Sacred Cows (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "My hand closed over the cold steel in that second between hearing the phone ring and before my eyes opened..." (more)
Key Phrases: Mark Torrey, David Best, Melissa Peabody (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A phone call summons New Haven, Conn., crime reporter Anne Seymour from a beer-fogged sleep to cover a breaking story at the start of Olson's spirited debut, the winner of the first Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award. The dead body of a Yale undergrad lies at the foot of a luxury high-rise condo. Anne faces the usual stonewalling by the detective-on-the-scene;which smarts a little extra as he has recently vacated her bed. Dogged by a pesky fellow reporter, Anne struggles to keep her byline to herself, while she's warned off the case by her boss, her cop boyfriend and the university higher-ups. The plot thickens when she learns that the student was a high-priced escort, as is the next young female Yalie found murdered. A slave to her hormones, the smell of garlic and her driving ambition, the spunky, imperfect Anne is an engaging protagonist. Several other well-realized characters, some bovine humor and an amiable sense of the Yale/New Haven community round out this enjoyable first.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The first winner of the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award is a worthy choice to honor the late Mysterious Press editor who was known for her ability to discover new talent. Olson, travel editor for the New Haven Register, sets her debut novel in a world she knows well: journalism. Annie Seymour, a thirtysomething crime reporter for the New Haven Herald, is spinning her wheels on the job and in her personal life. Then a Yale coed, who was moonlighting for an escort service, is murdered. Annie smells Big Story, but she's barely able to start sniffing the trail before her publisher, her cop boyfriend, and her lawyer mother all attempt to put her off the scent. Further distractions appear in the form of a PI on the case who arouses more than Annie's competitive juices. Olson succumbs to the occasional cliche ("My life was hanging in the balance"), but she's onto to something good in Annie, whose dry wit and frenzied manner recall various female sleuths (Millhone to Plum) without seeming purely imitative. Expect much more from Olson and Seymour. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446616850
• ISBN-13: 978-0446616850
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #449,196 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Star is Rising!, September 18, 2005

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Cows (Hardcover)

Few things are as bad as a telephone call in the middle of the night; especially if you've got a huge hangover. But work doesn't wait and police reporter Annie Seymour rushes to a crime scene where a beautiful and naked Yale student has taken a dive from a balcony. Seymour's newspaper doesn't really like covering things that might disparage the university, and the fact that the dead student doubled as an escort, complicates things.

Annie's nose is twitching. She smells a good story but it would be helpful if the incompetent newsroom "boob" Dick Whitfield wasn't shadowing her and if her boyfriend, Tom wasn't doing his job as a police detective by withholding information she needs to follow the story. Then there's the dreamy Frank Sinatra look-alike that seems to be stalking her.

Annie negotiates the labyrinth of inconvenience and begins to uncover a corruption network that may even involve her own attorney mother. When another murder of a Yale student-turned-escort occurs, Annie knows no one is safe, not even her. This could be a story that costs her her job or even her life.

Annie Seymour is a bright, sassy and gutsy lady who likes to do things her way and without any interference from anyone, including boyfriend, boss, co-workers and mother. She has a good sense of purpose and uses snappy self-talk to work out in her head the stupidity of others.

Olson writes a good story with snappy patter and likeable characters. I'm looking forward to the next Annie Seymour outing. I suspect Olson is only going to mature as a writer.

Arnchair Interviews says: Think Janet Evanovich, and you'll have some idea of Olson's style.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stellar debut, February 16, 2006

By	David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sacred Cows (Hardcover)

Karen E. Olson's "Sacred Cows" is a standout debut from this veteran journalist. It's the entertaining story of Anne Seymour, a crime reporter in New Haven, Conn., who's working on a juicy story nobody wants her to pursue.

Someone is killing Yale co-eds who just happen to work for a local escort service, and the deaths look like they might be tied-in to a crooked city lawyer who has conveniently gone on the lam, taking with him the investment funds of most of the city's elite.

Olson writes with a light touch that is the perfect compliment for this charming mystery. The engaging Seymour is a wise and witty character who is good at her job and takes no lip from anyone. Here's hoping she returns for another go-round.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It'll keep you up reading til 3:42 AM, October 18, 2006

By	R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sacred Cows (Hardcover)

It's 3:42, Anne Seymour's phone wakes her from a hungover sleep. It's just another day on the crime beat of the New Haven Register.

At first glance, the decedent is a suicide. Turns out, the 20-ish Yale coed was dead before she ever hit the concrete. And--when the dead girl's friend turns up knifed to death, things really heat up for our daring woman reporter.

Olson keeps the action coming with just enough humor to make the novel less of a bitter pill to swallow. She knows the news business and the politics therein from her own beat as a travel reporter. Her style is crisp and evocative, but not quite as descriptive as I would hope.

I am however definitely looking forward to the next installment in this series.