Wendy L. Koenig is the author of numerous works ranging from speculative fiction both past and future, for young adult and children to poetry. On The Sly is her first entry into the world of contemporary mystery thrilling fiction. Sylvia (Sly) Wilson is a 24 year old bar owner who finds the murdered body of an ex-cop upon unlocking the place on a September afternoon.
I like a mystery story to get to the body quickly and Ms. Koenig doesn't disappoint. The pace is very readable; the details enough to imagine the scene without thinking "OK, OK, enough about the room, get on the story". She uses one particular literary device to mark the days passing that I found charming and unobstrusive.
The plot combines Hitchcockian elements, the accused civilian caught up in a murder plot, with police- private investigation conflict. The author avoids many tropes that prey upon the genre and presents us with a bright, original lead character. Sylvia tells her story in the first person in a voice I found so engaging she might have been talking to me in her bar Smugglers on a quiet late afternoon.
Thanks to the author's agent for sending me a copy of On The Sly for this review.
review by Curt Remarks
No comments:
Post a Comment