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SWEET AND DEADLY
by Charlaine Harris
Berkley, March 2007
304 pages
$7.99
ISBN: 0425214621


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

When a writer gets big and hits the bestseller list, there is often a tendency to reprint or reissue everything they've ever written. When a writer's first novel didn't make a splash (or maybe the writer had an early effort tucked away), someone in the agent's or publisher's office will call and says "whatdya got?" Or so I imagine. And I can't say it's a great idea.

I do know of at least one other writer whose work I liked who did this and it was a disappointment, as I'm sorry to report, was SWEET AND DEADLY, which was first released in1981. I'd never read it before, didn't recall seeing it, but it's a first book by an author whose work I rank pretty high.

Harris' Lily Bard stories set in Shakespeare, Arkansas are wonderful. As a confirmed member of the "I don't read small town mysteries club", I've read and reread every one of those books, more than once. Harris is a damn good writer who creates anything-but-stock characters.. So I'm a fan, no question and the sort of reader for whom SWEET AND DEADLY was brought back into print.

But it didn't work. The book does show the author's talents in some ways. Harris never mocks small town types and she doesn't ever use them as fodder to "look at all the eccentrics" which shows up in too many other southern mysteries.

Lily Bard cleans houses for a living and Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in a bar. In this book, Catherine's returned to her home town after the death of both parents in a car crash, which, we learn early on, was caused by someone sabotaging the car they were driving. She takes a job at the town newspaper as the 'society' writer, numbed by her loss. No one could figure out why a small town doctor and his wife would be murdered. The situation is compounded when Catherine comes across a dead woman on property she owns (the Lintons were prominent people in Lowfield, Mississippi.) The body, it turns out, is that of Leona Gaites, who worked as Dr Hinton's nurse for more than 30 years.

Other murders happen, and Catherine, while not a sheltered young woman, isn't ready to see people dying around her. The sheriff had done his best to solve the murder of her parents but there was not much to go on. Still, people start to realize that there is something wrong in Lowfleld and that it's likely that a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker is responsible for the deaths of several people.

The book's somewhat predictable. Some of that may be that I've read countless mysteries since this one was offered in 1981; unfortunately, there isn't enough else in the book to lessen the "oh here we go again" factor. Catherine who's been very withdrawn and private since returning home, starts to come out of her self-imposed seclusion, when her boss at the newspaper makes it clear he's interested in her. At least she doesn't fall in love with the local cop. She has to deal with nosy neighbors, a standard small town habit. It's an OK story, nothing great, nothing really grabbed me.

The major problem is pretty classic for new writers and for many new mysteries. The solution of the crime, the resolution of the story comes very much out of left field much too late in the game. There is a small hint given earlier, but not one that is solid enough, or strong enough for a reader to latch onto as a major clue. The resolution waits way too long in this not very long story and is sprung very much at the last minute. Nine pages from the end (I counted) you get the reason and the bad guy and the rest is 'confrontation with the killer' standard ending. It does not do Harris justice; she's a much better writer than that. Authors who bring in the sudden shocking news nine pages from the end cheat the reader.

Reissuing a book from 1981 might seem like a really cool idea to appease those fans and readers, like me, who clamor for the next book in a series. But I'd rather wait for the really excellent writing I've come to expect from this author than to spend time with a rather tepid first effort with that annoying combination of a "surprise!" out of the blue resolution combined with a pretty predictable story.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, February 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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