Photo Snap Shot, Joanna Campbell Slan

 

The Book

This is the third book published in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrapbook Mystery series. Right away Janna Campbell Slan slams us into the action with a call from Anja's school summoning Kiki because Anya's discovered a dead body. Someone's murdered the most hated teacher at the school Sissy Gilchrist at the snooty private school the Charles and Anna Lindberg Academy. (Yes named for that Charles Lindberg.) 

With Anya as a witness, Kiki decides she has to track down who might have killed Sissy, if only to protect Anya from the consequences. Kiki is struggling with her feelings for Detective Chad Detweiler, the lead investigator who has solved, but cannot arrest the man who murdered Kiki's husband George. She finds herself full on lusting after this very married man, and playing a game of trying to help him while keeping him at arm's length. Detweiler doesn't believe the main suspect, Corey Johnson, murdered Sissy. Especially because Sissy was pregnant with their child. But everyone at the school, including some of the legacy parents are willing to blame the new, young, black basketball coach. Detweiler and Johnson go way back and Detweiler, despite lying about his marriage to Kiki, swears he doesn't think Johnson did it. Kiki agrees to keep her ears open. 

And boy, does she hear a bunch of theories surrounding who might have killed Sissy. Perhaps it was Sissy's ex-husband, and openly avowed racist, Danny Gilchrist. But Sissy was considered to be loose, and rumor has it she might have had an affair with one of the high school students. If that's the motivation, then one of the moms or dads in Kiki's own group might have killed Sissy. Was it Maggie, the kindergarten teacher who keeps begging Kiki to quit, so hard she's prepared to end their friendship? Or maybe one of the mom squad crowd Kiki is just barely in? Like Mahreeya who was the ugly duckling of the friend group? Jennifer, who everyone suspects because her son was at the hear of the some of the nastiest rumor? Ella who had something to hide? Or Patricia as a favor to her brother Danny? 

All Kiki knows is someone did it, and they will go to almost any lengths to keep her quiet. 

My Thoughts

This is a fun little cozy mystery. It checks all of the boxes. Amateur detective-check. Meet cute beginning (compelling, wacky way to "stumble" into a crime)-check. Must have a pet--harlequin Great Dane Grace-check. Ridiculous and overly PG love triangle-check. Least likely suspect the one who did the crime? Also check. And the rationale, well, it made very little sense until the end. 

Like many a cozy mystery these days (or rather over the last 20 years), it's a really fun read with plenty of twists and turns. Slan manages to weave in a little social commentary, and a light touch on current events, setting the time in 2009 ish. The book was released in 2010. 

And it's got that more modern first person narrative so reflective of the PI novels, an innovation popularized by Dashiell Hammet in 1930. In Hammet's usage it gave us insight into Sam Spade's inner world, in a visceral, real way. And Hammet was brillliant, absolutely brilliant, in showing us Sam's jaded inner self and how that blinded him. Through this blindness, allowed the plot twist to be a surprise at the end. A trick much harder to pull off today as readers on the whole are used to the trick. Therefore, many first person narratives rely on selectively hinting at "the clue" which reveals all. We frequently know when our detective finds the clue and how instantly they know what it means, but they're telling us the story and leave us in the dark. I guess it's not cheating, but me no likey. This is why I write in close third person, leaving my detective's explanations to the end. 

How Much My Library Saved Me

This is the fourth book of the books my good friend Gwen Tolios purchased for me at the going out business sale from her favorite book local bookstore. I gave her $20 to buy as many random mystery books as she could lay her hands on. I spent $20 for all 7 books she got. One of them had a $3 price tag and since 7x3=21 and that's close to the $20 I actually spent, that's the number I will use. And let us say nothing that I'm starting off a book from my own collection rather than a library book. It'll be our little secret. ;) 

By the way, do Gwen a solid and give her Substack a follow!

This Book                                                         $ 0.00

Library Items Reviewed This Year                 $216.83

Private Books

This Book                                                        $03.00

Total of Private Books                                     $55.75

Total of All Items Reviewed This Year          $284.58

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 I am now a published author. You can pick up a *FREE COPY* of my novella The Big Intersection here.