REVIEW of 'RED STILETTO'

By Jim E Palmer, Editor,  “Writer’s Muse Magazine”

Re-printed with kind permission from Issue 53, February 2010

In Red Stiletto, Sheila breaks some of the `rules' of plotting. It's been said that meetings between characters, and the resultant action and dialogue, should push the plot forward, give germane information to the reader, and develop the characters.
Sheila's characters often meet up and talk of everyday matters and escapades, swap anecdotes and advice, and gripe about the world, generally.
Now, because it's a murder mystery novel any of those meetings and conversations could be fundamental and most readers of this genre know they have to pay attention. They also know that a great many red herrings are deliberately sprinkled throughout the story to lead them in the wrong direction. It takes a good writer to balance those proportions correctly.
This is a good, well-written book that keeps up the pace, with more twists than a melting corkscrew.
Not to blow Sheila's trumpet, but one other person who breaks those `rules', and allows characters to act naturally with dialogue, is Quentin Tarantino and he also keeps up a pace that loosens your fillings.
Sheila has managed to sustain a great pace in this novel and it makes Red Stiletto hard to put down. I know that's the idea but this book could be used as `how to' book on plotting and holding the pace. Bizarrely, though it has nothing to do with the genre or storyline, Red Stiletto reminded me of the plotting of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where events follow one another in rapid succession and the reader is hurried from one situation to another.
The main character, Rachel Hodges, is a private detective. Unlike the door-kicking, gun-toting characters of pulp fiction, Rachel's cases involve organisations concerned with petty theft, cheating spouses and prospective house-buyers that want areas checking out before moving in. All pretty humdrum and day-to-day, it seems.
A lot of the action comes from Rachel's involvement in some of the above cases, where nothing is as simple as it appears and there is always some disaster waiting to happen. Then there's her private life (being stalked, having her car rammed, her flat torched, and more!), love, and sex life, which complicate everything further.
Throw into the mix Rachel's discovery of the body of a contact she was meeting (murdered in a gruesome way), a series of killings of young girls and the above calamities and you've got an idea on why the pace is set on 11!
It's all told in first person via Rachel and that narrative style always seems more immediate, revealing and personal. Sheila twists the `rule' of narrative style towards the end of the novel and, even though all the purists would be up in arms, and writing letters to The Times, it works. Sheila manoeuvres the readers into such a position that they can't help but like the Rachel character. There's something about her that is vulnerable and strong - simultaneously. The problems and complications that happen to her can be so easily identified with by lots of people and that's credit to Sheila.
Rachel's on-off partner is Steve Rose, a detective involved in the serial murders of the young girls, and Rachel is drawn into the investigation in a number of ways - all of which could reveal the identity of the killer; or not, which is the hallmark of the good mystery writer.
The police are stumped in looking for a pattern but this is stumbled upon by Rachel when she is involved in another case and dealings which seem wholly unconnected (I told you, you need to pay attention!). This places her in an ominous situation and the narrative then breaks the `rules'. What ensues is emotive, gripping, and cinematic in its description, leading to the climax.
This is, at the risk of getting on your nerves(!), a book hard to put down. Get it. You won't regret it. And then there are the, pretty erotic, love scenes ...!