Customer Reviews

Bad Medicine

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's diverse work has impressed me for quite awhile now. My favorite books are her historical vampire books, but I would have to say her Charles Spotted Moon series is my second favorite series, behind the Saint-Germain and Olivia books. There are only four books in this series, but I hope one day there will be more.

In Bad Medicine (published in hardcover as Ogilvie, Tallant, and Moon in 1976) lawyer Charlie Moon's client and love interest is accused of malpractice. Moon uses his skills as a lawyer and his shaman magic to find the real culprit.

So fans of mystery, start hunting the used stores for Bad Medicine, False Notes, Poison Fruit, and Cat's Claw.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's diverse work has impressed me for quite awhile now. My favorite books are her historical vampire books, but I would have to say her Charles Spotted Moon series is my second favorite series, behind the Saint-Germain and Olivia books. There are only four books in this series, but I hope one day there will be more.

In Bad Medicine (published in hardcover as Ogilvie, Tallant, and Moon in 1976) lawyer Charlie Moon's client and love interest is accused of malpractice. Moon uses his skills as a lawyer and his shaman magic to find the real culprit.

So fans of mystery, start hunting the used stores for Bad Medicine, False Notes, Poison Fruit, and Cat's Claw.

Every detective fiction author has some unique "conceit," or character and setting that have a trendy background. Although that is lamely predictable, it can be done well, and Yarbro has. Some silly political and social mantras aside, the writing peers into modern life with a skeptical flashlight, and the mystery is well-paced enough to unravel like a bungee jump - the jolt is at the end. Charles Moon is enigmatic as the solid character who steels himself against his own emotion, but there's a wrinkle: he's also a mystic. Here is where Yarbro triumphs: writing a mystical detective story that isn't complete garbage like some of the more popular ones. I'd recommend this to experienced readers of entertainment-level detective fiction.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (is that a she, a he, or a committee?) is an expert fad-surfer; although the vampire novels are reasonably adept, this attempt to cash in on the popularity of Tony Hillerman's Indian detectives falls flat. The writing isn't bad, and the mystery is intriguing enough -- but when Charlie S. (for Spotted) Moon uses magic to discover who done it, I found myself squealing "That's CHEATING!!" Don't bother to track this novel down; unless you're a collector of rare books, it's not worth the effort.