Reviews of "Promissory Payback"[73] and "Unrevealed" [74]

Promissory Payback by Laurel Dewey
The Story Plant, ISBN 978-1611880076
August 2, 2011, 80 pages

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Someone hated Carolyn Handel.
They hated her a great deal and it is not at all hard to see why.

When she is found dead, murdered in her bedroom in a particularly violent and degrading way, that is clear. And once Detective Jane Perry begins to investigate the woman, it also become clear that Handel was a woman worthy of being hated. She took advantage of desperate people, scamming them out of their last cent. But someone has made her pay the ultimate price.
The problem may be that the list of suspects is just too long.
You know what they say...Karma can be a bitch.

Unrevealed: Four Jane Perry Stories by Laurel Dewey
The Story Plant, ISBN 978-1611880236
October 4, 2011, 96 pages

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From the publisher's website...

ANONYMOUS: One of Jane's first AA meetings leads her to an encounter with a woman in need of her detection skills...and a secret she never expected to uncover.

YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: Forced by her boss to speak at a high school career day, Jane meets a troubled boy and finds that his story is only the beginning of a much more revealing tale.

YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS: An early-morning homicide call introduces Jane to a mystery as layered as it is unsuspected.

THINGS AREN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM: Jane finds herself sharing a 2:00 am conversation at a downtown bar with an old acquaintance. Will the bloody night that proceeded this moment complicate Jane's intentions?

I always love to find another great character and these two short books, the novella Promissory Payback and the four short stories in Unrevealed, are a great introduction to yet another one, police Detective Jane Perry. Fans of Dewey's full length novels starring Perry will no doubt love these, but for the rest of us who are not familiar with her, these are a great introduction. No doubt, I will have to check out one of Dewey's novels in the near future. Perry is very smart, very believable and very human. With her cowboy boots, endless cigarettes in hand and drinking problem..well, she is a good character and a good detective! And if these are an indication of what the author can create in so few pages, I really have to see what she can do with a bit more space.

The first, Promissory Payback, is a good story. The plot is quite good and the secondary characters, including all those suspects, were very good. That the author was able to get so much in such a short book was surprising and enjoyable.

But I must admit, of the two, my favorite was Unrevealed, with it's four excellent short stories.
I may have mentioned it before, but I am a big fan of short stories. The skill to create a complete, satisfying story, with good characters and a great plot, especially in the mystery genre, in a short number of pages is a skill I really admire. Perry pulls it off four times in this book.

Each story is very different and very good. I have read 400 pages books where the characters were not as memorable and novels whose conclusions did not leave me nearly as surprised. It would be hard to pick a favorite of the four, but I must say the last one, Things Aren't Always What They Seem, is one of those  that had me saying "Wow" as I read the last page.
And I love when that happens.

Both are great reads when you want something short and quick, yet still well written and totally enjoyable.

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My thanks to the Partner in Crime blog tours for providing me with copies of these books to review.
If you would like to check out some more stops of the tour, you can check out the links HERE.

And if you are interested in finding out more about the author Laurel Dewey and her three other Jane Perry novels, PROTECTOR, REDEMPTION, and REVELATIONS, and the another Jane Perry novelette, AN UNFINISHED DEATH , head over to her website.

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