Spider Web

March 21, 2011
Benni Harper and her second husband, police chief Gabe Ortiz, face two unexpected situations in Fowler's well-paced 15th mystery set in San Celina, Calif. (after 2010's State Fair). First, a sniper takes a shot at a police car parked near the courthouse, shattering the driver's-side window. Fortunately, the vehicle was unoccupied. Second, a strange woman, supposedly scoping out the central California coast for a retirement home, finagles a meeting with Benni, who's discomfited by how much the woman knows about Gabe's past. Meanwhile, Benni has plenty to do in her role as museum curator, rancher, and devoted daughter and niece to elderly and spunky relatives. In addition, she has the forthcoming Memory Festival to organize. While series fans might lament the relative dearth of quilting lore, a roster of mildly eccentric family and friends and a wealth of good humor are sure to please cozy readers.

April 15, 2011

Quilt maven Benni Harper (State Fair, 2010, etc.) grapples with public responsibilities and private challenges when a sniper targets San Celina's finest.

Hosting San Celina's inaugural Memory Festival would be tough enough for any cowgirl. Benni has to corral the feisty ladies of the Coffin Star Quilt Guild, write narratives for her step-grandfather Isaac Lyons's oral-history project and coordinate booths for everyone from the local Alzheimer's Association to Blind Harry's Bookstore, run by her best friend Elvia. But when a sniper injures two San Celina police officers, including Elvia's brother Miguel, Benni develops her own memory issues. The shootings set Benni's husband, San Celina Police Chief Gabe Ortiz, into a tailspin of Vietnam-era flashbacks so destructive that he moves into the guestroom for fear of injuring his wife. Benni doesn't know which is worse: the fear of bullets that could rain down destruction at any minute, or the ghosts of the bullets that rained down death 30 years ago in Khe Sanh. As Benni grapples with the violent side of Gabe's history, Lin Snider, a mysterious former nurse who says she wants to retire to California's Central Coast, makes Benni wonder whether she'll ever be free of reminders of the romantic side of her husband's checkered past. Even the steady confidence of Grandma Dove and Aunt Garnet may not be able to keep Benni on an even keel this time.

Fowler pieces together questions of memory and identity so deftly that only purists will bemoan the dearth of clues or detection.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2011

What brings a cop-hating sniper to Benni Harper's (State Fair) Memory Festival?

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