Following so closely on the heels of reading the John Sanford novel, I’m beginning to think the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis are teeming with serial killers, but thankfully, these are fictional books!

Theresa Monsour’s novel, Clean Cut is her first novel and what a way to break into published fiction! It’s an exciting read that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Mrs. Monsour is a 20 year veteran award-winning reporter from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She brings her intimate knowledge of the city, the press, cops and crime into full account with Clean Cut

While she almost makes me doubt her character because of Paris Murphy’s insistence on putting herself in danger as she and her partner stalk a serial killer, Monsour redeems herself with the outcome of that scene and the story marches on to a surprising ending.

Paris exhibits all the human foibles of the sucessful crime solving detective — you’re not given a pure as the driven snow character whose bland personality cuts through the mystery to catch the bad guy. No, Paris is VERY human and we can relate to her fears, hopes and dreams only too well.

I’ll definitely be on the look out for other works by this author and especailly ones using this character. She really grabbed me.

Clean Cut was published in hardcover in 2003 by G.P Putnam’s Sons and in paperback by Jove Press in 2004 by

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Tags: John Sanford, Minnesota, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Newspaper, San Jose Mercury News, St. Paul, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Twin Cities, United States

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Action Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.