MOG

"...but My Aim is Getting Better."

That's the title of a book

which, for want of a better word, i'll call a screwball suspense novel, and it's also the title of the song that the heroine of the book is writing.

Sarah Shankman (who has a series of mysteries about reporter Samantha Adams, as well) writes books in which everything ties in sooner or later - usually hysterically.

The heroine of this book, Shwelby Kay Tate, is from Mississippi; she's working in Nashville as a waitress, trying to make it primarily as a songwriter but she wouldn't mind being a hit singer, too.

She and two friends work a couple of nights a month as a group, singing their own songs in a club.

She has an ex-husband. Well, she says he'e her ex. the state of Mississippi says he's here ex.

He doesn't think he's her ex.

And there's a handsome cop. So far as she can tell, the cop is a complete doofus. So far as the cop can see, he's totally smitten with her and can't figure out why.

And there's a cranky old lady, who seems to know a heck of a lot about songwriting and performeing. (The flashback that tells her story is almost the best part of the book, because, even though you know it's fiction, you want it to be true...)

And there's Angel Patsy.

See, our heroine was born the exact minute that Patsy Cline's plane crashed... and Patsy got assigned as her guardian angel.

And there's a lot more craziness before everything gets neatly stitched up in the end.

Somehow, i'm almost imagining Cary Grant and Constance Bennett with Joan Blondell as Angel Patsy... (Or Eve Arden, but no-one would ever imagine that Eve Arden was a country singer after they heard her speak about two sentences...)

Posted on 05/08/2008

Tags: Susan Shankman, suspense, novel, Nashville, songwriter, stalker, Police, angel, Patsy Cline