Sunshine and Shadow [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Earlene Fowler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Benni Harper goes back to 1978 to take a closer look at her college days and her first husband, Jack, as she stitches together an event from her past and a crime in the present...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Agatha Award winner Fowler offers two parallel plots to dramatize the alternating light-and-dark theme of her 10th beguiling mystery to feature Benni Harper, the San Celina, Calif., amateur sleuth and folk art museum curator. The first is set in 1978, when she's married to rancher Jack Harper; the second in 1995, when she's married to police chief Gabe Ortiz, whom she almost lost to Gabe's old lover Del Hernandez in her previous outing, Steps to the Altar (2002). In the "present" of 1995, when mystery writer and one-time San Selina resident Emma Baldwin loans a crazy quilt for display at the folk art museum, Benni is excited, though the quilt brings back mixed feelings about Jack. Then, shortly after arriving in town on a hush-hush case, PI Luke Webster, a former LAPD pal of Gabe's, gets stabbed to death. Frightening attacks on Benni's truck, creepy phone calls and hate mail follow. Benni must draw on all her crime-solving skills to find the pattern in the clues presented in this ingenious mystery. The overabundance of incidental detail may put off some, but most readers will relish the author's appealing picture of ranch life and small-town affairs, of barbecues and fiestas, of jocular locals and warm family and friends.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The Benni Harper mysteries all have quilt patterns for their titles, and quilts figure prominently. Benni's latest opens with her grandmother Dove's marriage in the San Celina, California, church where Benni's own first marriage took place. The tale slips between the present (1995 here) and 1978, when Benni was a young married college student writing a paper on her favorite author, a local writer of Nancy Drew-type stories for girls. There's loss aplenty in Benni's circle, where everyone seems to have lost a spouse or a child, but there's tenderness, too, and an honest religious faith that pervades but does not smother the dailiness of life. Benni's new second husband is the Latino police chief. An old friend of his comes to town and is killed; Benni's author also returns to San Celina and is threatened; someone is stalking Benni herself. The many plotlines converge in a warmhearted spiral that includes the difficulties of marriage, the complexities of a large multiethnic circle of overlapping friends and relations, and old, buried secrets. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 446 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587244756
• ISBN-13: 978-1587244759
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Large Print > Mystery & Thrillers

More About the Author

Greetings from a native Southern Californian!

I've been married 37 years to my high school sweetheart, Allen, who was born in Kansas. We met when we were fifteen. We don't have children, but are owned by a spoiled and extremely intelligent Pembroke Welsh corgi named Boudin. We call him Boo. Though I'm a native Southern Californian, my parents are not. My father was born in Colorado and grew up in a migrant worker family. My mother's family were cotton sharecropers in Arkansas. I've been writing since I was in my late-twenties. I published my first novel, Fool's Puzzle, when I was in my late thirties. I like to ride horses when I can (and luckily, have friends who own horses), walk my dog, travel with my husband, sometimes do scrapbooking when I have time. I have three sisters. I'm the number two sister.

I was named after my father and my grandfather. Both of them are named Earl. The first book I remember reading by myself was Curious George. I think it was the one where he went to the circus. My favorite fictional character is Old Yeller. He had courage and loyalty, two virtues I admire greatly. If I wasn't a writer, I'd love to be a dog trainer. Back in the 1980's, for a year and a half, I taught a weekly craft class at a retirement home in Covina, California. My youngest member was in her late sixties; my oldest was ninety-eight. Those fifteen women taught me way more than I ever taught them. I love strawberry ice cream and fried tacos. Together or separately. Doesn't matter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Yin And Yang Of Benni Harper's World, May 26, 2003

By 

Bruce Crocker "agnostictrickster" (Whittier, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunshine and Shadow (Benni Harper Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Sunshine And Shadow by Earlene Fowler is the best Benni Harper novel yet. Not only does she manage to use TWO types of quilts metaphorically [the sunshine and shadow quilt of the title AND the crazy quilt], but she also juggles two different [but related] stories from two different time periods [the current period of the novels and early in Benni and Jack's marriage]. The plotting is tight and the mysteries are intriguing. First and foremost, the novel is about relationships. Benni and Gabe, Benni and Jack, Isaac and Dove, Gabe and his old partner, author and reader, and many, many more. Regular readers of the Benni Harper series should read this novel with relish. Newcomers will enjoy the novel, but I would suggest that they start with an earlier novel. I am also pleased to say that due to Ms. Fowler's newest book deal, we have at least two more Benni Harper novels to look forward to [and a non-series novel that will be set on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas].

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars --Yesterday and Today--, June 24, 2003

By 

Judith Miller (Bluemont, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sunshine and Shadow (Benni Harper Mysteries) (Hardcover)

SUNSHINE AND SHADOW is a little different from the other books in this series. Earlene Fowler takes us back into Benni's early life and her first marriage to Jack. The author switches gears often and intertwines some of the story of Benni and her life with Jack with what's going on today in Benni's life. This is the tenth book in this series and there are many parts that make up SUNSHINE AND SHADOW.

The story begins when grandmother Dove marries Isaac. Her new husband moves in with lots of stuff and Dove asks Benni to take back the boxes that she had stored at her grandmother's home. Many of the items are things that had belonged to Benni's first husband, and they lead to Benni's reminiscing about Jack who was killed in an accident. As she sorts through the material, she comes across a journal that Jack had kept and she receives a startling revelation.

Emma Baldwin, an old acquaintance and famous author returns to San Celina and she and Bennie resume their friendship. She also agrees to lend Benni a wonderful old crazy quilt to display in the folk art museum where Benni is the curator.

Gabe Ortiz, Benni's husband who also happens to be the local police chief, continues to be devoted to his new wife, but the marriage is still a little shaky. The mystery comes into the story when an old friend of Gabe's from the LAPD is killed in San Celina. After that, someone starts harassing Benni, and Gabe is convinced it has to do with an incident from his own past when he was a drug enforcement officer.

I was really looking forward to reading SUNSHINE AND SHADOW, but it was not what I was expecting. STEPS TO THE ALTAR, the previous story in this series, left me in a state of uncertainty as to what would happen to Benni's marriage to Gabe and I approached this book expecting a resolution to that problem. At first I felt that this story skirted that issue; however, the more I thought about this book, the more I realized that the author knows that a troubled marriage is not cured overnight. I believe that she decided to give her characters time to work through their marital problems. After all, everyone's life is filled with sunshine and shadow.

As usual, this author delivers another good book and tops it off by giving the reader something to think about. This is a skillfully written and very clever story.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!!!, May 31, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sunshine and Shadow (Benni Harper Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Incredibly well-crafted, Earlene acquaints her readers with Jack, Benni's first husband. The story flows between the past and the present, weaving the two together in such a way that readers may get goosebumps by the end.