From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:33:00 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:43 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sn.no!uninett.no!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!eecs-usenet-02.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news!wex From: tallibeth@aol.com (Tallibeth) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: News From the Edge by Mark Sumner Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 07 Jul 1997 19:17:25 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 43 Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1407 News from the Edge: The Monster of Minnesota by Mark Sumner Review Copyright 1997 Tallibeth Mystery readers may not wander back to the science fiction shelves very often, but now they have a very good reason -- finding this book. This book straddles the line between a mystery and a science fiction novel, and does a good job of keeping one foot in each camp. You can even see this on the cover, as the book has a quote mentioning the Cat Who books. On the one hand, this is a very traditional cozy mystery, complete with a plucky female detective, plenty of bodies on the ground, and clues everywhere. But it's also a SF novel, with some strange events going on around and under a little fishing lake and some nice science behind the solution. Savvy McKinnon is a young journalist who ends up working at a tabloid paper. She hates her work, and is looking for a way out when a call comes in about some deaths worth investigating. She slips away from her desk and heads up to Minnesota, hoping to find something that will get her a better job. Instead she finds a story so weird that even her tabloid might have a hard time printing it. Sumner keeps the book moving quickly, and it's full of snappy, funny dialog. Savvy McKinnon turns out to be a great character, very much in the tradition of cozy mystery. There's also a very colorful supporting cast, from a precocious kid, to a crusty fisherman, to a English professor with a love for lake monsters. They all play their part in solving the mystery, and the interaction of the characters is very snazzy. There's an environmental message at the core of the mystery, but don't go into this book thinking you're going to get any great understanding of the human condition. The tabloid look of the cover perfectly captures the book -- pure fun. A great read at pool side, or for a summer evening. I first ran into Mark Sumner's books by reading one of his young adult thrillers. Then I read his other books including DEVIL'S TOWER, which also spreads itself across two genres (fantasy and western). I've loved all these books for different reasons. Mystery readers: force yourself to take a trip to the SF shelves. If you've like the Cat Who books, or other cozy series, you'll love this book.