She Treads Softly: Cultured

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Cultured

Cultured by D. P. Lyle
5/2/23; 320 pages
Oceanview Publishing
Jake Longly #6

Cultured by D. P. Lyle is a recommended investigative mystery and the sixth novel in the Jake Longly detective series.

Jake and Nicole, are at his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama, when his PI father, Ray, calls him into help with the investigation of a missing young woman. April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the resort built by financial guru Jonathon Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM). Lindemann recruits wealthy people to join his program, promising healthy returns on their investment. Ray needs Jake and Nicole to visit Lindemann Farms posing as potential investors. The goal is to see if TLM is a scam and look for the missing young woman.

You can read Cultured as a stand alone mystery. The writing is great, the pace is fast, and the investigation is interesting. Jake, Nicole, Ray and the always hungry Pancake are all here, working to uncover the truth. The banter between the characters can be lighthearted and quick, which is entertaining, but it can also turn serious when required. The subject matter is serious in this investigation. This is my giving Jake and Nicole another chance book as their suggestive banter between each other dampened my enjoyment of The OC. While it is still present here, it was less distracting in Cultured.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.