By the Howling

Charlotte Diamond Mysteries #1

by Olivia Stowe

When Charlotte Diamond retired to Diamond Cottage near Maryland's eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, she thought she had left her life of crime-solving it, that is-behind her, and is struggling to find a new purpose in life. But the small waterfront community of Hopewell on the Choptank, with its wealthy artistically inclined inhabitants, is hiding old crimes and dark secrets beneath its outward quiet and affluence.A surprising number of people from the community have intersecting pasts and dark secrets that Charlotte is unaware of and that become downright murderous, coming to a head when blockbuster movie actress, Brenda Brandon, arrives in the village in full retreat from a recent tragedy in her life. Brenda also brings unexpected romance into Charlotte's previously straight life. And Sam, the neglected husky who has attached himself to Charlotte, knows more about what is going on than he can tell her, even with his howling.

Genres: Mystery, Lesbian, Lesbian Fiction

108 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 2010

About the author

Olivia Stowe is a published author under different names and in other dimensions of fiction and nonfiction and lives quietly in a university town with an indulgent spouse.

Reviews

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short book, but I was over halfway through and I still didn’t really know much about the main characters. I hadn’t developed a lot of empathy for Charlotte and the only thing I felt for the community, was I wouldn’t want to live there.
Eventually there is a murder and things started to liven up. I quite enjoyed this part of the story except at the end the case is suddenly solved from nowhere. There is an explanation in the final chapter, but it left me more annoyed than satisfied. As for the relationship this basically consisted of half a page.
This wasn’t a bad book, but it needed far more to make it really interesting. If possible I would have given 2.5 stars.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this back when I was looking for non-skeevy f/f books. The description sounded promising, more focused on the mystery than on the main character jumping into bed with another woman. Now that I've finished it, I can say that the f/f aspects are pretty light. I think Charlotte has sex maybe once, but you can't even call it a sex scene, because it's completely skipped over.

When I first started reading this, I thought I was going to really like it. Charlotte was relatively new to the village, so I looked forward to seeing her inadvertently (or on purpose) stir up some trouble just by not knowing where all the eggshells were located. She was divorced and retired and, although she didn't really miss either her job or her husband, she worried that dementia might set in if she didn't fill her days with activities to keep her mind sharp. One of those activities was sailing. Another one of those activities was occasionally taking care of Sam, her neighbor's husky, because Susan, Sam's temporary caretaker, could barely be bothered to do anything for him. The sailing scenes were okay, but I loved the scenes with Charlotte and Sam. He was a sweetie.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of things about this novella that didn't work for me, annoyed me, or confused me.

One of the things that annoyed me was how long it took to find out exactly what Charlotte's job used to be. I understood why she kept it a secret from the villagers, but was it really necessary to keep readers in the dark too? Yes, it's mentioned in the book's description that she used to be an FBI investigator, but those who, like me, didn't bother to reread the description before starting the novella only found out exactly what her job was at the 57.7% mark. Prior to that, readers were left to assume what villagers like Rachel assumed, that she used to be a cop.

The 57.7% mark was also when a body was finally discovered. Before that, there was just a missing person, a mysterious woman who was maybe doing some kind of surveillance, and the possible theft of various prized items. I'm okay with the crime part of a mystery taking a while to get going, but only if the characters, their relationships, and/or the setting are interesting enough to make up for it. That didn't turn out to be the case, at least not for me. Yes, several of the characters had some serious history, but there needed to be more opportunities to see them interacting with all those relationship undercurrents at play.

It seemed like this story was mostly red herrings and potentially suspicious happenings, with a good chunk of the real evidence cropping up in the last 6%. I was left wondering whether Charlotte could really have figured out who the murderer was based on what she knew, because it hadn't seemed like she'd had much to go on. Her explanation at the end didn't really help, because a lot of the stuff she brought up had never previously been mentioned, at least not that I could remember.

The f/f aspects didn't work much better for me than the mystery did. Until the moment Charlotte decided “she wanted Brenda for more than just a casual friend” (76.3%, in chapter 8), there weren't many hints that Charlotte considered herself to be either a lesbian or bisexual. She wasn't upset about her divorce, but that wasn't necessarily an indicator of anything. She enjoyed Brenda's company, but that could have just been the joy of finally finding someone in the village who she could easily talk to. Her revelation that she wanted Brenda as a lover seemed...sudden. Or, at the very least, it seemed like it should have felt sudden for her.

I was still trying to wrap my brain around Charlotte accepting her attraction to Brenda so easily when the beginning of chapter 9 made it clear that things had gone from “we like each other's company” to “we're sleeping together.” And Charlotte was still unfazed. Heck, after her weight was brought up throughout most of the novella, I was convinced she'd at least fret about whether gorgeous, famous ex-actress Brenda was really interested. But no, the only blip in the development of their relationship was the possibility that Brenda was a murderer.

It's possible I could like later books/novellas in this series better. Part of me wants to give the series another shot and try Retired With Prejudice, and part of me is unwilling to pay $2.99 for something that's under 30,000 words and sounds a little too complicated for that kind of word count. Plus, there are the editing issues (see "Other Comments" below). I suppose I'll at least keep it in mind for my next e-book buying spree.

Other Comments:

I should also mention that there were some editing issues – typos, word choices that I'm fairly certain were incorrect, and one nasty instance of name confusion. The typos were fairly minor: things like “Their” being capitalized when it shouldn't have been, or an instance of “hove” that I'm guessing should have been “dove.” The word choice issues brought my reading to a halt as I tried to figure out why certain sentences seemed off. For example, after Charlotte asks Brenda to drive faster, there's this bit:

“Brenda smiled, hunkered down in her seat, and muttered a 'You betcha' as her foot depressed on the gas pedal.” (90.3%, in Chapter 9)

Shouldn't that have been “pressed”? There were at least a couple other instances where I debated a sentence's wording. The most confusing moment, however, was when a name was used that shouldn't have been. It would be a bit of a spoiler to include the names, so I'll call them Villager A, B, and C. Villager A got pregnant by B and gave birth to C. Brenda said:

“'[C] wasn't married—and never did marry the father—both of which were the stuff that real scandals were made of in this part of the Eastern Shore at the time. Her father was mayor and ran the only insurance agency around, and they were supposed to be the standard setters. And yet [C] made no bones that she was going to go it alone and be a single mother.'” (52.8%, in Chapter 6)

This passage made absolutely no sense as written, and it wasn't until later that I knew for sure that those two instances of Villager C should probably have been Villager A.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Candace · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fairly short late-in-life lesbian mystery-romance that contains a fair number of typos and wordos. The plot is fairly convoluted, but it is laid out more like an outline than a story. The author seems not to have adhered to the edict of "show me, don't just tell me." The plot is resolved before I really had the cast of characters doped out. The romance is almost entirely implied -- there's no sex or affection portrayed herein. The author gets points for trying to portray a fairly realistic retirement-age heroine. I cannot really recommend this book.

[Vesna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words can't express how wonderful this novella is. Seriously, when I first started reading it, it took me almost no time to start laughing aloud—and it surprised me as much as it delighted me.
Small town, big secrets, and a wonderfully whatever-will-I-do-now retired FBI specialist who still hasn't lost her edge. I'm normally more of a novel type of person, almost exclusively, but this was crafted so nicely that all the skipped parts which really aren't necessary in a story of this length were, only added to how readable it was.

Off to my next one by the author!

[Richard Goodrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple, women sleuths story. It starts off slow and is not much more than an introduction to the characters and setting of Hopewell on the Choptank. Charlotte Diamond is a recent retiree from the FBI. She moved to Hopewell to get away from the hustle and bustle. But life has other plans for her. In the end, several crimes are solved.

Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Romantic. Tragic. Twisted. Unpredictable. Wonderful characters.

I received a review copy of this book from a third party. This is my honest review.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book never did the expected, and I liked the way it kept surprising me with where it was going and the satisfying conclusion. Set in a small town the characters are Charlotte's friends and neighbors, not strangers, which makes her investigation easier in some ways but even more complicated in others.

This is was a well written novella length murder mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Great value in ebook, which is what I read.

[Mercia McMahon]

Not a well-constructed novel. I like the mystery in my cozy mysteries to start a little earlier in the narrative. Up until the 45% point it read more like contemporary women's fiction, even though it is the first in a mystery series.