SASSY

Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney

an Amanda Bell Brown mystery

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Claudia Mair Burney’s Amanda Bell Brown is a delightful lady and excellent sleuth. Too bad her life hasn’t been on a smooth path lately. Still, in Deadly Charm, she perseveres—with God’s help—through an intervention, an exorcism, and a possible murder to get her marriage and life back on track.

Burney has written an engaging cast of characters who carry the reader through the plot with verve and grace, giving Deadly Charm both style and attitude. Her grasp and depiction of milieu is excellent. I found this to be a thoroughly satisfying read.

That said, I feel I must tell you that I don't read much in the Christian Fiction genre. The writers of CF tend to think that they must write perfect people. However, of the people I know who lable themselves Christians, the ones I tend to like the most are the ones who don't claim to be perfect. Most CF novels tend to be about as interesting as having to sit on the end chair next to your name-dropping aunt at Thanksgiving dinner.

Ms. Burney is certainly a welcome change from novelists who think that just inserting the name of Jesus every third paragraph makes a book Christian, and also from those that think dialogue full of curse words makes a character sound macho or evil.

The word of the day for May 3, 2009 is "sassy" — Pronunciation: \'sa-sē\
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): sass·i·er; sass·i·est
Etymology: alteration of saucy
Date: 1833
1 : impudent 2. 2 : vigorous, lively. 3 : distinctively smart and stylish.

Our quote for today is from Anna Quindlen (20th century), U.S. journalist, novelist. Living Out Loud, “Baby Gear,” (1988):

The best thing about Sassy Seats is that grandmothers cannot figure out how they work and are in constant fear of the child’s falling. This often makes them forget to comment on other aspects of the child’s development, like why he is not yet talking or is still wearing diapers. Some grandmothers will spend an entire meal peering beneath the table and saying, “Is that thing steady?” rather than, “Have you had a doctor look at that left hand?”

;^)

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