Iced

Rating:
Summary: great drama
Review: After spending eighteen months in a New Mexico State penitentiary, twenty-nine-year-old Meg Gardner returns to her home in Missoula, Montana. Meg hopes to forge a relationship with her estranged parents, but fails to achieve her goal. Instead, Meg rents a small home and works as a repo person, taking possession of cars from individuals who default on their payments.

Her current job is to repossess Clay Bennett's Cherokee Jeep since the debtor is dead. Inside the vehicle, Meg notices a locked briefcase. Meg begins to open the briefcase, but has to stop when Ivan and his thugs demand she hand it over even to the point of using force. A woman comes by asking about the briefcase and Meg informs her that Ivan holds it. Next the police chief questions Meg. She learns that the deceased crashed a plane years ago and has been searching for it ever since. Soon someone threatens Meg's boyfriend and a buddy of Clay is dead. Meg has no idea what is going on, but if she is to remain alive, she better find out soon.

Jenny Siller has a lyrical style that allows readers to use their senses to vividly understand the local terrain and climate (wear a scarf it is cold up north). Through a series of flashbacks, the audience learns about the scandal surrounding Meg's parents, why she did hard time, and what she did before returning to Montana. The mystery is cleverly devised leading to a richly textured book that has several interesting levels for fans to discern.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: hints at much better things to come
Review: For all the recent success of female private eye novels [see Orrin's reviews of 'A' is for Alibi (1982)(Sue Grafton 1940-) (Grade: A) and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972)(P.D. [Phyllis Dorothy] James 1920-) (Grade: B+) ], you'd be hard pressed to call most of them hard-boiled. So acclaimed new novelist Jenny Siler--whose first book, Easy Money, was a NY Times Notable Book of the Year in 1999--and Meg Gardner, the anti-heroine of this second effort, are blazing a new trail; unless there are strong objections, we'll call it "chick noir."

Megan Gardner has recently returned to Missoula, Montana after serving an 18 month prison sentence in New Mexico. Her checkered past is partly the result of one horrific incident in her childhood, when her mother shot and severely brain-damaged her father. Now Meg is repossessing cars and trying to reconstruct her life in her old hometown. She's estranged from her mom, who beat the shooting rap but is now consigned to caring for Megan's nearly zombie-like father. In addition, she's got a Czech boyfriend, though she refuses to refer to him that way and won't tell him she loves him; a drag queen repo partner; a Russian gangster who owes her a favor or two; and the chief of police has sort of kept an eye on her since he investigated the shooting years ago.

One winter night, Meg snatches a Jeep belonging to Clay Bennett, a local businessman who was killed earlier in the evening by a young Indian couple. But several thugs and a brawny female assassin come after Meg, in search of a map that Bennett may have been carrying in a briefcase that he left in the car. Further complicating things is Meg's growing belief that the accused Indian woman, Tina Red Deer, may be her own half sister. Drawn into the case by a series of threats, Meg ends up investigating the murder and trying to find whatever it is the missing map leads to.

There are some fairly significant problems with the novel. The mystery at its center is never satisfactorily explained and the political spin that Siler incorporates is somewhat gratuitous. More troubling is that much of the emphasis is on Meg's tangled family past, but none of her relationships-- with her father, her mother, or with Tina--are ever resolved. One supposes that these intensely personal and introspective private eye stories are here to stay, but here Meg is so emotionally distant from everyone around her, many of whom are bending over backwards trying to help, that it's hard to work up much empathy for her. Megan's emotional baggage makes her an interesting character, but one who is ultimately more off-putting than affecting.

On the other hand, Ms Siler is a very deft writer, she really revels in the opportunity for flashy metaphors that the snowbound Montana setting affords. And Meg is much tougher than many of her modern detective peers, female or male [see Orrin's review of A Savage Place (1981)(Robert B. Parker 1932-) (Grade: A)] Especially impressive is her final showdown with and disposition of the female killer. It's a good, but not great, book and one that hints at much better things to come.

GRADE : B-

Rating:
Summary: This Book Is ICE COLD
Review: Iced is a murder mystery that I highly recommend. This story is a fairly easy read and it is not too complicated. Even though the plot is very simple it also has a very interesting story line. I liked this book because it had a very good mystery plot with a modern day spin. I do not really like old books because they do not have a good sense of humor.

Meg Gardner was a girl with a life of crime. It probably all started out with the bad relationship she had with her parents. She was thrown into a New Mexico State penitentiary and had to stay there for 18 months. When she got out of jail she was offered a great job that was only offered to ex-cons. The job was to be a repo-woman. The job was to go out and to repossess cars from people that did not keep up with payments. Everything was going fine for her until she had to repossess Clay Bennett's Jeep Cherokee because the person who was paying for the car died. Inside of the vehicle was a locked briefcase. When she was about to take the suitcase out Ivan, a well known murderer but the police never had evidence to lock him up, and his thugs order that Meg has to give over the briefcase. So Meg ended up giving it up. A few minutes later a police chief came by and interrogated Meg. She found out that the payer of the Jeep died in a plain crash a few years back. After a few weeks passed, somebody threatened to kill Meg's boyfriend and also Clay Bennett's friend turned up dead. Meg figures if she wants to stay alive, then she will have to figure out what is going on.

The author uses a lot of sensory details to explain what is going on and you can almost imagine you in Meg's position.

BY MICHAEL M.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing follow up to Easy Money
Review: ICED takes place in Missoula Montana, where Meg Gardner an ex- con turned repo woman, is trying to get her life together. Meg has to repo a jeep belonging to Clay Bennett, the same Clay Bennett that was just found dead. Meg figures that it will be easy to get the jeep back, but once she has it back the trouble starts. Someone else wants the jeep, next thing you know Meg is drawn into a murder mystery involving sex and violence. As Meg tries to solve the mystery she must deal with her own ghosts from her past as well as deal with Russian thugs and Tina Red Dear, a Native American woman who could very well be her half sister. I thought that ICED was well written but left me with to many unanswered questions about Megs past. The mystery involving Clay Bennett was top-notch with plenty of suspense. Meg is a protagonist that really wants to be left alone to live her life low- key with coffee, cigarettes, beer, and burgers in that order.

Rating:
Summary: ONE THAT YOU WILL WANT TO READ
Review: ICED takes place in Missoula Montana, where Meg Gardner an ex- con turned repo woman, is trying to get her life together. Meg has to repo a jeep belonging to Clay Bennett, the same Clay Bennett that was just found dead. Meg figures that it will be easy to get the jeep back, but once she has it back the trouble starts. Someone else wants the jeep, next thing you know Meg is drawn into a murder mystery involving sex and violence. As Meg tries to solve the mystery she must deal with her own ghosts from her past as well as deal with Russian thugs and Tina Red Dear, a Native American woman who could very well be her half sister. I thought that ICED was well written but left me with to many unanswered questions about Megs past. The mystery involving Clay Bennett was top-notch with plenty of suspense. Meg is a protagonist that really wants to be left alone to live her life low- key with coffee, cigarettes, beer, and burgers in that order.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing follow up to Easy Money
Review: Jenny Siler is a lyrical writer and her first book Easy Money was an intriguing blend of tough/bad girl protagonist with beautiful writing coupled with an intriguing plot.

This second novel, Iced, is not nearly as strong. Another heroine who has taken a few too many walks on the wild side, but the plot elements don't tie together. The supporting characters aren't adequately developed and the "bad guys" don't give you the appropriate goose bumps.

It feels like this book was written in a hurry and not given enough time to rewrite and expand the story. This is a book that just doesn't have enough depth. If the writer had just digged a little deeper it could have been a much better book. As it is, wait until it comes out in paperback.

Rating:
Summary: It must be in the genes
Review: Jenny Siler's strong follow-up to "Easy Money" exemplifies how success breeds more success. "Easy Money" wasn't a typical "ho hum" debut novel and "Iced" is a "can't put it down" type of novel, replete with strong characterization and fast paced action.

Rating:
Summary: A Well Crafted Novel
Review: Meg Gardener, ex-con, tough and resilient repossesses cars for a living in Missoula Montana. If you have read either of Jenny Silers other two novels, EASY MONEY and SHOT, you know that Siler's novels feature women protagonists who know how to take care of themselves. They are not perfect specimens like the women you see on TV ads. These tough gritty women do not mind a little dirt under their fingernails. Featuring characters that most of us know a little (if not a lot) about, you can almost smell the mountains in Montana and feel the crunch of snow under your feet: that is how realistic a story Siler writes.

Meg has just repossessed a jeep defaulted on by local eccentric Clay Bennett. That same evening the jeep is broken into outside of her house by a trio of Russian thugs who then get up close and personal with Meg about the jeep's contents. Meg realizes that she just might have walked into the middle of some dangerous business. Bennett's body had been pulled from an unfrozen channel earlier by the local constabulary: an apparent victim of foul play. The timing of Bennett's death and Meg's search for the jeep had allowed Meg to repossess the jeep with relative ease ...and no complications or so she thought. Bennett had been considered a kind of hero-celebrity in the community. He had crashed a plane in Montana's tough mountains during a blizzard many years earlier; and had walked out of those same mountains two months later to tell about it. Apparently, Bennett had been trying to find the location of that plane from the day he walked out of the mountains until the day of his death. Thus the basic ingredients for a real potboiler. The basic plot revolves around the plane crash (the subplot involves some unanswered questions about Meg's family history). The characters range from, among others, Russian thugs, a smart cop, a bewildered suitor, a suspicious relationship between a woman and her stepson and another gun toting gal tougher than our Meg. The character development is superb: all of the actors are well fleshed out and are more than just interesting caricatures. The novel moves at a good pace and keeps you going. It is as good as Siler's first and last novels. Buy it; and you will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: What is in the Briefcase?
Review: Meg Gardner, the product of dysfunctional family, got her start in life on the wrong side of the law and she's just out of eighteen months in prison. Now she has her first real job, reposing cars in Missoula, Montana.

When she tries to repossess Clay Bennett's Jeep, she finds the police at his house, pulling his body out of the ditch. Murder, it seems, and the suspect is Tina Red Deer and she remembers her father had once known someone in the Red Deer family who lived on the reservation.

Meg takes the Jeep, finds a locked briefcase in the car and takes it. Someone bursts into her house and seizes it. A second villain comes for it, but he's too let. Meg recognizes the thieves as members of a gangster family from Ukraine and all of a sudden she's too deep into whatever-it-is, so she goes investigating.

Jenny Siller writes great stories about women in trouble and how they get out of it and this five star novel is no exception. I couldn't put it down.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: a great mystery
Review: This is a great satirical mystery of the cynical hard-boiled chick-detective subgenre. The plot starts with a dead guy's briefcase in the back of a repoed Jeep Grand Cherokee and soon enough we find that the Belarussian branch of the Russian mafia, a corrupt Senate candidate and assorted other bad guys are interested in the contents of the briefcase. The hard-boiled action incongruously takes place in the rather peaceful college town of Missoula, Montana. Like all other towns, there is a lot of nasty business going on here, however, almost but not quite out of sight. As the heroine Meg Gardner says, "there's enough sleaze under Missoula's veneer to make the place tolerable." This is an even greater story of love and loss and forgiveness...