Barbara Rogan

Jo Donovan, widowed young and taking over a literary agency from her mentor, has made a good life. She's terrific at what she does, and doesn't see many changes on the horizon. One night, she is accosted by a wanna-be author whose manuscript Jo's agency turned down. Soon, there are attacks against her business and even her clients. Suspicions are cast among the people at the agency and the police even wonder if Jo didn't have too much to gain when the attacks turn deadly.

In Barbara Rogan's show more smashing new thriller, Jo will have to look clearly at her colleagues, herself and her past if she's going to see it through.

Every aspect of A DANGEROUS FICTION works together and works so wonderfully well. Rogan's experience as a literary agent provides a fascinating look at how the business works. The hopes and dreams of writers are balanced against the realities of publishing. The personal life of the widow of a literary giant such as Jo and her pursuit by a biographer are played against each other well, and serve the story's marvelously realized journey of its protagonist. Anyone interested in a picture of how publishing works will be fascinated by the inner workings. As someone who once read unsolicited manuscripts for a mystery house, I can certainly attest to the quality of so many submissions in the scenes addressing this. Rogan's love of good books also shines through.

Jo is an interesting character who came up from nothing the hard way. That she didn't let her austere, loveless upbringing warp her is part of the reason the entire novel works so well. She is strong but not perfect (and the explanation of a "Mary Sue" character created by a fictional writer shows just how well Jo is developed). Her colleagues and writers are fascinating to watch. There are easily more heroes than suspects, and to have a strongly written novel in which so many characters are shown to be good-hearted is a pleasure to read.

And, while it may not be the most important part of the story to many, setting is strongly evoked throughout the novel. The bustle of Manhattan, the glory of a farmhouse, the entrancing Santa Fe are all portrayed in their best light. It's a treat to read a story in which it's so easy to picture the characters where they are.

Just make certain you have time set aside when you start A DANGEROUS FICTION because this fast-paced novel is the kind you don't want to put down until the last page is read. show less

Jo Donovan is no stranger to adversity. Her parents died when she was very young and she was then raised by her somewhat strict and not very loving grandmother. She survived her childhood and graduated from a good college before joining the literary world in New York City. As a young adult, she met and then married a world famous (and somewhat infamous) author, Hugo Donovan. Now that Hugo has died, she's back in New York and the owner operator of a literary agency. Although still mourning show more the loss of her husband, she is striving to make her life meaningful with work and friends. But then a stalker turns up and clients are being murdered. Who knew the literary world was so cutthroat?

Jo's agency suffers when her private files are hacked and her clients are spammed. Jo also has to deal with a would-be author-turned stalker that presumes she is his muse. If that isn’t bad enough, she must also deal with internal enmity from one of her agents. Thankfully Jo has her mentor and former agency owner to advise her, along with a former FBI profiler that is a now an author, client and friend. Oops, almost forgot that she must also deal with a well-known biographer writing her husband's biography and digging into his past including their marriage. To add to the tension, Jo's former summer boyfriend is the police detective assigned to her case.

A Dangerous Fiction is a fast-paced read that provides drama, murders, hints of romance and a lot of suspense. The characters are all well-developed and realistic, and the action is very plausible. Now having said that, the only character I thought had a few problems was Jo. Jo seems to have idealized her marriage and husband and was blind to the reality of her marriage. It is possible that this is due to the fact her husband was older and she married at a relatively young age. It seemed to me that there were moments when she just seemed a little too naive. This in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story. I have read and enjoyed previous works by Ms. Rogan and A Dangerous Fiction was no exception. I look forward to reading more in this series. show less

"In the well-ordered world of fiction, murder and mayhem never arrive unheralded. For as long as men have told tales, disaster has been foreshadowed by omens and signs. But if there were portents the day my troubles began, I never saw them."

Successfully running a publishing firm, Jo Donovan's life seems to be coming together again after the shock of the death of her husband. When a would-be client starts stalking her, she starts to see ominous shadows everywhere. Then someone close to her show more dies in suspicious circumstances, and Jo herself becomes a suspect.

It's been a few months since I read this one so I'm struggling to remember all the details, but it was very enjoyable. For a start, I didn't figure out who the baddie was at all - massive surprise at the end. And the way that Jo's security was taken away, step by step, was quite... not chilling, but obviously devastating for Jo.

The cast size is just about right. Rogan develops 5-6 characters enough that they could all be suspects and that Jo has thorough interactions with them, without any of them feeling like they take over the story. There are some cute bit-part characters too. I loved the ex-Marine with the guard dog.

It's all set in New York and is very New York, though not as totally New York as a couple of other books I read later in the year (particularly Let The Great World Spin and My Salinger Year).

Definitely worth a read - it's a quick thriller, but with a fun literary setting and pretty well done. show less

After reading in the St. John's alumni magazine that Barbara Rogan (we overlapped a year) writes mysteries, I bought one to see if I liked it. I did. It starts slowly and has too many characters which are difficult to sort out in the beginning, but it picks up steam about a third of the way through. I did figure out the killer about two thirds of the way, but never figured out half of the surprising ending.

Recommended for curious Johnnies and anyone else who likes a good read. I'll be show more looking for more of Barbara's books. show less