Customer Reviews

Cold Front: A Tory Bauer Mystery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Taylor's South Dakota mysteries are a combination of good writing, good stories, and good characters. Her subjects - life, love and death - are what the best novels have always been about. She skillfully encapsulates an entire world of humanity and emotion in one tiny town in South Dakota.

In COLD FRONT, during a blizzard on New Year's Eve, overworked, overweight, forty-something waitress Tory Bauer just might be "amateur sleuthing herself into an early frozen grave."

COLD FRONT is the 5th in the series. If you want to read them in order, begin with FUNERAL FOOD (originally titled: THE MISSIONARY POSITION). The second is SEX AND SALMONELLA. Third is HOTEL SOUTH DAKOTA. Fourth is MOURNING SHIFT. Like her characters, Taylor lives in a small South Dakota town.

I think one of the highest compliments to an author is for someone to say they would buy any book the author wrote even if it was hardback. That's what I have to say about Kathleen Taylor. Her books are wonderful and even if there wasn't a mystery involved, I would read her books just for the pure fun and enjoyment of visiting with the residents of Delphi, South Dakota. From the very first book, Sex and Salmonella, Kathleen Taylor gained an avid follower by her humor and her ability with words which enabled you to picture Delphi and its inhabitants so clearly. Her characters are people you find yourself laughing and crying with and for. Closing the back cover of the current book, you find yourself eagerly looking forward to her next. Cold Front was just as good as her first through fourth books! My only criticism is that things between Neil and Tory are going so slowly! Other than that, I would highly recommend this author and I hope there will be many more books to the series!

Love, love, love this book and the whole series. I am going to be very strict and tell you to run and read the other books before reading this one if you have not already. Some series do not require reading in order. This series does. Start with Funeral Food/Missionary Position and go on to Sex and Salmonella..though for some wild reason S & S is the only book in the series OUT OF PRINT!! And hard to find. But it's well worth it, so keep digging until you find it. The only thing i am mad about is that the book is over and I have to wait countless months for the next one. I kept spreading it out and making it last.

The writing is very clever in all the books, but I think Kathleen Taylor hit her biggest stride with Cold Front. The writing rocked. Even the chapter titles were too clever. She does a lot of literary takeoffs I really like. Tory is always asking herself what Miss Marple would do, so there's one chapter called WWMMD! Then there's the Terrible Awful No Good Very Bad Day chapter. And Little House Trailor on the Prairie! Love It!! Her writing is so hilarious..when talking about one townsperson and how out of snyc she was acting, Tory was mulling it all over and could only come up with one solution-pods in the basement.

I love all the townspeople-Stu the philander, Ron the blinker, Del the cranky nympho roommate, Aphrodite the cook, Neil the librarian-my new hero, Junior the uptight control freak cousin.

And throughout all the books, Tory keeps telling the reader, now if this was a REAL mystery, you would not be putting up with this or we would have already have solved the mystery etc. A nice touch.

Read these wonderfully funny books.

It's New Years Eve, a blizzard has blown into Delphi, South Dakota, the power's out, the roads are closed, the temperature with wind chill is about thirty below and everyone is stuck in town to celebrate. Bad luck for the folks of Delphi, but good luck for us, as we watch overweight, over forty, mystery loving, waitress Tory Bauer, and the rest of the Delphi citizens bring in the New Year. But by morning, thefts are being reported all over town and a frozen body is found in the back of a pick-up truck. It turns out to be Ian Douglas O'Hara, who blew into town from Sioux Falls, just before the blizzard hit and spent the night charming just about every female in Delphi. Now ever inquisitive Tory is on the case, asking questions and as usual, secrets start popping up all over town. Kathleen Taylor has written another terrific, light-hearted mystery, full of great quirky characters. Her writing is smart and irreverent with scenes that will have you laughing out loud and enough twists and turns and false starts to keep you guessing to the end. And as Tory circles closer and closer to the truth, you'll be rooting for her. So sit back, put up your feet and join the gang from Delphi, as they work their magic. You won't be disappointed.

I started reading the Tory Bauer mysteries about a month ago and quickly found myself without something to read because I read them all so fast. So I was excited when Cold Front came out. And Kathleen Taylor did not disappoint!

Tory Bauer is once again thrust into Delphi intrigue after a friends wife reveal secrets that Tory would have rather kept quiet and when her best friend answers a personal add. Her date, a good-looking Englishman who comes to town, along with a snow storm, is found dead in the back of Tory's ex-boyfriends truck.

Along with that, the cafe that she now owns is in financial trouble making it necessary to employ new strategies to keep it afloat that ultimately bring more problems than it solved.

However, Tory's inquistive nature once again take her to wrong conclusions while she trys to understand exactly what happened to her friends date, why a well established town couple is falling apart, and where her new feelings for an old friend will lead.

This book was a great read which I could not put down until I discovered everything there was to know. You will not be disappointed.

Kathleen Taylor is one of the most consistent writers I have ever come across. In this, her fifth novel, she continues the story of the residents of Delphi, South Dakota (and a colorful bunch they are). It is the New Year and a major blizzard has cut Delphi off from the outside world. Three strangers, who came into town before the storm hit, are suspect in a number of robberies around town. One of the strangers turns up dead. It is up to intrepid waitress, Tory Bauer, to sort things out. As in other Taylor books, there is plenty of laugh out loud humor and insight into the workings of human nature. Another winner.

I eagerly look forward to the next release in the series!! Wonderful!

The ordinaryness of the possibility of being frozen to death is the real tension in the book, reminiscent of Jack London's "To Build A Fire." Like that classic, this will you make shiver in bed at night, even if you live in San Diego. The unspoken moral choices and community judgment set this firmly in South Dakota, not Alaska. Note that I said too realistic: South Dakotans tend to see outsiders as cartoon characters, much as coasties view South Dakotans ("I blame Fargo" says Tory), so the criminals' cardboard characters may simply reflect the townies' view of them. The puns and literary references are great fun, but they also tweak the reader's suspension of disbelief. My wife and I adore the series, but this one is very literary, which is why only 4 stars.

Brrrrr - sitting in my warm house, reading COLD FRONT, I fully expected to look outside and see the blizzard approaching. Kathleen Taylor keeps honing her skill as a writer, enveloping her readers with precise description and telling dialogue, creating a new "real" world. This latest Tory Bauer novel is everything I wanted it to be, fun, tense, exciting and a good mystery. What more could readers want? I'm just sorry I have to wait so long for a new one!

As the delightful Ms. Taylor says: "Fable and fiction are filled to the brim with horror stories of what can happen when people are closeted together over a long and unrelenting winter." Been there - done that- got the Damart Long Johns!

The chapter names are just a hoot! For instance: "WWMMD?" (What Would Miss Marple Do?)

My quandary with serials is that, unless one is more patient than I - and can therefore wait for all the books to be available to read in one continuous shut-in-the-house-due-to-blizzard marathon, one must recall who was whom - and with murder mysteries - who offed whom - from the last installment(s.) Waiting for the entire series to be complete (what letter of the alphabet is Sue Grafton on now, anyway?) is really not a good idea - considering my philosophy that life is uncertain: eat dessert first! - that is, if one is allowed dessert - which I am not - see my review of Dr. Atkins' "New Diet Revolution " but I digress. In Taylor's latest ode to the fictional South Dakota town, I was thinking that one of the characters here shouldn't still be in the familiar confines of Delphi, but rather, off at the South Dakota State pen for offing someone in a previous book. I guess I'll have to "back track" during our next blizzard ;-)