This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
Norma Hopcraft is a journalist who loves to expand the world by interviewing people and getting their story down on paper. She lived in Paris on a one-year creative writing sabbatical and wrote The Paris Writers Circle, then lived in Barcelona, and now lives in Brooklyn near Prospect Park. There she hatches up more Tricia Maguire novels as well as a memoir and a novel about exile, set in Brooklyn, a very foreign place.
Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite
Meet Tricia Maguire: she’s feisty but funny; holy but horny; nosey but nice...and a super-ambitious reporter who knows she really belongs with a major national newspaper instead of her little hometown daily. She just needs that one big story she knows will truly kick off her career, along with a handsome, well-to-do guy like Justin Hardy in her bed, and she’ll be a happy camper.
Tricia is the delightful protagonist of Numbers Count by Norma Hopcraft, an author whose 30 years as a journalist makes her well-qualified to write this enjoyable murder mystery. Mind you, Hopcraft takes her time to get into the crime itself because she’s busy building up the blossoming romance between Tricia and Justin...and readers won’t mind at all because the author is so good at her craft. Then when the timing is perfect, Tricia’s curiosity about a hit-and-run death and her reporter’s sense that something just isn’t right put her in mortal danger for sticking her nose where it’s not wanted. Tension rises and events unfold quickly.
Personally, I love Norma Hopcraft’s style: it’s easy-going and clear with no loose ends in plot or character development. She uses dialogue perfectly and realistically. She is definitely a writer's writer and anyone aspiring to a journalism career will appreciate Hopcraft’s insights into the difficulties of that profession. Numbers Count will probably appeal more to women than to men because it’s more chick-lit than crime mystery, but if that’s your kind of reading, don’t think twice about picking up this book. What fun!
