Bookish Tuesday
by Donna Fletcher Crow @DonnaFletcherCr
I have often said that the best thing about being a writer
is the wonderful people it brings into one’s life. Sally Wright was at the top
of my list of those wonderful people. Through the years we shared our writing,
our faith, our families. In recent years, updates on her health took their
place alongside updates on her writing, because Sally’s passion to tell the
truth through fiction never wavered. Her husband Joe told me her last
instructions to him were to get her book published.
Sally couldn’t have left a more fitting memorial than The Outsiding, the final book in her Jo
Grant series. Here is the blurb I was honored to give: “Sally Wright doesn’t
create characters—she breeds living, breathing people right there on the page.
Along with her meticulously researched and developed background and intricate
plot, The Outsiding is a practically
perfect book. And her historical notes at the end are almost as interesting as
the novel itself.”
Charles Todd, bestselling author of the Inspector Ian
Rutledge Mysteries and the Bess Crawford Series said: “Wright gives us a story
of Kentucky horse country that’s articulate and frighteningly possible, a
setting that is pitch perfect, and characters who step right off the page; a
bittersweet look at people you care about and want to win, a novel you won’t
soon forget.”
And Peggy S. Brown, Equestrian
instructor and clinician gave a good summary of the plot: “With her
characteristic mastery of words, Sally Wright engages her reader with the last
of her Jo Grant mystery series, located deep in the heart of horse country,
Lexington, Kentucky. Set in the 1960’s,
the thoroughbred breeding industry is undermined by a cunning and highly
disreputable veterinarian’s ingenious money-making schemes. The reader is
treated to a skillfully woven plot and a cleverly constructed cast of
characters who lead us into the darker side of the horse racing and breeding
world as well as into the inevitable pitfalls of family business and
interpersonal interactions. A mystery
sure to absorb horse enthusiasts as well as those who savor this popular
author’s mastery of words and intrigue.
Saddle up for a captivating read.”
The wonderful thing about the
written word is that it goes on forever. Sally’s death has left a hole in my
life but the wonderful characters she created in her six Ben Reese Mysteries and
the three Jo Grant novels she leaves behind are still with us telling their
powerful stories in Sally’s inimitable style.
Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of some 50 novels of British history, including Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England, and 3 mystery series. You can see more about them here and read my tribute to Sally Wright here.
