Cryin' Time

by Cecelia Tishy

Book Overview

Honky-tonk sleuth Kate Banning returns--when an up-and-coming songwriter goes down-and-out...of sight. "This second Kate Banning novel is a real treat...a lively view of country music and nashville... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451198328
• ISBN13: 9780451198327
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A mystery for country music fans and mystery buffs

Cryin' Time is the second title in the Kate Banning Mystery series, the first being Jealous Heart.Kate Banning has moved to Nashville Tennessee. She has a secure job with a publication and thought her amateur sleuthing days were behind her, not so, when she finds herself having lunch at the Mad Platter with a convincing executive from UpShot Records named Phil. Phil needs an amateur detective to do a background check on a future singer, and their mutual friend Henry recommended Kate. The only reason Kate accepts the case is because it seems easy and she needs the money to send her fourteen-year-old daughter Kelly to summer camp. But as the case moves on Kate finds it is anything but easy. While checking on the background of the singer Troy, his girlfriend Shay disappears. Again Kate finds herself in the line of fire and takes up the hunt for Shay even when the record label backs out and tells her to quit. If there's one thing Music City has in common with Hollywood it's that not everyone is who he or she claims to be and that is some thing Kate is about to find out.I found Cryin' Time to be a cozy, interesting read. Country music is only one of the many types of music played in our home, so in reading Cryin' Time I recognized the famous names and songs mentioned. Ms. Tishy gives the reader a good mystery; her detailed description of Nashville's famous and not so famous sites help to bring the mystery to life. The only problem I had was when the author penned her protagonists' road directions one too many times, I don't feel they had anything to do with the plot and they seemed a bit distracting. Maybe the author should consider including a simple map in the next mystery. Also in Cryin' Time, Ms. Tishy gives us a look at the different sides of business in country music. Do you really know what a flyswatter is? Can you guess what a rack-jobber has to do with Wal-mart? Do you know why a country band is caged? I do, now.

Second in the series is first rate!

Make room for Cecelia Tishy on the growing list of writers of intelligent mystery novels. In fact, make room at the top of the list -- she may be the best one yet. Her Kate Banning series displays a masterful use of a popular literary form to entertain and to inform. Based in the Nashville country music scene which Ms Tishy understands perfectly CRYIN' TIME, the second in the series, gives a first-hand look at a world we all know of, but know very little about. As we follow Kate's investigation from sweaty, back-office consultations to glitzy benefit events, we witness the realities of a tremendously popular performance genre. But, best of all, it's a great story. Cecelia Tishy feeds out her plot line with the even consistency of a skilled fisherman ["fisherperson?" Naw.] She never scares off the reader with frenetic pacing of the plot. On the other hand, the description of the human details in Kate's life and witty prose style ["She pumped cordiality like soda fountain syrup," "the deep-down, deep-dish curiosity"]keep us avidly turning the pages. The characterization is flawless;it draws us right into the book from the first pages. Kate avoids all the pitfalls of other women sleuths. She is independent, but not hard like Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak, likeable, but never becomes a cuddly caricature like Jessica Fletcher. Kate does her own thing with class and intelligence. The character of the American Indian singer, Troy Blackfeather, was of primary interest to me. Drawing from two familiar "Indian guy" archetypes, Cecelia Tishy crafts a believable young Native male. In his two lamentably short appearances in the novel Troy is first the committed, adoring lover and then the broken, vulnerable warrior evoking the same urge to console as does the well-known icon, "End of the Trail." A good read by an excellent writer! Be on the lookout for number three in the series!