Rating: 
Summary: OUTSTANDING!
Review: I loved this book. Lush, evocative prose and an extraordinary cast of characters grab the reader from the first page and don't let go until the last. Relationships twine and untwine and intertwine in a way that could have been confusing but instead captivates by keeping you guessing. This is such a departure from the romance and women's fiction of Penelope Williamson that some fans may be disappointed. But the new pen name allows a fresh voice and a new approach that this fan applauds. Well done!
Rating:
Summary: A THRILL A PAGE
Review: I read this book on the recommendation of a bookseller and I absolutely could not put it down. It has one of the best mysteries I've ever read, and I've read hundreds. But the complexity of the characters and their relationships make it so much more. It reminded me of the movie LA Confidential. It you like well-crafted suspense that will keep you reading into the night, this is the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Spanish Moss Draped Southern Melodrama
Review: I told someone that I was reading a book full of depression, drunkeness, debauchery and melodrama. However the book also has some moments that pull me irresistably back into my own childhood-- making ice cream in the heat of the summer evening with a hand cranked ice cream churn packed in ice, getting caught at the top of an old wooden farris wheel, gigging for frogs on a moonlit night. Just when I decide I'm going to put the book back on the shelf and pick up something else, the author throws in one of these moments and I find myself reading on into the next chapter and beyond. The author does a good job of capturing details. The plot could have used a stronger editorial hand. However, the book is still worth reading. I like New Orlean. In fact I always thought of it as the anti-Disney World, a town with a surface gloss of tourism, but where they wash the streets of the French Quarter down early every morning to remove the puddles resulting from the previous night's excesses. Step back now to 1927 when booze was illegal but available nearly for the asking, Freudian psychology was still a new topic of conversation, and racism was an accepted way of life. A lawyer-- with a debauched way of life that raised no eyebrows and a practice of defending Blacks who had fallen afoul of the New Orleans legal system that caused some consternation among his peers-- is hacked to death in an old slave shack behind his home of Sans Souci. Damon Roarke, a detective on the New Orleans Police force, is called to the scene. Roarke was reared by his drunken abusive Irish father, who had died a hero's death while performing his job as a policeman. Roarke's mother had deserted them when Roarke was 7 to live with her upper class Creole lover. Damon had grown up in poverty with three good friends. At the time the story opens one friend had disappeared and was presumed dead, the second was his widow-- Roarke's sometime lover, and the third was a powerful bootlegger. These are just some of the characters who populate Mortal Sins. Like the dead body of the gangster who surfaces in Lake Ponchetrain their past sins and entanglements also surface and murder will out.
Rating:
Summary: Spanish Moss Draped Southern Melodrama
Review: I told someone that I was reading a book full of depression, drunkeness, debauchery and melodrama. However the book also has some moments that pull me irresistably back into my own childhood-- making ice cream in the heat of the summer evening with a hand cranked ice cream churn packed in ice, getting caught at the top of an old wooden farris wheel, gigging for frogs on a moonlit night. Just when I decide I'm going to put the book back on the shelf and pick up something else, the author throws in one of these moments and I find myself reading on into the next chapter and beyond. The author does a good job of capturing details. The plot could have used a stronger editorial hand. However, the book is still worth reading. I like New Orlean. In fact I always thought of it as the anti-Disney World, a town with a surface gloss of tourism, but where they wash the streets of the French Quarter down early every morning to remove the puddles resulting from the previous night's excesses. Step back now to 1927 when booze was illegal but available nearly for the asking, Freudian psychology was still a new topic of conversation, and racism was an accepted way of life. A lawyer-- with a debauched way of life that raised no eyebrows and a practice of defending Blacks who had fallen afoul of the New Orleans legal system that caused some consternation among his peers-- is hacked to death in an old slave shack behind his home of Sans Souci. Damon Roarke, a detective on the New Orleans Police force, is called to the scene. Roarke was reared by his drunken abusive Irish father, who had died a hero's death while performing his job as a policeman. Roarke's mother had deserted them when Roarke was 7 to live with her upper class Creole lover. Damon had grown up in poverty with three good friends. At the time the story opens one friend had disappeared and was presumed dead, the second was his widow-- Roarke's sometime lover, and the third was a powerful bootlegger. These are just some of the characters who populate Mortal Sins. Like the dead body of the gangster who surfaces in Lake Ponchetrain their past sins and entanglements also surface and murder will out.
Rating:
Summary: Love and loss in the Big Easy!
Review: In her new book, Mortal Sins, Penn Williamson offers her readers a taut mystery which they won't forget too quickly. The author, AKA as Penelope Williamson, is also well known for her historical romances. And it is obvious from this book as the author calls attention to detail when she describes New Orleans so that we as readers feel as though we are walking down these streets. When a well respected society member of New Orleans is killed, all fingers point to his beautiful actress wife who has recently returned to her hometown and married this man. What may appear to many to be an open and shut case, provides readers with a roller coaster ride and page turning read as the plot takes off. And complicating matters further is the detective who is investigating the murder. Not only is he a widower with an unusual background but he is also this womans former lover and he is desparate to prove her innocence. Throughout the book Ms. Williamson introduces us to a book filled with interesting characters and a myriad of plots which twist and turn and in the end keep us reading late into the night. This is the first book I read by this author but it certainly won't be the only one.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reading here
Review: New Orleans has ever been a sultry place, filled with voodoo magic and secrets. It is no less so in the twenties, perhaps more so than now. Slavery is not that far in the past, and the lines between the races are still clearly drawn, though the African Americans "fortunate" enough to be light skinned have the hope of "passing" or finding a protector if they are attractive and careful enough. Murder has invaded the beat of detective Day Rourke, and the suspect is the woman he loved and who broke his heart. Remy St. Claire achieved fame as a cinema queen who dances on the edge of pornography. She married a rich man, and now stands accused of killing him. Day has the challenge of proven her innocence, though all indications say otherwise. Charles St. Claire won't be the first to die though, and the secret of his murderer is not the only one that comes to light. **** In this complicated, sensual novel, Ms. Williamson breaks out of the mold she has long been associated with writing. Romance is not the emphasis in this dark and brooding mystery. The characters tend to the seedy side, even the heroes, and its atmosphere is that of film noir. ****
Rating:
Summary: Mortal Sins
Review: Penelope Williamson spins a lush story, complete with sharply drawn characters and a plot within a plot. As a native of Louisiana, I found little to fault with Williamson's portrayal of culture and race relations. Read every word and rushed out and bought the sequel, The Wages Of Sin (which I thought was even better). Crack for the thriller fan.
Rating:
Summary: Mortal Sins
Review: Penelope Williamson spins a lush story, complete with sharply drawn characters and a plot within a plot. As a native of Louisiana, I found little to fault with Williamson's portrayal of culture and race relations. Read every word and rushed out and bought the sequel, The Wages Of Sin (which I thought was even better). Crack for the thriller fan.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Suspense doesn't get any better than Mortal Sins
Review: Penn Williamson, a.k.a., Penelope Williamson, is one of the unique writers that not only tells a superb story, but actually timewarps the reader into the narrative with her well-crafted characters. Scandal, secrets, love & hate abound in 1920s New Orleans...as does murder. And with Ms. Williamson's guiding hand, our senses taste everything sultry, wicked & deliciously Southern style. The author lets us "see" the evolving story through several points-of-view, with Det. Daman Rourke as the dominate guide. Switching focus was necessary to the plot, & with clever handling the author doesn't confuse the reader. The clues are subtle & well-paced throughout the interlocking stories, but I was still surprised by the ending & revelations. In other words, it was perfect! Every time I read this author, I am profoundly moved by her genius with words; the rhythm, the fraility, the provocative phrasing that reveals our humanity. This is not the first romance author to cross over to suspense, but in my opinion this is the best work produced so far. Mortal Sins belongs on the "keeper shelf" along with the more well-known favorites of the suspense genre.
Rating:
Summary: Not a book I'd read again.
Review: Set in 1920's deep in the Louisiana bayou Mortal Sins presents so clear a portrait of the time period it's almost as if you were there feeling the oppressive heat and smelling all of the scents the bayou has to offer. Unfortunately, one of those scents is death. Police Officer Damon 'Day' Rourke is called to the murder scene of a prominent lawyer who has been mutilated and brutally butchered and the story, for the most part, is told from Rourke's perspective. Rourke is connected to the case in many and numerous ways and only becomes more entangled as the story unfolds. The major suspect in the murder case is the victim's glamorous movie star wife, Remy. She's also the one woman who broke Rourke's young heart. Rourke thought he'd buried thoughts of Remy deep within him. He even married a woman who is now conveniently (or tragically, depending on your level of cynicism) dead and is raising his young daughter alone. Alas, when he sees Remy again all of the hurt, pain and all consuming love comes crashing back and he's determined to prove her innocence regardless of the consequences. Things become even more complicated when Rourke learns that the 'system' wants to pin the murder on his childhood friend Lucille, a beautiful black woman who was the victim's reluctant mistress. Mortal Sins is a book rich in description. Everything from the murders, the racial tensions of the time, to the hot sweltering landscape is painted with exquisite detail. And though the book is extremely descriptive (which is important to me), it fails for me on an emotional level because most, if not all, of the characters are so intensely damaged they verge on un-likeability (especially drop-dead gorgeous, seriously disturbed Remy). In the end I truly didn't care what happened to any of them (with the exception of the sympathetic Lucille). Rourke may be an outstanding cop but he's a pretty neglectful father and his unflinching support of creepy Remy verges on obsession and makes him come across as a little creepy too. The characters are interesting, I'll give them that, but it was difficult to work up any sympathy for the lot of 'em because they're all so damaged, disturbed or just plain selfish. I give this story three and 1/2 stars because the writing is rich and because I enjoyed the attention to detail and atmosphere. I also found the mystery and all of the dirty little secrets intriguing and I didn't find it difficult to turn the pages. But these things aren't enough to make me wait with breathless anticipating for the upcoming sequel. ~ Laurie Shallah
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