Showing posts with label A. C. Henley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A. C. Henley. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Miss-Match by Erica Lawson and A.C. Henley

Publisher:                   Affinity Press

Miss-Match reads like an experiment that did not work.  It has to be difficult enough to write a book with two authors, but especially unwieldy when one of them is dead and cannot be consulted.  The pace of this book is extremely uneven and, while it’s supposed to be funny, it often feels forced to achieve that.  The company didn’t do this book any favors either.  It’s poorly set up as far as the pages, spacing and so forth, then the editing notes were left in it in places.

Clancy Fitzgerald is twenty-nine, single and the matchmaker she’s been using has run through all of the men she has available.  The matchmaker decides to set Clancy up with a woman, without telling her.  She also doesn’t tell the other woman, Carmen Pratka, that Clancy isn’t expecting a woman.  Carmen immediately realizes that Clancy’s problem has been all along that she’s really a lesbian.  Someone just has to prove it to her and Carmen wants to do that.  What follows is a silly dance between Clancy and Carmen to create a relationship and that gets caught up in the intrigue of a religious group to try and buy up all of the gay and lesbian bars in town to put them out of business.

Erica Lawson is usually a much better author than this and her books are better produced.  Perhaps it was trying to finish someone else’s story that created the problem.  At any rate, leave this one on the shelf and try a different book.



Thursday, August 18, 2011

McKee the Return by A. C. Henley


Publisher:               Intaglio Publications


Quinlan McKee is a private investigator and heads an organization in Chicago that specializes in solving crimes.  She had lived in Los Angeles until her pregnant partner, a police officer, was murdered, then Quin retreated totally from her friends.  She is drawn back to the city to work on a case of child slavery and police corruption and during the investigation discovers that there are ties to the previous tragedy.  Quin doesn't mind twisting the law to suit her needs, which becomes difficult when she finds herself working with Detective Vivian Walsh, a by-the-book police officer.  They find themselves involved in corruption in many areas and learn that the line between friend and foe can be very indefinite.  Quin and Vivian may have a chance for a happy ending, if they can survive this case.



McKee the Return is a fairly average mystery.  It has the required really "bad guys" and there are some surprise turns in the story, but much of it is predictable.  Quin is interesting because she's not against using force to get what she wants, so she's not a classic "good guy." The book is fine for general reading.