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CANDY APPLE RED
by Nancy Bush
Kensington, October 2005
310 pages
$19.95
ISBN: 0758209053


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jane Kelly left Southern California to accompany her lover, Tim Murphy, back to his home area of Lake Chinook, Oregon before this book begins. She stayed there when he left her and found work as a process server. She has also begun to assist a local information specialist (private detective) and is considering his offer of permanent work.

She accepts the PI job that a local attorney suggests even though it involves investigation of a messy murder case from four years earlier. The murders of his wife and young family by Bobby Reynolds had been followed by his disappearance but his mother thinks his divorced father, Cotton Reynolds, has been hiding him. Since Cotton is a wealthy man and ageing the sharks are circling him to find out who he plans to leave his lavish lakeside property to.

Jane is willing to earn money even though this task of investigating Cotton seems fraught with difficulties. Her life is pared down to simple levels partly through poverty and partly through a lack of interest in style and material possessions. She can be an exasperating heroine but her lack of conventionality makes her interesting.

The stresses of life gradually increase for her as she experiences problems in delivering her notices to defaulting rent payers, when her ex-lover returns to town, when she takes delivery of a pug called Binky left to her by a vaguely remembered aunt, and when she discovers a body in the lake.

I liked the Oregon setting and the lifestyle of Lake dwellers was shown very clearly. I enjoyed reading about Jane's life -- even though her reactions to events are very different from the ones I might have expected she takes actions that seem logical in the circumstances.

I had more of a problem with the behaviour of other characters in the story when they seemed to have little logical reason for their actions and emotional responses.

Nancy Bush is already at work on a second book and I can't help feeling that CANDY APPLE RED had to give all the background so that Jane's character could develop further in the future books.

Reviewed by Jennifer S. Palmer, February 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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