Goose in the Pond (Benni Harper Mystery) - Softcover

Fowler, Earlene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425162397 ISBN 13: 9780425162392

Publisher: Berkley, 1998

Synopsis

Benni Harper—spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk art expert—finds herself on the trail of a storybook killer in this mystery from Agatha Award-nominee Earlene Fowler.

Hoping to relax after solving a murder in Wichita, Kansas, Beni and her new husband Gabe Ortiz are back in San Celina, California. But while Benni is jogging in the park, she happens upon the dead body of a library storyteller. It's an odd and disturbing scene—the woman is still dressed in her Mother Goose costume, lying facedown in the lake.

Benni's investigation takes her inside the Storyteller's Guild, where she finds out that Mother Goose was telling more than fairy tales. She was capable of airing the kind of secrets that destroy lives—and inspire revenge...

About this title

About the Author

Earlene Fowler was raised in La Puente, California, by a Southern mother and a Western father. She is the author of the national bestseller, The Saddlemaker's Wife and the Agatha Award-winning Benni Harper Mysteries.

From Kirkus Reviews

A fourth appearance for Benni Harper (Kansas Troubles, 1996, etc.), curator of the Folk Art Museum in San Celina, California- -recently married to the town's Chief of Police Gabe Ortiz--who's now deep in preparations for the museum's first storytelling festival, to be combined with a show of handmade quilts. It's Benni's misfortune to discover the murdered body of Nora Cooper, a storyteller at the local library. Nora's brother Nick is head reference librarian there, under director Jillian Sinclair, a niece of the library's chief benefactor, Constance Sinclair. Nora, meanwhile, was involved in a bitter divorce settlement with soon- to-be-ex-husband Roy, who lives with girlfriend Grace Winter, a stableowner. They're Gabe's prime suspects until it's revealed that Nora was the author of the Tattler, an unsigned scandal-mongering column in the town's newspaper. It seems both library and museum staffs are chock-full of people with nasty secrets Nora was busy unearthing. Gabe works hard to restrain Benni's rampant investigating instincts--with good reason, as it turns out in the out-of-left-field, unsatisfying denouement. Much time is spent on Gabe and Benni's cluttered domestic life as they play reluctant hosts to Gabe's troubled son Sam, Benni's beloved but trying grandmother Dove and flighty cousin Rita--a setup as overpopulated, artificial, and unconvincing as the murder mystery. Quilters and storytelling enthusiasts may find some joy here; others will find this one heavy on chitchat but low on substance. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0425162397
• ISBN 13: 9780425162392
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 320