FIFTY/FIFTY

FIFTY/FIFTY has been subject of numerous reviews. We have selected a couple of typical reviews for your amusement. The only effective review of course, is your own.

Midwest Book Review

FIFTY/FIFTY: The Misadventures of Judge Hudson, His Jaguar and the Jordan Girl begins with a chance meeting on US Highway 50 and presents the story of an unusual relationship between a fifty-year-old judge and a refreshingly nubile damsel in distress. FIFTY/FIFTY is the tale of prudent man fascinated by Betty Ruth, a tantalizing, titillating, bewitching sex-kitten of a girl with an ambition to become seductively mysterious. FIFTY/FIFTY is exceptionally well written. I suspect that it will also act as something of a literary personality test separating reader’s reactions by gender.

THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW “Wisconsin Bookwatch” March 1966.

    
SPEX: Small Publishers Exchange

Reviewed by Russ Bedord Small Publishers EXchange September 1995

For men within the range of the age of fifty and beyond, Fifty/Fifty is a pleasant diversion. Conveniently beginning with a chance meeting on US Highway 50, of all places, the story is built on an unusual relationship between a fifty-year-old judge and a refreshingly nubile damsel in distress.

An important factor in the acceptance and enjoyment of any fictional (and perhaps also nonfictional) work is the willing suspension of disbelief. For this to happen, the story must either be plausible or the author must push enough of your buttons so that it is OK if the story is just plausible enough. I’ll confess that my buttons were pushed.

I cared for the judge because I identified with him, a prudent man who finds himself spellbound by the tantalizing and titillating behavior of a bewitchingly vulnerable but calculating sex-kitten practicing to become a Mata-Hari. I also cared for the girl, Betty Ruth, a well-characterized button-pusher whose enticements demanded that good judgment, caution and most of all prudence, be thrown aside. Wouldn’t we all like to have the opportunity to experience that just once, with a willing, even eager companion--without repercussions?

To my mind, the feminine counterpart to Judge Hudson is Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County, though I think Crawford’s is the better book. As an exercise, I compared Betty Ruth’s persistence to the one-night stand character of Robert Kincaid. Both offer vicarious satisfaction, but I am biased toward male-oriented fantasy that delivers a good mystery, good characterization, good action, a refreshing Lolita-like child-woman in her twenties, and in Judge Hudson, a stand-in for the man in his fifties having the (imaginary) adventure of his life.

Because of who it may appeal to, the readership for this book will probably divide on male/female lines Fifty/Fifty.

Reviewer Russ Bedord is the author/publisher of "New Beginnings: Healing Through Communication".

The Misadventure of The WITCHES THREE

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

The Misadventures of the Witches Three R. H. E. Crawford

Judge Harold J. Hudson arrives in the small city nestled in the mountains, which has as its main source of income and industry, a State College and an annual Shakespeare Festival. On his first night in this secluded community he is restless and sleepless. Dreams of nubile witches haunt his sleep following his attendance of the local production of Macbeth. His foreboding becomes reality when he stumbles upon the apparent murder of the star of Macbeth in the hotel suite directly above his own. Barely does he extricate himself from the unfortunate happening, when the three witches of Macbeth begin to weave his fate into their own. Gradually the tangled web unravels as Hudson and the witches (Jordan, Carolyn and Patrish) bounce from bed to hospital, from hazard to peril in the pursuit of the flower Safety within the nettle Danger. The Misadventures of the Witches Three is an exceptionally well crafted mystery that is easy to pick up, and hard to put down.

CRIME ROUNDUP; JERUSALEM (Israel) POST MAGAZINE, 11/17/1997

THE MISADVENTURE OF THE WITCHES THREE by R. H. E. Crawford, California. The Green Jaguar Press. 265 pp. $17.95. Alex Auswaks -

The sleuth is Judge Harold J. Hudson, trying hard not to be a roué and fortunately failing! The scene is a small city with an annual Shakespeare festival. In the hotel room directly above that of Judge Hudson the star of Macbeth lies murdered.

The three witches of the play weave their lives into that of Judge Hudson (token resistance only). They share digs and it appears that one of them had tried to lose her virginity with the star who played Macbeth, only to find his dead body in bed. Instead of calling the police (fancy telling the police why she is there) she leaves the scene of the crime. .

A pair of knickers is an important clue.

This is a lovely piece of theater and pastiche such as that great Historian of the pastiche and the theater, John Kennedy Melling, would revel in. There are quotations from the Bard, charming drawings by the author and the final sentence is an epitaph to any relationship, especially marriage: And they quarreled happily ever after.

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