Love Her Madly: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2002

A tense, death-row drama--meet brash FBI investigator Poppy Rice in the first of a winning new series

Poppy Rice is home in her D.C. apartment with very little furniture and lots of boxes she still hasn't unpacked after five years. It's three a.m. and she's suffering from her usual insomnia. While polishing her nails, she watches a tape of the CBS Evening News-Dan Rather is interviewing convicted ax-murderer Rona Leigh Glueck. In ten days, Rona Leigh will be the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. Poppy pauses the tape on a close-up of Rona Leigh's small, delicate hands. Okay, she thinks, so maybe it was a lightweight ax.

Poppy digs out Rona Leigh's case file to find-along with the grisly crime-scene photos-a physician's testimony that glee, not muscle, gave her the strength to commit the crime. When her public defender asked the crime lab for help determining whether such a small woman could physically commit these murders, he was turned away for not filing the correct paperwork.

With the reluctant support of her colleague and sometime lover, Joe Barnow, the relentless Poppy reopens the investigation to find out if Rona Leigh deserves to receive a certificate that will read: Death by Legal Homicide as Ordered by the State of Texas.

Funny and fearless, Poppy Rice is just about unstoppable. In fact, she's already on to her next case-Smith is currently at work on the second novel in this smart new series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this terrific thriller, Poppy Rice, director of the FBI's crime lab, reinvestigates the case of an unlikely young female killer on death row in Texas. Poppy's puzzled that the jury accepted evidence that an 88-pound drug addict could murder two people with an ax, based on the testimony of a quack. But she's working against the clock (the execution of Rona Leigh Glueck, now a saintly and eloquent born-again Christian, is rapidly approaching) and against a network of good old boys, including the governor, who aren't eager to see the evidence reexamined. Though Poppy (whom some readers may remember as a sidekick in Mary-Ann Smith's An American Killing) is whip-smart and tenacious as an alligator, she can't get a stay of execution.

But Rona Leigh manages to cheat death dramatically: she survives Texas's lethal-injection cocktail and escapes, with the help of a rebel preacher and his group of New Shakers, who believe she's the second coming of Christ. Now Poppy's task is threefold: find Rona Leigh Glueck, find out how she survived, and find out if she's innocent. Smith's pacing and plot development are subtly perfect, and she renders just enough of Poppy's personal life to make her interestingly enigmatic. Good news: Love Her Madly is the first in a series. --Barrie Trinkle

From Publishers Weekly

In the first installment in a slick new series, the versatile Smith (author of four literary novels and the quality suspense tale An American Killing) introduces Poppy Rice, FBI agent and brassy gal all around, who blusters her way into a capital punishment case obviously inspired by that of real-life convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker, executed a few years ago. Rona Leigh Glueck awaits the execution chamber, "about to be the first woman put to death by the people of Texas since the Civil War," but Poppy deduces that Ms. Glueck's wrists were too dainty to have wielded a heavy ax in a double homicide. In a book long on hokey Texas dialogue (" `You learn anything a-tall in FBI school, ma'am?' ") but short on descriptive narrative, the reader misses a sense of place, but the plot drives along nicely, which is the novel's saving grace. Having turned to Jesus in prison, Rona Leigh seems to await chemical death with equanimity. For reasons that are unclear, a Catholic cardinal offers to be her death row spiritual counselor. While Rona Leigh may have been a loose woman and a liar, many now see her as an angel. Poppy believes that Rona Leigh didn't receive a fair trial, but the obstacles to reopening the case are daunting. The governor has promised himself, and his public, that this woman will die. The action builds to a surprising if implausible climax in the death house that should please most readers. Smith may be no Patricia Cornwell when it comes to detailing investigative work, but she knows how to tell a suspenseful story in an easy, colloquial voice women readers especially will appreciate. Author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (January 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805066489
• ISBN-13: 978-0805066487
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,874,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have lived all my life in Connecticut except for the two years I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon. Presently, I write from my crow's nest in East Haven, breaking periodically to ride the rails from New Haven to New York where I do enjoy the city lights. I have two children, Jene, an RN at Yale-New Haven's clinics, and Jere, who has had a blog since 2004: A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory (http://letsgosox.blogspot.com) Not only does he cover Red Sox lore and stats, he reviews my books--when he's not co-writing them with me i.e. DIRTY WATER: A RED SOX MYSTERY.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 Stars...only because of some very poor editing..., January 19, 2002

By 

Terry Mathews (a small town in east Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Her Madly: A Novel (Hardcover)

Poppy Rice, head of the newly re-vamped and highly efficient FBI Crime Lab and a woman with extraordinary influence over the FBI director himself, has a dilemma.

In just 10 days, alleged ax murderess Rona Leigh Glueck, is about to be the first woman put to death in Texas since the Civil War. Trouble is, Poppy doesn't think the tiny, malnourished, sick and zonked out 17 year-old could have wielded the ax that chopped up Melody Scott and James Munter into enough pieces to leave the blood dripping from the ceiling at the crime
scene.

Now 34, Rona Leigh has found Jesus and believes her punishment will finally set her free from her lurid past and the horrible events 17 years before. She confessed to the crime and is now at peace with her lord.

So, why upset the apple cart and go sticking your nose in a 17 year-old case that was solved almost as soon as it happened? Because Poppy Rice believes in giving everyone a fair shot and the FBI crime lab, under different directorship, had failed to answer a request from Rona Leigh's public defender who had the same questions about her ability to swing an ax with enough power to kill two people.

Because Poppy Rice cleaned up the prior mess of a lab and "...turned a sinking trawler -- infested with a lot of rats --. . . into one sleek nuclear-powered yacht," she has a lot of leeway with her Director and he reluctantly agrees to let her work as a "...full-time pseudo-district attorney" and reinvestigate cases she thinks might contain errors.

Poppy sets about to find out what really happened on the night Melody Scott and James Munter died. Rona Leigh was at the scene, no doubt about it, but could her boyfriend Lloyd Bailey have done the actual killing? No way to talk to Bailey because he died in prison. So, Poppy heads to Texas to talk face to face with Rona Leigh, but finds herself on a roller coaster ride.

She talks to the condemned woman, her former chaplain/now husband, the warden, some Texas Rangers and Melody Scott's slimeball husband, Gary. Poppy's substantial influence fails to deter the Governor on his mission to see that justice is served and that Rona Leigh dies by lethal injection at the duly appointed time.

Poppy is even allowed to watch the execution....only trouble with the procedure is that it fails to kill Rona Leigh, and through a series of carefully planned events, the prisoner escapes to parts unknown. Poppy's mission, now, is to find Rona Leigh and bring her to justice.

This is the first in a series of Poppy Rice novels. Poppy is smart, sexy, sassy, independent, tenacious as a pit bull and has all the power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation behind her.

The writing is crisp and the plot is well-developed. I love the author's use of dialogue. The book is not without its faults, however. There are some glaring errors in the book that any good editor/research assistant should have caught:

1. non-air-conditioned jury rooms haven't existed in Houston since the 1950's;

2. nor do our courthouses have filthy bathroom facilities for juries (inmate labor handles those chores);

3. at one point, Poppy opens a window and says that she needs real air, even if it is "dry and hot" ..... dry and hot are never spoken in the same sentence in Houston due to the constant humidity, which Poppy does refer to later on ....;

4. you can't make the trip from Houston to Huntsville in a half hour unless you're in a plane....even if you're coming from the very north of Houston, you have to navigate through The Woodlands and Conroe and all the never-ending construction;

5. the author must have never driven from Houston to Huntsville, because she says the buildings of Huntvsille "creeped over the horizon," when the only buildings you'd see from the interstate are fast food places, service stations, a Wal-Mart, some restaurants and a few hotels. Downtown Huntsville is about 2 miles off the interstate. She never mentions the fabulous statue of Sam Houston which presides over the entrance to Huntsville from the south (you can see the thing from miles away), so you know she didn't do that part of her research;

6. I lived in Huntsville and as far as I know, there are no billboards advertising the Museum of Texas Prisons and Old Sparky (the electric chair);

7. the AstroBar's jukebox is supposed to be playing a song by Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. I can promise you that a dive like scumbag Gary Scott's would have George Strait, George Jones, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks....they might even have Asleep at the Wheel, but they would not be playing the cutting edge, strictly "Austin" sound of Kinky Friedman. Maybe it was just the author's way to tip her hat to a fellow writer; and

8. Poppy gets a pair of custom made boots in ONE day from a merchant in Gatesville. My friends who wear custom mades say that even a powerful FBI agent like Poppy Rice would be very hard pressed to get a pair of boots like the author describes, in only one day, for any amount of money.

With that said, I still think this is a great book and look forward to more Poppy Rice adventures. Poppy is a likeable character with a lot of sass and vinegar....and the fire power to back up her mouth! I just hope the next time Poppy comes to Texas, the author and her editors will at least talk to someone and verify facts/descriptions/distances between points/weather conditions!

Enjoy!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A psychological thriller based on fact + a super savvy protagtonist = an unbeatable combo!, May 1, 2006

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Love Her Madly (Paperback)

"Love Her Madly" marks author Mary-Ann Tirone Smith's first foray into the adventures of protagonist Poppy (Penelope) Rice, FBI agent, super smart, independent, sassy, savvy, professional 21st century lady that she is. Says Ms. Smith, "The women in my books have lives that simply aren't ordinary. They don't take crap from anyone. This makes them interesting." Poppy has recently been promoted to the directorship of the FBI's new crime lab in Washington, DC, but she prefers to work in the field rather than the office or laboratory. Her boss, appreciative of her talents, accommodates her whenever possible.

When Poppy is up late one night, coping with her chronic insomnia by watching taped news broadcasts on her VCR, she hears Dan Rather interviewing Rona Leigh Glueck, a woman condemned to die by lethal injection in just ten days. Glueck will become the first woman executed by the State of Texas since the Civil War. She readily confesses to having participated, along with her boyfriend, in the brutal ax murder of two adults while high on drugs and who knows what else.

When Poppy notices that the condemned woman is a 90 pound weakling with small delicate wrists, she wonders how the woman could have heaved that ax so many times. Agent Bright receives permission from her boss to travel to Texas and become a temporary "full-time pseudo-district attorney." And thus begins our entertaining, fast-paced tale.

Apparently Rona Leigh was born again on death row and is ready to return to Jesus. At the time of her conviction, seventeen years before, she had just turned seventeen herself, was a drug addict, an alcoholic, a prostitute (had been a child prostitute), and suffered from malnutrition. Poppy uncovers evidence which makes it obvious that the doomed woman did not receive a fair trial. In fact, some of the evidence presented by the prosecution was just plain laughable. And no one paid much attention to the objections and appeals of the defense attorney.

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith frequently writes about injustices suffered, especially by poor women denied choices in life. Says Ms. Smith, "as an FBI agent, Poppy is the first of my characters who has the official capacity to treat injustice and the means to do so at her fingertips and she takes to the task with a vengeance. As Poppy might put it: 'If I'm not outraged at least once a day, bury me. I'm dead.'"

This story is based on the case of Karla Fay Tucker, killed by lethal injection, (legal homicide), on February 3, 1998 by the State of Texas. She was a born-again Christian convicted of the ax murder of two people and the first woman to be executed by Texas since the 1860's. The Texas clemency board follows no written criteria, is not required to meet in person, and hasn't granted anyone clemency in many years. One of the more bizarre Texas laws deprives a prisoner from having his case reopened once thirty days have passed since the conviction. No exceptions!

Before Tucker was executed, there were appeals for clemency from Waly Bacre Ndiaye, the United Nations commissioner on summary and arbitrary executions, the World Council of Churches, Pope John Paul II, and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, among other world figures. Unusual appeals came from conservative American political figures such as Newt Gingrich and Pat Robertson, interceding on her behalf. Tucker did not ask for a pardon, only commutation of her death sentence to life in prison. Huntsville Prison's warden testified that she was a model prisoner and that, after 14 years on death row, she likely had been reformed. Despite these pleas, then Govenor George W.Bush signed her death warrant. (above information from Wikipedia.com)

This suspense thriller is not written to make a case against capital punishment, however. Nor is it predictable. There are some interesting and unexpected twists and turns in the storyline. Oddly, with such a dark topic, the humor is outstanding. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the snappy dialogue. Really good satire! Recommended!
JANA

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Deep in the Heart of "What" State?????, July 26, 2006

By 

Coalpuss "coalpuss" (Winter Park, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Her Madly (Paperback)

I'm not going to give you the in depth story that others before me have filled in. Suffice to say I was determined to finish this piece of trash (I don't know why) and it didn't get any easier as I finally got to the end. Praise Jesus!! as they'd say in this very heavy on religion story about a convicted axe murderess. Yes, Tirone Smith took a real person, Karla Faye Tucker, and made up a pretty boring tale. I think it was boring because it needed serious editing (I had to skim most of it) because, Mary-Ann, Yes! we got it. We don't need every bit of the born again language put down in print. Also, as others before me have commented, her knowledge of Texas must be zero, especially the Houston, Waco, Austin areas. I hate that in a book; far too many mistakes in this one to excuse. One more thing, having lived there for over 25 years I am ever so weary about movies, tv shows and, now, books buying into the dumber than dirt, Texans who fit into some make believe stereotype. Houston is a very sophisticated city and has been since at least the 70s through the 90s when I lived there. Oh, wait! People from Dallas may enjoy this as they feel quite superior to Houstonians (I never figured out why). I read this author once before and thought she was OK. Was I ever mistaken!!!!!!