Desperate Measures

Jennie McGrady Mysteries #11

by Patricia H. Rushford

Jennie visits a fur farm and is excited to see that Scott Chambers, an old friend and animal activist, has taken a job at the same farm, but when mink are released from a neighboring farm, Jennie fears Scott is behind it

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Christian Fiction, Christian, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Teen

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Patricia H. Rushford, an award winning author and speaker, has extensive experience in writing and has authored over sixty books, both fiction and non-fiction. In addition to having a nursing degree and masters in counseling, she is also an artist and quilter.

The Jennie McGrady Mysteries for young adults have sold well over 500,000 copies. Silent Witness won the Silver Angel Award for Excellence in Media and was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote the Max & Me Mysteries for middle grade.

The various mystery series for adults continue to receive great reviews. Her series include, The Helen Bradley Mysteries, The Angel Delaney Mysteries, The McAllister Files and her latest, the Artisan Mysteries.

Her newest releases are: Watercolor Dreams, Deadly Deception and The Quiltmaker's Daughter, both are romantic suspense novels featuring artists.
She has been awarded the Golden Quill Award by RWA- Desert Rose Chapter and earned honorable mention in the Silver Angel Awards.

Patricia is a member of ACFW and a number of other writing organizations. She has participated in such mystery events such as Bouchercon--the World Mystery Convention, Left Coast Crime, and other conventions for lovers of mystery and suspense. She manages a website and blog and has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads and Linked-in and also generates a newsletter. Called Mysterious Musings.

Additional info at www.patriciarushfordbooks.com

Reviews

[Sheila · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jennie, the squeaky clean Nancy Drew wannabe protagonist teen in "Desperate Measures," is a snitch. When she suspects that the boy she likes has helped to free minks from a mink farm, she tells the cops. When she suspects that a Latino boy is a member of an animal liberation "terrorist" group, she tells the FBI. But, the author assures us, snitching is okay when it comes to "terrorists." So is infiltrating organizations, and sneaking around people's homes without a warrant, and spying on everyone, even your boyfriend and your friends' parents. Yes, those creepy animal libbers are fanatical, violent, bomb-throwing, murderous arsonists who will stop at nothing.

And this book was written in 1998, pre-Trump and pre-9/11. Kevin Johnson, who spent 3 years on prison for freeing minks, wrote in The Guardian in 2017, (https://www.theguardian.com/commentis... )
"The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is a piece of designer legislation written and paid for by the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. It federalizes non-violent property crime and punishes it as terrorism – but only when the perpetrators are motivated by the belief that animals deserve to live free from violence. The court explicitly stated that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act did not apply to four Fresno, California, teenagers who sneaked into a Foster Farms facility and bludgeoned 900 chickens to death with a golf club because “they killed the chickens for no reason”.

"Put succinctly, I am a terrorist not because of what I did, but because the government does not like why I did it."

Strange? Not if you realize that the role of the legal system is not to protect freedom, but private property. Animals, and everything in the natural world except humans, are property. Jennie, who wants to be a cop when when she grows up, knows her job is to protect private property. The author depicts Jennie and a mink farmer rescuing a baby mink who was freed by the "terrorists." They cuddle it, keep it warm, and feed it so it can grow up and be gassed and skinned and make a nice fur coat for a rich person. The same fate, Johnson warns us, awaits our civil liberties as more draconian legislation is proposed. (After Charlottesville, six states want to absolve drivers from liability if they run over protestors!)

Gee, I hope my fellow GoodReaders don't snitch on me for writing this review!

[Cherish Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

(5☆ Would recommend & would read again)
I read 2 books out of this series when I was 13 and I remember really liking them. I decided to buy the entire series as an adult and read through the series. As an adult, I still really enjoy this series. Would definitely recommend.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting ride this was. A possible new boyfriend and an animal rights group causing mayhem on a mink farm. Once again I feel that the author did a great job looking at both sides of the “fur problem” before Jennie came to her own conclusions about the issue. I did hope that Jennie would finally get to have a murder free weekend where she could be a real teenager, but then we wouldn’t have a book. She could have at least slept in a little.

This story did get a little monotonous toward the end because Jennie kept going over the clues in her head. She didn’t know what to make of all the webs in this case and neither did I.

All in all this was another fun mystery ride back to the 90s.

[Leanne Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this addition to the Jennie McGrady series. The plot reintroduces a minor character from book #2, perhaps creating a love triangle for Jennie. I like the new setting of a mink farm that belongs to friends of Jennie & Lisa. I wish Lisa helped Jennie more in this case, because sometimes it feels like her character is the ditzy damsel in distress and she doesn't need to be.
For once I was able to determine the "bad character"! It only took me 11 books! Can't wait to see how the series wraps up in the last few books.

[Carol]

Very exciting! I never figured out "who done it" until they revealed it!

Lots of info on Animal Rights groups.

[Féline · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,7☆'s, not my favourite Jennie McGrady book, but still ♡♡♡♡

[Laurie D'ghent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much grittier than I expected (I thought it would be more of a "Oh, my computer got stolen!" thing), but not inappropriate for kids. Print was way small, which bugged my eyes, and it annoyed me that the author made out that fur farms are no different than any other farm (beef cattle, milk cattle, chicken, etc.). Personally, I think there's a huge difference between raising and slaughtering animals for fur garments that are purely a status symbol and slaughtering animals for food (although I'm a vegetarian and don't eat factory farmed meat, anyway).
Okay, rant over.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good! I loved the new scenery and new characters that were in this book. This mystery was really good and had me guessing who it was until the end. I kinda got it right I was in between two people in the end and one of them was the real one. I got really mad about Ryan and I almost stopped reading when I read that because Ryan is the best, but I love the mysteries in this series too much. I do like Scott though. It was cool to read about people we knew but hadn't had in the books for a while and about the animal rights group, ARM. I loved this book a lot!

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

F RUS bk.11

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

October/November 2015 re-read, audiobook.
I felt that this was one of the darker JM mysteries, the murder in particular, but still a good installment in the series...

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little bit creepy