Murder for Hire - Review

You will have loads of fun reading Dana Fredsti’s book, Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon. I can’t tell you too much because it is a murder mystery, after all. It does have lots of murders and several mysteries going on at the same time. Spoofs abound in the form of hardboiled detective novel language and references which create many of the jokes and comedy throughout. There’s plenty of action and even some sizzling sexual tension.

Dana moves the story along quickly with characters that are realistic and believable. Dana keeps you in the scene with lush, lip-smacking food and wonderful sounding drinks (a few I’m going to try.) She gives you hints of Hollywood and the people who hover around that dreamland looking for reflected fame. She does a great job of keeping her secrets and yet drops some very clever hints all along the way.

Here you can find a SYNOPSIS of the book which explains everything, almost.

Murder for Hire

I am reading Murder for Hire - The Peruvian Pigeon by Dana Fredsti. Here's her website.

Dana is having a Blog Book Tour and I will be hosting her at The Chrysalis Stage on January 23rd, 2008. This is a first for all of us, so stay tuned. I will post my review when I am done reading.

Dana has worked with tigers, jaguars and leopards. She has also been in the movies, specializing in theatrical sword-fighting.

Still...

I am still reading Leaves of Grass. I'm taking it slower and trying for one poem for every three or four days to try to get the feel of them. At this rate I should finish in a few years.

I'm still looking for comments on the friggin' bowl. Is there a bowl in any of Whitman's poems, I wonder? I never thought of that until now. I think I'll google that and see. Google is like those cheat sheets you can buy (can't think of the name right now.)

Once I do that I'm going to bed. I'm still tired.

What About the Bowl

Something about the bowl really annoys me. I can't find anyone that comments on the bowl. I think that what bothers me about the bowl is what bothers me about the stories in general - the sense of the unknown. I think I need more definitive answers in the stories I read.

I found the idea of three slightly connected stories interesting and the plots ideas were different. The semi-ongoing characters interrupted my ability to stay within the stories. The concept in the first half of the last story was the part I found most fascinating, but I became uninterested once the chase scenes began. I identified with the main character in the final story the most and had difficulty believing almost all of the other characters.

Reading Guides

You can find a Specimen Days reading guide HERE and a second one HERE.

Find a review of Specimen Days HERE.

You can find a reading guide on Leaves of Grass HERE.

If you are interested in being a member of this blog so that you can write your own posts about the books we read, let me know at goldennib at Comcast dot net or in the comments and I will add you.

I have finished Specimen Days and I am now trying to get through Leaves of Grass (first edition – because it’s the shortest.)

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

I got my copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman yesterday so I can follow Jenn's suggestion and read it along with Specimen Days.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham wrote The Hours. Specimen Days is his second book. Where The Hours highlighted Virginia Wolf, Specimen Days includes Walt Whitman. The novel takes place in New York City and covers three time periods. It has received excellent reviews. I bought my book today at Barnes and Noble. They have it in stock in paperback. I will be reading it through once for pleasure and then reading again for this blog. That should cover the month of October. November is for discussion, although comments along the way will be welcome.