writers workshop

Kemper Donovan: Loose Lips

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Ghostwriter #2

I really enjoy this quirky new series featuring a nameless ghostwriter as the main character.  In the first book, the writer trailed a Hilary Clinton-esque figure and wound up solving a crime with her.  In this follow up, she’s now an established professional after publishing an account of her previous adventure and is recruited for a private cruise for wannabe writers.  She’s the “mystery writer” instructor, along with a poet, a memoirist, and an ultra successful romance writer.  We eventually learn her pen name, Belle Currer, which certainly makes things simpler from a logistical point of view. read more

Andromeda Romano-Lax: The Deepest Lake

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Standalone

This was an unexpected read.  Set in Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlán, the story follows the drowning death of young Jules.  The way into the story is through her mother, Rose’s, unfathomable grief at the loss of her daughter.  The lake is deeper than Lake Michigan (to put it in context) and Jules’ body has not been found.  Her father went first to search, and with his military training and willingness to work with local law enforcement he gets a certain number of facts, but Rose wants to somehow live into the place where her daughter was last seen and feel her way into a solution.  It’s almost a perfect split of the stereotypical male and female ways of approaching a problem. read more