A few weeks ago I transferred a group of books from one wire cube to a new improved one. In the back of the cube, I discovered some books I had forgotten I had. One of them was A Woman's Eye, an anthology of short stories published in 1991 and edited by Sara Paretsky. That book consists of 21 short stories by women; the stories all feature female sleuths. The first story in the book is "Lucky Dip" by Liza Cody.
"Lucky Dip" by Liza Cody
The primary character in this story is a homeless young woman, Crystal, eighteen years old, who supports herself by begging for handouts or looking for food in dumpsters. One night she happens upon the body of dead man. He is dressed well; she quickly takes his wallet and his watch and leaves the area. When she discovers that the wallet has a lot of money in it she is pleased, but there is a downside, because the bills are too large for her to spend without getting into trouble. The other downside is that now she has people looking for her, thinking that she took something important to them. This story is about how she deals with that situation.
The story is told in 1st person narration by Crystal and I liked hearing her thoughts about her predicament, her life, and her actions.
Previously I have only read one novel by Liza Cody, Dupe, the first book in her Anna Lee detective series, and three of her short stories. In all cases, I was very impressed with her writing. Cody tells a story well and creates interesting characters.
A Woman's Eye features 20 more stories, all published in 1991. Other authors featured are Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, Julie Smith, Amanda Cross, Carolyn G. Hart, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Dorothy B. Hughes, Antonia Fraser, and more.
12 comments:
Liza Cody used to be a favorite, but I have not heard of her for years. Turns out she is still writing, with 18 novels to her credit. She appears to be one of the coolest writers in the crime field; she once was a hair inserter at Madame Toussard's museum, and is a founding member of an NGO in Uganda which keeps young girls in education rather than early marriage or prostitution
I liked this story a lot when I first read A WOMAN'S EYE, and not too long after, I picked up a remaindered or secondhand at least partial audiobook in which the reader did a fine job of in acting the story as well (this was, as with my memory of George's Block/Penzler BOTY, in my 60 hours a week at my TV GUIDE period, and the heavily left-brain work that most of my job was left listening to radio, audio reading, and comedy and other better podcasts a chunk of most working days).
Jerry, glad to know about her activism! Wigging the wax sounds like less fun, but I was doing network public television schedules...chacun à son goût...
A favorite back in the day.
Jerry, Thanks for sharing that information about Liza Cody. I went down a rabbit hole on the internet yesterday looking for information about Cody. I looked around on her website, but did not find all of that information there (although I could have just missed it). I was focusing most on her books and trying to figure out what I have or don't have. I have 5 of the Anna Lee series, two of the Eva Wylie series, and two of her short story collections. Plus a couple of the non series books, I think.
The story sounds really good and I hope you'll read (and review) more from the collection. It might be worth trying to track down.
Honestly, Tracy, with Sara Paretsky editing, I'm not surprised to hear this book appealed to you. The story sounds appealing, too. Just from your description, I got a sense of the main character.
Todd, I foud another anthology with a similar theme, also edited by Sara Paretsky, published a few years later in 1996, Women on the Case. Looks like 25 or 26 stories. It features some of the same authors (but different stories), more international authors, and it looks good too. I will probably get a kindle edition of it.
Patti, I have liked everything I read by Cody, but that is not much. I will have to remember to read more of her books soon.
Kelly, I do plan to read more of the stories in this book and review them. I am curious about the short stories both by authors I have read, and authors that are new to me.
I have Liza Cody's short story collection titled Lucky Dip and Other Stories and I plan to read the remaining stories in that one too.
Margot, the next three stories in the book are by Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, and Dorothy Salisbury Davis, and I am very interested in trying short stories by all of them. I believe I have read one or two stories by each of those three authors and I think they will be interesting.
I have this one in my collection of short story compilations, but it’s been years since I’ve opened it. Can’t remember if I ever did read all of the stories, but it must have impressed me because it’s still on the shelf after all this time.
Post a Comment