Reviews

• シリーズの１作はとにかく読むべし

  名作タイトルをもじったJill Churchillシリーズの第１作。やはり，第１作を読むことは大切。主人公Jane Jeffryのつらい過去を共に共有してからこのシリーズに突入できるはずです。主婦の生活や主婦の会話についていくのは中年親父にはちょっとつらいですが，英文が易しく，なにげない生活用語の宝庫。ミステリーを楽しむというよりは，アメリカ，シカゴ郊外の中流家庭の雰囲気を味わうのに最適か？

• ちょっと難易度の高い赤川次郎の英語版？

  英語の単語の難易度は高いと思いました。 初めてJill Charchil の本を読みました。私が今まで読んで面白かったと感じたものは、Marian Keys（4姉妹の話だけでなく、いろんなシリーズ）, Sophe Kinsella（のショッピング中毒シリーズでないもののほうが好き）でしょうか。（これで英語の語彙、テイストの参考になれば、と思います。） 何となく古本屋さんでふらっと買ってしまいましたが、面白かったです。ただ、語彙の難易度も高く、登場人物がやたら多く、またこれが（当然ですが）英語名なので、「え~っと、スーザンはどんな人だっけ？」とページをさかのぼって読まないと、よくわからなくなりますので、ご注意を。 以前はこういった登場人物の多い英語のミステリーは（面倒だけど）登場人物をメモしながら、読んでいましたが、今回は、ざ～っと読んでしまったので、本来楽しめる分まで十分楽しめた、とは言えないのだけど、面白かったです。

• 奥様におすすめ。絶対はずせないseries第一弾

  ３人の子供のカープールに追われ、うるさい姑のいるごく普通の専業主婦が（といっても日本人の目からはとっても優雅にみえるけど）お隣さんの完璧主婦の親友とお笑いをまきちらしながら、殺人事件をばりばり解いていくシリーズの衝撃の第一弾です。アメリカの普通の人の暮らしも味わえるし、笑えますよ～。

• Housewife Heroine Becomes Perfect Cup of Tea (or Coffee) for Mystery Buffs

  I'm usually in a state of reverence when I approach the pilot to a successful, long running series with each of its books staying in print and selling solidly, especially as I realize that the novel in my hands is the foundation upon which such an enduring success has been based. My curiosity is at a high, focus ready to pick up on the reader captures which have carried such a phenomenon. Many of the appeals of Jill Churchill's Jane Jeffry are easy to see, and many reviewers have elevated this effervescence beautifully. I believe I'll join them, parading around a bit myself, beating a bounding, decorated drum: The suburban housewife has been unsung, or touted-with-taint, since Susan B. Anthony's marching campaigns began dousing home fires, kicking homemaker-vestal-non-virgins out into the glorious world of business acumen (to become secretaries/assistants/office-managers/Cool-CEO-Adjuncts/CEO's)? Such a deal. Sorry. Couldn't help that slurp of feminist-charged humor with a hocking "ahem" of truth in it. "Boom... Boom, Boom..." I really don't want to bash the programs of that particular Sue (who reminds me of Sue Grafton, who's developed a most delightfully gritty female sleuth who has played proud the female angle of the American-type, loner-PI-Mystique, of the red neon-light mood/mode/model/MO). "Who, who, who?" What am I, an owl, or an almanac researcher. I'm certainly NOT a legitimate reviewer of novels. If there's an established fact anywhere, that's one. "Ahem. Hock! Hack! BOOM, Boom." I honestly do not want to denigrate the incredible release of bondage feminism has accomplished for women. What I lament is the backlash of another type of bondage which has sullied the pride of wise, strong women who freely choose to be homebound. (A better term might be "home-centered" ... or ... "home-based" ... "home-heather-ed"? Whatever.) Here's where Jill Churchill pranced in with the perfect tool (not a drum; see my review of McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE) to re-set the balance and re-expose the heroic through a "modern" housewife in the suburbs of Chicago. Now, THAT I can admire (in the warm and welcome company of a large audience of contented, sometimes clamoring, readers). It's too easy to downplay the cultural significance of this series, due to Churchill's wonderfully light, delightful style of dramatizing Jane's snarly attitude and colorfully common world. It's so automatic to see this series as easy-reading, funny-fluff. Honestly, I have to remind myself, repeatedly, to note the depth-of-effect and beauty in this offering which has effortlessly expanded our views of worthy roles for women (and Mr. Mom's) to play, by returning the respect of choice to the career of housewife. "BOOM!" And let me beat this drum over one other feat which Jane and Shelley have accomplished as this series has run onward from this auspicious beginning. As their children grow up and leave, these two homemakers evolve in entertaining ways through Mom-growing-pains of the empty-nest-syndrome. Having read and reviewed (and posted a Listmania) several of Jill's novels prior to this pilot, I've concluded that this author is a genius, and possibly somewhat unrecognized as such. Yes, she's been recognized for providing a hilarious, easy reading series carried by warmly addicting characters and mean mystery machinations. I believe Jill will also be recognized one day for the sheer and subtle insight which impregnates each of the books in this series, with this pilot established as the strongest of the batch, yet with each sequential book providing unique, haute-cuisine flavors (in a warm cookie world). "Boom?" Sometimes a pilot is seen as an immature beginning for a series which grows in strength and style as the author progresses in presentation of subsequent books. In this case, no doubt exists in my mind that GRIME AND PUNISHMENT has come off the press of a true author launching a seasoned gift in the prime of her talent. And, what's no less amazing to me is that Jill has grown beyond and beyond this beginning, in her subtleties as a novelist. This is why I conclude that she is a genius, because I can honestly say, "You ain't read nothing yet. And, yet you've read it all." Churchill has not lost an ounce of the talent which produced GRIME. Sadly, the punishment she has received in periodic ripping reviews may be the true crime here. Ironically, I began my addiction of posting reviews on Amazon when I read my first Jane Jeffry novel and felt a heart crush after reading some of the short, cutting rips on this series. I seem to have a need to pick up and polish valuable gems which have been tarnished, not naturally by time (I should leave those for the true housewives among us), but by readers in bad moods who relieve pain by spewing on gems among piles of rocks (yes, I like rocks too, since I have a collection of those in my head). "Boom! Boom, boom." I understand this syndrome too clearly. I've done it myself, too many times. Have I grown up yet? I'm working at it, still failing. And, yes, honesty is important, even if it's tainted by harsh emotion being purged. In fact, it appears that some books increase in sales due to rather than in spite of a deep contrast between rips and raves. "Boom." Okay. That said, what appealed most to me in GRIME & PUNISHMENT, as is true in more than a few cozy mysteries, was the easy in of daily routine life, especially the schmooze of the morning shuffle. What more appropriate way to begin a series with housewife as heroine than within the rise `n shine songfest, which in Jane's case involves the hard-earned wisdom of allowing oneself to grump and grunt instead of forcing the chirp and warble, if that happens to be the mood the cards have dealt during the call of night. Another appeal of this pilot (which has carried through the series) is Jane's effective dealings with the childish or adolescent maneuvering of her kids. Jane doesn't buy it, yet she doesn't swat their budding spirits, as she sidesteps their behavioral grime and grind. And! Another appeal coming... Here we have a housewife WITH a housekeeper, who gets snuffed, not in sneeze-inducing dust caused by her lack of competence and integrity, but by a vacuum cleaner cord. The symbolism in this pilot is rampant, and so inclusive it's nearly invisible unless you're searching for it, or your name is Sigmund Freud. If you're Carl Jung you'll have too many clues, before dues can even begin to conjure up. If you're new to this series, let the light, easy flow of Churchill's syntax take you for a ride. Then, once in a while, pause after closing the book's covers, and look more deeply. You'll see what I'm saying. For example, recall Jane making coffee during (prior to, or following) a particularly tense or gut churning scene, in which she mentions in passing that she's carefully going through the process of making coffee... "... as if it were the solution to something." And she mentions how carrying out simple daily routines or chores can calm a chaotic heart thrown out of rhythm by unusually frightening, unexpected, imposing events. This story is rich with life in the daily living lane, where heroic acts are seamless, invisible, unnoticed. One of the dramatic coups, though, in this pilot, was the way Churchill dealt with Jane's grief over the complicated loss of her husband. The way this author slipped that process seamlessly into and through the mystery with cohesive care, was simple emotional genius. Well, okay, yes, there's also the feisty, snappy, to-cheer-for friendship between Jane & Shelley, taproot-ing here for the long haul; and we have the dreary, deadly connection with Thelma, the sniffing-snob mother-in-law, posing in the buff on a snuff-out wish list (in Jane's nightmares). And, of course, the soothingly slow, and subtly sensual development of the romantic element between Jane and Mel is also a coup, of a different matter. We have ROMANCE! And, we have a wrap. "Ahem. Boom." With true sadness and ultimate respect for the unsung or tarnished heroes still among us, nearly everywhere, Linda G. Shelnutt

• Five Stars

  my favourite author

• Quite nice and well-written, but too much of housewife-life

  The book is easy to read and amusing with realistic and likeable characters but it only deals with the lives of housewives and mothers. There is practically no other subject except cleaning house, going shopping, getting the children to and from school, well, and eating. For my taste, this is a bit dull. Some other aspects of life would have improved the book.

• Five Stars

  I really liked the books about Jane Jeffry and her friend Shelly.

• Vergnüglich

  Gute Unterhaltung, auch wenn man den Mörder schon ziemlch früh kennt. Eindeutig das erste Buch aus der Reihe, auch wenn gewisse Erklärungen über Ereignisse der Vergangenheit etwas auf sich warten und eine gewisse Oberflächlichkeit vermuten lassen.

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