Customer Reviews

Casket Case (Callie Parrish Mysteries, No. 3)

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

 

 

Having read the first two Callie Parrish Mysteries, I was a little confused by the title of the third one. Casket Case is a shorter title than the first two and isn't related to a nursery rhyme. I feared there might be some other significant changes. The first few pages assured me that Callie and Jane are back in full glory.

Occasionally, some readers complain about Callie's vocabulary - specifically her use of puh-leese and ex-scuuze me. This seemed less prevalent in the new book. I had the pleasure of meeting Fran Rizer at a reading where someone questioned Callie's friendship with Jane. Rizer's response was, "Callie and I both try to control Jane, but it's impossible. She does as she pleases." I think the same may be true of Callie's word usage. She talks however she wishes, though I myself keep waiting for her to slip into some secondary cussing.

Back to Casket Case - I rate it five-star. It's fast-paced with interesting new characters as well as those I've come to know and love in the first two novels. Readers see more deeply into the personalities of Callie's father and brothers. There's a twist in the plot when the villain is identified, but I won't reveal that here.

To me, Callie Parrish mysteries get better with each new book. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes a comfortable southern-based mystery with intriguing characters who bring chuckles and occasional belly laughs along with murder.

I would enjoy the Callie Parrish books a whole lot more without the constant and (to me) exceedingly annoying exaggerated expressions....buhleeeve me, pleeeeese, loooooove....the main character is in her early thirties, not a 14 year old squealing her way through the Mall.

That said, I enjoyed Casket Case much more than books 2 and 3 in this series. Just wish that there could be a bit of character growth. And just how does she support herself when it seems like Otis and Odell are always giving her time off to run to help Jane or follow up on a clue? Minor quibbles. It's a good book. Just pleeeeease clean up the vocabulary.

The Callie series gets better and better, although I can't imagine Callie without her Victoria's Secret inflatables. I'd heard the original title was another nursery rhyme, but the editor or publisher changed it.

It's one good story and I liked the idea of Jane hooking up with one of Callie's brothers. Now if Callie can get a good boyfriend!

Interesting read, particularly the details about the funeral business and exhumation. I admire Jane's independence as a blind person, and I don't mind her telephone occupation, but I abhor her criminal side. Callie needs to get tougher with Jane or end the friendship. She's really an accomplice to Jane's thefts in that she knows Jane is stealing and doesn't do anything about it.

There is a major writing and editing flaw in this book, at least in the paperback version. In the last chapter, as Jane and Callie are relaxing on the beach, Jane asks why Callie's dad and sheriff went to Dennis's cabin. And Callie replies that "Frank and Jane got worried. . ." And then later in that same paragraph she again refers to "Frank and Jane". For goodness sakes, she's talking to Jane! That's why I'm only giving this book three stars. A good editor should have cleaned this up before publication.

This was the first Fran Rizer book I have read, and it will probably be the last. Here is why:
Jane. I was taken aback (yes it sounds old-fashioned ) not by the phone-sex thing, but by her THIEVERY. And the mention by Callie that she had committed somesort of fraud in another book/the past re. a pretend slip-and-fall in a public place. IMO I find this abhorrent and I do not find Jane "cute" or spirited; just a thief and a swindler whose character feels entitled (as so many do in our world these days) b/c she is blind, blond, short, or what-have-you, I don't know. But grow up. And I agree with another critic in that, Callie is somewhat complicit in her CRIMES as she knows about them , has known about them for some time,and I believe, hasbeen with her as she commits them. Oh, and holds the stolen items for her in her car/apt/etc. I agree that, were this my "friend", she would be relegated to boundary status somewhere out in the back forty after a couple of warnings to grow up and cut it the H out.
Callie. Again I agree with other critiquers in that she "talks" as if she is maybe 19. "Puh-LEEEEZE" has to go! Puh-LEEEZE stop! And while the author on one hand tries to make her such an independent woman in some ways (own apt./job/comfortable with firearms,helper of the handicapped), in many other ways this character is Southern Little Girl in a nauseating way (Daddy, MANY brothers, TWO male bosses, former BF who is Dr.at the E.R., etc) who somehow ALL seem to routinely come to her (frequent) rescue! Poor widdle Callie. So pretty and helpless. "Gag"
3- Speaking of nauseating: I could have gone withOUT the references to "Barfing" several times in the last chapters of this book. "Puh-LEEEZE"!
4- The happenings in the book were most often illogical and even inexplicable: one example was the man (SPOILER ALERT) who stuffed the squirrels being the Tahoe driver who did such incredible damage to her and the funeral coach all because he was "mad" she had "Ignored him repeatedly." Really??? Really Fran? I mean yes there are superKooks in this world but....I highly doubt someone as goofy and off-center as MulletMan would, IRL, be able to diabolically plan-out and execute such a gruesome and dangerous scheme. He seemed more to trend to the wacky squirrel stuffing and should have been kept that way. It didn't fit.
*The only thing I really liked (or didn't mind) about this book was the information she provided through Callie and the Middleton brothers,about exhumations and burials and degradation of bodies and caskets, etc. THAT was interesting.
Everything else was Fluff and while I don't expect high literature from the cozy set, I have read enough of them now by different authors, that this one fell far short.
Get rid of Jane and I "might-could" be able to try another , subsequent Parrish book. WITH Jane in there, absolutely for-GET it.
!

The fourth book in the Callie Parrish Mystery series is as much fun as the other three. Callie cannot stay away from dead bodies and not only because she works as a cosmetitian at the local mortuary, she seems to attract dead bodies even during her off time. She also has the dubious talent of attracting less than acceptable men and never recognizes the "normal" men who are attracted to her.

Her BF Jane plays a major roll in this book and continues to keep the reader in suspense about which personality she will display. Callie's family back her up as always and the reader is given more insight into the family.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a book that is fun to read, that is stress free and makes the reader want to find out just what Callie will do next as well as how many more dead bodies can possibly turn up in Callie's hometown.