Writers of the Purple Sage

Rating:
Summary: Fun reading "cozy"
Review: In genre increasing its use of gore and violence, "Writers of the Purple Sage" is a welcome diversion. While quite modern and friendly in its manner, "Writers" evolks images of mysteries of days gone by. No blood, guts, gore and profanity here - just a tightly knit mystery that doesn't bring you down.

Rating:
Summary: Fun reading "cozy"
Review: In genre increasing its use of gore and violence, "Writers of the Purple Sage" is a welcome diversion. While quite modern and friendly in its manner, "Writers" evolks images of mysteries of days gone by. No blood, guts, gore and profanity here - just a tightly knit mystery that doesn't bring you down.

Rating:
Summary: this book puts into the characters shoes, it is a great book
Review: Jolie Wyatt, recently divorced and trying to raise a teenage son, is meeting with her writers' group one night when she learns that Judge Volney Osler has died. What might not have been such a big deal--after all, people do die, and the Judge was old--becomes a very big deal when it turns out that the Judge was murdered. What was a very big deal becomes a huge deal when the murderer's method turns out to be one Jolie herself devised for her as-yet-unpublished mystery novel. Since she had shared her manuscript with only the other members of the group and the officer investigating the crime, the list of suspects is small indeed. When the police officer devotes particular attention to Jolie, the townspeople of Purple Sage have little trouble narrowing the suspect list down to one: Jolie. The fact that Jolie had an argument with the victim shortly before his death does little to help her case.

With a very personal interest in solving the crime to absolve herself, Jolie begins to poke around. Soon she discovers motives for many of her writing group, but still the solution seems elusive--and the danger seems to be getting closer to home. With a son to protect and an ex-husband trying to protect her (and threaten her independence), Jolie finds that her efforts to solve the crime are not entirely consistent with her efforts to maintain her small family.

"Writers of the Purple Sage" is Barbara Burnett Smith's first novel in the Purple Sage series, and it is a most enjoyable read. Smith juggles a traditional cozy mystery in the Christie sense with a domestic tale, and it is the latter that really gives the novel its strength. Jolie Wyatt, as a single mother, is a very sympathetic character who is afraid of losing the life she has provided for her son and who has become an island unto herself. The events surrounding the murder threaten her and her son, and she fights back bravely. While the everyday citizen investing a crime so thoroughly can be problematic (and is indeed a problem in many of the novels of the cozy mystery genre), Smith seems well aware of this problem and has made strides toward explaining Jolie's sleuthing. Jolie investigates in self-defense. I'm not sure that this justification works completely, and there are times when Jolie seems a bit too brazen for either her own good or common sense, but overall the novel works well and is a pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: A well-rounded mystery
Review: Jolie Wyatt, recently divorced and trying to raise a teenage son, is meeting with her writers' group one night when she learns that Judge Volney Osler has died. What might not have been such a big deal--after all, people do die, and the Judge was old--becomes a very big deal when it turns out that the Judge was murdered. What was a very big deal becomes a huge deal when the murderer's method turns out to be one Jolie herself devised for her as-yet-unpublished mystery novel. Since she had shared her manuscript with only the other members of the group and the officer investigating the crime, the list of suspects is small indeed. When the police officer devotes particular attention to Jolie, the townspeople of Purple Sage have little trouble narrowing the suspect list down to one: Jolie. The fact that Jolie had an argument with the victim shortly before his death does little to help her case.

With a very personal interest in solving the crime to absolve herself, Jolie begins to poke around. Soon she discovers motives for many of her writing group, but still the solution seems elusive--and the danger seems to be getting closer to home. With a son to protect and an ex-husband trying to protect her (and threaten her independence), Jolie finds that her efforts to solve the crime are not entirely consistent with her efforts to maintain her small family.

"Writers of the Purple Sage" is Barbara Burnett Smith's first novel in the Purple Sage series, and it is a most enjoyable read. Smith juggles a traditional cozy mystery in the Christie sense with a domestic tale, and it is the latter that really gives the novel its strength. Jolie Wyatt, as a single mother, is a very sympathetic character who is afraid of losing the life she has provided for her son and who has become an island unto herself. The events surrounding the murder threaten her and her son, and she fights back bravely. While the everyday citizen investing a crime so thoroughly can be problematic (and is indeed a problem in many of the novels of the cozy mystery genre), Smith seems well aware of this problem and has made strides toward explaining Jolie's sleuthing. Jolie investigates in self-defense. I'm not sure that this justification works completely, and there are times when Jolie seems a bit too brazen for either her own good or common sense, but overall the novel works well and is a pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: this book puts into the characters shoes, it is a great book
Review: the book opens up the exact opprotunities that all writers wish that you could do for the readers.The writer did a very good job in writing this book and capturing the total essecne that and it was like I was in the story and she was writing about me and my life, it was like reading the never ending story ofr the first time, it kept me at the end of my seat the whole way through the book .