Dear Mouse...
By Schuyler Kaufman
High Country Publishers, Ltd.
ISBN: 0971304521 -

Reviewed by: Ellen Kennedy, Myshelf.com
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Forget about bad days; has-been, alcoholic movie actor Matt Logan is having a bad life. His wife is divorcing him, his "Famous Grin" has been mangled in a car wreck that was his fault and worst of all, a restraining order is keeping him from seeing his beloved small daughter. It would be hard to feel sorry for Matt if his love for his daughter (nicknamed Mouse) didn't shine through on every page of the journal he's writing for her.

As he attempts a comeback as a scar-faced villain in a low-budget "horror romance" film, Matt leads with his heart and finds himself not only accused of murder, but stalked by frightening mountaineers and haunted by the plight of Shannon, another small girl without her daddy.

The dialogue is brisk and filled with dry humor, the action sometimes brutal, but always there is that thread of tenderness.

Schuyler Kaufman has taken a moving family story and hard-boiled it. A refreshing, tender twist on the two-fisted mystery genre.

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Ellen Edwards Kennedy is the author of Irregardless of Murder.