Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry
When I was growing up, I loved chocolate-covered cherries. When you bite into them, there is a sort of liqueur which floats out. Not the oddly whitish goo that is in some filled candies. A sort of clear, sweet/savory, semi-alcoholic seeming juice surrounding the cherry. Mmmm. So, when I was treated to a murder mystery entitled Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, I was looking forward to reading it. The book, by Denise Swanson, is a bit silly, maybe even frivolous, with a sort of wry comic tone. Think a bit like Charlotte MacLeod with a twist of lemon. In this case, the main character, Skye Denison, is a school psychologist with the usual uncertain (heterosexual) romance (usual for the genre) with the local police chief. Her job allows for some stereotyping of teenagers -- though SPOILER ALERT they turn out well in the end. And, as is also often the case (think Stephanie Plum and the Evanovich series), Skye's family provides some chuckles as well. Yes, her mother wants her to get married and has a need to match make for Skye. Yes, she has odd uncles and a taciturn father. Yes, her boyfriend too has a peculiar family and there is a family in town known for its particularly extreme level of dysfunctionality. Perhaps most interesting, possibly because Swanson was a school psychologist herself for two decades, are the depictions of small town schools. Yes, the principal seems a bit of a twit and the school newspaper gets some attention. But when you look beyond the risk of stereotyping for the sake of humor, the young people are personable -- and quite different from each other. One of the morals of this story, then, might be for us geezers to be reminded that it is well worth remembering that teenagers are, all joking aside, very very human. Their parents? Well, that you'll have to judge that for yourself. Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry is one of ten mysteries the author has written set in a fictional Midwest town called Scrumble River. Each has a silly title (think botoxed blondes and pink elephants) -- a trend which also seems de rigeur for series fiction these days.