Jane Jeffrey is struggling to rebuild her life and make her children's life as normal as possible after the death of her husband in a car accident seven months earlier. She feels that life is starting to get back to normal, but that normalcy is shattered when a cleaning woman is murdered at the house next door which belongs to her friend Shelley Nowack. Shelly and Jane are understandably upset about the murder and worry about the safety of their children, so even though the police are looking into the murder they begin a little investigating on their own. They have plenty of suspects - there was going to be a gathering at Shelley's house and people were in and out of the house dropping off food all day long. In fact, Jane even wonders if Shelley could be the killer. As Jane investigates, she realizes that several people had secrets they wanted to stay secret, secrets they could be blackmailed for and might even kill to keep secret. When Jane gets a little too close to the truth and a threatening note is left on her bed, she knows she has to solve the case quickly before she or someone in her family is hurt.
"Grime and Punishment" is the delightful first book in Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffrey cozy mystery series. Jane is a well-written character - a single mother struggling not only to raise three young children, but also trying to accept the circumstances behind her husband's death. Her children - Mike, Katie, and Todd - are also well written and some of the best parts of the book are the scenes with Jane and her children going about their every day life. I especially liked the fact that Jane volunteered to drive blind children, it added a nice dimension to her character. Jane's method of investigating the murder was a bit unorthodox, my jaw dropped when she came right out and asked a suspect why she was being blackmailed, but she quickly won my sympathy when her abruptness backfired on her and she learned something that hurt her. Shelley is also well written - attractive, a bit too perfect and bossy, living in a house that is immaculate before the cleaning lady even gets there, and a penchant for driving too fast. Of the supporting characters, my favorite is Jane's "Uncle" Jim, a policeman who is a surrogate father to Jane and will do anything he can to protect her. The mystery is well plotted and the number of people that had access to Shelley's house means that the readers will have fun trying to pick the killer from the long list of suspects and at the end of the book, readers will want to go back through it to see all the clues Churchill cleverly planted throughout. The method Churchill uses to reveal the killer is a bit unbelievable but still a lot of fun.
"Grime and Punishment" is a nice, fun cozy mystery.
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I'm usually in a state of reverence when I approach the pilot to a successful, long running series with each of its books staying in print and selling solidly, especially as I realize that the novel in my hands is the foundation upon which such an enduring success has been based. My curiosity is at a high, focus ready to pick up on the reader captures which have carried such a phenomenon.
Many of the appeals of Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry are easy to see, and many reviewers have elevated this effervescence beautifully. I believe I'll join them, parading around a bit myself, beating a bounding, decorated drum:
The suburban housewife has been unsung, or touted-with-taint, since Susan B. Anthony's marching campaigns began dousing home fires, kicking homemaker-vestal-non-virgins out into the glorious world of business acumen (to become secretaries/assistants/office-managers/Cool-CEO-Adjuncts/CEO's)? Such a deal.
Sorry. Couldn't help that slurp of feminist-charged humor with a hocking "ahem" of truth in it.
"Boom... Boom, Boom..."
I really don't want to bash the programs of that particular Sue (who reminds me of Sue Grafton, who's developed a most delightfully gritty female sleuth who has played proud the female angle of the American-type, loner-PI-Mystique, of the red neon-light mood/mode/model/MO).
"Who, who, who?" What am I, an owl, or an almanac researcher. I'm certainly NOT a legitimate reviewer of novels. If there's an established fact anywhere, that's one.
"Ahem. Hock! Hack! BOOM, Boom."
I honestly do not want to denigrate the incredible release of bondage feminism has accomplished for women.
What I lament is the backlash of another type of bondage which has sullied the pride of wise, strong women who freely choose to be homebound. (A better term might be "home-centered" ... or ... "home-based" ... "home-heather-ed"? Whatever.)
Here's where Jill Churchill pranced in with the perfect tool (not a drum; see my review of McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE) to re-set the balance and re-expose the heroic through a "modern" housewife in the suburbs of Chicago. Now, THAT I can admire (in the warm and welcome company of a large audience of contented, sometimes clamoring, readers).
It's too easy to downplay the cultural significance of this series, due to Churchill's wonderfully light, delightful style of dramatizing Jane's snarly attitude and colorfully common world. It's so automatic to see this series as easy-reading, funny-fluff. Honestly, I have to remind myself, repeatedly, to note the depth-of-effect and beauty in this offering which has effortlessly expanded our views of worthy roles for women (and Mr. Mom's) to play, by returning the respect of choice to the career of housewife.
"BOOM!"
And let me beat this drum over one other feat which Jane and Shelley have accomplished as this series has run onward from this auspicious beginning. As their children grow up and leave, these two homemakers evolve in entertaining ways through Mom-growing-pains of the empty-nest-syndrome.
Having read and reviewed (and posted a Listmania) several of Jill's novels prior to this pilot, I've concluded that this author is a genius, and possibly somewhat unrecognized as such. Yes, she's been recognized for providing a hilarious, easy reading series carried by warmly addicting characters and mean mystery machinations. I believe Jill will also be recognized one day for the sheer and subtle insight which impregnates each of the books in this series, with this pilot established as the strongest of the batch, yet with each sequential book providing unique, haute-cuisine flavors (in a warm cookie world).
"Boom?"
Sometimes a pilot is seen as an immature beginning for a series which grows in strength and style as the author progresses in presentation of subsequent books. In this case, no doubt exists in my mind that GRIME AND PUNISHMENT has come off the press of a true author launching a seasoned gift in the prime of her talent. And, what's no less amazing to me is that Jill has grown beyond and beyond this beginning, in her subtleties as a novelist.
This is why I conclude that she is a genius, because I can honestly say, "You ain't read nothing yet. And, yet you've read it all."
Churchill has not lost an ounce of the talent which produced GRIME. Sadly, the punishment she has received in periodic ripping reviews may be the true crime here.
Ironically, I began my addiction of posting reviews on Amazon when I read my first Jane Jeffry novel and felt a heart crush after reading some of the short, cutting rips on this series. I seem to have a need to pick up and polish valuable gems which have been tarnished, not naturally by time (I should leave those for the true housewives among us), but by readers in bad moods who relieve pain by spewing on gems among piles of rocks (yes, I like rocks too, since I have a collection of those in my head).
"Boom! Boom, boom."
I understand this syndrome too clearly. I've done it myself, too many times. Have I grown up yet? I'm working at it, still failing.
And, yes, honesty is important, even if it's tainted by harsh emotion being purged. In fact, it appears that some books increase in sales due to rather than in spite of a deep contrast between rips and raves.
"Boom."
Okay. That said, what appealed most to me in GRIME & PUNISHMENT, as is true in more than a few cozy mysteries, was the easy in of daily routine life, especially the schmooze of the morning shuffle. What more appropriate way to begin a series with housewife as heroine than within the rise `n shine songfest, which in Jane's case involves the hard-earned wisdom of allowing oneself to grump and grunt instead of forcing the chirp and warble, if that happens to be the mood the cards have dealt during the call of night.
Another appeal of this pilot (which has carried through the series) is Jane's effective dealings with the childish or adolescent maneuvering of her kids. Jane doesn't buy it, yet she doesn't swat their budding spirits, as she sidesteps their behavioral grime and grind.
And! Another appeal coming...
Here we have a housewife WITH a housekeeper, who gets snuffed, not in sneeze-inducing dust caused by her lack of competence and integrity, but by a vacuum cleaner cord. The symbolism in this pilot is rampant, and so inclusive it's nearly invisible unless you're searching for it, or your name is Sigmund Freud. If you're Carl Jung you'll have too many clues, before dues can even begin to conjure up.
If you're new to this series, let the light, easy flow of Churchill's syntax take you for a ride. Then, once in a while, pause after closing the book's covers, and look more deeply. You'll see what I'm saying.
For example, recall Jane making coffee during (prior to, or following) a particularly tense or gut churning scene, in which she mentions in passing that she's carefully going through the process of making coffee...
"... as if it were the solution to something."
And she mentions how carrying out simple daily routines or chores can calm a chaotic heart thrown out of rhythm by unusually frightening, unexpected, imposing events.
This story is rich with life in the daily living lane, where heroic acts are seamless, invisible, unnoticed.
One of the dramatic coups, though, in this pilot, was the way Churchill dealt with Jane's grief over the complicated loss of her husband. The way this author slipped that process seamlessly into and through the mystery with cohesive care, was simple emotional genius.
Well, okay, yes, there's also the feisty, snappy, to-cheer-for friendship between Jane & Shelley, taproot-ing here for the long haul; and we have the dreary, deadly connection with Thelma, the sniffing-snob mother-in-law, posing in the buff on a snuff-out wish list (in Jane's nightmares).
And, of course, the soothingly slow, and subtly sensual development of the romantic element between Jane and Mel is also a coup, of a different matter. We have ROMANCE!
And, we have a wrap.
"Ahem. Boom."
With true sadness and ultimate respect for the unsung or tarnished heroes still among us, nearly everywhere,
Linda G. Shelnutt |
International Available
"Laugh Aloud Funny"
"Fun Book"
"Pleasant, but average cozy"