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ONLY FLESH & BONES, by Sarah Andrews.
Cover copy: A young girl's repressed memory holds the key to solving a murder in Sarah Andrews's terrific new novel featuring geologist Emily - Em - Hansen.
Miriam Menken, wife of oil millionaire J.C. Menken and mother of Cecilia, died suspiciously of a drug overdose, and Cecilia was the only witness. Traumatized for months afterward, Cecilia has blocked out the entire event and has blamed herself both for her mother's death and the fact that the murder is unsolved.
J.C. also happens to be Em's former boss from back in her Denver oil business days, and he bamboozles the unemployed Em into helping him with Cecilia: if Em can unlock the secrets in Cecilia's grief-stricken brain and help her get her life back on track, hell help Em find a job. Em's desperate, so she's hooked.
Em's task is to get Cecilia to recover her memory and her confidence, but she can't help looking into the crime as well. She soon begins to unearth fragments of truth about Miriam's troubled life, including a tortured relationship she had with a shadowy man from her past. Who is he, what power did he have over Miriam, and where is he now?
Once again, Em quickly becomes wrapped up in a complex and dangerous case - and once again, Andrews delivers a winner.
Gender of detective: female
For some reason, reading the cover, I got the idea that Em would be something like, oh, Aaron Elkins' Gideon Oliver. Solving crimes through the power of Rock Science!
Alas, as perhaps I should have guessed from that same cover, no such luck. It isn't about geology. It's only barely about Cecilia, as Em eventually admits. It's really about psychology - Miriam's, and Em's. Especially Em's. Especially how fucked up Em's is, and how she has Issues.
On the one hand, this is part of a series, so perhaps the author believes (and has reason to believe) that the audience already knows and likes Em, so she can get away with this kind of thing. In practice, I'm only turned off ever seeking out anything more by this author. I read mysteries for the mystery, not for the detective's psychological trauma. (It is, in fact, possible to earn my interest in psychological trauma, but it takes more than authorial fiat.) Thumbs down.
*
Six more hours! ...it's very very quiet outside. :peers out the window:
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me!
Cover copy: A young girl's repressed memory holds the key to solving a murder in Sarah Andrews's terrific new novel featuring geologist Emily - Em - Hansen.
Miriam Menken, wife of oil millionaire J.C. Menken and mother of Cecilia, died suspiciously of a drug overdose, and Cecilia was the only witness. Traumatized for months afterward, Cecilia has blocked out the entire event and has blamed herself both for her mother's death and the fact that the murder is unsolved.
J.C. also happens to be Em's former boss from back in her Denver oil business days, and he bamboozles the unemployed Em into helping him with Cecilia: if Em can unlock the secrets in Cecilia's grief-stricken brain and help her get her life back on track, hell help Em find a job. Em's desperate, so she's hooked.
Em's task is to get Cecilia to recover her memory and her confidence, but she can't help looking into the crime as well. She soon begins to unearth fragments of truth about Miriam's troubled life, including a tortured relationship she had with a shadowy man from her past. Who is he, what power did he have over Miriam, and where is he now?
Once again, Em quickly becomes wrapped up in a complex and dangerous case - and once again, Andrews delivers a winner.
Gender of detective: female
For some reason, reading the cover, I got the idea that Em would be something like, oh, Aaron Elkins' Gideon Oliver. Solving crimes through the power of Rock Science!
Alas, as perhaps I should have guessed from that same cover, no such luck. It isn't about geology. It's only barely about Cecilia, as Em eventually admits. It's really about psychology - Miriam's, and Em's. Especially Em's. Especially how fucked up Em's is, and how she has Issues.
On the one hand, this is part of a series, so perhaps the author believes (and has reason to believe) that the audience already knows and likes Em, so she can get away with this kind of thing. In practice, I'm only turned off ever seeking out anything more by this author. I read mysteries for the mystery, not for the detective's psychological trauma. (It is, in fact, possible to earn my interest in psychological trauma, but it takes more than authorial fiat.) Thumbs down.
*
Six more hours! ...it's very very quiet outside. :peers out the window:
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me!