Kathryn Miller Haines is here today with a Character Book Picks post courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her new book, The Girl is Murder. Thank you for being here today, Kathryn! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!
Iris loves two things: detective fiction and comics. In terms of books of her day, she loved Nancy Drew, though she’s getting too old for it now and, frankly, who wants to read about a perfect girl with a perfect life (and a cute little roadster) when your own world is falling apart? She reads Archie comics, but her fondness for them is fading for the same reasons: Archie and his friends are living the perfect high school experience, where bullies are punished, everyone is included, and the biggest trauma anyone faces is whether or not the guy they really like is going to ask them to the big dance.
That’s not Iris’s world anymore.
What she wants to read are dark stories. Eventually she’ll discover Raymond’s Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, a cat so cool Humphrey Bogart will play him in The Maltese Falcon, and the novels of James M. Cain, whose dangerous femme fatales (Cora in Postman Always Rings Twice, Phyllis in Double Indemnity, Veda in Mildred Pierce) prove what Iris has long suspected: that being a woman doesn’t mean you’re morally superior.
And if she’s trading in Nancy Drew for darker detective fiction, she’s also exchanging Archie comics for Pulp magazines like True Detective, Dime Detective, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. These quick tales with the lurid illustrations will help her hone her skills and strengthen her stomach.
Thank you for sharing Iris' book picks with us today, Kathryn! Also, thank you for being here today!
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Iris Anderson is only 15, but she's quickly mastering the art of deception in this YA novel for fans of Veronica Mars. It's the Fall of 1942 and Iris's world is rapidly changing. Her Pop is back from the war with a missing leg, limiting his ability to do the physically grueling part of his detective work. Iris is dying to help, especially when she discovers that one of Pop's cases involves a boy at her school. Now, instead of sitting at home watching Deanna Durbin movies, Iris is sneaking out of the house, double crossing her friends, and dancing at the Savoy till all hours of the night. There's certainly never a dull moment in the private eye business.
Synopsis taken from goodreads.
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Giveaway Details
Kathryn Miller Haines has graciously provided Lost For Words with a copy of The Girl is Murder to give away.
Thank you, Kathryn!
Giveaway is US only.
Giveaway will end December 23, 2011.
Please fill out this FORM to enter. Comments, while appreciated, won't be counted as entries.
Thank you!
1 comment:
I really love this blurb about Iris. So true how certain books and comics only depict the ideal experience where the worst thing that happens is that someone gets a zit. Life isn't like that at all, especially the life of a teen.
Here's hoping I could win a copy of this book because Iris sounds like a character I could easily fall in love with.
Thanks for the giveaway op!
Smiles!
Lori
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