Love Her Madly

by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith

Book Overview

A tense, death-row drama--meet brash FBI investigator Poppy Rice in the first of a winning new series Poppy Rice is home in her D.C. apartment with very little furniture and lots of boxes she still... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786016574
• ISBN13: 9780786016570
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Love Her Madly

My thoughts on this book are extremely high. I thought of it being one of the best books I actually read this year. The reason I was so addicted to this book I think is because of the Rona Leigh Mystery that was going on. This book was so good that it was impossible for me to put down. I was reading at least 3-5 hours a day and on weekends. For me it was a quick read. I highly recommend it to people who love mysteries. I am the kind of person who love books that leave me wanting more at the end of the story and Love Her Madly was on of those books. I plan on reading alot more of the Poppy Rice Mysteries and also other books that this author have written because they seem to just interest me and catch my eye. Another suggestion that I would give to the author is that this would be a great movie that would hit the top charts. I would surely love to go see it.

Holding My Breath for the Next Poppy!

I found this to be an excellent novel. The cover makes it look like a bit of fluff, but it is hard edged and great reading. It's a hardcore crime fiction, with twists and turns that are excellently connected. I've read some of the other reviews and feel that possibly the 'lightness' of the cover led some folks to the book who may not have otherwise read it. If has the tightness and darkness of James Lee Burke, Dennis Lehane and Nevada Barr. For the record, I am a Texan and while some comments were a bit far fetched, I found nothing to be 'offended by.' I am eagerly awaiting the next Poppy Rice.

Justice, Texas Style.....

Meet Poppy Rice, former Florida prosecutor and Bronx district attorney turned cracker-jack FBI Agent. She was brought to Washington to clean up and revamp the infamous FBI crime lab. With her take-no-prisoners style, she's turned the once sloppy and sometimes inept facility into a state of the art, well-oiled machine, the envy of the rest of the world. Now she's carved out a new role for herself, reinvestigating old cases, the ones that may have fallen through the cracks in the bad old days of slipshod investigations, and that's how she comes across Rona Leigh Glueck. Rona Leigh, former teenage ax murderer, now born again Christian, is sentenced to die by lethal injection in just ten days. She was a seventeen year old alcoholic, drug addicted, malnourished and only eighty-eight pounds at the time of the murders. With her tiny frame and childlike wrists and hands, Poppy doesn't believe she could have wielded a twenty-four pound ax at least a dozen times. Her trial was one big emotional travesty, topped off with very suspect expert testimony, "glee" made her able to do it. But what really sends Poppy to Texas looking for justice is the fact that the FBI crime lab ignored a request from Rona Leigh's public defender. Poppy feels if they had done their job, it just might have proven that Rona Leigh was innocent..... Based loosely on the Karla Faye Tucker case and execution, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith has written a fresh and entertaining thriller you won't be able to put down. This is an intriguing novel that has it all...a terrific and intricate story line complete with twists, turns, and more than a few surprises that keeps you off balance and turning pages, crisp, smart writing full of witty and irreverent dialogue and Texas humor, and vivid, riveting, sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny scenes. But it's Ms Smith's well drawn, engaging and original characters that really make this book stand out, and once you've met tough, clever and very capable Poppy Rice, you'll be hooked for sure. This is a book you don't want to miss. Love Her Madly is the first of what should be a marvelous new series, and should definitely be at the top of every mystery/thriller fan's "must read" list.

4 Stars...only because of some very poor editing...

Poppy Rice, head of the newly re-vamped and highly efficient FBI Crime Lab and a woman with extraordinary influence over the FBI director himself, has a dilemma.In just 10 days, alleged ax murderess Rona Leigh Glueck, is about to be the first woman put to death in Texas since the Civil War. Trouble is, Poppy doesn't think the tiny, malnourished, sick and zonked out 17 year-old could have wielded the ax that chopped up Melody Scott and James Munter into enough pieces to leave the blood dripping from the ceiling at the crimescene.Now 34, Rona Leigh has found Jesus and believes her punishment will finally set her free from her lurid past and the horrible events 17 years before. She confessed to the crime and is now at peace with her lord.So, why upset the apple cart and go sticking your nose in a 17 year-old case that was solved almost as soon as it happened? Because Poppy Rice believes in giving everyone a fair shot and the FBI crime lab, under different directorship, had failed to answer a request from Rona Leigh's public defender who had the same questions about her ability to swing an ax with enough power to kill two people.Because Poppy Rice cleaned up the prior mess of a lab and "...turned a sinking trawler -- infested with a lot of rats --. . . into one sleek nuclear-powered yacht," she has a lot of leeway with her Director and he reluctantly agrees to let her work as a "...full-time pseudo-district attorney" and reinvestigate cases she thinks might contain errors.Poppy sets about to find out what really happened on the night Melody Scott and James Munter died. Rona Leigh was at the scene, no doubt about it, but could her boyfriend Lloyd Bailey have done the actual killing? No way to talk to Bailey because he died in prison. So, Poppy heads to Texas to talk face to face with Rona Leigh, but finds herself on a roller coaster ride.She talks to the condemned woman, her former chaplain/now husband, the warden, some Texas Rangers and Melody Scott's slimeball husband, Gary. Poppy's substantial influence fails to deter the Governor on his mission to see that justice is served and that Rona Leigh dies by lethal injection at the duly appointed time.Poppy is even allowed to watch the execution....only trouble with the procedure is that it fails to kill Rona Leigh, and through a series of carefully planned events, the prisoner escapes to parts unknown. Poppy's mission, now, is to find Rona Leigh and bring her to justice.This is the first in a series of Poppy Rice novels. Poppy is smart, sexy, sassy, independent, tenacious as a pit bull and has all the power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation behind her. The writing is crisp and the plot is well-developed. I love the author's use of dialogue. The book is not without its faults, however. There are some glaring errors in the book that any good editor/research assistant should have caught:1. non-air-conditioned jury rooms haven't existed in Houston since the 1950's;2. nor do our courthous

The start of a great new series

She is a sassy, fresh and feisty independent thinker who goes her own way in the tightly structured organization of the FBI because she's quick to get the job done. After reorganizing a whole department in the FBI, the upcoming execution of Rona Leigh Gloeck catches Poppy Rice's interest. She digs up the case file and sees that the woman might not have gotten a proper trial. Poppy wants to investigate because it is only ten days until the execution and her supervisor gives her permission. She flies to Texas and starts asking questions about people who were involved with the case and quickly comes to the conclusion that Rona Leigh was railroaded. All legal and political avenues that could grant the condemned woman a stay of thirty days disappear and Poppy witnesses the state-sponsored death of Rona Leigh. The lethal injection fails to kill the prisoner and she is taken by ambulance to the hospital, but the patient disappears into thin air. Now Poppy must discover who the conspirators are who took the prisoner away while seeing that justice is served this time. LOVE HER MADLY is a police procedural that actually has moments when it turns into a humorously dark macabre tale. The heroine is a breath of fresh air taking herself seriously enough to get the job done without it killing her spirit. This is the first book in what looks to be an innovative series and this reviewer can't wait for BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY to be published.Harriet Klausner