Review: Valerie Pickle, Ugh!  But The Book is Entertaining
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 1, 2011
Oh, I know the author had what seemed good and sufficient reasons for belaboring the heroine with this awful name, Pickle, but I, for one, winced every time I heard it. (I listened to the book via Kindle's Male Robot. Came through in quite good fashion for that software by means of which I do all my fiction reading on the device.) Nevertheless, I found the book sufficiently to my taste in all other aspects to subdue that slight quiver at every hearing of that name.* * * * * Spoiler alert * * * * *.(In a comment, the suggestion was made that an alert might be in order; therefore the warning.)The heroine, a fifth grade teacher, hardly has the commanding presence of a Hildegarde Withers (by Stuart Palmer), but after some trying experiences in the effort to free a former student, arrested for murder of a community notable, she becomes an avenging spirit, although always in a ladylike fashion. No mistress of hand-to-hand combat is this young woman, simply a determined fifth grade teacher to whom any student is, forever, HER student.Of course, there comes into her life an Assistant District Attorney. While rude and uncouth in their initial encounters, he, of course, turns out to be quite charming and the lamp of desire is lit. Ladylike attraction, of course.While trod-ding a well-worn path, the author keeps the story moving along with a light touch and a number of solid (in terms of this type of book) characters. I found both the heroine and her friends congenial people to share this escape with. While there is murder, the book remains well within the limits of what are now being called "cozy". I can recommend it to any steady reader of that sub-genre.