What is it about a good book that can take us away from all that is on our mind and make everything feel perfect as long as we are buried deep in those crisp clean pages. Personally, there is almost no better smell than that of a new book; it smells of the adventure, romance, comedy, mystery or murder that will be coming by way as soon as I begin turning pages. My favorite authors deliver me from the mundane or even from the chaos that can be my life and let me escape to some one else’s life for just a little while.
The idea of working with a female attorney like Benny Rosato, a main character of Lisa Scotoline, or being a private investigator like Sunny Randall (Robert Parker), Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton), or the ever fumbling bounty hunter Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich), or work at the 13th Precinct with Kay Scarapetta (Patricia Cornwall), or at the FBI with Alex Cross (James Patterson), I could go on forever with some more of my favorites but you get the idea. I love some mystery and sometimes a murder thrown in for good measure. Most of all though I love strong characters that are true to themselves, and don’t collapse if they make a mistake.
Well, Stephanie Plum collapses almost every book after she gets another car blown up or if the is thwarted by her arch-nemesis in bounty hunting Joyce Barnhart. I love Stephanie Plum and I am not ashamed to admit it. I almost start frothing at the mouth when I know the next installment of Janet Evanovich’s series about this bounty hunter is about to come out. Her books are such an easy read and the characters so vivid. I have imagined myself the casting director of the Stephanie Plum movie so many times in my head that I can see my favorite actors in the rolls and hear them speaking Ms. Evanovich’s quick dialog.
Alex Cross the creation of the brilliant mind of James Patterson has also almost had some collapses along the way, but he always gets things right in the end. There were times that I wondered about him and his kids though and I prayed right along with him when he was trying to win custody of his youngest son, Little Alex.
These author’s, and I am sure many more too, have a gift that I envy. The can deliver us from the ordinary and make us believe what is written on their pages could happen and, at least in my case, that I could be the one doing some of the things. I could see myself being a walking catastrophe like Stephanie Plum. As a matter of fact, I am sure that she is exactly the kind of bounty hunter I would end up being.
Pick up a book and listen to the story these authors have knitted for us to enjoy, or if you have a long commute, try and audio book they are almost as wonderful of an escape as a hard-cover novel.
