Peeling the Onion

Writing today in January Magazine, editor-novelist Linda L. Richards has some very nice things to say about Walla Walla Suite, the second novel by Anne Argula:

Our heroine is earthy. She has been cut loose by a longtime mate. She is an ex-cop from Spokane, Washington, who has recently become a P.I. And she is suffering though a menopause of otherworldly proportions: her hot flashes get to be like the atmospheric weather descriptions in other books. Actually, since Walla Walla Suite is set in Seattle, we of course get some conventional weather reports, as well. But this writer’s prose is so lean and muscular, you never get tired of either kind. Quite the opposite, in fact. Argula has the gift, that classic noir gift, of describing things amply in just a few words. Argula evokes more with a shrug of the shoulders and a flick of the wrist than other writers call forth in whole chapters.

But then again, there is the matter of Argula’s true identity, which Richards finds to be disappointing. You can read all about it in her review, found here.