Two Reviews of Two Nancy Springer Mysteries

[Untreed]

The buzz is building, the reviews are coming in, have you checked out the short stories of Nancy Springer yet?

#20:
What makes someone so interested in the affairs of others? #20 never directly answers this question. Part of the fun of reading it is stepping into the minds of each character and figuring out why they behave the way they do.

The full review is here, the book excerpt here.

American Curls:
Despite this story being just twelve pages, the author did a good job developing the characters in the few paragraphs or pages on which they appeared.

The review is here, the book excerpt here.

#20 by Nancy Springer:

Little Veronica likes hanging out at Mrs. Life's porch. She can see the whole town from the steps, and Mrs. Life is fascinating in the way that she keeps track of all sorts of numbers and information in her little spiral-bound notebooks. So it's surprising to Veronica when the always-nice Mrs. Life has an argument with Mr. Quickel, the school health teacher and wrestling coach, about the cost of mowing her lawn. Soon, Mrs. Life has started to insinuate things about Mr. Quickel, his marriage and what he might or might not have done with a boy who ran off from the town to live life as an openly gay man. Soon, the entire town is turning on Mr. Quickel with rumors and threats and destroying his sanity. Before too long, Veronica starts to see what Mrs. Life's real motivation is, and what dark secrets she keeps in one of her spiral-bound notebooks. A short story.

American Curls by Nancy Springer:

When Cindy stops by the local cat shelter where she volunteers, she discovers her coworker Samantha unconscious on the floor. Even more horrifying, to Cindy, is that a mother cat and her kittens have mysteriously disappeared out into the snow. While Cindy leaves the attack to the police to investigate while she seeks out the missing cats, a second assault finishes Samantha off. Soon, Cindy's mixed up in a litter of death, missing cats and the police casting an eye in her direction as a possible suspect. Can Cindy find the missing cats and help pinpoint the murderer, or is she going to end up a victim of her own cat-astrophe? A short story.