Hard Road: A Cat Marsala Mystery

A mystery story and the Wizard of Oz and Frank Baum. A great summer read. The story, set in Chicago with homage to Frank Baum and the Oz stories. I learned a great deal about Baum and his writings in a painless, delightful way!

This was an enjoyable mystery. The realistic Chicago and Oz Festival were a great setting. I'm a fan of the Wizard of Oz movie, but was not familiar with L. Frank Baum's books, so the information on those books was very interesting. I liked the book, including the afterward by the author's son.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Barbara D'Amato's HardLuck several years ago, & was pleased to find that shehad published another installment to her Cat Marsalaseries, Hard Road. Set in Chicago, the mysteryrevolves around a Wizard of Oz festival. The story isfull of suspense, color & drama. As usual, the authorhas gone to great lengths to research & provide aplethora of factually accurate details. This bookalso features a substantial epilogue, The WoodenGargoyles: Evil in Oz by Brian D'Amato, & TwentyQuestions in Oz: An Oz Quiz. Oz fans will not gowrong with the purchase of this stunning book.

In Chicago's Grant Park an OZ festival is being held to celebrate the centennial publication of The Wizard of Oz. Frank Baum wrote the book while living in the area and the city wants to honor their celebrity. It promises to be a great event with high tech displays of Oz locales, Oz rides, and food that could have come straight from the fantasy land. Free lance reporter Cat Marsala's brother Barry is in charge of the event so Cat is escorting her nephew Jeremy around the festival until it is time to return him to his father. When Jeremy and Cat go to meet Barry, a person breaks away from the crowd and rushes over to them. The next thing everybody sees is that individual bleeding to death and Barry holding a knife. Eager to get Jeremy away from the gruesome sight, Cat takes him to a different part of the festival. They have no time to relax because someone starts shooting at them, forcing them to run into the tunnels that lead under the city. The officer makes it clear that Barry is their number one suspect so Cat begins sleuthing, but that leads to her becoming the target of a killer. Cat Marsala is at the top of her game as she rescues her nephew, tries to clear her brother's name, and finds a major story to sell. Barbara D'Amato does not make her into a superwoman. Instead she is an average female striving to be the best she can be both as a person and as a reporter. Fans of amateur sleuth novels and Oz fans will absolutely love running down this yellow brick road.Harriet Klausner