Product Description

Spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk-art expert Benni Harper is back, investigating the connection between her favorite author, the murder of a family friend, and a crazy quilt. And when she starts receiving strange phone calls and anonymous letters telling her she'll be the next victim, her interest in the case becomes even more urgent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155887 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-06
• Released on: 2004-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Agatha Award winner Fowler offers two parallel plots to dramatize the alternating light-and-dark theme of her 10th beguiling mystery to feature Benni Harper, the San Celina, Calif., amateur sleuth and folk art museum curator. The first is set in 1978, when she's married to rancher Jack Harper; the second in 1995, when she's married to police chief Gabe Ortiz, whom she almost lost to Gabe's old lover Del Hernandez in her previous outing, Steps to the Altar (2002). In the "present" of 1995, when mystery writer and one-time San Selina resident Emma Baldwin loans a crazy quilt for display at the folk art museum, Benni is excited, though the quilt brings back mixed feelings about Jack. Then, shortly after arriving in town on a hush-hush case, PI Luke Webster, a former LAPD pal of Gabe's, gets stabbed to death. Frightening attacks on Benni's truck, creepy phone calls and hate mail follow. Benni must draw on all her crime-solving skills to find the pattern in the clues presented in this ingenious mystery. The overabundance of incidental detail may put off some, but most readers will relish the author's appealing picture of ranch life and small-town affairs, of barbecues and fiestas, of jocular locals and warm family and friends.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The Benni Harper mysteries all have quilt patterns for their titles, and quilts figure prominently. Benni's latest opens with her grandmother Dove's marriage in the San Celina, California, church where Benni's own first marriage took place. The tale slips between the present (1995 here) and 1978, when Benni was a young married college student writing a paper on her favorite author, a local writer of Nancy Drew-type stories for girls. There's loss aplenty in Benni's circle, where everyone seems to have lost a spouse or a child, but there's tenderness, too, and an honest religious faith that pervades but does not smother the dailiness of life. Benni's new second husband is the Latino police chief. An old friend of his comes to town and is killed; Benni's author also returns to San Celina and is threatened; someone is stalking Benni herself. The many plotlines converge in a warmhearted spiral that includes the difficulties of marriage, the complexities of a large multiethnic circle of overlapping friends and relations, and old, buried secrets. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
...appealing picture of ranch life and small-town affirs, of barbecues and fiestas, of jocular locals and warm family and friends. -- Publishers Weekly

Fowler [has] charm as a storyteller. -- Washington Post

Customer Reviews

The Yin And Yang Of Benni Harper's World
Sunshine And Shadow by Earlene Fowler is the best Benni Harper novel yet. Not only does she manage to use TWO types of quilts metaphorically [the sunshine and shadow quilt of the title AND the crazy quilt], but she also juggles two different [but related] stories from two different time periods [the current period of the novels and early in Benni and Jack's marriage]. The plotting is tight and the mysteries are intriguing. First and foremost, the novel is about relationships. Benni and Gabe, Benni and Jack, Isaac and Dove, Gabe and his old partner, author and reader, and many, many more. Regular readers of the Benni Harper series should read this novel with relish. Newcomers will enjoy the novel, but I would suggest that they start with an earlier novel. I am also pleased to say that due to Ms. Fowler's newest book deal, we have at least two more Benni Harper novels to look forward to [and a non-series novel that will be set on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas].

--Yesterday and Today--
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW is a little different from the other books in this series. Earlene Fowler takes us back into Benni's early life and her first marriage to Jack. The author switches gears often and intertwines some of the story of Benni and her life with Jack with what's going on today in Benni's life. This is the tenth book in this series and there are many parts that make up SUNSHINE AND SHADOW.

The story begins when grandmother Dove marries Isaac. Her new husband moves in with lots of stuff and Dove asks Benni to take back the boxes that she had stored at her grandmother's home. Many of the items are things that had belonged to Benni's first husband, and they lead to Benni's reminiscing about Jack who was killed in an accident. As she sorts through the material, she comes across a journal that Jack had kept and she receives a startling revelation.

Emma Baldwin, an old acquaintance and famous author returns to San Celina and she and Bennie resume their friendship. She also agrees to lend Benni a wonderful old crazy quilt to display in the folk art museum where Benni is the curator.

Gabe Ortiz, Benni's husband who also happens to be the local police chief, continues to be devoted to his new wife, but the marriage is still a little shaky. The mystery comes into the story when an old friend of Gabe's from the LAPD is killed in San Celina. After that, someone starts harassing Benni, and Gabe is convinced it has to do with an incident from his own past when he was a drug enforcement officer.

I was really looking forward to reading SUNSHINE AND SHADOW, but it was not what I was expecting. STEPS TO THE ALTAR, the previous story in this series, left me in a state of uncertainty as to what would happen to Benni's marriage to Gabe and I approached this book expecting a resolution to that problem. At first I felt that this story skirted that issue; however, the more I thought about this book, the more I realized that the author knows that a troubled marriage is not cured overnight. I believe that she decided to give her characters time to work through their marital problems. After all, everyone's life is filled with sunshine and shadow.

As usual, this author delivers another good book and tops it off by giving the reader something to think about. This is a skillfully written and very clever story.

Excellent!!!
Incredibly well-crafted, Earlene acquaints her readers with Jack, Benni's first husband. The story flows between the past and the present, weaving the two together in such a way that readers may get goosebumps by the end.