Hard Tack
Barbara D'Amato Book Review

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Plot Summary of Hard Tack

"Freelance journalist Cat Marsala is all gung-ho about her next assignment - a piece about moneyed people and how they live - until Cat discovers she'll be on water. Cat hates water and cannot swim.

Bravely forcing her boat and water phobias aside, Cat boards 'Easy Girl', a 60-foot yacht owned by millionaire furniture manufacturer Will Honeywell and his wife, Belinda. After all, Lake Michigan is a far cry from the Atlantic Ocean.

Along for the Fourth of July holiday sojourn are the Honeywell's son, Bill and girlfriend Mary; Belinda's brother Dr. Greg Mandel and his wife, Twinkie, jewelry shop owner; Brad Falcon, Broadway star; Chuck Kroop, financier; Takuro Tsunami, engineer; Dr. Daniel Silverman, and Emery Langmar, seaman and gopher for the duration of the trip.

With this eclectic mix, Cat keenly observes their relationships, interactions and personalites. To Cat, the Honeywells are kind and gracious hosts, but it becomes clear that Chuck Kroop is a boorish, ill-mannered and ill-tempered person with an eye for the ladies, including Twinkie.

Cat also learns the ropes, literally, taking informal yet practical sailing lessons from her hosts and companions.

After an ugly, physical fight breaks out between Greg and Chuck, it is decided that Chuck be tranquilized and confined to quarters. That night, a terrible storm blows up. All on board not felled by Valium, seasickness, excess alcohol and various other duties, spend the night keeping 'Easy Girl' in working order.

In the dim, foggy morning, Belinda makes a shocking discovery: Chuck is dead; his throat slashed. Everyone agrees it is impossible for someone to have entered the dormitory where he was sleeping off the effects of the Valium without being seen. While Chuck was certainly not popular, Cat wonders which one of the guests had sufficient motive and opportunity to kill him. She simply cannot believe his death was a suicide, as some others are willing to think.

That morning, a dead calm strands 'Easy Girl' on the lake. With a body that is decomposing posing a problem, especially since the engine is failing to start and the radio has been trashed, Cat becomes aware that someone aboard must be the killer, and she is determined to figure it out before they finally reach land.

When night falls, the wind still refuses to help the situation, and the members of the party hunker down and try to keep their spirits up. Then Twinkie Mandel vanishes. Her distraught husband, Greg, desperately begs them to search the yacht and the surrounding waters with no success.

Cat comes to the conclusion that beneath her flirtatious and ditsy veneer, Twinkie was actually quite astute and observant, and her analytical mind led her to discover Chuck's killer and method of death. That discovery ultimately led the killer to silence her by most likely subduing her and dumping her overboard.

When Cat comes to the same awful conclusion Twinkie must have come to, the method employed by the murderer is revealed to be both cunning and ingenious, and involves Cat having to face her own fears of drowning as well.

Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout.

"
tesubcalle, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Hard Tack

Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 70%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%

Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain? - Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story: - 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 80%
Kind of investigator - skilled citizen investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - journalist
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - a little
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Water? Yes
Water: - pleasure/love boat

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 3-4
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript

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Barbara D'Amato Book Review