Showcase: A Charlotte Sams Mystery - Hardcover

Glen, Alison

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671745735 ISBN 13: 9780671745738

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1992

Synopsis

When a Chinese imperial art exhibit comes to Columbus, Ohio, Charlotte Sams--housewife, mother, and amateur sleuth--is soon hot on the trail of a dangerous killer who murdered a skeptical art expert. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Although it gives a rare starring role to Columbus, Ohio, this debut by a pseudonymous pair of first novelists otherwise sticks doggedly to crime formulas and seldom generates much excitement. The prose is generally lively and cute, but generic; the authors spend too little time creating idiosyncrasies that would separate their protagonists--freelance writer Charlotte Sams and her best pal, retired psychologist Lou Torenson--from the sleuthing pack. At the opening of a swank Chinese art exhibit for which Lou is a volunteer worker, blowhard art expert Phil Stevenson notes the wrong number of toes on a statue and screams foul at the top of his lungs; he turns up dead the next day. Charlotte, sniffing a story, interviews some of the opening's guests: a good-looking plastic surgeon, his equally attractive wife (the obvious beneficiary of her husband's skills), a statuesque Nordic dancer and sundry others. The authors maintain an agreeably light tone but rarely develop their characters beyond simple stereotypes. They've found a fresh new crime spot in Columbus, but they need to work on the rest of their package in the next volume of this projected series.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

When free-lance writer Charlotte Sams's cousin's husband Phil, an expert on Chinese art, announces that the jade necklace on exhibit in the Columbus Museum of Art's just-mounted display of treasures from the Imperial Court is a fake, and he's soon dead in a rhododendron bush, Charlotte and her psychologist chum Lou turn to snooping. The usual battery of suspects are trotted out--the museum director; the insurance underwriter; the corporate sponsor; the wealthy collector; the abused wife; her lover--and Charlotte receives a threatening call before she and Lou decide to set a trap for the villain, which results in Lou almost being pitched over a balcony while Charlotte provides a flying tackle rescue. A bumpy debut--no one behaves plausibly; the plot creaks and groans as it meanders from one mystery clich‚ to another; and the writing is flat and uninteresting. The only lively moments come when the dialogue focuses on Charlotte's son. A sequel is in the works. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0671745735
• ISBN 13: 9780671745738
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206