Here’s a few of my current favorites:
- Donna White Glaser: The Enemy Within
I read Donna White Glaser’s The Enemy We Know with great pleasure. The cover with its bloody knife stood out, particularly the circle with A Letty Whittaker Mystery and the words 12 Step within the triangle, within the circle. Any Twelve-Stepper, and there are millions, recognize the symbol of the Anonymous programs.
Letty Whittaker, and her creator, are psychotherapists working in a counseling clinic in northern Wisconsin. The reader roots for Letty from the beginning. She’s new in sobriety and she’s raw, and maybe not thinking straight. The murder in her clinic falls too close for comfort and pushes her into amateur sleuth situations where both her safety and her sobriety are threatened. Suspense mounts and then explodes.
The depictions of AA life, the way the clinic functions and the therapists interact, feels satisfyingly authentic. Yes, they do take confidentiality seriously–and that’s a real handicap for Letty as she pursues the killer.
The last quarter of the book was a little long as Letty questions herself and her logic–and illogic–in figuring out the murders. Nonetheless, when you like the character and you’re caught up in the story, maybe it’s not a bad thing to linger a bit and not race to the finish.
Julie Dolcemaschio – Testarossa
Julie’s debut mystery takes place in Venice, California, a place close to my heart. She writes very convincingly about the politics of the LAPD and the relationships between partners. Also, for a hard-boiled mystery she writes a good, sexy romance.
- Susan Goldstein: Hollywood Forever
Susan lets you know she’s a Beverly Hills divorce attorney and very good at it. I believe her. We met at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Santa Fe this year and have become friends. I liked Hollywood Forever a lot. The story pulls you right along with the spoiled and pampered lead character who comes into her own solving a murder that casts a shadow over her. It’s lighter than the other two I’ve mentioned, and funny, but it’s never fluffy.