On the other hand...

While PW decided to pass on my latest book Missing in Precinct puerto Rico, Library Journal absolutely loved it. They gave me a starred review and had this to say: "Torres's writing is pure music for the soul. Highly recommended for all collections."

"Pure music for the soul..." I don't think a review can get much better than that. They also call the series an award winning one though so far it's only garnered one award and that was a very minor one (as far as the mystery world is concerned at least). Of course, I wasn't aware of that one award until a month after I'd been awarded it and it came in the mail (a heavy glass bookend). So for all I know I've won another award and haven't been told yet. Maybe I should check with MWA to see if they've given me anything.

In any event, the PW review is the only bad one so far. Perhaps given the subject matter I should expect more of those, but, as a sometimes optimist, I hope for more like LJ and even Kirkus (usually tough though they've given me a couple of starred reviews in the past). Kirkus said "his procedural engages interest with strong prose, convincing detail and local color."

And Harriet Klausner liked the book, gave it five stars over at B&Ns site. Now, you may think, "Well, HK likes everybody..." but that's certainly not true. She only writes you up if she likes the book and I was deathly afraid that given the subject matter and the fact that chapter five is a little hard to take, I'd thought she'd take a pass on this book. Or worse, go out of her way to give me a negative review.

Now I'm hoping for a positive review from Oline Cogdill and then I'll feel confident.