Finished 12-23-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1997

Sophie Greenway Mystery series #4

Mother:

I haven’t got much time.  By now, you’ve heard what happened.  Don’t believe what the police tell you, please!  Wait until you hear the story from me.

Opening Lines

Sophie Greenway and her radio talk show host husband, Bram, live at the fancy hotel she owns and runs in the Twin Cities.  The hotel is the temporary home to actors who have come to St.Paul to work in a new live radio mystery theatre serial.  The new owner of the radio station, Heda Bloom, has decided to use this series to change public opinion  that her son murdered his lover 30 years before and is still on the loose.  By bringing back the original actors from this series all the players from the time of the crime are back.  She has hired a reclusive writer for the series, one she has never met but who seems very familiar with the all the players in the Justin Bloom story. 

This is a mystery that is brimming with characters and plot.  I was engrossed in the story and had to pay attention to keep up with everything that was happening, so that I was completely unprepared for the end.  I mean I was floored, didn’t see it coming at all.  I don’t usually start a series in the middle, because I want the story of the characters from the beginning, but I picked this up at a used bookstore because I needed one more holiday book for my quiz and I’m so glad I did.  As much as I don’t want to start another series right now I may have to look for the first one.

The book isn’t perfect.  Sophie’s son is preparing a commitment ceremony with his boyfriend and while not a major storyline, felt a little like a public service announcement for tolerance (a good theme, but seemed forced into the story).  Although I guess she could have been following up on a major storyline from an earlier book.  See the questions I have when I don’t read a series from the beginning?!  And while I loved the big payoff at the end of this mystery I wanted a little more, maybe to see a little more of the fallout. 

I would recommend this for mystery lovers.

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year.  If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble.  Go here to vote. (Right now there is a tie for the top vote getter between A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving and She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb)