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ELECTRIC BLUE
by Nancy Bush
Kensington, October 2006
331 pages
$19.95
ISBN: 075820907X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Jane Kelly is training to become a fully-fledged PI. When her boss and partner, handsome Dwayne Durbin, suggests that Jane would be perfect for a job with the famous Purcell family, Jane is thrilled. When she meets the client, she's even more thrilled. He is the handsome, rich, and well-known man about town, Jasper (Jazz) Purcell.

He asks Jane to have a talk with his grandmother, family matriarch Orchid Purcell. Some members of his family are worried that their grandmother isn't in full control of her mind and they want her to sign over her power of attorney to them. Jane isn't sure she wants to get involved, but Jazz is very persuasive and says he needs an outsider's opinion. Jane reluctantly agrees to speak to Orchid.

At their meeting, the elderly lady sometimes seems level-headed, but at other times talks about people in the family who are long dead or incidents that haven't happened. Jane can't decide if she is competent. When Jane tells the family her opinion she is met with only anger and dismissal, but Jazz still implores Jane to come to work for him and be Orchid's companion to get a better sense of her mental state. Again Jane can't resist Jazz and agrees, but she takes along her dog, The Bingster, as a way to get through to Orchid.

Unfortunately, Orchid is soon found dead in her room. Apparently she had fallen and died but had already signed over her power of attorney. Jane is dismissed from her job, but too many things about the death, and what Orchid was saying doesn’t add up and Jane finds that she can't leave the death and the case alone. She starts to investigate the Purcell family's history even though everyone warns her off it.

ELECTRIC BLUE is a fun, light detective story with a likable and very appealing lead. Jane Kelly is a witty, vivacious but sensible 30-something woman who is not above getting crushes on her client or her boss, but is bright enough to understand that acting upon her feelings isn't always the best way to go. She has a mother to contend with and a fabulous housemate, her dog, The Bingster. Her mind is also regularly concerned with what she has to wear and what isn't in her apartment to eat. In other words she's written as a realistic person who has the usual hassles in her life.

For some unknown reason the book starts with one of those fast, 'character in dire peril' introductions that is supposed to show that the story is a memory until that dangerous moment occurs. It didn’t work at all here and I wish that it hadn't have been used, it will give readers the wrong idea about the caliber of the book. ELECTRIC BLUE is of a much higher quality than that intro intimates.

Writer Nancy Bush has a light handed way with her writing. The pace works well and all the characters are well formed. I enjoyed ELECTRIC BLUE a lot.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, September 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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