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Cat Austen #2
Fruitcake
Writer Cat Austin discovers a recently deposited corpse dressed as Santa Claus. Teaming again with police lieutenant Victor Cardenas, they find a bizarre conspiracy that has gone dangerously awry.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
13 people want to read
About the author
Jane Rubino
19 books12 followersJane Rubino is a graduate of New York University with a BA in Dramatic Literature, Theatre History, and Cinema. She has been a stringer, feature writer, and film columnist and is author of a contemporary mystery series set at the New Jersey shore and featuring entertainment reporter Cat Fortunati Austen and Sherlock Holmes-quoting cop Lt. Victor Cardenas. Jane and her husband live in New Jersey, 'down the shore'. She is a mother of three, a fan of silent and classic films, and a serious reader of Jane Austen and the Sherlock Holmes canon.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 14, 2020
Oh my.
A Christmas themed mystery for some holiday reading and...I don't know what to say.
First, a few positives: this actually incorporates a lot of Christmas into the narrative in an unforced way. It is a true Christmastime murder mystery. Also, there are some clever moments and comments from some of the characters.
But...but...
This is way too long and padded with unnecessary things. There are approximately 567 characters, all with excessive backstories and character quirks. At one point, I know I read 400 pages, yet somehow the page count only advanced about 10. These characters casually quote Shakespeare and Tennyson, and never miss a word. Why do they do this? Because...smarts?
It is so dense. So, so dense. One could think this is a play on the title, Fruitcake, that it's as dense as one. But the reason for the title is given in the actual story, as we take a little meta-fictional side trip into what this story would be called if it were a story. Yep. Also, the last 3 pages (3 pages real time, 157 pages story time) also veer into turn-of-the-millenium-computers-are-new territory of naughty pseudo-sex jokes about connecting wires to modems.
In the end, I still don't know what happened. I mean, it is explained countless times in the novel, but the for-real final time I was still left confused, because there are four suspicious characters that I am convinced were all actually the same person. So who was trying to "off" who was a blur.
This is what I get for trying to read on themes throughout the year.
A Christmas themed mystery for some holiday reading and...I don't know what to say.
First, a few positives: this actually incorporates a lot of Christmas into the narrative in an unforced way. It is a true Christmastime murder mystery. Also, there are some clever moments and comments from some of the characters.
But...but...
This is way too long and padded with unnecessary things. There are approximately 567 characters, all with excessive backstories and character quirks. At one point, I know I read 400 pages, yet somehow the page count only advanced about 10. These characters casually quote Shakespeare and Tennyson, and never miss a word. Why do they do this? Because...smarts?
It is so dense. So, so dense. One could think this is a play on the title, Fruitcake, that it's as dense as one. But the reason for the title is given in the actual story, as we take a little meta-fictional side trip into what this story would be called if it were a story. Yep. Also, the last 3 pages (3 pages real time, 157 pages story time) also veer into turn-of-the-millenium-computers-are-new territory of naughty pseudo-sex jokes about connecting wires to modems.
In the end, I still don't know what happened. I mean, it is explained countless times in the novel, but the for-real final time I was still left confused, because there are four suspicious characters that I am convinced were all actually the same person. So who was trying to "off" who was a blur.
This is what I get for trying to read on themes throughout the year.
December 4, 2024
It's the season to go back to some of my favorite Christmas mysteries!
"Fruitcake" was written in the late 90s, the sequel to the author's debut novel, "Death of a DJ". Here, her MC, small time entertainment reporter/cop's widow Cat Austen is chasing a story about Atlantic City's newest casino and their mega-Christmas gala, when she takes a wrong turn in the parking garage and stumbles onto a corpse in a Santa suit. Cat, of course, pursues the bigger story, while her new love interest Lt. Victor Cardenas, takes charge of the homicide investigation.
One of my favorite mystery series - it's like if Dickens wrote a contemporary series, this would be it, and in a good way. There is the large cast - Cat's big Sicilian family, 6 older brothers, her no-nonsense mother, her two kids, Victor's homicide unit, the casino mogul and his trophy wife who had once been engaged to a brother of Cat's, a political rabble rouser, a wacky PI and the budding romance between Cat's roommate and one of her brothers, all wrapped up in a Christmas setting with a plot that is fast moving and full of humor. In fact, when it comes to dialogue, Rubino is high on my list with some LOL exchanges.
The downside is that, as with a lot of mysteries written in the 90s, the technology is old school, and as the 2nd in a series, sometimes you have a sense that you have to read the first book for a lot of background, and, of course, Atlantic City itself has changed a lot in the past couple decades. Still - not worth a star deduction because it really is a nutty, spicy, sweet Christmas tale.
"Fruitcake" was written in the late 90s, the sequel to the author's debut novel, "Death of a DJ". Here, her MC, small time entertainment reporter/cop's widow Cat Austen is chasing a story about Atlantic City's newest casino and their mega-Christmas gala, when she takes a wrong turn in the parking garage and stumbles onto a corpse in a Santa suit. Cat, of course, pursues the bigger story, while her new love interest Lt. Victor Cardenas, takes charge of the homicide investigation.
One of my favorite mystery series - it's like if Dickens wrote a contemporary series, this would be it, and in a good way. There is the large cast - Cat's big Sicilian family, 6 older brothers, her no-nonsense mother, her two kids, Victor's homicide unit, the casino mogul and his trophy wife who had once been engaged to a brother of Cat's, a political rabble rouser, a wacky PI and the budding romance between Cat's roommate and one of her brothers, all wrapped up in a Christmas setting with a plot that is fast moving and full of humor. In fact, when it comes to dialogue, Rubino is high on my list with some LOL exchanges.
The downside is that, as with a lot of mysteries written in the 90s, the technology is old school, and as the 2nd in a series, sometimes you have a sense that you have to read the first book for a lot of background, and, of course, Atlantic City itself has changed a lot in the past couple decades. Still - not worth a star deduction because it really is a nutty, spicy, sweet Christmas tale.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews