Petticoat Detective by Margaret Brownley, 318 pagesWelcome to another round of Fiction Genre Bingo! Today we're discussing Petticoat Detective, a Christian fiction western romance detective story! Complete with brothel!
OK, enough silliness. Petticoat Detective follows Pinkerton detective Jennifer, who must go undercover as a "woman of ill repute" in her attempt to track down a notorious bank robber, the Gunnysack Bandit. Ensconced in the podunk town of Goodman, Kansas, Jennifer arrives just in time to see her best lead, a prostitute named Rose, murdered before Jennifer can question her. Enter Tom Colton, brother of Rose's beloved beau, who is attempting to clear his brother's name when he gets distracted by the lovely Amy (read: Jennifer in disguise). Jennifer's faith is tested as she deals with philandering husbands, while Tom's falling in love with her, despite his Christian morals telling him that he shouldn't be consorting with such morally bereft women.
There are a lot of traps this book could've fallen into. Romances are, by nature, pretty formulaic, and that element of this book holds true to genre. The same goes with the Christian fiction vein, which finds faith being tested and later confirmed. What's surprising about this story is that all of the genres seem to mesh together very well, and Brownley did a good job in the mystery element of keeping me guessing (the Gunnysack Bandit was not at all who I thought it would be). She also surprised me with the strong women depicted here. Romance and Christian fiction are generally not my cup of tea, but this is a pretty good offering out of either genre.
Just noticed that dude on cover looks like Luke Wilson. hmmmm....
ReplyDeleteTHAT'S who he reminds me of! I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn't place it!
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