PROM MOM

4 stars out of 5

This story follows the lives of four main characters, and although the plot itself is totally engrossing and entertaining, not a single one of the four characters had any redeeming social value, at least to me. There's Joe, who abandoned his tutor-turned-lover, Amber, on prom night when his ex-girlfriend beckoned him back to her arms. There's Amber, forever to be identified a a girl who killed her newborn baby on that same prom night. There's Meredith, a reconstructive surgeon, whose troubled background makes her an uber-neurotic wife to Joe. And finally, there's Jordan, a petulant but beautiful young thing who's determined to take Joe away from Meredith and Amber.

Needless to say, all four ar
e on a collision course; but how their lives are entertwined, when those tendrils will start to unravel and what the fates have in store is the stuff of which a juicy story is concocted. 

Chapters shift in time so readers can get peeks into what conspired to tie these four together, starting with that fateful prom night when Joe abdicated his responsibility for taking care of Amber, who clearly was in distress. Sure, they weren't destined for marriage and neither realized she was even pregnant, much less about to deliver the baby (go figure - I've got no clue). But both have moved on; Joe to marry Meredith and Amber to live a relatively happy life that now includes relocating from New Orleans to Baltimore to open an art shop.

Joe, however, is miserable; his financial life in Baltimore is in shambles (mostly of his own making, and unknown to Meredith), and he still feels guilt over what happened on prom night all those years ago. To ease the troubles, none of which really are his fault, he's prone to straying to other women's beds, most notably Jordan's. Then as fate would have it, he spots Amber's art shop, and Amber, and the race to the finish begins in earnest.

What that finish will be, though, isn't known till the end, which is a doozy. No doubt readers will differ as to which of the four should have had which comeuppance - personally, I didn't like any of them, so I wasn't rooting for anyone in particular. But their trip was well worth reading about - from somewhere around midpoint on, I had trouble putting it down. I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for letting me ride along by way of a pre-release copy. Good one!

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman (William Morrow, July 2023); 312 pp.

DREAM GIRL

5 stars out of 5

Well, if you're looking for a wild psychological ride, you won't go wrong with this one. What a delight!

At first, actually, I worried a bit; just about every chapter switches time frame, which to me is distracting (more accurately described as my aging brain has more trouble keeping things straight than it used to). But in short order - thanks to some expert writing - I was "into" it and really, really didn't want to put it down.

Gerry Andersen gained fame, considerable fortune and fancy digs in New York City after penning a best-selling novel titled Dream Girl, followed by a few other books that did relatively well. Now, at age 61, he reluctantly moved to Baltimore to care for his mother in her final stages of dementia. She died, and he had a freaky accident that left him bedridden in his apartment with almost round-the-clock caregivers who share the chores of making sure he's fed, watered and bathed. He's not happy with the arrangement (nor, for that matter, with either of the women upon whom he's dependent), but much as he'd love to head back to the Big Apple, his choices for the foreseeable future are rather limited. 

The main character in his best-seller was a woman named Aubrey, and despite many pleas from fans and the media to 'fess up, he swears she's not based on a real person or persons. So when he gets a phone call from a woman who calls herself Aubrey - who tells him she's coming to see him soon - he starts to wonder if he's succumbing to the same dementia that killed his mother. That's followed by wonder about how he could protect himself if she really did show up and wanted to hurt him. Even more concerning is that there's no record that he ever received a phone call on his phone; could it be a hallucination caused by all the drugs he takes?

His caregivers aren't much help, nor is the woman he left in New York - one of the few he didn't actually marry - who's followed him to Baltimore. She's almost more of a pain than his shattered leg, but she's hard to avoid when he's trussed up like a stuffed turkey.Things really turn sour, though, when he wakes up one morning to see a dead body - one he's pretty sure wasn't there when he fell asleep the night before. One of his caregivers offers an explanation, but it's not one he wants to hear, much less believe.

From that point on, the plot gets even thicker and more fun with more than a few twists beyond what's already happened - all leading to a bang-up ending that, I must admit, left me cheering. Without doubt, this is one of the most engrossing books out of the 53 I've read so far this year - highly recommended. Kudos to the author, and many hanks very much to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Dream Girl by Laura Lippman (William Morrow, June 2021); 320 pp.

WICKED DEEDS

4 stars out of 5

Up to now, my only acquaintance with this author has come by way of "Infernal Night," a short story co-written with F. Paul Wilson for the David Baldacci-edited FaceOff in 2014. That's my bad; after reading this one - courtesy of an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review - I'll make that mistake nevermore. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which adeptly mixes mystery and history and sprinkles it with the paranormal.

The plot also centers around one of my favorite story-tellers and poets, the late, great Edgar Allan Poe, who makes several ghostly appearances. The book is, you see, the latest in the "Krewe of Hunters" series, featuring historian Vickie Preston and FBI Special Agent Griffin Pryce. Members have been recruited to this unique paranormal FBI team not only because of their investigative skills, but also because they are able to communicate with the dead. On their way to their new home in Virginia - which will serve as home base as Vickie enters the rigorous FBI training academy in Quantico - they opt for a quiet, romantic visit in historic Baltimore.

Peaceful stopover? Fuhgettaboutit. Griffin gets a call from the FBI powers that be informing him that they're needed to help with a "bizarre" case; horror writer Franklin Verne has been found dead in the wine cellar of a the Black Bird, a Poe-themed Baltimore restaurant (for the record, Poe is buried in the city). It appears the death is a suicide - a recovering alcoholic who went off the wagon and on a drinking binge - but his widow, Monica, insists otherwise. The case is complicated by the fact that not a single soul saw him enter the restaurant - nor did they see any of the three dead blackbirds that now surround his body.

As they begin to assist local police with the investigation, Vickie and Griffin get their first visit from Poe, who claims to want to help solve the murder because it might provide clues to his own death way back when (although several theories abound, exactly how he died remains a mystery). In fact, a chunk of the story is a history lesson; it's all put together quite interestingly, woven in and around the investigation and the ghostly dreams and sightings by the main characters.

But wait, there's more: It comes in the form of a second dead body, which turns up during a seance led by a very kooky and almost totally unlikable character who believes she's got a direct connection to the dead (Vickie and Griffin, though, aren't quick to agree). Now, the FBI is called in officially, and the race is on to find the killer before he, or she, targets someone else and possibly puts the future life of Vickie and Griffin in jeopardy as well.

Once I got going, I found it hard to stop reading, and I apologize to "my" Ohio State Buckeyes for keeping one eye on my Kindle and the other on their game with Army (admittedly made a bit easier during the second half, when the Buckeyes pretty much ran rampant up and down the field). My only suggestion, for what it's worth, is to put the brakes on exclamation points at the ends of sentences. In my mind, they're like laugh tracks on TV comedy shows; if you have to tell me when to laugh, it's probably not very funny (and in any case, I prefer to make up my own mind). That said, this may be my first "Krewe" book, but it certainly won't be my last. Well done!

Wicked Deeds by Heather Graham (MIRA, September 2017); 384 pp.