|
AUTHOR: Alison Preston ISBN: 0921833830
Beryl Kyte, a letter carrier who lives in the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Norwood Flats, goes out for a hike one beautiful spring Sunday and literally trips over a body in the woods of the St. Vital Park. It's a dead woman with mushrooms sprouting in her mouth. In a panic Beryl struggles out to the main road and manages to hail a cellphone-toting passerby who notifies the police. Among the many officers who arrive on the scene is Inspector Frank Foote whom Beryl has seen around her neighborhood (and whom readers will recognize from Preston's last book, The Rain Barrel Baby). A badly shaken Beryl is questioned and escorted home. It isn't long, however, before another body turns up and then another. As she follows the horrific discoveries in The Winnipeg Free Press, Beryl thinks she sees a pattern emerging. Beryl hadn't been of much help to the police in the case of the first dead woman–she'd only tripped over the body, after all–but when things begin happening around her own home, she wishes they could be of some help to her. But she can't even make the call, for the crimes taking place in her yard–someone has been deadheading her lobelia and someone has put a pretty little collar on her cat–will just make the police think she's crazy. Except maybe that nice Inspector Frank Foote.
Other
Signature titles by Alison Preston:
REVIEWS:
"With The Geranium Girls, Winnipeg writer Alison Preston has penned a deeply creepy book. It's creepier than the vicious serial killer stories now dominating the thriller genre, in part because it takes place in Winnipeg's happy familiar spots—Norwood flats, St. Vital Park and Taché Boulevard. That leaves local readers wondering if whacko characters might live down the street or frequent the same corner store. The story begins when Beryl, a young letter carrier, stumbles over a body in St. Vital Park. The dead girl has mushrooms growing out of her gaping, dirt-filled mouth, an image that haunts Beryl and propels her to do her own sleuthing. Soon, the killer is tormenting Beryl's somewhat mundane and hermit-like existence in distressingly subtle ways." —The Winnipeg Free Press
Preston makes Beryl's workaday world come to vivid life (probably helped along by the fact that the author herself is a postal worker who lives in Norwood Flats). Her dialogue is smart and genuine, her prose has real snap and she peppers the book with local detail that awakens our eyes to the quiet beauties of our city. And despite the fact that Preston probably hasn't stumbled across a corpse, her shudder-worthy description is a grisly treat. …It's a compelling read." —Uptown Magazine "Alison Preston's first mystery, The Rain Barrel Baby, [sic] showed real promise. her second proves it was no fluke. Winnipeg mail carrier Beryl Kyte, back from Baby, [sic] stumbles over a body, a young woman with mushrooms in her mouth. Two more murders follow and Beryl, like the rest of her Norwood Flats neighbours, is following the story in the papers. But she sees a connection the police have missed. And then strange things start happening. This is a solid, well-plotted mystery‹the clues in the news was good enough for Poe‹with a lively setting and interesting characters." —the Globe and Mail "This book is for people like me who like the idea of a murder mystery but prefer for the bloody action to take place off stage. I'm not keen on being dragged into the lair of deranged murderers or having all the gory detail forced upon me in order to get on with the plot of a story. This book I was able to enjoy, it is perfect for "a day off", reading without fear that someone like Freddy Kruger is about to leap off the pages at me. What keeps us on our toes in this mystery is the angle from which we view the unfolding story? Why does the story stay with the person who accidentally trips over the body? Is she an investigator? Is she the next victim? As an added bonus with every reading you get a great trip to Winnipeg." —Independently Reviewed "One Saturday Morning in the Norwood Flats, a quiet, suburban Winnipeg neighbourhood, letter carrier Beryl Kyte trips and falls across a mound in St. Vital Park. She pulls herself up, gently massaging her twisted foot. It's then she realizes with horror that she has stumbled over a dead woman's body with mushrooms growing out of her mouth! Beryl Kyte is the main character in Alison Preston's latest mystery novel, The Geranium Girls. The setting is eerily similar to the author's own experience. Indeed, Preston is a letter carrier with 24 years of service who also lives in the Norwood Flats, with her partner Bruce and cat Wally. The rest of the grisly facts and clues about this local murder, however, are imagined. Still, the book is full of references about Canada Post, though co-workers need not worry about Preston featuring them in her books. "The work environment and some of the building descriptions are based on fact," she says, "but none of the characters are based on real people. They may, however, possess qualities of people I have known during my life." So far, all of the author's three published novels take place in The Norwood Flats. This enables her characters to pop in and out of the stories. Preston feels safe as a long-time resident in her community... even though a murder is about to take place in her next tale of sibling rivalry gone wrong. This next book promises to draw it's readers into a compelling, chilling plot." —Performance
|
The Geranium Girls
ABOUT THE BOOK: