Writers Of The Purple Sage - Softcover

Barbara Burnett Smith

3.34

94 ratings by Goodreads

9780373262144: Writers Of The Purple Sage

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373262140 ISBN 13: 9780373262144

Publisher: Worldwide Library, 1996

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When a judge with whom she openly disagrees is killed by the same method used in her newest whodunit novel, writer Jolie Wyatt faces a murder charge and wonders who among her writer's group hates her enough to frame her. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Aspiring mystery writer Jolie Wyatt has finally hit it big with an unpublished manuscript--but only because somebody has used her murder method (a pin tipped with nicotine, a weapon even more deadly than an unfiltered cigarette) to dispatch Judge Volney Osler, the patron saint of Purple Sage, Tex. (pop. 5,000). The local police and Jolie herself both dismiss the coincidence as impossible, but assistant chief Andy Sawyer, who gave Jolie technical assistance with her story, thinks she must be the killer (though presumably an unusually dumb one), while Jolie figures it's got to be somebody else who read the manuscript--one of the other women in her writing group. So, when she sets out to dig up dirt on the revered Judge Osler, it's no surprise that she uncovers an ancient land swindle, an abortive romance, a vindictive sentencing, and hints of second-generation political chicanery--all leading back to the pals who've been supporting her while she's been struggling through drafts of the sadly misnamed Murder for Fun and Profit. Though Jolie gets off a few good lines (she introduces herself rather winningly as a recent victim of ``divorce, America's most effective diet plan''), there's not enough going on here to keep you awake unless you're as much like Jolie as her first-novelist creator seems to be. -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

The second book this fall with a title punned from Zane Grey (see Joe R. Lansdale's Writer of the Purple Rage, reviewed above) is a neatly crafted debut set in the town of Purple Sage, Tex. Narrator Jolie Wyatt, a fledgling mystery writer, has lived there for three years, drawn from Austin by her now defunct marriage. A writers' group she has started is full of colorful women-and then full of suspects after a venerable judge is murdered with a ploy taken from Jolie's novel-in-progress. Her novel and a recent altercation with the judge draw suspicion to Jolie, who sleuths to exculpate herself. Her investigations lead her to focus on a number of the writing group's members, including a newspaper reporter with a secret; a woman whose father killed himself long ago after selling land to the judge; and another whose youthful indiscretion with marijuana put her in the deceased's courtroom. While solving the murder, Jolie grows to understand her struggles with independence, allowing her to decide whether to return to Austin. Despite the self-consciousness of novice Smith's writing about a novice writer, the story is briskly told, the characters well rounded and Purple Sage promising as a rich setting for future tales from this talented newcomer.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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