Naked Came the Leaf Peeper

This book started out as a simple murder mystery--murder by potato gun--but it quickly transformed into an incredibly twisted plot of greed, revenge, love, and llamas. As you may know, I tend to read books that have unique titles, and this one definitely has that. I enjoyed the first chapter and even found it funny. The second and third chapters, however, were about the worst writing I've ever seen published anywhere. They were chaotic, nonsensical, full of random innuendos and conflicting backstory. They were also pretty irrelevant to the ending. The book got better after that, and I was really delighted by the llama chapter in particular. I'm not really sure how we got to the ending, but that's part of the fun I guess. I suppose this is bound to happen with any literature with more than one author--you like some and you hate others. I'm not completely disappointed, but I think with a few rounds of serious editing, this could have been a lot more enjoyable.

This jointly written "mystery" will have most interest and appreciation for Southerners and for natives or long time residents of the North Carolina mountains. How this many authors could put together such a continuum of stories which meld so well shows the quality of the writers and their sense of humor. The humor and suspense flows as it should, and though the conclusion does appear to be rushed it works to tie everything together in a coherent fashion. The book reminds me of the early book by Sharon McCrumb "Highland Laddie Gone". If you are "from around here" you can identify almost every character and place even though some of the driving distances covered might take more driving expertise than one of the "modern" NASCAR racers could handle. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read. It may not find its way into many of the libraries, but is readily available at Amazon.com.

I love this book. I recently met Brian Lee Knopp and ordered because of him. It's really convoluted and you never know what's next because it has 12 authors, each building on earlier tales. Of course, I'm Southern, so it resonated.

A very humorous book with an absurd plot but not beyond the realm of possibility for western North Carolina politics.