Friday, November 27, 2009

Lying on the Couch

Thanksgiving’s over. I’d get up to greet you all, but I ate too much Breakaway Bread. I did manage to get out and visit a few of you, but … well, Fruit Pie was a’calling my name. I hope all of you had a family-filled, fun holiday. I know I did.

I’m going to cross-post today. Yesterday, over on The Blood-Red Pencil, I posted a recommendation for a book. Probably wasn’t a good day, since by 9:30 last night, I was the only one who had stopped by to comment. The book I recommended is a good one, so I’m going to post about it here today. I hope you’ll check out the book!

Punish the Deed by Diane Fanning

I recently got my hands on the second book in Diane Fanning’s mystery/police procedural series starring Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce. I’ve been looking forward to following Lucinda again.

Lucinda is, in a lot of ways, typical of women police officers. She’s tough and believes in her work. In others, she’s very different. After taking a shotgun blast to the face, one side is mauled and she lost an eye. In this book, she’s taking the first real steps to plastic surgery, but is still on the job. Along with dealing with the physical injuries, she’s working on the emotional ones.

Setting aside her personal problems, Lucinda now has to deal with a violent killer who hides in the shadows and who eventually threatens her own life. She’s got quite a few other things going on in her life - like the rest of us. Lucinda Pierce is no one-dimensional character. I enjoyed discovering the different layers of Lucinda.

Here’s a snippet of Diane’s writing in Punish the Deed:
“She’d been to many crime scenes and seen many gruesome photos from others. Those sights were not alien -- they were the stuff of her life. She could think and work as she looked on the gory remains of a brutal death. She could hash over the details with her fellow professionals without the slightest churn in her gut. She swore that none of it bothered her any longer. But then there were those images that burned into her brain. The visuals she wanted to forget but instead they hung on, haunting every blink of her eye and troubling her dreams.”
The intensity of the plot and the believable development of the characters keep you reading. Fanning comes to mystery writing with a credible writing pedigree. She’s the best-selling author of 10 true crime novels, as well as another mystery series starring Molly Mullet. You may have seen Diane Fanning on Court TV or the Discovery Channel. If she ever comes to speak in your area, go hear her. I sat in on a talk she gave at the University of Texas on The Criminal Mind and she is a great speaker. Her talk sent chills down our spines.

If you or someone you know likes mystery/police procedurals with a strong, totally believable protagonist, I recommend you look for Punish the Deed by Diane Fanning. It’s available online at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.
~~~~~~~~~
FTC Disclaimer: I consider this more of a recommendation than a review, but I'll go ahead and reveal that I paid for this book and the postage. And, no, I am not giving it away. Diane autographed it for me, so it goes on my bookshelf. (I love autographed books.) I don't even lend my autographed books. I've done that once or twice and lost books. Excuse me? You lent the book I lent to you? You don't remember to whom? Aaagghh! What do you mean, the FTC confiscated it? All they gave you back was the cover, but no book? Where's the cover? Did you even try to get the cat to throw it back up?
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20 comments:

  1. Love your disclaimer!
    I don't loan autographed books either - rarely loan any book, as they tend to wander off mysteriously...

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  2. Your disclaimer is a hoot!
    I don't normally read in this genre but I do like strong female characters. It sounds interesting. Glad to hear you had a good day yesterday!

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  3. Hi Helen! I will get this book - it sounds delicious. Have you read Kate Atkinson's mysteries? She started by being a literary novelist with Behind the Scenes at The Museum but then has gone on to write the strangest and most engaging mysteries. I like that very much. The idea I mean that she could win The Whitbread Book of the Year and then go ont write genre!

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  4. The book seems to be well written but having been a human rights lawyer for some time I have already seen too many gruesome sights to be reading about them in my spare time. I like the sound of Lucinda though so maybe I will give it a shot.

    I continue to enjoy your blog - thanks for the inspiration.

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  5. LOL, the disclaimer reads even better than the snippet, and that was GOOD!

    Marvin D Wilson

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  6. There's a a lot going on in this book - it sounds very good. Thanks for the recommendation. I also liked your disclaimer!

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  7. Loaning things out has never worked good for me. Sometimes people will insist that I "borrow" something from them and I'm always so careful with it and make sure they get it back in a timely fashion. And yet most of the time when people have borrowed from me I never get it back and if I do it's been damaged.

    I agree about posting yesterday. In this first year of blogging I have now learned that Thanksgiving and the Wednesday before are pretty dead times for blogging. Everybody's too busy I guess.

    Lee
    http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

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  8. I'm listening to Christmas music right now. Call me crazy. We try to start getting ready now, 'cause we know if we wait, Christmas will suddenly be here and we won't be ready. I do not, however, start shopping now. That's because I hate to shop. Just bringing this up because arlee bird mentioned this is a dead time. I can believe that.

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  9. The disclaimer is a riot!

    Sounds like this is a complex book, I love those. I don't know if I have the mind for writing mystery and crime, but I love reading them.

    Thanks Helen, glad to hear you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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  10. lolol! "Did you even try to get the cat to throw it back up?"

    I've not read her books. I'll have to check it out. I like intense, realistic characters.

    I wasn't on the computer all day yesterday, well until last night when I posted my blog, so I didn't see this on Blood Red.

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  11. Thank you for this post! My sister is crazy for mystery and crime stories, so now I have a Christmas pressie for her!

    I'm going to read it too!

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  12. I checked a bit ago and for some reason my post yesterday is still on the top over at The Blood-Red Pencil. Someone else was supposed to go live today. Hmm.

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  13. How was the fruit pie? And the book sounds like one definitely my type of read.

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  14. The fruit pie was good, not too sweet, even a bit tangy. I ate a piece, my son had a piece, my husband ate the rest.

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  15. Such a fun post! Thanks for this, and hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving!

    From Sarah With Joy

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  16. I was out of town and away from my computer Thursday and all day today, Helen, so just trying to catch up a bit. I have read a number of Dianne's books, and join you in the recommendation. I also heard her speak a long time ago at the Craft Of Writing Conference in Dallas. It was when her first true crime book was coming out. Neat lady and a wonderful speaker.

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  17. Hard to believe she now has, I believe, 9 true crimes out -- and two mystery series, Maryann.

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  18. I save all of my autographed books. I'd never take a chance with them.

    I have seen some autographed books at library book sales, which makes me feel bad for the author who wrote them.

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

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  19. It does make you wonder, doesn't it, Morgan. I keep all autographed books, even ones I read and wasn't thrilled with.

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