Great Escapes Tour: Dumpster Dying. Review and Interview!

We have a special treat today--not only my review of a really fun read, but an interview with a major character!

Title: Dumpster Dying (Big Lake Mysteries #1)
Author: Lesley A. Diehl
Publisher: Creekside Publishing, 2016. 248 pages.
Source: Electronic review copy as part of the Great Escapes free blog tour.
Publisher's Blurb: 
Emily Rhodes came to rural Florida for the cowboys, the cattle, and to do a little country two-step, not to fall head first onto a dead body in a dumpster. Ah, the golden years of retirement in the sunshine state. They're more like pot metal to Emily Rhodes, who discovers the body of the county's wealthiest rancher in the Big Lake Country Club dumpster. With her close friend accused of the murder, Emily sets aside her grief at her life partner's death to find the real killer. She underestimates the obstacles rural Florida can set up for a winter visitor and runs afoul of a local judge with his own version of justice, hires a lawyer who works out of a retirement home, and flees wild fires -- hand-in-hand with the man she believes to be the killer. 


My Review: 
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I maybe had an especial appreciation of the fact that the main character isn't a sweet young thing, but a mature woman. I might relate better to Emily than some (okay, I really relate to her inability to keep from spilling things on her shirt-front). Besides Emily, the book has a strong cast of characters, some of whom are characters in the sense we mean when we say "he's a real character." And everyone seems to have some kind of secret.

The writing is tight and well-edited, and the plot is interesting, convoluted, and well worked out. I guess a few things before the end, but for some reason (in retrospect it's staring me in the face) not the murder itself. That might be because, with so much going on (fires and lawsuits and bartending and adult children being difficult), I almost forgot about the murderer. Fortunately for everyone, Emily doesn't forget, and she pulls it all together just in time for an ending well suited to a place that claims to be the last bastion of the wild west.

I was a little surprised at first by the point of view occasionally shifting (in a proper manner) to not only the police detective but also to other characters. It's unusual in the genre, but seems to work. I enjoyed seeing a few things from Detective Lewis's perspective, though I might not (as a writer) have used some of the others. In the end, this was only a minor distraction, and didn't prevent the book working well.

The hints of romantic possibilities remain just that: hints, at least for this book. I'll be reading #2 soon, and then maybe I'll know if Emily's done mourning!

My Recommendation:
Most fans of cozy mysteries should enjoy this one. The setting is interesting and well-drawn, the characters are a load of fun, and the story moves fast and keeps the reader turning the pages, with just the right amount of peril. I give bonus points for making the heroine someone who'll never see 50 again.

FTC Disclosure: I received an ARC of Dumpster Dying from Great Escapes Free Book Tours, and received nothing further from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

About the Author: Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida-cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office. In her words, "I come to the "Big Lake" to write, hang out in cowboy bars, and immerse myself in the Florida that used to be. No beaches, no bikinis, no sand. Just cows, horses, and gators."

And now for a visit from Detective Lewis!

My name is Detective Stanton Lewis. I’m not certain how I got talked into this, but for some reason readers seem to be interested in my point of view as a detective. I love my job as a homicide investigator. I’ve worked in rural Florida for most of my career except for the few years I was on the force in Brunswick, Georgia. I liked the work there, but my personal life in Brunswick was hell. That’s another story, but you can read all about it in Grilled, Chilled and Killed. In retrospect I should have told Emily about those years, but I didn’t. I always tell people that their secrets always catch up with them, so it’s better to be up front about your past. I should have taken my own advice. Emily may be barely five feet tall, but she’s a real pistol when she’s made. And was she hot when she learned about Adrienne.

So I was saying how I like my work in rural Florida. I’m not crazy about developers who come in here, thinking they can change things for the better. Folks around here kind of like the rural flavor of the place and aren’t real keen on filling in swamps and building condos. I think most folks who come to Florida to vacation or spend the winters prefer the mouse village at Disney or the coasts and find all the scrub land, palmetto, scraggly sabal palms and the alligators around here  a bit off-putting.  Especially the alligators. That’s fine with me. The fewer people who come here, the less work for me. Not that there aren’t problems with locals. Like the guy who decided to take a dip in Nubbin Slough at two in the morning and lost his arm to a gator. What a dumb a__, uh, idiot. I guess there’s no avoiding what problems booze and drugs cause, not even out here.

Then there’s the issue of attitude. Some of our winter visitors think because we’re country folks that we’re dumb or because this is wild, untamed Florida with a lot of swamps and fields that we’re a big garbage dump where they can toss their cans and fast food wrappers. Oh, the locals do it too. It’s just that it accumulates here in the winter when the population of visitors soars.

And speaking of attitude, Emily Rhodes, whom I came to know through a murder investigation, has a boat load of it. Like I said, she’s a bitty little thing, but she can get under a man’s skin. I’ll admit she’s real pretty with those blue as the south Florida sky eyes and her blond hair, but she also thinks she can do my job better than I can. She’s stumbled onto two dead bodies already, and I’m worried she thinks this is some kind of sign she’s meant to solve these cases. They are my cases! I try to follow up on a lead and she’s already there with some hypothetical about what’s going on. It’s darn aggravating especially when she looks up at me with those round, innocent eyes. What I really hate most is that she’s been right more than not. And I also don’t like the way I feel when I’m around her. The last time I got those feelings I ended up engaged. Well, that’s not going to happen again. I just wish I didn’t make such a durn fool of myself when we run into each other.

Aside from her, the only other aggravation in my life is my partner Toby. The chief hired him because Toby begged and the chief and Toby were classmates at the academy. Toby is a fat troll as far as I’m concerned. He spits tobacco into that spit can he keeps in his office. It smells so bad in there that no one wants to go in, and the cleaning crew refuses to touch the can. Toby sometimes leaves it there for weeks before he empties it. I noticed lately that he’s grown a full beard. It came in white , but because of his chewing and spitting, the mustache is yellow and brown and so is the hair below his lip. He’s also the laziest cop I’ve ever met. People call into headquarters to report Toby sleeping in his cruiser under the shade of a tree, and it’s usually the tree outside the Burnt Biscuit Bar and Restaurant. He finally got caught in one of his schemes, kicked off the force, but then assigned the job of an undercover snitch for the department. My bet is that he finds out some way to make that assignment work in his favor and makes some money under the table. Of course, it’s my job to keep an eye on him. Why does he always get away with stuff? Well, maybe not this time.

Let me ask you something. Do you think I have a chance with Emily? Should I ask her out? Oh, never mind. She’ll blow me off and I’ll just feel like an idiot.

Gotta call Toby to check up on him.

Stanton connects on his cell. “No, no, no. I’m not loaning you one more red cent, Toby. You’ll just drink it up. Okay, fine. I’ll foot the bill for food, but that’s it. No, you cannot have a steak at the Burnt biscuit.  I’ll give you enough for a burger at a fast food join. Toby, please don’t beg. You know I hate that. Oh, all right. You can have a chocolate shake with the burger. But this is the last time.”

Stanton disconnects and drops his head into his hands.

 
Author Links
www.lesleyadiehl.com
www.lesleyadiehl.com/blog
www.twitter@lesleydiehl
www.lesley.diehl.1@facebook.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lesley-A-Diehl/522270901254754?fref=ts
Purchase Links
Dumpster Dying – Amazon 
Grilled, Chilled and Killed – Amazon

And...one last bonus! A giveaway, with a special prize: the winner's name gets to be used for a character in the next book!
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Middle Grade Review: Raymie Nightingale

Title: Raymie Nightingale
Author:Kate DeCamillo; read by Jenna Lamia
Publisher: Listening Library, 2016. Originally by Candlewick Press, 2016.  272 pages.
Source: Library digital services

Publisher's Blurb:
Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.

My Review:
Kate DiCamillo has a unique way with the waifs of the world--I first encountered her through Because of Winn-Dixie, which is also about a girl who's more than a little lost in her Floridian world, and I feel some of the same pathos (if that's the word--I don't mean it in a negative way, more just as sorry that sometimes the world sucks) in this book as in that.

Raymie is both so very lost, and so very certain that she can fix that if she just wins the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition of 1970-something. The reader knows (at least, the adult reader does; I wonder how the 8-year-olds read it?) that it's not going to be that easy, and her father's not going to come back just for that. But Raymie's pretty much finding her own way through all this, and it's an interesting path. The adults in her life--all women, and in fact none of the 3 girls has any men in their lives--are in varying degrees absent, flaky, and doing their best. Their best isn't all that great, though, so it's up to the 3 girls to forge ahead on their own. And they do.

In the end, it's a story about friendship, and about self-reliance and finding what you do best. The 3rd-person narration is so intimate with Raymie's head that I felt like it was 1st person, and seemed to work just right.

Jenna Lamia's reading is about perfect. She has the right sort of Southern voice for it, and does a marvelous job.

My Recommendation:
As usual with audio books, I recommend the story first and the audio book second. This is a great story about finding one's way in the world, and really is good for girls or boys, though some of the latter might be put off by the baton-twirling thing. They should look beyond that to see an adventure of 3 kids who band together to save themselves, because no one else is going to.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Raymie Nightingale out of my (digital) library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

YA/Middle Grade Audio Review: Chomp, by Carl Hiaasen

 

Title: Chomp

Author: Carl Hiaasen. Read by James Van Der Berk

Publisher: Listening Library, 2012. Originally by Knopf, 2012, 290 pages

Source: Library (on-line resources)

Publisher's Summary:

Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an animal wrangler, so he's grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard. The critters he can handle.  His father is the unpredictable one.

When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called "Expedition Survival!", Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show's boneheaded star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts. And Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out.

They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . .

It's anyone's guess who will actually survive "Expedition Survival". . . .  

My Review:

I like Carl Hiassen's juvvy/YA novels. I've even gotten used to Florida, where they are all set (an alien space to this Westerner, for sure).  Each one of his books I've read has been the best, which either indicates that he keeps getting better or that I have a poor memory. In any case, this one had a number of elements that appealed. There was, of course, Hiaasen's usual dry humor and use of slightly absurd, over-the-top (I think. On the other hand, Florida may be a bit...different) situations. In this case, he also had a great time doing a marvelous send-up of a certain star of a "reality" survival show (show and star shall remain nameless), especially with the bit about having to eat something disgusting every show. Since the backpacking forum where I'm an active member periodically has fun eviscerating the alleged survivalist for stupid moves and bad advice, I had extra appreciation for what Hiaasen does to poor Derek Badger.

But even aside from snarking at reality TV, it's a great read, with a plot that keeps ramping up to a hold-your-breath finale. 

The audio was beautifully done, with characters well distinguished and fully realized.

Recommendation:

I would put this at older middle grade to young adult level--maybe 12 and up. There's no sex, but there is some pretty serious violence, including life-threatening situations and that dad with a fist and a gun. Also perfect for any adult who has ever thought That Show was stupid. Mr. Hiaasen is a powerful advocate for preservation, and his dedication to protecting the Everglades is clear.

Full Disclosure: I checked Chomp out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

 

Middle-Grade Monday: Two Old Favorites

I accidentally scheduled two posts for the same day.  I've pulled one, just to keep things a little more manageable.  So if you got a notice and now you can't find it, Men at Arms  will be up on Wednesday.

Apropos of a Goodreads.com discussion of orphans in children's books, I decided to take a look back at a couple of my favorite books from childhood.  These are books that I read and re-read dozens of times, so they clearly had something that worked for me.  On re-reading as an adult, I still have that feeling for them, but one of the stories stands up to a more thoughtful perusal, and one doesn't (even if I do still love it).  I was going to say it may be no coincidence that both these books are old, but, well, yeah, it's no coincidence, because they were old enough to be on the shelves of the library when I was a kid.  DUH they're old!


First, the one that doesn't hold up so well.
Nancy and Plum, by Betty MacDonald
Publisher: Joan Keil Enterprises (this is a reprint, brought out by MacDonald's daughter in the 80's when the original had fallen out of print, which I tracked down on line).  Original copyright: 1952.

I see from Goodreads that the book has been reprinted several times, and is available in several languages.  Nonetheless, it has never shared the popularity of MacDonald's other children's books, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories (which, to be perfectly frank, even as a child I found hopelessly preachy and annoying).  Betty MacDonald, for the record, is the author of the memoirs The Egg and I and Onions in the Stew, which was also made into a play and is, or at least once was, often done by high school drama clubs (including, inevitably, ours: the story is set in my home town, where MacDonald's daughters went to high school with my mother).

Brief Summary: Nancy and Pamela (Plum) Remson are orphans, dumped at Mrs. Monday's Boarding Home for Children by their only relative, a bachelor with no interest in children.  Mrs. Monday is greedy, cruel, and generally nasty, and her "home" is a place where children get lousy food and hard work, reminiscent of Oliver Twist.  Two-thirds of the book recounts the girls' travails through a miserable Christmas when they are left alone at the boarding house, their efforts to make a doll for a fellow-boarder, to go on a real picnic, and to maintain their sense of self-worth in the face of Mrs. Monday's cruelty and the nasty tattling of her niece, Marybelle.  The last part of the book tells how they run away when the last straw is reached, and how they come to find a good and loving home (I don't consider this a spoiler because it is an inevitable feature of the genre).  Bookended by two very different Christmases, this works very well as a holiday story.

Review: Well, I still love the book.  I can't help it.  But it really is not a very good book.  The situations are stereotypical, the characters are caricatures, and the story arc is very well-established (like Oliver Twist, they even end up being returned to captivity and treated worse than ever, before they achieve final freedom).  There is also a strong element of the preaching that makes Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle unreadable (to me), a sense that she's working too hard to make a point or instill a moral.  So why do I still like it?  For one thing, it's a comforting story.  The little girls never lose that spark that makes them more than victims, and the certainty that the evil oppressor will get her come-uppance is reassuring.  As a kid, I'm pretty sure I also liked the smart-alec comebacks that Plum pulls off.
Two Stars.

The second book has aged better.
The Lion's Paw by Robb White.
Published by Doubleday in 1950, so it's from a similar era.  I picked this one up at a library book sale, I think.  It is in any case an old library copy.

Brief Summary: Twelve-year-old Penny and her nine-year-old brother Nick live at an orphanage--an "Eganapro" as they call it, from reading the sign over the gate in reverse.  It's not an awful place, but it's an institution and they don't fit well.  They long to sail away on one of the boats they can see in the distant harbor, if they can't have a real home.  One day Nick just reaches the end of his rope, and declares he will go with a woman who wants to adopt him as a chore boy, then run away from her.  Penny convinces him to come back and get her, and their adventures begin.  They end up aboard a sailboat with 15-year-old Ben Sturges, all on the run from the orphanage and Ben's Uncle Pete.  Set in Florida during WWII, the adventure is mild, but still exciting, as they dodge all their pursuers, encounter an alligator, and try to make a final escape during a dramatic storm, all the while hoping that if they just find one particular seashell, the Lion's Paw of the title, Ben's father will return from the war and all will be well.


Review:  As I say, this story seems to hold up better.  None of the characters is overdrawn--the adults are human, and trying in general to do what's right by the kids (or in a few cases, to earn the reward for finding them), rather than wantonly cruel and evil. The sailing adventure is just exciting enough, and the happy ending isn't completely obvious, though we are pretty sure how it will work out.  And White leaves out any preaching.  He's spinning a story for kids, not bringing up kids, and tells it as it seems to the kids, largely through the eyes of Penny.  As usual in books of this sort, the children have skills and abilities beyond their years (way beyond my kids at similar ages, and more than I had--and I was  pretty independent).  That's a problem for the suspension of disbelief, but necessary for stories like this to work.   And there's only the tiniest bit of saccharine, mostly just at the end.

Four Stars.

It occurs to me, looking over my book shelves, that there's another book in this category that I loved to bits as a kid: The Flight of the Doves.  I'll have to do a review of that one soon!
 

 Full Disclosure: I purchased these copies of Nancy and Plum  and The Lion's Paw myself and received nothing whatsoever from the authors or publishers in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed in this review are my own and no one else's.

C: Carl Hiassen

Book Review: Scat, by Carl Hiaasen, 240 pp.  Upper-middle grade fiction

Scat is sort of a comic thriller for kids.  Hiaasen is up to his usual, with just slightly absurd characters and situations overlying a serious message about ecology and conservation.  Except "message" isn't the right word, because he's not preaching.  He's just presenting interesting and sometimes likeable characters who care about Florida's wilderness and wildlife (I haven't encountered any of his books that aren't about Florida).

Nick Waters and his best buddy Marta Gonzales are not-too-enthusiastic students at Truman School, where they are tormented by the science teacher, Mrs. Starch, and go in fear of Duane Scrod, Jr.   Known around school as "Smoke," Duane is 16 and rides a motorcycle though only in the 7th grade.  Nick and Marta consider Mrs. Starch a witch and Duane a psychopath.

A field trip to Black Vine Swamp results in changes to a lot of their perceptions.  A fire cuts short the trip, Mrs. Starch disappears, and Smoke undergoes an apparent personality transplant before being accused of setting the fire and going on the lam.  Threats to both the swamp and an adorable (though sharp-clawed baby panther escalate.

A pair of bumblingly evil oil execs and their hapless employee Martin make up the main cast of villains.  They are unsuccessful at just about everything, as evidenced by Jimmy Lee Bayliss popping Tums one after another, and Drake McBride getting clobbered by the horse he's trying to learn to ride in an effort to look like a real Texan (because all oilmen are Texans, right?).  So we are never in any real doubt that the villains will get theirs, no one will end up dead, and everything will be okay in the end.  It's how we get there that creates just the right amount of tension for a kid's book.

A second thread running through the book is that of Nick's National Guard father, who has been sent to Iraq, where all is not going well (I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers).  My first reaction was that this was a little too dark a thread for a story like Hiaasen's.  On reflection, however, I realized that (though the connection is never made explicit), the threat to both Black Vine Swamp and Mr. Waters is the same: our unquenchable thirst for oil.  Hiaasen leaves the reader to figure that one out herself, thus preserving his book as a great humorous thriller, not a sermon on the evils of an oil-based economy.  He never preaches: we are left to see for ourselves that a swamp and a panther are more to be cherished--and are a lot more loveable--than an oil company.

Took me something from 30-50 pages to get truly grabbed, something that I've noticed with Hiaasen's other books.  I'm not sure if this is something to do with the books, with the level of attention I'm bringing to my reading when I first start a book, or with the fact that I'm not really a Florida person so I'm a little slow to warm up.  Certainly by the end I'm more than willing to sacrifice some of my sleep to see how it all comes out.  And maybe Hiaasen would be happy to know that while I'll never give up my preference for desert and alpine environments, he's gradually eroding my distaste for bugs and humidity and making me kinda want to see the Everglades.

Five stars.