The Well-Heeled Murders.By Cherry Hartman.Category. Fiction / Mystery.ISBN. 1883523109.Morgan McRain is not a detective, but certainly she has seen enough episodes of Murder, She Wrote to know the basic routines of searching for clues and deducing the guilty party from a list of suspects.So when the office mate of a colleague is found dead and barefoot on her psychiatric couch--the victim of a very resilient pair of pantyhose--Morgan quickly shifts her therapy practice to the back burner, puts on her imaginary hounds tooth cap and joins the hunt for the murderer, revealing in the process the seamier side of a few licensed professionals.The Well-Heeled Murders could pass for a treatment of a politically-correct MSW script--had Jessica Fletcher been a lesbian with a life partner, daughter, and homosexual "brother-in-law"/nanny.However, the addition of a green detective, Sam Reynolds, with the hots for the male nanny (how convenient!) and a subplot involving the murderer's apparent shoe fetish and a tight-knit groups of swingers, and the story is given a twist of which would incite the envious natures of Aaron Spelling.Morgan, having maintained some degree of civility with members of the exclusive swingers group (so exclusive it doesn't have a name) of which the victim was a member, agrees to assist Sam in tracking the killer, and eventually outshines the detective in both the brawn and brain departments.Hartman makes it clear that this is Morgan's case from the beginning--certain chapters even lend the possibility that Morgan is a bit more determined than the entire Portland, Oregon police force to catch the killer, and that Sam is just around to bounce off dialog and flirt with the brother-in-law.Hartman has the potential of creating an interesting mystery series with the Morgan McRain character--Morgan is witty, sensible, and has the same scrappy, down-to-earth charm that has endeared readers to the likes of Kinsey Millhone and V.I.Warshawski.Supporting characters--Morgan's partner and extended "family"--lend the warmth of a cozy home to which Morgan can regroup and bind any wounds earned from dangerous detecting.Whatever the person's sexual preference, the characters are portrayed as earnest people in a plot that holds up well.Well-Heeled is well-honed.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Book Review-The Well-Heeled Murders
The Well-Heeled Murders.By Cherry Hartman.Category. Fiction / Mystery.ISBN. 1883523109.Morgan McRain is not a detective, but certainly she has seen enough episodes of Murder, She Wrote to know the basic routines of searching for clues and deducing the guilty party from a list of suspects.So when the office mate of a colleague is found dead and barefoot on her psychiatric couch--the victim of a very resilient pair of pantyhose--Morgan quickly shifts her therapy practice to the back burner, puts on her imaginary hounds tooth cap and joins the hunt for the murderer, revealing in the process the seamier side of a few licensed professionals.The Well-Heeled Murders could pass for a treatment of a politically-correct MSW script--had Jessica Fletcher been a lesbian with a life partner, daughter, and homosexual "brother-in-law"/nanny.However, the addition of a green detective, Sam Reynolds, with the hots for the male nanny (how convenient!) and a subplot involving the murderer's apparent shoe fetish and a tight-knit groups of swingers, and the story is given a twist of which would incite the envious natures of Aaron Spelling.Morgan, having maintained some degree of civility with members of the exclusive swingers group (so exclusive it doesn't have a name) of which the victim was a member, agrees to assist Sam in tracking the killer, and eventually outshines the detective in both the brawn and brain departments.Hartman makes it clear that this is Morgan's case from the beginning--certain chapters even lend the possibility that Morgan is a bit more determined than the entire Portland, Oregon police force to catch the killer, and that Sam is just around to bounce off dialog and flirt with the brother-in-law.Hartman has the potential of creating an interesting mystery series with the Morgan McRain character--Morgan is witty, sensible, and has the same scrappy, down-to-earth charm that has endeared readers to the likes of Kinsey Millhone and V.I.Warshawski.Supporting characters--Morgan's partner and extended "family"--lend the warmth of a cozy home to which Morgan can regroup and bind any wounds earned from dangerous detecting.Whatever the person's sexual preference, the characters are portrayed as earnest people in a plot that holds up well.Well-Heeled is well-honed.
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