Land of the Free, and Deadfall
by Donna Ball
It appears I just can't get enough of Donna Ball's dog mysteries. Even though she insists on repeating what I consider a deathly sin in detective fiction--beating up on the heroine's friends and family. You know what I mean? It seems like that if you can't keep the suspense alive without killing/maiming/fatally wounding the detective's husband/mother/sister/girlfriend then you're not writing an imaginative story. How much misery can a side character endure in one series? Why not introduce new characters to beat up on?
But no, she did it again and she did it so well I could barely stop reading, let alone slow down and savor the situations.
Deadfall did not commit the cardinal sin, and while all of the detective's friends and family played the usual roles, none of them got beat up, kidnapped, or arrested. Guess I shouldn't tell this; however, it just goes to show she can write an absolutely gorgeous mystery using people previously unknown to the reader. I loved it, as always.
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