Written in Blood
A Forensic
Handwriting Mystery with Claudia Rose
Sheila
Lowe
Obsidian (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-22487-6 (0451224876)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22487-3 (9780451224873)
Publication Date: September 2008
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Hollywood forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose is
about to prove once more that no matter what words it forms, a pen will
always write the truth.
Claudia's latest client is a dime-a-dozen type. The widow of a rich,
older man, Paige Sorensen is younger than -- and hated by -- her
stepchildren. And they’re dead set on proving that she forged
their father’s signature on his will, which left his entire
estate, including the Sorensen Academy for Girls, to her.
Claudia admits she’s intrigued by this real-life soap opera, and
breaks her first rule: never get personally involved. But she’s
grown attached to a troubled Sorensen student -- and when disaster
strikes, she’ll realize that reading between the lines can mean
the difference between life and death.
Review: A novel
that starts with all of the trappings of a cosy, Written in Blood soon escalates
into a captivating story with tinges of noir and episodes of abduction,
human trafficking, car chases and, of course, murder most foul.
It’s an exhilarating ride well worth the taking.
A handwriting expert herself in her day job, Sheila Lowe treads the
fine line between lecturing about forensic graphology and using her
knowledge to capture and hold the reader’s interest as her
amateur sleuth, Claudia Rose, is hired as an expert witness to prove or
discredit the authenticity of a signature on a will. It’s a
complicated challenge since her employer, Paige Sorensen, is the widow
of 73-year-old Torg Sorensen who died of a mysterious heart attack, was
“at least twice Paige’s age,” and left a hen
scratching of a signature for Claudia to decipher at a hearing where
her hated handwriting rival opposes her testimony, leaving her feeling
as if “a herd of butterflies in elephant boots danced the
tarantella in her stomach.” Even the trial has its moments of
gripping tension over who will win and what will happen afterwards as
elements of the family rivalry between Paige and her three adult
step-children are introduced with the two older ones hating her with a
passion and the youngest wheelchair-bound male madly infatuated with
her. With that mix the reader just knows something bad is bound to
happen and it does.
Paige, as Claudia discovers, is no angel even though she is the
headmistress at Sorensen Academy and truly concerned about a rebellious
14-year-old student, Annabelle Giordano, the daughter of a local
gangster whom the teen-aged girl is convinced is a murderer and a
would-be rapist. Claudia, against her better sense, develops a
friendship of sorts with Paige and a mentoring relationship with
Annabelle when she initiates a three-month remedial graphotherapy
program for the troubled teenager. But when Claudia discovers that both
Paige and Annabelle are interested in the school’s athletic
director Cruz Montenegro, one with a schoolgirl crush, the other with a
passion for rough sex, she realizes there’s more than forensic
graphology at play. And then, when both the headmistress and the
jealous teen-ager with her vow “to get that skanky slut”
disappear, Claudia begins a search that uncovers the corpse of one and
takes her in pursuit of the other from their hometown Los Angeles to
Las Vegas with mysteries and surprises galore before the story
concludes with an abduction, revelations about foreign children’s
kidnappings, a hair-raising car chase, rough justice for a murderer and
accomplice, and a parental reconciliation of a father and daughter that
would do Hollywood proud.
Besides doing a bang-up job with the storyline, Lowe handles the
settings, atmosphere and characterization equally well. Her sexpot
friend, Kelly, adds some relief to the serious tone of the main plot
and her mentor, forensic psychologist Zebediah Gold is a stalwart
friend as well. This time around her live-in lover, Joel Jovanic, a
detective with the LAPD, appears as more of a cameo character
travelling back and forth on cases of his own, but he’s always in
the background and shows up when Claudia needs him most. Similarly,
Claudia’s likeable teenage niece serves as a useful conduit for
information between Annabelle and “Aunty C.” Annabelle,
Paige and Cruz are believable types too, one as the angst-ridden
teenager, the other as the bereaved widow looking for love and justice,
and the third as a support for both of them, but for one in a totally
surprising way. The Sorensen brood very competently play out their
roles in opposition as does the hated handwriting expert and a school
financial officer with eyes for more than just Paige’s money.
“The Moving Finger writes and having writ, Moves on..., “
the poet Omar Khyam said. Hopefully, author Sheila Lowe having written
a couple of great stories about forensic handwriting expert, Claudia
Rose, will move on to write a few more.
Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Written in Blood and to Penguin Group for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Written in Blood? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Poison
Pen
Signet (Mass Market Paperback), April 2008
ISBN-10: 0-451-22369-1 (0451223691)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22369-2 (9780451223692)
Written in Blood
Obsidian (Mass Market Paperback), September 2008
ISBN-10: 0-451-22487-6 (0451224876)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22487-3 (9780451224873)
Dead Write
Obsidian (Mass Market Paperback), August 2009
ISBN-10: 0-451-22812-X (045122812X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22812-3 (9780451228123)
Omnimystery keywords for Written in Blood ...
Location(s) referenced: Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
