Character Backgrounds Run Aground

Finished The Black Widow Agency. I appreciate the author's idea - four women who bring their talents together to help other women who have been mistreated by men. Somehow I think it would make a great television series...sort of like Leverage (which I love)... just with women only.

In this book there is a lot of time spent explaining the backgrounds of each of the women including all their little quirks. I have already mentioned the tarantula. One woman has a drinking problem. One has a flagrantly homosexual brother. Another is always fanning herself and putting cold cloths on her head due to hot flashes. These idiosyncracies would play out better on screen.

I have noticed in some books that the author seems to have read or heard in a fiction writing course that each character 'needs' a background. I can picture the author writing furiously creating odd personalities and histories. All of that may be fun for the writer, but for the reader too much of a good thing gets tiresome. The backgrounds become filler and don't necessarily carry the action forward. I do want to know what the characters were like before they showed up on the page, but not every single detail of what makes them tick, thank you very much.

So I am moving on to Paris: The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion with Parisian policewoman Capucine Le Tellier and her food critic husband Alexandre. I hope I won't be overwhelmed with TMI.

The Black Widow Agency

Since I seem to be on a spider theme with The Story of Charlotte's Web, I chose The Black Widow Agency by Felicia Donovan from my stack of mysteries brought home from the library yesterday.

The agency is run by Katie, an ex-cop; Alexandria, the resident computer geek with her pet tarantula, Divinity; Margo, the African American gourmet cook who whips up chocolate black widow spiders for snacking; and, Jane, a somewhat dowdy woman of a certain age that handles the account books.

All of them have somehow been scorned by a man. Katie's husband was having an affair and when she found out she got drunk and went to an undercover drug bust totally hungover and ended up getting shot and fired from the police force. Her ex-husband has recently been promoted to captain.

Alexandria got set up in some sort of cyber-fraud by an ex-lover. I can't remember what happened to the other two, but it wasn't pretty.

So they band together to take on female clients who are being cheated on or have been in some way harmed or abused or mistreated by a man. In this case, a woman whose husband sets her up and she gets arrested for using drugs. Of course she is innocent, but she loses her job and her daughter.

There are an awful lot of tasteless jokes, the writing is a bit choppy (OK, this is her first book), and way too many descriptions of that tarantula crawling up legs and across tables. Eeeww.

But I am gonna hang in there. It is a quick read; I finished half of it last night. There is a sequel as well, so the Black Widows must be doing a good job.


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Sunday in the Stacks

Sunday afternoon used to be the day I would head off to the library to see what treasures there awaited. Then horror of horrors, due to budgets (of course), it cancelled Sunday hours. I was appalled, but got used to going on another day.

Then, hurrah of hurrahs, the library restored Sunday hours about a year ago. I was thrilled and returned to my habit of visiting then. There are 17 branches in the public library system including the Main which is where I like to go. On Sundays now, seven of those branches are open.

Which is a long way to getting to the books I scored today. All mysteries. All new authors to me. One can only hope that one of the four will be a gem. I am very picky about my mysteries.

If anyone has any remarks or recommendations as to my choices, chime in.

The Grave Gourmet by Alexander Campion
Main characters: Parisian policewoman Capucine Le Tellier and her food critic husband Alexandre.

Murder on the Riviera by Mary-Jane Deeb
Main characters: Marie-Chrisine "Chrissy" de Medici, heiress and new owner of a small newspaper in Grasse and her Grandmere.

The Black Widow Agency by Felicia Donovan
Main characters: Ex-cop and agency owner Kate Mahoney; cybergoddess Alexandria ; number cruncher Jane; and, office manager and gourmet cook, Margot.

Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
Main character: Max Tudor, vicar of St. Edwold's in the village of Nether Monkslip and former MI5 agent. (Now there is a combination for you.)

They all four look promising and my first dilemma is which book to start with.