Focus on the competition

REVIEWS BY SANDY HUSEBY

Far more is at stake than winning top prize in the Port Findlay photography contest in Meg Chittenden's scintillating romantic mystery, Snap Shot. Gallery owner Diana Gordon, along with Connor Callahan and other exhibit judges, discovers the dead body of local arts benefactor Rosemary Barrett amid the photographs being judged. One new photograph appears to be a deliberately placed clue that ties the murder into Diana's own past as a big-city private investigator. Even with a law enforcement conference taking place at a nearby hotel and a local police chief with solid credentials on the case, the killer eludes detection. Diana sets aside her determination to abandon her past to find the killer before he targets her—and before she's set up as a suspect in the investigation. Widowed chiropractor Connor is attracted to Diana, but he's not yet ready to give up his own regular conversations with his late wife. Chittenden brings into focus all the nuances of small town tale-telling with the living color of her gifted writing.


All in a good cause célèbre

Chick lit's top authors have united to pen a dazzling collection of lighthearted stories for a serious cause. Tales of outgrowing, growing up, going away and getting it all right in the end make this collection of savvy, spirited tales as priceless as a collection of Tiffany gems. The book's noble cause—proceeds benefit the international charity War Child—adds luster. Girls Night In is a chuckle, giggle, laugh-out-loud visit into the lives and libidos of vulnerable, undaunted and gutsy women who refuse to surrender their inner girl. Among the cheeky tales, the aptly named author Jennifer Weiner conducts with a distinctive "baton" a blearily philosophical symphony of guy-pinion on the wonders of marriage, opportunities and the Eighth Dwarf, Horny, at a bachelor party, while Marian Keyes celebrates attraction and anxiety through the eyes (if he has them) of a decidedly alien observer. Fun, fun, fun.


Poisoned stranger

Running a quaint bed and breakfast seems like the perfect not-quite-retired life for Peggy and Bob Beldon until an unexpected guest is poisoned in Debbie Macomber's latest Cedar Cove novel, 44 Cranberry Point. When the stranger proves to be an old Vietnam buddy, Bob believes he may be the next victim, and that a wartime secret has claimed the lives of his comrades one-by-one. In the caring cauldron of Cove family weddings, courtships and everyday living, murder is a harsh intruder. Temporarily closing the B&B as a precaution, Peggy and Bob feel isolated from the warmth of community and family, and make the life-altering choice to invite the daughter of the murder victim to share their lives. Readers will return to Macomber's Cedar Cove with the ease of fitting back in at the family reunion.


Sultry Southern secrets

Small-town living can be a prison when the town is under the thumb of one family, so Sayre Lynch was only too happy to escape her stifling Louisiana childhood. But the prodigal daughter returns for the funeral of her younger brother Danny and a long-overdue confrontation with her dictatorial father, Huff Hoyle, in Sandra Brown's White Hot. Passions, past crimes and corruption spin a web of deceit and danger as Sayre faces her past, her destiny and the demands of Beck Merchant, the smooth-talkin' lawyer whom she can't decide whether to hate or love. Brown's writing lures readers with haunting, sultry seduction, redolent with secrets as deep as hot, breath-snagging Southern nights.


Sandy Huseby reviews from Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside Minnesota.

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