Reviewed By William McKeen, May 2008

            You all remember James Michener, the celebrated author of best-selling doorstops. Once he found the magic formula – around the time he published Hawaii in 1959 – he eased into a comfortable pattern: every other year he published a massive book with a one-word title (Iberia, Centennial, Chesapeake, etc.) that somehow tied together geology with the parade of humanity across the planet.

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Book By Edna Buchanan, September 2007

Simon and Schuster
320 pages, hardcover, $25

No one likes a rut. When a mystery author creates a compelling character – and then builds a series around that character – it’s easy to fall into a trap. To break out, the author creates another fictional character and builds a series around that character. Somewhere down the line, some wise acre at the publishers’ office suggests that the author have the characters meet. Read the rest of this entry »