 Arlene Germain reviews The Fall Guy & Love Letters in the Sand |
 Arlene Germain is a former English teacher who currently lives in Massachusetts. She is a book reviewer for The Lambda Book Report [www.lambdalit.org], the Golden Crown Literary Society newsletter, The Crown, [www.goldencrown.org], the Midwest Book Review [www.midwestbookreview.com], and the Just About Write Newsletter [www.justaboutwrite.com]. Like any reviewer, I am sure that she would like to hear from you—either your thoughts on her review, or to submit a book to her for review in future issues of IGW. You can contact her, here. |
  Fall GuyBy Claire McNab Bella Books ISBN: 1-59493-000-7 Paperback $12.95 173 pages Claire McNab’s sixteenth addition to the Detective Carol Ashton Mystery series, Fall Guy, finds the Detective Inspector at yet another scene of the crime. However, the victim was neither shot, strangled, poisoned, nor stabbed. Mega-millionaire, wily entrepreneur, and practical joker extraordinaire, Milton Ryce has plummeted to his untimely death when both his main and reserve parachutes fail to open. An expert skydiver who maintained his own equipment, Ryce realizes all too late that his last joke will unfortunately, if not deservedly, be at his own expense. His last conscious thought falling through the clouds was, “This couldn’t be happening to him!” [Page 2] Ashton and her right-hand man, Detective Sergeant Mark Bourke, have been summoned from Sydney to take charge of another high-profile case. Enduring a three-hour car ride to Hash’s Creek, they are met by a rather irritating and ineffective Sergeant Huffner, whose lack of proper police procedure does not bode well for a speedy resolution of the case. The investigation is further complicated by a variety of suspects: a drug-addled daughter, a wanna be like Dad son, a mysterious wife, a scheming mistress, a few questionable business partners, and a foppish gossip columnist, just to mention a few. As the story progresses, various motives surface, additional suspects are added to the list, and new witnesses come forth. Ashton and Bourke work diligently both to shorten their stay in the scorching Australian backcountry and to bring to justice any and all who may be guilty. Add to this scenario, the facts that Ashton’s latest love interest, Leota Woolfe of the FBI, has concluded her counter-terrorism assignment and returned to the States, alone, and her elderly environmental activist aunt has “volunteered” Ashton’s home for a small gathering of a few hundred sister protesters. As always, the good Detective Inspector has more to handle than just a little thing called murder. McNab has created a worthwhile addition to her long-running Ashton series. The plotting is deft and the events flow naturally and seamlessly. There are enough plausible twists, turns, and surprises to keep the reader guessing and engaged throughout the course of the novel. The prose is tightly constructed and retains the flavor of previous books in the series. Conflicts are astutely created and satisfyingly resolved. Those readers who have enjoyed McNab’s previous entries will be especially pleased with the last few scenes. Carol Ashton appears more comfortable with herself in the midpoint of her life with this latest installment. After ascertaining some information from the recalcitrant Sergeant Huffner, she responds to Bourke’s teasing comment with, “I’m aging fast, Mark. Have to wring every little advantage out of my blond charm while I’ve still got it.” [Page 7] She is still the efficiently calm investigator and competently deliberate interrogator, but the author has exposed and softened some of the emotional edges of this career woman which allows the reader to more fully comprehend the character. Her tendency toward the terse response and sardonic retort still display that Aussie charm and wit. However, McNab has created an intriguing sub-plot involving more of Ashton’s personal struggle and her realization that making truthful life-changing decisions may terminate one episode while enabling her to re-visit another. Fall Guy is an appealing and satisfying mystery experience. The reader is fully engaged from the intensely suspenseful prologue to the reasonable yet unexpected conclusion. McNab has succeeded in expanding her enormously likable major character and again has included those recurring secondary characters that are part of her professional and personal life. At the same time, the reader is introduced to another cabal of the most loathsome and repugnant people which befits the mystery genre. After having read Fall Guy, the reader will be as anxiously awaiting the release of the seventeenth installment in this outstanding series as this reviewer. |
By Sharon Stone Alyson Books ISBN: 1-55583-852-9 Paperback $13.95 221 pages Sharon Stone’s first novel, Love Letters in the Sand, opens with L.C. Hackett, a Grammy Award-winning rock star, sitting at the bar in the Bel-Air mansion of her best friend and sister rocker, Mandy Gilbert. Drifting in and out of the spacious rooms are many on the A-list of talented women in the entertainment world. While bemoaning the state of her recent haircut, L.C. first hears and then meets Sydney Sanders, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has just sung a snippet from one of L.C.’s past hits. After a fleeting moment together, Sydney is lost in the sea of revelers. By the end of the evening the two women meet again, have a brief conversation, and L.C. offers Sydney a place to stay instead of her hotel. From this moment on, the lives and aspirations of these women will intertwine, and they will discover that their personal values and priorities may never be the same again. As these women begin a friendship, it becomes obvious that the seemingly-straight Sydney and the womanizing openly-gay L.C. are destined to have more than a merely uncomplicated platonic relationship. Consequently, as is too often the case, life seldom moves forward without those unexpected and often painful complications. An unscrupulous record producer, a jealous backup singer, dark family secrets, and some startling sexual revelations all conspire to thwart whatever happiness L.C. and Sydney hope to share. Stone began her career working in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and in several respects, this novel reflects that script style of writing. The two main characters, for the most part, are likable, but appear too superficially developed, too hastily drawn to create any real connection between themselves and this reader. They often seem too self-absorbed, too lacking in insight to fully comprehend the events affecting them and their own reactions to those events. Had the author created a more extensive and meaningful narrative, a more realistic plotline could have been achieved, and this in turn could have provided this reader with a more compelling and significant story. Good editing is a must when preparing for publication. Perhaps a stronger editorial role would have avoided some of the shortcomings found in this book. Well crafted dialogue in a novel enhances those who speak it; it imbues those characters with a degree of realism that most readers crave. Much of what Sydney Sanders has to say is either quite trite or embarrassingly naïve, and this is surprising considering the level of accomplishment Sydney has supposedly attained. For the most part, L.C. Hackett believably manages to talk the talk of a once popular rock star. However, at times, her speeches, too, seem to lack credibility; they are rather glib and void of believable emotion, both of which produce a degree of boredom for this reader. Thematically, Stone’s novel attempts to deal with several important issues: abusive partners, fame at all costs, and the realization of love’s power to transcend all obstacles. These are complex issues worthy of careful exploration. This novel, however, tends to gloss over these points in its attempt to be clever and contemporary. If there had been a more substantive treatment of this material, it would most certainly have been a more worthwhile reading experience. Love Letters in the Sand, is a book which provides a few hours of escapist entertainment. It’s easy and light reading which presents a brief glimpse into the often petty world of show business and provides an introduction to a few of the characters who operate in that world. Despite the weaknesses found in this freshman novel, Stone does appear to be a writer with potential. This reader looks forward to her next novel which, hopefully, will reflect a more fully-developed narrative style and a more skillfully woven storyline. |
