CERRI ELLIS - MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS

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	Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Cerri Ellis never let a little thing like fear stop her from playing sleuth. When she's not snapping photos of ghosts, solving riddles or sifting through dusty tomes in library catacombs, she writes articles and book reviews for magazines and web sites. Her hobbies include reading mysteries, herbal gardening, and searching online and estate auctions for arcane curios. She is currently at work on a paranormal thriller set in Southern Appalachia.

THE LONE SUERFER OF MONTANA, KANSAS
Davy Rothbart
Touchstone Books/Simon & Schuster
August 2005, $12.00, 162 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-6305-4
ISBN-10: 0-7432-6305-7

THE LONE SURFER OF MONTANA, KANSAS is a collection of eight unrelated short stories filled with equal parts hope and desperation. The title story focuses on a young couple and their encounter with a surfer dude among the Kansas wheat fields.

In "Lie Big", we’re introduced to Mitey-Mike, a guy who spins BS with the passionate conviction of a true artist. "How I Got Here", is an essay from a prison inmate. "Maggie Fever" tells the story of a young man finding his soulmate through her music. "Elena" is a sad and gritty look at life among the Mexican border towns and the American man who falls in love with the daughter of a prostitute. "A Black Dog" is the wayward tale of a brief love affair and the aftermath. The plight of the outsider is explored in "First Snow". And in "Neverglade", a young man learns that love, like hope, springs eternal.

The book reads like a postmodern beat journal, the author reminiscent of a young Jack Kerouac—brimming with emotion and insight. Davy Rothbart is the voice of his generation, lacing cutting observation with pain and humor.

Cerri Ellis

ORANGE CRUSHED
Pamela Thomas-Graham
Pocket Books, October 2005, $14.00, 275 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-0-671-01672-2
ISBN-10: 0-671-01672-5

Harvard professor Veronica "Nikki" Chase intends to present her paper at a Princeton conference, and reconnect with her old mentor and friend, African-American Studies and Economics Professor, Earl Stokes. Seems simple enough.

The good professor is thinking of leaving Princeton and going to Harvard. His new book about race issues makes his colleagues nervous and in the political world of academia, a suicidal risk.

When Professor Stoke’s body is discovered the next day amid the ruined ash of the partially completed Black Studies building, Nikki is stunned. She refuses to accept the police report’s cause of death. As she pieces together motives and opportunities, she begins to uncover a plot with far-reaching implications.

ORANGE CRUSHED allows readers a peek inside the ivory tower. The characters are fully developed and written with clever passion. Ms. Thomas-Graham engages the reader to think beyond the boundaries of her book while she delivers a satisfying whodunit that will delight mystery fans.

Cerri Ellis

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