Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Dead Write by Sheila Lowe. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Dead Write by Sheila Lowe
A Forensic Handwriting Mystery with Claudia Rose
Obsidian (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-22812-X (045122812X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22812-3 (9780451228123)
Publication Date: August 2009
List Price: $6.99
Review: Renowned graphologist Claudia Rose is hired by the owner of an exclusive dating service to help profile prospective clients and provide better matches in Dead Write, the third mystery in this cozy series with an edge by Sheila Lowe.
Or at least that's what Claudia thinks. Actually, she really doesn't know why Baroness Grusha Olinetsky hires her. Claudia leaves Los Angeles for New York City on the spur of the moment only to find she's the third handwriting expert hired by Grusha, and then she discovers that two of the samples that she's given to analyze are of dead people. "[Claudia] considered the demographics: four women, six men, aged from their mid-twenties to late thirties. Their careers were varied. From the information in their files, there was no connection that she could see. Except that two of them are dead. It kept coming back to that. Why would the baroness want me to analyze the handwritings of two dead clients?" Why indeed. She shouldn't need to wonder; she should just submit her analysis report, and return to Los Angeles.
And that's the real problem with Dead Write: Claudia's motivation for staying and participating in what ends up being a fairly complicated police investigation. She doesn't seem to need the money, the handwriting samples aren't intellectually challenging, the assignment isn't furthering her career professionally, and she misses her daughter and her boyfriend. Any sensible person would submit an invoice for services rendered and move on. This isn't to say that the plot isn't well thought out, or isn't suspenseful in and of itself with an interesting twist and turn here and there. It's just that it's hard to engage the reader when the protagonist has no rational, or even probable, reason for being involved.
Special thanks to Penguin Group for providing a copy of Dead Write for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
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Synopsis (from the publisher): When it comes to solving murder, sometimes the pen can be mightier than the sword ...
Handwriting expert Claudia Rose heads to the Big Apple at the behest of Grusha Olinetsky, the notorious founder of an elite dating service whose members are mysteriously dying. Drawn into the feckless lives of the rich and single, Claudia finds herself in a twisted world of love and lies fueled by desperation. But is one among them desperate enough to kill?
Claudia must find clues in the suspects' handwriting before more victims are scribbled into the killer's black book ...
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