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MURDER OF A BARBIE AND KEN
by Denise Swanson
Signet, November 2003
272 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 0451210727


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

MURDER OF A BARBIE AND KEN is the fifth book in Denise Swanson's cozy series featuring school psychologist Skye Denison solving mysteries in Scumble River, Illinois, but the first that I have read.

Skye's boyfriend Simon has somewhat reluctantly joined the Grand Union of the Mighty Bulls, or GUMBs, to network with some local bigwigs, and Skye has thus been roped in to the female arm, the Gumbettes. It's not long before she is invited to the home of leading GUMBs Barbie and Ken Addison, to a demonstration of Instant Gourmet, a ready meal product being marketed by Barbie. Unable to get away without ordering some, Skye returns a few days later to collect her meals, only to stumble across the freshly murdered couple.

With the help of Simon, and old friend Wally, the local chief of police, Skye tries to find out what happened and who had motives for the killings. Making matters a lot worse, Simon's delinquent mother Bunny arrives in Scumble River and the snow descends. With the roads closed and the hotel full, Skye has a lively and unwanted house guest, and Simon, who was abandoned by Bunny as a child, wants nothing to with it.

Skye worked in Chicago for many years before returning to her small hometown of Scumble River and this leads her to take a slightly detached view of what is happening around her. She is obviously intelligent and very likeable, which makes her story a pleasure to read. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Simon, has a ring of authenticity about it, although this was marred for me by the revelation that they are trying to keep it secret from everyone. As two mature single people, even with the possibility of small town gossip asserted as the reason, this doesn't feel convincing or in character to me. But perhaps reasons for it are given in a previous book in the series.

The other slight problem I had with the book was that the police seem far too willing to hand over this major case to Skye, and just report back the odd piece of scientific evidence. I know this is a common criticism of amateur sleuth series, and it's one I'm not normally too bothered by, but it is taken just a little too far for me in this novel. In fact, it wasn't so much the plot that I found difficult in this regard, as how some of the characters pander to Skye on a couple of occasions.

Despite these minor criticisms, I liked the characters a lot, and Bunny in particular is great fun. The plot was sufficiently complex to keep me interested and guessing right up to the end, and the snowy setting added atmosphere.

All in all, this is an enjoyable read; a good cozy novel to read on a winter afternoon. I hope to go back to the start of the series and read MURDER OF SMALL TOWN HONEY sometime, as I expect that and the subsequent books in the series will fill in a few gaps.

Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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