{"id":821,"date":"2018-12-31T14:10:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=821"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:10:26","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:10:26","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=821","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>MYSTERY\/SUSPENSE<\/p>\n

Kathleen Kent<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dime: A Novel<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mulholland Books<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-3163-1103-8 (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 352 pgs., $26.00<\/p>\n

February 14, 2017<\/p>\n

Elizabeth \u201cBetty\u201d Rhyzyk, a gutsy, smart, unconventional detective<\/span> from a family of Brooklyn cops, moves to Dallas and joins the police department\u2019s narcotics unit. The first investigation she runs in Dallas, involving Mexican drug cartels and East Texas meth cookers engaged in a turf war, spins out of control. As the bodies begin to stack up, Rhyzyk acquires a sadistic stalker, and the action takes a startlingly brutal turn.<\/p>\n

The Dime,<\/span> the first in a new mystery\/suspense series, is also a change of genre for Kathleen Kent<\/span>, best-selling author of historical fiction. Detective Rhyzyk\u2018s first-person narrative begins with a bang and doesn\u2019t let up. Fast-paced and tightly plotted, The Dime<\/span> serves up whiplash-inducing twists and an (unfortunately) politically timely white nationalist-supremacist element, with \u201cOld Testament revelations \u2026 of such monstrous proportions that they would make even sleeping infants cry and feral dogs slink away in terror,\u201d reminding me of Texas\u2019s own David Lindsey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kent provides Rhyzyk a richly detailed backstory, and a refreshingly realistic relationship with Jackie, her girlfriend of eight years, a pediatric radiologist whose family disapproves of the couple\u2019s \u201clifestyle\u201d (\u201chom\u2019sexiality\u201d). The Dime\u2019s<\/span> cast of supporting characters is diverse and satisfyingly complex. Kent allows her characters and their relationships to each other the development they deserve, and makes us care about their lives and fates.<\/p>\n

Dallas is a character in The Dime,<\/span> and Texans will feel as if they\u2019re on a ride-along with Rhyzyk. They\u2019ll also appreciate a New Yorker attempting to adapt to \u201cTexas \u2026 the only place in the known universe \u2026 that actually got hotter after the sun went down,\u201d where a dog-walking suburban woman packs a \u201cBeretta with a diamond-pav\u00e9 grip\u201d (a Valentine\u2019s Day gift, natch). \u201cTexans \u2026 will froth at the mouth when delayed thirty seconds at a red light,\u201d Rhyzyk says, \u201cbut will wait an hour for three fried eggs and a minute steak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kent is a multi-faceted and multi-talented writer. Her action scenes are exhilarating; her humor alternating between teasing (\u201cnever trust a short man with a tall list of grudges\u201d), and sharp (\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between yogurt and Texas? \u2026 Yogurt\u2019s the one with the live culture\u201d); her dialogue snappy (\u201cStop trying to make me feel better,\u201d Rhyzyk tells her partner, \u201cI\u2019ve gotten worse ass-drubbings from my grandmother.\u201d \u201cShe the one that was the nun?\u201d). Kent\u2019s style with the darker elements of The Dime<\/span> is visceral, evoking chills and causing me to squirm in my chair.<\/p>\n

The Dime<\/span> isn\u2019t all action and cleverness, though. These characters are also introspective. \u201cIf not for Jackie, my idea of emotional self-help would be half a bottle of Jameson,\u201d Rhyzyk admits. \u201cI\u2019d be living out of a suitcase, all my T-shirts would be black, and I\u2019d still be buying underwear in the boys\u2019 section of Target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benny, Rhyzyk\u2019s late uncle and mentor, provides insight. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing about cults,\u201d Benny says. \u201cThey not only dig the ditch, they lie in it, cover themselves over with dirt, and then cry about how dark the world has gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of cults, the construction of the climax to The Dime<\/span> is ingenious, the tension excruciating. The denouement nicely tees up the second installment, leaving one crucial question dangling. I await the next novel in this series happily, if impatiently.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}