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ppcfransen 's review for:
Death in a Pale Hue
by Susan Van Kirk, Susan Van Kirk
Jill Madison has come back to her home town to get an art centre up and running. The centre is named after her late mother, an artist of some fame, who stipulated in her will to create an art centre as centre for the community.
Despite being the daughter of the people who left the money for the art centre (and not merely the idea, I imagine) Jill has to deal with a board of oversight that has little faith in her. Personified by token bad guy Ivan. Throughout the story I kept puzzling why this man is on a board of oversight. For one, he’s a micromanager. Board members should deal with the overall picture, not every nitty-gritty little detail. And secondly, why are neither Jill or her brothers on that board? Didn’t their parents think any of them would be interested in guarding their mother’s legacy?
Anyway, a killer deadline for opening the centre is not all Jill has to deal with: there are some questions of the structural integrity of the building (which is an issue dealt with five weeks before opening), there was a burglary at the centre where a favourite sculpture of her mother is stolen, and to top if off the builders uncover a body in the basement.
The body belongs to Carolyn one of Jill’s BFF’s in high-school. Jill has always thought Carolyn ran off with a college student, sent a few postcards and then nothing for ten years. This makes me question how close Jill and Carolyn really were. They lost touch so easily - when the age of e-mail and Facebook had already began. Jill herself reminisces a lot about Carolyn, Angie and herself to be the Three Musketeers, but barely a thought is given as to how they had just faded out of each other’s lives.
However, she wants to make amends now and bring justice to Carolyn by helping the police to investigate. After talking to a few of the people that saw Carolyn in the days before she disappeared Jill receives an envelop with pictures. It seems she has a stalker.
The story is well-written, but annoyingly follows a number of cozy tropes. I kept thinking that Jill didn’t know her friend all that well, and didn’t reflect on that point at all. It made me like Jill less than I could have liked her.
I read an ARC through NetGalley.
Despite being the daughter of the people who left the money for the art centre (and not merely the idea, I imagine) Jill has to deal with a board of oversight that has little faith in her. Personified by token bad guy Ivan. Throughout the story I kept puzzling why this man is on a board of oversight. For one, he’s a micromanager. Board members should deal with the overall picture, not every nitty-gritty little detail. And secondly, why are neither Jill or her brothers on that board? Didn’t their parents think any of them would be interested in guarding their mother’s legacy?
Anyway, a killer deadline for opening the centre is not all Jill has to deal with: there are some questions of the structural integrity of the building (which is an issue dealt with five weeks before opening), there was a burglary at the centre where a favourite sculpture of her mother is stolen, and to top if off the builders uncover a body in the basement.
The body belongs to Carolyn one of Jill’s BFF’s in high-school. Jill has always thought Carolyn ran off with a college student, sent a few postcards and then nothing for ten years. This makes me question how close Jill and Carolyn really were. They lost touch so easily - when the age of e-mail and Facebook had already began. Jill herself reminisces a lot about Carolyn, Angie and herself to be the Three Musketeers, but barely a thought is given as to how they had just faded out of each other’s lives.
However, she wants to make amends now and bring justice to Carolyn by helping the police to investigate. After talking to a few of the people that saw Carolyn in the days before she disappeared Jill receives an envelop with pictures. It seems she has a stalker.
The story is well-written, but annoyingly follows a number of cozy tropes. I kept thinking that Jill didn’t know her friend all that well, and didn’t reflect on that point at all. It made me like Jill less than I could have liked her.
I read an ARC through NetGalley.