There Was a Little Girl: An E. J. Pugh Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Rogers Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

No Good Deed Goes UnpunishedNO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

Romance novelist, harried mom, and sometimes sleuth, E.J. Pugh has a habit of being in the wrong place at the right time. This time she's on hand to pull a suicidal teenager from a freezing Texas river. The distraught young girl, Brenna, has good reasons for wanting to end it all, since she comes from the worst horror of a family since Charles Manson's. And a good Samaritan act has propped E.J. into the middle of the dysfunctional mess.

Then comes the news that makes E.J.'s blood run-cold: the girl's mother has been murdered, and Brenna stands accused of the crime, E.J. feels certain the frightened teen is innocent, and the determined crime solver is making it her business to save a troubled child's life one more time. . .even at the risk of losing her own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

E.J. Pugh is the first one to admit she's no Martha Stewart. What she is, is a sometime romance writer and an emotionally over-extended wife and mother. She's also a woman who can't walk away from trouble. In this fourth installment of her series (after Home Again, Home Again), E.J. jumps into a freezing Texas river to rescue a suicidal teen named Brenna. As young lives go, Brenna's is lousy and getting worse fast. Her mother, free after a nine-year term for the death of Brenna's baby brother, is hell-bent on hauling her daughter off to live with her abusive stepfather. But E.J.'s not about to let that happen. With the help of family counselor, Josh Morgan, a Herman Munster-type with a mega-watt smile and a troubled past, E.J. gives Brenna a fresh start. For the first time, things are looking up for Brenna...until her mother and stepfather are murdered and she becomes the prime suspect. Cooper, who spikes her first-person narrative with humor, witty wordplay and the occasional philosophical insight, produces not just a smart, fast-paced mystery, but a thoughtful, touching tale as well.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"One of today's finest mystery writers." -- -- Carolyn Hart

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380794683
• ISBN-13: 978-0380794683
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,414,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book--I'm glad E.J. Pugh is back, July 29, 1998

By 

SnideSide "SnideSide" (Full time RV'er, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: There Was a Little Girl: An E. J. Pugh Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

In this book, our friend Eleanor Janine Pugh (E.J.) is back. She saves the life of a young girl who tries to commit suicide by drowning and is off into another adventure. The rescue of this girl intoduces Brenna to E.J. and involves her in the girls life. Her history is very sad and her life is aobut to become very complicated by the return of her mother, who left her years before in the custody of her grandmother, a woman who doesn't know much about raising a girl in this day and age. When the mother is killed, the girl becomes a suspect in the murder and E.J. helps to solve the murder and help Brenna work out a plan for her future. The people in this book are so real and the mystery very gripping. I enjoyed it very much. May this series continue on for a long time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Praise from a non-mystery person, March 23, 2001

By 

"v1ctorya" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: There Was a Little Girl: An E. J. Pugh Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

I don't like mystery, never really have. I was always brought up in the world of Science Fiction/Science fact. And I loved this book. It really is not what I expectd a mystery to be, but it has made me rethink my reading habits. This is a drama- a story with fully developed characters and a story that I was cheering, sighing, yelling out loud for. I responded to this book the way men stereotypically respnd to football. It really was engaging, and has led me to pick up another one of her books which is just as good. The writing is intelligent and engaging and I completely feel for each of these characters, even the overshadowed husband. The dynamics between characters are great. I definately reccomend this work.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good mystery with a surprise ending, February 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: There Was a Little Girl: An E. J. Pugh Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

According to Chinese philosophy, when you save a person's life, you are responsible for that individual forever. Romance novelist E.J. Pugh did not fully grasp that Asiatic credo until she spots teenager Brenna McGraw jumping off of a bridge. E.J. follows her into the water with a dive of her own.. After rescuing the sixteen year old, E. J. feels responsible for Brenna, who has suffered a tragic life.

When Brenna's mother Lori is released from prison after serving nine years, she plans to take her daughter with her to Houston. Brenna rejects that option because she refuses to live under the same roof as her step-father, who is responsible for the death of her baby brother. A week before they are to go to Houston, Brenna and her grandmother find Lori dead, a gun shot wound to her head. Her grandmother accuses Lori of murder, leaving it up to E.J. to prove otherwise before Brenna is arrested for matricide.

THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL is a first class puzzler because it is very difficult to decide who the perpetrator is in spite of the fact that once Susan Rogers Cooper reveals the identity of the killer, in hindsight, it is obvious. That ability and her brilliant characterizations which immediately hook the audience make Ms. Cooper one of the better mystery writers on the market today.

Harriet Klausner