Customer Reviews

Crooked Heart

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

 

 

The murder is not the main thing in this book. You know who the killer is very quickly but the tentative romance between the sheriff and the minister drives the book foreward. You have a nice man (but no saint) who is in a very bad marriage and you have an earnest, religious, opinionated and outspoken woman who knows he's married. What will they do? How on earth can there be a happy ending for them? That's what kept me reading. The plot was only so-so but the characters are great.

Though Harton, New Jersey Chief of Police Tom Holder is married, he has a crush on Episcopalian minister Kathryn Koerney and wishes he had a case that he could involve her in so they could spend some innocent time together. He gets his wish when George Kimbrough reports his wife Grace missing. Ten-year-old Tita Robinson saw the Kimbrough's neighbor Bill Stanley put a woman body into his car. Since Tom has no children of his own, he asks Kathryn to help him question her.

Tita comes across as a very credible witness and on the strength of her testimony, Tom is able to obtain a search warrant to look inside Stanley's home. The police find enough evidence to arrest Bill but there are still some very questions that need answering. Carolyn Stanley has gone missing in San Francisco and it is Kathryn who tracks her down. Kathryn brings Carolyn back to Harton where she and Tom begin to put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

This debut crime thriller of Christina Sumners has plenty of action but very little actual violence in the story line. Tom and Kathryn make a very good team, each of them having qualities that allow them to finally solve one of the most convoluted cases to happen in New Jersey in a long time. CROOKED HEART will appeal to fans of police procedurals and cosies.

Harriet Klausner

Tom Holder, Police Chief of a small town in New Jersey, has several problems. First, a woman is missing and feared harmed--possibly dead. Her husband is discovered drunk and depressed refusing to discuss the disappearance with the police. Second, Tom is stuck in a dead marriage and harbors feelings of affection for a local Episcopal priest, Rev. Kathryn Koerney who feels much the same as Tom. Yet, proper behavior requires they keep their feelings secret from each other. Nonetheless, Tom elicits Kathryn's help in trying to discover why the woman is missing and whom, if anyone, is responsible.
CROOKED HEART is a clever traditional mystery with engaging characters and an idyllic locale. The mystery, itself, is very well thought out and, in the end, quite well done. However, the story never truly captured my full interest and, in the end, proves to be quite forgettable. The bottom line: a good read.

I enjoyed reading Cristina Sumners first mystery Crooked Heart and dificulty putting it down. The characters in the book were enjoyable and when you think you know who the killer is, she twists things around. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good 'Who Done It Mystery'.

A novel with a young, rich, attractive Episcopal priest in old, rich, attractive almost-Princeton NJ runs many risks. Sumners falls prey to none of them. Her characters are terrific -- from a girl we don't see enough of to a husband we see too much of -- and the two main characters, Koerney and Holder, have interesting interior lives into which we are invited to gaze. Sumners hits not one wrong note with quite a variety of motivations, and her gloss of biblical, Book of Common Prayer, and Dorothy L Sayers quotations and adaptations makes the prose a delight.

It's a quick read, but not because it's fluffy. It isn't. It will be interesting to see if Sumners continues the high standards in the next two books. Brava!

I like the main character, a female Anglican priest. I'm always happy to revisit her adventures when I find a new book in her series. I do find them a little hard to get into and the plots a bit convoluted.

No one who loves romance, or is religious, could read this without being revolted by the romance between a female priest and a married man.