Customer Reviews

Death, Lies and Apple Pies (Tori Miracle Mysteries, No. 2)

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

 

 

Lickin Creek is a small rural community in Central Pennsylvania where the English and Plain people peacefully co-exist, while the Hollow people stay to themselves in the surrounding hills. Horror novelist Tori Miracle had the honor (or perhaps the misfortune) of visiting the town where her best friend is a resident. During her stay, she investigated a murder and met the man she deeply cares about, Sheriff Garnet Gachenauser. She decides to leave New York to vacation in Lickin Creek to see of she and Garnet have any future together. Her first night back in the tranquil town, she is involved with a new murder investigation. ...... The victim dies in Tori's arms, claiming to have been poisoned. Tori vows to uncover the identity of the killer if it is the last she ever does. Since the murderer wants to remain anonymous, Tori's days may be numbered. She barely escapes two attempts on her life, while two people who might have helped her on her case are found dead. If Tori is not careful, the killer may find the third attempt to be the charm. ..... DEATH, LIES, AND APPLE PIE is a fast moving, entertaining amateur detective cum cozy mystery that captures the duality of warmth and darkness that make up a small town. It is the non-threatening incidents that abound in this absorbing novel that create an atmosphere that allow the reader to bond with the heroine. There are the usual plethora of suspects in the well plotted story line, but most of the audience will not be able to guess who the killer is because Valeri S. Malmont cleverly hides the perpetrator in plain sight. Hopefully, there will be more Tori Miracle adventures in the near future. .....Harriet Klausner

I love Valerie Malmont's Tori Miracle books. The town of Lickin Creek is vividly painted. Its citizens can be a bit eccentric, but not so over-the-top that they become unbelievable, and they constantly remind Tori, the heroine, that she doesn't quite fit in.

This is a well-written series, and I'm eager to read the next Tori book (I think it will be published in early 2003).

Tori Miracle, struggling writer, goes to Lickin Creek, PA (in the Appalachians) to visit her guy, who is Chief of Police of a very tiny police force (1 1/2 persons, including him). Early on, the richest man in town dies in her arms, and she is convinced that he was murdered, although there's no evidence for this. She decides to investigate this on her own, and her first step is to visit Haggie Aggie, a traditional healer who lives up a hollow in an area well known to be dangerous to strangers, particularly women (I told you she was a very silly detective). Throughout the book, attempts are made on her life, but this does not deter her at all from her investigation (I found myself thinking "is this woman stupid or what?")

So -- why give it even three stars? I might even go to 3 1/2 stars: the plotting was fairly good, even if it was highly unbelievable. The cozy little community of Lickin Creek is amusing. I was fairly surprised by who the killer turned out to be. But the writing was very average and there was that Tori Miracle, apparently born without a lick of common sense.

All in all, it's not bad as a home-sick-in-bed sort of book, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read more books by this author. Although other readers find Tori Miracle a likeable character, I found her silly beyond words.

DEATH, LIES, AND APPLE PIES was set in Pennsylvania Dutch country, but the Amish culture did not play a major role in the small town shenanigans of Lickin Creek. This rural Americana features Irish immigration more than Germanic. Though the town's setting, ambiance, and warm/feisty residents were fetching, I was captured more readily by the opening scenes of Tori Miracle greeting her day with a left-over, cold pizza slice and a fizzed out Coke in her funky-and-dumpy rather than cozy-and-classic New York 4th floor walk up. Of course I could easily identify with an author far below the limelight of her career phases as she got herself through a quiet book signing at a nearby bookstore. (Typically, those events are attended by honest-to-goodness book buyer/readers only when the author is at a Sue Grafton level, or when the author has promised her firstborn to an ad agency.)

The varied settings, plot, characters, and relationships perked along smashingly, with entertaining tiny twists building methodically to bigger ones. The mystery itself was interestingly convoluted, with 3 murders intertwined and the complex culmination containing a multiplicity of surprises, all of which were perfectly set and matched.

I enjoyed the way Malmont highlighted the Norman Rockwell type brilliance in her small-town ambiance, yet interjected dimming flickers of the sunlight, some of which were humorous, others chilling, giving the effect of an endearing balance between the idyllic and the real.

The villain-ized political agenda was the (at its peak when this novel was published) popular environmentalism trashing of economic factors related to the Industrial underpinnings of the area (realistic Capitalistic survival needs equated to greed, elevated to evil).

The political theme tested my ability to enjoy this novel on its own merits, when the good/bad guy parameters hit too close to home with an uncannily reversed, parallel situation which diminished the robust industrial economy of my small hometown area in Colorado, and forced my husband and I to temporarily relocate to a different part of our State (a 5 hour drive from family history properties) to earn a living. Being on the inside of the situation then, I knew beyond doubt that the honest Vs the unscrupulously self-serving camps were somewhat switched from this story's approach. Possibly the only reason murders didn't collect in my reality then was because the good guys were hard working laborers of integrity, and the bad guys were skilled mostly at media maneuvering (and used an activist name strangely similar to "CANLICK"). Instead of being the delightfully contrary true heroes, as Greta and gang were developed to be in this novel, the activists in my town's case were media-maneuvering, self-righteous bullies, mostly non-native to our area.

I don't know if I'm happy or sad to say that I was somewhat able to detach from personal economic forces, beyond beliefs of right and wrong, cause and effect, and to acknowledge that this novel was well-designed entertainment, a viable cozy worthy of 5 Stars. About a quarter into the read, I was concerned whether I'd be able to finish this book and include it in my stable of raving reviews.

The fact that this review is here is a tribute to Malmont's skill as a novelist, and her ability to generously give a few points the "other" side of a political issue, instead of demonizing Capitalism absolutely, simultaneous to sanctifying environmental terrorism. Related to her generosity to various venues in political/economic agendas, Malmont exposed a complex awareness of psychological nuances which play on the unsettling fuzziness of lines between good and evil.

I wonder what will happen to the hordes of political agenda novels, including big titles like THE PELICAN BRIEF, when the pseudo in the "science" is exposed, upon which environmental terrorism and a phobic-based hostility of Capitalism has been based. Media pushing of extreme Left-Wing causes has imbedded this type of misguided self-righteousness into so much of the literature put out during the last half of the 20th Century. Sometimes I wonder if a human-hating-phobia rose out of the stench of the Dark Ages, infecting the value of the Industrial Revolution and the potential health of Capitalism. Did the Black Plague transmute into a cerebral worm twisting logical reasoning into manic, chaotic, terrified non-thought?

But, as to my question arising from this book, about any reader, not just me, being able to appreciate literary value of a novel when its good/evil definition runs painfully off the base of the reader's beliefs...

A comment made in passing by Tori Miracle may indirectly apply to the issues I'm dredging here. She noted that if the pioneers who settled the Pennsylvania town of Lickin Creek had the option of Lazy Boy Recliners instead of the Amish-like wooden benches, they'd likely have chosen the Lazy Boys. That statement may have been true of some of the settlers, (especially the Irish; I'm half-Irish and a comfort hound). However, the essence of the Puritans and the Amish is that "Lazy" is an early sign of the successful seduction of evil. In their day, prior to the creature comforts brought about by the Industrial Revolution, these people had no alternative to working incredibly, incessantly hard to barely survive. To lose their motivation for the true necessity of nearly 24/7 hard labor was to perish, not merely as individuals, but as a community, and eventually as a species.

According to Barbara Workinger's research, the Amish generally eat fast and rest lightly on hard surfaces. They don't want to get anywhere near "soft." For well-spotlighted glimpses of the essence of Pennsylvania Dutch belief systems, read Barbara Workinger's Granny Hanny series, Tamar Myers's PenDutch series, and James A. Michener's THE NOVEL (I've posted reviews on most of these). Dramatizing the issue of the potential evils in rubber Vs. Iron tires, Tamar Myers's PenDutch novel, THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE LADLE, gives insight into the Amish/Mennonite continuum of concerns about allowing a foothold of "soft" or lazy.

DEATH, LIES, & APPLE PIES, is actually more similar to the Minnesota based, Hannah Swensen offerings of Joanne Fluke, than it is to Amish culture mystery series. Since I have also enjoyed the cozy, small town warmth (contrasted perfectly to Minnesota winters) of Fluke's series, I see the entertainment value and good writing in Valerie Malmont's Tori Miracle works. There's room for variations on themes in the cozy mystery genre. Maybe that space for alternate spices is one of the reasons these side-genres have such escape reader appeal.

All novels have political, social, and/or cultural issues to display and play. As we grow in Individual and Collective Consciousness as a species, hopefully we'll begin putting out books with more "truth" in fiction while retaining the reality-escape-factor of conjured, concocted plots. As to the books polluted by the dark centuries of the ignorance of a species struggling awkwardly toward consciousness, maybe they'll become relished, cherished history. It'll be easier for me to enjoy their great compositions when there's no longer fear that the off angles on good and evil, cause and effect, will return us to the swamps or the caves.

We may go through a period in literary history in which embarrassment about the scientific, political, philosophical swill of an immature, fearful species will cause certain books to become less sought sore points. However, I believe that a time will like come when maturity and security are solid enough that these off-base political agendas become quaint, possibly even return with fad surges now and then allowing us to view our early ignorance as endearing, from the safety of the distance of time, and solidity of Truth.

In the meantime, I can enjoy a good story, even when it roots out a reversal of the good/bad sides of various cause which weakened the industrial/economic backbone of my hometown, a place which still has a great number of residents who are usually silent about political issues. Too tired when they come home from work to fight ignorance, they choose to live, labor, and retire from honest jobs, solidifying the luxuries we've come to expect, for which too many have forgotten the source. My husband works in a coal mine as a high voltage electrician/mechanic. When you flip a light switch, when you light up your Laptop PC, his back was one of the aching ones which gave the effort of "clean" labor to daily bring that electrical/electronic ease from "off" to "on."

As a cozy mystery, this novel was excellent entertainment. As history pushes forward, backward looks will have varied-colored spotlights on the "truth" in fiction.

You'll find me rambling within well-composed novels to escape the down sides of life, to renew my soul for the next step through the maze of physical reality.

Linda G. Shelnutt

How cute and homey can a cozy be before it sickens you? This one has all the elements -- the single, inquisitive female sleuth with obligatory cats, the small town with its deep, dark secrets, characters with names like Bathsheba Butterbaugh -- but the end result is an improbable story-line filled with improbable elements, all told in a writing style that sometimes borders on the insipid. Tori Miracle is making a return visit to Lickin Creek, PA. On her last visit a historic building was burned and someone was murdered, as Tori keeps reminding us. Surprise! This time the same things happen. But the doctor says that Percy Montrose died a natural death. That's not good enough for Tori. She's convinced he was poisoned. Why nobody thought to do an autopsy until much later in the book is never explained. There is an attempt at a twist at the end of the book, but it's so lame that any perceptive reader will have seen it coming well ahead of time.