Here are some recent responses to SOPHIE REDESIGNED.
- February 9, 2011
Hi Karen: [This is] Just to say how much I enjoyed SR [SOPHIE REDESIGNED] – great intrigue, plus rich social and historical detail (not to mention dash of philosophy) – but most of all I liked the elder issues. I used to do community arts and reminiscence work with elders and always found it interesting and inspiring.
Rachelx
NOTE: Rachel Brown is an accomplished and daring English artist whom we met through her father, the late and famous paleographer, Julian Brown, a dear friend and mentor to my husband.
- October 10, 2010 – Sent by Ann Brandt,author of A Caregiver’s Story: Coping with a Loved One’s Life-Threatening Illness
When I finished reading Sophie Redesigned the book you so kindly gave me at the writers conference last month, I thought, Wow, the void has been filled. I can’t wait for the next Sophie book. The protagonist being a retiree and set in a retirement community with action and mystery helps the image of the senior citizen that is stereotyped in so many minds. (You can use that as a quote as you see fit if you wish.) THANKS, ANN!
Ann blogs about “tough diseases’” and has just put her caregiver book out digitally. You can find it now on www.englishmountainpress.com if you want to take a look. The print version is also available on Amazon, B&N and other online stores. If you want help or know someone who needs encouragement, read A Caregiver’s Story: Coping with a Loved One’s Life-Threatening Illness,
- October 12, 2010 – Sent by Nancy Monsman, Landscape Artist and Cellist
Jerry [Professor of English Literature] and I are so impressed with your book! It’s a fantastic read, Karen. Very interesting characters and wonderful details. You weave a real tapestry. My mother and mother-in-law especially would have appreciated Sophie, since they were cool older ladies too. You have tapped a rich market.
- September 29 - Sent by Ann Krause Stannard, High School Classmate (Wausau East H.S., 1955)
I have just finished reading Sophie Redesigned and I found it well worth reading. I haven’t read a lot of mysteries in my life, but yours would rank at the top of my other experiences. Keep up the good work, and let me know when your next books are published. See you in five years at our 60th!!!
- August 24, 2010 – Sent by Poet Burgess Needle, Poet and School Librarian (retired)
Sorry it’s taken so long for me to get back to you about your wonderful novel. Sophie and Sam are a fascinating pair (maybe later I may refer to them as a ‘couple’?) whose adventures from retirement communities to international criminal pursuits, murders and cults make for a terrific reading experience. All of those characters, even the shady ones, took solid, three-dimensional form in my mind and the places presented along the way all vividly materialized on the page. I liked the under-played humor that ran through the narrative, especially when it appeared within Sophie/Sam exchanges. I hope the ad in the NYTimes helps spread the word and SOPHIE REDESIGNED finds the large and appreciative audience it deserves.
- August 20, 2010 – Sent by Judith Weber, Librarian
Dear Karen Dahood: I am reading your book and enjoying it . I. too, am a retired librarian, and agree that l we need publicity and thanks. What an intriguing idea to use a librarian’s skills to help solve a murder . Here’s to the success of your book.
- June 30, 2010 – Sent by Kay D’Angio, Long-time Friend and World Traveler
You really have a “winner” of a mystery “series”. I can’t wait to read the next one!! I will definitely recommend this book to my Book Club, both here and in California. At the end of the “Sophie Redesigned” I was SAD not to have another one of your series to read immediately! I am not one for “fooling around” with reading books that do not hold my attention. Yours really did ! And now Lou will read it. …Fun.
About typo’s…..I only noticed two. One was the “I” instead of IF and “Scots” instead of ???? Also did not know what ‘reccys’ is supposed to mean? Hardly enough to notice……while enjoying the mystery and STRONG Sophie…..good for her!” Thank you dear friend for your wonderful talents shared with us.
EARLIER REVIEWS
- Posted by dollycas aka Lori, Wedensday, May 19, 2010, at 1:49 PM
This is the first in a series of books that was inspired by the author’s mother-in-law just after she moved out of her Florida gulf coast home and into a new condo in a retirement village. Over the years she introduced the author to her friends and neighbors who shared the life stories of trials and tribulations. Sophie is a character invented to observe a multitude of choices they make when they are faced with growing old, diminishing resources, physical, emotional and financial. She also explores the relationship they have with their children.
Sophie George is a librarian who decides to retire after she finds she may be transferred to a less than desirable location, away from police detective Rueben Samuels “Sam” who is computer challenged and often requested Sophie’s help doing research on the internet. So in her retirement she decides to “freelance” her research services through Sam to the police department. Sam is unsure about this arrangement but when a murder scene takes place virtually in Sophie’s backyard and she knows the victim, and all the neighbors he finds her help hard to resist. Using different techniques they proceed to solve the murder along with uncovering a decades old killing corporation, and a religious cult, all linked to one very dysfunctional family.
Underneath this main plot is a subplot of Sophie dealing with her son’s reaction to her retirement activities, and just what is going to happen with Sam and Sophie, will they become more than just friends?
I love mysteries but this book offered so much more, each chapter was perfectly crafted, each location was described in such a way that you felt you were actually there. The main characters almost become your friends through the pages. Sophie is a very independent spunky senior citizen, she reminded me of my mom in some ways, she is a character very easy to identify with, as is Sam. But I can also relate to Sophie’s son, when my mom retired and then remarried years after my dad passed away, it was extremely difficult for me.
So what I am trying to say is whether you are 22 or 92, you will find enjoyment in this book, and if you enjoy a good mystery, this is one you should definitely devote some of your precious reading time.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author.. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
- POSTED BY Shirley Johnson/Senior Reviewer, MidWest Book Review, April 30, 2010
Sophie has lost her husband, but her life is not empty. and she is determined to live it to the fullest. She has moved to Florida , Dorado Bay, and here she meets a police detective, Sam. Sophie knows her way around the internet, after all she has worked in the library for years, so it was not unusual for her to offer her services to Sam to find out information that could help find the guilty of a very dangerous crime that occurred in Dorado Bay. Sam isn’t sure at first, but decides to give Sophie a shot and soon the two of them on on their way to solving not one, but several murders in this crime. What a ride.
“I loved this book, I basically loved everything about it, from the beginning to the end it was top-notch. I was drawn into it by the peppy personality of Sophie, she is quite the gal. I could identify with the main characters from the get-go and felt as if I had known them for a long time. The author did a superior job at bringing their true selves to the surface, intertwining them to each other in the storyline where they fit like a well bought shoe in the parts of the story they played. The local was well defined in each place that you were taken, and the story had layers upon layers of mystery within it, that kept you trying to figure it out before the end of the read. It wasn’t just a mystery read however, but one of human emotions that made the story real, alive, and that was a very good selling point.
“I look forward to reading other books by author, Karen Dahood. She has a talent for bringing a fresh vibrant flare to a story without losing the deep mystery you look for. She adds a pinch of romance, humor, family, mystery, and stirs it all up to make one delicious read. Well done, thank you for giving me several enjoyable nights of reading. I look forward to more, keep up the good work.
- POSTED BY nicole/ Twitter: BTHM1 at 3:32 PM. Monday, May 31, 2010
Review: I LOVE this book! What a refreshing book to find that the lead female character is over 65 AND has all her marbles and is not ‘just a grandmother type’! If you think of Ms. Marple updated to Florida, you’ve got Sophie in a nutshell. Truly, as I was reading this book, I kept nodding my heading and saying, “yup, move Marple to Florida, born later in the US and bam- you’ve got Sophie”. The other thing I was thinking was this book SO SO SO needs to be a movie! Even if the just used the characters and location and gave them a tv series, it would be so much FUN! The other think about this book is that it is in large print. Yes, I know, that’s because of who the ‘intended’ audience is for, BUT when it’s late and you’re reading, or you’re out at the pool reading, the large print is heaven!
It is so wonderful to read a book that makes you go ‘why has no one else thought of this?’ If you want a quick and fun summer read to read and pass among all your friends, this IS the book!
AND, she already has more books in the series ready to go: watch for WINDOW ON THE POND, THRIFT SHOP, GIPSIES, TROUT SNUGGLES, and HOUSE ON FIRE. Click on the link for more info about each book!
Disclosure: This book was sent to me free of charge, for review purposes, by the author herself. I was not told how to review it however!
- DAN’S JOURNAL, Friday, June 4, 2010
My thoughts: Sophie doesn’t want to be just another lonely retired woman living in Florida. As he a librarian she loves to do research and when a friendship develops with Sam, a local police detective, she starts to do some research for him. Finding this more intriguing then working with the new library of computers, she retires and wants to be Sam’s ‘partner’. Things start to really get going when a neighbor is murdered and another disappears. Karen Dahood keeps the action going with couple who are not ready to just sit back and be put out to pasture. I found Sophie Redesigned, an amusing and entertaining first book in this new series. And will Sophie and Sam ever become romantically involved?
- FROM A 58 YEAR FRIEND, MARYLEE WINNIE:
“I am about 60 pages into the book and there are several things I particularly like so far. The large print! The dialogue is real-life. The forward is touching. The story is very readable despite my having to put it down many times. The characters are easy to visualize and you have made a movie in my head.”
- FRIEND DOROTHY RICHMOND WROTE:
“I LOVED IT! The characters are very well developed, and easy to get to know! I definitely could relate to Sophie’s desire to end the routine but still have something interesting to do, someone to share it with, and with her renewed sense of adventure “now that her son could handle it”. Her insight into Deborah, Sam, and the other characters was wise and very human. The story had plenty of twists and turns, and I loved that she did much more than research! Her courage in spooky situations was inspiring, and her inner thoughts going through it all felt very real to me. Thanks so much for the mystery, and the gradual solving of it, with family ties, secret societies, senior romance, and the slow growing of great teamwork of Sophie and Sam! I look forward to more!”