Revenge of the Gypsy Queen

A Tracy Eaton Mystery

By: Kris Neri

Narrated by: Stephanie Brush

Meet Tracy Eaton, mystery writer, detective wannabe, and the offspring of eccentric Hollywood stars.

Tracy is always out of sync with the "real" world, not to mention her conventional attorney husband, Drew. Tracy is always looking for her first case to solve, but she never expects it to pop up during her sister-in-law's wedding - until the bride is kidnapped.

When her in-laws would rather meet the bizarre ransom demand than inform the police, Tracy knows that finding Marissa is up to her. But one mystery leads to another until even the family legend of the evil gypsy queen comes under scrutiny. Is it the childhood fable Marissa claimed it to be, or the dark prophecy of things to come?

©1999 Kris Neri (P)2002 Books in Motion

Critic reviews

"In a chatty, rambunctious, and wryly humorous style, Tracy narrates a tale that will captivate readers with sharply drawn characters, continual action, and unlikely circumstances. A real treat." ( Library Journal)

Not bad

I admit I had a hard time keeping up with the plot in this one, but the characters were interesting, the narrator was excellent, and the book wasn't overly long.

uneven and implausible, annoying narrator

It's unclear how the author feels about her characters: at times she seems derisive and sneering; at other times, without much segue, they have turned into decent, lovable folk. The storyline is close to preposterous, the events unbelievable, the wrap-up a little too omniscient.

The narrator is a practitioner of "upspeak," although here she is not quite as bad as in other books? Declarative sentences are often read as if they are questions? It becomes quite vexing after a few pages?

had to fast forward to get it over with

the tone of the book was too light hearted for the underying plot, very unbelievable.