Review: `Fate. You know, you get what you deserve.'
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
Minnesota author Edna Curry uses her native state and current home as the setting and inspiration for her children's, articles and her growing number of books that fall in to the romance and mystery romance genres. She is a member of four chapters of the Romance Writers of America and the winner of several awards for her popular books.What places Curry's novels in a special category s the manner in which she wraps her lyrical prose around the stories she creates. She takes the time to establish a credible place and time into which she places her characters - people about whom we care and believe in their rough time as well as her sensual romantic excursions. For example, she opens THE LILLIPUT BAR MYSTERY in medias res as the older asthmatic Mildred Weeks is closing the stinky bar for the night when she realizes that she has locked up before checking the restrooms. A man joins her in the dark as she is leaving with the money from the day's earnings, surprises her, takes her meager earnings and murders her.The story opens up as a mystery with the police attempting to discover the killer. The handsome detective Chance Martin, fatigued form his previous assignment in Minneapolis, is assigned to the case. Among the suspects is a bakery delivery person and one attractive ex-English Lit major turned small business owner (she has her own locksmith practice) - Cassie Jennings - who just happened to answer a night call to unlock the door of a nefarious man in the parking lot of the Lilliput Bar moments after the murder and robbery of Mildred Weeks! Chance questions the townspeople and ultimately questions the unlikely suspect Cassie and it is the manner in which the mystery is solved (with a dollop of romance, of course!) that fashions this well constructed romance mystery.Curry's characters are real people, much like people we know, and that is one reason her stories works so well. That, and of course the fact that she understands how to pace an investigation AND a romance as well as anyone! If there is a criticism to lodge it is in the manner of typesetting for the book: two different fonts are used without a reason - a bit disjointing at times, but a fixable problem. This is a fast read, worthy of a good evening's entertainment. Grady Harp, May 14