A review of Marcy McCreary's "The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon" (audiobook)

Marcy McCreary’s “The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon” is a fun detective story with a strong female lead. Detective Susan Ford, while embroiled in a racially sensitive shooting investigation, is dragged into one of her father’s cold cases. Together they work to figure out what happened to the titular coffee shop waitress who disappeared forty years earlier. Her boyfriend, another cop, is also along for the ride. The case is made all the more difficult because of the family that is the focus of the investigation: the Roths, former Catskills hotel royalty with a complicated dynamic.

There was a lot to enjoy about this book. The shifting perspectives between Susan and Trudy gave color to the narration. The procedural/ clue collecting part of the book unraveled at a good pace, and the conflict within the Roth family and Mary’s relationship to it offered good tension. My one issue with the story (entirely personal) was I found it hard to sympathize with a detective who had recently shot an evidently unarmed black man. The author uses this touchstone to current events to manipulate the reader, and I’m not sure the subplot was entirely necessary. There could have been something less charged to offer the additional tension, I think, which would not have turned off certain readers.

The narrator, Rachel Fulginiti, gave realistic interpretations of both Susan’s voice and the third person perspective of Trudy.

I enjoyed “The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon” by Marcy McCreary and look forward to future installments in the series.

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Book Review of "The Dare Club: Nita" by Laurie Bradach and Kim “Howard” Johnson

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Another common error young writers make is telling a story, rather than showing a story. This is probably because many of the short stories they have been exposed to are fairy tales, which have a distant point of view and summary-like narration. They start with phrases like "There once was..." and use direct characterization, like "She was the kindest girl in all the land." When we write, we need to show our stories, using vivid verbs, specific details, and deep point of view. Here's an example of a passage that is told. The action is summarized and the reader feels as if the action is happening far away: It was June of 1943. Eric's older brother had gone away to become a fighter pilot. Eric wanted to be a pilot too, so he got in the family's crop dusting plane and started it up. He flew it out of the barn and crashed it into the old oak tree in the yard. He hit his head. The doctor had to come. His brother came back, injured from the war. The two healed...

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Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

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