KYRA DAVIS: More Publisher’s Weekly Giddiness

Okay, the Publisher’s Weekly review has been posted on Amazon so I guess I can share it here as well:

Following hard on the red spike heels of 2005's Sex, Murder and a Double Latte, Davis's second whodunit delivers on the promise of the first. Mystery novelist Sophie Katz has a knack for collecting real-life murders. The latest victim is her detestable brother-in-law, Bob Miller, with her sister, Leah, the prime suspect. Bob's sister further muddies the waters with accusations that Leah, the perfect Republican society wife, is playing up her black and Jewish heritage for sympathy in the press. Meanwhile, Sophie and Anatoly, her favorite love-to-hate PI, are investigating Bob's three mistresses and extravagant spending habits as well as their own budding relationship. A cast of charming caricatures—the Jewish mom, the gay hairdresser, the destructive toddler—round out a version of San Francisco in which racial politics are fun to play with and sex is steamier than frothed milk. Davis chooses style over substance, skillfully keeping the snappy dialogue funny all the way to the unsurprising surprise ending, and lands square on target for her chick lit audience. (May)

Have I mentioned that I love this review? Yeah okay, they said that I chose style over substance but they didn’t view this as a problem and you know what? That was a conscious choice on my part. That’s not to say that I want my characters to come across as flat, and I don’t think they do, but I didn’t set out to change anyone’s view of the world with this book. I wanted to entertain. We’re in the middle of a war, the environment is in the worst shape it’s ever been in and the powers that be keep telling us that the Avian Flu is going to kill us all. I think we owe ourselves a few indulgent moments curled up on the couch (or on an armchair at Starbucks) with a bucket of bon-bons (or a White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccino Blended Coffee)and a book that will make us laugh. If that book happens to be mine then I'm a happy camper. As for the unsurprising surprise ending…well I’m not entirely sure what they mean by that. I will say that in the end the good guys prevail and then bad guys don’t. I can’t imagine that a reader would expect anything else from a book titled Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights. As for the rest of it, I’ll just say this: if you were surprised by the way the first book ended there’s a good chance you’ll be surprised by how this one ends. Personally I’m horribly inept at figuring out whodunit when it comes to murder mysteries. I’m almost always taken by surprise. But in my defense I think that’s partly due to the fact that I don’t want to know. I just want to go along for the ride and I find that spending too much time trying to figure out what clues mean what detracts from my enjoyment of a novel. That’s probably a weird thing for a mystery writer to say but there it is.

But all that is beside the point which is that PW gave me a spectacular review, even better than the one they gave me last time around. I also want to address their "frothed milk" comment. You know how they say that if you talk about sex all the time it means you're not getting any? Well in my first book the word "sex" was right in the title and yet there was no actual sex. In this book the word "sex" is nowhere to be found in the title soooo...

I also think that sex between two characters represents some kind of turning point in thier relationship and I don't believe in glossing over turning points, I think they need to be explored in detail.

Moving on, I’m beginning to get some definitive tour dates. As of this moment the first place I’ll be speaking at is Alexander Book Co. on May 5th at 12:30. Alexander’s always has their events on weekday afternoons so those who work in the Financial District or elsewhere downtown can come see an author on their lunch breaks. I’ll also be speaking on May 18th at 7:30 at San Francisco’s Fisherman's Wharf Barnes And Noble and at Capitola's The Capitola Book Café on June 22nd (also at 7:30) and on July 25th I’ll be at Menlo Park's Keplers. I also know I’ll be doing a signing in Denver Colorado on May 24th (I’ll get you the specifics for that event later) and I’ll be in San Diego sometime within the first week or so of June. I think I’ll be in The Hamptons during Memorial Day Weekend but my publisher hasn’t confirmed that with me yet. I’ll have all this up on my website in a few weeks time.

That’s all for now!

Kyra Davis
http://www.kyradavis.com/
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
Preorder Passion,Betrayal And Killer Highlights In Stores May 2006!
For The Love Of A Dog--A fun online read

1 comment :

kyradavisFriday, March 24, 2006 at 10:24:00 AM PST
Yes, I read about the whole ordeal with Kepler's and their lease problems. Then way that whole thing went down was very weird.
For those of you who don't know, Kepler's is considered to be Silicon Valley's premier independent bookseller. It's been around for decades and has a huge following. Then out of the blue they closed their doors and said they were closed for good. There was no warning, no going-out-of-business-sale, nada. Even the employees didn't find out about it until the day of the closure. Then thanks to the help of the community and some concessions made by the property managers they re-opened and are now stronger than ever.

Anyhoo, I'm thrilled to be speaking there. They have in the past hosted authors such as Jennifer Weiner, Amy Tan and Kristin Gore, just to name a few. I'm honored that they're willing to host me!