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Cassie Burdette's promising golf career has landed in a bunker, having missed one cut too many on the LPGA circuit. So she accepts a job as the touring pro at a posh Connecticut country club -- but wonders immediately whether she's done the right thing, given the downright weirdness/rudeness of a lot of the people there. Then she stumbles over the body of a member who is trying to push through some controversial environmentally-friendly policies. PUTT TO DEATH is the second in the series, and at times I found it a disadvantage not to have read the SIX STROKES UNDER, given there are only the most cryptic of references to Cassie's adventures there Cassie has a bagload of hang-ups -- a rocky love life with pro golfer Mike, a demanding mother and a stepfather she doesn't care for, a father who went AWOL when she was 13 but who has now popped up again, and a potential problem with best friend Laura who has taken over her position as Mike's caddie. Roberta Isleib is a clinical psychologist and devoted golfer, so in PUTT TO DEATH she's chosen to write about what she knows. The golf parts are great fun, and ring true, and I found myself turning pages avidly looking for the next sporting bit. But the psychology angle is shoehorned in and the scenes with Cassie sitting around moaning to a shrink about how hard her life is come across as slightly contrived -- I felt like yelling at her to pick up her clubs and put in some solid practice to get her career back on course! PUTT TO DEATH is one of the few books where I've wondered what sort of time span is being covered. For someone so desperate to resurrect her golfing career, Cassie doesn't seem to be putting in much practice over the course of the story. But I enjoyed the book -- particularly the family night out from hell scene -- despite that slightly less than fluent writing in places, and some weird justifications (or lack of them) for people's actions. And it's a series I'd like to see more of, particularly if Cassie gets her act together and gets back on the pro circuit.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, April 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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