Here, no one is anywhere, they are in between places. Only the dead are content." (page 6)

2) "As my daddy used to say, 'Gd bless the man foolish enough to do what's right." (102) But it's what once upn a time we used to expect of our leaders.

Recommend? Sure. Why not?

Nathanael West's The Dream Life of Balso Snell is weird. Truly weird. Were I to classify it, I'd say literary cubism.

It begins with Balso Snell entering the anus of the Trojan horse and ends with an orgasm. Like I said, weird. During the plot(?) Balso has affairs and there's an interesting parody of Crime and Punishment.


Surprising, the book isn't even modern-day-let's-shock-'em stuff; it was written in 1931. Actually I remember reading two other books by him in college, Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust. They skirted strange but in no way approached the weirdness of Balso Snell.

But it has some almost poetic moments.

1) "I'm like an old actor mumbling Macbeth as he fumbles in the trashcans outside the theatre of his past triumphs." (page 38)

2) "…death is still like putting on a wet bathing suit ..." (page 39) Cool analogy.

I'm pretty sure there were other spots like the above, but mostly I was too busy trying to follow the plot—if there was one—to notice them.

For a few years now people have been suggesting that I give Patricia Highsmith a try. So I have. The Cry of the Owl was quite readable, but not at all what I expected. I had figured she was a pretty regular murder mystery writer. Judging from this book, she's not. Yes, there's a murder—but it's of a minor character and pretty close to the end of the book. A major character does commit suicide—but, like the murder, the plot is pretty far along before that happens. My thought is that her appeal lies in the psychology of her characters, and for that reason I'll give another of her books a try—although I'm far from blown away.

A question to other mystery readers out there: Have any of you run into Patricia Highsmith's work? What's your opinion?

Martha, I don't think I have read any of her books, but now I'd be willing to give one a try.

I'm re-reading Nevada Barr's novel ENDANGERED SPECIES about Cumberland Island because of our recent trip there. I didn't much enjoy it the first time. I'm not much enjoying it the second, but I do want to go to Cumberland Island again!!!

Kathy

I have a new writing rule: The word, ubiquitous, should never appear in a novel two times on face-to-face pages. It is a good word. It is a word I like to use. It should not be made common by overuse.

That’s my rule and I’m sticking with it.