Multiple Listing

Not being acquainted with real estate, I found the premise of the title and the concept unusual. The story and the characters kept me reading with interest while the solution eluded me until the very end. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and encourage other to give it a try.

Writers have a long tradition of leaving their mark on the landscapes of cities they set their stories in, so that readers can imagine the London of Sherlock Holmes, the New York City of Laurence Block. In Anne Underwood Grant's debut mystery, "Multiple Listing," the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, comes in for much the same treatment, don't expect the chamber of commerce to embrace this book with much fervor. The city is treated as well as the book's murder victims. "Multiple Listing" -- a dull title that describes a service in which a home for sale can be shown by many real estate agents -- attempts to merge the cozy mystery with the serial killer genre with mixed results. Sydney Teague is a divorced mom with two kids, a small ad agency business and a drinking problem that has been under control for more than eleven years. Her comfortable existence is disrupted with a friend of hers is found brutally raped and murdered. When Sydney discovers that the murder may be connected with a series of thefts at homes that have been put up for sale through the Multiple Listing service, Sydney finds herself involved again with a homicide detective she had dated several years ago. "Multiple Listing" is packed with attitude and character. Genre writers tend to soft-pedal their leading character, fearful of offending or putting off readers. Scarred by alcolholism and a bad marriage, Sydney has the strength of character that means she takes no nonsense, from her co-workers, her business competitors, even her detective friend. Call it the Kay Scarpetta Effect (after Patricia Cornwell's character), but this is obviously a woman born to lead. One can easily imagine her rushing off to investigate a murder involving her friends. Nor does Grant dilute Sydney's distate for Charlotte, a city the author lived in for a decade. In the first few pages alone, Sydney is musing on a city with "lots of services but very few tangible products." "Like a newly rich southern woman eager to buy her way into social prominence. Charlotte is a New South city, full of herself with polite aggression, portending to the crown of shifting economic futures, hoping Atlanta will slip, pretending she has no past." Wap, wap, wap! Weighing in at 325 pages, "Multiple Listing" could have used a firmer editorial hand. Several times, Sydney retells the facts in ways that more experienced writers would have finessed, and the "woman in jeopardy" ending is as stock as explosions in a Sylvester Stallone movie. Yet Grant has written a strong debut novel about a heroine with unexpected and as-yet unexplored depths, and that alone is worth cheering.

In Multiple Listing, author Anne Grant and protagonist Sydney Teague slide into frightening events and launch a compelling quest to untangle what seem to be conflicting clues. And they do it with the wit, warmth, and smarts of Sydney, an advertising agent sucked into the sinister tangle by her client and her friend...victim of a very nasty killer.The author is masterful at blending action and gripping mystery with characters of depth, human foibles, and insightful humor. We've all been disappointed when reading other authors who tried and could not pull off this combination. You will NOT be disappointed with the Anne Grant/Sydney Teague delivery.In fact, author Anne Grant writes very much in the vein of Irene Burke and Sue Grafton. If you like them, I predict you will become attached to Anne and Sydney with your first reading.Lastly, there are two more Sydney Teague mysteries coming out in the next six months. Look for Smoke Screen coming out in August and Cuttings to be released this winter. Both are set in Charlotte, North Carolina like Multiple Listing and both involve Sydney in suspicious deaths that beset her clients. As a Southerner, I love finding murder and mayheim so close to home! And...as a reader, I love knowing that I am starting a series that gives me more GOOD reading to look forward to.

If you like a well drawn, engaging "real" protagonist, an intriguing plot and a southern setting, buy this book!! The introduction to Sydney Teague, her office colleages and the cast of characters alone is worth the price of the book. In addition, you get a page-turning, suspensful story. The author does an excellent job of capturing Charlotte, N.C.'s new south personality in a handful of well-chosen sentences.I've had the privelege of seeing an early draft of the second book in the series. It brings an already excellent start to an even higher level. Anne Grant is an author to watch. You will be proud to say "oh, I've been reading her for years" as her reputation grows.

Harriet Klausner Sydney Teague owns an advertising agency in Charlotte. Her client base consists of many of the North Carolina city's realtors. Sydney is also a recovering alcoholic, who has been sober for a decade and struggles daily to remain that way. She is very concerned about a friend Crystal Ball, a fellow alcoholic, coping with a nasty divorce while trying to sell her home. Sydney's anxieties proves well founded when Crystal is found dead by her estranged spouse, Fred. When the police find some inconsistencies in Fred's story, they charge him with murder. Perhaps it is because she introduced Fred to Crystal, but Sydney does not believe that the obnoxious Fred is the killer. Sydney soon stumbles across the fact that other women, in the midst of a divorce and selling their homes, have also been raped and murdered. Many people who listed their homes for sale have been robbed. The common link between all the cases is that they all had a supralock installed by the Multiple Listing Service so that realtors can gain easy access to show off the home to a perspective buyer. Astonishingly, one of the realtors must be the killer. Now if Sydney can only figure out which one. Anne Underwood Grant bringsa nineties touch to the amateur detective novel with a single working mother coping with life and an addiction. Without forcing the audience to grab a quick drink or two to get through the alcoholic references, Ms. Grant manages to make the reader feel the intense struggle the heroine goes through every day to maintain sobriety. The clever mystery is loaded with viable suspects and well designed red herrings to keep the audience off balance. However, the heart of MULTIPLE LISTINGS is Sydney and her relationships with her children, friends, a potential suitor, and clients. Readers will look forward to more Sydney Teague books in the future. Harriet Klausner