A young college student comes to her women’s studies professor, and it’s apparent that she has been soundly beaten. The professor gives her money and even the coat off her back, and the girl disappears. Two weeks later, the girl’s father is found brutally murdered in an alley. What are the connections between these two incidents?
There are some really good things in Virginia Swift’s HELLO, STRANGER, the fourth of her “Mustang Sally” mystery novels featuring Wyoming college professor Sally Alder. There are the chapters dealing with computer viruses and cell phone cameras, displaying a normal level of technical competence – not too geeky, not too unaware. There is the understanding of an adolescent’s world, and how the very idea of protecting them completely is a futile undertaking. And there are some likable characters, including Alder and her boyfriend Hawk.
But there are also some jarring notes. Not every character is well-drawn, and some – like the high-powered lawyer and the uptight evangelical spouse – are just two-dimensional cartoons. There’s a sneering disdain for religious belief that hits hard very early in the novel, with mention of public prayer being “disgusting” and public prayer vigils as political demonstrations being “creepy and fascist.”
Right-leaning readers are going to smell the stench of self-righteous hidebound academe early on. This might play well if the book really explored the contradiction of evangelical Christianity espousing high-minded morality, but plays against the grain by being overly authoritarian and not really interested in the teachings of Jesus.
That perhaps is a bit too serious of a theme for what after all attempts to be a quickly paced and entertaining novel. One does root for Alder and Hawk, especially after they have tumbled to the scheme that underlies both the young student’s beating and the death of her father. And the final half of the book moves well with the introduction of street punk Billy Reno, who draws the reader’s interest.
If one’s a hardcore leftist, this will be an okay thriller with a somewhat loosey-goosey plot, but not too bad. If you lean to the center or the right, your oxen will be gored, but without a lot of insight or pithy commentary. If the author had drawn any of the people in her villains’ circle – even those who had no knowledge of the crime – with empathy, it would have been a much stronger title. –Mark Rose
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