SUMMARY: When Benni finds a dead woman lying facedown in the lake, dressed in a Mother Goose costume, her investigation takes her inside the Storyteller's Guild.There she discovers that Mother Goose was telling more than fairy tales -- she was a gossip columnist who aired the kind of secrets that destroy lives -- and inspire revenge...
From
Benni Harper finds a local storyteller's body in the lake in the fourth mystery of this series. Benni has recently married the handsome Latino police chief; the murder comes just before a storytelling festival she has organized. Further complications include the arrival of assorted, unmatched relatives who stay for dinner and beyond; tensions between rabid environmentalists and locals; and the emotional bumps and whorls of Benni's second marriage. The dialogue is often engaging, and the local California color more so, but the plot is full--perhaps overfull--of hot buttons. There are the storytelling and quilting references (each of Fowler's books has a quilt pattern as its title) as well as plotlines that include a homeless person, lost computer files, unbiquitous coffeehouses, spouse abuse, an unfavorable comparison to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the local library, and a reference librarian. The most fully realized characters are two minor but crucial ones: Benni's redoubtable grandmother, Dove, and her newly met stepson, Sam. Pleasant enough. GraceAnne DeCandido
Description:
SUMMARY:
When Benni finds a dead woman lying facedown in the lake, dressed in a Mother Goose costume, her investigation takes her inside the Storyteller's Guild.There she discovers that Mother Goose was telling more than fairy tales -- she was a gossip columnist who aired the kind of secrets that destroy lives -- and inspire revenge...
From
Benni Harper finds a local storyteller's body in the lake in the fourth mystery of this series. Benni has recently married the handsome Latino police chief; the murder comes just before a storytelling festival she has organized. Further complications include the arrival of assorted, unmatched relatives who stay for dinner and beyond; tensions between rabid environmentalists and locals; and the emotional bumps and whorls of Benni's second marriage. The dialogue is often engaging, and the local California color more so, but the plot is full--perhaps overfull--of hot buttons. There are the storytelling and quilting references (each of Fowler's books has a quilt pattern as its title) as well as plotlines that include a homeless person, lost computer files, unbiquitous coffeehouses, spouse abuse, an unfavorable comparison to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the local library, and a reference librarian. The most fully realized characters are two minor but crucial ones: Benni's redoubtable grandmother, Dove, and her newly met stepson, Sam. Pleasant enough. GraceAnne DeCandido
From Kirkus Reviews
A fourth appearance for Benni Harper (Kansas Troubles, 1996, etc.), curator of the Folk Art Museum in San Celina, California- -recently married to the town's Chief of Police Gabe Ortiz--who's now deep in preparations for the museum's first storytelling festival, to be combined with a show of handmade quilts. It's Benni's misfortune to discover the murdered body of Nora Cooper, a storyteller at the local library. Nora's brother Nick is head reference librarian there, under director Jillian Sinclair, a niece of the library's chief benefactor, Constance Sinclair. Nora, meanwhile, was involved in a bitter divorce settlement with soon- to-be-ex-husband Roy, who lives with girlfriend Grace Winter, a stableowner. They're Gabe's prime suspects until it's revealed that Nora was the author of the Tattler, an unsigned scandal-mongering column in the town's newspaper. It seems both library and museum staffs are chock-full of people with nasty secrets Nora was busy unearthing. Gabe works hard to restrain Benni's rampant investigating instincts--with good reason, as it turns out in the out-of-left-field, unsatisfying denouement. Much time is spent on Gabe and Benni's cluttered domestic life as they play reluctant hosts to Gabe's troubled son Sam, Benni's beloved but trying grandmother Dove and flighty cousin Rita--a setup as overpopulated, artificial, and unconvincing as the murder mystery. Quilters and storytelling enthusiasts may find some joy here; others will find this one heavy on chitchat but low on substance. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.