Customer Reviews

The Socorro Blast: A Sasha Solomon Mystery (Sasha Solomon Mysteries)

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Roving PR expert Sasha Solomon's next client is the New Mexico town of Socorro. She's looking forward to spending a few days there getting a feel for the area and meeting the locals to prepare her proposal. Even better, her favorite niece, Gabi, is in the area, and Sasha is planning to spend some time visiting her.

Unfortunately, her trip gets a much earlier start then she had planned. She's awakened in the middle of the night by a call telling her that Gabi was injured when a pipe bomb went off in her mailbox. Naturally, Sasha rushes to be by her side.

Sasha is relieved to discover the police are already on the case when she arrives. However, Gabi starts lying to them about what happened to her. What is she covering? Given Gabi's mixed Jewish and Iranian heritage, Sasha begins to worry that the police will view her more as a suspect then the victim, so she sets out to find the bomber herself. Adding to the mix, Sasha's sister and older niece arrive and make a tense situation even worse. And, of course, Sasha still needs to finish her proposal. Can she defuse the situation and meet her deadlines?

Spending time with Sasha is always a pleasure, and this book is no exception. She's an interesting character with more flaws then many heroes, but that makes her all the more appealing. And she is strong. Once again, the plot included several good twists along the way. It did tend to get mired down in the family drama at times, although the family drama added an interesting new thread to the book. Still, the ending felt a little rushed. The writing is wonderful as always, with the occasional sentences that really catch your eye.

While the book reads just fine as a mystery, there are some deeper themes to the adventure. The book never gets preachy, but allows the reader to think about things from another angle.

Whether you are looking for something deep or not, this is a fun, confusing mystery that will entertain.

While writers are encouraged to write about what they know, it doesn't always work. Pari Noskin Taichert's protagonist, Sasha Solomon is a freelance public relations specialist. This secondary plot line gets in the way of what could be a great read in Noskin Taichert's third Sasha Solomon mystery, The Socorro Blast.

Sasha's niece, Gabriela Shofet, is the picture of pure innocence, lying in her hospital bad, after her hand is almost blown off when someone put a bomb in her mailbox. Sasha soon learns, however, that appearances are deceiving. Gabi is involved with a married man and experimenting with new explosion technologies. Not only that, Sasha can't get the right answers from the dreary Detective Sanchez. She feels like he's holding back-and it's something very important.

To make matters worse, Sasha is juggling more than Gabi's accident. Sasha is also trying to conduct a PR plan for the region and keep her freelance income going strong, in the midst of breaking up with her boyfriend, Peter, and bracing for the arrival of Gabi's sister and mother, who are about as low key as Sasha. Things get even worse when Sasha visits Gabi's shabby home and finds it defaced with graffiti. Still, the police won't talk, so Sasha feels she must move in and use her amateur sleuthing skills to find out exactly what's going happening.

Unlike Noskin Taichert's other two books, The Socorro Blast, moves from cozy to suspense, tilting on the edge of the thriller. Like the first two books, there is too much going on. The use of PR as a vehicle to move Sasha around New Mexico didn't work for me. Neither did the carefully worked metaphors and similes. Noskin Taichert left not a one that didn't feel "labored over."

Although The Socorro Blast is a stand-alone novel, it relies too heavily on information that I have forgotten about from the first two novels. If the PR plot goes away, I might consider picking up future Sasha Solomon mysteries, but truth be told, these problems mean I might review a free book, but would never buy them.

Armchair Interview says: Consider this reviewer's comments.

Ms. Taichert is a two-time Agatha Award nominee and her Sasha Solomon, the humorous star of the Blast, is genuinely appealing and engaging.

In the Socorro Blast, Sasha's niece Gabi is the victim of an explosion, putting Sasha in the middle of a crime as well as complicated family dynamics. Is it a pipe bomb? A hate crime due to Iranian connections? Then again, Gabi is involved in explosives technology herself, making the crime pretty ironic.

On the way, a shot into the mouth from the whipped cream can and sights, sounds, smells and tastes of New Mexico put you right into the action, solving the mystery and getting into trouble along with Sasha. Her family, friends, cat, boyfriend, ghosts and the local police department don't make it any easier...

I don't want to give anything away, so Blast yourself and enjoy.

I lived in New Mexico for years, still travel widely across the state, graduated from Tech and even took a course in explosives engineering. I enjoy Taicherts references to places I know, and was really looking forward to this book. Maybe all of that means I was expecting too much. Her past books have deftly tied in the PR angle with a mystery plot that makes sense.

In this book she spends way too much time on family in-fighting with childish outbursts from all involved - and no where near enough time on the mystery. The plot development and resolution to this book simply didn't do it for me. The "mystery" is solved in about the final 10 pages, and pieces that don't make sense are basically answered with "How can anyone make sense of the things young people do."

I get the feeling she was rushing to meet a deadline.

***** Plot Spoiler Warning *****

What would drive a respected (although loathed) researcher to lose his mind, destroy all of his lifes work, and attempt to murder people? Because his wife was leaving? Why would this professors wife leave him over this affair as opposed to all the other affairs? There is no evidence that he needs his wifes money or localized power, and he took care of the unwanted pregnancy in the first part of the book. This explosives expert and former MIT professor is not smart enough actually kill someone?

The author has written another winning combination of mystery and travelogue. Sasha, the whip cream hitting protagonist, finds herself in Socorro this time, on another PR assignment to boost the area's tourism. She works around what appears to be a hate crime, but are looks deceiving?

The additional twist here is that her niece seems to be in the middle of the proceedings. This story provides an observation of hate crimes and how they affect people, with an introspective look at family interaction. The book is not just your usual mystery, but a compelling combination of family and societal dynamics.

You will be left reflecting on your own principles. Here again, Ms. Taichert has written a book I strongly recommended.

I looked forward to the third installment in this series, but I was disappointed. There was no mystery. Sasha didn't solve a thing. She hardly investigated anything either. She mostly argued with her family about her religion or lack of it. Her relationship with the local cop was the same as previous books, nothing new or interesting. Why he would even bother to talk to her, much less keep her abreast of the case, is unsubstantiated. The plot could have taken place anywhere. Her "local color" references, visits to neighboring attractions, were labored and might have been researched in a weekend. I hope her next novel is better again, or Sasha had better retire.

Put together Sasha the PR expert and curious investigator extraordinaire along with her niece Gabi, an explosives investigator at New Mexico Tech, and the special locales near Socorro, New Mexico, and you have, well, quite a Blast! Hate crime or accident? Victim or terrorist? The mysteries mount in this enchanting tale from the Land of Enchantment.
Readers will visit the great outdoors near Socorro, such as Sivelleta and Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuges,the Civil War's Fort Craig, the small towns of Magdalena and San Antonio, restaurants like Pasadita's, the Manzanares Street Coffee House and El Camino in Socorro, as well as the historic Owl Bar and Manny's Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio. Cruise by Socorro's historic Plaza and drive the local streets--California, Bullock, and Manzanares. Socorro hotels, such as the the modern Holiday Inn and vintage Val Verde Hotel play a part in the investigation.
Combine all that local Southwest color, along with the author's unique humor, into an intriguing and explosive mix of prejudice and technology, and you have quite a literary Blast indeed. Buy the book and feel the mysterious power!