Mel's bad mood used for mild humor was a good reader (tow) "in" for me, especially when he admitted to wanting to keep his funk. Jane's contrast to Mel, from her chipper mode, was a pleasant change for "who's got the slump." Jane rambled along easily with her off-duty detective's gripes, as they maneuvered a snow-packed, Colorado mountain road en route to a resort of which Shelley's husband was considering purchase, with a group of investors.
The pair of murders in this icy plot were intriguingly entangled. The first downed body was set in a somewhat classic "stop the cameras" scene; the second provided a more unique "snow job" presentation. I'm not comfortable seeming to be so easy going about people killing people (Jane, as usual, uncovered both deaths). But, cozy mysteries are meant to be light, to relieve the digging efforts, with perfect shovels provided for poking around in the criminal mind, with the hope of unearthing enough "crime-stopper" clues to show How To detoxify motivations, and How To flat-line compulsions to carry on-and-on-and-through-to-the-bitter-end with revenge, greed, seething anger, and/or love un-attained. Have I missed anything?
Oh. Yeah:
-- "The RUSSIANS are COMING!" (To dinner? With a historic succession of Tsars?)
-- "INDIANS are beating Tom Tom's!" (WHO's in the modern-day stew! What burial grounds agenda?)
Regarding exposing the criminal mind, here is a quote from Jane:
>> "... If a murderer were really that clever, he'd have thought of a better way to solve his problem than to kill Mr. (xxx) -- and maybe Mrs. (xxx), too." <<
Additional brief passages of that type of insight referencing criminal craniums have been genetically peppered (can't forget my genes) into this # 6 (See my Listmania and other reviews) in Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry series.
As a Colorado native I was, of course, successfully baited by Jane's basing some of her Sherlock processes from an evaluation of what she described as a Colorado rugged-character-attitude (see the book for details), and her feelings of being seen as an outsider.
As I might describe Jane's thought process about that (this is not a quote from the novel; it's my paraphrase, and a bad one):
"What's this? I, an outsider? Moi?? How can this be? Here I am, just friendly-little-ole, saunter-around-comedienne, me (who also happens to be a great Mom, a world-syndicated, dancing-or-stumbling-comedically-around-kids, laid-back, but-perfected-by-flaw-acknowledgment, type of Mom). What can I say? I'm good. You'd better believe it! Or, I'll make you a bad guy in one of my books!"
(Jill Churchill, a.k.a. Janice Brooks, isn't the only author of mysteries in this series; Jane Jeffry is too, and in this one Jane provides her theory on the whereabouts and whereas's of THE IMAGINATION.)
The above paraphrase exposes part of what I enjoy about Jane, who she is, her approach to a life she loves, as a spunky suburban housewife.
Dealing with being an outsider, working around privacy issues, is handled tastefully and tellingly in this plot. I particularly liked the scene in which Jane and Shelley interrogated Tenny, the resort owner's niece, about a recent murder of a family member. At first the sleuthing pair felt awkward manipulating a personal conversation, especially at such an emotionally sensitive time, to obtain private information which felt to them to be none of their business.
You be the judge, of how Jane turns a "busy body" squeamishness into a win-for-all instead of a "free-for-all."
The high chill of the Colorado Rockies may be a climatic antithesis to the heavy heat of Australian Outback, but from some angles, those cultures could be seen as kindred geographic gestalts, at least in being playgrounds in which rugged individualism can flourish, if not in providing sanctuary for privacy issues. Crocodile Dundee would have approved of Jane and Shelley's style of nosiness into emotionally vulnerability areas, and he's one of my favorite characters from any culture-clash-comedy.
Yeah, I know, the culture clash in FROM HERE TO PATERNITY was not about Australia; it was about Chicago suburbs Vs. Colorado Rockies. But, I don't see many common denominators between those two geographic mecca's. Well, there is one, a viral aversion to anything phony. People in both places seem to grow titanium craniums for personality integrity:
"I am what I am."
Only difference is that Jane, as a "military brat," (as she describes herself) has honed a few effective social graces and sees her genuineness as appealing across cultural lines. Colorado mountain people (the rugged individualist, hermit types) rarely wonder how anyone perceives them. They just are. And they often want to be left alone in peace. Try prodding a bear in hibernation.
I was surprised to notice, when I had gotten well into the novel, that I was enjoying the change of environment (of course being a Rocky-Mountain-foothills native might have helped) from the suburban neighborhood with Jane and Shelley's next-door visits, each in their separate domains, though connecting nearly constantly. At the resort the sleuthing pair were sharing close, well-appointed quarters, along with Mel and all their kids (with Paul in the distant background as usual, but "there" ... somewhere ... rather than out-of-town).
Maybe I should add an aside here to clarify that, as has been the case throughout this Jill Churchill series, the adults carry the show, while the kids remain in the background adding a bit of fun warmth periodically. This is in contrast to Diane Mott Davidson's Goldilocks series, in which the teen-angst Vs a Mom being compelled to cater-to-everybody, has often been the prime plot, especially in the earlier books in that (culinary) crime novel series. This is not to criticize either focus of adults/kids in these two mystery series. Both styles have their unique values, issues-to-pursue, and reader appeals.
The skiing lessons and clues for studying family histories were a bonus in this one, and were successfully succinct. I believe I could use them to get going on either a search of my genetic trees, or a slip down the slopes. If I were so inclined. However, being dined in one eye and bereft in the other, I believe I'll pass the skis to the bunnies.
Linda Shelnutt
NOTE TO SHOPPERS (that loveable breed of folk glorified by Jane & Shelley in this mystery series):
-- Speaking of mountain grown, etc., Amazon now sells groceries, even the gourmet stuff including Quinoa (keenwah), an amazingly nutritious (and nutty delicious) grain which was originally grown only by the Inca Indians in high mountains of exotic countries outside the USA.
-- That Super-grain is currently being grown at White Mountain Farms in the San Juan range of the Colorado Rockies. I'm hoping the White Mountain Farms quinoa will be for sale here at some point.
-- The current vendors of Quinoa on Amazon are also impressive, and sell at very competitive prices. I'm ready to try the vender here which (unlike White Mountain farms) offers pre-washed Quinoa, so I don't have to rinse off the saponin coating (a natural insecticide which has developed around this grain over its eons of evolution).
-- Now (while I remain a semi-hermit on a mesa surrounded by the Colorado Rockies) I can buy QUINOA, SAFFRON Strands, JASMINE TEA, KONA COFFEE BEANS (learned about those through Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse series of mysteries, see my Listmania and reviews), LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL (learned about EO's through Dr. BJ Ferrell who recommends Young Living EO's, see my Listmania and reviews) ...
-- All in one cart through my laptop PC!!! |
Expedited Available
"Nothing special, nothing awful"
"Chicago Suburbs Rise To the Colorado Rockies. Creme Goes Sour (and makes tangy, multi-cultural soup)."