Customer Reviews

Walla Walla Suite: (A Room with No View) A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally...a new series with promise! Quinn is a 3-dimensional character who practically bounces off the page. I love her combination of cynical wisdom -- product of her experience as a cop and her divorce -- and very human weaknesses. She's very open about her hot flashes but not to the point where we wonder if we've stumbled on a women's magazine by mistake. She's just seedy enough to render homage to the classic PI literature -- living in Pioneer Square, struggling for clients -- but driving a nice car (a "divorce present").

Quinn meets some interesting people: Arnie, who runs a mysterious business with three "angels" helping him; Bernard the ticket scalper; and Vincent, her special buddy who fears he's getting Alzheimers. She gets involved in a plausible way with the murder of a sweet young girl, someone who worked in the same building. And she more or less stumbles on the murderer and brings him to justice, though not without some tragic consequences along the way.

True mystery aficionados will guess the ending because Argula follows the conventions of detective stories. That's not a negative at all. I admire authors who treat their readers fairly.

I also like Argula's writing: enough surprises to avoid standard cliches but not so many that we're forced to stop and notice. Good mystery writing is almost invisible: we're engrossed with the story, as we should be.

Since I live in Seattle, I appreciate the lovingly detailed setting: Eilliott Bay Bookstore, Pioneer Square, rain, and seasons. I must say I haven't noticed the Pacific NW tendency to politely avoid digging into people's backgrounds, but I'll pay more attention next time.

Just two quibbles. Quinn remains the only fully developed character, and easily the only sympathetic character. I didn't notice till I was writing this review, and it's very common in the genre. And wouldn't Quinn be getting a pension from the Spokane police department? She seems to have put in enough years to qualify.

But the biggest complaint I have is, we have to wait almost a whole year to get the next volume in the series.

Walla Walla Suite is an excellent and modern take on detective fiction. It has some hard boiled aspects to it, but really it's more of a three minute egg; the core of the novel is soft under the hard exterior. Maybe that's a better explanation of the main character, Quinn, a woman of a certain age whose tough, ex-cop public persona is tempered by a melancholic wisdom. There is a sense of loss surrounding her that is logical considering her history, but she isn't needy. She's cagey and funny and bright.

I don't want to reveal any more about the plot than has been mention above, but, being a big fan of detective novels, especially Laura Lippman and Sara Paretsky--both of whom endorse this book--I really liked this book. I have already recommended it to most of my friends.

I knew and admired this author in her "previous life." Argula's hot-flashing - and hard-boiled - PI protagonist, Quinn, intimates early on her belief in reincarnation, which goes back (at least) to her previous adventures in "Homicide My Own." That perfect ear for dead-on real dialogue (from that previous life) is still intact, along with a real feel for the seedy-side-of-Seattle setting, making you feel like that fly on the wall in every scene. Both of Argula's books read like skillfully-wrought screenplays (or perhaps TV scripts). My choice for the role of Quinn? Christine Lahti - a thinking-man's babe, particularly for us older guys. Walla Walla Suite will appeal to all fans of the mystery genre, but particularly to older readers, with its oblique references to the 70s and its wry, careworn heroine. As for the almost love interest, Vincent Ainge? Too beautiful. Write on, Ms. Argula. I expect to soon see Quinn mentioned often in the same breath with PI icons like Robicheaux, Scudder and C.W. Sugrhue. - Tim Bazzett, author of the ReedCityBoy trilogy and Love, War & Polio.

After her husband Connor dumped her for his younger office assistant, Quinn left Spokane to start over in Seattle. The retired police officer becomes a private investigator though her caseload is slim to none except for what mitigation investigator Vincent Ainge sends her way. In the building where they both work is a poster for a missing eighteen year old woman Eileen Jones who also worked there. Unable to resist and besides needing to cool down from her latest hot flashes, Quinn visits the place where Eileen was working when she vanished, Promotion in Motion. She sees four desks three occupied by young beautiful women. She asks a few questions when the owner Arnie Stimick steps inside and asks who she is. She explains and they chat; he hires her to find Eileen.

Quinn visits Eileen's roommate Darla, but the missing girl's boyfriend Guy is there too. Both say Eileen is a great person with no enemies. Quinn next visits Eileen's divorced mom Abby, whose ex-husband lives in Hawaii. Abby looks like she has not slept in ages, but offers nothing new as she insists her daughter had no enemies. Quinn learns they have found Eileen's corpse. She visits an upset Arnie who retains her to find the killer. Not long afterward police sergeant Beckham announces they caught the killer, Randy Merck who was driving Eileen's car. Arnie says Merck must be properly punished so he forms the Friends of Eileen, whose presence will be seen everyday by the jurors while Public Defender Wendy Maron hires Vincent to serve as the mitigation investigator if they lose and Quinn to investigate as needed.

This is a well-written legal thriller with a fascinating refreshing angle that of the mitigation investigator. His investigation is top rate due to the mighty Quinn struggling to make it as a private investigator. However, it is Vincent Ainge the mitigation expert who steals the show. Anne Argula provides a fresh spin to the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

I've never read one of this author's books before. I gather this one is the second book in a series, and I generally like series. I also like the Northwest, and so the setting is something I was interested in. The plot was interesting, in that it seemed that you knew who the bad guy was almost from the word go. Of course you didn't really, and things took a while to unravel, but when they did the ending was a bit predictable. It took a while for you to figure out what the title meant, but when you did it actually had meaning and relevance to the story.

Quinn was a cop in Spokane. Her husband left her for a younger woman, and she quit her job with the force there, and somehow wound up in Seattle, where she decided to work as a private eye. She's now more or less working freelance as an investigator for a guy named Vincent, who works as an advocate, trying to overturn death penalties in all cases because he doesn't believe in capital punishment. As the book starts, Quinn and Vincent learn that a girl who works in the building where they both have offices (Vincent knows her vaguely) has disappeared. Quinn goes and introduces herself to the office manager who employed the girl, and the guy hires her to find the young woman...but before she can, the girl turns up dead. Almost immediately a local drifter, small-time criminal and thug is caught driving the girl's car, and of course he's charged with the killing. Quinn buys the guy's guilt, along with everyone else, but she decides to make sure, and things eventually go sideways.

I generally enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who reads detective novels. It's a bit oddly constructed, and that detracted from my enjoyment of the book, but overall I thought it a success.

I always start out that way.

And am delighted when I can discard that idea.

Like I did here.

It doesn't do much in building on the previous book, Homicide My Own. Only one of the characters repeats. This may be why it works. This is pretty straight mystery writing. Quinn is still the narrator, although to some extent playing second fiddle to the mitigation expert.

my review concerns the packing. The book arrived with bent pages and front cover. I was disappointed in the packing, not the product.l

I hadn't read anything by Argula before, and it took a while to get used to this writer's style. Some of her use of the English language was different, like putting, "Ain't?" at the end of sentences, for instance. (I guess that is a regional thing?). At first, I didn't understand that what she was describing were her hot flashes. Once I got beyond all of that, though, and settled into it, the story grew on me and I was eager to find out what happened and who had killed the girl.

There are parts of this story that just stay with you afterwards, too shocking to readily forget. The guy who turned himself in had suffered abuses that were so sadistic that I almost wished I hadn't read about them.

I thought I had the ending figured out, but was surprised that I'd picked the wrong perpetrator after all.

Argula shared really interesting descriptions of Seattle, and her characters were believable. I particularly liked the three Indians and how they fit into the story line.

This book would make a good movie, fast-paced, suspenseful and slightly sentimental.

Quinn's husband has left her, but her hot flashes have not. She has retired from the police force, moved to Seattle and become a private investigator for Vincent, a mitigation lawyer who worked to keep convicted murders off death row. A young secretary, who works in another office, has disappeared and her boss has hired Quinn to find her. When her body is found and a man arrested, a conflict arises as most people what him executed, while Vincent's job is to prevent it. Caught between the two, Quinn doesn't believe the man is the actual killer.

Argula is an interesting writer whose second book has some great strengths and weaknesses. Quinn is a fascinating character, a transplant from Pennsylvania whose regional dialogue makes her distinctive. But it's her philosophies and viewpoint that make her particularly appealing. Her boss, Vincent, presents a different attitude and perspective to the death penalty than we normally see but, as a character, I didn't find him particularly appealing. The greatest weakness was that I identified the killer almost immediately, and that always disappoints me. Argula is an interesting writer with a unique voice. Although I preferred her first book, "Homicide, My Own," I recommend giving her a try and will definitely read her next book.