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Willow King #7
Sour Grapes
In a new mystery by the author of The Drowning Pool, a fatal hit-and-run "accident" leads Willow King and her youthful sidekick Emma into a dangerous investigation into the owner of the lethal automobile. Reprint.
- GenresMystery
301 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 1998
25 people want to read
About the author
Natasha Cooper
62 books17 followersaka N.J. Cooper, Kate Hatfield, Clare Layton, Daphne Wright.
Natasha Cooper was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2000/2001. She reviews books in THE TIMES, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT and the NEW LAW JOURNAL. She is the author of, among others, FAULT LINES and PREY TO ALL.
Natasha Cooper was Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 2000/2001. She reviews books in THE TIMES, THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT and the NEW LAW JOURNAL. She is the author of, among others, FAULT LINES and PREY TO ALL.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 18, 2019
I am so disappointed at the way these don't stand up to the test of time. A privileged liberal-feminist plot with a lot of psycho analysing which slips into gender essentialism more often than not and papers over any deeper conflict with middle-class niceness.
Willow frankly behaves badly some of the time and Emma begins to do that at the point of the book that is meant to be a sort of turning point for her into (individualistic) liberation. The heterosexual matrix forms part of women's identity and it is only gently challenge not really interrogated by what must be the mildest feminism ever.
At the same time I felt the ending kind of enjoyable, at least the last 1-2 pages of it. Before that were some cringfully hard to continue with sections over several chapters though.
Oh well, 90s me really enjoyed this (90s me was under 25)
Willow frankly behaves badly some of the time and Emma begins to do that at the point of the book that is meant to be a sort of turning point for her into (individualistic) liberation. The heterosexual matrix forms part of women's identity and it is only gently challenge not really interrogated by what must be the mildest feminism ever.
At the same time I felt the ending kind of enjoyable, at least the last 1-2 pages of it. Before that were some cringfully hard to continue with sections over several chapters though.
Oh well, 90s me really enjoyed this (90s me was under 25)
August 20, 2017
When I started this book I kept it as a side read to be picked up for a few pages here and there, however I did get invested in the story line and found it quite good. It has some British terminology which can be slightly confusing at times but I did enjoy it.
November 7, 2020
This a very boring book, but a good finish brought it to the 3-star level. Pardon me for being a chauvinist, but this is a ladies book all the way.
February 24, 2012
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
The title, to me, is maladroit. I enjoyed the book immensely but felt the title was a sort of arbitrary appendage rather than a word or phrase that sprang naturally from the story.
This is the second Willow King mystery I've read (as an aside, I wildly love, and much prefer the author's Trish Maguire books). I actually liked this King book better than the other (Drowning Pool), because, ironically, Willow is NOT the main character.
Somehow I find i weird that a police officer's wife like Willow would engage in her own no-badge crime solving, which was the case in Drowning Pool.
In this story, Willow is a good friend and best supporting character to a woman friend about 20 years younger: forensics grad student Emma Gnatche, who is studying false confessions. She searches out a curious case study: a man in prison for vehicular homicide, who claims his car was stolen the night in question so that someone else is the culprit in the deaths of two pedestrians.
Turns out the guy is innocent of that crime. But Emma's careful probing with polygraphs reveals the man's inner turmoil when asked supposedly tame "control" questions about his gardening and taking passengers in his car
But the man is guilty of something far worse, which Emma brings to light. After the excruciating pain of losing a 10-year-old (or so) son to necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating germs), acquired in hospital hospitalized for a simple tonsil removal, the man in question goes quietly berserk. That is, he is sickened when boys his own son's age proposition him for sex. Disgusted that they should live while his son had to diek the man strangles four of these "sex toy" boys, after driving each to a secluded spot. Hence the anxiety about discussing passengers.
Then the guy went and buried the bodies in the garden of his and his wife's award-winning modernistic home. Hence the gardening anxiety.
Apart from the lurid plot, I savor the subtleties in relationships that author Cooper is so good at --
Emma and Willow both love each other, and yet are in a sense professional rivals. Emma hooks up with a grad student from Australia who likes motorcycles and leathers, but she's also attracted to a good-looking, yet opportunistic male reporter.
As Emma gains confidence in her research prowess, she gains strength to tell off the older step-bro (10 years her senior) who had terrorized her when they were younger. She also acquires the starch to finally establish for herself the identity of her choosing as a working professional -- and not the automatic marriage and momhood that her mom expects of her.
The one false note, for me, came at the end, when Jane -- the newspaper editor friend of Willow's, who had turned Emma on to the prisoner in question -- offers Emma an investigative-journal job that would pay better than the other job offers.
I was a reporter at a mid-size daily paper for 25 years. It wasn't a top-rank outfit. But I find it hard to believe that a newspaper would pay more handsomely than Emma's other offers, which I presume were in academia or law enforcement.
I may enjoy these Willow King books quite a bit if Cooper keeps mixing it up -- adding new protagonists like Emma, who then mingle with the other characters she's already established.
The title, to me, is maladroit. I enjoyed the book immensely but felt the title was a sort of arbitrary appendage rather than a word or phrase that sprang naturally from the story.
This is the second Willow King mystery I've read (as an aside, I wildly love, and much prefer the author's Trish Maguire books). I actually liked this King book better than the other (Drowning Pool), because, ironically, Willow is NOT the main character.
Somehow I find i weird that a police officer's wife like Willow would engage in her own no-badge crime solving, which was the case in Drowning Pool.
In this story, Willow is a good friend and best supporting character to a woman friend about 20 years younger: forensics grad student Emma Gnatche, who is studying false confessions. She searches out a curious case study: a man in prison for vehicular homicide, who claims his car was stolen the night in question so that someone else is the culprit in the deaths of two pedestrians.
Turns out the guy is innocent of that crime. But Emma's careful probing with polygraphs reveals the man's inner turmoil when asked supposedly tame "control" questions about his gardening and taking passengers in his car
But the man is guilty of something far worse, which Emma brings to light. After the excruciating pain of losing a 10-year-old (or so) son to necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating germs), acquired in hospital hospitalized for a simple tonsil removal, the man in question goes quietly berserk. That is, he is sickened when boys his own son's age proposition him for sex. Disgusted that they should live while his son had to diek the man strangles four of these "sex toy" boys, after driving each to a secluded spot. Hence the anxiety about discussing passengers.
Then the guy went and buried the bodies in the garden of his and his wife's award-winning modernistic home. Hence the gardening anxiety.
Apart from the lurid plot, I savor the subtleties in relationships that author Cooper is so good at --
Emma and Willow both love each other, and yet are in a sense professional rivals. Emma hooks up with a grad student from Australia who likes motorcycles and leathers, but she's also attracted to a good-looking, yet opportunistic male reporter.
As Emma gains confidence in her research prowess, she gains strength to tell off the older step-bro (10 years her senior) who had terrorized her when they were younger. She also acquires the starch to finally establish for herself the identity of her choosing as a working professional -- and not the automatic marriage and momhood that her mom expects of her.
The one false note, for me, came at the end, when Jane -- the newspaper editor friend of Willow's, who had turned Emma on to the prisoner in question -- offers Emma an investigative-journal job that would pay better than the other job offers.
I was a reporter at a mid-size daily paper for 25 years. It wasn't a top-rank outfit. But I find it hard to believe that a newspaper would pay more handsomely than Emma's other offers, which I presume were in academia or law enforcement.
I may enjoy these Willow King books quite a bit if Cooper keeps mixing it up -- adding new protagonists like Emma, who then mingle with the other characters she's already established.
Read
July 30, 2011My copy has a different cover.
I really enjoyed this book! It says it's a Willow King mystery but actually it's the character of Emma who solves the mystery with Willow's help. Loved the premise - Emma is a criminology student trying to write her thesis, which is about false confessions, and as the case she chose draws her in, she uncovers a long hidden secret truth about the crime and murderer. Emma's personality was well-developed - she's a little insecure as an older student, a little unsure and lacking in confidence and still bears the scars from her brother's cruel treatment of her as a child. Yet she is persistent, plucky and likable and finally gathers enough courage to confront her brother. Add to this a mother who is used to telling her daughter exactly what to do and a slightly avant-garde boyfriend studying to be a psychologist, along with Willow, a mother and writer and amateur but successful sleuth - you get an interesting mix of character interplay. Brilliant!
I really enjoyed this book! It says it's a Willow King mystery but actually it's the character of Emma who solves the mystery with Willow's help. Loved the premise - Emma is a criminology student trying to write her thesis, which is about false confessions, and as the case she chose draws her in, she uncovers a long hidden secret truth about the crime and murderer. Emma's personality was well-developed - she's a little insecure as an older student, a little unsure and lacking in confidence and still bears the scars from her brother's cruel treatment of her as a child. Yet she is persistent, plucky and likable and finally gathers enough courage to confront her brother. Add to this a mother who is used to telling her daughter exactly what to do and a slightly avant-garde boyfriend studying to be a psychologist, along with Willow, a mother and writer and amateur but successful sleuth - you get an interesting mix of character interplay. Brilliant!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews