A Dinner To Die For

Rating:
Summary: "SEX, MURDER AND THE SINGLES SCENE"
Review: Book Review by Priscilla Friedersdorf

"A Dinner To Die For"

Sanibel author Harry Burker has written a murder mystery, "A Dinner To Die For," and it is a gripping tale of terror. The novel weaves lustful obsessions of a psychopathic killer with the dubious pleasures of the sexual freedom enjoyed by liberated young career women. The plot leads them down a dual track and finally to the crossing of a fatal path. This is not a book for the squeamish, the faint of heart, or your old Aunt Maude. It is an exceptionally thrilling murder mystery involving the singles scene in Chicago. The book is reminiscent in some ways to the 1977 thriller based on a similar subject; the perils of swift and easy romance in the bars of New York City, entitled, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," a book which was later made into a film.

But Burker has written a book that updates the dating experience to the year 2000. It has an intriguing case study approach to the examination of the lives of three young women. Burker is able to balance the use of dialogue, descriptive passages and cultural observation in a polished and well-written novel. He has perception and insight, really quite unusual for a book written by a man--(if I can be allowed to say that without appearing overly sexist)--into the problems women encounter in trying to further their careers and the uncertainty and hesitancy each feels with the ever changing sexual mores in our society. These women attempt to exude a aura of bravado but it is a thin veneer spread over their fears and self doubt. Burker, who is a retired CEO of a major corporation, has pondered the plight of contemporary women and the pitfalls and danger involved in their ever evolving roles.

The descriptive passages in the book illustrate the exceptional talent Burker draws upon. In an early chapter his word images artfully set the scene in an economically floudering Midwest steel town on the outskirts of Chicago, "The house had been on the market for more than eight months...[it] was a small, two-story structure with white asphalt siding, rapidly turning a dirty gray...the owner had obviously been unable to afford the overlay of shiny white aluminium siding used to disguise the signs of decay and depression...On this particular rainy morning...A lone square of light emanated from the kitchen window." Burker understands the woman who sits "...wrapped in a faded blue chenille robe." Her tears flow as she stares at a stack of unpaid bills and wonders at the events that led her into an early marriage nearly twenty-five years ago. Burker examines the cause and the effect of the anger and resentment the woman's daughter, Vicki, feels toward her deceased father due to his subjugation of her mother.

In Vicki, Burker has created a character who is determined to succeed in the business world in spite of occasionally enduring sexist behavior on the part of some of the male executives. Maria Santiago, another of the young career women in Chicago, believes she can take control of her frequent encounters with men and use the men to her advantage. She enjoys regaling her two best friends, Val and Vicki, with graphic accounts of her conquests. But one night she meets Lenny, "As Lenny drove away, he laughed to himself. His ability to create stories that played on a woman's sympathy never ceased to amaze him." Val is the third of the young women profiled in the novel; intelligent, shy and 'not unusually pretty' but also, like the other two, determined to succeed. She is employed by an investment advisor in a large Chicago firm where she strives to improve her position while attempting to avoid romantic entanglement in the workplace.

Burker, after acquainting the reader with the diverse backgrouds of these primary characters, proceeds to weave an intricate and chilling tale of mystery and terror. He has an analytical ability which translates into dialogue which is natural and skillfully moves the story along. The plot is well thought out and cleverly constructed to keep the reader in suspense. He has based the deep-seated psychopathic nature of the criminal, Lenny, partially on cases documented by child welfare departments in New York and more recently a case in Chicago.

Each of his characters represents a different degree of accommodation to today's lifestyle choices by women in the workplace and the equally confusing mating rituals that often find the woman victimized and sexually subjugated.

Be forewarned! The book contains very explicit sexual situations.

-30-

Rating:
Summary: "SEX, MURDER AND THE SINGLES SCENE"
Review: Book Review by Priscilla Friedersdorf

"A Dinner To Die For"

Sanibel author Harry Burker has written a murder mystery, "A Dinner To Die For," and it is a gripping tale of terror. The novel weaves lustful obsessions of a psychopathic killer with the dubious pleasures of the sexual freedom enjoyed by liberated young career women. The plot leads them down a dual track and finally to the crossing of a fatal path. This is not a book for the squeamish, the faint of heart, or your old Aunt Maude. It is an exceptionally thrilling murder mystery involving the singles scene in Chicago. The book is reminiscent in some ways to the 1977 thriller based on a similar subject; the perils of swift and easy romance in the bars of New York City, entitled, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," a book which was later made into a film.

But Burker has written a book that updates the dating experience to the year 2000. It has an intriguing case study approach to the examination of the lives of three young women. Burker is able to balance the use of dialogue, descriptive passages and cultural observation in a polished and well-written novel. He has perception and insight, really quite unusual for a book written by a man--(if I can be allowed to say that without appearing overly sexist)--into the problems women encounter in trying to further their careers and the uncertainty and hesitancy each feels with the ever changing sexual mores in our society. These women attempt to exude a aura of bravado but it is a thin veneer spread over their fears and self doubt. Burker, who is a retired CEO of a major corporation, has pondered the plight of contemporary women and the pitfalls and danger involved in their ever evolving roles.

The descriptive passages in the book illustrate the exceptional talent Burker draws upon. In an early chapter his word images artfully set the scene in an economically floudering Midwest steel town on the outskirts of Chicago, "The house had been on the market for more than eight months...[it] was a small, two-story structure with white asphalt siding, rapidly turning a dirty gray...the owner had obviously been unable to afford the overlay of shiny white aluminium siding used to disguise the signs of decay and depression...On this particular rainy morning...A lone square of light emanated from the kitchen window." Burker understands the woman who sits "...wrapped in a faded blue chenille robe." Her tears flow as she stares at a stack of unpaid bills and wonders at the events that led her into an early marriage nearly twenty-five years ago. Burker examines the cause and the effect of the anger and resentment the woman's daughter, Vicki, feels toward her deceased father due to his subjugation of her mother.

In Vicki, Burker has created a character who is determined to succeed in the business world in spite of occasionally enduring sexist behavior on the part of some of the male executives. Maria Santiago, another of the young career women in Chicago, believes she can take control of her frequent encounters with men and use the men to her advantage. She enjoys regaling her two best friends, Val and Vicki, with graphic accounts of her conquests. But one night she meets Lenny, "As Lenny drove away, he laughed to himself. His ability to create stories that played on a woman's sympathy never ceased to amaze him." Val is the third of the young women profiled in the novel; intelligent, shy and 'not unusually pretty' but also, like the other two, determined to succeed. She is employed by an investment advisor in a large Chicago firm where she strives to improve her position while attempting to avoid romantic entanglement in the workplace.

Burker, after acquainting the reader with the diverse backgrouds of these primary characters, proceeds to weave an intricate and chilling tale of mystery and terror. He has an analytical ability which translates into dialogue which is natural and skillfully moves the story along. The plot is well thought out and cleverly constructed to keep the reader in suspense. He has based the deep-seated psychopathic nature of the criminal, Lenny, partially on cases documented by child welfare departments in New York and more recently a case in Chicago.

Each of his characters represents a different degree of accommodation to today's lifestyle choices by women in the workplace and the equally confusing mating rituals that often find the woman victimized and sexually subjugated.

Be forewarned! The book contains very explicit sexual situations.

-30-