A review by lian_tanner
Valley of Ashes by Cornelia Read

3.0

I feel as if Read started off writing edgy crime stories with a funny, foul-mouthed heroine who was pretty much unputdownable, and has veered off into personal angst with a large dash of bitterness. It was a shock to discover at the start of this book that Maddy's husband Dean, who has always been such a honey, has turned into a complaining, high-handed creep. Okay, so 18 months have passed since the end of the last book, but there was never any sign of this earlier. It's hard not to see it as a thinly disguised re-run of Read's own personal traumas - she mentions in the acknowledgements that she was divorced while writing this book, plus her father committed suicide. As for the ending - she has set up the next few books as pretty tragic. I suspect I'll keep following the story of Maddy Dare, for a while at least, but I do regret the disappearance of that wild girl who made me laugh so much. Maybe she just grew up, which everyone is entitled to do, even literary bad girls. The trouble is, I don't read crime stories to be confronted by the exigencies of growing up.