From the Bristol Herald Courier
Truth Accuracy Fairness
Book Review: Riveting crime drama a real page-turner
- BY JOE TENNIS | TENNIS ANYONE?
- Sep 16, 2018
What we’re looking for are answers. Like any great mystery. That’s what author Suzanne Schiffman provides, too, with her story of who killed Daniel Perrault.
Nobody likes this guy. No, not really. And finding out who shut his lights off is what will keep you turning the pages of “Between a Rock and a Dark Place” (Canambooks, $12.95, 2018).
This tightly worded crime drama is loaded with dialogue and ample description of the backwater of fictional Wayne County.
Who is Daniel Perrault? Well, he’s a newcomer who thinks he knows more than the locals. Specifically, he’s a brash and glamorous French entrepreneur who thinks his intelligence, sophistication and style will bring culture to a clannish and isolated region that frowns on outsiders.
Perrault makes enemies, like many know-it-all outsiders do. So maybe it’s no surprise that his body turns up at a roadside, stuffed in a sleeping bag.
The riveting “Between a Rock and a Dark Place” ultimately becomes the tale of how Sheriff Spike Stryker plans to solve the murder. It cannot be easy.
As it turns out, this Perrault guy could have been killed by almost anybody. Could it have been his wife? Or how about his teenage, biracial mistress? Perrault skipped out on a contractor without paying a bill. He became enemies with a bipolar chef. And he became bitter with a businesswoman.
This 224-page mystery comes from the pen of Schiffman, who lives on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in rural Sperryville, Virginia. She is also the author of 2011’s “One Fine Day.”
jtennis@bristolnews.com | 276-791-0709 | @BHC_Tennis
And this from Northern Virginia Magazine:
What we’re reading this month
AUGUST 24, 2018 by LYNN NORUSIS
The latest tomes from local authors.
Courtesy of Canambooks
Between a Rock and a Dark Place
By Suzanne Schiffman
Canambooks
When someone is killed, people mourn. If the victim is arrogant and makes enemies with the majority of the people he comes in contact with, the list of suspects seems never-ending. Daniel Perrault, a Frenchman with a bit of hubris, moves to a small town and is found dead on the side of the road and it seems almost every resident could have their own motive for the murder. (March 2018)