Going through my diary drafts I stumbled upon a few incomplete and unpublished diaries, including this one about a mystery written by one of our very own community members. (I will allow her to identify herself as she wishes, or not.)
Stilled Lives: The T-Town Murders
by Anna Burdette
Published by CreateSpace
November 10, 2015
230 pages
It is hard for a Book Reader & Lover to not like a mystery set in a public library. Stilled Lives does not remain in the library, which is just as well, because like any good mystery thriller, there is mayhem and murder inappropriate to that place of quiet decorum.
But our protagonists meet there on a regular basis to plot their moves in this engaging debut novel. Victor Santiago was an FBI agent who proved very handy as a scapegoat in a case gone bad five years before. Thomas Maguire, raised on the east side of Baltimore, spent twenty years on the Baltimore PD, and was the lead homicide detective when a case he was working was deemed too politically dangerous to pursue. And Charlie Otis is a precocious computer whiz with a secret hide-out. And then there is Rose:
She has imperial bearing, stunning silver hair woven into a neat French twist, perfect skin, designer clothes, understated yet expensive jewelry and lives in a women's shelter.
They all have secrets, but combine their skills, knowledge and contacts to solve a mystery, mostly while enjoying the hospitality of Coe Library, in Torrington, Connecticut. The head librarian, Margaret Lombardo, seems to have a soft spot in her heart for the down-trodden and homeless, as she battles to keep the library open in spite of dwindling resources.
The four friends meet at a round table in the Coe Library to discuss a recent string of child murders in Connecticut which has not seen a serial murderer since 2003. There were also murders of seven children in Baltimore—the last case that Thomas had worked before losing his job with the Baltimore PD. And there is a child still missing. The children were boys and girls, black and white, with little to tie them together. The murders were all brutal. And the clock is ticking.
The plotting is intricate enough, and the pacing fast enough that one flies through the 225 pages without stopping to consider just how realistic a few aspects of the story may be. But that is the point of fiction, to reveal truths without necessarily sticking to reality.
I enjoyed this thriller, even though it involved a twisted mind and the gruesome murder of children. The team of four friends is made up of intriguing individuals that I look forward to spending more time with in their next adventure. Because this is as neat a team of superheroes, lacking superhuman powers, as one is likely to find.