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SIX STROKES UNDER
by Roberta Isleib
Berkley Prime Crime, June 2002
260 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0425185222


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Cassandra (Cassie) Burdette has moved up from caddying on the PGA tour to Qualifying School for the LPGA Tour. She has the support of her boss and her caddy/best friend, and her sort-of boyfriend who is playing golf in some Japanese tour. Her mother keeps high-lighting totally inappropriate help-wanted ads and placing them in Cassie's line of sight. Her step-dad doesn't consider golfing to be a "real job", either. Ehough stress for you? Well, apparently not for Cassie.

One of the other players in Q-School is also from Myrtle Beach. Kaitlin Rupert: "Nothing out of a bottle could have produced the same golden shimmer. She took an easy practice swing and held the finish, showcasing long tanned legs and conical breasts with the dark outline of her nipples showing plainly through her shirt. Barbie Goes to the Driving Range." She's bitchy, too. There may be reasons for that. Kaitlin has recently named her father in a repressed memory sexual abuse case. Her father is the local football coach, with all the connotations inherent in that position in the South. Her charges have caused some dissention in her family and in the community.

Cassie is seeing a therapist for post-traumatic stress disorder (having to do with a golf-related injury); her shrink shares an office with Kaitlin's therapist, Dr. Bencher. Cassie has the dubious honor of finding Dr. Bencher almost dead, shot through the throat. He dies while Cassie is in the room. For some reason, which is never made really clear, Cassie is suspected of killing him.

Off she goes to Q-School, under suspicion of murder. The pressure at Q-School is, in theory, very high. Cassie talks a lot about the pressure, but doesn't seem to be as concerned about her performance as one might expect. She makes the cut at the half-way point, but only because the leader, So Won Lee, is disqualified for having an illegal club in her bag. The last time Cassie saw this club, Kaitlin had it. Did someone confuse Kaitlin's golf bag with that of So Won Lee? Did Kaitlin put it in So Won Lee's bag? That question is never answered, at least in part because shortly after the disqualification of Ms. Lee, Kaitlin is killed with the same illegal club. Again, Cassie is suspected of the crime.

Cassie does eventually figure out who the killer is. Most readers will figure it out long before she does, assuming they care enough to make the effort. I was not impressed with this book. Cassie doesn't seem to be highly motivated as a golfer. She has "issues" about her father, her self-esteem, and the men in her life; I didn't care enough about Cassie to want to know if they get resolved. The golf in the book is mildly interesting, at least to a non-golfer like myself. The glossary in the front of the book was helpful. If someone were to ask me to recommend a golfing mystery, this is not one that would come to mind.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, November 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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