Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The Certificate by Priscilla Masters

First Line: The idea came to me one warm July day as I was watching a doctor fill one in.

When you're a Plain Jane, you get used to being one of two things: being denigrated or being completely overlooked. Jane Ziegler has been a district nurse her entire working life, and she's reached the end of her tether. That's when she starts wondering if anyone would notice a missing blank certificate from a very important book. Once she finds out, she then discovers that a learning curve means some changes to her plans.


Several years ago, I read Priscilla Master's River Deep, her first Martha Gunn mystery featuring a coroner in Shrewsbury, England. I really enjoyed it and have always meant to read more in the series. Finding "The Certificate" definitely reminded me of my good intentions.

Jane Ziegler is the type of character who makes you feel mixed emotions. Mixed because while so many of us can empathize with her and her life experiences, we still feel that she's creepy and we don't want to turn our backs on her. Hopefully, readers will also pause to reflect on how they treat others-- especially those they take for granted. The fast pace of this story made the ending arrive much faster than I wanted it to, and-- an added bonus-- it didn't end quite the way I thought it would. The Author's Note at the end made me laugh.

Yes, indeed. After reading "The Certificate," I really need to read Priscilla Masters' next Martha Gunn mystery, Slip Knot!


The Certificate by Priscilla Masters

ASIN: B01GQI3A4M

Lume Books © 2018

eBook, 100 pages

 

Short Story, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

10 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you enjoyed this one, Cathy! I think the Martha Gunn series is a good one ('though I admit, I've not read each one). And Masters does a solid job both of weaving the mystery and building her characters. You've reminded me that it's been too long since I read one of these.

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    1. Yes, I definitely want to read the next Martha Gunn mystery!

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  2. Never heard of this author but making a note of this book now for my TBR. Thanks for the review.

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  3. Interesting. Character is a coroner. How much autopsy describing does she do? I avoid that if it's rife through a book.

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    1. The Martha Gunn series is the one with a coroner as a main character, not this story. It's been years since I've read the book, but I don't remember it going overboard on autopsy details. That's something that would tend to stick in my mind.

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  4. Also, how creepy is she? My creepy tolerance is low.

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    1. The main character of "The Certificate" is also the narrator of the story, so she's not going to want us to think she's creepy at all. The creep factor is implied more than stated outright-- and that's the kind that I enjoy.

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  5. So it's sleep with the lights on then? And don't take out the garbage at night? (I light right next to the compactor, but still ...)

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    1. No, I wouldn't say it's anywhere close to being that bad. It's in an enclosed little world inhabited by a nurse whose thinking has been a bit twisted over her thirty years of service. She gave me a little chill down the spine, but I always felt as though I was safely on the outside looking in.

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