Midnight Ink has another winner with Diane Madsen's A Cadger's Curse, the first in a new series featuring D.D. McGil, a refugee from academia now employed as a freelance insurance investigator in Chicago. Like other former college English instructors (myself included) D.D. is happy to be gainfully employed, so she eagerly accepts an assignment to perform background checks on several trainees who have been fast-tracked for plum positions in the Hi-Data Corporation, a major player in the cutthroat high-tech industry. Even though her project encroaches upon the Christmas holidays, D.D. begins her investigation, only to stumble immediately upon a corpse, her deceased lover's half-brother. Memories of her partner's unexplained suicide resurface, as D.D. attempts to expose the treachery afoot at Hi-Data.
This, however, is not the only mystery D.D. has to solve. In a parallel plot, D.D.'s idiosyncratic, demanding Scottish aunt descends upon the McGil family. Aunt Elizabeth, "The Scottish Dragon," produces a manuscript purportedly by Robert Burns. Enter D.D. with her PhD in English, to investigate the authenticity of the manuscript but I won't divulge the results. Suffice it to say, they are hard-won and not without danger for D.D.
While the dual plots are at times clumsy and a bit contrived, Madsen has created an engaging heroine who should blossom fully in future D.D. McGil Literati mysteries. Literature lovers will look forward to future chapters in D.D.'s life.
"For me, the books I read were the call—the call to adventure, to thinking, to acknowledging other points of view. But to complete the ritual, I needed to respond."
I am surrounded by books. Every room, every space in my large, sprawling 1750s house is full of books...
Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.
"My ah-ha moment came when I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... That was it for me – I was off to the races."
Nietzsche once wrote, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
"Mystery books were daring and exciting, firing up my imagination and making me yearn to become a girl detective or even a secret agent. They also empowered me to make up impromptu ghost stories around the campfire for my Girl Scout troop and sneak into the cemetery at night on a dare."
Fire and Ashes, the latest Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery, is an exploration of a fatal fire. To research this novel, Viets delved into the devastating consequences of junk science and arson investigations.
