Reviews of Anacacho, by Louise Gaylord

Texas to a T Well, its all there-the murder that sounds of mystery down to its Texas drawl. Ms. Gaylord doesn't miss an occasion to keep our attention to the plot's twists and turns, detached as hell, as she spins, spoofs and twangs her way through enough local color to rival any travel book describing the joys of ranch experience, if only for a few days (it would appear that longer would lead any of us to murderous thoughts). A not to miss treat with a cactus sting. Great Lone Star Whodunnit... more plot twists, backstabbing and hidden agendas than sorority rush at the University of Texas...J.R. Ewing could only manage a "bit part" with this group...colorful characters with black hats and white (some both)...miles and miles of Texas (and Mexico)...the author did her homework about age old Texas traditions (from pidgeon shoots and margeritas to details of the Sunday evening South Texas menu)...the story line really takes off with the outcome of some characters in question until the last couple of pages. Didn't take long to finish this one - Excellent Mystery! A friend suggested this title to me and I actually had some free time this summer for some reading. I loved this book! The characters, the plot and the fast paced action kept me coming back for more. I understand that Ms. Gaylord is writing more books featuring the main character and I for one will be in line ready to purchase a copy! An excellent mystery! Anacacho I took this book on my vacation and I could not put it down! I read it on the airplane and at the beach . I love mysteries and read them all the time, but this one was really a cut above. Allie Armington is a great character and I was holding on to make sure that nothing "bad" happened to her...there are so many turns in the plot I was never sure what was going to happen next. Ms Gaylord, please write more books with Allie, I am hooked! If you like Sue Grafton, you will love Louise Gaylord.

Sheryl Nutt of KCTU praises Anacacho

I interviewed Louise Gaylord on the River City Forum last Thursday night. She was a delightful interviewee. and I had had a chance just previous to the show to read some of the book.

Needless to say, I had to take it home and finish it. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and am anxiously awaiting the second in the series. I really warmed to the writing style and especially to the main hero (heroin seems like a nasty word nowadays) Allie. Ms Gaylord makes her characters real by showing their flaws as well as their finer traits, and doing it in a smooth but captivating flow.

Quite frankly, we have done a zillion Hotguest interviews in the last couple of years, with the emphasis seeming to fall on the myriad of self-help books available. A little can go a very long way. It was inordinately refreshing to be able to indulge in such a good read. More, more, more!!

Imagine having your book — your very first book — be nominated for a national award. Louise Gaylord, local author of Anacacho, the first in a series of Allie Armington mysteries, has found herself in just such a position.

Anacacho is the name of an actual ranch located near the Anacacho mountain range in southwest Texas, giving a historically accurate feel to the story that begins when Allie, an assistant district attorney, receives a call from a former best friend.

Reena Carpenter’s marriage is in trouble, and Allie finds herself reluctantly dragged back into Paul and Reena’s life. Her memories of loving Paul, of aborting Paul’s child, and of having Reena betray their friendship and marry Paul come tearing back.

But those concerns are soon overridden by others: Reena’s drinking, missing paintings, Paul’s attempted seduction, the tension-filled relationships between ranch manager Del and his wife, Susie (and former best friend of the Reena-Allie-Susie triangle), Paul and Susie and Reena, and Allie’s own growing intimate relationship with fellow District Attorney Duncan Bruce.

When Reena is discovered dead, throat slit and eyeless, Allie is pulled back to the ranch only to realize things are vastly different, more confusing and definitely more sinister. What is Sheriff Cotton’s real interest? What happened to the ranch? Why is Allie being followed? What has happened to Paul? Anacacho offers twists and turns that lend a constant surprise to the storyline in a well-designed format.

On May 28, the Publishers Marketing Association will host its 15th annual Benjamin Franklin Awards reception and dinner at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles to recognize design, editorial and marketing excellence in the book publishing industry. Gaylord is one of only three finalists in the Mystery/Suspense category.

Based in Manhattan Beach, PMA is a trade organization for small- and medium-sized book publishers that aids them in marketing their books in a number of ways. Two of their main events — Publishing University and the Benjamin Franklin Awards — are held in conjunction with (although unrelated to) BookExpo America, the annual trade show for the publishing industry where publishers present their latest titles to booksellers both independent and chains from all over the world.

I, too, am involved with the awards, having been a design judge for three years now. My involvement began when a good friend who had been a longtime judge no longer wanted to do it, and she recommended me. I was accepted and assigned to the Coffee Table/Gift category the first year, the Arts category in the last two years.

Publishers submit books that are grouped by genre and judged on editorial and design merit by professionals in the fields of book reviewing, library science, bookselling and book designing. Books published between Jan. 1 and June 30 must be submitted by the end of August, and the judges get these around Oct. 1. Books published in the latter half of the year must reach PMA by Dec. 31; these get to the judges around the middle of January.

The pressure is intense: the deadline looms, the number of submissions is high and the quality is mostly good-to-excellent. Design judges must rate 15 elements including cover appearance, exterior and interior layout, paper stock, use of color, photograph and/or illustration quality, typography and (the most difficult question) how each submission compares to its competitors.

The awards are growing in prestige and popularity. The first year PMA awards went to individuals. It wasn’t until the third year that the current category format was developed; then there were 20 categories. This year, there were 53 categories, 1,625 entries and 142 judges.

The winners are showcased at BookExpo, giving them maximum exposure to bookstore and library buyers, publishers, the press, agents and other industry concerns. And all entrants receive the critique sheets that allow them to learn what worked as well as what didn’t work and why.

The mystery/suspense genre is one of the most popular in publishing today. It is also one of the few that encourages newcomers, though because of the large number of writers in this genre it is hard for a new author like Louise Gaylord to move up and out of the congestion, which is why getting the nomination is so important to her career. Lauren Roberts can be reached at news@scbeacon.com.

A debut that fuses the Gothic novel and mystery

Some things are possible in Texas that are, at best, unlikely in the rest of this country. There's all that vast and often bleak landscape, more oil money than is probably healthy, the proximity to the border and, of course, the sense that perhaps the Wild West is not entirely dead.

In her first novel, Santa Barbara's Louise Gaylord pulls all this in and manages a fusion of the Gothic novel and the mystery. Ms. Gaylord's debut effort doesn't pretend to be high literature; rather, she writes, primarily for women, a tightly woven story that keeps itself moving and you guessing.

Heroine Allie Armington is the requisite 30ish, plucky, slightly maverick woman with some confidence issues; she's not a professional sleuth but an attorney whose father taught her and her drop-dead gorgeous sister, who models internationally, all they need to know about how to handle a gun. Allie likes men and, although her luck with them isn't great, they seem to like her back.

The primary man in her life at the moment is Duncan, a fellow attorney. He is in many ways the perfect guy: He's attentive, forgiving, patient, loving, a wonderful cook, romantic, an apparently accomplished lover, but he clings a little and is given to humming tunes from "Brigadoon" as he whips out his latest culinary accomplishment.

As she settles comfortably into a routine with Duncan and uncomfortably into her job as a district attorney, Allie receives a call from Reena Carpenter, just the kind of woman who would fit right into a contemporary Southfork. Reena was the beauty when they met in college, and after befriending Allie, Reena stole and married her boyfriend, Paul Carpenter. Seven years later, the picture-perfect life Reena has assembled seems to be falling apart.

For reasons not entirely clear, Allie agrees to accompany her former friend back to the ranch, Anacacho, a huge spread, complete with its own airport, dotted with cattle and furiously pumping oil wells and capped with a massive stone manse. Sparks still fly when our heroine meets her former beau, and the ranch weekend is peppered in anomalies that will begin to add up as the story progresses.

Not long after this strange weekend, Reena turns up with her throat broadly slit, and her husband, who has made no secret about his mistress, is the primary suspect. Allie cannot resist, and soon she is drawn into the ever compounding puzzle of the Carpenters' lives, sleuthing her way into all manner of danger. In the process, she meets Sheriff Bill Cotton. Simply being in his presence makes her knees weak and her head spin; he seems her savior in an exceptionally dangerous situation, yet he also seems connected with the international criminals clearly involved with drugs. It's not clear on which side of the law this man's loyalties stand.

A brutal blow to the back of her head makes Allie suffer amnesia about the events leading up to the apparent murder of Paul Carpenter. As she begins to sort her pieces with the help of a patient and balding therapist, she is drawn back into the puzzle, and it turns out that she is predestined to play a pivotal role in some rather astonishing international crime and genuine madness.

Ms. Gaylord keeps her story moving at a feverish pace and she carefully weaves all her characters into her story. Every one of them is a piece of the puzzle that reshifts and grows every time Allie thinks she might have it figured out. There are some time issues that feel unresolved here; events jump back and forth in time without enough transition, and she often telegraphs Allie's errors.

Not only tight plotting holds the reader's attention: Sexual tension and who will succumb to whom and under what circumstances play an important role.

Allie surrenders slowly to Duncan, would love to trip the sheriff and beat him to the floor and maybe even the altar, has powerful chemistry with Paul Carpenter until she finds out some surprising things about him -- and then there's the brutal villain who would like to get more than his hands on her.

Louise Gaylord's first novel has flaws, but she keeps her book lively and surprising. It will please those who fancy the mystery/Gothic fusion.

"Louise Gaylord has written a suspense novel with enough twists and turns in its plot to satisfy the most demanding mystery reader. The novel is constantly moving in deliciously unpredictable directions. A GOOD READ.”

Louise Gaylord's award-winning mystery novel has already excited mystery fans throughout the United States!

Anacacho is a finely crafted mystery that takes place in contemporary Texas. Starting with a bang, as Allie reluctantly meets with her college best friend (who stole her boyfriend and is now married to him), the book rapidly evolves into a page-turner and nail biter. From this reunion to a murder and conspiracy involving cattle, oil and drugs, Anacacho is sure to please fans of exciting, plot “twists and turns” mysteries.

Anacacho won the National Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery/Suspense sponsored by Publisher’s Marketing Association in Los Angeles.

“A debut that fuses the Gothic novel and mystery. Ms. Gaylord keeps her story moving at a feverish pace and she carefully weaves all her characters into her story. Every one of them is a piece of the puzzle that shifts and grows every time Allie thinks she might have it figured out.”

"Anacacho is an intelligent mystery with a smart, sassy protagonist whose further adventures will be on my reading agenda. While Allie Armington juggles her caseload and complex love life, she also manages to untangle more than one puzzle and barely ruffle a strand of hair in the process. That's my kind of Woman!"

"Louise Gaylord has penned an engaging, fast-paced, suspense filled romp that is destined to delight readers."

"More plot twists, backstabbing and hidden agendas than sorority rush at the University of Texas... J.R. Ewing could only manage a 'bit part' with this group . . . colorful characters with black hats and white (some both)... miles and miles of Texas (and Mexico) ... the author did her homework about age old Texas traditions (from pigeon shoots and margaritas to details of the Sunday evening South Texas menu) ... the story line really takes off with the outcome of some characters in question until the last couple of pages. Didn't take long to finish this one."

Louise Gaylord is currently working on the next Allie Armington mystery set in New York City. Louise divides her time between Houston, Texas, Montecito, California and the Adirondacks.

Anacacho is published by Little Moose Press, 1-866-234-0626 and is distributed to the trade through Biblio Distribution, a division of NBN, 1-800-462-6420.

Louise Gaylord is available for interviews. Review copies can be requested by contacting Ellen Reid at 866-234-0626.