E-Book Review: Lacing Up for Murder

By Sonia Aurora

It sucks when you’re given an assignment and you’re really looking forward to doing it and then it becomes a letdown. When something’s great, you relish discussing it, jump with glee at the awesomeness that you feel you’ve discovered, reveling in telling others about it as if you’re the only one who knows it exists. Then you wanna meet like-minded people and really get into it, just chat and talk and tweet as much about it because it’s just so freakin’ cool.

Even something really bad has its good aspects, because you can hate it as much as you love something – it was the Worst. Blank. Ever! So you still seek out the like-minded to rag on it as much as possible, and while the book/film/song/art piece might suck, tearing it apart is fun. (Especially to geeks. We love telling others what so uncool it’s cool).

But when something’s mediocre…well, there’s really nothing you can do but stare. And blink. With a quizzical, cocked head expression. And it’s usually so bland you’re not even sure where exactly it went wrong, but you just know that it just never went right.

A while ago I jumped at the chance to read and review Irene Radford’s e-book Lacing Up for Murder. I’m a huge mystery lover, so I was all over it. Since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by mysteries, beginning with Encyclopedia Brown, graduating to Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and on and on. If there is a mystery writer, I’ve read at least one of their books. And even though I secretly wanted (ok, want) to be a detective, I think I love mysteries because for the most part I’m really naïve and I’m genuinely surprised when the killer is revealed. I’m so immersed that I can’t see past what the characters see, and even if I grab a clue or two I still never can put the pieces together quite right (and I’m ok with that). It holds less true for TV mysteries (although horror movie killers get me every time), but if it’s a book, I always squeal with delight at the end when we all find out the whodunit. And, of course, the better written, the better the journey, and the more mysterious it actually is.

Which is, primarily, why Lacing Up for Murder was such a disappointment.  I figured out too many things before they were discovered, even some of the things that are left to (supposedly) unfold in the series (this book was the first of the “Whistling River Lodge” mysteries). And I don’t think it’s that I feel my reading of mysteries has finally benefited me foresight – I just think this story was too transparent. Not enough red herrings, and too many obvious choices for the criminals and killers. I swear sometimes I saw flashing neon names in the text saying, “I’m the killer! Pick me!”

And Lacing Up’s heroine, Glenna McLain, a thirty-something divorcee who runs the Whistling River Lodge in Mt. Hood, Oregon, is funny, potentially engaging, but reminded me way too much of a watered down Stephanie Plum (of the Janet Evanovich series). In fact, to be honest, the book itself is a flimsier version of the Plum series, complete with a big dog, law enforcement love interest, and, of course, a crime to solve. As the title suggests, it’s a murder, and the lacing up involves actual lace, not the tying of shoes. I’m not sure if it would have been better if the victim had met his fate with a pair of Converse twisted around his neck instead of silky thread.

So after I read it (and it was an easy read) I struggled. Do I just recap the plot, that involves a slimy ex-husband, a mysterious new security manager, a not quite dead ghost, and a lacing club? Eh, standard fare. Do I go into the character development? Eh, much too basic. (though I did love that her best friend was Wiccan, and that was pretty accurately portrayed without the evil trappings witches usually get). But when something is just…well, eh, it’s hard to really pinpoint what to say. It was basic, simple and not terrible, just not much closer to wonderful, either. I think, ultimately, this just wasn’t my cup of mystery tea.

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About Sonia Aurora: Aspiring screenwriter and seamstress, Sonia’s dream is to write life-changing films while product-placing her own line of handbags. In 1999, she wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the short film Dr. Lovestrange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug, a satirical homage to Stanley Kubrick set amidst the panic of Y2K (Featured on ifilm.com & Coming Soon to YouTube!). While Sonia waits patiently for the Studios to call, she continues her selfless, humanitarian efforts (think Mother Teresa) through her scripts, short stories and sewing (a true triple-threat!), knowing all the while that someday her efforts will indeed save (or at least mildly tweak) the world. She still struggles with which picture to kiss before bedtime: her boyfriend’s or Bruce Campbell’s. And, in the interest of time, she’d like to start thanking the Academy now.

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