Tue 4 Aug 2015
Mystery Review: JUDY FITZWATER – Dying to Remember.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
JUDY FITZWATER – Dying to Remember. Fawcett, paperback original, August 2000.
I’ve been winnowing out my collection of paperbacks over the past few weeks. Some are now up for sale, others are going to the local library or in other ways new homes are being found for them. This was going to be one of the latter until I saw that Jennifer Marsh, the detective in this, the fourth of now seven books in the series, the last after a gap of 12 years and available only on Kindle — whew, sorry — is a writer of mystery stories.
An occupation for a fictional detective that I’ve always found interesting, so I retrieved it from the Pass Along pile, thinking it deserved a trial reading before I did so. Turns out, however, that while Jennifer, a young 30-something, has written nine mysteries, none of them have ever been published. False advertising by the back cover blurb writer right there, wouldn’t you say?
But while this firmly places this book in the “cozy” category, reinforced by the presence of a wanna-be authors support group she’s a member of, there is an edge to this light-weight murder mystery that managed to keep me reading all the way to the end.
Most of the opening portion of the book takes place at a high school reunion, with Jennifer reluctantly agrees to attend, and sure enough an old flame is there, bringing back memories of a prom night some 12 years ago. Along with many other members of the same class, most of whom Jennifer would just as soon forget, or she already has.
But when the old flame is found dead in the parking lot outside the event, the verdict being an unfortunate suicide, Jennifer does not agree and takes it upon herself to do a little amateur sleuthing.
High school is tough on a lot of people, but for others, it is the highlight of their life. The difference is where the edge comes in. Unfortunately it seems to me that what happens 12 years ago should have been checked into back then, not now, and the ending is one of these in which the heroine decides to tackle the killer head on, with no police in sight.
So what did I decide? Is this one a keeper after all? No, but Jennifer Marsh is a character that I got to know rather well. She has spunk, and if the other books she’s in come along while I’m winnowing, I may check into her life again.
The Jennifer Marsh series —
1. Dying to Get Published (1995)
2. Dying to Get Even (1999)
3. Dying for a Clue (1999)
4. Dying to Remember (2000)
5. Dying to Be Murdered (2001)
6. Dying to Get Her Man (2002)
7. Dying Before ‘I Do’ (2014)
August 5th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
This one caught me by surprise when I turned on my computer this morning. I was rather busy yesterday, but I had several posts in the works, all in first drafts only. I must have posted this one by accident, though, only half done, so I wasn’t expected to see it already online.
Well, this one was mostly done, but I wasn’t able to give it the final editing it needed, nor add the cover images, until just now.
I have several more in the works, and you’ll see one of them posted and maybe two later today.
August 5th, 2015 at 6:54 pm
Too often this sort of book reads like an hour long television series episode. That old cliché of confronting the killer alone is too low even for episodic television and enough to turn me off unless very well justified.
August 5th, 2015 at 7:19 pm
I did say “no police in sight.” She wasn’t alone, exactly, but that doesn’t make a bit of difference. Your point is well taken. I was OK with the book myself up until the ending.
August 6th, 2015 at 3:01 pm
They did a nice variation on CASTLE where he has to seem to walk into a confrontation with a serial killer alone and unarmed, but actually turns out to be setting his own trap earlier this year that I appreciated.
It can be done convincingly, but more often today as in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, its a trap.
August 6th, 2015 at 10:09 pm
In this case I think it was just in Jennifer Marsh’s character to do what she did. She was just doing what came naturally, and had a rationale for it, sort of. I said she had spunk, and that is what she did.
But as Lou Grant once said, although I wouldn’t go that far, “I hate spunk.”