Ruby Tuesday

by Jennifer Anne Kogler

~Written by a 23-year-old Princeton graduate as her thesis project, this madcap murder mystery is a rare breakthrough novel that's as hilarious as it is perceptive, and its street-smart depiction of gamblers and groupies and a most unusual family are unforgettable.~

Amen. To whomever wrote this, I thank you and my headache thanks you. I'd really like to give this novel its due while it is still fresh in my mind but, alas, I am not feeling well. Instead I will share a few brief excerpts and encourage others to give it a chance.

"To me, Darlene was like the Santa Ana wind. She blew in about twice a year, made my face contort into strange expressions of discomfort, and then disappeared. In her wake she left the debris she had dressed up in wrapping paper. Worse than a completely absent mother, she came around just often enough that I couldn't forget her."

"Greyhound buses are pipelines used to disperse the criminally insane around the country. There is more senseless muttering per capita on Greyhounds than any other form of transportation. The greater the distance the buses travel, the more likely the people on them are carrying around secrets no mentally sound man or woman could live with."

"There is little worse in this world than a shabbily dressed person at a funeral. It takes someone greatly skilled in the art of bad taste to make black look vulgar."

The cover and title put me off at first. My first reaction was that it would be a pre-teen cutesy book. It is not. In fact, I'll be interested to see how teens respond to it. Ruby Tuesday with its wry humor, insight and intelligence is a step above most YA books I've read lately. Kogler is quite a word-smith. I look forward to more from her.