Bye, Bye, Love

September 27, 2004
The appealing character of "Mustang" Sally Alder makes up for an implausible plot in Swift's third mystery to feature the former-hippie-turned-college-prof (after 2002's Bad Company
). The talented Sally not only has made a reputation as an amateur sleuth but plays guitar and does the vocals with a Laramie, Wyo., band, the Millionaires, and has frequent and supercharged sex with her live-in lover and fellow professor, Hawk Green. When folk singer legend Nina Cruz, the ex-wife of Sally's all-time heartthrob country singer, Thomas "Stone" Jackson, asks her former husband to headline a benefit concert for Wild West, a group of radical environmental activists, Stone turns to Sally for help in looking into Wild West—and into Nina's increasingly peculiar behavior. Stone also invites Sally's band to join the concert, but plans are put on hold when someone shoots Nina dead. A member of the Millionaires later becomes a homicide victim, while the threats and attempts on Sally's own life escalate as she digs into Nina's string of past and present lovers. The author strains to connect all the dots, but most readers should enjoy the ride. Cozy fans should be prepared for some strong language amid the light tone. Agent, Elaine Koster.

October 1, 2004
When her longtime singing idol Stone Jackson asks for help, professor/sleuth Sally Alder (Bad Company) is thrilled. She drives out to talk with Stone's famous folk-singing ex-wife, Nina Cruz, who recently relocated to Wyoming and became involved with a gaggle of environmentalists/animal rights activists/vegetarians. She arrives just in time for the opening of elk season, an early debilitating snowstorm, and the suspicious shooting death of Nina. A second deadly "accident" spurs her on. Competent prose, tough terrain, and double-dealing characterize Swift's latest. Recommended for most mystery collections. Swift lives in Albuquerque, NM.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
Swift's latest Sally Adler novel offers a funky send-up of aging hippies, vitriolic vegans, and aggressive eco- and animal-rights activists set in wide-open Wyoming. Alder, a fortysomething prof at the University of Wyoming who runs the Women's History Center and sings in a country-rock group, returns for some sixties nostalgia, a dose of social comedy, and a bit of murder. The somewhat erratic action is kicked off when Sally is visited by a rock star whom she idolized long ago. The old (but still sexy) rocker needs Sally to look in on his ex-wife, who is an active contributor to the Women's History Center, who may have fallen in with a very strange crowd. The ex-wife soon is killed in a hunting accident that may be murder. A second shooting gets a member of Sally's band. The story suffers from illogical plotting and murky motivation, but it is wildly entertaining in spite of it all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)