Customer Reviews

The Star: A Tarot Card Mystery (Tarot Card Mystery S.)

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Warren wants so badly to live a quiet life in Berkeley, doing his tarot readings for customers and leaving his past buried. Unfortunately for Warren, life doesn't seem to be that simple. He has a daughter named Fran
that he has only met recently and she turns up asking for his help. Her husband, Orrin, has left her, taking her five-month-old son, Justin, and he is refusing to give him back.

Orrin is soon found dead, Fran is the prime suspect and calls Warren. Even worse, it is apparent to Warren that Fran has another thing in common with her father, she too is bipolar and even worse, is not receiving treatment. Warren knows that for him to help Fran, he will need the help of his girlfriend, Sally, teenage friend Heather, and his therapist, Rose.

I devoured this book! Warren is the kind of friend anyone should have watching their back. He's determined, loyal, trustworthy, and won't quit even when the odds are stacked against him. I can't wait to see where his
next adventures take him.

Warren Ritter's peaceful day reading Tarot cards on Telegraph Ave. is brought to an abrupt end. His daughter, Fran, whom he has only met, shows up. She is separated from her husband, a police officer, and he has now taken their baby away from her refusing to give her back. Soon, the husband is found murdered and Fran is the prime suspect. It's up to Warren to prove her innocence.

There was much to like about this book and a few things that didn't quite work for me. I very much enjoy Warren. He has a great voice and provides the reader with an excellent understanding of clinical depression, although it's almost a bit too much so, at time, as it can slow the pace of the story. I liked that the plot revolved around Warren's family as it gives more dimension to the character. The sense of place is well done and gives the reader a real view of Greater Bay Area/Northern California towns. I'm not one who usually pays much attention to the physical book I'm reading, but I did notice it here. I Ioved the type font used for the headings and, with the story taking place around Christmas, the use of old carols at the beginning of each section. However, the publisher has changed the style of the covers and I really preferred the old ones. Now we come to the "didn't quite work for me" part. One problem with writing in the first person is conveying what happens when the character is not on scene. I felt it a bit awkward to think so many people would remember long conversations verbatim. I also kept wondering where were the detectives who would have been investigating the husband's murder. However, there were more things to like about the book than not. The plot was interesting, the story definitely kept me reading and I enjoyed it.

If you haven't read David Skibbins' earlier mysteries in the Tarot Card Mystery series, now is the time to pick up Eight of Swords and High Priestess. It's important to know Warren Ritter before he delves further into his personal life in this book.

Ritter is a tarot card reader, but also was a member of the Weatherman Underground thirty years earlier, so he's been a fugitive since then. He also suffers from bi-polar disorder, which doesn't make it easy for him to build and maintain relationships.

In The Star, he's forced to work on those relationships, when his daughter tells him her husband, a cop, took their baby and left, because of her bi-polar disorder. When he's later found murdered, Warren doesn't know if his daughter did it. He's forced to work with friends and family to help his daughter, and search for the killer.

This is the most intimate look into Warren Ritter's life yet. If you enjoy mysteries for the characters, check out The Star.

In Berkley, California, after vanishing for three plus decades as a 1960s radical gone underground after officials considered him dead in a 1970 explosion, Warren Ritter, resurfaces as a sidewalk tarot-card reader trying to stay out of trouble, but not always successfully. He feels good about meeting his married daughter Fran Wilkins and his grandchild Justin though not comfortable with her Santa Cruz cop of a spouse Orrin. Warren proves correct when Orrin leaves Fran taking their infant with him to his deeply religious fundamentalist parents to help him raise his son, as he claims his wife is unfit due to her bi-polar condition.

Not long afterward, Orrin is found murdered with Fran as the only suspect as she tried to kill herself; the police assume a suicide murder attempt with one homicide. Unable to stay out now that he has met his daughter and grandchild, Warren investigates while watching over Justin and eluding Orrin's partner Vespie who knows he has a perfect case against the wife and her fugitive father.

The third Tarot Card mystery is an interesting investigative tale in which readers learn plenty about Warren's father, sister, daughter and others in an extended family. The inquiry is fun to follow though it lacks the readings that made the previous two novels (see EIGHT OF SWORDS and HIGH PRIESTESS) refreshing. Still fans will enjoy following the escapades of a former radical activist as he tries to reconnect with his family especially with his offspring in trouble though his final approach to prove Fran's innocence seems over the edge.

Harriet Klausner

#3 Warren Ritter "Tarot Card" mystery. Warren, formerly known as Weather Underground radical Richard Green, is determined to settle into his new life and not run away again. (Richard Green "died" in an explosion twenty odd years earlier, and Warren Ritter is one of several incarnations he has used since then.) Doing well on his meds for his bi-polar disease and with his computer hacker girlfriend Sally, he is still working on his relationship with his newfound daughter Fran. So when Fran shows up on his doorstep early one morning needing his help--she shares his bipolar gene--he steps in to do what he can. When her husband first disappears with their baby Justin, and later ends up murdered with Fran the primary suspect, he sets aside his job as a street tarot reader for a few days and investigates. He finds another blast from his past, a fellow radical who used to be a member of the Black Panthers. What connection could he possibly have to Orrin's death? And what about Fran and Orrin's minister, whom Warren discovers has a secret past?

I really enjoy this series a lot--it's a shame there's only one more waiting. (Hopefully the series will continue, but the last one was published in 2008, so we shall see. The author writes very knowledgeably about mental health issues and the treatment/medical system, his characters are engaging, and the mysteries interesting. This one I had sort of figured out, though not the logistics of it til the end. Anyway, another enjoyable entry in the series!

Absolutely loved this novel, the third in a series whose titles refer to cards in the Tarot Deck. The protagonist amateur sleuth is an ex-Weather Underground fugitive who assumes fake identities and reads cards on Telegraph in Berkeley. The plot to "The Star" involves family members of the man: his deceased father's ex-lover shows up with a family secret while his bipolar daughter involves him in a murder investigation. It's all very genial without being corny. It's also fast-paced, funny, and original. Will appeal to anyone who has an affection for the fringes of the counterculture.

I guess I like "series" mysteries- this is a fun and interesting series, set in Berkeley: if you haven't been there, you should see what you've been missing. It's another culture.

Because of the title, I got Skibbins' #4 Tarot related book, "The Hanged Man," first - then I found out about his other books, all with the name of a Tarot card for a title, now have all four. They are independent, but run in a series. "The Star" is as good as the other three. Now I will read "The Hanged Man" again!

Easy to read amateur detective story, interesting main character, probably influenced by the author's alter-ego. The main protagonist, Warren Ritter, does Tarot readings on the side, doesn't believe in it as real, but then, just maybe once in a while. That is what drew me in, but his cast of characters are interesting, and the books are a lot of fun. Great diversion, and just a bit inspiring, as well. I'd like to meet the author.

Waiting for "The Tower", his next.

Larry Heath

It's coming up on Christmas, Warren Ritter's best season reading tarot cards in Berkeley, but he doesn't hesitate when his daughter Fran asks for his help. She's separated from her husband Orren and now, Orren has taken Justin, their son, and placed him with his parents. Things are shaping up for a nasty divorce and custody hearing when Orren turns up dead and Fran is accused of the crime. But Fran, suffering from untreated manic-depressiveness, doesn't remember what she did the night her husband died. Warren finds that this case may dig up even more of his past.

Warren doesn't want to mess things up with his daughter, especially since this is the first time she's called him "dad" since he learned he had a daughter a little over a year ago. When Richard Green became Warren Ritter, he expected that he'd have to give up family, friends, and relationships. But in the last two years he's managed a détente with his sister Tara, a strained relationship with his daughter Fran, and began a relationship with Sally, a world-class computer security expert. However, he's managed this without having to come out of hiding since he's still wanted for his role in the Weathermen bombing years ago. To find out what happened to Fran's husband he may have to risk it all because Orren was working undercover looking into a local terrorist cell and Warren knew the leader years ago when he was active in the Weathermen.

I'm afraid that I missed High Priestess, the second book in the series, but there has been growth and change in the characters that carries over from the first book. Warren knows that it's important to control the manic/depressive cycle and he knows that Fran must admit she has a problem. But when they are so new to each other, it's hard to know when to push and when to ease off. On the other hand, what Warren learns about Orren and his attitudes helps him to better understand his daughter.

In this book, Skibbins plays with the mystery tropes and actually pulls off a 'everyone gather in the living room' ending. Of course the living room is really the church, but it's still fun. He also, throughout the book, has Warren try on the investigative styles of various famous detectives which, for Warren, don't work and he has to fall back on his own developing style of investigation.

The characters are fully formed and while not always likable they are understandable. The plot has a lot to say about expectations, bigotry, and redemption. Read this book, and if you enjoy it, give a copy to someone for some hopeful Christmas reading.

Warren Ritter is not who he says he is. He's been on the run from a former life (that minor problem of a townhouse blowing up, the FBI's interest in him and his revolutionary beliefs and actions) for thirty years. To complicate matters, Warren suffers from bi-polar disorder and the constant desire to run from commitment.

Warren recently learned he has a grown daughter, Fran. Fran has just separated from her police officer husband, Orrin and he's taken their infant son from her. Orrin believes she's an unfit mother because she's bi-polar and occasionally does some pretty weird things.

When Orrin is murdered, the police focus on Fran. It's up to the reluctant father, Warren, to prove his daughter is innocent.

Warren also has reason to suspect his own father's death was not an accident and he is determined to find what really happened, who did it and why.

David Skibbins is my new favorite author. This former hippie protagonist has a serious mental disorder and reaches into the deepest part of his being to 'step up to the plate' and make responsible choices.

The dialogue is snappy, the plot is fun and the characters, well, you'll love them or you'll hate them. I can't wait to read his previous novels Eight of Swords and High Priestess. And I certainly am excited and look forward to his next novel.

Armchair Interviews says: David Skibbin's The Star sizzles.