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SEE ISABELLE RUN
by Elizabeth Bloom
Mysterious Press, March 2005
272 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0892967854


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

There's a condition among reviewers, I think, that imitates burn-out, when you read a mystery and you just know what's going to happen. I don't think it's necessarily the writer, or the editor, it's just when you read a genre, you get familiar with the formulas and you can pretty much guess things.

I cannot tell if I liked SEE ISABELLE RUN, or if I hated SEE ISABELLE RUN. I can't even decide what sort of review to write about it. I have determined two things; the first is that there's such a thing as a 'starter mystery' for readers, especially young-ish readers new to the genre, who might not want serious, heavy reading but who might enjoy crime fiction. This might be the sort of mystery equivalent of (shudder) chick lit (oh, do I detest the phrase).

Even though a murder happens, it's very off-stage and doesn't really affect you; even though the amateur sleuth solves the mystery, she sorta does so by accident, after getting everything wrong and making lots of wrong assumptions because, well, she's not a cop and she's young and she's sorta naïve . . .

I don't know, this is all supposition. But I sure have encountered several examples of extreme naivete on the part of mystery protagonists lately.

Oh yeah, that second thing I have determined. . . I have a new pet peeve in mystery fiction: I no longer want to hear any protagonist express the opinion that "solving a crime should be simple; after all they do it in 48 minutes every week on Law & Order or NYPD Blue." If you believe that television dramas portray reality, get help. Okay?

And naivete is not especially charming, or for me even believable. Sure, I was 25 once or 21 or whatever and I swear I never once acted as these young women did. You get a job without applying. Hmmm. And you don't ask to see a list of duties, or for someone to explain how, or what it is you're supposed to do? You're not the teensiest bit curious? You spend days working for a total flat-out bozo airhead and it's okay?

Then too, maybe I grew up in a sophisticated family in a sophisticated way although I doubt it. But New York City, oh, wow. And she wants to go to Coney Island and ride the Circle Line? Okay, okay, sure that's very cute (I guess) but she's a college graduate. Couldn't she just once express interest in spending oh, I dunno, an hour at MOMA? Or the Guggenheim? Or even the Met? Or just wander around Lincoln Center to see the cool stuff? Or, something that shows a smidgen of originality?

Yeah, I did see the Rockettes on visits to Manhattan, when I was, what, 12? And yes, we saw Rockefeller Center and in around November and December with the folks skating and the lights and the trees. But when I was Isabelle's age and had four days to myself in New York, I went to museums and even a dance performance, as well as walking the streets and staring around at all the cool stuff. Okay, so we have different tastes but, but . . .

So someone tell me why I read this book. You there, with your hand up in the back? Because it's sort of cute? Yeah, it is. It's the story of a young woman who was famously stood up at the altar. She gets a job with a television/magazine empire that sort of mushes together Martha Stewart and Oprah and she learns that lots of people who work there seem to be dying. But it's a big company. And she's befriended by Trevor, who deserved a much bigger part in this book, I think; he's the most real and sympathetic and funny dude here.

But I knew exactly why the crimes were committed within a few pages of realizing there were several deaths. And I knew how it would end. And I have to admit, while I am not a fan of gory death, on-stage murder, ickiness, I found the murders that did take place in this book to be vaguely distant; I didn't mind, they didn't touch me. Though I can't quite figure out why not.

By the way author Bloom is also author Beth Saulnier, who's written several other mysteries. I admit that I don't know her stuff, having only tried one short story in an anthology and finding it very disappointing. That was a while back, and I suppose it's only fair to try this author again. I can't decide. As I say, a 'starter mystery.'

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, January 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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