Sara Hoskinson FrommerCritiques

beginner, easy, easy difficulty

Enjoyable light reading. A good "palate cleanser" after some heavier reading.

I enjoyed the summer, Midwestern setting, and the relationship between Joan and her son. There was a LOT of time spent on who had access to the victim...it got tiresome.½

I loved all the info about the quilt show. I liked the development of Joan and her family relationships. But the ending was a mess...I don't know if it was the explanation, or the solution itself to the mystery was really hard to follow. This was an improvement over the first book in the series.½

Kind of hard to follow the mystery. Seemed to wrap up very quickly. There was a fair amount about the orchestra, but it was hard for me, as a non-musician, to follow.½

BOTTOM-LINE:
Nice light read for a Sunday afternoon
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PLOT OR PREMISE:
Joan Spencer, widowed, moves back to Oliver with her son Andrew and joins the local orchestra in her spare time. The second week of rehearsals is marred by the death of an unpopular oboe player. Joan helps the police investigate the murder (big surprise!) and does a pretty good job of spotting essential clues.
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WHAT I LIKED:
Well written, characters nicely developed, including some hints of romance between Joan and the cop. Interesting was the switch between the two characters as the narrator -- not quite third person, not quite first person and surprisingly well-executed in the writing. The story moves along fairly quickly and doesn't drag.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Perhaps too many characters with too many motives and opportunities. Unfortunately for me, I figured out the ending far too far in advance as well as the reasons for it -- and yet I still got the murderer wrong! (Missed it by *that* much!)
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, but I did interact with her online.

I found this book a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be basically a regional mystery with a somewhat cheesy story, but Frommer has some fairly serious game. Joan Zimmerman Spencer, returning to her old home town to get her feet back under her after widowhood and betrayal, joins the local symphony orchestra. When an extremely unpleasant oboist dies within feet of her, her insights as an outsider, along with those of a discouraged but personable policeman, help to ferret out a murderer no one would suspect. The relationship between the two protagonists is easy and while it's obvious that something will happen between them it's not forced. I also like the relationship between Joan and her son. Frommer does character well--there are some fun people running around this novel.

Excellent character portrayal and keen plot development. I did not guess the killer until all clues were revealed. The ending is a real twist, not at all what I expected when the entire scenario unfolded. Good feel for local color and holiday traditions in a Swedish community, and a good learning experience of a culture that differs from my own. The ending leaves the door open for more from this author, who lives in a neighboring community to me.

Joan Spencer is the manager for the symphony where she also plays the viola. They are playing at a quilt show in the small town of Oliver. The quilt show's organizer turns up dead under one of the quilts on display. While she wasn't the easiest person with whom to get along, who wanted her gone badly enough to kill her? Joan, with access to the building and observations from her fellow orchestra members, helps the detective Fred unravel the case by supplying information she learns. I very much liked the character of Joan and the manner in which she provided information that she learned without really interfering with the investigation. It's an older series, but it's new to me, and I hope to read other installments.

Third book in the Joan Spencer Mysteries. The story opens with a tornado hitting the small town of Oliver and catching Joan as she was walking home through a park. She spots a young girl who had slipped away from her parents and is able to shield the girl in a creek bed while the tornado blasts through. Joan returns the girl to her family, Judge David Putnam and wife Ellen. Joan later finds Judge and Mrs. Putnam are actors in the play, Ruddigore, she is playing the viola in the symphony for. During an actual performance, and seemingly with the audience as witnesses, the Judge is murdered. Joan and her romance-skittish boyfriend, police detective Fred Lundquist are hard pressed to even figure out how the killer managed the murder without being seen let alone who in the cast did it.

Joan is well developed and shows sympathy and understanding for the new widow, as she had been there herself. I know this sounds so standard in books now, but Joan is an independent woman raising a teenage son and managing quiet well after the death of her minister husband. There are a few books that do an independent woman justice without being

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW HERE:
http://mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-murder-and-sullivan-by-sara.h...½