Nobodys Child [Paperback]

Janet Dawson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: FAWCETT BOOK GROUP (1995)
• ASIN: B000SF867Q
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

In elementary school, Janet Dawson wrote mysteries in longhand on lined binder paper, influenced by those blue-backed Nancy Drew books she devoured. Now Janet writes about private investigator Jeri Howard. Her first book, Kindred Crimes, won the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for Best Private Eye Novel, and was nominated for Shamus, Anthony and Macavity awards. Other books include Till The Old Men Die, Take A Number, Don't Turn Your Back On The Ocean, Nobody's Child, A Credible Threat, Where The Bodies Are Buried, A Killing At The Track, and the latest entry in the series, Bit Player.

Janet was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Colorado. With a journalism degree from the University of Colorado, she worked as a newspaper reporter, then joined the Navy. An enlisted journalist, she wrote news and features in public affairs offices in Guam and Pensacola, FL. As an officer, her duties took her to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives in Alameda. Janet has a master's degree in history from California State University East Bay and can't think of anything she wants to study enough to go back to grad school. She currently works at the University of California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better Have A Cup Of Coffee Handy, February 19, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Nobody's Child: A Jeri Howard Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

A pretty decent book, I thought. Jeri is likable, and I was hooked enough to want to know what happened at the end. It wasn't a struggle to read or understand, and I'm really not that fond of mysteries, so that's saying something. However, it could have done with a little bit more excitement. The book mostly consisted of Jeri talking to various people (over coffee) and not much else. It did pick up a little bit at the end once she drew closer to the solution, but most of it was conversations and descriptions of people. Even though the book description makes it sound as if she's going to have some sort of exciting (or at least we'd hope) undercover work as a homeless person, it's really more Jeri in old clothes buying homeless people coffee and talking with them.

I keep bringing up coffee, because I'm dying to know if anyone else thought the woman drank an unusual amount of the stuff. Coffee, or some kind of related beverage, pretty much plays a role in every interview she performs, which almost got to the point of excessive, at least for me. I got to the point where I didn't need to be reminded that people were drinking coffee, as I could pretty much assume that someone was sipping the stuff at all times. The affect was that I pretty much had a craving for a hot drink for about half of the novel. So maybe a little less coffee next time, as it actually started to stand out from the story.

Otherwise...not too bad.