SERVICE DRESS BLUES

SERVICE DRESS BLUES
By Michael Bowen
Poisoned Pen Press
September 2009
Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-667-9
238 pages
$ 24.95

Living at a service academy can be a difficult adjustment. For Harold Lindstrom, his life as a plebe at the
U. S. Naval Academy, just became extremely difficult when a marine discovers him naked, unconscious,
almost dead, and in need of resuscitation in a cheap motel in Annapolis.

Added to that, Harold’s closest relatives, Ole and Lena Lindstrom, are also having challenges with their
politically active lives and decide they need an attorney for their copyright ideas, as well as for Harold.
They have finally found the newest political candidate to support for the state attorney general,
Veronica Gephart who is focusing on a domestic violence platform.

Rep Pennyworth is the lawyer chosen and with the companionship of his wife, Melissa, who is an
English professor, the two discover that Lena and Ole lead a dramatically opinionated and boisterous life
together. When Lena is arrested for supposedly hitting Ole in the back of the head with a frying pan.
She claims that she heard an intruder and is completely innocent. The two have had numerous conflicts
over their years and they have had many accounts of being violent with each other. It’s just the way
they are even if their candidate is against domestic violence.

SERVICE DRESS BLUES is the fifth mystery with Rep and Melissa Pennyworth. This is a series where it
would have helped to have a little of the background of the Pennyworth’s characterizations and
relationships which were likely in the previous novels.

The strengths of this novel are in the trivial events within the story such as the baseball trivia regarding
the Milwaukee Brewers and the everyday life of being a plebe at the Naval Academy. Also of interest is
the political activities involving having a successful election and the little things that make all the
difference.

Overall, SERVICE DRESS BLUES was an enjoyable book to read.


Teri Davis June 20, 2010