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Summer and Fall Reading Ruth’s Suggestion:
Ah, it’s time for the beach, the campfire or even my own personal favorite vacation spot, the Hilton (I do love my amenities). A time to let go of the plunging DOW, idiots starting fires, escalating violence, and those ten pounds you can’t seem to shed. It’s time to relax and capture a moment in time that belongs just to you. If you’re a reader I have a suggestion for you. Val McDermid. Very few writers have the ability to carry their reader away on the tide of their story-telling. Of those authors even fewer deliver the complete package of a satisfying read. How many times have you read a book, turning pages faster than Evelyn Wood and realized at the end a great story wasn’t really very well written or a well written story never really went anywhere?
Then there are the BAD endings. You know what I’m talking about. Time for only the two books or three read without the distraction of life or the “reader’s hangover” all of us have experienced after staying up way too late finishing the latest offering by our personal favorite . Val McDermid. The Complete Package. The Books? Anything the lady has written to date. Easily available this summer to the American reader are the first two installments of her Tony Hill/Carol Jordan series. THE MERMAIDS SINGING and THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD are both out in paperback. Both are Police Procedurals that go far beyond the ordinary and carry you to a place where you can be rescued from the suspense and evil of the proceedings only by closing the book for a minute and digesting what you’ve read. Spotlighting modern forensics as a tool for solving the truly heinous these books are superior to almost all others out there and shouldn’t be missed by a Jeffery Deaver or C.S.I. fan amongst us. Val McDermid-remember the name. The Author? Ms. McDermid has for the last decade been considered amongst her peers and the readers able to get a hold of her books one of Mystery’s premiere scribes. Author of the Lindsay Gordan and Kate Brannigan books Ms. McDermid introduced Hill and Jordan in 1997. With the release of A PLACE OF EXECUTION (a stand alone) in 2001 American readers sat up and took notice.
This book went on to win both the MacAvity and Anthony awards for best novel of the
year and short listed on every other Vacation long over, kids in school, the next episode of terrible news in the headlines you’ll see McDermid’s book on the shelf, buy it and be able to capture for a moment those five days this summer that were yours. So suntan lotion with a 30 SPF, a guide book and McDermid. You’re packed. Off with you and have a great time. Ruth
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In a world as busy as the one we now live in nobody wants that to happen to them when they have only
that five days a year that are truly their own.
award list in Mysterydom. It is a must read for any genre fan. With last fall’s KILLING THE SHADOW
Ms. McDermid cemented her relationship with the American reader. Called by the New York Time’s
Book Review “the best mystery author”, McDermid tells a tale of Thriller writers being offed by
a serial killer. A great book with a narrative that explores the culpability of those who write in
the genre and manages to catch the style and nuances of many of her fellow authors it is also a
terrific book on the cover to cover scale. For the lady has that complete package. Tell a great
story, develop compelling characters, and give the reader many things to think about beyond the
story long after the book has been put away on a handy shelf for the second read. Coming to America
in September THE LAST TEMPTATION a Tony Hill/ Carol Jordan book.