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| Plot Summary of Sweet and Deadly |
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"Catherine Linton set out early in the morning to go and shoot some cans for target practice. After deciding that the last can deserved to live (having missed it several times), Catherine spotted the hand. It was reaching out towards her from the doorway of an old, rickety shack of a house that hadn't been lived in for years. Catherine took one look at the woman's misshapen head and knew that there was nothing she could do for her. When Sheriff Galton came out to take a look, he thought it was pretty weird that Catherine didn't mention that the body belonged to Leona, her father's nurse for several years. Catherine tried to persuade the Sheriff that she just didn't look at the face, but she knew that she was still a suspect.
Catherine wasn't too happy that Leona had died, but she and Leona had never really liked each other so she wouldn't exactly miss her. She did miss her parents. She missed them a lot. They had been killed in a freak car accident 6 months previous and the whole town was still reeling from the shock of losing the beloved small-town doctor who had served the community so valiantly for so long. Ever since Catherine moved back to her hometown, she had felt isolated and alone from the people there. Now that she was suddenly involved in something again, Catherine started to live once more. She saw Randall, her editor at the Lowfield Gazette, for what felt like the first time and she had to say that she liked what she saw. To Catherine's surprise, Randall is not the only stranger who reaches out with offers of assistance - even the black community seemed to reach out to help her. Now, if only Catherine could put the clues together, she could solve the mystery of who killed her parents and Leona - and stop him before he killed again...
I enjoyed the book. I thought that the mystery was well developed and had a nice pacing to it. All of the characters were sketched out quickly, but it was easy for the reader to remember who was who. The setting was marvelous - you really could feel the heat coming off of the pavement in a small, still segregated town in the South. Harris' descriptions of the town and the people had to be my favorite part. However, my one complaint with the book is that I felt like a spectator looking in instead of identifying with any of the characters. I didn't have any emotional attachment to any of the characters and I really missed that because I immediately identified with Harris' characters in her Shakespeare, Southern Vampire and Teagarden series, but not here. If the book wasn't so hard to find and so dang expensive I would say that you should read it, but I have to say (since it is hard to find and it is extremely expensive) that you should read it if you find it, but don't kill yourself looking for it...
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Debbie, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Sweet and Deadly |
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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).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- very upbeat
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?
- 60%
Misc. Murder Plotlets
- "All in the family" murder
Kind of investigator
- amateur citizen investigator
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- life in small town
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- White/American
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- killer
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- mentally ill
- emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- power
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- physically sick
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Deep South
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 1
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Charlaine Harris Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Debbie
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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