Saturday, May 27, 2017

Amanda Knox In Her Own Words


WaitingToBeHeard Final.REV

Waiting To Be Heard
By Amanda Knox
A story that monopolized international headlines for months at a time over the course of four years couldn’t tell the whole story.  A University of Washington student, who dreamed through her childhood of spending a year studying in Italy, settles into a life in Perugia, Italy.  Tragic, brutal murder of one of her housemates turns Amanda Knox’s dream into the darkest, life-altering nightmare that took years to resolve, enveloping her beloved family and friends and forever impacting their lives.  This memoir shows an isolated twenty year old who must somehow reach deep into her heart and soul to find courage, inspiration and hope.

I was so moved by the talent and skill of her writing.  I mean, this author can really write.  I felt the naïveté, the giddiness, the youthful freedom at the start of her dream adventure.  Then, I felt the accelerating horror as destiny takes hold.  And then, I was swept up in the diametrically opposed emotions as she’s jailed in Italy, put on trial in a media surroundsound, and convicted with a twenty-six year sentence for a crime she did not commit.

At the heart is Meredith Kercher who will not be forgotten.  What the reader learns about her crystallizes what a beautiful young woman’s life was stolen so young.  Amanda writes anecdotes about the short time she and Meredith had together as friends.  What a nice, naïve, giving young woman, also joyful with her own dreams and aspirations and part of a loving family and circle of friends left devastated.

The author is not only able to vividly record her own experiences, but she also gives glimpses into the experience of her family, friends, and others including Rafaelle Sollecito who was also wrongly convicted.  The reader is filled with compassion for them all for what they also endured.  You can vividly imagine the horror to be in Seattle on the other end of Amanda’s evolving phone calls home, to uproot your life, maintain a residence in Italy to be as near as possible for years, watch your finances dwindle, and struggle to maintain hope your daughter would be freed.

It takes an incredible storyteller to write about a well known, true event in a way that the reader is carried along and kept in the moment on each page.  I found myself hoping for triumphs and fearing tragedy and thinking the next page would be different, as if history can be changed.  Amanda Knox takes us on an insightful tour of the long trip from agony to ecstasy.  The author is never self-pitying, never represents herself as a victim.  Her depiction of the Italian police, the trials, her attorneys, her guards, and others she was in jail with is all riveting.

Today the author lives in Seattle and works with the Innocence Project, which is a non-profit dedicated to putting an end to wrongful convictions.  Exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015, almost four years after she was acquitted of murder, you can believe that such an effort would be close to Amanda Knox’s heart.  She’s also attended college courses and is an Arts Correspondent at the West Seattle Herald.  She paints a picture of a person who does not fear life, but relishes it.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Laura Childs Spills and Thrills

Pekoe Most Poison
By Laura Childs
Have you ever attended a “rat tea”?  Well, you’re invited, in the recently released, eighteenth book in Laura Childs’ cozy tea shop mystery series.  If you’re already a fan, you’ll be delighted with this return to Charleston and the world of the Indigo tea shop, which blends beautifully with mystery.  If this is your first trip to this series, you can comfortably jump right in with Pekoe Most Poison.

You’ll learn, along with our protagonist Theo, that rat teas are parties dating back to twentieth century Charleston where the cream of society would sponsor teas to promote city rodent control and better public health.  You’ll also have a seat at the table for murder.  Now it’s up to you and Theo to follow the clues and puzzle out which of the suspects has committed this crime.

As a reader I was devouring the clues eagerly, between enjoyable tidbits of history and color around Charleston.  It’s the core characters that surrounded me like old friends.  The tea shop trio personalities are so interesting they resonate, and their interactions are laced with humor and fun.  And the suspects are abundant and varied.  You’ll be challenged working through potential motives and opportunity, but follow the clues to the thrilling ending, let your theories brew a little, and you just may solve this mystery along with Theo and her friends.


Little Girl Gone
By Gerry Schmitt
For this thriller, the author tossed aside the pseudonym of Laura Childs, and she began a new Afton Tangler thriller series. This first book in the series introduces her protagonist who is a family liaison officer with the Minneapolis Police Department.  Afton works closely and empathetically with families that are crime victims, and is also very tough in her developing investigative skills.

The mystery in this book is abduction.  In a thriller, different than a cozy, the mystery for the reader isn’t who did it.  Now the mystery is if the hero can catch the villain, and the clock is ticking from the moment this baby’s abducted.  In the meantime, you learn family secrets revealed.  And the movements and motives of the abductors are fascinating.

This book is an incredible, raw ride that you’ll be excited to read.  Be sure you have time to finish the last fifty pages in one sitting, because you won’t be able to put it down.  The next in the Afton Tangler series, Shadow Girl will be available August 1st.

To hear more from the author of both series, and over 40 mysteries, listen to our episode Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Laura Childs/Gerry Schmitt.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKHhZtqJsc

In honor of this, our sweet 16 podcast episode and in tribute to our tea shop series author, the Treasures and Teas Shop in Edmonds created custom, first taste mystery tea blends.  These are wonderful for sipping while listening to Kendall & Cooper, or while reading your favorite mysteries.

Phyllis Carlton, tea sommelier at Treasures and Teas blended the Queen’s Mystery #2.  Like a good mystery, this blend beckons to you to chase it.  The second blend for our sweet 16 is the Evening Shadow which is particularly soothing while enthralled in thrillers, and well suited to those cozy mysteries.  The Podners were invited to a tea tasting by Phyllis and were delighted.  We left after enthusiastically purchasing each.   And we were excited to send samples to Laura Childs for her to enjoy for our episode.


Next time you’re downtown Edmonds, stop by Treasures and Teas shop and ask Phyllis or Carla for these mystery blends.  And if you want to know more about them, listen to our brief interview with Phyllis who tells more details about these intriguing blends.