Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Arkansas Traveler (Benni Harper Mystery) by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0-425-18428-5 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great regional mystery
Comment: As a child, Benni Harper of San Celina, California spent summers with relatives living in Sugartime, Arkansas. Benni has always looked back fondly to those days and hopes to recapture much of that feeling with her first visit in over a decade.
The hot issue in Sugartime is the close mayoral race between a Black woman and a good ole boy. Benni is stunned to observe the bigotry that is blatant and hostile. The current mayor's son Toby Hunter leads a force intimidating anyone opposing the reelection of his father. This eventually forces his opponent Amen to withdraw from the race. Not long afterward, someone murders Toby and though he had a lot of enemies, the police lean towards Amen's nephew as the prime suspect. In spite of the objection of the local authorities, Benni begins her own inquiries into the homicide.
Reading ARKANSAS TRAVELER is an accurate account of a divided community still unable to come to grips on racial harmony even as individuals have moved forward for the betterment of everyone. A Benni Harper mystery is always fun as readers revisit characters from the previous novels who are friends that keep growing as happens in this story. With her marriage still strong to Ortiz, the audience sees a glimpse of the heroine's past inside an enjoyable who-done-it.
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 5
Summary: Politics and race relations
Comment: Earlene Fowler draws a perfect picture of a small town in Arkansas in her latest novel. Despite the beauty of the area and some of the people, there is a poison running deep in the community. Benni Harper, her friends and family, return to Sugartree, Arkansas, where Benni grew up. Benni's church is having a reunion and 100-year anniversary at the same time there is consideration of merging with a black church. Despite many communal activities and many people who are for it, there is much opposition. Benni's childhood friend, Amen, a young black woman, is running for mayor against a white male incumbant. Racial tensions run high when the male candidate's son taunts Amen's elderly aunt, and her nephew defends her. Hidden secrets of past and present loves come to the surface as Benni tries to uncover the perpetrator's identity while supporting her friend. This book touches on deeper topics than previous ones in the series and is very well-written.
Rating: 5
Summary: You Can Go Home Again, But Most Things Have Changed
Comment: The books in this series are all named after real patchwork quilt patterns. Benni Harper is the curator of a folk art museum in San Celina, California who was raised by her father and grandmother on a ranch. She married at a very young age and ranched with her husband for 15 years. After her husband was killed, she moved to town, where she met and later married her second husband, police chief Gabriel Ortiz. I like the way the author explores class and cultural differences through relationships: Benni's husband is a Latino man who can be very macho; her best friend Elvia is a sophisticated Latina bookstore manager; Elvia is dating Benni's wealthy cousin Emory, who moved from Arkansas to San Celina so he could woo Elvia.
Arkansas Traveler is the eighth book in the series. Benni, Emory, Elvia and Gabe travel to Benni's hometown of Sugartree, Arkansas for the Sugartree Baptist Church?s Homecoming. The book is an excellent exploration of life and race relations in a small Southern town, but it is not strident. Benni is angry and embarrassed by the hostility and prejudice some of the townspeople show toward Gabe and Elvia; a black church and a white church need to merge to survive but both congregations are against racial mixing; Benni's childhood friend Amen, the first black woman to run for mayor, is having trouble with white supremacists, one of whom is her opponent's son. The son is killed, Amen's nephew is arrested and Benni gets involved in trying to solve the murder. Secrets and lies abound, but leavening the mix is a comic subplot involving a long-simmering feud between Benni's grandmother and the grandmother's sister that erupts into a cooking battle.
This is a thought-provoking book and it's the best in a good series. You will want to run out and get all the other Benni Harper books.
 |
Title: Seven Sisters by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0425179176 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: 10 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Dove in the Window (Benni Harper Mystery) by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0425168948 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Mariner's Compass by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0425174085 Publisher: Prime Crime Pub. Date: 10 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Goose in the Pond by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0425162397 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Kansas Troubles by Earlene Fowler ISBN: 0425156966 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
