Helpful votes received on reviews:
80% (4 of 5)
Location: Traverse City, MI USA
In My Own Words:
I live in a Northern Michigan cabin in the woods, with a yard for of trees and wild turkeys and deer. My training is as a writer and classical musician, but in the last few years I have begun playing folk music: I play hurdy gurdy and pennywhistle. I retired from My Day Job is as an association manager, but as a consultant I travel to Eastern Europe and Russia to work with emerging economies. I … Read moreI live in a Northern Michigan cabin in the woods, with a yard for of trees and wild turkeys and deer. My training is as a writer and classical musician, but in the last few years I have begun playing folk music: I play hurdy gurdy and pennywhistle.
I retired from My Day Job is as an association manager, but as a consultant I travel to Eastern Europe and Russia to work with emerging economies.
I have two cats of dubious parentage and a Portuguese Water Dog, and a van-camper. A hurdy gurdy playing woman in a van, camping with her black dog and reading mystery novels by flashlight?
That's me.
|
|
Reviews
|
One of the reasons I enjoy reading mysteries is for the background: the settings, the characters, the specialized information. But even the quaint setting of "Painted Lady" couldn't save this book: the writing is amateurish, the plot mechanisms unbelievable, and the background filled with every novice trick imaginable. Lest I sound too harsh, consider paper with a watermark that coincidently assumes the shape of a murdered woman when wet--that's the crux of the mystery here. And then there are ghosts, which obediently appear during a seance and drop clues. There are the shallow characters, as well: the college professor who will poison and murder to get job security, but who… Read more
|
|
|
"Stick Game" and these reviews caused me to think about why I enjoy mysteries so much. Because the pure fact of the matter is, one reviewer is right: this is a mystery lacking in traditional plot and character development that I often praise in my other reviews (and have been critical when these elements are absent). But you know, all the way through this book I didn't care! Why? Because there is a stunning use of background, wit, and message. I was caught up in the pollution issue, the life of the Metis people, and the Robert Parker-like spare prose and dialogue. This book left me energised politically and intellectually, and aware of having experienced a thoroughly enjoyable… Read more
|
|
|
Nicholas Sparks' "The Guardian" is like a poorly made peanut butter and jelly sandwhich...The nourishing part is spread way too thin and the jelly is really piled on. The bread's a little soggy too...and it cakes on the roof of your mouth. To translate the analogy: not enough sustainance, way too much sugar, and some very second-rate prose to hold everything together. Certainly not of a caliber of the earlier Sparks novels--avoid this concoction.
|
|
