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Barbara Fritchman Thompson Diary Week of 24 May 2004 Latest Update: Tuesday, 25 May 2004 19:17 |
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Monday, 24 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
| Yesterday dad and I played 18 holes of golf with Paul and
his dad, Jay, one last time before his dad flies back home this week to Okalahoma.
We played the course about ten minutes from my house since Wilshire, our
regular course, had a full course tournament going. It is a much longer
course but dad and Jay held up pretty well. It was warm in the morning
heading toward hot by the time we finished around noon.
Dad and I stopped at a little Italian place for lunch before dropping me off back home. I took the dogs out for a quick playtime then gave them their quarterly baths or showers. While they both aren't real fond of getting in the shower they both acted very well once in there. After I bathed them I bathed myself. I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening reading and relaxing. Saturday and Sunday I read A Dime a Dozen by Mindy Starns Clark, book three in her Million Dollar Mystery series starring Callie Webster. In this book Callie is solving the murder of a migrant worker in the small town of Greenbrier located in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Somehow, when Clark's second book came out, Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels, I got on her publisher's mailing list to send out copies to. I also have the fourth book in the series, A Quarter for a Kiss. As a general rule I do not read the genre known as Christian fiction. However, I felt compelled to read the first one and send a review in to the publisher per their request in the cover letter. Clark does a wonderful job writing and I fell in love with the nature/outdoors character Callie. I sort of skim through the biblical/religious references much the same way I do when reviewing a hard boiled mystery that has parts I don't care to read. Callie, a young widow and former lawyer, is now a PI and works for a large non-profit organization that gives money away to non-profit groups to start up or continue their work. Callie goes in to investigate the organization to make sure they are on the up and up financially, etc. She also goes back and does follow-up work to see if the groups are continuing to follow non-profit rules. In the very beginning of Dime a Dozen, she is in San Francisco busting a husband and wife you are stealing food from a local food bank for themselves. She then moves on to NC. Her main goal is to check out a group who provides assistance to migrant workers who come to NC each year to work the apple crops. When she arrives one of the husband of the workers has been missing since November, the end of the picking season. The wife has refused to leave to go back to Texas until she finds her husband. When he turns up dead Callie helps to investigate the murder which turns out to have ties back to the organization she is auditing. A sub-plot to the story is Tom, the man behind the scenes of the organization Callie works for. He is rich, has a secret job know one knows about, and has never been seen by the organization itself. In the second book, Callie and Tom have only talked by telephone but are developing an attraction toward one another. When Callie is injured in the second book investigating a murder he flies from Singapore, where he has been working on a business deal, to see her for twelve hours. No one in the organization this has taken place. Now, in the third book they are getting reading to meet up again in the states. He is flying back to the states from Singapore. As Callie closes out her work with the non-profit group and the murder investigation she eagerly awaits her second meeting with Tom. I highly recommend this series. I think she has a fifth one coming in the next couple of months. --------------------------------------------- I came home this afternoon early to get the lawn mowed and edged just in case we had another round of afternoon/evening thunderstorms. Yesterday, just about the time I finished up giving the dogs their baths we had one roll through then another later in the evening. The temperatures have been steamy for May, high 80's and low 90's, more like August weather. [Top] |
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| I am now reading the new John Dunning, Bookman's Promise.
Bob and I both could hardly wait until this third installment in his Cliff
Janeway series arrived. For me, Dunning ranks very high as one of the best
mystery writers I enjoy reading. His character, an antique book dealer,
has his hands full in this installment. Janeway purchases a signed first
edition of a Richard Burton, explorer not actor, which he later discovers
is part of a rare collection of books by Burton once owned by Josephine
Gallant's grandfather.
Janeway makes a death bed promise to Josephine Gallant, whose father sold the books to a cheap dealer in the late 1920's. Gallant brings Janeway one book from the collection found among her mother's possessions and kept hidden away by Josephine some 60 years. Both books have an inscription to Josephine's grandfather, Charlie Warren. Josephine believes Burton and Warren traveled the country together just prior to the start of the Civil War. As Janeway attempts to track down the missing collection there will, of course, be murder along the way, danger to himself, and those around him. Hopefully Dunning will not wait ten years before he publishes the next book in the series. ------------------------------------- As Bob mentioned, we have a long weekend coming up. Posts may be sporadic at best since we both plan to take some time off. [Top] |
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Wednesday, 26 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Thursday, 27 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Friday, 28 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Saturday, 29 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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Sunday, 30 May 2004 [Last Week] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] [Sunday] [Next Week] |
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