Features by Sherry Joyce in Behind the Gates, December 2014:
"El Dorado Arts Council Hosts Grand Opening for New Art Space" Photo submissions for "Witches Luncheon at Serrano Country Club" Volunteer Spotlight: "Pacific Trauma Specialists:Healing from Emotional Trauma" (4 photos)
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Meet Your Neighbors, "Play it again, Peter?"
Armed Forces Foundation, "Freedom is Never Free" "Apassionato: A Toast to the Arts" Sherry Joyce & author, Cindy SampleAuthor and special friend Cindy Sample's launch party at Toby Keith's, Folsom -- this is her 4th book, Dying For A Dude (we left our horses in the parking lot!).... Line out the door for our fabulous, funny mystery writer. She has helped me so much and am proud to call her my friend. Congrats Cindy on a boot-smackin, line-dancing launch success.
Louise Crawford, left, Michele Drier, President of Capitol Crimes, Joyce Mason, Elaine Faber, Linda Townsdin and Sherry Joyce
Saturday, November 8 at 2:00 P.M. Antelope Library Join Capital Crimes, the Sacramento-area chapter of Sisters in Crime, as they present a terrific panel of mystery authors, with chapter president Michele Drier MC’ing. Kathleen Asay, Louise Crawford, Elaine Faber, Sherry Joyce, Joyce Mason and Linda Townsdin will each discuss their specific genre of mystery writing Book Review: The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield By Linda Lee Leave a Comment Written by Sherry Joyce
Sophie Littlefield Something a reader looks for, but does not always find, is a book unique in both its setting and story. What makes The Missing Place a compelling read is not only the setting in the oil fields of North Dakota, but the complexity of the two characters in the story, Colleen and Shay, as they search for their sons who have disappeared. With each of their sons missing, these two very different women are brought together in a dire situation to find out what happened in a town where others have died on oil rigs or suffered terrible injuries while working on high-risk, often exceptionally well-paying jobs. Together the two mothers confront everything: from oil rights and Indian reservation rights to OSHA as a looming threat with the power to shut down rigs. There is plenty to question about the companies who own these rigs and the men who work in the face of danger everyday. Colleen, a wealthy woman from Massachusetts, with secrets about her own son, Paul, is suddenly having to cohabitate in a small trailer with Shay, a no-nonsense woman who has survived through life on her own terms with grit and determination. Shay is on the same quest to find the answers to how her own son, Taylor, disappeared while working with Paul on Hunter-Cole’s rigs. A first glance, some readers might shy away from a story about two young men who disappeared while working on oil rigs in a town with few esthetic redeeming qualities. The weather at times so harsh it rivals the Alaskan frontier, causing you to shiver against the biting wind and drifting snow. However, as chilled as you feel by wondering if these two young men are still alive, you become engrossed in a uniquely compelling story that propels you forward because you want to believe against the odds and hope. Colleen and Shay have nothing in common except their own terror while trying to uncover what has happened to their missing sons. They search for common ground in how to pursue strategies to find out what happened to Paul and Taylor while irritating each other to the point of exasperation and total exhaustion. However, through thinly veiled tolerance and complete frustration with one another, they manage to uncover surprising clues that led to the disappearance. A character-driven story, where you struggle to like and accept Colleen and Shay, you nonetheless feel empathy for what they are going through, and with their sense of despair so deep, it unravels humanity to its core. However, The Missing Place, at its heart, is a mystery with plenty of suspense and plot twists that are surprising. Littlefield’s exceptional writing creates unusual insight into women’s relationships, as Shay and Colleen are each forced to form an alliance with the other while neither can conjure up a modicum of acceptance. The things not spoken aloud create considerable tension due to their extreme differences in personalities. Not knowing if their sons are alive, forces both women to forge an unlikely alliance, slowly breaking down the facades each has built to protect themselves from truths in their own lives. Like many small towns, there are good people who have adapted to difficult circumstances and others who will do anything to cover up the truth. Set in Lawton, North Dakota, where the oil boom changed everything, this book is an edge-of-your-seat story whose characters will live long after you have turned the last page. –Sherry Joyce, Author of The Dordogne Deceptio Meet Sophie Littlefield and discuss her book at the National Reading Group Month Event Co-sponsored by WNBA-SF and Litquake 2014. Mysteries at Opera Plaza! The Thrill of Shared Reading October 11, 2014, Saturday, 2:00 -4:00 pm Books, Inc., Opera Plaza 601 Van Ness Ave., SF 94107 SPECIAL OFFER: The Missing Place will be for sale and signing by the author days before its official launch October 14! http://wnba-sfchapter.org/book-review-the-missing-place-by-sophie-littlefield/ Sherry Joyce shared Women's National Book Association: San Francisco Chapter's photo.22 hrs · Women's National Book Association: San Francisco ChapterTo see a complete flyer of our National Reading Group Month event in October in San Francisco, click on this link. Makes you want to come, huh? https://www.dropbox.com/s/ea49ao54diujaxr/2014%20NRGM.pdf?dl=0 UnlikeUnlike · · Share
CIRCLE OF WIVES by Alice LaPlante | Book Review Written by Sherry Joyce I will be thinking about this book for a long time and talking about Alice LaPlante’s clever psychological thriller to friends and book clubs that enjoy this genre. Perhaps because a suspicious death of a prominent plastic surgeon takes place in Palo Alto, the mid-San Francisco Peninsula where I spent thirty-six years, I found myself delighted to be mentally musing and walking in the familiar area. I imagined myself in Samantha’s shoes, the smart, young detective unwilling to accept the plausible answers for why Dr. John Taylor was most likely murdered and who killed him. Certainly when not one, not two, but three simultaneous wives are implicated in the crime, you would shake your head at the implausibility—a dedicated plastic surgeon managing to maintain sanity while juggling three wives and a lucrative practice. Yet, when reading the story, you begin to feel empathy for the dead corpse. That’s masterful writing at its best. As each wife is introduced, you are simultaneously fascinated and shocked as you feel compassion for Deborah, his first and legal wife, then MJ, the second wife, a free-spirited accountant with a difficult past, then Helen, wife number three, an oncologist whose work frequently requires her to deliver devastating news to parents that their child is dying. You are pulled into this complex web, almost certain one of these women killed her husband. However, there are plenty of clues with possible motives implicating Taylor’s partners in his surgery practice. So, maybe it was not one of the wives who was guilty of murder. It’s not a book so much about “whodunit” as it is about motive. “Whydunit” is what propels you rapidly forward, turning pages of interview transcripts with Samantha and each wife, speaking in the first person, so that you are completely in their heads as you read. You are likely to ask yourself, “What would I have done if I were one of these wives?” You think you will figure it all out with your detective-sleuthing reading skills. You won’t. You’ll guess, and guess wrong and then guess again. Alice LaPlante’s writing is that good. Not only will you be unable to put this book down, you want, as the reader, to be a smarter detective than Samantha. You applaud yourself for thinking you could never be complicit in allowing your husband to have two other wives, but then you begin to understand Deborah, MJ, and Helen—perhaps even accept their choices and sacrifices. But then there is Claire who really thickens the plot, and the unusual relationship between MJ and her brother Thomas. LaPlante creates a young detective, Sam, with insecurities and unwavering determination. Despite her own shaky, ten-year relationship with her boyfriend, Peter, she puts work first. Samantha is likeable, tenacious and unwilling to accept what appears to be the obvious. Not many authors can keep you reading long into the night, thinking about how the victim died and who would have benefited most from his death. LaPlante plants (pun here) clues that make logical sense, and then they don’t, part of her writing skill. During Samantha’s multiple interviews with the three wives throughout the novel, you think you will see the flaw in the perfect crime. However, you won’t see the plot twists coming, and they keep surprising. You’ll shake your head and say, “I didn’t see that coming.” That’s what makes CIRCLE OF WIVES a thrill ride of marital deception, betrayal, and discovery. –Sherry Joyce, Author of The Dordogne Deception Meet Alice LaPlante and discuss her book at the National Reading Group Month Event Co-sponsored by WNBA-SF and Litquake 2014. Mysteries at Opera Plaza! The Thrill of Shared Reading October 11, 2014, Saturday, 2:00 -4:00 pm Books, Inc., Opera Plaza 601 Van Ness Ave., SF 94107 http://wnba-sfchapter.org/circle-wives-book-review/ |
DANGEROUS DUPLICITY BOOK LAUNCH WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!
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