No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale
The police in the small town of Friendship, WI, spend most of their time cleaning up after T.P.-ing pranksters or luring tree-trapped cats to safer ground, so they’re woefully unprepared when the butchered body of the local homecoming queen, Ruth Fried, is found in a cornfield. Kippy Bushman, best friend to the victim, recognizes the local sheriff’s pinning of the crime on Ruth’s boyfriend as the spitefilled ploy that it is, and she teams up with Ruth’s brother (handsome but possibly crazy) to solve the case. Following in the footsteps of her hero Diane Sawyer, Kippy puts her investigative skills to good use—okay, mostly she bumbles her way to the solution, but in the end, the streets of Friendship are safe once more. A book that opens with the body of a teenage girl strung up to a tree like a deer carcass does not easily lend itself to humor, but Hale nimbly manages a satisfying blend of chills, suspense, and laughs in this dark comedy. The key is Kippy herself, an odd and not-so-bright duck and a girl who is firmly entrenched in her community, making her commentary on the local customs more like warm observations than mocking jibes. Regional phrases like “you betcha” and “don’tcha know” lend the dialogue a Fargo-like flair, while secondary characters, including the sheriff and the victim [End Page 267] (whom readers get to know through journal entries) are surprisingly nuanced. Avid mystery readers will likely negotiate Hale’s red herrings with ease, but the identity of the culprit is not really the point; the satisfaction here is watching Kippy nab the bad guy in her own time and her own unique way.
