SASSY CINDERELLLA AND THE VALIANT VIGILANTE by Sharon Dunn

Stardate 12/1/04. Captain's log, supplemental:

Okay, I just finished another one:

"Sassy Cinderella and the Valiant Vigilante" by Sharon Dunn

From the back cover:

When a professor at the local university dies, Ruby Taylor is hired to fill his shoes. Along with a frozen corpse and midnight intruders, this sassy Cinderella has to deal with lost love and family that defines the word dysfunctional. Deadly university politics turn personal as Ruby works to straighten out a mystery that has more twists than a silly straw.

Camy here:

I just finished this highly entertaining mystery. It starts off with heart-pounding suspense that hooked me from the start. The drama of Ruby's broken family and broken spirit is interspersed with the clues of a suspected murder, and it really kept my attention glued to the page.

Ruby's character is real and flawed, utterly believable and easy to relate to for those of us with past mistakes. She's like anyone who is trying to overcome bad decisions--she whines, genuflects, denies, avoids, rages against, obsesses over and beats herself up for her damaged psyche, but she moves forward with pain, terror, and a tenuous trust in her God.

It is both a murder mystery and a diary of Ruby's struggles amidst her growing faith. I could relate to her self-doubts, her guilt, her feelings of unworthiness. She always turned to God for help, but it never came easily or smoothly. It showed with stark realism the difficulty of trusting and submitting.

I especially liked the foray into the disdainful attitude of academia toward Christianity, which I had experienced in college. The author handles the subject with no holds barred and no easy answer, but provides a blanket of comfort as Ruby wrestles with the topic in both herself and with her coworkers.

There is a bit more sensuality in this novel than in the first Ruby Taylor mystery, "Romance Rustlers and Thunderbird Thieves." I liked how Ruby's push-pull relationship with Wesley is so gritty and full of mistakes and yet so familiar to all of us who've been burned by love, who desire to change and honor God in a Christ-centered relationship. Ruby and Wesley are both flawed people trying to find their way toward each other, trying to overcome the habits and behaviors of the past.

The Chick-Lit feel of the narrative kept my attention with Ruby's quirky metaphors and humorous outlook on her crazy life. I think that many Post-Modern Generation readers will like the atmosphere of the prose and relate to Ruby's thinking.

Sharon Dunn just keeps getting better. I'm looking forward to the third installment of the Ruby Taylor Mystery series, scheduled for 2005.

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