My book club discussed Finding Laura Buggs, a mystery novel set in Saint Paul in 1949 written by Stanley Gordon West. The author is a pastor and as he writes as if a girl in high school would talk we got that feeling that he didn't really know how a high school girl would talk. Sandy Meyer, the main character, seemed especially innocent even for 1949. But then Sandy would do crazy stuff such as changing places with her friends in a moving vehicle going down University Avenue. People from the front seat end up in the back seat and vice versa while the car is in motion. We had a long talk about how that was even possible but could maybe picture it with running boards and suicide car doors it could work. Sandy is looking for her birth mother. She rides the street car all over Saint Paul and Minneapolis searching for clues. There is a disconnect from the first three quarters of the book and the last quarter. In the first three quarters we read about walking home from school, pranks on teachers (some of which were really good), basketball game scores, and who danced with who at the school dance. In the last quarter is treachery and danger and crime and gruesome horror. I think a person from the city of Saint Paul would enjoy this book more because they are familiar with the street names, the corners of our town, local restaurants (Mickey's Diner is still open), and the history of the time. If a reader is not from Saint Paul I'm not sure they'd enjoy it very much.
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