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	Reading and writing have been a passion for Laurie Wood since winning city-wide writing contests in Grade Five and Eight. Her favourite genres are romantic suspense, mysteries, and a good spine-tingling thriller. She loves to judge contests as well as enter them, and is active in several RWA Chapters. Although published in non-fiction articles, she's yet to grab the golden ring of being published in novel-length fiction. Until then, she writes at home and takes care of her two special needs children, an alpha male husband who inspires her heroes, and a golden retriever who thinks she's just a kid in fur.

SOME COMFORT AMONG US
S. P. Hozy
Paperback: 139 pages
NDE Publishing
ISBN #: 1-55321-108-1
$9.99 US $12.99 Cdn 234 pgs.

SOME COMFORT AMONG US is a cozy mystery spiced with the exotic locale of India. Readers who love their mysteries filled with tinges of history will enjoy the rich description of India's history as well as the contemporary detailing of this book.

Hozy has brought all of her travels in India to life in this story about a daughter trying to unravel what happened prior to her mother's mysterious death at a remote ashram in the outlying regions around Bombay. Her mother is portrayed as naïve; a lifelong seeker of inner peace, and a bit of a flighty, middle-aged woman who can't settle down to her life as an empty nester in Toronto, Canada. Her father is equally ineffectual; unable to stop his wife from leaving, and abdicating his role as husband in being content to let his daughter to face the trials and tribulations of dangerous travel in India. Other than that, we get no sense of them as characters, nor do we get a strong sense of Susan as a character. Hozy tells us a few details, but fails to show us through her writing what Susan is all about - we don't even get a good physical description of her in the book.

While the plot is episodic, the telling of life at an ashram, the rituals of cremation, and Indian life versus Western life are interesting and the author attempts to make the book as suspenseful as possible.

Hozy has raw writing talent; there is no doubt about that. Using her travel experiences and her way with words will serve her in good stead as she hones her craft in the mystery field. The problem with self-published books, however, is that the author is at the disadvantage of not having the best editorial help available to them. Hozy would have been able to bring this mystery to full bloom had she had the necessary help to show her the way.

However, this author is one to watch, as she won't stay self-published long. She has another book coming out in February 2005, IF ONLY TO SAY GOODBYE, from NDE Publishing. Many, many authors have gone on to huge success after self-publishing and my guess is that Hozy will be one of them. She needs to pump up her characterization, and throw in a few more red herrings to stir up her mysteries. Then watch her fly!

IF ONLY TO SAY GOODBYE can be ordered directly from www.ndepublishing.com.

Reviewed by: Laurie J. Wood

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