Earlene Fowler

cozy mystery fiction (#13 in series but can stand alone), very wholesome 30-something y.o. (frequently quilting or baking, but also works as a curator in a folk art museum and married to a police officer w/no kids) set in a small town in the central California coast area, near Cambria (where rich people go to retire), over December/Christmas 1996.

this volume in the series (the only one I've read) seems to be light on the mystery details--not only is our main character an amateur in her sleuthing, she's not even trying to solve this case, agreeing to "look into" a short list of suspects in order to pacify her boss and keep her from continuing to bug the police about a death that shows no indication of foul play. So there are some obvious threads at the start that won't get followed up on until the last half of the book, and hardcore mystery fans are likely to get impatient. It's not a particularly suspenseful or funny story, but if you like the sort of cozy narrative that follows characters around as they go about their wholesome lives (dogsitting, smoothing things over with the inlaws, helping a friend find flattering maternity clothes, organizing family gatherings), then here you go.

Picked up from Little Free Library.… (altro)

After the intensity of David Shields' book on death, I needed something light so read Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler, the first book in her Benni Harper cozy mystery series. It is set on the central coast of California in a ranching community. The main character is a recently widowed young woman who runs a craft coop. She is, like most female leads in cozies, feisty and routinely clashes with the new police chief in town. It was a fun read and I did not figure out the killer before Benni did. I have at least of these on the shelf and they are available from the library so may continue with it.… (altro)

What an incredibly solid and engaging cozy mystery! I picked it up because it uses the setting of Morro Bay, a California central coast town I knew well as I was growing up as it was a quick getaway from where I was raised in the Central Valley. I ended up relating to the book throughout, as it was not only clear that the author knew the area well, but the very make-up of Californians.

This is the 6th book in the series but I jumped in with ease. Benni Harper works in folk art and knows a lot of people around her (fictional) town of San Celina, but she's baffled when she inherits a house and a lot of money from a total stranger in nearby Morro Bay. His will stipulates that she must stay in the house for two weeks to inherit the estate--which doesn't please her police chief husband one bit. Benni soon finds creepy details, like a wood-carved statue of her childhood horse, a favorite old jacket of hers that vanished years ago, and clues that guide her to different people and places around the coast. At the same time, her new neighbors--who thought they'd inherit--are a threatening presence. Benni needs to solve the mystery of Jacob Chandler before something bad happens.

This book came out in 1999, and I loved that aspect. CD-ROMS are mentioned, and Benni has a newfangled cellular phone that she can use just-in-case but usually uses landlines instead. The characters are fantastic, well-drawn with sensitive portrayals. The mystery kept me guessing all the way through. I hope to read more in the series.… (altro)

Where to start with why I didn't like this book. Let's start with the fact that I was invested in the characters from the beginning. I cared about what happened to them and after the last book I felt confident that things would work out as the author led this reader to believe.

Then she yanked the rug out from under me. I don't like authors to set up relationships only to start jerking them around. Call me dull, but I like a certain ... not predictability, but continuity. So nothing was going to end up the way she led me to believe at the end of the first book. Certain heartbreak - most undeserved - was on the cards for a major character, when suddenly the author introduces, if not an outright deus ex machina, then one hell of a coincidence, and happiness ever after is magically guaranteed for everyone. Even I had a hard time swallowing this one.

The Road to Cardinal Valley focuses on Ruby's dysfunctional mess of a younger brother, an alcoholic with hepatitis who has no desire to sober up. What follows is just enough codependency to thoroughly irritate me. I could care less about Ruby's brother by about mid-way, but in another stretch-too-far, it all works out in the end with an act of redemption that coincidentally solves everyone's problems.

Earlene Fowler writes a top-notch mystery that I'd happily recommend to anyone who likes traditional mysteries with strong, heartfelt characters. But she was definitely trying something new here and, for me at least, it just didn't work.… (altro)