Skip to main content

A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY - Review

The Hungry Detective is a series reader. There are boat loads of books I have not been able to read because the latest is book eight, and I have yet to read even book one. It is all about progress. The character is built up over those books and this shape informs the larger story which creates a larger sense of character. One big circle. So I read A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY by Sophie Littlefield. Book 2 in this recent series without bothering to read her well received first opus A BAD DAY FOR SORRY. The shackles of not beginning at the beginning stayed with me through out  PRETTY. It mattered little but tainted the overall effect. Primarily because the frame for Ms. Littlefield's books are enticing. I want to know what happened before.

Stella Hardesty owns a sewing shop by day and redistributes the inequity of male-female relationships by night. After years spent in an abusive relationship where her husband ended up dead by her own hand, never again will Stella allow a man to inflict their cowardly ways on women. It's  hard not to like a book like A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY. Stella is a winning creation. If you can't root for a character who has found the wherewithal to actual stand up for herself and what she believes in then I don't want to know you. She is the embodiment of wish fulfillment for every reader. Who doesn't want the quiet determination, minus the violent mayhem, of Stella?

It is only just the tiniest bit of a shame that this wonderful creation is not in a better story. The through line of A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY concerns the discovery a dead woman in the foundation of a snack shack near the demolition derby track after a tornado. And while I am certainly willing to give points for creative burial location, the crime story meanders around unwilling to commit to anything more than Stella having a few conversations with that right people at the right time. And even then the person Stella is talking to seems to know there is not much interest in any real mystery or misleading subterfuge. They trip over themselves to blurt out the who's, the how's and the what for's without much arm twisting.

What does work here is Stella Hardesty. To know her is to hopefully not be maimed or murdered by her. I'm not looking for a story with a grand cabal, but a little more attention to story, along with the wonderfully drawn characters, would have boosted A BAD DAY FOR PRETTY to something really special.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Very Best of Mr. Dennis Lehane

I thought this post would appear in October. Ya, know when SHUTTER ISLAND: THE MOVIE was supposed to be released. And then it wasn't. Something about Leo not being able to do 'press' for the movie. Doesn't really matter the reason, a February release date has one of those fancy Hollywood meanings: Not Good. Look I'll be honest, I didn't connect with SHUTTER ISLAND. I loved the fifties setting, the haunted house atmosphere, and impending doom of the Hurricane. Even the set-up of the story was intriguing but how it played out just didn't work for me. Some interesting characters, a bunch of great set pieces, but the ending announces itself with an expected, thud that went nowhere. Am I still going to the movie? Its Lehane, Scorsese, Leo, and Ruffalo of course I am. Anyway the list. 8. Prayers for Rain - 1999 The last Kenzie-Gennaro book follows our heroes as they investigate a guy who is terrorizing women into committing suicide. The book played like an episo...
4 comments
Read more

Small Mercies - The Return of Dennis Lehane

 A time honored tradition at The Hungry Detective HQ is to perform the twice annual, and largely ceremonial, 'Dennis Lehane New book 20XX" Google search. Nothing comes up on his long abandoned Website, except notification of the script work for his television and film projects.  Grousing aside, 2022 was a big year for Mr. Lehane. BLACK BIRD, a show he created, played on Apple+ to solid acclaim. The show's star, Paul Walter Hauser, won a Golden Globe. But despite that I have yet to watch it. Not for any other reason than I am a movie person more than a TV person. The TV I do watch is watched in an arcane order that is difficult to decipher and even more baffling to explain. Short story, I need to watch ANDOR [Editor's Note: Slow going on ANDOR despite everyone telling me it is amazing.] And then BLACK BIRD, or maybe SLOW HORSES. I'll get there...  Anyway at the dead end of 2022, I did the search. Found out he wrote a book. SMALL MERCIES . I was excited to hear it. I...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Fogotten Post: A Remembrance

[Editor's Note: Started this missive, never came back to it. Still relevant, I suppose.] I am reading MURDER IN OLD BOMBAY by Nev Marsh. This was... technically still is... on my to buy pile. In the before time... the overwhelming to be read pile time... I would have bought this and thrown it on the shelf to read in the near or more likely distant future. I hope I like it enough to buy the second in the series. Buying a book is fun, buying a book that is good is better. [Editor's Note: Abandoned this book, unfinished.] BLACKTOP WASTELAND - S.A. COSBY So glad I didn't buy this last summer. Good decision to put off buying and reading what would have certainly been one of the best books of the year. New goal for the remaining 2021 calendar. Don't be dumb. Buy Mr. Cosby's follow up and read day one! [Editor's Note: I did buy a signed copy of RAZORBLADE  TEARS, meanwhile B.W. won every award, except the Edgar where it wasn't even nominated!? Also Signed firsts of...
Post a Comment
Read more