I haven't said much about Eight Belles, but there has been discussion on my f'list about her, including the fact she was about 17 hands as a heavily-worked three-year-old. Which is just asking for trouble.

And I had this flash in my head of Coach Girl's gently didactic voice explaining to one of her students that she only rode her 17.2-hand four-year-old, Benson, for about fifteen minutes every couple of days because "he's so big, it'll take him a long time to really grow into himself. We just want to make sure he knows his manners and that he has a job to do, eventually."

Um, yeah. Benson acts like he knows he's a pretty lucky horse, but he has no idea just how lucky he is.

That is all.

Over the weekend I spent far too much money at the book store. I got two Miss Silver mysteries, one of the Blackbird Sisters mysteries by Nancy Martin (Nancy is a member of DorothyL, the mystery discussion list I am on, and her books are at the top of my "buy now" list partly because I enjoy them, especially the character arc, and partly because Nancy herself has gone out of her way to be friendly and encouraging to the wannabe. I should probably write something about her series one of these days.)

However, the book I was really looking for was Diana Killian's new one, Corpse Pose.

Full disclosure: Diana Killian is D.L. Browne, list owner and head moderator of the Yahoo mystery writers' group Wicked Company, of which I am also a member and junior co-moderator. I am violently prejudiced in her favour... which in terms of reviews means that if I had bought this book and hated it, I would never have breathed a word about it. Ever.

Fortunately, I loved it. And if you're a fan of amateur sleuth mysteries, especially one with a specific hobby or professional setting, I recommend this one.

Our heroine is AJ Alexander, freelance marketing consultant and bona-fide Big City Girl. Think Cosmopolitan. Think Sex and the City. Think...

...of something else entirely, because AJ has never felt less like a Fun Fearless Female in her entire life. Her ten-year marriage to her university sweetheart has just collapsed--Andy has just left her for another man, which has left AJ understandably shaken up--if she could be so fundamentally mistaken about the most important relationship in her life, and know so little about the most important person in it, what else is she clueless about?

A complicating factor is, AJ is not what you would call an untroubled person in the first place: raised by a narcissistic alcoholic actress mother and what seems like an emotionally absent (now deceased) dad, AJ loves her mother best from a distance and considers her earth-mother aunt Diantha to be her rock.

So when she gets the phone call telling her of Diantha's murder, she is understandably devastated.

Especially when it becomes clear that, as heir, AJ is a prime suspect.

And then her mother arrives to deflect the attention of the police by declaring herself a prime suspect. Mother, thinks AJ, is a drama queen even by the standards of a retired actress.

If this was all there was to the story it would be fun but forgettable. What I really liked about Corpse Pose was the dawning realization that AJ's interactions with these other characters were not going to follow the rules of sitcoms. Andy the ex did not automatically become the Gay Best Friend--AJ was really hurt and angry, and Andy was hurt and felt guilty, and the two of them need to decide whether there is going to be an ongoing relationship and what form it will take. Likewise, AJ and her mother start out sniping at each other like a comedy duo, but it doesn't take long for the reader to recognize this as protective, and eventually the fact they are forced to spend time together makes AJ realize her mother wants, in a disorganized way, to make amends. And maybe AJ wants to let her.

The victim, Diantha, was the owner of a yoga empire (well, sort of) and was the sort of person who stood on principles. Actually, according to Andy, she was the sort of person who would "burn you at the stake for your own good." AJ loved her, but not everyone else did, although even some of the people who disliked her admired her.

And maybe one or more of the people who loved her also feared or even hated her.

I concentrated on the characters in this entry because they are interesting enough to support a series, which this is going to be. The mystery part, including the investigating officer who likes AJ just fine but has no sympathy for "Snoop Sisters," works well. The reader will probably get the solution half a step before AJ, which adds to the tension. AJ does not pull and Too Stupid To Live moments and her mother turns out to be better in a crisis than I--or AJ--would have expected.

It's a very promising start to a new mystery series and I recommend it. Actually, because of my prior relationship with the author I recommend that you buy it new. But I'm sure it would be okay if you bought your copy new and then encouraged everyone you know to read it.

And I must say, if a person is going to be in a mystery-writing discussion group, it's nice to know it's run by someone whose writing I admire.