A cash cow is a steady, dependable source of income. These are some of the Cash Cows I milked during my teen years. The roof of the barn they were milked in was shingled by Emil Showalter.
Cash Scow is a rollicking read by B. K. Showalter. It is one of those books I would normally have passed by except I remembered hearing or reading something about it not long ago. (Never did remember what I saw or heard.) Even after I got it home from the library, I wasn't certain I would read it. Boy, I'm glad I did. It is such a fun combination of humor, romance, and drama. I laughed out loud several times.
From the back cover: "When "Chief" Whitehorse musters out of the Navy, he buys a vessel suited for sport-fishing and goes into business. In memory of a Dear John letter writer, he names his vessel "Squaw." Money needs lead him into running marijuana for a drug cartel. When the cartel's boss, Ramon Norbierto, sends Whitehorse to sea with a load of dirty cash and instructions to make a mid-ocean rendezvous with another vessel, things go horribly wrong. Whitehorse loses his boat and the cartel's cash.
Certain that the cartel will blame him for the money loss, Whitehorse flees, but eventually he makes his way back to the west coast and settles in the town of Brookings, Oregon. There, with the able assistance of a cadre of new friends, Marvella Hooker, Arvin Fogle, and Jane Boxer, he sets up a scam that will free him from further threats. His plans incorporate the drug-dispensing skills of a leftover hippie from the Age of Aquarius, alerts mailed to a regional drug taskforce, and a banker convinced by Marvella that his firm will handle the accounts of a soon to be constructed Indian casino.
Add in a murderous cartel hit-man, an obstreperous goat, and the result is a biblical flood of mishaps that leads to a romantic Blazing Saddles finale."
If all humorous books were written this well, I would read more of them. Wonder if B.K. was related to Emil?
In one of those unusual twists, I unintentionally picked up two books written by Oregon authors and both set on the Oregon Coast. Death of An Artist is the latest book written by 84-year-old Kate Wilhelm. This is the first time I've read any of her books, although she has written nearly 50 novels in her 56 year writing career. There is an interesting article about Wilhelm and her writing in the Eugene, OR newspaper, The Register-Guard, which I found just by googling Kate Wilhelm. (An aside for one of my blog followers - She began her writing career with a Sci-Fi story.)
The fictitious small coastal town of Silver Bay, OR, (near the real town of Newport) is home to three generations of women: Marnie, the long-widowed owner of a small gift shop; Van, her granddaughter, who is about to graduate medical school; and Marnie's daughter, Stef, a brilliant artist who refuses to sell her work; as well as Van's small son, Josh. It is also the new home of Tony, former New York City cop, retired after being shot, and looking for a quiet place to recuperate and begin his new life as an artist whose medium is beautiful wood.
When Stef discovers her husband, Dale, is trying to sell her artwork behind her back, she puts a stop to it and threatens to divorce him. Shortly thereafter, Stef dies in what appears to be an accident in her studio. A few weeks after her death, Dale shows Marnie and Van a signed contract granting him the right to sell Stef's work. Marnie and Van both believe Dale was responsible for Stef's death. They ask Tony to help them prove it.
I liked this book as much for its setting as for the story line. It is fun for me to imagine the beautiful Oregon coast and the ocean. The fact I know a 'Marnie' who makes her home a little further up the coast line made me wonder if in our small world she happens to know this Oregon author. Wilhelm has a legal thriller series featuring Barbara Holloway. I believe I will try one of those to see how I like that protagonist.
Tiffany Baker's The Gilly Salt Sisters is one of those books you pick up because of the odd sounding title and the cover artwork, then read because it is a magic-tinged tale of dreams, family secrets and betrayals.
Baker's first book, The Little Giant Of Aberdeen County, was a New York Times Bestseller. I liked her second book well enough that I plan to read that first one, too.
A well-written compliment such as the one above is to a writer what honey is to a bee. "Thank you" for your kind words! BK
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