A Bad Day for Sorry: a crime novel by Sophie Littlefield

A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield Find this book in our catalog

Stella Hardesty lives in rural Missouri, has issues with her chunky, fifty-something figure and an unusual attitude to life. Having married young, and given birth to a delightful daughter, she spent years pretending that her husband did not verbally abuse her in public and regularly physically abuse her at home, blacking her eyes and bruising her ribs but never actually sending her to the emergency room. Then, just shy of her fiftieth birthday, she surprised herself by dispatching her abuser with a wrench.

The community turned a blind eye, and now Stella has a fearsome reputation, not only as an unrepentant murderess but as an inexorable avenger of abused women throughout Missouri - even as far as Branson. Stella runs a side business helping battered women who come to her and pay her what they can. She barely has time to run the sewing machine repair and quilting notions shop she inherited from her deceased husband. She works outside the law persuading errant husbands and boyfriends to change their behaviour with a little old-fashioned intimidation and torture. When Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help, it seems like a straightforward case: Chrissy's husband, Roy Dean disappears with her two-year-old son and Stella is asked to find and recover the boy.

However, Stella is soon confirmed in her suspicions that things are not as straightforward as they seem. Roy Dean has already had to be corrected once for abusing the ditsy and passive Chrissy, and once again for his overbearing treatment of his new girlfriend, with whom he was seen at the drag strip. It looks like he is a thoroughly despicable shred of humanity and may well have kidnapped Chrissy's child for reasons more dire than simply gaining custody in a marital split. Will Stella be able to prevail against the Kansas City mobsters with whom Roy Dean is involved in some way? And will Chrissy be able to pull herself together enough to help her?

This book seemed to me to be a good one to recommend to fans of Janet Evanovich, particularly if they enjoy her dark humor. For both authors evil is just as banal and yet rears its head everywhere. Their characters are captivating, complex and very flawed and are struggling to make a living in some of the seemier parts of city or country. The humor comes from the characters and their distressingly human frailties. To me, the Janet Evanovich novels have become more violent over the years. A Bad Day for Sorry is also violent. The characters also don't seem to have any compunction in using bad language, often as a form of aggression. Still, we admire Stephanie Plum as we admire Stella: each is vulnerable in some way and yet each faces challenges that no one should be forced to face.

If you like the rural backwater setting of A Bad Day for Sorry, you might like the Maggody mystery series by Joan Hess featuring female Arkansas sheriff, Arly Hanks. This series has a conflicted but ultimately strong female lead, downhome, sometimes comic characters and darkish humor.

If you like the revenge element, partnered again with definitely dark humor, you might like the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay, now made into a TV series.

Mystery Fans - Try Award-Winning Author

Death Message by Mark Billingham Find this book in our catalog

"‘Delivering the death message’. That’s what coppers call it when they have to tell someone that a loved one has been killed. Now Detective Inspector Tom Thorne is receiving messages of his own. Photos of murder victims sent to his mobile phone. The killer is quickly identified as a man just released from prison; someone who believes he has nothing left to live for. But why is he sending these pictures to Thorne? The answer lies in Thorne’s past, with a man he himself sent away, for life. Even behind bars, the most vicious psychopath Thorne has ever faced is still a master at manipulating others to do his dirty work for him. Particularly his killings..."(plot description on Mark Billingham's official website)

This UK author's U.S. reputation will get a boost since the author's recent coup winning the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award for Death Message, featuring London copper DI Tom Thorne. Read more about the award... Mark Billingham won the first Theakston award for Lazybones, also available at HCPL.

Fans of police procedurals and of books about psychopathic master-mind serial killers, why not take a chance on a lesser-known author - an author who is one to watch!