Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, August 07, 2008
The Bookworm: ‘Obsessions’ takes fun, folksy approach to murder mystery
At some point in your life, you made a promise to yourself. Chances are, it started out as, “Someday ...”
Someday, I’ll travel through Europe. Someday, I’ll track down that classic car I wanted in high school. Someday, I’ll learn to ski/be brave enough to sing karaoke/master a tricky recipe in the kitchen/be somebody.
For Monona Quinn, her someday promise was to write a fiction book, maybe a mystery. In the new novel, “Obsessions” by Marshall Cook (c.2008, Bleak House Books, $24.95 hardcover/$14.95 paperback, 298 pages), she doesn’t have to look very far. Everywhere Mo goes, a dead body appears.
The peaceful pine country of Northern Wisconsin seems like a good place to hold a writer’s workshop. At least that’s what Doug Stennett thinks when he plunks down money to buy his wife, Monona, a two-week workshop in the woods. It’s not like Mo needs to learn to write; she once was a columnist for a Chicago newspaper and now she’s the editor of a small-town local paper. No, what Mo needs is a vacation, and she and Doug need to work on their marriage.
Because no conference is complete without an author-in-residence, famous writer Fletcher Downs has been tapped to teach a class on mystery writing. His name, affiliated with this workshop, has pulled in people from all over the upper Midwest, but Downs is a curmudgeon and very much a womanizer. He hates everything about the North Woods, and his classes show it. When they turn out to be self-promoting speeches about his books, some of the attendees are disgruntled. When Downs doesn’t show up for his seminars, people are angry, but no one is surprised.
They are surprised, however, by his death. Less than a week after the workshop starts, Downs is found down beneath a pine tree, the back of his head smashed.
Although Doug makes Mo promise she won’t play Nancy Drew, Mo can’t help herself. She had a hand in solving three crimes in the past, and now her reporter’s instinct is telling her this might not be a single killing. The date of the murder rings a bell, and Downs’ death could be one in a chain of crimes. Now Mo’s obsession to solve them all just might have unlocked the clues.
Are you sick to death of violent mysteries filled with terror, blood and gore? You won’t find any of that here in this gentle, hometown-y whodunit.
Cook packs lots of characters into this book, but his main crime solver, Monona, is likeable and believable, as is the supporting cast for this novel. While I had the culprit figured out pretty early, the reason for the murder was a nice surprise, believe it or not, and getting there was a lot of fun.
If you’re looking for a cozy read that won’t make you want to turn on the lights or lock the doors, this is one to sleuth. “Obsessions” is a book you should promise yourself you’ll read much sooner than “someday.”
Terri Schlichenmeyer lives in the La Crosse area and reviews books as The Bookworm.
Send her messages via etcetera@lacrossetribune.com.
All stories copyright 2000 - 2006 La Crosse Tribune and other attributed sources.