| Women museum curators -- Fiction. |
| Quiltmakers -- Fiction. |
| Folk festivals -- Fiction. |
| Police -- Crimes against -- Fiction. |
| Large type books. |
| Detective and mystery fiction. |
| Harper, Benni (Fictitious character) -- Fiction. |
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Audience | Shelf Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Current Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult | Large print | Book | LP FIC FOWLER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Benni and the ladies of her Coffin Star Quilt Guild are excited to display their Graveyard Quilt at the first ever San Celina, California, Memory Festival. The fair promises to be a wonderful and moving event celebrating memories through quilts, crafts, scrapbooks, photographs, written word, oral histories and tributes to loved ones. But when a local cop is wounded by a mysterious sharpshooter who seems to have a vendetta against the police, Benni fears for her own loved ones, especially her police chief husband, Gabe. And when Gabe starts having violent nightmares, Benni's worst fears come true. Troubled by her husband's emotional trauma and a mysterious new San Celina resident - a woman who knows too much about Gabe's past - Benni is drawn into the search for the sniper, determined to keep her hometown from becoming a shooter's deadly target range.
Author Notes
Earlene Fowler was raised in La Puente, California. She wrote literary and commercial short fiction for ten years without publishing success when she decided to write a mystery novel. Her first novel, Fool's Puzzle, was published in 1994. Her other works include Kansas Troubles, Seven Sisters, Arkansas Traveler, Broken Dishes, Delectable Mountains, and The Saddlemaker's Wife. She won the Agatha Award for Mariner's Compass in 1999.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Benni Harper and her second husband, police chief Gabe Ortiz, face two unexpected situations in Fowler's well-paced 15th mystery set in San Celina, Calif. (after 2010's State Fair). First, a sniper takes a shot at a police car parked near the courthouse, shattering the driver's-side window. Fortunately, the vehicle was unoccupied. Second, a strange woman, supposedly scoping out the central California coast for a retirement home, finagles a meeting with Benni, who's discomfited by how much the woman knows about Gabe's past. Meanwhile, Benni has plenty to do in her role as museum curator, rancher, and devoted daughter and niece to elderly and spunky relatives. In addition, she has the forthcoming Memory Festival to organize. While series fans might lament the relative dearth of quilting lore, a roster of mildly eccentric family and friends and a wealth of good humor are sure to please cozy readers. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Director of the Josiah Sinclair Folk Art Museum, Benni Harper Ortiz is wrapped up in organizing the first ever Memory Festival for San Celina, California. In the days leading up to the festival, a sniper begins taking potshots at local police officers, seriously injuring one of Benni's friends. The stress of the sniper case causes Benni's police-chief husband, Gabe, to tussle with a bout of his formerly dormant post-traumatic stress disorder, developed after his stint in Vietnam. Troubled both by the sniper case and by the arrival in town of a mysterious woman who seems to know way too much about Gabe, Benni begins to snoop, hoping to ease her husband's burden. The story, set in 1998, combines a solid mystery with Fowler's typically engaging folk-art frame; but this time she adds to the mix a perceptive take on the ongoing problem of soldiers who suffer from PTSD.--O'Brien, Su. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Memories form the cornerstone of museum curator Benni Harper Ortiz's upcoming Memory Festival featuring oral history activities. But she couldn't have anticipated a sniper would choose that time to target her bucolic college town, wounding a police officer and setting the community on edge. Worse still, the attacks have triggered terrifying post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nightmares for her police chief husband, Gabe, a Vietnam War vet. Benni is further spooked by a new woman in town who keeps poking into Benni's and Gabe's pasts. Trying to keep her balance and get to the heart of the crime, Benni finds answers from unexpected sources. Can she ensure the safety of her town, too? Verdict Fowler's latest entry (after State Fair) in her long-running series is topically fresh and relevant, and her focus on PTSD will resonate with today's younger veterans who have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. This entry can easily be read as a stand-alone, but many will be captivated by the author's ability to fold in history and current events with her quilt-based stories. A real gem that has far-reaching appeal for military families, genealogists, and quilters alike.-Teresa L. Jacobsen, Fairfield, CA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.