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Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer, Don’t Look Down: She’s a commercial director who came in on the last few days of a movie shoot to save her ex-husband’s ass and help her sister and her niece. He’s a hardened combat vet who thought he was taking a cushy job as consultant/stunt double for a minor Hollywood star. They fight terror! Or something. It’s cute, but not as cute as Crusie on her own. (I sort of wonder whether Mayer was uncomfortable writing sex scenes that would be read by romance readers; the ones from the guy’s perspective leave a lot more to the imagination.)
Harlan Coben, Back Spin: An older Myron Bolitar novel, in which the sports agent gets caught up in the apparent kidnapping of the son of a golfer who is on the verge of winning his first major tournament. His best friend, the guy usually in charge of protecting his physical safety, has a personal connection to the golfer and refuses to help, so Myron gets in over his head. Not as polished as more recent Coben novels, but also not as reliant on coincidence and elaborate conspiracy; the seeds are there, but as seeds they’re more plausible.
Saundra Mitchell, Shadowed Summer: YA ghost story. Nothing ever happens in Iris’s small Louisiana town, except for that one time a boy disappeared. Iris and her best friend are playing at doing magic when the boy appears and starts talking to Iris, but it turns out that she doesn’t really want that kind of excitement. I liked the focus on female friendship as more important than the love interest, and the way in which Iris really was on the cusp between child and teenager, needing adults and casually betrayed by them when they failed to take her interests seriously (in good faith: you don’t keep a child’s secrets when they seem dangerous).
Quotes:
No one expects the fannish inquisition! – turns out this has been independently invented a couple of times, but it seems appropriate now
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. – John Updike
To a first approximation, every animal is an insect. -- J. Kukalová-Peck, paleontologist (seen at imnotandrei’s journal)
Harlan Coben, Back Spin: An older Myron Bolitar novel, in which the sports agent gets caught up in the apparent kidnapping of the son of a golfer who is on the verge of winning his first major tournament. His best friend, the guy usually in charge of protecting his physical safety, has a personal connection to the golfer and refuses to help, so Myron gets in over his head. Not as polished as more recent Coben novels, but also not as reliant on coincidence and elaborate conspiracy; the seeds are there, but as seeds they’re more plausible.
Saundra Mitchell, Shadowed Summer: YA ghost story. Nothing ever happens in Iris’s small Louisiana town, except for that one time a boy disappeared. Iris and her best friend are playing at doing magic when the boy appears and starts talking to Iris, but it turns out that she doesn’t really want that kind of excitement. I liked the focus on female friendship as more important than the love interest, and the way in which Iris really was on the cusp between child and teenager, needing adults and casually betrayed by them when they failed to take her interests seriously (in good faith: you don’t keep a child’s secrets when they seem dangerous).
Quotes:
No one expects the fannish inquisition! – turns out this has been independently invented a couple of times, but it seems appropriate now
Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face. – John Updike
To a first approximation, every animal is an insect. -- J. Kukalová-Peck, paleontologist (seen at imnotandrei’s journal)
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Oh, that makes me happy. I love mathematical twists, like "That was quite clever, for minimal values of 'clever'"
" (I sort of wonder whether Mayer was uncomfortable writing sex scenes that would be read by romance readers; the ones from the guy’s perspective leave a lot more to the imagination.)"
Crusie and Mayer blogged about their creative process on this book in a blog, "He wrote, She wrote", now down. He referred to YEX ("yucky emotional stuff") and refused to write it. http://www.trashionista.com/2006/06/book_review_don.html
They appear to be fond friends, at least online, but they're definitely going from different perspectives. Like you, I greatly prefer Crusie working alone.
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On the ETA: yeesh. He's only afraid of girl germs in his mind, but not in his books, I guess?
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I get that it's the way her brain is working now, but I miss the good ol' days.
Loved Shadowed Summer. :)