Strawgirl [Import] [Paperback]

Abigail Padgett (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747246513
• ISBN-13: 978-0747246510
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Abigail Padgett grew up in Vincennes, IN, and holds degrees from Indiana University, the University of Missouri and Washington University, St.Louis. She has taught high school English and college courses in Sociology and Creative Writing in San Diego and Boston, directed an ACLU chapter in Houston and worked as an advocate for the mentally ill, plus enduring some truly weird temp jobs.

Abbie is the author of seven highly acclaimed mystery novels that have been translated into five languages, one novel among which, CHILD OF SILENCE, was made into a movie in France. (Which must have been challenging, since the novel's action takes place in the California desert and features Native American Paiute people.) Her eighth and latest mystery, BONE BLIND, is set in the Boston suburb of Newton, where two horror novelists and a detective just months short of retirement investigate a decades-old unsolved murder the spin from which proves even more deadly than the original crime.

Two new mysteries and a magical realist novel are in various stages.

San Diego is home, although Abbie spends much time on the East Coast and in France, where one of the new mysteries is set. She is a dog person happiest in the company of dachshunds, a lapsed vegetarian with heartland food preferences, and a lifelong fan of Poe, Algernon Blackwood and the Graveyard Poets.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book About Survivors, June 24, 2000

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strawgirl (Paperback)

I don't know how the novel of crime (no use calling it a mystery because this book does not follow the standard mystery format of crime, suspects, detective discovers identity of criminal, at all) has become a favored method by which writers examine society. It probably says something about our society that here the killer and the bureaucrats seem equally souless.

Abigail Padgett has a message. The message is that the mentally ill are more often the victims than the perpetrators of criminal acts. Her positive characters are all survivors. Bo, her main character is a manic depressive, the sole surviving member of her family. Eva Boussard, a psychiatrist, is the survivor (so far) of breast cancer. Rombo is a surviver of alcoholism and hatred by his father. Andy became a pediatrician after his daughter drowned due to neglect.

And all of these people go on doing the best that they can, sometimes getting side tracked from their own purposes because of their basic humanity in an effort to save a little girl whose sister was raped and whose mother committed suicide, free an innocent man and stop the real killer. And they do it with grace, humor and much humanity.

Highly recommend.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative, well-written and unputdownable, March 29, 2000

By 

Sheila L. Beaumont (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strawgirl (Paperback)

Abigail Padgett is one of today's best mystery writers, right up there with Laurie R. King (and that's high praise). "Strawgirl" is the second in her series about Bo Bradley, a manic-depressive investigator of child-abuse cases. Sounds like a downer, but it's not. Ms. Padgett's skillful, imaginative writing, ingenious plotting and complex characterization make this fascinating reading, high on my list of unputdownable books. Bo Bradley is a most admirable, courageous and likable character, as is psychiatrist and cult researcher Eva Blindhawk Broussard, who is introduced in "Strawgirl." I hope the publisher will make this book available again soon. I had to seek out a secondhand copy, and it was well worth the effort.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome story!, December 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Strawgirl (Hardcover)

I have read every one of Padgett's books, and enjoy them all tremendously. These are mystery stories written for literate, thoughtful people, and I can't understand why Padgett's books are so hard to get! Abigail Padgett is a thoughtful, lyrical author who assumes her readers will "get it" without spoonfeeding. I read this book "out of sequence", but am grateful to get my hands on anything this talented woman writes in any way I can.