Customer Reviews

Sacred Cows

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Few things are as bad as a telephone call in the middle of the night; especially if you've got a huge hangover. But work doesn't wait and police reporter Annie Seymour rushes to a crime scene where a beautiful and naked Yale student has taken a dive from a balcony. Seymour's newspaper doesn't really like covering things that might disparage the university, and the fact that the dead student doubled as an escort, complicates things.

Annie's nose is twitching. She smells a good story but it would be helpful if the incompetent newsroom "boob" Dick Whitfield wasn't shadowing her and if her boyfriend, Tom wasn't doing his job as a police detective by withholding information she needs to follow the story. Then there's the dreamy Frank Sinatra look-alike that seems to be stalking her.

Annie negotiates the labyrinth of inconvenience and begins to uncover a corruption network that may even involve her own attorney mother. When another murder of a Yale student-turned-escort occurs, Annie knows no one is safe, not even her. This could be a story that costs her her job or even her life.

Annie Seymour is a bright, sassy and gutsy lady who likes to do things her way and without any interference from anyone, including boyfriend, boss, co-workers and mother. She has a good sense of purpose and uses snappy self-talk to work out in her head the stupidity of others.

Olson writes a good story with snappy patter and likeable characters. I'm looking forward to the next Annie Seymour outing. I suspect Olson is only going to mature as a writer.

Arnchair Interviews says: Think Janet Evanovich, and you'll have some idea of Olson's style.

Karen E. Olson's "Sacred Cows" is a standout debut from this veteran journalist. It's the entertaining story of Anne Seymour, a crime reporter in New Haven, Conn., who's working on a juicy story nobody wants her to pursue.

Someone is killing Yale co-eds who just happen to work for a local escort service, and the deaths look like they might be tied-in to a crooked city lawyer who has conveniently gone on the lam, taking with him the investment funds of most of the city's elite.

Olson writes with a light touch that is the perfect compliment for this charming mystery. The engaging Seymour is a wise and witty character who is good at her job and takes no lip from anyone. Here's hoping she returns for another go-round.

With some of the mixed reviews I wasn't sure if I would like this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The main character is a tough as nails character who is lacking in manner, and tends to overly use the F word. Over all she is a likable character, with a great plot. I do not agree with the reviewers who stated that this is a Stephanie Plum like character. If you are expecting to read a Janet Evanovich like book, you will be disappointed, but overall this is a good book. I loved the cow sub story, I felt the same way when the cows came to my home town, just what Texas needs...something to make us more country than we already are!

It's 3:42, Anne Seymour's phone wakes her from a hungover sleep. It's just another day on the crime beat of the New Haven Register.

At first glance, the decedent is a suicide. Turns out, the 20-ish Yale coed was dead before she ever hit the concrete. And--when the dead girl's friend turns up knifed to death, things really heat up for our daring woman reporter.

Olson keeps the action coming with just enough humor to make the novel less of a bitter pill to swallow. She knows the news business and the politics therein from her own beat as a travel reporter. Her style is crisp and evocative, but not quite as descriptive as I would hope.

I am however definitely looking forward to the next installment in this series.

First in a mystery series featuring Annie Seymour, a police-beat newspaper reporter in New Haven, Connecticut. Annie is a hard-edged, cynical, experienced reporter who lives a somewhat chaotic life. When she is awakened at 3 a.m. by her editor telling her there's a dead body and to get her [...]. to the scene and get the story, a whole series of bizarre events is set off, eventually involving her mother's law firm and a private eye who turns out to be a guy that she went to high school with. The situation is complicated by the fact that Annie happens to be dating the police detective in charge of the investigation, and that there's an eager beaver young reporter trying to scoop her at every turn. The young dead woman is a bright Yale student with rich parents, but when Annie discovers from talking to her roommate that she was also employed by a high-class escort service, the higher-ups really get their knickers in a twist!

Annie is a very "real" character, one I liked a lot--partly because I recognized a kindred spirit; she talks and thinks a lot like I do. (i.e., this is NOT a cozy! LOL) She's got her faults and is willing to admit to them, and she tells it like she sees it. Annie's rose-colored glasses were long ago stomped on and tossed in the trash, and yet she manages to get through life with her very sharp sense of humor intact. Excellent first in series and I will be following this one very closely! A+

I found myself desperately trying to grab five minutes here and there to read more of this book whenever I could. I hated to put it down. Loved Annie's voice. The mystery was interesting enough, but the love triangle was what grabbed me. I can't wait for the next Annie Seymour book!

Annie Seymour, a spunky female police reporter is woken in the wee hours of the morning by a phone call. Her boss, Marty, urges the feisty reporter out of bed and hurry down to the scene to get the scoop on a girl's dead body that has been found in the road in front of University Towers. Annie arrives at the scene ready to grill everyone for what information she can, including from Tom, a police detective she's sleeping with.

The quick-witted reporter learns that not only did the victim, Melissa Peabody, take a dive from a balcony of University Towers, but she was also a Yale student, not good news for the school or its prestigious image. Annie also uncovers that Melissa led a secret life, as an escort girl.

Annie smells a big story brewing as the school battens down the hatches. Her only problems for the moment are a colleague Dick Whitfield who is shadowing every move and she manipulates into doing some of her legwork, Tom who withholds information and a stalker.

Despite inconveniences Annie manages to uncover a corruption network, links to important members of the city that may even involve her own attorney mother. When yet another Yale student-turned-escort turns up dead.

Sacred Cows, is fast paced and exciting. Its strong plot, often times hilarious dialogue and colorful characters will keep readers involved and aching to solve the mystery!

Reviewed by Betsie

The girl's body is found in the middle of the night, draped over the sidewalk in front of University Towers in New Haven. Annie Seymour arrives at the scene early, disheveled and hung over but ready to pry what information she can from the policemen on the scene, including the one she'd been sleeping with an hour earlier. Annie, the protagonist of Karen Olson's debut novel Sacred Cows, is the police reporter for the New Haven Herald. (The Herald is a fictional stand-in for the author's real-life employer, the New Haven Register. Olson is the newspaper's travel editor.) Annie has been on the paper's cop beat for four years, but her investigation into this case will mark new territory for her. It is, for one thing, a political hot potato. The deceased is quickly identified as a Yale undergraduate, sophomore Melissa Peabody. The Yale connection means that the Herald will be under considerable pressure from both school and local officials to downplay the seedier aspects of the case. This won't be easy, as the case turns out to be very seedy indeed. Melissa Peabody's murder winds up involving an escort service, and Annie's investigation leads her to uncover some dirty laundry in City Hall itself. The man behind the dirt is New Haven's assistant corporation counsel, Mark Torrey, who was with Melissa on the night she died and may well have killed her. He may kill Annie as well: he is at least not above attempting to silence her by violent means once she gets too close to the truth. Compounding these complications is Annie's personal life: her relationship with the detective working the case amounts to a huge conflict of interest for both of them.

Sacred Cows is the first book in what will evidently be a series of Annie Seymour mysteries, and I for one am pleased. Annie is a strong enough character to anchor a series--likeable, but imperfect and given to obscenity and pleasantly curmudgeonly. (After studiously avoiding meeting her neighbors for years, she laments finally coming face-to-face with the people who share her Wooster Square brownstone. "I would have to say hello on the stairs, let them into the building if they forgot their keys, help them with grocery bags. Oh, God, I might have to move.") Much of Annie's cantankerousness is directed at Dick Whitfield, an annoyingly eager but otherwise inoffensive cub reporter type who follows her around puppy-like on this investigation in the hopes of making a name for himself. But others catch Annie's wrath as well--her society matron-cum-successful attorney mother; the mysterious winking man she keeps running into, a sexy Frank Sinatra look-alike who seems to know her; and not least the cows of the book's title, the herd of painted fiberglass bovine statues that descends on New Haven in the middle of the story. The cows annoy Annie by their mere presence in town, particularly after she is ordered to report on their doings for the paper. (Olson takes Annie's negative reaction to the cows a hair's breadth too far when she describes her as giving one particular cow, dressed in doctor's scrubs, a wide berth: "I took a deep breath and got out [of the car], careful not to get too close to the Doctor Cow. You never know when you'll end up in the Twilight Zone and one of those things would come charging at you.") Apart from their role as focal point for Annie's annoyance, the cows don't contribute much to the storyline, though I suspect the book's title refers as much to Yale's position in New Haven as it does to the fiberglass beasts themselves.

Olson writes well, and her plot is for the most part credible, though two of the book's details struck me as unlikely: that Annie would buzz someone into her apartment without finding out first who it is when she has every reason to believe someone is trying to kill her, and--more incredible yet--that a librarian working at the circulation desk of Yale's Sterling Memorial Library would be able to point to where a particular undergraduate is studying in the cavernous building when asked. But that Yale's library and colleges provide the backdrop to Olson's mystery is a fact to be celebrated. As a New Haven-area resident myself, I very much appreciate the local flavor with which Olson imbues her book: pizza and the Peabody Museum, Atticus Books and Willoughby's and Sleeping Giant State Park. I look forward to Annie Seymour's next appearance on the local authors table at Atticus.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Rebeccasreads recommends SACRED COWS as a rip-snortin' debut noir mystery, liberally peppered with dark humor & evil intent.

Annie Seymour is one flawed heroine: rough, brash & given to excesses, however, she's as tenacious at getting to the truth as a Bull Dog is intent on your ankle, & about as lovable!

Every reporter spends their time looking for the story that is going to make them something. When a young Yale student is found dead, Annie Seymour believes that this may be her chance. However, the college pushes not to have their name degraded with the news, especially when they find that the girl was an escort during the night. Annie decides to follow with her gut feeling as she digs further into the mess of a complicated story. Then another Yale student is murdered, one that Annie had talked to.

Should Annie continue? She struggles as her own life is endangered. However, the reporter in her becomes more curious as many different people seem to be involved. Several men that formed a company are suspects, if only they could be found. Then there is the boyfriend of the first girl killed. As Annie digs deeper, her mother even becomes involved.

Sacred Cows, a debut novel, is fast paced and will keep readers guessing. As more and more people get involved, readers may believe that the crime will never be solved. They also will be on Annie's side as she struggles with whether she should just give up. In addition, readers will be concerned for her as the guilty try for her life too.