Prison Blues

Rating:
Summary: Advertisements for Myself: I Am a Rock, I Am an Island
Review: As a novel, "Prison Blues" by Anna Salter is sadly lacking in substance and vitality. The writing is plodding and listless (i.e., reads like hours of endless droning into a cassette recorder). The plot is pedestrian. From the beginning the bad guys are practically wearing signs to identify them. Oh, there is a prison murder, a prison beating, a ridiculous rooftop firefight, and a second-hand account of degrading prison sex, but the story is still sadly lacking in narrative tension. The conclusion is abrupt and full of poorly explained loose ends. The characters are universally one-dimensional - except for the protagonist, who is damn near Wonder Woman in the flesh. And that's what the book is all about: Michael Stone.

Michael Stone. She's a woman with a neat-o masculine name. She's a basketball-playing, rock-climbing, horse-riding, water-skiing, gun-toting PhD psychologist. She's over 40 and eight-months pregnant (wonder of wonders!). She's at home in the dangerous dark halls of the penitentiary. She's a straight shooter who's worshipped by all the prison staff, especially the macho male, military types. She, and she alone, is capable of ferreting out the heinous plots of the most vile of inmates, and everyone admires her "nose" for psychopaths. On the side she cures troubled youth and confronts weaklings with their frailties and failures. She does have a few contrived personal problems like her inability to come to permanent terms with her policeman (what else?) boyfriend and a fiercely independent, loose-cannon (what else?) mother. All in all, however, Michael is quite the gal, and without her, the prison world of Vermont would probably sink into chaos.

Michael Stone is, of course, the thinly disguised alter ego of Anna Salter, the PhD psychologist/author, who just happens to be a consultant to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and claims to be a basketball playing, horse-riding, etc., etc. wonder woman. This novel demonstrates Ms. Salter's basic view that institutional treatment consists of nothing more than elaborate fencing with manipulative and crafty inmates who are skillful at compromising and destroying prison staff members (note the fate of the book's careless social worker, mousy psychologist, and witless printing shop supervisor). Though Ms. Salter professes to believe in positive treatment, her basic message is that the real goal of such activity is mastery and control. Hers is a psychology of gamesmanship. "Prison Blues" is nothing more than an unabashed, narcissistic homage to this view - and, even more, to the author herself.

Rating:
Summary: Well paced and compelling
Review: Michael Stone, forensic psychologist, is asked to lead a group session at Nelson's Point Correctional Facility, Vermont. The group consists of sexual predators who suspiciously appear to be hiding something from her. Michael is replacing Eileen Steelwater who was fired after being discovered having sex with one of the inmates. Michael wonders why Eileen would break her ethical code. Violence breaks out in the prison. The group Michael leads becomes increasingly suspect. What are they hiding and why?
Anna Salter's writing is reminiscent of the early excellent work of Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Patricia Cornwell. This is a character rich work that never delves into the excess. The minutia of Michael's life is kept to a minimum in favor of plot progression. Michael Stone is a likable character and her supporting staff reasonably realistic. Ms. Salter, a forensic psychologist, herself, manages to mix just the right amount of fact with fiction so as to never appear preachy. The story, itself, is both compelling and well paced. This is not the most exciting of the nominated books in this category, but, it is the best written and my choice for the Edgar.

Rating:
Summary: As close to reality as it gets in fiction
Review: Salter really knows what she is writing about. The only difference between what she writes and reality is that in the real world things are more boring, because in the real world the good guys lose much more often.

For people who like novels that teach them about what life is really like, there is little better.

Rating:
Summary: As close to reality as it gets in fiction
Review: When a former friend gets caught having sex with a prisoner, psychologist Michael Stone gets drafted to take over her group. Michael (although she has a man's name, Michael is definitely female) is eight months pregnant and has issues of her own, but she agrees to take the job partly to learn why her normally conservative friend could have made such a horrible mistake.

What she finds in the psychology group surprises and frightens her. Her friend insists that one of the inmates is innocent but Michael knows exactly the kind of manipulating disorder Jim Walker represents. The group isn't functioning right but that is the least of Michael's problems. She suspects that the group may also be involved in something more serious than corrupting the morals of a psychologist. Despite her pregnancy and the strongly urged advice of her baby's father, Michael decides she has to investigate.

Author Anna Salter obviously knows psychology and the mindset of deviant personalities. Even better, she combines this knowlege with a powerful story-telling sense to deliver a powerful and thrilling story. The more Michael investigates, the more loose ends turn up, and the farther into danger she falls. Salter weaves in multiple inter-related subplots involving the warden's family, a serial sex offender who the warden vows to protect from prison violence, and Michael's own issues with the loss of independence that a permanent relationship with a man and another with her baby have to represent.

Highly enjoyable--I couldn't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this book if you don't like staying up all night!
Review: When I bought this book I hoped that it would manage to be as good as Salter's previous Michael Stone mysteries, "Shiny Water," "Fault Lines," and "White Lies." After starting it on the train home from work I found myself unable to put "Prison Blues" down. This new novel takes Dr. Stone to a new level, both personally and professionally. The beauty of this novel lies in the way the different plots and subplots are entwined. This results in an break-neck pace that keeps you reading from first page to last. When Dr. Stone is contacted by an old friend to take over a prison therapy group, the 8-months pregnant Stone agrees. Little does she realize that she will end up investigating a murder, an attempted murder, and a drug ring. In her personal life, Stone has to deal with her own adverse reaction to her impending motherhood and her boyfriend Adam's "overprotectiveness". And of course, no Michael Stone novel would be complete without havoc caused by her indomitable mother. This storyline makes for a fascinating look at the life of a forensic psychologist. This novel rings true as something that could only have been written by an expert. I loved it and cannot wait for the next one.