The Day That Dusty Died [Hardcover]

Lee Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1994

Deb Ralston faces her most personally harrowing case when she is assigned to the Fort Worth Sex Crimes Unit and finds herself recalling her own childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Police Detective Deb Ralston, of Fort Worth, Texas, is again faced with myriad personal and professional problems (Hacker, etc.). Above all, she wants to know why 16-year-old Dusty Miller jumped to her death from the window of her parents' comfortable middle-class apartment. The answer comes with a visit from Dusty's older sister Sandy, who'd been at school with Deb's daughter Becky. Now disowned by her parents and working as a prostitute, Sandy had escaped after years of her father's sexual abuse. Meanwhile, Doreen, her youngest sister, remains at risk as Deb, hobbled by minor foot surgery, struggles with various domestic crises; her own and her sister Rhonda's long-repressed history of sexual abuse; and, at work in the Sex Crimes unit, a couple of serial rapists and another appalling abuse case involving a seven-year-old. Catharsis for the author, herself a victim of abuse, but more social-worker's case history than police procedural--all heavily padded with domestic minutiae, laced with mini-lectures, and downbeat most of the way. Heartfelt and compelling at times, but small comfort for the reader seeking escape from the world's woes. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312097794
• ISBN-13: 978-0312097790
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,742,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Deb Ralston....this is a book that is difficult to, May 26, 2002

By 

L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Day That Dusty Died (Hardcover)

find, even at a rare bookseller.

In it, Deb, who should be just relaxing after foot-surgery, grudgingly agrees to help out temporarily in the Sex Crimes Unit.
She gets involved solving the real reason why a popular sixteen year old would leap from a balcony.

This is tough work for Deb, who's own somewhat dysfunctional childhood keeps surfacing, especially when her younger sister Rhonda turns up, like a bad penny. When Deb's well-meaning mother and a friend of Deb's daughter Becky (the friend has turned to prostitution) are woven into the story, the tale becomes cathartic for victims of sexual abuse, and gives the reader a sense of how difficult it is for the police who try to
solve these cases.

I found it to be an excellent of Lee Martin's writing of some of her own experiences through the eyes of her heroine, much like her other works, and felt the somber tone was in keeping with the nature of these crimes.

Read it if you can get your hands on it!

2.0 out of 5 stars My Only Disappointment from this otherwise wonderful writer, April 8, 2002

By 

Thomas H. Griffith (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Day That Dusty Died (Hardcover)

Lee Martin is, in my opinion, one of the best mystery writers of the last 20 years of the twentieth century. Her character, Deb Ralston, is both engaging and does what reaches me: uses her own religious faith (as it is in the process of developing, in this series of books) to help her solve the crimes she is working on. This is one of the rare Police Procedural series where the protagonist is married, has a family, and what happens with them is equally important to the plot.
Unfortunately, this book was the one disappointment I had in this series. There is no question that this book was a personal testimony of Ms. Martin, as she is/was working through her own experience of being molested while a child.
But because this was so personal a story, the story itself became a screed, rather than a great story (which categorizes all of her other books.)
I'm sure it would be helpful to those who are working through their own negative experiences as children. But as a mystery story, it was not a good offering.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pardon my commenting--I wrote it!, February 18, 2010

By 

Anne Wingate (Salt Lake City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Day That Dusty Died (Hardcover)

I appreciate the comments of the reviewers. I didn't mean to write a screed, but I was in group therapy at the same time I was writing the book, and my brain was in overdrive. Both of you were highly complimentary, and most kind. Thank you.

I'll be putting all the Deb Ralston books onto Kindle in the next two months. Please come back and get the ones you don't have. If you don't have a Kindle, that's okay, because they'll also be available through Amazon's Print on Demand system.