Condensed Reader's Digest Condensed Reviews

It's been way too long since I posted a blog- and for good reason- I've been plowing through some old Reader's Digest Condensed books which may be 'condensed' but are still four books in one!
  First up in my 'Select Editions" is Under Orders by Dick Francis: If you've never heard of Dick Francis, he writes about a former jockey turned amateur sleuth in jolly ole England. In Under Orders Sid Halley gets caught up in a racetrack murder, the murder of an old friend, and some backhanded online betting.  I liked this story- and not just because I'm an Anglophile and mystery fan- but also because it's 'bloody good fun'. Who's the killer?? You'll see! I don't feel like I missed anything by reading the condensed version. Enjoyed!
  Second up: The Saddlemaker's Wife by Earlene Fowler. Another page turner. Usually I get a huge Reader's Digest Condensed and end up skipping a story or two, but it didn't look possible in this 2007 edition. The Saddlemaker's Wife is about a woman who ends up in a small California town after the death of her husband. She finds out he had family there and she quietly watches them as she waits to break the news to them that their estranged son had died. Great characters and enjoyable plot. Loved this story.
  Third: The Angels of Morgan Hill by Donna VanLiere. Another winner in this compilation.
 The Angels of Morgan Hill is a story about a small southern town that sees the arrival of some black sharecropper families. A white widow befriends one of the news mothers and when her family suddenly dies in a suspicious fire, widow Jane finds herself raising their little black boy Milo alongside her white children.
 And the fourth novelette in this edition. Echo Park by Michael Connelly. By this point in the book I was ready to move on, so maybe I didn't give this story the attention it deserved. I wasn't a fan of this story, too 'cop-like' and not of particular interest to me. I started it, skimmed, then finally finished early because I have about 10 years of backlogged reading to catch up with.
  So, Overall....three stars out of four on this edition.