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by erin thursby
scopes1925@msn.com
What: Book Signing of
Jan Burke’s Kidnapped
When: November 2nd @ 7PM
Where: Jacksonville Beaches
Books-A-Million
A connect the dots mystery in which everything is eventually relative, Kidnapped is the latest of Jan Burke’s Irene Kelly novels. Different stories and characters begin to weave together on a loom of family power, murder and kidnapped children. The book just reached a respectable number 34 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Jan Burke herself will be here for a book signing of Kidnapped at the Jacksonville Beach Books-A-Million this November 2nd.
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Reporter Irene Kelly has just finished writing stories on missing children in her newspaper. When the profiles are published, she’s inundated with calls about half-remembered sightings and calls from parents who hope that publicity might help find their child. As she follows up interesting leads in connection with area children, it’s not long before she finds herself being followed.
Those who haven’t read the other Irene Kelly books might wonder who some of the characters are, but the characters that don’t have a whole lot of background in this book aren’t essential to the story. Burke hands you what you need to know so she can keep the story going and doesn’t load down the narrative with a long explanation of the last book. The switch from omniscient narrative to first person is clearly marked and serves to keep things interesting. Irene Kelly is nowhere to be seen in the first seven chapters of the book. These first chapters give readers a little extra insight into the mystery and make it easier to see the big picture as all the connections come together. The whole mystery isn’t given away in these chapters and there are still questions to be answered that will keep you reading. Burke’s style of writing seems cinematic in many ways, giving you a prequel back story for the later action.
A majority of the mystery involves the clannish and insular Fletcher family. Millionaire Graydon Fletcher and his wife have devoted themselves building a better tomorrow by adopting a passel of children (21 to be exact). Those children have grown up, adopted and had children of their own, all the while building an extensive network of family based contacts. The smartest of the children attend the exclusive Fletcher Academy. A few murders in and readers will start to make connections. Are they murdering parents and snatching their super-smart children? Is the whole family involved, or just few very bad apples? The villains of the piece think they’re doing the right thing by killing a number of people and you might wonder if, in some cases they were right. By the end I felt that the murderer (Cleo Smith) of this tale was less like a murderer and more like a murder weapon for most of book.
Jan Burke’s accolades include the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Besides the Irene Kelly series, she’s also published other mystery novels, including one called Flight, which features Frank Harriman: husband to Irene Kelly and a homicide detective. Burke was born in Texas but has mostly lived in Southern California. She lives with her husband, musician Tim Burke (of the band Bushtaxi), and their two dogs (Irene Kelly also owns a number of dogs). The city of Las Piernas, setting of her Irene Kelly novels, is a composite of the places she has lived.
Besides writing mystery novels, Burke has made her mark as an editor of the Sisters in Crime’s guide to getting published, called Breaking and Entering. It’s not the only guide to the mystery writing gig she’s been involved in. She also served as one of the associate editors of Writing Mysteries, the Mystery Writers of America handbook, as well as writing the chapter on Revision.
A reporter as a main character in a mystery series is almost as irresistible to writers as a private investigator. Like a P.I., reporters can be assigned to any scene, from the racetrack to high society balls, making it easy for the author to keep things fresh. Irene Kelly is the plucky, follow-every-lead, intrepid reporter that ends up investigating murder. Jan Burke introduced Irene Kelly in the book Goodnight, Irene published in ’93. The book jumped on the best seller list when President Clinton mentioned he was reading it.
Past and Present Irene Kelly Books: Goodnight, Irene (1993), Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994), Dear Irene (1995), Remember Me, Irene (1996), Hocus (1997), Liar (1998), Bones (2000), Bloodlines (2005), Kidnapped (2006)
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