Angel Food and Devil Dogs
A Maggie
Gale Mystery
Liz
Bradbury
Boudica Publishing (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-9800549-1-5 (0980054915)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9800549-1-0 (9780980054910)
Publication Date: May 2008
List Price: $14.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): As private detective Maggie Gale works to prove the innocence of a mentally challenged pinball wizard who's been arrested for murder, she is called to college president Max Bouchet's office to discuss the suspicious suicide of a gay professor. There, Maggie shakes hands with the attractive Dr. Kathryn Anthony, who smiles at her with a faint but unmistakable touch of lust. Maggie is hired and meets a collection of quirky suspects, one of whom might just be a murderer. Maggie's humorous and caring friends and family support her as she works against escalating danger, and toward escalating romantic encounters with Kathryn. Will Maggie untangle both mysteries? Will the sexual tension swirling around Maggie and Kathryn pull them together? Or will the murderer target Maggie before she gets either chance?
Review: Liz
Bradbury introduces former police officer, now private investigator
Maggie Gale as she looks into the suspicious suicide of a college
professor in Angel Food and Devil
Dogs.
Dr. Carl Rasmus, a blind music history professor at the local college,
killed himself by jumping over a balcony from the top of a 6-story
building. He left a suicide note indicating his intention, and the
police are satisfied with closing the case. But the college's new
president, Dr. Max Bouchet, isn't convinced. He hires Maggie to look
more closely into the circumstances surrounding his suicide. Maggie
tends to agree with Bouchet's assessment. When she visits the
building's rooftop, she ponders, "How did he even know there was a
balcony? Where did he get the key [to the locked French doors]? How did
he know there wasn't a huge awning under the balcony that would break
his fall? The whole thing seemed implausible. Killing a blind man
wouldn't have been that hard to do ... but Carl had left a suicide note
in a locked room ... and that I couldn't explain."
Angel Food and Devil Dogs
has basically a locked room, impossible crime scenario, always a
promising premise for a mystery. And for the most part, the story
delivers on that promise. Maggie Gale is a multi-dimensional character
who takes her job and her relationships seriously. Being a former cop,
she understands the investigative process and she steps right in when a
life is in jeopardy, endangering herself as well. Her developing
relationship with a college faculty member, Dr. Kathryn Anthony, is
sweetly told, and even better for the book, is an integral part of the
mystery. The clues to the explanation behind Rasmus' suicide are
peppered throughout, and Maggie cleverly pieces them together to
discover the who, how, and why. All well and good.
A few things don't work, however. The opening investigation involving
Mickey is a distraction, sets the wrong tone for the book, and really
has no place in the story. The dialog is frequently stilted and the
narrative at times uneven. A more critical eye towards editing would
have helped here. But most disappointing is the inclusion of homophobia
into the story. It seems every gay or lesbian novelist seems obliged to
have one or more homophobic characters, or to make homophobia the
motive for a crime. It's a tired and overworked cliché for this
genre. Angel Food and Devil Dogs
is a strong enough mystery, with a compelling well-developed plot and
sufficiently interesting suspects with credible motives, that the
homophobic references in the end are not only unnecessary, they
actually weaken the book. The author should have had more confidence in
her story, and her readers, and omitted them.
Special thanks to Boudica Publishing for providing an ARC of Angel Food and Devil Dogs for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
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Mysteries in this series ...
Angel Food and Devil Dogs
Boudica Publishing (Trade Paperback), May 2008
ISBN-10: 0-9800549-1-5 (0980054915)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9800549-1-0 (9780980054910)
Omnimystery keywords for Angel Food and Devil Dogs ...
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