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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 21 |
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BLUE BLOOD  |
Meet Andy Kendricks:
Detective & Deb Dropout
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
Much as I adore Susan McBride--both as a person and
as a mystery writer--I'll confess it took me quite awhile to
work myself up to try "Blue Blood" (Avon, $6.50) the
first book in her new "debutante dropout" detective
series.
It's a "guy thing." Somehow the word "debutante" puts me off, much the way the word "spinster" might if placed before the word "sleuth." It conjures up images of upper class society, a world of fancy dress balls and rules for deportment that are anathema to my very soul.
Well, goes to show I was doing McBride a great disservice. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed her "Maggie Ryan" series of police detective mysteries earlier, I should have remembered she's a deft writer who never drifts that far away from the core of reality I need in my mysteries.
"Blue Blood" turns out to be NOT about a society deb who plays detective in her spare time, but rather a regular girl--make that young woman--who hates the world of debs as much as I do. The word "dropout" is the key. Andy Kendricks, the amateur sleuth star of the "Debutante Dropout" series, would happily tie lead weights to all the trappings of the debutante world and sink them to the bottom of a cess pool.
If you can imagine the leading character of TV's "Gilmore Girls," an unwed mom who has rejected the lifestyle of her wealthy parents, teaming up, very reluctantly, with her society-loving mom in order to solve a mystery, then you have the basic storyline setup of "Blue Blood"--and perhaps the series to come. Having to live in the shadow of Cissy, her high society mom, is bad enough for Andy Kendricks, but then having to rely upon her help in a mystery case is a real test of Andy's mettle.
I'm happy to report that this clever gimmick produces not only tension in the plot of "Blue Blood," but also a good deal of genuine humor as the worlds of mom and daughter clash repeatedly.
Andy is a single, independent website designer living in Dallas, not far from her mom, a multi-millionairess who lives alone (not counting a servant or two) in her mansion. Andy is drawn into a murder case when her childhood friend, Molly O'Brien, is charged with fatally stabbing her boss, the corrupt and depraved operator of a restaurant and bar known as JUGS, a sort of Dallas-area edition of Hooters. Molly tells Andy she did cut the boss when he attempted to rape her after hours that night, but someone else must have come along later and finished the job.
The cops aren't listening to any other theories because they figure they have Molly locked up as the killer. Andy promises to help, not realizing at first how deep she's going to be getting into things. Molly's a single mom, so Andy has to find someone to take care of Molly's little boy. Enter Cissy, the society matron, who somehow seems to start really liking kids for the first time in her life.
When her mom hires Brian, a nice-looking young lawyer, to help with Molly's criminal case, Andy quickly realizes he's too green and not enough of an activist to do what's necessary: Develop information that will convince the police and D.A. that somebody else killed the boss, not Molly. In fact, Andy suspects her mom hired Brian because he looks like a good marriage prospect for Andy. That's when Andy decides to go undercover and find the clues herself--by getting a job at JUGS.
McBride has lots of fun with this basic situation--a nice-looking, but not exactly voluptuous young woman trying to pass herself off as a bimbo in a joint where a girl can expect to feel a good many customers' hands on her over the course of a normal shift. Naturally, she does everything she can to keep Mom from discovering what she's up to, but that isn't any fun, is it?
To be sure, "Blue Blood" is really looking mostly for female readers of paperback mysteries. But McBride is one of the best of the young mystery writers, so the guys aren't going to be too awfully bored by what goes on in those 300-plus pages, especially with a witty and attractive young woman like Andy Kendricks to lead you through them in her breezy style.
©2004 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The book
cover reproduction is ©2004 by Avon publishing.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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