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FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW
by Susan Slater
Poisoned Pen Press, January 2004
254 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590581040


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

From the typographical errors on the jacket, this one has problems for me. Author Susan Slater has written several good crime novels. This isn't one of them. On the other hand, if you don't mind plot holes that defy logic, the occasional coincidence and a female protagonist who seems to lose control of her emotions on almost every page, this one may be right up your alley.

The premise is interesting and there are some humorous lines in the book. A couple of the characters are truly interesting. Pauly Caton's randy grandmother owns a carnival. When her granddaughter gets married, she offers the couple a hot-air balloon ride. Pauly, however is afraid of heights, doesn't go along, and thus witnesses the murder of the balloon pilot, the subsequent crash and death of her husband and is right there when a strange child, unhurt, leaps from the crashed gondola and runs into the brush. This book takes place somewhere in New Mexico.

Detectives arrive. They appear never to have dealt with a murder before. They are inept, make several mistakes and waver between instant infatuation for the principal suspect, Pauly, and hard-nosed, loud-shouting detective work. With no help from the cops, Pauly is forced into several situations which are both dangerous and humorous. In the midst of the investigation, Pauly goes off with her grandmother's carnival to play a border town. Here's a marvelous opportunity for some ethnic and special circumstantial writing, sadly missed.

As the bad guys rise and fall -- and there are several -- Pauly ducks, bobs, wrings her hands and weaves her way out of several situations most women would have known better than to get into in the first place. But she is ultimately saved by the man of her dreams and everyone goes home happy. Except possibly readers who expect and deserve more.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, June 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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