Tuesday, May 18, 2010

"The alarm rang at 6 am, jolting me out from under my down comforter and into a pair of slippers."

The first challenge in the Take Another Chance Challenge is called Read Your Doppelganger --
Find an author who has either the same initials, the same first name, the same last name, or the exact same name as you. Read a book by this author and write a post about it.
This isn't the easiest thing to search but I used my initials and came up with Karen MacInerney and chose the first in her cozy Gray Whale Inn Mystery series, Murder on the Rocks.  This series takes place on an island off the coast of Maine where Natalie Barnes is starting up her own bed and breakfast.  Things turn ugly when a big-shot developer wants to purchase the adjoining land and build a mega resort -- eventually bulldozing the inn to make way for a parking lot.  The day after the town council votes to allow the resort building to proceed, the developer is found dead and Natalie is the key suspect.

This was an alright read.  The characters were interesting but I just couldn't get entirely on-board with the cliché mystery components or the predictable romance.  I'm curious about what happens next for Natalie and her niece Gwen but if the quality of the mystery isn't better, I don't think I will continue with the series (currently three books, I believe).  I will, however, try some of the breakfast recipes given in the back of the book like Wicked Blueberry Coffee Cake and Killer Cranberry Scones!  Yum!

Looking out for my next literary doppelganger,
K


Support our site and buy Murder on the Rocks on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed our copy from the library.

6 comments:

  1. Well, at least you got some yummy tasting breakfast treats out of it!!

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  2. That is an interesting challenge - think I'd have to use my initials too, though - not aware of an author with the same name as me, nor first nor last names either - but I'll go check on Amazon.(Talking of doppelgangers, I share my birthday with Mary Shelley, does that count? :) )
    One to think about.

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  3. Just realised *bashes head against desk* - I have a book waiting in my 'to read' pile I could use for this challenge, by Tracy Chevalier. Not too many authors with my surname that I actually want to read, though.

    I think most people, if they saw a book by an author with exactly the same full name as themselves, would try it out of curiosity.

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  4. I'm still debating if I want to do this piece of the challenge or not. I think it depends on what I find.

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  5. Jenners - That's a definite upside!

    Tracy - I guess I could have picked a Kristen but strangely they all seem to be YA authors. Funny that you already have a Tracy book!

    Tif - It took me a lot of time on the library database to come up with something.

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  6. I guess I could have picked a Kristen but strangely they all seem to be YA authors.
    I had a similar problem with my surname - all but one of the authors listed on Amazon either write serious religious non-fic books or are part authors of non-fic books. I found one fiction author with my surname that I may be interested in reading, and I would certainly never have considered them before, so it's an approach that can work.


    Funny that you already have a Tracy book!
    Even funnier that I forgot all about it, initially! It got buried under a few more recent purchases.

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