Book Friday – Miss Fortune by Sara Mills
4 September 2009
Miss Fortune by Sara Mills is one of those books I kept hearing other writers talk about. I finally ordered myself a copy because I was tired of being left out. When it arrived, however, I was in the midst of judging a contest so I asked my mom, who loves mysteries, if she wanted to borrow it.
When Mom returned a few days later, as she walked up the grass to my front step, she held Miss Fortune in the air and declared “loved it, loved it, loved it.” And in the last week, I’ve finally been able to experience it for myself.
What I love about Miss Fortune is that I’ve never read anything else like it. It’s written in a film noir style. The closest thing I’ve read to it is The Maltese Falcon, and that certainly isn’t from a woman’s perspective. I’ve also never read a historical set in the 40s, so I enjoyed all the period stuff in there, such as hat pins and formal dinners. (Some of the dinners read like scenes from Gilmore Girls. Anybody else feel that way? Dad’s nose in the paper, Mom’s nose in her daughter’s business…)
The other thing that really stuck out to me was how light the spiritual stuff was. Even lighter than Me, Just Different so I’m curious about complaints Sara might have received. But—and bear in mind that this is coming from a girl who often thinks less is more with spiritual storylines—when you’re reading a page-turning mystery, you really don’t want your heroine kneeling to pray before she shoots the bad guys. You want her to just, you know, SHOOT.
The second in the series, Miss Match is on my shelf as well, so I’ll be interested to see how Allie Fortune, P.I. develops in the coming books.
And much like in OwtIC, spiritual stuff intensifies just a bit in book two. One thing I loved about Miss Fortune, though, was how realistic the spiritual thread was. Like, she wasn’t a Christian at the start, so didn’t think about it. Obviously. And then when something strikes her, she finally does ponder it and has a one-on-one kind of experience with God that mirrors real experiences very well.
Posted by Roseanna White on 6 September 2009