Conflict Among Allies, When do the Ends Justify the Means

Louise Penny's recent Superintendent Gamache novel, Glass Houses, is a tale ripped from the opiod headlines. More important, Penny gives writers a wonderful example of how to mine the backstory of an enduring series to create depth in her latest book.

Penny has already characterized the small hamlet of Three Pines as an idyllic hideaway from the bustle of the wider world, in this case Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I even think I remembered that bootleggers in the 1920s used Three Pines to smuggle booze into the Prohibition US. Or, maybe I'm just reading info into a previous crime. The deep woods on both sides of the Vermont/Quebec border are the perfect place to hide all sorts of nefarious activities.

In Glass Houses, opiods are the cargo most terrible, and the hidie-hole in the church has been resurected. But illegal drugs aren't the only problem the book contends with. Penny is an adept at spinning several plotlines at once and makes head-hopping among various characters seem the best way to share plot points and feelings. No movie/tv paradigms here. Just a thick juicy mystery novel set inside a courtroom procedural--with a touch of creepiesness.

Penny is a masterful weaver of plot points and emotions. More intriguing for a writer, she works with several communities who touch each other much like a Venn diagram--the Surety, the villagers, and occassional outsiders. Penny creates characters with so many dimensions, readers seem to return to Three Pines to find out what the secondary characters are doing as well as trying to solve the crime before the big reaveal. Am thinking that many readers wonder why more communities aren't as caring as Three Pines.

If you like to read a sample and/or other reviews, you can check

Amazon       B&N/Nook       kobo/Rakuten

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Other Interesting Reading

The Passive Guy published an interesting take on why Barnes & Noble and other brick & mortar book stores are losing out to Amazon, the main reason. 

I slowly duck my head. We go to Barnes and Noble for coffee about once a month. They really have some good desserts even if they serve Starbucks coffee....But, we usually spend between $50 and $100 between the two of us. [Yes, it's nice to be truely middle class.]

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My Writing Rut

I really admire mystery/suspense writers who manage to write an enthralling book like Glass Houses. I feel envious. I have some short stories that I once hoped would be the start of mystery short story series, sort of like Isaac Asimov's sleuth club where the waiter mostly solved the puzzle: 

      --- Dumdie Swartz [The Ghostcrow and The Ghost in the Closet]

     --- the Highgrim/Allsdipp duo [Doom Comes for a Sold Soul] whose meeting with Britt's [There Be Demons] Granny Nan has grown mold in my computer. 

     --- I could also include Trapper Tremaine who's stuck after getting captured because I couldn't figure out how he could prove his worth and be accepted by the village. Nothing published here yet... or, maybe, ever.

That's not all. I think if I double checked, I'd find starts of Half-Elven stories that lack an executed mystery. Yeah, I think books should not only solve a characters' problems but provide a puzzle too.

Rendezvous continues to progress, though slowly. My outline's first skirmish is turning out to be the turning point battle with Britt feeling terribly alone and isolated, similar feelings but very different. But...I'm sort of a third of the way through [pushing halfway through, depending on how useful my notes are], and the first big battle is coming up, and Cahal hasn't even joined Britt yet...

What's Wrong with America Besides Murder and Mayham

   My to-read piles are sinking as I try sift through the stacks. They no long threaten to topple over. Sometimes, I get rewarded with a discovery -- a book I didn't know I had -- like Jane Haddam's Glass Houses. It was tucked under a bunch of paperbacks in the corner, most of which were dumped on the trade-pile after a couple pages of reading. [So, you don't get to know which books they were.] 

   So what's so special about a Haddam book -- besides being a competent mystery with well-defined characters and convoluted plot lines with red herrings galore? Haddam always offers her readers several viable, three dimensional candidates for the perpetrators.

   Well, for me, there's a wonderful fantasy rendition of an intricate but gentrified Armenian neighborhood ... with a restaurant the feels like the bar in Friends. Not only does everyone know you name, but they know your business as well. The reader gets to know the people too ... and keep tabs on them from book to book.

   Haddam's strong point is the character-driven mystery. She often presents a body or two while introducing her cast of possible killers. Then, Gregor Demarkian, the Armenian "Hercules Perriot", comes on stage as a consultant to the police to find a serial killer, a task complicated by the fact the police detectives investigating the Glass Houses murders are totally unprofessional. One of the key questions in this novel is whether the man arrested near a dump site is guilty or not or just plain crazy.

    The mystery gets solved. They always do, don't they? Readers go along for the ride and a chance to solve the mystery before the "big reveal".

   The prize in Glass Houses, though, isn't finding the serial killer, but the depiction of a  British reporter doing a life style piece on miserable, downtrodden Americans coping with crime-ridden chaos and discrimination on the mean streets of Philadelphia while a serial killer's on the loose -- a  fact which seems to validate her opinions, at least to herself..

Recommended even if much of the crime-solving isn't realistic. 

Yeah, I consider cozy mysteries fantasies.

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    My writing plods along with the outline for my new Cassy Mae story settling in. Even have two added scenes outlined to add danger to her bus trip to safety. I'm trying to think of a better title than Demon Eyes. Yeah. It's another Andor story. Given how slow I write, people'll be lucky to see it by June -- unless I get my new website up so I can post snippets.

   Most of my free time has been eaten my new author's website. I'm in the process of matching line placement and fonts on each page. Sorry I haven't posted a new snippet in a while. I can no longer go into my live site to change anything because my revised site has commandeered my web building software access.

   So, here in Colorado, the sun is shining, and I'm planning a demon attack. So, just to celebrate the survival of the one lone pansy in the last snow storm, I'm offering Doom Comes for a Sold Soul for free until the18th, Ash Wednesday. You can visit Smashwords for a sample. If you'd like to add the short dark fantasy story to your device, there are several formats available. The code for the freebie: TP76B