Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Book Review - Invisible - Lorena McCourtney

Invisible (Ivy Malone Mysteries, #1)
Title:    Invisible: Ivy Malone Mystery


Review: This is a great read and I so enjoyed her character Ivy Malone.  Ivy is an older Lady or as she puts it a LOL (little old lady).  She lives on a street in a house her husband and she shared for many years.  She has a neighbor Thea, who has been her best friend for years.  Both of their husbands are dead so they have been drawn together from that shared grief.  They go to celebrate their birthdays at a certain sea food restaurant every year and check on each other each day, they pick up each other’s mail when one or the other is gone and just in general do things that best friends do.

Thea has an apartment, that she rents, that is moved into by a young lady named Kendra Alexander, or so she tells them.  Kendra is a bit mysterious but so very friendly and kind to the LOLs but she is also very evasive when asked about her parents and family.

One day the two LOLs find themselves at the local graveyard and vandals have been there and torn the yard to pieces breaking stones and actually pulling them right out of the ground

 “ I doubted vandals could have made any impact on Uncle Romer and Aunt Maudes double headstone.  Thea’s aunt had apparently selected it on the basis of size and bulk, not elegance and the tombstone bore an alarming resemblance to a Volkswagen Bug.”

Well the vandals even overturned that gravestone and that took some doing.

“a tear dribbled down Thea’s cheek “Why would anyone do such a thing?” “At least only the headstone had been disturbed.  The graves themselves haven’t been entered.”  “It was some solace.  The perpetrators had merely been vandals having fun not weird cultists after bones or skulls.”

The cemetery is only the start of the many adventures that Ivy gets her senior citizen self into.  From putting on all black and spending the night at the cemetery to crawling out a tiny window in a bathroom while being shot at. All is not as it seems with Kendra or with the cemetery and Ivy just can’t leave it alone!

Ivy Malone is my hero, she shows life is not over at 65 or until you decide it is.  She laments about Medicare, her gall bladder, the bunions on her feet, but at the same time she solves a murder and makes new friends along the way as well and assist in two, yes that is right, two couples meeting and eventually making plans to get married.

Ivy Malone is the new hero of the Geritol set. I say go for it Ivy and maybe the next crime you solve I can tag along!!

Thank you Eileen for this great review.

Publisher:  Published August 1st 2004 by FlemingH. Revell Company

Copyright: 2004

Pages:  320

ISBN:    9780800759537

Quick Review:  5 Stars out of 5. 

Why Did I Read the Book:  Looking for a fun mystery series.

Synopsis:   She's not your average crime fighter Ivy Malone has a curiosity that sometimes gets her into trouble, and it's only aggravated by her discovery that she can easily escape the public eye. So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation. Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any solid clues. And after Ivy witnesses something ominous and unexplained, she can't resist putting her investigative powers to work again. Even the authorities' attempts to keep Ivy out of danger and her nosy neighbor's match-making schemes can't slow her down. But will the determination that fuels this persistent, quirky sleuth threaten her very safety? "I laughed out loud. McCourtney's charming mystery debuts a voice both enchanting and startling."-Colleen Coble, author of Without a Trace "McCourtney's skill at blending whimsy, quirks, and questions into a lead character makes Invisible a must read."-Lois Richer, author of Dangerous Sanctuary "Invisible is a treat Ivy Malone is a heroine with spunk and determination "-Carol Cox, author of A Stitch in Time.
Lorena McCourtney - Christian Author
Author Biography:  My husband and I live in southern Oregon. For many years we lived on rural acreage, lots of space and country peace and quiet. But a few months ago we decided it was time to make the move to town.
If any of you have ever lived in one home for 32 years, you'll know how difficult a move this was. Emotionally difficult, but mostly it was all that STUFF we had to get rid of. Everything from two old sofas (one given away, one chopped up and burned) to a pair of mounted impala horns to a dump truck and a 1,000 gallon gasoline tank.
But the move is, at last, accomplished, and I'm finding myself quite pleased with town living.
I have one son and a granddaughter. Jim has two daughters and three grandchildren. Our family is fairly well scattered, so we do not see them as often as we’d like.
I started writing in the fifth grade. All my stories were about horses. This love of horses carried me through a degree in agriculture from Washington State University. My first job out of college, however, was with a big meat-packing company in the Midwest, where I quickly discovered that writing about hogs and sausage making was not my life’s calling.
Marriage and motherhood intervened, and by the time I got back to writing, I knew fiction was what I wanted to write. I started out doing short stories for children and teenagers, mostly for Sunday-School publications. Then, primarily because of financial pressures, I wrote women’s short stories and romance novels, all the time promising the Lord I would get back to Christian writing. Finally, after 24 published romance novels, the Lord made plain that it was time to make good on that promise. It was time to become a Christian author and write exclusively Christian fiction. The first 6 of these books were with the Palisades line of Christian romance, but with my 7th book of Christian fiction, WHIRLPOOL, I turned to a stronger emphasis on mystery.
One of the nicest perks of being a Christian author is hearing from readers, and I’d be delighted to hear from any of you. Contact me at lorena2@earthlink.net.
Other Reviews:

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the great review. I'm always hoping readers will have as much fun reading Ivy as I had writing her! Lorena McCourtney

    ReplyDelete

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