Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
The Silly Season
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Susan Holtzer
Class/Genre: Mystery Woman Main Character Amateur Sleuth
Series: Anneke Haagen # 5
St. Martin's, Feb 1999, $22.95, 261 pp.
When student-news reporter Zoe Kaplan observed the UFO flying over the 106,000 capacity University of Michigan stadium, she assumed a hoax was being perpetrated. Zoe soon learns that she was not alone as numerous individuals from all the various walks of life that make up Ann Arbor claim the same sighting. Soon, an army of ufologists and reporters, rivaling Woody Hayes and his Ohio State football team "visiting" that college to the North, invade the city.
Surprisingly, the UFOers disagree on the sighting. For instance, believer Professor Stempel thinks this sighting is a fake intended to destroy his own research. Others believe the professor is the culprit. Another group feels an alien war is about to begin. Trying to keep order amidst the fractured alien experts is law enforcement official Karl Genesko, whose fiancee Anneke Haagen loves every squirming minute of his assignment. However, the jocularity ends when someone, perhaps a malevolent ET, fries Stempel. Karl, with Anneke’s help, begins to unravel what seems to be a universe worth of suspects in an attempt to weed out the identity of the killer.
THE SILLY SEASON lives up to its title as it is an inane, but absolutely jocular who-done-it. The story line is loaded with weird circular thinking from ufologists, professors, and reporters, so much so that Mr. Spock would suffer from a nervous breakdown. However, in the hands of Susan Holtzer, the plot becomes a lighthearted satire, spoofing the alien invasion, and the media and public who love and support it. Susan Holtzer takes pleasure in debunking the UFO crowd (see the 1966 sighting -- not the MSU-ND 10-10 tie) and the media frenzy that follows them within her witty and humorous tale.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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