Customer Reviews

Marriage Is Murder (Jenny Cain Mysteries, No. 4)

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In this fourth of the Jenny Cain series Jenny prepares to marry her long-time boyfriend, police dective Geof Bushfield. Before that happens she gets involved with seemingly abused wives who appear to be murdering their husbands. The book delves into the the dynamics of abuse relationships and what happens to the women involved in them. Jenny also questions her forth- coming marriage to Geof while he is questioning if he wants to stay with the force. Although the book was written in 1987 it is still revalent to situations that are happening today. Perhaps the ending is a little too neatly tied up but still an enjoyable read as we get to know Jenny & Geof better.

Ms. Pickard is a good writer, with the wit to make domestic abuse/murder issues as funny/ironic as they can tastefully be. Reasonably funny, actually, but she does display the multifaceted tragedy of those situations as she goes.

The biggest problem is that this book's characters and plot are developed as though it were a 1950s domestic comedy--her tone and character depth are like Diane Mott Davidson's [an author I like, whose characters somehow end up more winning and less stereotypic, via the extra hundred plus pages per novel she takes to develop things.] Both central and peripheral characters are too simple and unreflective. Pickard does considerably better in her more recent, and longer, The Whole Truth.