Annie Seymour 01-Sacred Cows

Police reporter Annie Seymour tries to solve the mystery of a murdered Yale-student-by-day, escort-by-night. If things weren't bizarre enough, New Haven, Connecticut, is being infiltrated by a parade of ceramic cows.From Publishers WeeklyA phone call summons New Haven, Conn., crime reporter Anne Seymour from a beer-fogged sleep to cover a breaking story at the start of Olson's spirited debut, the winner of the first Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award. The dead body of a Yale undergrad lies at the foot of a luxury high-rise condo. Anne faces the usual stonewalling by the detective-on-the-scene;which smarts a little extra as he has recently vacated her bed. Dogged by a pesky fellow reporter, Anne struggles to keep her byline to herself, while she's warned off the case by her boss, her cop boyfriend and the university higher-ups. The plot thickens when she learns that the student was a high-priced escort, as is the next young female Yalie found murdered. A slave to her hormones, the smell of garlic and her driving ambition, the spunky, imperfect Anne is an engaging protagonist. Several other well-realized characters, some bovine humor and an amiable sense of the Yale/New Haven community round out this enjoyable first. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe first winner of the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award is a worthy choice to honor the late Mysterious Press editor who was known for her ability to discover new talent. Olson, travel editor for the New Haven Register, sets her debut novel in a world she knows well: journalism. Annie Seymour, a thirtysomething crime reporter for the New Haven Herald, is spinning her wheels on the job and in her personal life. Then a Yale coed, who was moonlighting for an escort service, is murdered. Annie smells Big Story, but she's barely able to start sniffing the trail before her publisher, her cop boyfriend, and her lawyer mother all attempt to put her off the scent. Further distractions appear in the form of a PI on the case who arouses more than Annie's competitive juices. Olson succumbs to the occasional cliche ("My life was hanging in the balance"), but she's onto to something good in Annie, whose dry wit and frenzied manner recall various female sleuths (Millhone to Plum) without seeming purely imitative. Expect much more from Olson and Seymour. Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved