Mystery Writer Lisa Turner Visits Charlotte--

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's major literary fundraising event is scheduled tonight for its third annual appearance in the Verse & Vino, featuring presentations by award-winning writers.  Five authors are invited including one from the mystery genre--Lisa Turner.  The Library's Foundation department sponsors Verse & Vino.

Lisa Turner
(photo from author
website)

On the Foundation webpage for Verse & Vino Featured Authors, it states that Turner "raced to the top of Amazon's Kindle bestsellers list with her first Southern mystery, A Little Death in Dixie.  Her second novel, The Gone Dead Train, was a 2015 Edgar nominee and continues to explore good characters who do wicked things.  New Release: Devil Sent the Rain."

Turner's novels are a series with Homicide Detective Billy Able, set in Memphis, Tennessee where she was born.  Described as suspenseful in tone, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has all titles in its collection.  And in addition to an author webpage, Turner has followers on Facebook and Instagram.  

For this evening, the Library Foundation expects more than 1,000 guests for the author event at the Charlotte Convention Center according to its fall newsletter.

Book Club discusses "Cripple Creek"

Last Thursday the book club discussed the new book Cripple Creek by James Sallis. [Here's a pix of James from his website.] Cripple Creek is the second book by Sallis to feature a world-weary small town deputy named Turner living near Memphis, Tennessee who is rebuilding his life. And truth be told--Sallis didn't win over new readers to his books that night with this title.

Although critically well-received, Sallis' novel jumps around like a toad (the story is interrupted with flashbacks) and the narrative is not easy follow. As it turns out, Turner has had several previous lives an a Vietnam War vet, a cop in Memphis, a prision inmate and a therapist. And those lives blur at times.

One book clubber read the book and decided to reread it to get a better understanding while another decribed it as forgettable after finishing. Another read the first book to feature Turner in Cypress Grove and described the second book as very similiar. I somehow got the impression she preferred the first one though. I had mixed feelings about the book and found its appeal somewhat limiting.

Sallis does give the reader a modest story in detail (really, a crime story of revenge) with neat doses of atmospheric text involving a layered character.

And truth be told, I guardedly recommended this series to a library patron and he said he'd give the first book a try. He was interested in a character-driven book.