Eden is also the home of Eden University, and of a multi-generational theatrical family, the Libertys, who own the local movie house, the Paradise Theater. Other local details also figure in the stories, whether the odor of cooking french fries from the Hamburger Inn, or the crabapple trees lining the downtown streets. Instead, the Liberty family is a vast collection of colorful theatrical stars and ex-stars. The larger issue in the novel is the inequity often existing in college budgets between men's and women's athletics funding. Freeze Frame , which appeared in March 2000, was preceded in 1999 by Fade to Black, also set in Eden.
Carpenter writes well, and that, too, is a pleasure to readers.
She decides to set herself up as a detective, despite the odd requirement that she cannot be licensed until she can show that she has experience in the field. The Caliban series takes place mostly in Cincinnati, where Carpenter once lived, but Cat makes forays into rural Kentucky and to what is recognizably Ohio State University during the years of student unrest in the 1960s. The varied subject matter of the Caliban series ranges from the personal and political tensions of those restless days to the control of industrial pollution to the conditions in women's prisons. All, like the new Gilda Liberty series, are carefully researched. Dr. Carpenter does most of her fiction writing during the summer months.