Cecelia Tishy Books

Make room for Cecelia Tishy on the growing list of writers of intelligent mystery novels. In fact, make room at the top of the list -- she may be the best one yet. Her Kate Banning series displays a masterful use of a popular literary form to entertain and to inform. Based in the Nashville country music scene which Ms Tishy understands perfectly CRYIN' TIME, the second in the series, gives a first-hand look at a world we all know of, but know very little about. As we follow Kate's investigation from sweaty, back-office consultations to glitzy benefit events, we witness the realities of a tremendously popular performance genre. But, best of all, it's a great story. Cecelia Tishy feeds out her plot line with the even consistency of a skilled fisherman ["fisherperson?" Naw.] She never scares off the reader with frenetic pacing of the plot. On the other hand, the description of the human details in Kate's life and witty prose style ["She pumped cordiality like soda fountain syrup," "the deep-down, deep-dish curiosity"]keep us avidly turning the pages. The characterization is flawless;it draws us right into the book from the first pages. Kate avoids all the pitfalls of other women sleuths. She is independent, but not hard like Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak, likeable, but never becomes a cuddly caricature like Jessica Fletcher. Kate does her own thing with class and intelligence. The character of the American Indian singer, Troy Blackfeather, was of primary interest to me. Drawing from two familiar "Indian guy" archetypes, Cecelia Tishy crafts a believable young Native male. In his two lamentably short appearances in the novel Troy is first the committed, adoring lover and then the broken, vulnerable warrior evoking the same urge to console as does the well-known icon, "End of the Trail." A good read by an excellent writer! Be on the lookout for number three in the series!

Cryin' Time is the second title in the Kate Banning Mystery series, the first being Jealous Heart.

Kate Banning has moved to Nashville Tennessee. She has a secure job with a publication and thought her amateur sleuthing days were behind her, not so, when she finds herself having lunch at the Mad Platter with a convincing executive from UpShot Records named Phil. Phil needs an amateur detective to do a background check on a future singer, and their mutual friend Henry recommended Kate. The only reason Kate accepts the case is because it seems easy and she needs the money to send her fourteen-year-old daughter Kelly to summer camp. But as the case moves on Kate finds it is anything but easy. While checking on the background of the singer Troy, his girlfriend Shay disappears. Again Kate finds herself in the line of fire and takes up the hunt for Shay even when the record label backs out and tells her to quit. If there's one thing Music City has in common with Hollywood it's that not everyone is who he or she claims to be and that is some thing Kate is about to find out.

I found Cryin' Time to be a cozy, interesting read. Country music is only one of the many types of music played in our home, so in reading Cryin' Time I recognized the famous names and songs mentioned. Ms. Tishy gives the reader a good mystery; her detailed description of Nashville's famous and not so famous sites help to bring the mystery to life. The only problem I had was when the author penned her protagonists' road directions one too many times, I don't feel they had anything to do with the plot and they seemed a bit distracting. Maybe the author should consider including a simple map in the next mystery. Also in Cryin' Time, Ms. Tishy gives us a look at the different sides of business in country music. Do you really know what a flyswatter is? Can you guess what a rack-jobber has to do with Wal-mart? Do you know why a country band is caged? I do, now.

This series gets better and better. Now that people like Shania Twain and Faith Hill are making country music more popular than ever, these books are fun reading because they give a real sense of what the country music scene is like. And it's fun to try to guess whether Cecelia Tishy's musician characters are patterned after any particular music stars. This book had an exciting and surprising conclusion that will satisfy any mystery fan, whether or not you care about music.

A really good read. Kate Banning is an appealing character, trying to hold together a job and single motherhood while adjusting to being a Yankee transplanted to Nashville. It's fun to watch her cope with her teenage daughter's first "Y'all" and the world of country music in general. And the mystery is absorbing and its solution surprising.

I hope the author does a better job managing the characters. The ending felt tacked-on; yes, we learned the killer's identity, but in a rather abrupt manner. Felt as though a timer had gone off, sort of the end of an exam: "Fingers off the keyboard, pass your work forward to your publisher."

Life can be rough for a psychic when her powers fail, as they do big-time one day for Reggie Cutter. She has no forewarning of the speeding car which leaves her sprawling, bruised on the road. And though the tenant in her apartment house comes rushing out, he isn't much help. He insists she was jaywalking, which somehow convinces her that the hit and run really wasn't really a hit and run. But that's just the beginning of a bad day. That evening, blood drips down by the radiator in her apartment from the tenant's rooms above and--you've guessed it!--he's been murdered . . . killed with an electric drill and pinned to the floor with a nail gun. In addition, a strange calligraphic figure has been written in blood on Reggie's door. All of this leaves her determined to find out who the killer/artist is but her psychic powers do little to help either her or the police. ALL IN ONE PIECE is about Reggie's dogged and frequently bruised pursuit of the perpetrator among a host of suspects. Tishy manages to keep up a suspenseful atmosphere while providing an intriguing protagonist--one who manages to bumble along to a final and somewhat unbelievable solution to both the crime and the art work.

Reggie Cutter's new upstairs tenant, Steven Danelin, comes to her rescue when she is hit by a car in front of her house. He wants to tell her about a financial deal he was working on with Reggie's late Aunt Jo, but never gets the chance as he is found murdered in his apartment the next morning.

Reggie has worked with the police before, but her psychic abilities are not requested for this case because the lead detective considers her a suspect. Reggie starts investigating on her own to find out if she is in danger from the killer--and to clear her name.

The first person, present tense narrative makes it difficult for us to get to know the secondary characters as real people since we only learn about them through their conversations with Reggie--though this has improved since the first book in this series.

Reggie is a compassionate person, despite being unable to let go of the pampered life she led before her divorce. Even though she is relatively new in cultivating her psychic abilities, she intends to use them to help people.

Armchair Interviews says: We like Reggie for that and want her to succeed and look forward to more in this series.

After divorcing her wealthy husband and losing much of her income, psychic Reggie Cutter moves into the townhouse she inherited from her aunt Jo in Boston's South End. Jo was a psychic who helped the police on many cases and Reggie is following in her footsteps. Her life takes a dangerous twist when she gets hit by a car. Her upstairs tenant Steven Damelin sees the incident and believes it was t an accident not someone deliberately trying to kill her. After getting her fixed up Stephen talks about a deal that Jo was going to invest in and ask Reggie if she is interested. She puts him off.

That night she hears strange noises and the next morning she sees blood dripping from Steve's apartment into hers; she opens his door and sees him lying on his floor, the victim of a gruesome murder. Since she is involved the police don't want her working the case. She intends to listen to them but she has a vision of Steve in water and a piece of wood hitting him. She decides to do her own investigation by interviewing plenty of suspects who had reason to kill him, and almost winds up getting killed by a murderer without mercy.

ALL IN ONE PIECE is a charming amateur sleuth mystery with the eccentric cast of characters adding humor to this who-done-it. The protagonist is a down to earth person who thinks of her psychic powers as a tool to be used as one more investigative method while readers will look at her as the kind neighbor next door that everyone likes. Cecelia Tishy has a knack for creating a plausible mystery with a paranormal twist.

Harriet Klausner

Rarely has a mystery grabbed me so completely from the first few paragraphs. I was so excited to discover this series about Regina Cutter, a newly divorced forty-something mom of two who tries to use her psychic ability to help the Boston Metropolitan Police.

However, the story quickly degenerated from that early high. My complaints, in no particular order:
-The title has absolutely nothing to do with the book. Hate that.
-Too many coincidences -- the plot was wrapped up a bit too neatly with all the strange occurrences tying together.
-At the same time, a lot of loose ends were left... what about Doc? What did he want to do with Regina?
-Random quoting of Bible verses and Dante's Inferno that were distracting and laughable, rather than adding to the story.
-Stark's deus ex machina appearances to save Regina just in the nick of time
-What's this with the psychic who is basically useless? She never seems to pick up anything worth mentioning, yet so much is made of her psychic ability.

What a disappointment. Tishy is a great writer and surely could have fixed many of the issues that made this book so lame. I may try another Regina Cutter mystery in the future, but only if I get a psychic message to do so.

Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice" aptly describes Regina Cutter's psychic feelings when she consults on a case for the Boston police. A thirteen year old case is brought to Reggie's attention, and she feels compelled to see if the man imprisoned for murder is actually guilty. Whenever she's close to the murder site, and also to the site of a fire, Reggie's feels fire in her thumb and body. When she uses her ability to check out a "haunted" house, she feels cold and sees snow. Despite her status as divorcee living and working alone, she pushes herself into places she doesn't belong and bothers people with clout. Now You See Her is a fascinating look behind Boston society life with a great new character.

I enjoyed the main character and her psychic ability. However, the book's pace was a little slow for me. A little too much of her going to talk to someone and chit-chatting about irrelevant stuff and then finding one tiny piece of information. It was as if all you had to do was read the last page of every chapter. But it was well-written.

It's always fun to discover a new series and this one's clearly on my watch list!
Engaging characters, plot that's not too obvious, and a strong sense of place.

Another psychic mystery - Reggie Cutter is starting her life over in the Boston house that she inherited from her aunt - another psychic. Reggie is new to her abilities - but she still tries to assist police detective Frank Devaney the way her aunt had before she died. Reggie gets strange vibes in areas where there was a fire and murder 13 years ago - but she doesn't understand her skills well enough to apply them to the clues she's getting. I wasn't able to finish this story - I didn't enjoy the way the author wove the story together and many of the actions Reggie took were extremely unrealistic. This just wasn't a story for me, but I hope that others enjoy it.

I think this was a very good mystery because I just didn't want to put it down. I read it on a trip to Nashville and loved that it was set in music city. The Kate Banning character was newly arrived from Boston and was not supposed to be an expert on country music. She gave a good look at a newcomers point of view. If the previous reviewer was annoyed at something - I would like to know what specifically? Maybe he didn't think that the dialog flowed because you heard so many different voices. It was peppered with real country colloquialisms that contrasted with the precise Bostonian's talk. I would recommend this book to any mystery lover and especially those who are going to Nashville. I plan on reading all of Cecelia Tishy's other books.

I love country music and when I heard about this new series I couldn't wait to read it. However, I was quickly dissapointed. The main character, Kate, didn't really like or know anything about country music, and the way they talked about it got to be a little anoying. The characters were a bit 2-dimensonal and blah, and the dialog didn't always flow together. Hopefully the rest of the series will be better, but I won't be giving them another try.