Book Review: Dead Between the Lines
“Dead Between the Lines” by Denise Swanson
What is a cozy? Answer: A light, enjoyable read, one that does not tax the mind, or a pleasant adventure, usually surrounding a murder, with characters you’d like to know and see again.
DBL feels more like a read geared to teenage girls than a trek designed for fans of murder most foul.
Denise Swanson’s heroine, Devereaux Sinclair, has two male suitors, the handsome doctor and the Hunkazoid Deputy U. S. Marshal. Every girl should have such troubles.
The murder of a local poet and gossip columnist in a small Missouri town sets Devereaux on a journey to find the murderer. Here though are some of the problems with this scenario:
*Why, or better yet, how is there so much dirty gossip in a town of two thousand that it warrants a column in the local weekly?
*How many writers or closet writers are there in this hamlet of two grand that no one can figure out who the gossiper is; especially, as it reveals he didn’t even have a nine-to-five job.
Dev questions person after person about their whereabouts at the time of the murder even after the police have already questioned the individual. Maybe it’s my big city attitude, but if Dev asked me where I was between such and such time on the night of the murder, I would have told her to take a hike and leave the job of police investigations to, oh, I don’t know, maybe,,,the police!
The poet slash gossiper is not the only item that is dead in “Dead Between the Lines.” Wit has also been murdered, or is at least gone fishin’.
There are a few attempts at humor, many regarding Dev’s grandmother’s watching marathons of the TV show Bonanza or casino gambling. These fall flat like Hosh’s attempt at dieting or winning at roulette. Another effort at comedic distraction includes the elderly old woman as a sexual partner. My gosh we’ve never seen that before…uh, yeah, we have. It’s not knew. It’s dull. It’s amateurish.
Christy Fifield’s cozy has a dead uncle reincarnated within a parrot that swears worse than a high school kid. It used to be “worse than a sailor”, but that’s not knew; it’s dull, it’s amateurish, and only high school kids can curse now-a-days. Stopping them infringes on their freedom of speech where vulgarity in an adult is seen as…I don’t know…childish. At least Bluebeard is funny when he swears. There’s nothing funny or interesting in “Dead Between the Lines.” It’s dead before you even open the cover.
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