First Lady

Pickeed this one up at a library sale because I remember liking Uncivil Seasons quite a bit. This is a murder mystery involving a serial killer in the town of Hillston, North Carolina. It's very well done; the characters are engaging and pull you in, though I spotted the killer a good 75 pages before the cops did. Still, the book was quite enjoyable.

I've found that many times in books when a character is a big music star, things somehow ring false; maybe the character doesn't fit in, or the tie to the rest of the characters doesn't work, or the portrayal of huge fame is off. In this case, one of the characters is an Irish singer who is very huge, and is in Hillston for a concert. Erratic, she's known for missing some shows. Her show more involvement with the book's main character is maybe a bit unbelievable, but the rest of her portray is good. I like this bit: "she offered the most intimate privacy while at the same time promising, through every gliding catch, every strange modulation o fkey, such large and intense feeling that the sound of her voice was ike a great drum beating out not just her own heart's pulse but everyone else's too." show less

Other than the tease in the title, this is a great mystery. One is tempted to forgive the slowness with which the brain trust finally turned the investigation on to the right course because of he very many twists, often red herring types, that arouse interest and then dry up. The moral resurrection of the principle character is a little too pat but one that brings satisfaction to the reader. I'm going to read more of Mr. Malone's works.

Reading his Justin & Cuddy novels is like eating buttered popcorn.