{"id":13,"date":"2011-02-15T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2011\/02\/book-review-fadeaway-girl.html"},"modified":"2013-04-26T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T20:44:34","slug":"book-review-fadeaway-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2011\/02\/book-review-fadeaway-girl.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : Fadeaway Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fadeaway<\/a>\"\"Title : Fadeaway Girl<\/b>
Author : Martha Grimes<\/b>
Publisher : Viking Adult<\/b>
Genre : Mystery<\/b>
Pages : 336<\/b>
Rating : 3.5\/5<\/b>
Source : Publisher ARC<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fadeaway Girl\u201d is a the 4th book of the Emma Graham Series. I haven\u2019t read the first three so this was my first introduction to our 12 year old protagonist. In this book Emma attempts to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of baby Fey, while writing a chronological account of the strange crimes in Cold Flat Junction, for the newspaper where she is junior reporter. The crime happened more than 20 years ago, so memories are jaded and clues unavailable.<\/p>\n

Now, while Grimes writes well, the beauty of a first-rate mystery novel (which this probably is) was slightly marred for me because there are too many back-references to events which happened in the previous books. Also, there are a lot of characters in this book, all of whom Emma interacts with. I do get a feel for them, but apparently they have appeared in the first 3 books in the series, so Emma already has established connections with them \u2013 all of which I\u2019m not privy to because I\u2019m jumping in at Book #4. The above two problems left me feeling a little left in the dark, and frustrated \u2013 kind of like I had missed the first half of a really intriguing film.<\/p>\n

The good news is that I still liked this book \u2013 an ode to Grimes\u2019s skill. Grimes has unusually detailed descriptive powers, something I look for in an author and appreciate a good deal. But it is not just pure description which appeals here, but the author\u2019s prowess in putting it across in a human, specific point-of-view way. By giving her characters such (and you could call them judgemental) voices she delineates them in a way that mere detail wouldn\u2019t. Here\u2019s a sample :<\/p>\n

Her plainness was emphasized by her clothes. She wore a brown dress, the color of the house. And it had a small collar at the neck, with white piping like the trim. Her hair was almost exactly the brown of the dress and the house. It was pulled back into an old-fashioned bun. Her face had what my mother called \u201cgood bones\u201d. But they weren\u2019t good enough for prettiness.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since the book is told from Emma\u2019s perspective, we get a good look-see into Emma\u2019s head. And an unusual head it is. Emma is precocious for her age, and busy – sleuthing around, waitressing at her mother\u2019s hotel and being a junior reporter. Her keen powers of observation mix nicely with her humorous take on events :<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, my mother, far from having fits, was measuring some infinitesimal amount of flavoring into a sauce with a pink tinge (her Shrimp Neuberg, possibly), holding up a tiny spoon like a scientist in a lab, then tapping the spoon lightly and observing the dusting of whatever it was that drifted down on her sauce. If Dr. Jekyll had been this careful with his potion, he might not have turned into Mr. Hyde.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Way too smart for her age, Emma is curious, unafraid, and appreciative of the good things in life (her mother apparently, is quite the cook):<\/p>\n

I realized these were stupid thoughts and extremely unsympathetic. I should learn to be more sorry for people who didn\u2019t have the great advantages I had, like my mother\u2019s chicken pot pie, which I think was on today\u2019s menu.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As she goes about her daily chores, which range from keeping Great Aunt Aurora satisfied with her daily servings of alcohol, to travelling around her little town asking questions of wary people, Emma forms opinions and expresses them in witty forms.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo anything interestin\u2019 today?\u201d<\/i> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hated open-ended questions like that; the questioner didn\u2019t care about the answer, only that the burden of conversation got to the other person, so the one asking could sit back and not do anything (and then call himself a good listener): \u201cYou\u2019re a mountain climber? Tell me about it!\u201d \u201cYou play the oboe? Tell me about it!\u201d \u201cYou murdered your children? Tell me about it!\u201d Here I pictured the questioned one, Medea, plunging a knife into the questioner\u2019s chest and answering, \u201cThat\u2019s pretty much it.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I liked this book, despite the problems I mention above. Grimes\u2019s fans have a treat in store, and to the uninitiated \u2013 read the series in order; you will enjoy it a great deal more.<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title : Fadeaway GirlAuthor : Martha GrimesPublisher : Viking AdultGenre : Mystery Pages : 336Rating : 3.5\/5Source : Publisher ARC \u201cThe Fadeaway Girl\u201d is a the 4th book of the Emma Graham Series. I haven\u2019t read the first three so this was my first introduction to our 12 year old protagonist. In this book Emma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[72,74,53,3,97,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3_star_rating","category-3-5_star_rating","category-arc","category-books","category-penguin_books","category-viking_books"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Title : Fadeaway GirlAuthor : Martha GrimesPublisher : Viking AdultGenre : Mystery Pages : 336Rating : 3.5\/5Source : Publisher ARC \u201cThe Fadeaway Girl\u201d is a the 4th book of the Emma Graham Series. I haven\u2019t read the first three so this was my first introduction to our 12 year old protagonist. In this book Emma…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2634,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/2634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}