REVIEW: RAINY DAY WOMEN, BY KAY KENDALL

 

Kay Kendall’s RAINY DAY WOMEN is the second book in the Austin Starr Mystery series. In 1969, during the week of the Manson murders and Woodstock, the intrepid amateur sleuth, infant in tow, flies across the continent to support a friend suspected of murdering women’s liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. Then her former CIA trainer warns that an old enemy has contracted a hit on her. Her anxious husband demands that she give up her quest and fly back to him. How much should Austin risk when tracking the killer puts her and her baby’s life in danger?

My Thoughts: Having enjoyed Book One in this series, I was eager to rejoin amateur sleuth Austin Starr. Following along in her adventures in Vancouver, I loved how the reader is introduced to the early feminist struggles via a women’s group.

As a backdrop to Rainy Day Women, the vernacular of the 60s, the music, and the Woodstock festival, along with the Sharon Tate murders, offer up a real taste of what life was like back then.

Austin is an interesting character, determined and skilled at following clues. She was also a little bit naïve, but she made up for it by pushing ahead fearlessly. Her husband, David, opposed to her activities, seemed to take on the thoughts and feelings of a lot of men back then, worried and overly-protective.

Larissa, the daughter of a Russian immigrant, Professor Klimenko, was different in this outing. Previously, while in Toronto, she had been awed by Austin, but in this setting, and probably because she was a suspect in her friend Shona’s murder, she seemed brusque and irritable.

As Austin accompanied Larissa to the women’s lib group, she met other friends of Shona’s, and also a few rivals in the group. How did Shona’s former roommate Mia fit into what happened to her? Were her brashness and her violent ups and downs a factor? How does Becky, another woman in the group, recently separated from her controlling husband, add to the questions Austin has? Did Shona’s ex-boyfriend Jack have a motive to have killed her? Or would the answers lie closer to home in the chemistry lab, with the graduate students?

I did enjoy watching Austin zero in on the killer, and in an exciting finale, bring justice for her friend and the other women in the group. In the end, there were also unresolved threads in the form of an ex-US Senator who had been tailing her. I can see a Book Three on the horizon. 4.5 stars.

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REVIEW: DESOLATION ROW, BY KAY KENDALL

 

 

 

It was autumn in 1968 when their friend from the draft resister’s group was murdered in a church, the very place where they were supposed to gather for a meeting. The others had left, but Reg Simpson had gone back for his jacket. And that is when it happened.

David and Austin Starr had relocated to Toronto when they began to fear that David would soon be drafted. Not willing to actually dodge the draft, the two of them transferred to the University of Toronto and joined other resisters.

But life had a way of changing their plans for them when David was arrested for Reg’s murder. Austin believed that the police evidence was flimsy at best, so she set out to find answers. But soon she became the target of someone sending threatening letters and warning her to stop investigating.

Desolation Row was a story that intrigued me, mostly because of the times. I remember them well, being in university when young men were being drafted for the War in Vietnam that many strongly opposed. I also enjoyed recalling what life was like before technology, as Austin’s search for a pay phone on the night of the murder kept her from arriving at the church on time. And throughout her investigation, the absence of readily available phones added to the intensity.

Austin was not yet comfortable in Canada, not sure if their adopted country could ever feel like home. Especially since she had started to distrust law enforcement for rushing to judgment. By the end of the story, however, and as Austin stumbled upon various clues that led to solving the murder, she began to feel as if she could finally adjust.

I was pleased to learn that this book was the first in a series, so I’m off to find Book 2. 4.5 stars.

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