Thought I would post an update on how I'm doing in my year-long quest to not acquire books. Well, I have made it through the first quarter without purchasing any books for money...(takes a bow)...I can do this!
I've also joined a challenge over at one of the Paperbackswap forums called "The Biggest Book Loser." Basically, the winner is the person who pares the most books from their physical TBR (To Be Read) pile--that is to say, books that are in your possession that you haven't yet read, those on a library list or wish list not counting. I know I probably won't win the challenge as I am still acquiring books fairly regularly from my PBS wishlist, but as we are moving next year to a smaller apartment and thus will have less room, I am determined to have my physical TBR down to 400 or under by 2/1/2012. (This started on Feb. 1 of this year.)
Progress so far: I have acquired 27 books and removed 80 from the TBR stacks, with a net loss of 53 books. The acquisitions were all from my PBS wishlist except for one freebie ARC from Amazon Vine. The removals were either those I read and posted to PBS or donated or those I culled without reading, deciding I'm no longer interested in reading them now or in the near future. I also pared my PBS wishlist down considerably, eliminating many titles that are readily available at my local (superb!) library system...my wishlist is down to about 160 now, and it hasn't been that low in years. Will do a quarterly update--this wasn't too bad considering I didn't join in til Feb. 1 so only 2 months worth of work. :)
Now, on to my April reading adventures!
1. MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD by Troy Soos (AUDIO) #3 Mickey Rawlings historical mystery. It's now 1918 and WWI is in full swing. Mickey and his fellow major league baseball players await word from the top whether they will be allowed to continue the season without fear of being drafted, or whether baseball will be deemed 'non-essential' entertainment. Because of all the other players who've enlisted, Mickey now has a starting role playing second base for the Chicago Cubs. While marching in the 4th of July parade entering the stadium, Mickey's friend and roommate, shortstop Willie Kaiser, is shot dead, and Mickey vows to find out who killed him and why, even if Willie's sister hadn't asked him to. He's also supposed to be looking into the matter of who has been sabotaging things at the ballpark, making things difficult for his boss. Mickey wonders if Willie's death was random or if his German heritage had something to do with his demise--anti-German sentiment runs strong, so much so that things like eating pretzels and owning dachshunds are seen as 'un-patriotic' and one must watch what they say lest someone have them arrested for treason according to the new anti-sedition laws which forbid any sort of criticism of the United States Government. Vigilante groups like the Patriotic Knights of Liberty are running rampant, and when Mickey learns that Willie worked part time in a munitions plant where several of the bosses are members of that group, he gets hired there to snoop around and soon finds himself being targeted for injury or death too. Although this book seemed a bit slower-moving than previous ones, I still enjoyed the reading of it immensely--the reader (Johnny Heller) is perfect for the series and there was a lot of interesting historical information passed along through the course of the story, woven skillfully into the plot itself so that it didn't feel like a lecture at all. Very enjoyable and very much looking forward to the next in series--and sorry to see that the series isn't longer. A.
2. THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie. One of the Hercule Poirot mysteries told from the point of view of Dr. Sheppard, the physician in a fictional rural UK village. When the wealthy lord of the manor is found stabbed to death in his study, it's determined that many people had motive to kill him. Dr. Sheppard relates the story from his diary notes, including his surprise when the mysterious neighbor next door turns out to be none other than Hercule Poirot, now mostly retired and living somewhat reclusively. Using Dr. Sheppard as his Hastings, Poirot--who's been asked by the victim's niece to investigate alongside the police--gathers evidence in his usual meticulous fashion and then applies his little grey cells, of course comes up with the solution by the end of the book--an interesting plot twist that (having read the book before) I did anticipate. A charming visit to the English countryside of the 1920's, including a dip below the surface to reveal all the usual baser human emotions of hate, greed, jealousy and fear under the idyllic appearance. A+
3. A HAT FULL OF SKY by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #32 overall Discworld, #2 in the Tiffany Aching mini-series. Something is after Tiffany Aching--a witch, aged 11. She's off to the mountains to be an apprentice witch and helper for Miss Level, who lives in two bodies at once. What is after Tiffany is the Hiver--an existential mindless nightmare parasite that takes over a host and twists its mind and actions, and not for the better. The Nac Mac Feegle note this catastrophe and even though Rob Anybody Mac Feegle is about to become a father, his new bride the Keldar tells him he must save Tiffany, so the troop of six-inch-tall blue men are off to help their 'big wee hag' out of her dilemma. Granny Weatherwax, senior witch from Lancre also makes an appearance and assists Tiffany in getting rid of her pest. Another great entry in this series within a series--great fun, plenty of wisdom, and Pratchett's usual well-drawn characters. A
4. THE WEAVER AND THE FACTORY MAID by Deborah Grabien. #1 Haunted Ballad mystery set in the UK. Is it a mystery? A gothic ghost story? A charming English story? Yes, yes and yes. Ringan Laine is the guitarist and vocalist in a traditional folk band, which doesn't often pay enough of a living wage to subsist on. So he also does home restorations. When the owner of the manor home he's nearly finished restoring explains that he isn't able to pay him in cash due to a problem with the courts tying up his liquid assets, Ringan is livid--until the man offers him the title to a plot of land with a cottage and old tithe barn instead. Worth much more than the few thousand quid he was owing, Ringan accepts, and then finds out that the house and barn are both haunted. When his longtime girlfriend Penny arrives to check out his new home, they both have chilling experiences that unsettle them to the core, each with a different ghost. Eventually, they feel they must figure out the mystery of just who is haunting the property, and why. And they do discover it, but then the question becomes how to banish the spirits so that they can carry on living in the cottage? What an interesting story! Not a lot of 'action' per se, and not even that much of a mystery in that you discover whodunit right along with the protagonists. Very atmospheric, with a sense of place that puts you right in the middle of things without being overtly 'descriptive'--that is to say, it's not a bunch of adjectives strung together, but a true multi-dimensional picture woven together with words. If you don't like a paranormal element to your books, you probably should pass on this. If you've an open mind or like ghost stories, I highly recommend it. The writing is wonderful and I already feel as though Ringan and Penny and their circle are my friends--and I can't wait for another visit! A.
5. TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN by Rhys Bowen. #7 Molly Murphy historical mystery set in 1902 in New York. In one of those 'be careful what you wish for' scenarios, Molly--a private detective--finds herself suddenly overrun with cases and struggles to keep up. She decides to ask her beau--Daniel Sullivan, a police captain who is still on suspension--to help her out. This doesn't sit well with Daniel, somewhat of a traditionalist, but if he's actually going to wed Molly someday, he'd better get used to her independent spirit! He's bored, so he agrees and works at following a young man whom Molly was asked to investigate by his fiance's parents while Molly takes a non-speaking part in a Broadway musical in an attempt to ferret out who is trying to ruin the show--and the lead actress, former vaudeville performer Blanche Lovejoy--by pretending to be an angry ghost, causing some quite dangerous accidents. Meanwhile, Molly and Daniel stumble on a well-dressed young woman in a snow bank in Central Park, near frozen, who doesn't respond verbally or appear to even understand what's being said, despite several different languages being tried. Molly takes steps to prevent her from being sent to the insane asylum since no one claims her--and on top of all that, Mrs. Van Woekem, a society matron whom Molly has become friends with wants her nephew found--he's apparently on the run, having gone beyond his usual hijinks into robbery and murder, according to his friend and the New Haven police. Still, it's all in a day's work for Molly. The plot was somewhat predictable as I did figure out how several of the cases strung together and the ending wasn't much of a surprise. Still, I enjoy the author's writing style and Molly, Daniel and their circle of friends as well as the historical ambiance. Looking forward to the next one. B+
6. A THOUSAND CUTS by Simon Lelic. The book was originally published with the title "Rupture" in the UK--a much more appropriate title, I thought. Blast publishers who feel the need to tweak titles in different countries! This is a first novel, a police mystery about a school shooting in London where the perpetrator was a teacher who shot several students, a fellow teacher, and then himself. The teacher, Samuel Szajkowski, was the new history teacher at an exclusive prep school and had apparently endured unremitting bullying and pranks from everyone from the headmaster down to the students almost from his first moments at the school. The investigation is conducted by DI Lucia May, who is unwilling to glide through her investigation--which on the surface, seems cut and dried. We know whodunit--does it really matter why? Eventually, Lucia wonders if the shooting was connected somehow to the vicious beating of another student that had already been under investigation. She also wonders why her boss is so eager to put the 'closed' stamp on the case and is attempting to rein Lucia and her investigation in well before she thinks it's time. The story is told partially in first-person as Lucia listens to the various witnesses, and partially in third-person narrative from Lucia's point of view, alternating chapters. It's a very effective and interesting tool, and the author skillfully brings each witness into focus without ever naming who they are. A very timely piece of fiction, focusing on bullying, which has been so much in the news of late. I can't say I really enjoyed the story itself--the whole scenario is just plain gut-wrenchingly horrible. But I did very much enjoy the author's thought-provoking telling of the story. Going to be looking for more from Mr. Lelic, to be sure! A.
7. MISS ZUKAS SHELVES THE EVIDENCE by Jo Dereske. #8 in the Helma Zukas mystery series set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma, a librarian, is meeting her "friend" Wayne Gallant's teenage children for the first time. Before they can spend much time together, Wayne--who is also the chief of police--is seriously injured when he falls or was pushed off a cliff, sustaining a serious head injury. He was investigating the death of a professor from a local university, at first thought to be a heart attack until an injection site and unusually high levels of insulin in his blood were found. The professor's much-younger wife is the daughter of Helma's new neighbor, the former wrestler known as TNT. The professor was not diabetic, but after nosing around a bit at the behest of TNT--who can't stand his daughter's crying and carrying on--she discovers that the wife's cat WAS diabetic and on insulin. Mary Jane becomes the primary suspect then, but Helma doesn't believe her guilty and she carries on investigating--also hoping to find out who injured Wayne Gallant--all while trying to keep up with his two teenaged children. As Helma tends to be rather set in her ways and somewhat rigid, she needs some help and she gets by with assistance from her colorful friend Ruth and her mother and aged Aunt Em and ventures rather far outside her usual behavior. I have still not been able to pinpoint exactly why I enjoy this series so much--cozies have become far from my favorites, but I look forward eagerly to each of these, and also am dreading the end of the series as there's only three left. A.
8.LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE by Colin Cotterill. #7 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery set in 1970's Laos. Dr. Siri, the national coroner, has a serial killer on his hands--a killer who has brutally murdered three young women with a fencing epee, something that's not exactly lying around on every corner in Laos. Most people don't even have a clue what it is. So tracking this killer should be simple, right? Tell that to Siri's policeman friend Phosy, who thinks he has it all figured out until he reads a note with some very pointed questions from Siri--who has gone off on an all-expense-paid political junket to Cambodia with his friend Civilai and ends up as guests of the Khmer Rouge--who are not quite the benign entity they were believed to be before their reign of terror started. Siri ends up separated from Civilai, accused of being a spy and imprisoned and comes close to meeting his ghostly friends up close and personal. Another wonderful story that reads much too quickly. These characters have truly become friends over the course of the series and I've learned a lot about this time and place that I don't think any amount of factual lecturing could impart. I was very relieved to see there is already a next in series due for release next year. A+
9.THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE by Agatha Christie (AUDIO) One of the later Miss Marple mysteries in which an American movie star, Marina Gregg, and her husband buy Gossington Hall, a local manor house near St. Mary Mead. As they hold a fete to welcome the village to their home, Heather Badcock, one of the organizers, dies--first thought a fit of some sort, later determined to be poison, or at the very least, a massive overdose of a fairly common anti-anxiety medicine that's all the rage among the movie set. But was the dose meant for Mrs. Badcock--or for Marina Gregg? Miss Marple's friend who attended the do, said that she had seen a look of abject horror on Miss Gregg's face shortly before the death took place. Miss Marple's Scotland Yard friend, Inspector Craddock, makes an appearance and once again enlists her to assist, by using her knowledge of the village itself and of human nature--since she is now quite elderly and almost confined to home, she must rely on others' eyes and observations to solve the crime. Delightfully read by Rosemary Leach, very much enjoyed. I'd read the print version years ago and vaguely remembered about halfway through 'whodunit' but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the reading at all. A
10. THE HOB'S BARGAIN by Patricia Briggs. Stand-alone fantasy novel featuring a young woman, Aren of Fallbrook, who hides in a crawl space under her home as her husband of one night and her entire family are killed by roving bandits. She is besieged with guilt as she had a vision of something horrible but didn't say anything to warn them--she has magic that has long been kept secret and not many in their small village know about it. Now it seems magic is awakening again and Aren's visions become stronger and more frequent--and then a violent earthquake destroys much of the area around their home. Traveling to Hob's Mountain with a traveling minstrel and Kith, longtime friend of Aren's dead brother, they encounter several magical creatures, including the Hob himself--last of his kind. He is willing to help the villagers with the bandits--who are visiting more frequently and becoming more violent--but he will need to strike a bargain for something he needs as well--and Aren is likely the one who will pay the price. Enjoyable read, quite different from Briggs' current paranormal 'urban' fantasies. I wouldn't mind seeing more books set in this realm actually. There is a certain amateurishness about the book--it doesn't seem fully developed--but there is a lot of promise here. B
11. THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell. #1 Saxon Chronicles historical fiction series. This book, set in the ninth century A.D. in England introduces Uhtred who is just a boy when the Danes come calling at Bebbanburg--now Bamburgh--for the first time. His father is the lord there, and the Danes end up killing him and his elder brother, which leaves Uhtred the lord...but he is captured by the Danes and essentially raised by them. He comes to love Earl Ragnar, who treats him more like a son than his blood father ever did, such that when he is a young man and is returned to the English, his loyalties are seriously divided. He does want to regain his father's lands from his uncle though, determined to become Uhtred of Bebbanburg in more than just name. But which allegiance can get him there? Fight with the Danish Vikings who have already captured most of England, or back King Alfred, who holds the last kingdom on the island for the English? Well, what can I say? It's Bernard Cornwell, so the storytelling is brilliant, the descriptions of battle are horrendously evocative, and the characters are very well-fleshed and complete, especially Uhtred, whose voice tells this story. I very much look forward to continuing on to read the other books in the series, and like the rest of Cornwell's books, these will remain on my Keeper shelf in hardcover. A+
12. CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith. #1 Leo Demidov mystery set in 1950's Russia. Leo is a State Security agent--one of those who arrests the people who are guilty of traitorous actions, who are to be "questioned" (read: tortured) and then either sent to the Gulags or executed. Of course not all these people are actually guilty--but Leo is so indoctrinated into the "party line" that he just doesn't see it that way. If you are accused, then you MUST be guilty and deserve whatever you get. Until a vicious, ambitious co-worker who has it in for him inserts Leo's wife's name into another prisoner's confession and thus Leo is asked to investigate his own wife and then denounce her. He refuses, and he and Raisa are sent to do the lowest of lowly jobs in a remote manufacturing community. Shortly after their arrival, Leo finds the body of a child in the snow--stripped, its stomach cut out and soil stuffed in its mouth. Horrified, Leo realizes that this crime must have been committed by the same person who killed the son of another agent back in Moscow months earlier--a crime that he helped to cover up and officially called 'an accident' without ever actually seeing the body or crime scene. Suddenly he is gripped by the need to solve this crime and to his dismay as he secretly begins an investigation, discovers dozens of other similar murders occurring in small towns along the railroad line, all having been covered up by the State and never formally acknowledged as murder. With the help of some others willing to risk their skins, Leo and Raisa gather information and knowing full well it means execution at the end of the line if they are caught, set out to stop the monster preying on Russia's children. What a wonderful book! Not the details of the story, mind you--those were nothing short of horrible. It seems very well-researched and also well-written; the author manages to make you somehow take Leo's side even though at the beginning he is a high-ranking officer in a machine that systematically terrorized and destroyed the whole vastness of the Soviet Union. I was able to figure out the plot twist well ahead of time with the carefully laid down clues the author left, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. Dark, graphically violent and deeply philosophical, this book won't appeal to everyone, but I personally am very much looking forward to the next entry in the series. A+
13. FAINT PRAISE by Ellen Hart. #6 Jane Lawless mystery set in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. Jane is asked by her friend Roz to move into a vacant loft in her building, Linden Lofts, to see if she can figure out what is going on there. The previous renter, Arno Heywood (a well-known local television personality) recently committed suicide by jumping out a window on the Foshay Tower--in drag, no less--and since then, a number of apartments in the historic building have been broken into with strange goings-on. Jane, ever curious--not only about the goings on, but about what it would be like to live in an expensive historic building--agrees, despite the Christmas season and things being very busy at Jane's restaurant, Lyme House. Then her aunt Beryl falls ill and is hospitalized and Jane finds she has her hands more than full. But when she herself witnesses some of the strange events at Linden House, she is determined to find who is behind them and even possibly who drove Arno Heywood to his death. Of course she ends up in trouble herself a few times along the way, but also meets a possible love interest, the daughter of one of the other tenants. I really enjoyed this entry in the series--some of the others have been just so-so, but this one felt to me like it was clicking on all cylinders. I was relieved especially to have Jane back as the focus of the book--the last one with Cordelia, her theatre-producer friend at the helm and as the focus, I didn't much like at all. The local flavor in this series is especially wonderful for those who live in the area. A
14. DYING TO SIN by Stephen Booth. #8 DC Ben Cooper/DS Diane Fry mystery set in the Peak District of England. A body has been found at Pity Wood Farm, an old family farm recently sold off when the last remaining Sutton brother, Raymond, goes into a care home. Developers are digging and re-doing much of the farmstead when a college student unearths a hand while digging--which soon proves to be attached to a body, estimated to have been in the ground for about a year. While the forensic and pathology departments try to determine cause of death, Cooper and Fry begin interviewing neighbors and old Mr. Sutton, whose mind isn't very sharp anymore. No one has been reported missing in the area, although the villagers and people living on the surrounding farms are decidedly reticent in dealings with the police, so they're stumped as to who the body might have been. They're surmising that it may have been one of the many seasonal workers, often foreign help provided by agencies when another body turns up wrapped in the same plastic, only estimated to have died about four years previously. As Christmas approaches, the whole of the police force groans with the knowledge that celebrations with family and friends may be in short supply, and a new Det. Superintendent seems hell bent on making some major changes--one that may see Diane Fry transferring out. Cooper, meanwhile, struggles with his deepening relationship with SOCO Liz Petty. I picked up on many of the clues as to 'what was going on' fairly early on (and am surprised that the cops didn't!) but didn't figure out the whole package until just before the reveal. Another enjoyable visit to Edendale and surrounding area. The relationship between Cooper and Fry still irks me and the dialogue still at times feels somewhat unnatural, but the stories themselves are wonderful. Fry bugs the heck out of me, and sometimes I want to smack Cooper upside the head, too, but something about the books keeps drawing me back to the series and they never disappoint. A
15. MOONSHINE by Rob Thurman. #2 in the Cal and Niko Leandros paranormal mystery series. Having defeated the big bad Auphe in the last book, Cal and Niko are now somewhat settled in New York, doing investigative and security work for hire with Niko's girlfriend, the vampire named Promise as business partner. They're asked to investigate a lower-level member of The Kin, a werewolf mafia gang, by a fellow member who thinks he's going to be taken down as part of his co-gang member's aspirations to rise to the top. Not particularly wanting to get involved in a gang war, they're set to refuse when a $50,000 fee is dangled in front of them--and money is always in short supply, especially now that Niko is back in college, pursuing his dream of studying history. They end up at a gambling parlor for non-humans called Moonshine and there the story takes off with loads of plot twists, plenty of action and surprises. Meanwhile, Cal (who is only half human) is relentlessly pursued (romantically that is) by Georgina ("George") a seer whom Cal is trying to fend off because he doesn't want to get involved with anyone given his monster half, figuring it can only lead to bad things. I really enjoyed this book--I liked the first one, but it was kind of slow moving at first to set the backstory down. This one was action almost from the get-go, and yet it wasn't ALL action...you get to know Cal & Niko better, and several of the secondary characters really have some flesh added to their bare bones in this one, too. I like the writing style, the author's refusal to shy away from a bit of raunchiness and 'language' and adult themes, and Cal's irreverent sense of humor has me laughing throughout. Glad I have the next one available here--I think this could become another of my favorite paranormal series. A
16. THE MARK OF A MURDERER by Susanna Gregory. #11 Matthew Bartholomew medieval mystery set in Cambridge in the mid-1300's. Matthew and Brother Michael investigate a series of murders in Cambridge that begin after the town/gown riots in Oxford resulting in dozens of deaths. Some Oxford scholars run to Cambridge, and almost immediately, two of them end up dead, followed by several others, who appear to have been ravaged by a wolf, or something with sharp teeth that ripped their throats out. The Oxford people think that the Cambridge scholars had something to do with it, and one of Cambridge's own people who was attacked but survived saw one of Michaelhouse's scholars, Clippesby--known for his rather crazy and eccentric ways--near him, and thinks he is the one who did it. Matthew, who is Clippesby's doctor, hospitalizes him to keep an eye on him, but the killings continue. I must admit I was surprised by the ending and the bad guy in this one, unlike most of the books in this series which are rather easy to figure out. I notice that I am leaving longer and longer spaces between reading books in this series, because they are getting to be somewhat wearying and formulaic with the constant scrapping between the scholars and the townspeople, Matthew's constant harping at Michael about his weight and frequent descriptions of Michael's piggy eating style, etc. They also tend to re-hash details and ask the same questions over and over throughout the course of the book, much of which could be cut out and not be detrimental to the story at all. I like these characters and the setting, and I think as long as I continue to leave many months between readings, I will continue them, but they are no longer a favorite series as they used to be. B-
DNF: THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY by Charles Lilliford, FALCONER'S CRUSADE by Ian Morson.
Cheryl
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
March 2011
1.CUT SHORT by Leigh Russell. #1 DI Geraldine Steel mystery set near fictional Woolsmarsh, a small town in the UK. Geraldine has just relocated to this area after ending a relationship and right off the bat, there's a young woman strangled in a local park. With little time to get settled into her new flat, she must acquaint herself with her new co-workers and dive right in to interviews and evidence, trying to track down the killer. Several suspects spring to light without much to actually connect them and a second body a few days later eliminates most of those. Then it is the proverbial race against the killer's inner need, trying to prevent a third victim. I quite frankly didn't enjoy this book much. It was a rather obvious first book, with almost all aspects of it being very superficial. DI Steel herself was a cliche--the thirty-something single woman, her career causing the break-up of her relationship which drives her further into workaholism, spending evenings poring over case notes with a glass of wine at her elbow. There was nothing different or even very likable about her, mostly because there just wasn't much substance to her character. Equally banal were the tough-as-nails female DCI in charge and the affable newly promoted Sergeant, DS Peterson, that Geraldine primarily works with. The dialogue was often unnatural sounding and stilted and there were frequent little forays off into moments of peripheral characters lives that left me scratching my head as to the intent or relevance. There were these odd changes in point of view that sometimes happened mid-paragraph. It was just awkward to read and I admit I skimmed the last 50 or so pages, but there really were no surprises. I won't be reading further in this series. D+
2.THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler. #6 Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery set in London. When a middle-aged woman dies in suspicious circumstances in a London street, Arthur Bryant recognizes her, having seen her entering a pub the evening before as he was walking home half-souses from Oswald Finch's wake. The problem comes when he and his partner John May go to find the pub and find that not only is it not there, but it hadn't been there since sometime in the 1800's. When several other middle aged-women die in similar circumstances in various pubs around town, they know there's a connection--but what? Of course the PCU employs all their usual offbeat methods to piece things together, even with their newest member--former nemesis from the Met, Sgt. Jack Renfield--now a member of the team and set to watch them like hawks for rules violations. When the eventually find the killer, they're relieved, but Bryant still isn't satisfied because he knows the killer--while capable of killing--couldn't possibly have masterminded such a complicated scheme and thus he knows they need to seek out the brains behind the young man's actions. But how, when the PCU is once again set to be disbanded since they've lost the tenancy on their office building through a loophole in the paperwork process discovered by their arch-nemesis Kasavian at the Home Office. Another delightfully quirky mystery with the octogenarian duo and their younger cohorts brilliantly sniffing out crime through the use of decidedly unconventional methods. Looking forward to the next! A+
3. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie. #3 in the First Law fantasy trilogy. The conclusion of this epic fantasy series takes up where the second left off, with the weary travelers who went to the edge of the world with Bayaz, First of the Magi seeking The Seed--a powerful magical artifact--now back in Adua and dispersing to other parts in an attempt to resume their former lives. Not an easy task when all have been profoundly changed by their adventures. Loren Ninefingers is off to the north to help Dogman, Grim, Black Dow and the other Named Men fight the self-proclaimed King of the North, Bethod. They hope to join forces with Collum West and the Union army. Meanwhile, back in Adua, Ferro Maljinn sticks around and hopes to figure out what Bayaz is really up to, and Jezal dan Luthar, once somewhat of a dandy and now an almost-seasoned warrior, seeks out Collum West's sister Ardee, once the love of his life, but Bayaz has other plans for him. And my own personal hero, Sand dan Glokta, crippled and bitter from his years of torture in a Gurkish prison, continues as lead Inquisitor with only Arch Lector Sult above him in power. They are busy trying to machinate the votes for the next King, as the old one has died and his son has been killed in battle. All of these internal battles pale when it is learned that the Gurkish are heading for Adua en force at just the time when the Union army is scattered. Excellent conclusion to this series, although there is some wiggle room for the possibility of additional books or spin-offs with some of the characters. Dark and depressing at times with a none-too-hopeful take on humanity and with its brutal and broken protagonists, I daresay this series won't be to everyone's liking, but I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Got a couple of stand-alones by this author and look forward to reading them as well. A+
4. HOLY TERROR IN THE HEBRIDES by Jeanne M. Dams. #3 Dorothy Martin mystery, this one set on the island of Iona off Scotland's coast. Dorothy is planning to join friends who are renting a cottage on Iona for a couple of weeks, only to have her friend's husband have a mild heart attack just before so they are unable to go. Since the cottage is paid for, they urge Dorothy to go on ahead, and as her policeman friend Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt is out of the country at a conference, she decides to do just that. She unwittingly forgets the key to the rented cottage back in Sherebury and thus spends a couple of days at a hotel along with an ecumenical church group from the Chicago area--but they certainly seem to be having some problems with getting along together! A diverse group from several Christian sects and a Jewish Rabbi, their number dwindles by one when Robert Williams--whom none of the others liked--dies in front of Dorothy's eyes, slipping off a cliff inside Fingal's Cave, bouncing off rocks and into the water. But the more Dorothy thinks about it, the more she thinks his death wasn't entirely accidental. Then a major storm with hurricane-force winds besieges the island and she doesn't have much time to consider it--without phone or electricity working in her cottage, Dorothy once again takes refuge in the hotel where they have a generator, and where she can observe the members of the religious party more closely and look for clues as to who might have sabotaged Bob Williams, causing him to fall. This was a pleasant, light cozy read--another of these series that I inexplicably enjoy. I learned a lot of interesting things about Iona and its history, and despite Dorothy sometimes being a silly twit, I do like her and find the author's writing style easy to read and enjoyable. Not earth-shatteringly wonderful, but a certainly enjoyable read, and a series I'll continue to read through. B.
5. DUST by Martha Grimes. (AUDIO) #21 Supt. Richard Jury mystery. Jury is called to the scene of a murder by young Benny Keegan--Benny is working (illegally, as he's only 13) in a hotel and had delivered some coffee to a patron's room and found him shot dead on the balcony. Billy Maples lived part of the time at Lamb House in Rye, the one-time home of author Henry James (and later, E.F. Benson). He was also the grandson of Jury's old acquaintance, Oswald Maples, who was a code-breaker during WWII. Jury fears he is treading on the Islington police patch but the DI in charge, Lu Aguilar, invites him to assist her because of his acquaintance with Oswald Maples--and Jury inexplicably ends up in bed with her, even though he's seeing Dr. Phyllis Nancy, one of the pathologists. Poor Jury. He goes through books and books without "getting any" and then he's drowning in it. ROFL! At any rate, trying to discover just who Billy Maples was isn't easy--he was apparently bi-polar and untreated, so what he was like depends on whom you spoke to about him and when. Is there a connection back to Billy's grandfather's code-breaking days? Or something to do with his philanthropic efforts in the art world? Or something more personal? Melrose Plant comes into the story as he volunteers to take up the tenancy at Lamb House since the National Trust are in urgent need of someone to move in with Billy's death, and he can get the feel of things in Rye while Jury is working on the London connection. This book was okay, but definitely not one of the best in series. Too cobbled together with a lot of weird coincidences, and Jury's behavior was just--I don't know. I think he was possessed. It was read by John Lee, who sometimes does a stellar job, but sometimes all his voices sound the same, which was pretty much the case here. C.
6. MISS ZUKAS IN DEATH'S SHADOW by Jo Dereske. #7 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma once again is around when a dead body is discovered--this time at the local men's shelter/soup kitchen where she's been sentenced to serve community service for refusing to pay a ticket that she feels was not deserved. The body is that of Quinton Boyd, a local financier and property developer who served on the Mission's board of directors and was at the Mission for a meeting. A young man who stays at the mission occasionally confesses to killing Boyd, but he is a simpleton and no one believes he actually did it. Tony's friend "Skitz" begins tailing Helma and wants her to prove that Tony didn't do it. Then someone starts implicating Helma herself, sending an anonymous letter to the police and planting the gun that was used in her car. Helma does (on the surface) have a motive, given that Boyd also served on the library board of directors and he and Helma had crossed horns there. To make matters worse, an old beau of Helma's from high school shows up courting her, just as police chief Wayne Gallant seems finally poised to make his move on Helma himself. Another light, enjoyable read in fictional Bellehaven, WA with Helma, Ruth and some interesting characters from the shelter. A.
7. SILVER BORNE by Patricia Briggs. #5 Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson paranormal mystery set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Mercy is a coyote shapeshifter whose mate is the Alpha werewolf of the local pack. Not everyone in Adam's pack is happy about Mercy, a non-wolf, being mated to their leader, as she discovers when one or more of them get inside her head and attempt to influence her behavior while she and Adam are out on a date. Mercy hadn't realized that the pack could have that much influence, and it takes her awhile to figure out what had happened--but then, she's got other problems, including her roommate Sam 'going wolf' after a botched suicide attempt and a missing friend, owner of a bookstore who left a strange looking book with her before he disappeared--only to have some very powerful fae looking for the book and for Phin. Another enjoyable visit with Mercy, Adam, and the gang as Mercy continues to feel her way around trying to make her life situation work within pack laws. Because of all the different elements to the book (various storylines) it did feel a bit scattered at times, but the author did a nice job of tying many of those threads together into a somewhat cohesive plot. Looking forward to River Marked! B+
8. DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey. #5 Inspector Alan Grant mystery--I hadn't realized when I chose it that it was part of a series. I thought it was a standalone as I hear this book mentioned all the time but had never heard of the other books in the series even once. I've even seen other books modeled after this plot--a police detective hospitalized and physically incapacitated who uses his mental muscles to solve a crime--in this case, one that is centuries old. Attempting to snap him out of the rut of boredom, Alan's friend Marta brings him a sheaf of photos and prints of interesting faces (Alan's weakness!) of people throughout history--and the one that intrigues him is that of King Richard III, the one who was accused of killing off his two nephews, 'the princes in the Tower.' The portrait Alan sees makes him think that the man could not be a murderer, so he sets a young friend of Marta's to doing some research to see what proof exists to convict Richard--and finds, to his amazement, that far from proving his guilt, much evidence exists to exonerate him. He certainly comes up with a lot of interesting evidence, and by the end of the story managed to convince me, and I guess a lot of other people over time too, that history books sometimes have got a lot to answer for. (The book is a classic, written in 1951--the author died the following year and never got to see just how revered it became.) It's not your standard whodunit by any stretch of the imagination and of course is quite dated, but a very interesting and well-done book. A-.
9. TO FETCH A THIEF by Spencer Quinn. (AUDIO) #3 Chet and Bernie mystery. Bernie Little and his dog, Chet, really dislike doing divorce work. But when money's tight, it does pay the bills. Of course, when the woman they are following ends up at a motel with none other than Bernie's ex-wife's boyfriend Malcolm, things get decidedly more complicated--at least for Bernie. Chet's not sure what all the fuss is about. The client gives them some tickets to the circus as a bonus, so Bernie, Chet and Charlie, Bernie's six-year-old son, are off to see Peanut the elephant and all the other circus acts. Only they discover upon arrival that the circus is closed because Peanut and her trainer have disappeared overnight. The story going around says that Uri DeLeath, known as a humanitarian trainer, finally felt the pressure of the animal rights groups and stole off with Peanut in the night. Bernie, who arrives when his cop friend Rick is beginning his interviews and sits in, isn't so sure--and is glad when Popo the Clown hires him to find Uri (who is his life partner) and Peanut when the police aren't able to give more time and resources to the hunt for them. Anything to take his mind off the problem with Lita and Malcolm. So Chet and Bernie are off on another wild adventure across country (and even across borders) on the trail of wild animals, smugglers and all-around bad guys. Told from Chet's point of view, I worried after the first book that the whole novelty of stories told by a dog would fade and the series would lose its luster, but I have continued to enjoy each of the audio versions as much as the first. Very well-read with just the right "tone" by Jim Frangione. Looking forward to the next one! A
10. SHROUD OF DISHONOR by Maureen Ash. #5 Bascot de Marins "Templar Knight" mystery set in 1194 Lincoln UK and surrounding area. When a local prostitute is murdered and stashed in a chest in the Templar's chapel, everyone is firstly aghast that someone could get into the enclave unobserved and commit such a heinous crime under the Templars noses, and also that anyone would want to. Bascot de Marins, set to leave Lincoln for Portugal in just a few days, is asked to undertake the investigation for the Templars, working with the Sheriff on the secular side since the victim was a Lincoln citizen. A second body with the Templar sigil carved on the whore's belly confirms that there is a serial killer about with a grudge against the Templars--or perhaps it's one of the Templars themselves? Bascot works with the Sheriff's men--whom he'd investigated earlier cases with when he was a retainer of castellan Nicolaa de la Haye before rejoining the Templars--and even a little help from Gianni, his former servant now training as a scribe in de la Haye's household. I enjoyed this entry in the series with the historical detail, although I still don't feel that Bascot is a fully developed character yet. Characterization seems to be this author's weakness, as well as a somewhat pedestrian writing style, and yet the books read quickly and tell an interesting story. B
11. NO COLDER PLACE by S.J. Rozan. #4 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery set in New York City. This series is somewhat unique in that it alternates points of view every other book. This one is told from Bill's point of view. Both are private investigators with separate agencies who work together. Bill would like their relationship to be more than it is, and I think Lydia would as well, except that her family is traditional Chinese and her mother dislikes Bill--or the idea that any Caucasian would woo her daughter. Bill is contacted by an old cop friend who now runs his own much larger and more sophisticated PI agency. A construction company boss has hired him to discover who's stealing from his company--and also if possible to find a worker who disappeared a few days ago, seemingly without a trace. They have an idea who the thief might be, but proving it and dismissing him without the Union raising a fuss is another matter--and as Joe Romeo is also suspected of being a bookie and possibly running other kinds of illegal activities on site, even trickier. Bill goes undercover as a mason working with the company--not so far-fetched as he did construction work when he was younger. First day on the job, there is an 'accident' that puts one of Bill's co-workers in the hospital in a coma, and the second day, they dig up the body of the missing guy in an elevator pit that needed to be redone due to water seepage. The situation deteriorates from there, when Bill discovers (via Lydia, whom the client has agreed to putting in the office as a temporary 'secretary' to keeping an eye out there) that the company is having financial problems, that the architect has her own agenda, and that there may well be a mob connection somewhere in the works. I enjoy this series and find that the switching back and forth from Bill's and Lydia's point of view in every other book works great--much better, IMO, than swapping about within the same book. It gives the story more cohesiveness. Although I had figured out most aspects of the actual mystery and figured out the murderer well in advance, I still enjoyed this book immensely. Looking forward very much to the next one! A.
12. ROLLING THUNDER by Chris Grabenstein. #6 John Ceepak/Danny Boyle mystery set in fictional Sea Haven on the Jersey Shore. Ceepak and Danny are working at the opening of the new boardwalk amusement, the Rolling Thunder, a gigantic wooden roller coaster. Excitement ensues when the wife of the owner has a heart attack during the inaugural ride, and even Ceepak performing CPR after climbing up the roller coaster tracks can't save her. Although some members of the dysfunctional O'Malley family don't seem to be too grief-stricken, there's no evidence that it was anything other than a natural death--although, admittedly, not exactly good advertisement for the ride. Later, when a local woman, a waitress at a local dive that Ceepak and Danny stop for speeding and issue a warning to ends up hacked to death and packaged in two suitcases just hours later, it seems there may be a link back to the heart attack death as the young woman was apparently the mistress of Paddy O'Malley. Suddenly evidence pointing at O'Malley starts turning up left and right, and it's rather obvious even to the still-green Danny that someone really wants him implicated not only in the young woman's death but his wife's as well. Ceepak of course sees through this ruse from the beginning and digs to the heart of the matter by the end of the case, which ends with more heart-stopping moments up on the Rolling Thunder. Another great visit to Sea Haven, with Danny, Ceepak, Rita and the rest of the regular crew--although some of the peripheral characters change regularly, including Danny's girlfriend-of-the-month. Poor guy--he'll find the right one someday, I have no doubt! Easy reading style, great story and wonderful characters--a perfect light summer beach read if you're into that sort of thing--me, I couldn't hold out that long. Reading this catches me up to the current end of the series--now I'm stuck waiting a whole year til the next one comes out. Boo hoo! A.
13.STARVATION LAKE by Bryan Gruley. First in a (I think) series set in the small fictional resort town of Starvation Lake, Michigan. (There is a lake named 'Starvation Lake' but no town by that name.) Starvation Lake, where they eat, sleep and breathe hockey, and where Gus Carpenter grew up. Gus has to spend every day of his life living down the humiliation of letting the winning goal past him in the one state championship game that the River Rats ever made it to. His coach, Jack Blackburn, never spoke to him after that game. Gus moved away, became a reporter in Detroit, and then ended up returning to his hometown in shame after his newspaper was sued over an investigative story that he wrote with a primary source that was later shown to have an ulterior motive for blowing the whistle. So now he lives with the double humiliation (although no one knows about the exact reason why he came back from Detroit--that shame is mostly Gus's alone) and leads a mostly quiet life as a small town newspaperman--until the snowmobile that Coach Jack Blackburn was driving when it went through the ice on Starvation Lake ten years previously washes up on shore on Walleye Lake, five miles away. New questions about Blackburn's death begin to be raised, and Gus and his young reporter Joanie McCarthy start digging and find some very disturbing information about the much-loved Coach. This was an excellent read with a story that hooked me in right from the beginning, even though I'm not a huge hockey fan. While the initial mystery about Coach wasn't too hard to untangle fairly early on, the other plot twists at the end of the book were quite unexpected and increased my respect for the author's plotting skills. He also does a great job of providing a sense of place in the small, isolated town. It will be interesting to see what he does with the second book in the series. Highly recommended! A.
14.A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD by Alan Bradley. (AUDIO) #3 Flavia de Luce mystery set in 1950's England. At the church fete in Bishop's Lacey, Flavia encounters a gypsy fortuneteller who makes allusions to her dead mother Harriet. Although a very smart cookie for an eleven-year-old, and a chemistry whiz, Flavia tends to have a blind spot when it comes to the mother she never knew and is intrigued by the gypsy--enough to upset a candle which causes a fire in her tent. Feeling remorseful, Flavia invites her to park her caravan on a secluded corner of her family's estate and accompanies the woman there. When she returns the next day, finds that the woman has been attacked, beaten and near death. She summons help, and only a few hours later discovers the body of local ne'er-do-well hanging from a fountain with a lobster pick from her own family home stuffed up his nostril. Later, when the police come 'round, the lobster pick isn't there. As Flavia noses around and tries to connect the strange middle-of-the-night goings on at her home, the puzzle of an almost-extinct religious group, and the odd behavior of the gypsy's granddaughter with the seemingly unrelated beating of the gypsy woman and Brookie's death, she of course must deal with her two annoying and mean older sisters, her distant father--who has financial problems and is starting to sell off the family silver--and the ever-watchful police inspector who encountered Flavia's meddlesome self on earlier cases. Thoroughly enjoyable book as read by Jayne Entwistle--light, entertaining and charming without being sappy. Looking forward to the next! A.
15. THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY by Donna Leon. #15 in the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series set in Venice. Brunetti is asked by Vianello, recently promoted to Inspector, to see what can be done about a friend of his family who was arrested in an environmental protest. While this doesn't have much to do with the eventual mystery, it does lead to another personal entreaty by the environmentalist's wife to determine whether her father, the owner of a glass factory on the island of Murano, is serious when he makes crazy threats against his son-in-law. During the course of that visit to Murano, he meets a night worker who assumes Brunetti has come to visit him about the letters he's been writing to the police and several other agencies protesting the unsafe conditions in the fornaci on Murano and how they caused birth defects in one of his children. The man seems obsessed and nearly crazy, but when he turns up dead of an apparent accident a few days later, Brunetti begins to give more weight to his rantings and investigates--even though he's been told to leave it alone by Vice-Questore Patta. (As usual!) One wonders whether the police are ever allowed to actually be police in Italy given that Brunetti is almost always called off of cases by his political-minded superior. As always, though, despite some of the repetitive themes, this was an enjoyable visit to Venice with Guido, Paola and her cooking and the city itself. A.
16. WHERE SERPENTS SLEEP by C.S. Harris. #4 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery set in Regency-era London. Sebastian is approached by Hero Jarvis, daughter of his mortal enemy Lord Jarvis, to ask his assistance in solving a crime that the Bow Street Runners have been ordered--by her father--not to investigate. The Magdalene House--a Quaker refuge for prostitutes trying to get out of the life--is burned down while Miss Jarvis was there interviewing one of the girls, a wellborn young woman going by the name of Rose. From what Hero observed, Rose herself was targeted specifically and was actually shot to death, and Hero wants to know why, and also wants to see justice done for those whom no one else will speak. Sebastian is not eager to work with Miss Jarvis, but the case is intriguing enough to pique his interest and get him out of the doldrums of drink and gambling where he's spent the last many months since his relationship with Kat Boleyn ended. They pursue different avenues, using decidedly different methods, first trying to determine who Rose was, and then why someone would target her for death. As they begin to uncover answers, both find themselves followed and attacked, so they know that the person whom they seek must be someone in a place of power with an explosive secret to keep. Enjoyable read as always, although the ending on this one was a bit predictable. Interesting characters, easy-reading style and great historical detail--physical as well as social--make these books a treat to read. A.
17. COLD CASE by Linda Barnes. #8 Carlotta Carlyle mystery set in Boston and environs. Carlotta is approached by an older man who gives her the first chapter of a manuscript to read--he believes that Thea Janis is alive. She had written a brilliant, seductive novel that read well beyond her fifteen years--and then disappeared. She wrote using a particular paper and ink in a certain style and this manuscript certainly reads a lot like Nightmare's Dawn. But a little digging makes Carlotta wonder what her client is playing at--when it's revealed that Thea--whose real name was Dorothy Cameron, one of the politically rich and powerful Cameron family--was actually dead, the killer having confessed and her body being buried. Suddenly, the client--who also is not whom he claims to be--wants the manuscript back and to un-hire Carlotta, but by then the old, cold case has got her intrigued and she's not likely to give up so quickly. Leaving most of the laws and ethics of a good private investigator behind, she plunges ahead anyway--otherwise, there would probably be no story here. LOL Meanwhile, the drug lord natural father of Carlotta's "little sister" Paolina has disappeared and she engages her dispatcher pal Gloria to harass his lawyer until she knows where he is--and she's being followed by someone she suspects is either one of Carlos' thugs or else a DEA agent. Or is it someone connected with the Cameron family who don't want her digging too deeply into Thea's death? Every time I read one of these books, I'm amazed how the series flew under my radar for so many years, and that the author isn't more well-known. Great main character, interesting secondary characters, very atmospheric with plenty of action and realistic dialogue. Another winner! A.
18. SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN by Naomi Hirahara. #3 Mas Arai mystery set in LA. Mas, a seventy-something-year-old Japanese-American gardener who is also a Hiroshima bomb survivor, gets sucked into another mystery when a party he's coerced into attending by his friend GI Hasuike to celebrate the Vegas jackpot GI's friend Randy won sports an interesting ending--Randy being murdered in the parking lot, next to him a broken antique shamisen--an Okinawan musical instrument. Once again, history plays a role in the case, which Mas works on with Juanita Gushiken, a licensed PI and GI's girlfriend. As he begins to trace the shamisen, he finds out some interesting details about Randy that even GI didn't know, and the murder could tie into the disappearance of a Japanese national some fifty years previously. Mas must set aside his naturally reticent nature to go knocking on doors and be persistent about asking questions. I always learn something when I read this series and this book was no exception. Although the story can be a little difficult to follow at times, with the use of some Japanese terms as well as the strange sort of combination English-Japanese speech that many of Mas's generation use, I've gotten somewhat used to it now by this third book. I really like Mas and look forward to reading his next adventure. A
19.SILENCING SAM by Julie Kramer (AUDIO) #3 Riley Spartz mystery set in the Twin Cities, MN. Riley, a TV reporter, is herself a suspect in the shooting death of a newspaper gossip columnist who had thrown some nasty tidbits about her in his column. They'd been seen arguing--she threw wine at him--and she had no alibi. To make matters worse, a new reporter from Texas was stealing all the good stories and annoying Riley to death with his condescending attitude, calling her "little lady" even after she'd requested that he stop. Since she isn't allowed near the Sam Pierce case, Riley is determined to scoop Clay by solving the headless murder story. She also continues working on the story of someone sabotaging wind turbines on a wind farm to the south of the Twin Cities near where her parents live. I'm going to be blunt and say that I was very disappointed with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series--one read in print, the other listened to--but the reader for this book was horrible. I had to double check because I remember liking the reader for the last one, and sure enough, this was a different audio company that produced it and a different reader. Besides her narrative voice being somewhat annoying, the reader's dialogue voices--male and female--were almost enough alike to be interchangeable, except for Clay--the Texan--who had a decidedly fake accent. The timing was also off, with lots of inappropriately placed pauses. Not sure if it was the director of the piece or the reader, but I nearly stopped listening at one point. I kept on only because it's a relatively short book. The story itself wasn't too bad, but it didn't capture my attention nearly as much as the first two books in the series did. There also seemed to be a lot of re-hashing of events in previous books and at times the narrative explaining various procedures with news production seemed more like a dry lecture than being woven in as part of the story. The local flavor was still there, and I did enjoy that familiarity, and I like the way the author picks an interesting topic to focus on (in this case, wind power) that I get to learn a little something about. I'm planning to continue reading the series, but I will definitely read the print version if the same reader is used next time. C+
20. THE TIME MACHINE by HG WELLS (AUDIO) Classic sci-fi story written in 1895 about a group of men who meet at their club in London. They witness a little machine made by one of their number--they refer to him only as The Time Traveller--disappear. And the following week, the machine's owner shows up late to their dinner and has a fantastic tale of traveling to the year 802, 701 A.D. where he meets a people called the Eloi--humanoid, but very different from the humans he knows from Victorian London. Before long, he also meets another set of creatures whom he christens the Morlocks, who live in the dark subterranean depths of the planet and who make the effortless lives of the Eloi possible--or so he thinks. He develops several theories about how humans evolved to this state, some of which are disproved by himself over what feels like just a few days. He also travels briefly on his way 'home' to other times and sees interesting and often horrific things. When he returns, he's only been gone a few hours and of course no one believes he's figured out how to traverse the fourth dimension. Enjoyably read by Simon Puttock, it was good to return to a bit of classic literature. Better than either of the movie versions, that's for sure! Going to try to listen to a little more of this classic stuff. A.
21. #2 Stella Hardesty mystery set in rural Missouri. Stella is still recovering from the events at the end of book one, so her 'activities' (persuading the county's abusive men to be a little friendlier to their wives) have been curtailed. Until a tornado plows through Prosper, bringing back a lot of bad memories for Stella--her uncle was killed in a tornado when she was a little girl and she's always gotten a little panicky in bad weather since then. This one rips the snack shack at the local fairgrounds out of the ground, exposing the mummified body of a woman, and a friend of Stella's who was working on the shack when it was built three years previously is arrested for the murder. Stella tries to get Sheriff Goat Jones to reveal what they have against Neb Donovan, but he's being closemouthed--especially since the night of the tornado when he was in the midst of serving Stella dinner when his ex-wife Brandy showed up on his doorstep. Stella's trying to figure out if he still has the hots for the ex or if she should keep trying to snag him for herself. Strangely, Brandy's appearance ends up tying into Stella's case (she's being paid by Neb's wife to clear his name--mostly nosing around, no real physical action just yet) as the clues lead back to some mighty strange goings-on, even resulting in Stella and Brandy having some quality girl-time. Another wild and wacky romp across rural Missouri with a whole parcel of eccentric characters and a strange and twisty plot that tugs equally at your heartstrings and your funny bone. Very enjoyable, and I'm very much looking forward to the next in series. A.
DNF: THE GOLDEN ORANGE by Joseph Wambaugh. Just...argh
Currently reading: MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD by Troy Soos (audio), TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN by Rhys Bowen, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie and THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell.
Cheryl
2.THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler. #6 Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery set in London. When a middle-aged woman dies in suspicious circumstances in a London street, Arthur Bryant recognizes her, having seen her entering a pub the evening before as he was walking home half-souses from Oswald Finch's wake. The problem comes when he and his partner John May go to find the pub and find that not only is it not there, but it hadn't been there since sometime in the 1800's. When several other middle aged-women die in similar circumstances in various pubs around town, they know there's a connection--but what? Of course the PCU employs all their usual offbeat methods to piece things together, even with their newest member--former nemesis from the Met, Sgt. Jack Renfield--now a member of the team and set to watch them like hawks for rules violations. When the eventually find the killer, they're relieved, but Bryant still isn't satisfied because he knows the killer--while capable of killing--couldn't possibly have masterminded such a complicated scheme and thus he knows they need to seek out the brains behind the young man's actions. But how, when the PCU is once again set to be disbanded since they've lost the tenancy on their office building through a loophole in the paperwork process discovered by their arch-nemesis Kasavian at the Home Office. Another delightfully quirky mystery with the octogenarian duo and their younger cohorts brilliantly sniffing out crime through the use of decidedly unconventional methods. Looking forward to the next! A+
3. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie. #3 in the First Law fantasy trilogy. The conclusion of this epic fantasy series takes up where the second left off, with the weary travelers who went to the edge of the world with Bayaz, First of the Magi seeking The Seed--a powerful magical artifact--now back in Adua and dispersing to other parts in an attempt to resume their former lives. Not an easy task when all have been profoundly changed by their adventures. Loren Ninefingers is off to the north to help Dogman, Grim, Black Dow and the other Named Men fight the self-proclaimed King of the North, Bethod. They hope to join forces with Collum West and the Union army. Meanwhile, back in Adua, Ferro Maljinn sticks around and hopes to figure out what Bayaz is really up to, and Jezal dan Luthar, once somewhat of a dandy and now an almost-seasoned warrior, seeks out Collum West's sister Ardee, once the love of his life, but Bayaz has other plans for him. And my own personal hero, Sand dan Glokta, crippled and bitter from his years of torture in a Gurkish prison, continues as lead Inquisitor with only Arch Lector Sult above him in power. They are busy trying to machinate the votes for the next King, as the old one has died and his son has been killed in battle. All of these internal battles pale when it is learned that the Gurkish are heading for Adua en force at just the time when the Union army is scattered. Excellent conclusion to this series, although there is some wiggle room for the possibility of additional books or spin-offs with some of the characters. Dark and depressing at times with a none-too-hopeful take on humanity and with its brutal and broken protagonists, I daresay this series won't be to everyone's liking, but I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Got a couple of stand-alones by this author and look forward to reading them as well. A+
4. HOLY TERROR IN THE HEBRIDES by Jeanne M. Dams. #3 Dorothy Martin mystery, this one set on the island of Iona off Scotland's coast. Dorothy is planning to join friends who are renting a cottage on Iona for a couple of weeks, only to have her friend's husband have a mild heart attack just before so they are unable to go. Since the cottage is paid for, they urge Dorothy to go on ahead, and as her policeman friend Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt is out of the country at a conference, she decides to do just that. She unwittingly forgets the key to the rented cottage back in Sherebury and thus spends a couple of days at a hotel along with an ecumenical church group from the Chicago area--but they certainly seem to be having some problems with getting along together! A diverse group from several Christian sects and a Jewish Rabbi, their number dwindles by one when Robert Williams--whom none of the others liked--dies in front of Dorothy's eyes, slipping off a cliff inside Fingal's Cave, bouncing off rocks and into the water. But the more Dorothy thinks about it, the more she thinks his death wasn't entirely accidental. Then a major storm with hurricane-force winds besieges the island and she doesn't have much time to consider it--without phone or electricity working in her cottage, Dorothy once again takes refuge in the hotel where they have a generator, and where she can observe the members of the religious party more closely and look for clues as to who might have sabotaged Bob Williams, causing him to fall. This was a pleasant, light cozy read--another of these series that I inexplicably enjoy. I learned a lot of interesting things about Iona and its history, and despite Dorothy sometimes being a silly twit, I do like her and find the author's writing style easy to read and enjoyable. Not earth-shatteringly wonderful, but a certainly enjoyable read, and a series I'll continue to read through. B.
5. DUST by Martha Grimes. (AUDIO) #21 Supt. Richard Jury mystery. Jury is called to the scene of a murder by young Benny Keegan--Benny is working (illegally, as he's only 13) in a hotel and had delivered some coffee to a patron's room and found him shot dead on the balcony. Billy Maples lived part of the time at Lamb House in Rye, the one-time home of author Henry James (and later, E.F. Benson). He was also the grandson of Jury's old acquaintance, Oswald Maples, who was a code-breaker during WWII. Jury fears he is treading on the Islington police patch but the DI in charge, Lu Aguilar, invites him to assist her because of his acquaintance with Oswald Maples--and Jury inexplicably ends up in bed with her, even though he's seeing Dr. Phyllis Nancy, one of the pathologists. Poor Jury. He goes through books and books without "getting any" and then he's drowning in it. ROFL! At any rate, trying to discover just who Billy Maples was isn't easy--he was apparently bi-polar and untreated, so what he was like depends on whom you spoke to about him and when. Is there a connection back to Billy's grandfather's code-breaking days? Or something to do with his philanthropic efforts in the art world? Or something more personal? Melrose Plant comes into the story as he volunteers to take up the tenancy at Lamb House since the National Trust are in urgent need of someone to move in with Billy's death, and he can get the feel of things in Rye while Jury is working on the London connection. This book was okay, but definitely not one of the best in series. Too cobbled together with a lot of weird coincidences, and Jury's behavior was just--I don't know. I think he was possessed. It was read by John Lee, who sometimes does a stellar job, but sometimes all his voices sound the same, which was pretty much the case here. C.
6. MISS ZUKAS IN DEATH'S SHADOW by Jo Dereske. #7 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma once again is around when a dead body is discovered--this time at the local men's shelter/soup kitchen where she's been sentenced to serve community service for refusing to pay a ticket that she feels was not deserved. The body is that of Quinton Boyd, a local financier and property developer who served on the Mission's board of directors and was at the Mission for a meeting. A young man who stays at the mission occasionally confesses to killing Boyd, but he is a simpleton and no one believes he actually did it. Tony's friend "Skitz" begins tailing Helma and wants her to prove that Tony didn't do it. Then someone starts implicating Helma herself, sending an anonymous letter to the police and planting the gun that was used in her car. Helma does (on the surface) have a motive, given that Boyd also served on the library board of directors and he and Helma had crossed horns there. To make matters worse, an old beau of Helma's from high school shows up courting her, just as police chief Wayne Gallant seems finally poised to make his move on Helma himself. Another light, enjoyable read in fictional Bellehaven, WA with Helma, Ruth and some interesting characters from the shelter. A.
7. SILVER BORNE by Patricia Briggs. #5 Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson paranormal mystery set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Mercy is a coyote shapeshifter whose mate is the Alpha werewolf of the local pack. Not everyone in Adam's pack is happy about Mercy, a non-wolf, being mated to their leader, as she discovers when one or more of them get inside her head and attempt to influence her behavior while she and Adam are out on a date. Mercy hadn't realized that the pack could have that much influence, and it takes her awhile to figure out what had happened--but then, she's got other problems, including her roommate Sam 'going wolf' after a botched suicide attempt and a missing friend, owner of a bookstore who left a strange looking book with her before he disappeared--only to have some very powerful fae looking for the book and for Phin. Another enjoyable visit with Mercy, Adam, and the gang as Mercy continues to feel her way around trying to make her life situation work within pack laws. Because of all the different elements to the book (various storylines) it did feel a bit scattered at times, but the author did a nice job of tying many of those threads together into a somewhat cohesive plot. Looking forward to River Marked! B+
8. DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey. #5 Inspector Alan Grant mystery--I hadn't realized when I chose it that it was part of a series. I thought it was a standalone as I hear this book mentioned all the time but had never heard of the other books in the series even once. I've even seen other books modeled after this plot--a police detective hospitalized and physically incapacitated who uses his mental muscles to solve a crime--in this case, one that is centuries old. Attempting to snap him out of the rut of boredom, Alan's friend Marta brings him a sheaf of photos and prints of interesting faces (Alan's weakness!) of people throughout history--and the one that intrigues him is that of King Richard III, the one who was accused of killing off his two nephews, 'the princes in the Tower.' The portrait Alan sees makes him think that the man could not be a murderer, so he sets a young friend of Marta's to doing some research to see what proof exists to convict Richard--and finds, to his amazement, that far from proving his guilt, much evidence exists to exonerate him. He certainly comes up with a lot of interesting evidence, and by the end of the story managed to convince me, and I guess a lot of other people over time too, that history books sometimes have got a lot to answer for. (The book is a classic, written in 1951--the author died the following year and never got to see just how revered it became.) It's not your standard whodunit by any stretch of the imagination and of course is quite dated, but a very interesting and well-done book. A-.
9. TO FETCH A THIEF by Spencer Quinn. (AUDIO) #3 Chet and Bernie mystery. Bernie Little and his dog, Chet, really dislike doing divorce work. But when money's tight, it does pay the bills. Of course, when the woman they are following ends up at a motel with none other than Bernie's ex-wife's boyfriend Malcolm, things get decidedly more complicated--at least for Bernie. Chet's not sure what all the fuss is about. The client gives them some tickets to the circus as a bonus, so Bernie, Chet and Charlie, Bernie's six-year-old son, are off to see Peanut the elephant and all the other circus acts. Only they discover upon arrival that the circus is closed because Peanut and her trainer have disappeared overnight. The story going around says that Uri DeLeath, known as a humanitarian trainer, finally felt the pressure of the animal rights groups and stole off with Peanut in the night. Bernie, who arrives when his cop friend Rick is beginning his interviews and sits in, isn't so sure--and is glad when Popo the Clown hires him to find Uri (who is his life partner) and Peanut when the police aren't able to give more time and resources to the hunt for them. Anything to take his mind off the problem with Lita and Malcolm. So Chet and Bernie are off on another wild adventure across country (and even across borders) on the trail of wild animals, smugglers and all-around bad guys. Told from Chet's point of view, I worried after the first book that the whole novelty of stories told by a dog would fade and the series would lose its luster, but I have continued to enjoy each of the audio versions as much as the first. Very well-read with just the right "tone" by Jim Frangione. Looking forward to the next one! A
10. SHROUD OF DISHONOR by Maureen Ash. #5 Bascot de Marins "Templar Knight" mystery set in 1194 Lincoln UK and surrounding area. When a local prostitute is murdered and stashed in a chest in the Templar's chapel, everyone is firstly aghast that someone could get into the enclave unobserved and commit such a heinous crime under the Templars noses, and also that anyone would want to. Bascot de Marins, set to leave Lincoln for Portugal in just a few days, is asked to undertake the investigation for the Templars, working with the Sheriff on the secular side since the victim was a Lincoln citizen. A second body with the Templar sigil carved on the whore's belly confirms that there is a serial killer about with a grudge against the Templars--or perhaps it's one of the Templars themselves? Bascot works with the Sheriff's men--whom he'd investigated earlier cases with when he was a retainer of castellan Nicolaa de la Haye before rejoining the Templars--and even a little help from Gianni, his former servant now training as a scribe in de la Haye's household. I enjoyed this entry in the series with the historical detail, although I still don't feel that Bascot is a fully developed character yet. Characterization seems to be this author's weakness, as well as a somewhat pedestrian writing style, and yet the books read quickly and tell an interesting story. B
11. NO COLDER PLACE by S.J. Rozan. #4 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery set in New York City. This series is somewhat unique in that it alternates points of view every other book. This one is told from Bill's point of view. Both are private investigators with separate agencies who work together. Bill would like their relationship to be more than it is, and I think Lydia would as well, except that her family is traditional Chinese and her mother dislikes Bill--or the idea that any Caucasian would woo her daughter. Bill is contacted by an old cop friend who now runs his own much larger and more sophisticated PI agency. A construction company boss has hired him to discover who's stealing from his company--and also if possible to find a worker who disappeared a few days ago, seemingly without a trace. They have an idea who the thief might be, but proving it and dismissing him without the Union raising a fuss is another matter--and as Joe Romeo is also suspected of being a bookie and possibly running other kinds of illegal activities on site, even trickier. Bill goes undercover as a mason working with the company--not so far-fetched as he did construction work when he was younger. First day on the job, there is an 'accident' that puts one of Bill's co-workers in the hospital in a coma, and the second day, they dig up the body of the missing guy in an elevator pit that needed to be redone due to water seepage. The situation deteriorates from there, when Bill discovers (via Lydia, whom the client has agreed to putting in the office as a temporary 'secretary' to keeping an eye out there) that the company is having financial problems, that the architect has her own agenda, and that there may well be a mob connection somewhere in the works. I enjoy this series and find that the switching back and forth from Bill's and Lydia's point of view in every other book works great--much better, IMO, than swapping about within the same book. It gives the story more cohesiveness. Although I had figured out most aspects of the actual mystery and figured out the murderer well in advance, I still enjoyed this book immensely. Looking forward very much to the next one! A.
12. ROLLING THUNDER by Chris Grabenstein. #6 John Ceepak/Danny Boyle mystery set in fictional Sea Haven on the Jersey Shore. Ceepak and Danny are working at the opening of the new boardwalk amusement, the Rolling Thunder, a gigantic wooden roller coaster. Excitement ensues when the wife of the owner has a heart attack during the inaugural ride, and even Ceepak performing CPR after climbing up the roller coaster tracks can't save her. Although some members of the dysfunctional O'Malley family don't seem to be too grief-stricken, there's no evidence that it was anything other than a natural death--although, admittedly, not exactly good advertisement for the ride. Later, when a local woman, a waitress at a local dive that Ceepak and Danny stop for speeding and issue a warning to ends up hacked to death and packaged in two suitcases just hours later, it seems there may be a link back to the heart attack death as the young woman was apparently the mistress of Paddy O'Malley. Suddenly evidence pointing at O'Malley starts turning up left and right, and it's rather obvious even to the still-green Danny that someone really wants him implicated not only in the young woman's death but his wife's as well. Ceepak of course sees through this ruse from the beginning and digs to the heart of the matter by the end of the case, which ends with more heart-stopping moments up on the Rolling Thunder. Another great visit to Sea Haven, with Danny, Ceepak, Rita and the rest of the regular crew--although some of the peripheral characters change regularly, including Danny's girlfriend-of-the-month. Poor guy--he'll find the right one someday, I have no doubt! Easy reading style, great story and wonderful characters--a perfect light summer beach read if you're into that sort of thing--me, I couldn't hold out that long. Reading this catches me up to the current end of the series--now I'm stuck waiting a whole year til the next one comes out. Boo hoo! A.
13.STARVATION LAKE by Bryan Gruley. First in a (I think) series set in the small fictional resort town of Starvation Lake, Michigan. (There is a lake named 'Starvation Lake' but no town by that name.) Starvation Lake, where they eat, sleep and breathe hockey, and where Gus Carpenter grew up. Gus has to spend every day of his life living down the humiliation of letting the winning goal past him in the one state championship game that the River Rats ever made it to. His coach, Jack Blackburn, never spoke to him after that game. Gus moved away, became a reporter in Detroit, and then ended up returning to his hometown in shame after his newspaper was sued over an investigative story that he wrote with a primary source that was later shown to have an ulterior motive for blowing the whistle. So now he lives with the double humiliation (although no one knows about the exact reason why he came back from Detroit--that shame is mostly Gus's alone) and leads a mostly quiet life as a small town newspaperman--until the snowmobile that Coach Jack Blackburn was driving when it went through the ice on Starvation Lake ten years previously washes up on shore on Walleye Lake, five miles away. New questions about Blackburn's death begin to be raised, and Gus and his young reporter Joanie McCarthy start digging and find some very disturbing information about the much-loved Coach. This was an excellent read with a story that hooked me in right from the beginning, even though I'm not a huge hockey fan. While the initial mystery about Coach wasn't too hard to untangle fairly early on, the other plot twists at the end of the book were quite unexpected and increased my respect for the author's plotting skills. He also does a great job of providing a sense of place in the small, isolated town. It will be interesting to see what he does with the second book in the series. Highly recommended! A.
14.A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD by Alan Bradley. (AUDIO) #3 Flavia de Luce mystery set in 1950's England. At the church fete in Bishop's Lacey, Flavia encounters a gypsy fortuneteller who makes allusions to her dead mother Harriet. Although a very smart cookie for an eleven-year-old, and a chemistry whiz, Flavia tends to have a blind spot when it comes to the mother she never knew and is intrigued by the gypsy--enough to upset a candle which causes a fire in her tent. Feeling remorseful, Flavia invites her to park her caravan on a secluded corner of her family's estate and accompanies the woman there. When she returns the next day, finds that the woman has been attacked, beaten and near death. She summons help, and only a few hours later discovers the body of local ne'er-do-well hanging from a fountain with a lobster pick from her own family home stuffed up his nostril. Later, when the police come 'round, the lobster pick isn't there. As Flavia noses around and tries to connect the strange middle-of-the-night goings on at her home, the puzzle of an almost-extinct religious group, and the odd behavior of the gypsy's granddaughter with the seemingly unrelated beating of the gypsy woman and Brookie's death, she of course must deal with her two annoying and mean older sisters, her distant father--who has financial problems and is starting to sell off the family silver--and the ever-watchful police inspector who encountered Flavia's meddlesome self on earlier cases. Thoroughly enjoyable book as read by Jayne Entwistle--light, entertaining and charming without being sappy. Looking forward to the next! A.
15. THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY by Donna Leon. #15 in the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series set in Venice. Brunetti is asked by Vianello, recently promoted to Inspector, to see what can be done about a friend of his family who was arrested in an environmental protest. While this doesn't have much to do with the eventual mystery, it does lead to another personal entreaty by the environmentalist's wife to determine whether her father, the owner of a glass factory on the island of Murano, is serious when he makes crazy threats against his son-in-law. During the course of that visit to Murano, he meets a night worker who assumes Brunetti has come to visit him about the letters he's been writing to the police and several other agencies protesting the unsafe conditions in the fornaci on Murano and how they caused birth defects in one of his children. The man seems obsessed and nearly crazy, but when he turns up dead of an apparent accident a few days later, Brunetti begins to give more weight to his rantings and investigates--even though he's been told to leave it alone by Vice-Questore Patta. (As usual!) One wonders whether the police are ever allowed to actually be police in Italy given that Brunetti is almost always called off of cases by his political-minded superior. As always, though, despite some of the repetitive themes, this was an enjoyable visit to Venice with Guido, Paola and her cooking and the city itself. A.
16. WHERE SERPENTS SLEEP by C.S. Harris. #4 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery set in Regency-era London. Sebastian is approached by Hero Jarvis, daughter of his mortal enemy Lord Jarvis, to ask his assistance in solving a crime that the Bow Street Runners have been ordered--by her father--not to investigate. The Magdalene House--a Quaker refuge for prostitutes trying to get out of the life--is burned down while Miss Jarvis was there interviewing one of the girls, a wellborn young woman going by the name of Rose. From what Hero observed, Rose herself was targeted specifically and was actually shot to death, and Hero wants to know why, and also wants to see justice done for those whom no one else will speak. Sebastian is not eager to work with Miss Jarvis, but the case is intriguing enough to pique his interest and get him out of the doldrums of drink and gambling where he's spent the last many months since his relationship with Kat Boleyn ended. They pursue different avenues, using decidedly different methods, first trying to determine who Rose was, and then why someone would target her for death. As they begin to uncover answers, both find themselves followed and attacked, so they know that the person whom they seek must be someone in a place of power with an explosive secret to keep. Enjoyable read as always, although the ending on this one was a bit predictable. Interesting characters, easy-reading style and great historical detail--physical as well as social--make these books a treat to read. A.
17. COLD CASE by Linda Barnes. #8 Carlotta Carlyle mystery set in Boston and environs. Carlotta is approached by an older man who gives her the first chapter of a manuscript to read--he believes that Thea Janis is alive. She had written a brilliant, seductive novel that read well beyond her fifteen years--and then disappeared. She wrote using a particular paper and ink in a certain style and this manuscript certainly reads a lot like Nightmare's Dawn. But a little digging makes Carlotta wonder what her client is playing at--when it's revealed that Thea--whose real name was Dorothy Cameron, one of the politically rich and powerful Cameron family--was actually dead, the killer having confessed and her body being buried. Suddenly, the client--who also is not whom he claims to be--wants the manuscript back and to un-hire Carlotta, but by then the old, cold case has got her intrigued and she's not likely to give up so quickly. Leaving most of the laws and ethics of a good private investigator behind, she plunges ahead anyway--otherwise, there would probably be no story here. LOL Meanwhile, the drug lord natural father of Carlotta's "little sister" Paolina has disappeared and she engages her dispatcher pal Gloria to harass his lawyer until she knows where he is--and she's being followed by someone she suspects is either one of Carlos' thugs or else a DEA agent. Or is it someone connected with the Cameron family who don't want her digging too deeply into Thea's death? Every time I read one of these books, I'm amazed how the series flew under my radar for so many years, and that the author isn't more well-known. Great main character, interesting secondary characters, very atmospheric with plenty of action and realistic dialogue. Another winner! A.
18. SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN by Naomi Hirahara. #3 Mas Arai mystery set in LA. Mas, a seventy-something-year-old Japanese-American gardener who is also a Hiroshima bomb survivor, gets sucked into another mystery when a party he's coerced into attending by his friend GI Hasuike to celebrate the Vegas jackpot GI's friend Randy won sports an interesting ending--Randy being murdered in the parking lot, next to him a broken antique shamisen--an Okinawan musical instrument. Once again, history plays a role in the case, which Mas works on with Juanita Gushiken, a licensed PI and GI's girlfriend. As he begins to trace the shamisen, he finds out some interesting details about Randy that even GI didn't know, and the murder could tie into the disappearance of a Japanese national some fifty years previously. Mas must set aside his naturally reticent nature to go knocking on doors and be persistent about asking questions. I always learn something when I read this series and this book was no exception. Although the story can be a little difficult to follow at times, with the use of some Japanese terms as well as the strange sort of combination English-Japanese speech that many of Mas's generation use, I've gotten somewhat used to it now by this third book. I really like Mas and look forward to reading his next adventure. A
19.SILENCING SAM by Julie Kramer (AUDIO) #3 Riley Spartz mystery set in the Twin Cities, MN. Riley, a TV reporter, is herself a suspect in the shooting death of a newspaper gossip columnist who had thrown some nasty tidbits about her in his column. They'd been seen arguing--she threw wine at him--and she had no alibi. To make matters worse, a new reporter from Texas was stealing all the good stories and annoying Riley to death with his condescending attitude, calling her "little lady" even after she'd requested that he stop. Since she isn't allowed near the Sam Pierce case, Riley is determined to scoop Clay by solving the headless murder story. She also continues working on the story of someone sabotaging wind turbines on a wind farm to the south of the Twin Cities near where her parents live. I'm going to be blunt and say that I was very disappointed with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series--one read in print, the other listened to--but the reader for this book was horrible. I had to double check because I remember liking the reader for the last one, and sure enough, this was a different audio company that produced it and a different reader. Besides her narrative voice being somewhat annoying, the reader's dialogue voices--male and female--were almost enough alike to be interchangeable, except for Clay--the Texan--who had a decidedly fake accent. The timing was also off, with lots of inappropriately placed pauses. Not sure if it was the director of the piece or the reader, but I nearly stopped listening at one point. I kept on only because it's a relatively short book. The story itself wasn't too bad, but it didn't capture my attention nearly as much as the first two books in the series did. There also seemed to be a lot of re-hashing of events in previous books and at times the narrative explaining various procedures with news production seemed more like a dry lecture than being woven in as part of the story. The local flavor was still there, and I did enjoy that familiarity, and I like the way the author picks an interesting topic to focus on (in this case, wind power) that I get to learn a little something about. I'm planning to continue reading the series, but I will definitely read the print version if the same reader is used next time. C+
20. THE TIME MACHINE by HG WELLS (AUDIO) Classic sci-fi story written in 1895 about a group of men who meet at their club in London. They witness a little machine made by one of their number--they refer to him only as The Time Traveller--disappear. And the following week, the machine's owner shows up late to their dinner and has a fantastic tale of traveling to the year 802, 701 A.D. where he meets a people called the Eloi--humanoid, but very different from the humans he knows from Victorian London. Before long, he also meets another set of creatures whom he christens the Morlocks, who live in the dark subterranean depths of the planet and who make the effortless lives of the Eloi possible--or so he thinks. He develops several theories about how humans evolved to this state, some of which are disproved by himself over what feels like just a few days. He also travels briefly on his way 'home' to other times and sees interesting and often horrific things. When he returns, he's only been gone a few hours and of course no one believes he's figured out how to traverse the fourth dimension. Enjoyably read by Simon Puttock, it was good to return to a bit of classic literature. Better than either of the movie versions, that's for sure! Going to try to listen to a little more of this classic stuff. A.
21. #2 Stella Hardesty mystery set in rural Missouri. Stella is still recovering from the events at the end of book one, so her 'activities' (persuading the county's abusive men to be a little friendlier to their wives) have been curtailed. Until a tornado plows through Prosper, bringing back a lot of bad memories for Stella--her uncle was killed in a tornado when she was a little girl and she's always gotten a little panicky in bad weather since then. This one rips the snack shack at the local fairgrounds out of the ground, exposing the mummified body of a woman, and a friend of Stella's who was working on the shack when it was built three years previously is arrested for the murder. Stella tries to get Sheriff Goat Jones to reveal what they have against Neb Donovan, but he's being closemouthed--especially since the night of the tornado when he was in the midst of serving Stella dinner when his ex-wife Brandy showed up on his doorstep. Stella's trying to figure out if he still has the hots for the ex or if she should keep trying to snag him for herself. Strangely, Brandy's appearance ends up tying into Stella's case (she's being paid by Neb's wife to clear his name--mostly nosing around, no real physical action just yet) as the clues lead back to some mighty strange goings-on, even resulting in Stella and Brandy having some quality girl-time. Another wild and wacky romp across rural Missouri with a whole parcel of eccentric characters and a strange and twisty plot that tugs equally at your heartstrings and your funny bone. Very enjoyable, and I'm very much looking forward to the next in series. A.
DNF: THE GOLDEN ORANGE by Joseph Wambaugh. Just...argh
Currently reading: MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD by Troy Soos (audio), TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN by Rhys Bowen, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie and THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell.
Cheryl
Friday, February 4, 2011
February 2011
Well, I made it through January with my New Years Resolution intact...no books were purchased for money this month...now, on to February!
1.WILD INDIGO by Sandi Ault. #1 Jamaica Wild mystery. Jamaica Wild is a resource protection agent for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in northern New Mexico. She's also sort of adopted a Pueblo Indian woman whom she calls Momma Anna as her surrogate mother, learning something of the Pueblo ways, which doesn't sit well with all the clan, as maintaining the secrets of the tribe is a big part of the tradition. Jamaica lives in a cabin in the middle of nowhere without a phone and with her wolf pup, Mountain. When she witnesses what looks like a suicide--a young Pueblo man standing in the middle of a buffalo stampede--she feels traumatized as the young man was Jerome Santana, Momma Anna's son. It only gets worse when the leaders of the local Pueblo government make it known that they believe Jamaica was the one who started the stampede that killed Jerome. Her boss wants her to play down her involvement and stay quiet, but every bone in Jamaica's body won't let her stay out of it and leads her to find out the truth about Jerome's death. Steeped in the culture and lore and mysticism of the Pueblo Indians, this was quite an interesting story, easy to read (if occasionally a little...I don't know....clumsy or awkward, maybe) with a somewhat unique and engaging lead character. I picked this book up to fulfill a requirement in a mystery reading challenge (something with the word Indigo in the title) and am very glad I did so. I'd not heard of this author until this title popped up in a search--coincidentally, the next day I noticed when the Left Coast Crime awards were announced that the latest book in the series is nominated for a Watson (best sidekick) and a Hillerman Sky Award for a book that captures the landscape of the Southwest. This book certainly did a great job with that, too. Looking forward to more! B+
2.THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman. (AUDIO) #5 in the Navajo mysteries, this one featuring only Sgt. Jim Chee, who works for the Navajo Tribal Police. Chee is out on a stakeout, watching a new windmill that has twice been vandalized to try to catch the culprit in the act, when he witnesses a small plane crash not far away. It's a small plane, and very shortly after he arrives on the scene, the pilot dies. While he's briefly inspecting the site, he hears a gunshot not far off, and then a car driving away. The plane ends up being part of a smuggling ring, carting loads of drugs into the country under cover of darkness, and an arrogant, annoying DEA officer gets involved, as well as the FBI. Chee is supposed to just drop that case and concentrate on finding the windmill vandals, and then a body appears on the scene, obviously dead for quite some time. Of course the cases all eventually tie together as Chee bends and twists the rules and follows the clues while disobeying orders to find the solution. Atmospheric and educational, mystical and steeped in Navajo and Hopi tradition, this series is wonderfully read by George Guidall, whom I would happily listen to reciting the phone book. LOL Anyway, this was another enjoyable entry in the series, although I do like the books that have both Leaphorn and Chee in them a little better. A
3.MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp. #2 Mace Bauer mystery, set in central Florida. Mace and her Mama are trying to do a little bonding by camping and riding the 120-mile Cracker Trail--the week-long ride an educational trek celebrating the ways of the old-time Florida cattlemen. On the first day of the ride, Lawton Bramble, one of the ranchers who was allowing them to camp on his land and providing vats of his famous Cow Hunter Chili, dies. His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand? But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case. In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part. Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens. The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together. C.
4. THE BURGUNDIAN'S TALE by Kate Sedley. #14 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery. Roger is once again off from Bristol as his cobbled-together family begins to wear on his nerves and after more than a year, he decides to hit the open road selling his wares. Before he can leave, Master Timothy Plummer, agent and spy for Duke Richard of Gloucester comes to Bristol and finds Roger with a summons from Richard himself. It seems the son of one of his sister's (Margaret of York, now the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy) favorite ladies has been murdered and he wishes the crime to be solved before Margaret must go back to Burgundy. Fulk Quantrell was just eighteen but much wiser than his years, having learned to charm the ladies, including his aunt who changed her will for him, leaving him not only her home, but the embroidery shop she'd inherited from her husband. Supposedly coshed on the head by a footpad and robbed, Roger discovers that death scenario for Fulk unlikely as the killer left his purse and jewels on him--they were taken, but by two beggars who moved his body from in front of their patch after they found him dead. Despite all the women Fulk came into contact with singing his praises, Roger soon discovers that he wasn't such a charming young man underneath it all, and that there are plenty of people who were not sorry he was dead. Roger's astute powers of observation and refusal to give up eventually have him solving the crime. I really enjoyed this installment in the series--the easy-reading style of writing, the historical detail and sense of place, and the interesting characters, including plenty of real historical people as well. A.
5. MURDER IN BELLEVILLE by Cara Black. #2 Aimee Leduc mystery set in Paris. Aimee, a private investigator who apparently usually deals in computer investigations, once again gets caught up in more physical pursuits when she attempts to help a friend of hers whose husband is a diplomat dealing with some touchy foreign negotiations with Algeria. Anais leaves Aimee a cryptic message telling her where to meet, and when she arrives, she sees Anais talking with a woman whose car blows up right in front of them as the woman gets in it to leave--and then some thugs begin chasing them as they make a harried getaway on Aimee's moped down the subway tunnel. Shaken to the core, Aimee learns that the woman was Anais' husband's mistress, who has some possible connection to arms dealing and also possibly to the negotiations that Philippe is involved in. As she careens from one improbable situation to another, the story seems to get more and more out of control. That said--if it weren't for some of these silly situations--I like Aimee for the most part, and her circle of friends, including her business partner, her dog named Miles Davis, and the haunting clues about her past. I do get a bit tired of all the designer clothes and accessories mentioned (not my thing) but there are enough strong points about this book to keep me wanting to read on and to just take some parts with a grain of salt. B.
6. STRANGE AFFAIR by Peter Robinson. #15 DCI Alan Banks police procedural set in Yorkshire, UK. Banks, still recovering from the devastating fire at his cottage that almost cost him his life, is on holiday and wondering what to do with his time when he receives a couple of cryptic voicemails from his brother Roy, a wheeling-and-dealing financier in London. Alan and his younger brother are not close and never have been, and they rarely speak on the phone unless there's a problem, so the message--which sounds almost desperate though gives no details--intrigues him. When he tries to reach Roy in response, he's nowhere to be found, so Alan is off to London, where he discovers that Roy has all but disappeared. Knowing that his brother sometimes skated close to the edge of the law in his dealings, Banks decides to try to locate him first through "unofficial" channels lest he get little brother in trouble with the law by opening a missing persons case. Meanwhile, back in Eastvale, DI Annie Cabbot is dealing with a murder--a young woman shot execution style in the head, left in her car in a ditch along a deserted roadway--and surprise of surprises, she has Alan Banks' name and address scribbled on a piece of paper in her back jeans pocket--but even more intriguingly, it's the address to his burned-out cottage where he hasn't lived for several months. As Annie and Supt. Gristhorpe try to track Banks down (he's left his mobile on the kitchen table at his temporary apartment) and find the connection, Banks investigates Roy's life and begins to finally get to know his little brother. Robinson's series seems to just get better and better with each entry! I thoroughly enjoyed this one, found it hard to put down with a twisty plot (and even some surprises!), great characters and just the right balance between visceral and cerebral moments. Can't wait to read the next one! A.
7. LADY KILLER by Ed McBain. #8 in publication order of the 87th Precinct mysteries, this one features a case without a killer--at least to begin with. A young boy is sent into the precinct house with an envelope which contains a letter pieced together with cut out letters from the newspaper threatening to kill The Lady if they police can't stop him by 8 pm. First they must figure out if it's a crank letter, and then determine who 'The Lady' is. It's quite a hoot reading these old mysteries that are very dated because they mention the cost of items and salaries of policemen and where the only forensic evidence are fingerprints, which take a very long time to process. Of course, this means the detectives actually have to detect, and not just push a few buttons on a computer or phone to get the answers they need. Usually these books mention all the detectives at least in passing, and then tend to feature a couple of them as primary protagonists. In this one we get to know Cotton Hawes a little better, and it was an enjoyable quick read looking at police work back in the years when I was born. B.
8. MURDER AT EBBETS FIELD BY Troy Soos. (AUDIO) #2 in the Mickey Rawlings historical mystery series featuring the utility infielder who currently plays for the New York Giants. Mickey is told by his manager, the cranky, no-nonsense John McGraw, that he will have to go to a movie studio on his time off. He's had a request from a local movie producer making a baseball movie to provide a player for a bit part, and since he can't spare any of his more well-known starting players, Mickey it is. As he gets involved in the production and attends a party that evening, he meets Marguerite Turner, an actress he knows from seeing in "jungle movies." She has a bit part in this movie, taking a back seat to her friend, the much more famous and classically beautiful Florence Hampton. Mickey tries champagne for the first time and of course overindulges so ends up booking a room at the hotel where the party is held. Imagine his surprise when he finds the naked body of Miss Hampton under the boardwalk near the hotel early the next morning! There's no outward evidence of foul play, but Mickey is asked by his reporter friend Carl and then by Miss Turner to look into Florence's death--which Mickey does, all while trying not to aggravate the movie people, a vindictive newspaper reporter for a scandal rag, or the Brooklyn Dodgers players, several of whom seemed to have been involved with her. I have come to really enjoy this series, although the mystery was easy to figure out. I particularly like listening to the audio version with the story being well-told and with just the right mix of humor and seriousness. Looking forward to listening to the next one. A
9. HEART OF ICE by Alys Clare. #9 in the Hawkenlye Abbey historical mystery series set in 1194 England. A young man seeks care at the healing waters of Hawkenlye Abbey, but before he reaches them, he is struck on the head and killed by an unknown assailant and shoved into a pond that freezes over. A couple of days later, his body is discovered and at first he's believed to be the victim of some type of wasting disease--until the knot on his head is discovered. Soon, more sick people arrive at Hawkenlye and Abbess Helewise and the sisters and brothers have a full-fledged plague on their hands. Sir Josse d'Acquin is off to Tonbridge and even further afield trying to find out the young man's identity and where he had traveled to try to locate the source of the illness or at least the path so it can be contained and stopped. Meanwhile, Abbess Helewise is troubled and as she watches people die and even some of her beloved sisters and brothers fall ill, considers making a journey into the forest to find the Pagan healer Joanna, one-time lover of Sir Josse. The story then swtiches to Joanna's story, telling of the last few months and how she is brought to an island to learn the healing ways and learn the true identity of her mother and other mysteries. I enjoy this series, although the continued romantic tension between Josse and Helewise does get old after awhile. The author does a good job of incorporating historical events and people into the plots of the books and this one was no exception, although I'm not sure how well the overly-long section about Joanna worked here. Don't get me wrong--as a Pagan myself, I found it quite interesting and a good story in and of itself, but I think an abbreviated version of it would have worked better for the purpose of this book. All in all, a satisfying read and I look forward to continuing on in the series. B+
10. DRIVEN TO INK by Karen E. Olson. #3 in the Tattoo shop mysteries featuring Brett Kavanaugh, owner of the Painted Lady tattoo salon in Las Vegas. Brett kindly loans her red Mustang convertible to an elderly friend who is getting married--they are using one of the drive-through wedding chapels in Vegas and wanted something more classy than Sylvia's battered Gremlin. The morning after, Brett returns from a trip to Red Rocks where she does some hiking--only to discover a body in the trunk--dead as a doornail, with a dead rat underneath it. The body looks, at first glance, like Dean Martin, but ends up being one of the impersonators who worked at the wedding chapel. When she tries to reach Sylvia and Bernie, they can't be found either by herself, Sylvia's son or the police--Brett calls her brother Tim, a detective with LVPD, but because of her involvement in the case, it must be handled by another detective. Brett and Jeff Coleman, rival tattoo shop owner, sort-of friend and son of Sylvia, put their heads together to try to locate the newlyweds and find out who the body in her trunk is and who put him there, and of course this gets them in trouble (several times) with the law as well as with the killer. While the storyline here sounds good, I have to say that this book and I got off on the wrong foot on page 3, when the wrong form of a word was used--'incidence' being used instead of simply the plural of 'incident.' Argh! It's one of those mistakes you need a human proofreader for and the kind I find more annoying than a simple typo. I enjoy the information about tattoos and the real sense of place that Olson gives to the Vegas venue. Brett's character is likable enough in general, it just seems that she continues to become dumb and dumber as she goes off on her own pursuing leads, withholding valuable information from the police, and doing otherwise unbelievable things. I like a story where the protagonist might be defiant and high-spirited, yet I like to be able to insert myself into the story, thinking "I might do the same thing if I were in her shoes." But I rarely feel that way with Brett. And again, it's another case where almost every eligible man she comes across, she 'checks out' and is ready to follow with puppy eyes after just a few minutes. It gets old, and my eye muscles get a good workout from all the eye-rolling I do. I have to admit I really miss the author's much-feistier, less cozy character from her previous series--as much as I like the author's writing style, this series is fast drifting back into the pack of cookie-cutter cozy series. Not bad, just not worth crowing about. C+
11. THE LAST KING OF TEXAS by Rick Riordan. (AUDIO) #3 Tres Navarre series set in San Antonio TX. A few months ago, Tres Navarre--private investigator and PhD in English lit--turned down a professorship at a local university to pursue the necessary training for his official PI license. Now that the guy who took the job has been shot--after the university receives multiple threatening letters regarding racist statements made by another former professor--he's offered the job again in a dual role: he'll also get to keep his PI hat on. The first day on the job, a package with a homemade bomb explodes as it's delivered to Dr. Aaron Brandon's (or rather, Tres's) office, which clinches the deal: he's interested now! Soon after beginning his investigation--at the protestation of the local police, including the very attractive Det. Anna DeLeon--Tres discovers a dark history about Dr. Brandon and his family that may signal other motives for his death other than just his role as an Anglo professor. Connected to a powerful local family known for their oppression and mistreatment of their Hispanic employees, there are dozens of people who may have wanted revenge. When it's known that Zeta Sanchez, the drug-running gang boss suspected of killing Dr. Brandon's father several years ago is back in the area, he becomes the obvious suspect and the target of the police investigation. Tres, however, isn't so sure and pursues other avenues, only to end up in a heap of trouble several times, with other murders and attacks along the way before he figures out who's behind all the killings. I do enjoy this series, and especially enjoy the reading by Tom Stechshulte who does a great job with the voices and the whole tone of the book. I like Tres a lot, and the author is able to provide a real sense of place which serves to make the city itself one of the characters in the book. There is a lot of violence in these books, as with many mysteries, a rather inordinate amount such that in real life, one would, I think, hesitate to be friends with someone like Tres who has dead bodies falling everywhere around him. I did figure out the mystery ahead of time, but not too early, just picking up on a couple of deftly-placed clues that made me sure I was right. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series. A.
12.THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King. #1 Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Set during WWI, Mary Russell is a young woman who is neighbor to Sherlock Holmes in the countryside, he having retired to live a quiet life. She stumbles upon him watching his bees and after a brief conversation, figures out who he is--and he recognizes that he's met a superior mind as well. That chance meeting begins a friendship and Miss Russell spends much time with Holmes, learning his methods of deduction, conducting scientific experiments and the like. Her 'home' life with an aunt who seeks only to criticize--her guardian since her parents died, but essentially dependent on Mary as she has the trust fund--Mary spends as much time away from there as she can. Soon she's enrolled at Oxford, coming home to visit Holmes on breaks, and they embark on several cases using his technique of disguise and employing various forensic techniques that were way ahead of their time. When Holmes is sought indirectly by an American Senator whose daughter has been kidnapped, he takes Mary along and they work their magic to get the six-year-old Jessica Simpson (ha ha!) back--and only then realize that they are working against a foe who has targeted Holmes specifically--someone who is as brilliant as Holmes himself with far-reaching plans. I enjoyed this take on the whole Holmes character and I liked Mary Russell too, but at times the book was just...I don't know...too wordy, too explanatory, too long-winded, too detailed and I wished she'd just get on with it already. Lots and lots of prose and not a whole lot of dialogue--sometimes it just got sloggy, as interesting as the story was. I also figured quite far in advance who the baddie was, which surprised me. I do intend to read on in the series but probably will space these out quite a lot. B
13. MURDER IN A COLD CLIMATE by Scott Young. #1 of a series set in the Northwest Territories of Canada, featuring Matthew "Matteesie" Kitologitak, an Inuk (singular of Inuit) Inspector for the RCMP. Actually, he's been primarily working for Northern Affairs, not doing much police work but attending conferences living mostly in Toronto. We know from the get-go that Matteesie is not your everyday hero--the opening pages see him with his long-time mistress in the northern town of Inuvik, waiting to fly out to Leningrad for a conference. (His wife, a white woman, is back in Toronto.) He's also not your typical burly-brawny tough guy--at 5'6" with a brown, round face, he doesn't exactly scare many folks, even bundled up in his parka. His RCMP boss, Buster, calls and asks him to look into something for him as a favor (it's been several years since he did any police work)--the disappearance of a small plane that had a well-known government official's son as the pilot. Meanwhile though, a murder happens right in front of Matteesie and he feels his inspector's instincts kick into gear as he puts that incident first--and of course after digging a bit, figures the two incidents are actually connected. Off he goes across the wild northern wilderness trying to track down a killer and find the connection to the missing plane. This book provided a great sense of place and a immersion into a culture that I didn't know all that much about. The author brought home in a very real way just how isolated things are up near the Arctic Circle, and how things most of us 'down here' (and even in southern Canada) take for granted--including the usual police procedures--which just aren't the same there. I liked Matteesie but the story itself was kind of all over the place, especially at first; it was hard to keep people and places straight in part because of the strange names, and it wasn't until the middle third of the book that I finally started 'getting' it enough so that the storyline made more sense. All in all, though, an enjoyable book and I will at some point continue reading on if I can lay hands on the second in the series. B.
14. CAT OF THE CENTURY by Rita Mae Brown (AUDIO) #18 Mrs. Murphy mystery also featuring Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen in Crozet, Virginia. Harry is off on a road trip with her pets to help Aunt Tally celebrate her 100th birthday at her college alma mater back in Missouri. One of the organizers disappears, and another lets "slip" that the missing woman has probably done a runner since she knows of some shady business practices that have gone on. Once back in Virginia, the accuser ends up dead, believed killed by the missing woman. Harry, who of course has her nose in the middle of it, isn't so sure. I'm not sure why I chose this book, except I needed something very quick and light, since I have two other audio books I'm #1 in line for at the library and I didn't want to get stuck in the midst of something more meaty. It's part of a series I really used to enjoy. I'm not a fan of cozy mysteries as a rule, but have always liked listening to this series, even though some of the main characters are animals. The reader does them well and they aren't too sappy. However, the last few have been not much more than soapboxes for the author to spout various political and social opinions and this one was no different. I did finish it, as the reader does a good job and I do like to visit with Harry and the gang now and then, but even that aspect was minimal this time as the story was told from the point of view of so many different characters that we hardly even spent any time with Harry and the pets. No more. D.
15. THE WEE FREE MEN by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #30 in publication order of the Discworld fantasy novels but #1 in the Tiffany Aching 'mini series' and the second DW novel aimed at younger readers. Tiffany is interested in becoming a witch--and she has a visit from Miss Tick--a witch who's surprised to have detected Tiffany's natural talent on 'the Chalk' which is 'much too soft to grow a proper witch.' Tiffany explains about some strange things she's seen and Miss Tick recognizes trouble and goes off to find more witches to help fight it. Tiffany conveniently forgets to mention the little bluish men with red hair she's seen as well, but when her annoying and perpetually sticky little brother Wentworth goes missing, these creatures come to her aid. The Nac Mac Feegle, she learns later. Not Pixies, but Pictsies...the Wee Free Men, known as thieves, drinkers and fighters and rarely a help to anyone. They're certain that the wee lad has been stolen and taken to a magical land by 'the Quin' who loves wee bairns, they lead Tiffany--who now wishes she'd gotten to know her grandmother, Granny Aching, better as she is learning that she was probably a witch herself. Once I started listening to this, I simply couldn't stop--it was hilarious and yet somewhat profound at the same time if that makes any sense. (Pretty much like most of the Discworld books, actually.) The reader was excellent and did a great job with the Scottish burr of the Nac Mac Feegle, such that I laughed out loud many times. Can't wait to see what interesting things Tiffany gets up to next. A+
DNF: GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss (audio) I listened to a couple hours of this before finally deciding it was a load of whiny, pretentious twaddle. The premise sounded interesting--the story of a writing desk and the people who owned it over time--but it was just...bleh.
Currently reading:
1. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie (#3 of the First Law fantasy trilogy)
2. THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler (#6 Bryant & May mystery)
3. DUST by Martha Grimes (AUDIO)
Cheryl
1.WILD INDIGO by Sandi Ault. #1 Jamaica Wild mystery. Jamaica Wild is a resource protection agent for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in northern New Mexico. She's also sort of adopted a Pueblo Indian woman whom she calls Momma Anna as her surrogate mother, learning something of the Pueblo ways, which doesn't sit well with all the clan, as maintaining the secrets of the tribe is a big part of the tradition. Jamaica lives in a cabin in the middle of nowhere without a phone and with her wolf pup, Mountain. When she witnesses what looks like a suicide--a young Pueblo man standing in the middle of a buffalo stampede--she feels traumatized as the young man was Jerome Santana, Momma Anna's son. It only gets worse when the leaders of the local Pueblo government make it known that they believe Jamaica was the one who started the stampede that killed Jerome. Her boss wants her to play down her involvement and stay quiet, but every bone in Jamaica's body won't let her stay out of it and leads her to find out the truth about Jerome's death. Steeped in the culture and lore and mysticism of the Pueblo Indians, this was quite an interesting story, easy to read (if occasionally a little...I don't know....clumsy or awkward, maybe) with a somewhat unique and engaging lead character. I picked this book up to fulfill a requirement in a mystery reading challenge (something with the word Indigo in the title) and am very glad I did so. I'd not heard of this author until this title popped up in a search--coincidentally, the next day I noticed when the Left Coast Crime awards were announced that the latest book in the series is nominated for a Watson (best sidekick) and a Hillerman Sky Award for a book that captures the landscape of the Southwest. This book certainly did a great job with that, too. Looking forward to more! B+
2.THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman. (AUDIO) #5 in the Navajo mysteries, this one featuring only Sgt. Jim Chee, who works for the Navajo Tribal Police. Chee is out on a stakeout, watching a new windmill that has twice been vandalized to try to catch the culprit in the act, when he witnesses a small plane crash not far away. It's a small plane, and very shortly after he arrives on the scene, the pilot dies. While he's briefly inspecting the site, he hears a gunshot not far off, and then a car driving away. The plane ends up being part of a smuggling ring, carting loads of drugs into the country under cover of darkness, and an arrogant, annoying DEA officer gets involved, as well as the FBI. Chee is supposed to just drop that case and concentrate on finding the windmill vandals, and then a body appears on the scene, obviously dead for quite some time. Of course the cases all eventually tie together as Chee bends and twists the rules and follows the clues while disobeying orders to find the solution. Atmospheric and educational, mystical and steeped in Navajo and Hopi tradition, this series is wonderfully read by George Guidall, whom I would happily listen to reciting the phone book. LOL Anyway, this was another enjoyable entry in the series, although I do like the books that have both Leaphorn and Chee in them a little better. A
3.MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp. #2 Mace Bauer mystery, set in central Florida. Mace and her Mama are trying to do a little bonding by camping and riding the 120-mile Cracker Trail--the week-long ride an educational trek celebrating the ways of the old-time Florida cattlemen. On the first day of the ride, Lawton Bramble, one of the ranchers who was allowing them to camp on his land and providing vats of his famous Cow Hunter Chili, dies. His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand? But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case. In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part. Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens. The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together. C.
4. THE BURGUNDIAN'S TALE by Kate Sedley. #14 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery. Roger is once again off from Bristol as his cobbled-together family begins to wear on his nerves and after more than a year, he decides to hit the open road selling his wares. Before he can leave, Master Timothy Plummer, agent and spy for Duke Richard of Gloucester comes to Bristol and finds Roger with a summons from Richard himself. It seems the son of one of his sister's (Margaret of York, now the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy) favorite ladies has been murdered and he wishes the crime to be solved before Margaret must go back to Burgundy. Fulk Quantrell was just eighteen but much wiser than his years, having learned to charm the ladies, including his aunt who changed her will for him, leaving him not only her home, but the embroidery shop she'd inherited from her husband. Supposedly coshed on the head by a footpad and robbed, Roger discovers that death scenario for Fulk unlikely as the killer left his purse and jewels on him--they were taken, but by two beggars who moved his body from in front of their patch after they found him dead. Despite all the women Fulk came into contact with singing his praises, Roger soon discovers that he wasn't such a charming young man underneath it all, and that there are plenty of people who were not sorry he was dead. Roger's astute powers of observation and refusal to give up eventually have him solving the crime. I really enjoyed this installment in the series--the easy-reading style of writing, the historical detail and sense of place, and the interesting characters, including plenty of real historical people as well. A.
5. MURDER IN BELLEVILLE by Cara Black. #2 Aimee Leduc mystery set in Paris. Aimee, a private investigator who apparently usually deals in computer investigations, once again gets caught up in more physical pursuits when she attempts to help a friend of hers whose husband is a diplomat dealing with some touchy foreign negotiations with Algeria. Anais leaves Aimee a cryptic message telling her where to meet, and when she arrives, she sees Anais talking with a woman whose car blows up right in front of them as the woman gets in it to leave--and then some thugs begin chasing them as they make a harried getaway on Aimee's moped down the subway tunnel. Shaken to the core, Aimee learns that the woman was Anais' husband's mistress, who has some possible connection to arms dealing and also possibly to the negotiations that Philippe is involved in. As she careens from one improbable situation to another, the story seems to get more and more out of control. That said--if it weren't for some of these silly situations--I like Aimee for the most part, and her circle of friends, including her business partner, her dog named Miles Davis, and the haunting clues about her past. I do get a bit tired of all the designer clothes and accessories mentioned (not my thing) but there are enough strong points about this book to keep me wanting to read on and to just take some parts with a grain of salt. B.
6. STRANGE AFFAIR by Peter Robinson. #15 DCI Alan Banks police procedural set in Yorkshire, UK. Banks, still recovering from the devastating fire at his cottage that almost cost him his life, is on holiday and wondering what to do with his time when he receives a couple of cryptic voicemails from his brother Roy, a wheeling-and-dealing financier in London. Alan and his younger brother are not close and never have been, and they rarely speak on the phone unless there's a problem, so the message--which sounds almost desperate though gives no details--intrigues him. When he tries to reach Roy in response, he's nowhere to be found, so Alan is off to London, where he discovers that Roy has all but disappeared. Knowing that his brother sometimes skated close to the edge of the law in his dealings, Banks decides to try to locate him first through "unofficial" channels lest he get little brother in trouble with the law by opening a missing persons case. Meanwhile, back in Eastvale, DI Annie Cabbot is dealing with a murder--a young woman shot execution style in the head, left in her car in a ditch along a deserted roadway--and surprise of surprises, she has Alan Banks' name and address scribbled on a piece of paper in her back jeans pocket--but even more intriguingly, it's the address to his burned-out cottage where he hasn't lived for several months. As Annie and Supt. Gristhorpe try to track Banks down (he's left his mobile on the kitchen table at his temporary apartment) and find the connection, Banks investigates Roy's life and begins to finally get to know his little brother. Robinson's series seems to just get better and better with each entry! I thoroughly enjoyed this one, found it hard to put down with a twisty plot (and even some surprises!), great characters and just the right balance between visceral and cerebral moments. Can't wait to read the next one! A.
7. LADY KILLER by Ed McBain. #8 in publication order of the 87th Precinct mysteries, this one features a case without a killer--at least to begin with. A young boy is sent into the precinct house with an envelope which contains a letter pieced together with cut out letters from the newspaper threatening to kill The Lady if they police can't stop him by 8 pm. First they must figure out if it's a crank letter, and then determine who 'The Lady' is. It's quite a hoot reading these old mysteries that are very dated because they mention the cost of items and salaries of policemen and where the only forensic evidence are fingerprints, which take a very long time to process. Of course, this means the detectives actually have to detect, and not just push a few buttons on a computer or phone to get the answers they need. Usually these books mention all the detectives at least in passing, and then tend to feature a couple of them as primary protagonists. In this one we get to know Cotton Hawes a little better, and it was an enjoyable quick read looking at police work back in the years when I was born. B.
8. MURDER AT EBBETS FIELD BY Troy Soos. (AUDIO) #2 in the Mickey Rawlings historical mystery series featuring the utility infielder who currently plays for the New York Giants. Mickey is told by his manager, the cranky, no-nonsense John McGraw, that he will have to go to a movie studio on his time off. He's had a request from a local movie producer making a baseball movie to provide a player for a bit part, and since he can't spare any of his more well-known starting players, Mickey it is. As he gets involved in the production and attends a party that evening, he meets Marguerite Turner, an actress he knows from seeing in "jungle movies." She has a bit part in this movie, taking a back seat to her friend, the much more famous and classically beautiful Florence Hampton. Mickey tries champagne for the first time and of course overindulges so ends up booking a room at the hotel where the party is held. Imagine his surprise when he finds the naked body of Miss Hampton under the boardwalk near the hotel early the next morning! There's no outward evidence of foul play, but Mickey is asked by his reporter friend Carl and then by Miss Turner to look into Florence's death--which Mickey does, all while trying not to aggravate the movie people, a vindictive newspaper reporter for a scandal rag, or the Brooklyn Dodgers players, several of whom seemed to have been involved with her. I have come to really enjoy this series, although the mystery was easy to figure out. I particularly like listening to the audio version with the story being well-told and with just the right mix of humor and seriousness. Looking forward to listening to the next one. A
9. HEART OF ICE by Alys Clare. #9 in the Hawkenlye Abbey historical mystery series set in 1194 England. A young man seeks care at the healing waters of Hawkenlye Abbey, but before he reaches them, he is struck on the head and killed by an unknown assailant and shoved into a pond that freezes over. A couple of days later, his body is discovered and at first he's believed to be the victim of some type of wasting disease--until the knot on his head is discovered. Soon, more sick people arrive at Hawkenlye and Abbess Helewise and the sisters and brothers have a full-fledged plague on their hands. Sir Josse d'Acquin is off to Tonbridge and even further afield trying to find out the young man's identity and where he had traveled to try to locate the source of the illness or at least the path so it can be contained and stopped. Meanwhile, Abbess Helewise is troubled and as she watches people die and even some of her beloved sisters and brothers fall ill, considers making a journey into the forest to find the Pagan healer Joanna, one-time lover of Sir Josse. The story then swtiches to Joanna's story, telling of the last few months and how she is brought to an island to learn the healing ways and learn the true identity of her mother and other mysteries. I enjoy this series, although the continued romantic tension between Josse and Helewise does get old after awhile. The author does a good job of incorporating historical events and people into the plots of the books and this one was no exception, although I'm not sure how well the overly-long section about Joanna worked here. Don't get me wrong--as a Pagan myself, I found it quite interesting and a good story in and of itself, but I think an abbreviated version of it would have worked better for the purpose of this book. All in all, a satisfying read and I look forward to continuing on in the series. B+
10. DRIVEN TO INK by Karen E. Olson. #3 in the Tattoo shop mysteries featuring Brett Kavanaugh, owner of the Painted Lady tattoo salon in Las Vegas. Brett kindly loans her red Mustang convertible to an elderly friend who is getting married--they are using one of the drive-through wedding chapels in Vegas and wanted something more classy than Sylvia's battered Gremlin. The morning after, Brett returns from a trip to Red Rocks where she does some hiking--only to discover a body in the trunk--dead as a doornail, with a dead rat underneath it. The body looks, at first glance, like Dean Martin, but ends up being one of the impersonators who worked at the wedding chapel. When she tries to reach Sylvia and Bernie, they can't be found either by herself, Sylvia's son or the police--Brett calls her brother Tim, a detective with LVPD, but because of her involvement in the case, it must be handled by another detective. Brett and Jeff Coleman, rival tattoo shop owner, sort-of friend and son of Sylvia, put their heads together to try to locate the newlyweds and find out who the body in her trunk is and who put him there, and of course this gets them in trouble (several times) with the law as well as with the killer. While the storyline here sounds good, I have to say that this book and I got off on the wrong foot on page 3, when the wrong form of a word was used--'incidence' being used instead of simply the plural of 'incident.' Argh! It's one of those mistakes you need a human proofreader for and the kind I find more annoying than a simple typo. I enjoy the information about tattoos and the real sense of place that Olson gives to the Vegas venue. Brett's character is likable enough in general, it just seems that she continues to become dumb and dumber as she goes off on her own pursuing leads, withholding valuable information from the police, and doing otherwise unbelievable things. I like a story where the protagonist might be defiant and high-spirited, yet I like to be able to insert myself into the story, thinking "I might do the same thing if I were in her shoes." But I rarely feel that way with Brett. And again, it's another case where almost every eligible man she comes across, she 'checks out' and is ready to follow with puppy eyes after just a few minutes. It gets old, and my eye muscles get a good workout from all the eye-rolling I do. I have to admit I really miss the author's much-feistier, less cozy character from her previous series--as much as I like the author's writing style, this series is fast drifting back into the pack of cookie-cutter cozy series. Not bad, just not worth crowing about. C+
11. THE LAST KING OF TEXAS by Rick Riordan. (AUDIO) #3 Tres Navarre series set in San Antonio TX. A few months ago, Tres Navarre--private investigator and PhD in English lit--turned down a professorship at a local university to pursue the necessary training for his official PI license. Now that the guy who took the job has been shot--after the university receives multiple threatening letters regarding racist statements made by another former professor--he's offered the job again in a dual role: he'll also get to keep his PI hat on. The first day on the job, a package with a homemade bomb explodes as it's delivered to Dr. Aaron Brandon's (or rather, Tres's) office, which clinches the deal: he's interested now! Soon after beginning his investigation--at the protestation of the local police, including the very attractive Det. Anna DeLeon--Tres discovers a dark history about Dr. Brandon and his family that may signal other motives for his death other than just his role as an Anglo professor. Connected to a powerful local family known for their oppression and mistreatment of their Hispanic employees, there are dozens of people who may have wanted revenge. When it's known that Zeta Sanchez, the drug-running gang boss suspected of killing Dr. Brandon's father several years ago is back in the area, he becomes the obvious suspect and the target of the police investigation. Tres, however, isn't so sure and pursues other avenues, only to end up in a heap of trouble several times, with other murders and attacks along the way before he figures out who's behind all the killings. I do enjoy this series, and especially enjoy the reading by Tom Stechshulte who does a great job with the voices and the whole tone of the book. I like Tres a lot, and the author is able to provide a real sense of place which serves to make the city itself one of the characters in the book. There is a lot of violence in these books, as with many mysteries, a rather inordinate amount such that in real life, one would, I think, hesitate to be friends with someone like Tres who has dead bodies falling everywhere around him. I did figure out the mystery ahead of time, but not too early, just picking up on a couple of deftly-placed clues that made me sure I was right. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series. A.
12.THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King. #1 Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Set during WWI, Mary Russell is a young woman who is neighbor to Sherlock Holmes in the countryside, he having retired to live a quiet life. She stumbles upon him watching his bees and after a brief conversation, figures out who he is--and he recognizes that he's met a superior mind as well. That chance meeting begins a friendship and Miss Russell spends much time with Holmes, learning his methods of deduction, conducting scientific experiments and the like. Her 'home' life with an aunt who seeks only to criticize--her guardian since her parents died, but essentially dependent on Mary as she has the trust fund--Mary spends as much time away from there as she can. Soon she's enrolled at Oxford, coming home to visit Holmes on breaks, and they embark on several cases using his technique of disguise and employing various forensic techniques that were way ahead of their time. When Holmes is sought indirectly by an American Senator whose daughter has been kidnapped, he takes Mary along and they work their magic to get the six-year-old Jessica Simpson (ha ha!) back--and only then realize that they are working against a foe who has targeted Holmes specifically--someone who is as brilliant as Holmes himself with far-reaching plans. I enjoyed this take on the whole Holmes character and I liked Mary Russell too, but at times the book was just...I don't know...too wordy, too explanatory, too long-winded, too detailed and I wished she'd just get on with it already. Lots and lots of prose and not a whole lot of dialogue--sometimes it just got sloggy, as interesting as the story was. I also figured quite far in advance who the baddie was, which surprised me. I do intend to read on in the series but probably will space these out quite a lot. B
13. MURDER IN A COLD CLIMATE by Scott Young. #1 of a series set in the Northwest Territories of Canada, featuring Matthew "Matteesie" Kitologitak, an Inuk (singular of Inuit) Inspector for the RCMP. Actually, he's been primarily working for Northern Affairs, not doing much police work but attending conferences living mostly in Toronto. We know from the get-go that Matteesie is not your everyday hero--the opening pages see him with his long-time mistress in the northern town of Inuvik, waiting to fly out to Leningrad for a conference. (His wife, a white woman, is back in Toronto.) He's also not your typical burly-brawny tough guy--at 5'6" with a brown, round face, he doesn't exactly scare many folks, even bundled up in his parka. His RCMP boss, Buster, calls and asks him to look into something for him as a favor (it's been several years since he did any police work)--the disappearance of a small plane that had a well-known government official's son as the pilot. Meanwhile though, a murder happens right in front of Matteesie and he feels his inspector's instincts kick into gear as he puts that incident first--and of course after digging a bit, figures the two incidents are actually connected. Off he goes across the wild northern wilderness trying to track down a killer and find the connection to the missing plane. This book provided a great sense of place and a immersion into a culture that I didn't know all that much about. The author brought home in a very real way just how isolated things are up near the Arctic Circle, and how things most of us 'down here' (and even in southern Canada) take for granted--including the usual police procedures--which just aren't the same there. I liked Matteesie but the story itself was kind of all over the place, especially at first; it was hard to keep people and places straight in part because of the strange names, and it wasn't until the middle third of the book that I finally started 'getting' it enough so that the storyline made more sense. All in all, though, an enjoyable book and I will at some point continue reading on if I can lay hands on the second in the series. B.
14. CAT OF THE CENTURY by Rita Mae Brown (AUDIO) #18 Mrs. Murphy mystery also featuring Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen in Crozet, Virginia. Harry is off on a road trip with her pets to help Aunt Tally celebrate her 100th birthday at her college alma mater back in Missouri. One of the organizers disappears, and another lets "slip" that the missing woman has probably done a runner since she knows of some shady business practices that have gone on. Once back in Virginia, the accuser ends up dead, believed killed by the missing woman. Harry, who of course has her nose in the middle of it, isn't so sure. I'm not sure why I chose this book, except I needed something very quick and light, since I have two other audio books I'm #1 in line for at the library and I didn't want to get stuck in the midst of something more meaty. It's part of a series I really used to enjoy. I'm not a fan of cozy mysteries as a rule, but have always liked listening to this series, even though some of the main characters are animals. The reader does them well and they aren't too sappy. However, the last few have been not much more than soapboxes for the author to spout various political and social opinions and this one was no different. I did finish it, as the reader does a good job and I do like to visit with Harry and the gang now and then, but even that aspect was minimal this time as the story was told from the point of view of so many different characters that we hardly even spent any time with Harry and the pets. No more. D.
15. THE WEE FREE MEN by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #30 in publication order of the Discworld fantasy novels but #1 in the Tiffany Aching 'mini series' and the second DW novel aimed at younger readers. Tiffany is interested in becoming a witch--and she has a visit from Miss Tick--a witch who's surprised to have detected Tiffany's natural talent on 'the Chalk' which is 'much too soft to grow a proper witch.' Tiffany explains about some strange things she's seen and Miss Tick recognizes trouble and goes off to find more witches to help fight it. Tiffany conveniently forgets to mention the little bluish men with red hair she's seen as well, but when her annoying and perpetually sticky little brother Wentworth goes missing, these creatures come to her aid. The Nac Mac Feegle, she learns later. Not Pixies, but Pictsies...the Wee Free Men, known as thieves, drinkers and fighters and rarely a help to anyone. They're certain that the wee lad has been stolen and taken to a magical land by 'the Quin' who loves wee bairns, they lead Tiffany--who now wishes she'd gotten to know her grandmother, Granny Aching, better as she is learning that she was probably a witch herself. Once I started listening to this, I simply couldn't stop--it was hilarious and yet somewhat profound at the same time if that makes any sense. (Pretty much like most of the Discworld books, actually.) The reader was excellent and did a great job with the Scottish burr of the Nac Mac Feegle, such that I laughed out loud many times. Can't wait to see what interesting things Tiffany gets up to next. A+
DNF: GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss (audio) I listened to a couple hours of this before finally deciding it was a load of whiny, pretentious twaddle. The premise sounded interesting--the story of a writing desk and the people who owned it over time--but it was just...bleh.
Currently reading:
1. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie (#3 of the First Law fantasy trilogy)
2. THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler (#6 Bryant & May mystery)
3. DUST by Martha Grimes (AUDIO)
Cheryl
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
JANUARY 2011
It's a brand new year! My New Year's Resolution this year is not to purchase (with money) ANY books this year! PBS trading is okay and library borrowing will be a must, but no money-for-books exchanges. It's not going to be easy, but I know I can do it. :)
1. A TRACE OF SMOKE by Rebecca Cantrell. #1 Hannah Vogel mystery set in 1931 Germany. Hannah, a thirty-something independent woman who has resigned herself to life alone after her fiance died in the Great War, is now working as a newspaper reporter (but writing under a man's name.) She is at the police station to get some information for a story from her friend Fritz, but is instead horrified to see a photograph of her younger brother Ernst on the "Hall of the Unnamed Dead," a series of images put up on the wall so that citizens can help the police identify unnamed corpses that are found. Ernst led a reckless life as a cross-dressing homosexual, singing burlesque in one of Berlin's 'queer clubs' in the days before the Nazis took complete power and shut such things down. Hannah, who cared for the decade-younger Ernst after her parents had both died, is devastated and sets out to find out who killed him and why. Using her guise as a reporter, she numbly goes through several days asking questions of his known friends, co-workers at his club, even following some of them into rather seedy places and even uses her police friend, never letting on to anyone that Ernst is dead. While she had reconciled herself to Ernst's lifestyle and loved him fiercely, what she discovers shocks her to the core, as it involves some very senior level people in the up-and-coming Nazi party. What an excellent way to start the new year! This is definitely not my favorite time in history, but the author does a great job of putting you in the time and place and describing life from the point of view of an average non-Nazi citizen as they watch the Party slowly take over the country. The story and the mystery were also intriguing, and I found myself really liking Hannah a lot. She seems to be, to me, the 'opposite woman' to Maisie Dobbs, whose story takes place in about the same time over in England. Interesting looking at things from the German viewpoint. Very difficult to put down and definitely looking forward to the next one! A+
2. THE LAST PLACE by Laura Lippman. (AUDIO) #7 Tess Monaghan mystery set in Baltimore. Whitney, Tess's good friend, sends some work her way from a consortium of non-profits that she is on the board of. They're researching police techniques in the rural areas around the city in hopes of finding some fuel for their fire: more funding for domestic violence prevention. If they can prove that the rural police messed up and need more education, they hope to lobby the legislature for the funding. They hand Tess five unrelated, unsolved homicides from the outlying areas and ask her to see how they were investigated. What ends up happening is that the cases aren't quite as unrelated as they thought. Tess hooks up with a former cop out on disability who had obsessed over one of the cases, and they are allowed to assist the state police peripherally when they bring the evidence of the serial killer to them. I have to admit that the mystery itself was rather easy to figure out--the clues were just dangled in front of you and I kept wanting to smack Tess because she didn't see certain things. Then again, she was a bit distracted--having had to go into court-ordered anger-management therapy after she (and Whitney, although Tess never implicated her friend) tracked down a guy who seduced Whitney's teenage niece in an internet chat room. (Apparently the use of Nair on the entire body warrants assault. LOL) Still a very enjoyable visit with Tess and Crow, the dogs and her friends, even though I was at least two steps ahead of them all the way. And I think I'm finally getting used to the narrator's (Barbara Rosenblatt) voice, which I found annoying as hell at first. A
3. FART PROUDLY: WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN YOU NEVER READ IN SCHOOL by Carl Japiske. A collection of stories, newspaper articles and letters written by the esteemed Mr. Franklin, which, as the subtitle indicates, are not likely to be included in school curriculums. The book opens with the quote, "He who lives on hope dies farting" which was published in Poor Richard's almanac in 1736. The other pieces run in a similar vein, with Franklin leaving his guise as diplomat, statesman, inventor and wise, respected philosopher behind--he gets downright bawdy at times, other times inciting rebellion and scandal. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much--it made an excellent 'bathroom book' for the past few weeks. LOL A.
4. LORDS AND LADIES by Terry Pratchett. #14 in publication order in the humorous fantasy Discworld series. We're once again back in Lancre with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and...well, Magrat Garlick used to be the third member of their witches' coven until King Verence proposed. Now she's Queen-in-waiting, planning her wedding and bored silly, so not able to help much when Granny and Nanny make their plans to take on the Lords and Ladies--the elves--who are trying to get through to this dimension through a stone circle in the Ramtops. They know how truly nasty elves are--nothing like the sweet, beautiful creatures they project themselves to be. As the Bursar, Archchancellor and Librarian of Unseen University make their way to Lancre for the wedding (picking up the dwarf Casanunda--an old friend of Nanny Ogg's--on the way) and the rest of the town prepare, a series of events unfolds--in at least one dimension--that makes the whole town want to crawl under their beds. Very enjoyable--I had forgotten how much I love this book (read it years ago) and had totally forgotten Casanunda--he's now emerged again as one of my favorite Discworld characters. A+
5. THE TRACK OF SAND by Andrea Camilleri. #12 Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily. What are the odds that you would look out your window one morning and see a dead horse lying on the beach? This is how Salvo Montalbano's day begins, and things continue to stay weird for several days. By the time he follows the horse's tracks and locates where he was killed--a victim of a brutal beating--the corpse has disappeared. When a beautiful woman comes into the police station to report her horse missing, things get even weirder, and as usual the case intersects with another and gets all muddled up before the lightbulb goes off over Montalbano's head. Meanwhile, he deals with people breaking into his home, women trouble, consumes much yummy food, has his share of grumpy and melancholy thoughts, buffaloes his superiors and baffles his staff, but eventually gets to where he's going in the end, solving both cases--once he starts following the right track. Enjoyable visit to Montelusa and surrounding area with my favorite Italian curmudgeon, as usual and expected. Keep them coming, Mr. Camilleri! A.
6. SARAH'S KEY by Tatiana de Rosnay. (AUDIO) This book is part historical fiction, set in 1942 Paris, and part modern. The first part tells the story of Sarah Starcyzinski, a young French Jewish girl born of Polish parents. The events take place during July of that year, when the "Vel Dhiv" roundup took place--with thousands of Jewish families arrested (by French police, not the Gestapo) and initially held in a cycling velodrome, then moved first to interment camps within France and eventually on to Auschwitz. Sarah has her own particular horror to live through that involves her young brother Michel, who gets left behind when the family is arrested. Meanwhile, in modern-day Paris, Julia Jarmond, a middle-aged American now living in Paris (and married to a Frenchman) is set to move into the apartment where Sarah's family lived in 1942. Julia discovers this connection when she begins researching the "Vel Dhiv" roundup for a newspaper article she's writing and then, when she learns that her hsuband's family took the apartment when a Jewish family was arrested, becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to that family, which eventually leads her to Sarah's trail. The two stories intersect, of course. This book sounded a lot better than it was. I didn't like the main character in the modern part very much, and there was a point in the last third of the book where Sarah's voice goes away and her story is left dangling--and that's when I really lost interest, not really wanting to put up with the whiny Julia's ramblings. I enjoyed the story overall, and learning about an event in history that I really had no knowledge of, but it could have done with a lot less of the minutiae of Julia's life. C+
7. THE CORPSE IN THE KORYO by James Church. #1 Inspector O mystery, set in modern day North Korea, mostly in the capital Pyongyang, but O also travels out to several outlying areas. The story begins with him on a stakeout to take a picture of a car going by on a road in a rural area outside the city. Those are his orders, but of course the camera fails due to dead batteries and the story moves along to a tale of intrigue and espionage between one Ministry and another, sort of a Spy vs. Spy kind of thing with a friend of O's boss named Kang directing much of the action as he tries to evade the Military Security branch run by Colonel Kim. Many deaths occurred along the way, and O is never quite sure who to trust, so mostly he doesn't trust anyone. It was confusing at first, since I had virtually no knowledge of how things are in North Korea, or what life is like. But I quickly came to like Inspector O, and once I stopped trying to figure everything out and sat back to enjoy the story, it was fine, the details fell into place and I really enjoyed getting to know the country and the main character. The writing style is hard to describe--somewhat of a literary, lyrical side to it, and a definite dry sense of humor there in the background too. I have to read the next book just to find out if O ever gets his cup of tea! A.
8.FINAL NOTICE by Jo Dereske. #6 Miss Zukas mystery set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma has her elderly, somewhat eccentric Aunt Emily come to stay with her after she has a 'brain incident' and isn't able to stay alone just yet. Shortly after her arrival, a man is killed outside Helma's apartment, and Aunt Em is shocked to recognize him as the man who tried to steal her purse in the airport--she had poked him good with her hatpin, and he fled, but she's sure it's the same man. Further investigation and Helma's looking into her aunt's checkered past leads her to believe that her aunt may well be in danger because of things that happened years ago. Enlisting the help of her 'friend,' police chief Wayne Gallant, Helma narrows down the search--although she's uneasy asking for Chief Gallant's help, as rumor has it that he is seeing his ex-wife again. I really like Helma and do enjoy this series very much, and got a kick out of Aunt Em, who is about as polar opposite of Helma as you can get. And yet they 'work well' together. Interesting story, although the mystery wasn't too mysterious, and looking forward to the next one. A.
9. THE LIONS OF THE NORTH by Edward Marston. #4 in the Domesday historical mystery series, this time the Royal Commissioners are off to York, once again settling land disputes at the behest of the King. Ralph Delchard, Gervase Bret, Canon Hubert and Brother Simon the scribe are joined by a northern noble, Tanchelm of Ghent, who is joining their group at King William's order. There are many disputes to investigate, and it's complicated by the rovings of outlaw bands, including the notorious Olaf Evil Child, who actually has the temerity to steal the group's sumpter horses at an overnight stop along the way. Insulted to the core, Ralph Delchard makes his displeasure known to his old friend, Aubrey Maminot, with whom the party will be lodging at York Castle. Aubrey allows that Olaf is already a thorn in his side, and if caught, he'll be fed to his pets--two ferocious African lions that prowl the ditches around the castle at night, and whom their trainer Ludovico and Aubrey are the only two allowed to handle. Another wonderful story full of history and a sense of time and place that is unrivaled by other writers of historical fiction and mystery. The characters are also wonderful and varied and after only four books have almost become old friends. This has fast become one of my favorite historical series--it's too bad the books are out of print and are so difficult to come by. But I eagerly look forward to the next. A+
10. BIGGIE AND THE POISONED POLITICIAN by Nancy Bell. (AUDIO) #1 in the Biggie Weatherford cozy mystery series set in fictional small-town Texas. The story is told through the eyes of Biggie's 12-year-old grandson J.R., and is a light, humorous mystery mostly focusing on small-town Texas life. Biggie is a wealthy widow and one of the movers and shakers in tiny Job's Crossing, and she pretty much does as she pleases and usually gets her way. So when a new landfill is built next to her family's cemetery, she doesn't have a hissyfit--she gets moving, marshalling her supporters to get rid of it. When the mayor--an overweight, blustery man with a heart conditions--keels over in his whipped cream at a table in the local diner, with Biggie and J.R. looking on, it's first thought he just had the inevitable heart attack. But Biggie thinks he was poisoned and sets out to prove it, although she's not sure why just yet. It must have something to do with her lodger's car blowing up though, don'tchathinkhoney? Two such bizarre events would just have to be linked, since nothing much exciting happens in Job's Crossing. I downloaded this from the library because I needed something quick and light (and of course, the first in a series) and distracting, and it was a rather fun listen. However, not sure I will continue on--there is way too much sticky-sweet southern humor for my usual taste, and if I do listen further (I believe the library has most of the series available as audio download) it will be with plenty of space between the books. B.
11. THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT by Philip Jose Farmer. #2 in the Riverworld Saga. This book, the second in a series that features a sort of repository for the dead--basically, everyone ever born on earth is resurrected in the Riverworld--focuses on Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. His big dream on Earth was to build and captain a Riverboat, and now that he's basically got all eternity, he's determined to do it. This life-after-death place isn't exactly what you'd call heaven, though--the same cliques, clans and territorial battles still break out, and as some resources are in short supply, Sam knows he will have to do battle or barter to get the materials he needs. As with the previous book, a host of different characters from history--ancient and recent--show up, often in unlikely roles. Quite entertaining and an interesting concept of what 'life after death' could be like. B+
12. THE TAKEN by Inger Ash Wolfe #2 Hazel Micallef mystery set in rural Ontario in fictional Port Dundas, although Hazel and her second, James Wingate, do spend time ruffling feathers in Toronto on his old stomping grounds when a case takes them there. A supposed body dredged up from the bottom of a local lake ends up being nothing but a mannequin--but one that someone wants the police to find--it's been weighted to stay in place and an IP address on the back of the mannequin leads them to a website showing a live feed with the merest of hints that someone is being held captive. Oddly, the case is unfolding like the serial story appearing in the local newspaper, and Micallef must butt heads with the press as she attempts to find the writer of the story. Hazel, recovering from major back surgery and dependent on the care of her ex-husband and his new wife as well as powerful painkillers, shouldn't even be back to work yet, but something about this case has yanked her chain and she is determined to find out who is manipulating the police--and her in particular--for their nefarious purposes. A very strange story, and a very interesting one, although I have to admit at first I was really tired of Hazel's pity party. It did get better and by the time I hit the halfway point had a heck of a time putting it down. I really do like Hazel--she's very human, very flawed and vulnerable for all her blustering. Eagerly awaiting the next. A.
13. IGNORANCE IS BLITZ by Anders Henrikssen. A collection of bloopers from college term papers, specifically dealing with history, from ancient times to near-modern history. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, misuse of words, punctuation and especially concepts--all things that drive me right up a tree. So a whole book of them? Made me laugh my butt off. I learned rather quickly that I could not read it while eating lunch. LOL I like the "Anguished English' books as those are examples taken from high school and the world at large. The people writing these papers actually made it into college. Though heaven only knows how! A couple of my favorites: "Judyism was the first monolithic religion. It had one big god named Yahoo." "The wholey Roman Empire amazed many when it was found in Germany." "The invention of the sex tent helped to determine place and orientation at sea." It's best read in small bits, otherwise it can tend to get overwhelming. Plus, you'll strain something laughing too much for too long if you read it all at once. :o) A.
14. AN UNACCEPTABLE DEATH by Barbara Seranella. #8 and final Munch Mancini mystery. Munch, now clean and sober for nine years and living a stable life with her adopted daughter Asia, is enjoying planning her wedding to police detective Rico Chacon, when he is shot to death by other cops in a drug bust gone wrong. Among allegations that Rico was a dirty cop, Munch stuffs her grief and despair to the back of her soul while she lets her practical side take over and sets out to prove that he wasn't. She believes Rico was killed because of her--she had just learned that there is a bounty on her head, put there by the former head of an outlaw biker gang that she all but dismantled when she went straight. Now the gang is re-forming and their first order of business is to take Munch down, and she wonders if he somehow got in the middle of that. She makes deals as a confidential informant with a couple of groups of cops and then essentially does what she needs to do anyway to figure out why Rico was killed. An excellent ending to this series, very sad and poignant, yet hopeful too. I am going to miss Munch a lot. A.
15. PLAYING WITH BONES by Kate Ellis. #2 DI Joe Plantagenet mystery set in fictional Eborby, UK--modeled after the city of York. A young girl is found dead in a dark close, strangled and then with a strange mutilation--her big toe of her left foot is severed, and an old porcelain doll is laid next to her with its toe also removed. When one of the constables brings to Joe and his boss DCI Emily Thwaite's attention a book he's reading about historical murders that contains an excerpt about the Doll Strangler of Singmass Close, they realize the strong similarity to the strangulation of four women back in the 1950's. The toe mutilation was never reported anywhere, so whoever is doing this now must have some connection to the first killer. Another case involving a missing girl intersects with the murder case. I enjoyed this second entry in this series although there seemed to be way too many red herrings and a lot of huge coincidences happening in order for things to fall into place as they do. Still, I am looking forward to the next in series and also to trying the author's other long-standing mystery series. A-
16. CASTLE IN THE AIR by Diana Wynne Jones. (AUDIO) Second in the "Castle" YA fantasy series (the first was Howl's Moving Castle) although we don't actually run into characters from the first book until about the last third of the story. Not really a series, they're just sort of loosely connected. Most of it is about Abdullah, a young carpet-seller in the desert country called Zanzib who daydreams about a life much unlike his own--with himself a prince stolen by evil men and who ends up married to a beautiful princess, and not a seller of carpets besieged by his late father's first wife's nosy family. Meanwhile, Abdullah is sold a magic carpet by a mysterious stranger, and he finds that when he sleeps on it, many of his daydreams seem to come true as he travels to far-off places--and he ends up in Ingary (the country in the first book) with a magic genie in a bottle and a disenfranchised Strangian soldier and a couple of cats, trying to chase down the Princess Flower-in-the-Night, who was stolen by an evil djinn. Full of good humor, a good story and some great characters, and very well-read also by Jenny Sterlin. Going to look for the next one in this sort-of series. B+
17. BREATHING WATER by Timothy Hallinan. #3 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. Poke gets into big trouble when he wins a poker game and the 'prize' is writing the autobiography of the loser--a rich, important man in Thailand, somewhat of a folk hero from the poor northwest of the country who rudely thumbs his nose at the rich, 'noble' class who have ruled the country for centuries. However, powerful people don't want the book written--and others want it written, but only the version they want to be told. Poke and his family are threatened, followed, menaced, attacked--and they don't even know by whom. Probably several parties, all with very powerful friends. Poke tries to figure out how to maintain his status quo without tipping off any of the warring parties what he's doing. Meanwhile, Poke's best friend Arthit, a policeman, is going through hell as he discovers that his beloved wife Noi is probably planning her own suicide as her progressive muscular degenerative disease leaves her with increasing pain that no one can help. And Miaow, Poke's adopted daughter, is having growing pains of her own, trying to figure out where she fits into the world. Another excellent, complex story of Bangkok, from the mean streets to the mansions of the powerful. I absolutely love Poke and his family and friends and was glad to see Boo back in the picture. I've just received the latest in the series, The Queen of Patpong, and it's not very likely that it will gather much dust on my TBR pile! A+
18. A CORPSE AT ST. ANDREW'S CHAPEL by Mel Starr. #2 Hugh de Singleton medieval mystery set in 1360's in the town of Bampton, UK. Still recovering from the plague two decades previously, a spate of lawlessness seems to have taken over the countryside as Hugh, a surgeon, settles into his double role as Bailiff of Bampton Castle for Lord Gilbert Talbot. When Alan the beadle is found dead--first presumed attacked by a wolf, later noted to have been shot with an arrow--Hugh must investigate the death and is attacked several times himself for his trouble. As he follows several twisty, tenuous threads trying to solve several small mysteries that come together in a somewhat pedestrian, obvious conclusion. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book--I did, very much. The sense of time and place provided by the author is outstanding and indeed is the strong point of this series so far. I do like Hugh, but he seems to be just developing as a character. The writing style is at times a bit off-putting and doesn't always flow smoothly, and also with several repetitive phrases that seemed to stand out sometimes. But the entire package was quite enjoyable and I look forward to getting to know Hugh better in the next book. B+
19. A CAST-OFF COVEN by Juliet Blackwell. #2 in the so-called "Witchcraft" series featuring Lily Ivory, a witch and vintage clothing shop owner in San Francisco. Lily is asked by her employee Maya, who is also a student at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, to come to the school and look around on behalf of the woman who runs the school. She's offered a chest full of vintage clothing they found in an old trunk in a closet, but hopes Lily can use her powers to find out about a visitation by a suspected ghost in the bell tower of the school and perhaps do something about it. The noises and ghostly presence has ramped up recently and become disruptive. While at the school, a man falls--or is pushed--down the bell tower steps on the exact site of a suicide several decades earlier. The natural conclusion drawn by many is that the ghost killed Jerry Becker--a rich big-wig with lots of money invested in the school, as well as a daughter, Andromeda, who attends there. Lily is pretty sure that Becker's killer was human, and since he wasn't well-liked and had lots of money, there are plenty of people with motive. Further investigation leads her to believe there is indeed an evil presence at the school, but not from a ghost--rather, from a demon that someone has summoned. Along the way, Lily has to deal once again with Aidan Rhodes, a powerful witch who makes her uncomfortable on several levels, and Max Carmichael, a journalist whom she went out with once and who definitely interests her (and vice versa) but who is a bit of an enigma and who finds her whole witchiness very discomfiting. She also encounters several other men who briefly caught Lily's attention as the story progressed. I enjoyed the book for the most part, although at times I'm not sure if the author is trying to pass Lily off as a witch...I mean, a real witch, or if she's got her living in some type of a paranormal world. I suppose given that she has a goblin familiar who disguises himself as her pet potbellied pig, I really shouldn't take any of it too seriously, right? This should probably be classified as light urban fantasy rather than mystery. There are things that were semi-accurate, though--and some of it just accurate enough to perhaps confuse people who aren't familiar with *actual* witch/Pagan practice and belief. The one other gripe I have is that the author's propensity to make every man Lily met or came across a potential love interest, however briefly, was really annoying. And of course there are at least a couple of permanent romantic interests to keep Lily pulled in two directions, which is one thing that has put me off many so-called mystery series that started with promise and then devolve into romantic baloney, with the mysteries taking a back seat--no, more like being hogtied in the trunk while the romance and sexual tension steer the series. (The whodunit in this one was sort of a no-brainer.) That said, I like the writing style, I like Lily and her shop and her circle of friends for the most part, and Blackwell really is able to provide a wonderful sense of place, making the city of San Francisco one of the main characters in the book. I also love Oscar to pieces! LOL I'll give the series one more read, and if the next book is obviously continuing down the romance road, as much as I like the other parts of the book, I'll probably stop there. B
CURRENT READS: THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman in audio, MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp and Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault in print.
Cheryl
1. A TRACE OF SMOKE by Rebecca Cantrell. #1 Hannah Vogel mystery set in 1931 Germany. Hannah, a thirty-something independent woman who has resigned herself to life alone after her fiance died in the Great War, is now working as a newspaper reporter (but writing under a man's name.) She is at the police station to get some information for a story from her friend Fritz, but is instead horrified to see a photograph of her younger brother Ernst on the "Hall of the Unnamed Dead," a series of images put up on the wall so that citizens can help the police identify unnamed corpses that are found. Ernst led a reckless life as a cross-dressing homosexual, singing burlesque in one of Berlin's 'queer clubs' in the days before the Nazis took complete power and shut such things down. Hannah, who cared for the decade-younger Ernst after her parents had both died, is devastated and sets out to find out who killed him and why. Using her guise as a reporter, she numbly goes through several days asking questions of his known friends, co-workers at his club, even following some of them into rather seedy places and even uses her police friend, never letting on to anyone that Ernst is dead. While she had reconciled herself to Ernst's lifestyle and loved him fiercely, what she discovers shocks her to the core, as it involves some very senior level people in the up-and-coming Nazi party. What an excellent way to start the new year! This is definitely not my favorite time in history, but the author does a great job of putting you in the time and place and describing life from the point of view of an average non-Nazi citizen as they watch the Party slowly take over the country. The story and the mystery were also intriguing, and I found myself really liking Hannah a lot. She seems to be, to me, the 'opposite woman' to Maisie Dobbs, whose story takes place in about the same time over in England. Interesting looking at things from the German viewpoint. Very difficult to put down and definitely looking forward to the next one! A+
2. THE LAST PLACE by Laura Lippman. (AUDIO) #7 Tess Monaghan mystery set in Baltimore. Whitney, Tess's good friend, sends some work her way from a consortium of non-profits that she is on the board of. They're researching police techniques in the rural areas around the city in hopes of finding some fuel for their fire: more funding for domestic violence prevention. If they can prove that the rural police messed up and need more education, they hope to lobby the legislature for the funding. They hand Tess five unrelated, unsolved homicides from the outlying areas and ask her to see how they were investigated. What ends up happening is that the cases aren't quite as unrelated as they thought. Tess hooks up with a former cop out on disability who had obsessed over one of the cases, and they are allowed to assist the state police peripherally when they bring the evidence of the serial killer to them. I have to admit that the mystery itself was rather easy to figure out--the clues were just dangled in front of you and I kept wanting to smack Tess because she didn't see certain things. Then again, she was a bit distracted--having had to go into court-ordered anger-management therapy after she (and Whitney, although Tess never implicated her friend) tracked down a guy who seduced Whitney's teenage niece in an internet chat room. (Apparently the use of Nair on the entire body warrants assault. LOL) Still a very enjoyable visit with Tess and Crow, the dogs and her friends, even though I was at least two steps ahead of them all the way. And I think I'm finally getting used to the narrator's (Barbara Rosenblatt) voice, which I found annoying as hell at first. A
3. FART PROUDLY: WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN YOU NEVER READ IN SCHOOL by Carl Japiske. A collection of stories, newspaper articles and letters written by the esteemed Mr. Franklin, which, as the subtitle indicates, are not likely to be included in school curriculums. The book opens with the quote, "He who lives on hope dies farting" which was published in Poor Richard's almanac in 1736. The other pieces run in a similar vein, with Franklin leaving his guise as diplomat, statesman, inventor and wise, respected philosopher behind--he gets downright bawdy at times, other times inciting rebellion and scandal. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much--it made an excellent 'bathroom book' for the past few weeks. LOL A.
4. LORDS AND LADIES by Terry Pratchett. #14 in publication order in the humorous fantasy Discworld series. We're once again back in Lancre with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and...well, Magrat Garlick used to be the third member of their witches' coven until King Verence proposed. Now she's Queen-in-waiting, planning her wedding and bored silly, so not able to help much when Granny and Nanny make their plans to take on the Lords and Ladies--the elves--who are trying to get through to this dimension through a stone circle in the Ramtops. They know how truly nasty elves are--nothing like the sweet, beautiful creatures they project themselves to be. As the Bursar, Archchancellor and Librarian of Unseen University make their way to Lancre for the wedding (picking up the dwarf Casanunda--an old friend of Nanny Ogg's--on the way) and the rest of the town prepare, a series of events unfolds--in at least one dimension--that makes the whole town want to crawl under their beds. Very enjoyable--I had forgotten how much I love this book (read it years ago) and had totally forgotten Casanunda--he's now emerged again as one of my favorite Discworld characters. A+
5. THE TRACK OF SAND by Andrea Camilleri. #12 Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily. What are the odds that you would look out your window one morning and see a dead horse lying on the beach? This is how Salvo Montalbano's day begins, and things continue to stay weird for several days. By the time he follows the horse's tracks and locates where he was killed--a victim of a brutal beating--the corpse has disappeared. When a beautiful woman comes into the police station to report her horse missing, things get even weirder, and as usual the case intersects with another and gets all muddled up before the lightbulb goes off over Montalbano's head. Meanwhile, he deals with people breaking into his home, women trouble, consumes much yummy food, has his share of grumpy and melancholy thoughts, buffaloes his superiors and baffles his staff, but eventually gets to where he's going in the end, solving both cases--once he starts following the right track. Enjoyable visit to Montelusa and surrounding area with my favorite Italian curmudgeon, as usual and expected. Keep them coming, Mr. Camilleri! A.
6. SARAH'S KEY by Tatiana de Rosnay. (AUDIO) This book is part historical fiction, set in 1942 Paris, and part modern. The first part tells the story of Sarah Starcyzinski, a young French Jewish girl born of Polish parents. The events take place during July of that year, when the "Vel Dhiv" roundup took place--with thousands of Jewish families arrested (by French police, not the Gestapo) and initially held in a cycling velodrome, then moved first to interment camps within France and eventually on to Auschwitz. Sarah has her own particular horror to live through that involves her young brother Michel, who gets left behind when the family is arrested. Meanwhile, in modern-day Paris, Julia Jarmond, a middle-aged American now living in Paris (and married to a Frenchman) is set to move into the apartment where Sarah's family lived in 1942. Julia discovers this connection when she begins researching the "Vel Dhiv" roundup for a newspaper article she's writing and then, when she learns that her hsuband's family took the apartment when a Jewish family was arrested, becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to that family, which eventually leads her to Sarah's trail. The two stories intersect, of course. This book sounded a lot better than it was. I didn't like the main character in the modern part very much, and there was a point in the last third of the book where Sarah's voice goes away and her story is left dangling--and that's when I really lost interest, not really wanting to put up with the whiny Julia's ramblings. I enjoyed the story overall, and learning about an event in history that I really had no knowledge of, but it could have done with a lot less of the minutiae of Julia's life. C+
7. THE CORPSE IN THE KORYO by James Church. #1 Inspector O mystery, set in modern day North Korea, mostly in the capital Pyongyang, but O also travels out to several outlying areas. The story begins with him on a stakeout to take a picture of a car going by on a road in a rural area outside the city. Those are his orders, but of course the camera fails due to dead batteries and the story moves along to a tale of intrigue and espionage between one Ministry and another, sort of a Spy vs. Spy kind of thing with a friend of O's boss named Kang directing much of the action as he tries to evade the Military Security branch run by Colonel Kim. Many deaths occurred along the way, and O is never quite sure who to trust, so mostly he doesn't trust anyone. It was confusing at first, since I had virtually no knowledge of how things are in North Korea, or what life is like. But I quickly came to like Inspector O, and once I stopped trying to figure everything out and sat back to enjoy the story, it was fine, the details fell into place and I really enjoyed getting to know the country and the main character. The writing style is hard to describe--somewhat of a literary, lyrical side to it, and a definite dry sense of humor there in the background too. I have to read the next book just to find out if O ever gets his cup of tea! A.
8.FINAL NOTICE by Jo Dereske. #6 Miss Zukas mystery set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma has her elderly, somewhat eccentric Aunt Emily come to stay with her after she has a 'brain incident' and isn't able to stay alone just yet. Shortly after her arrival, a man is killed outside Helma's apartment, and Aunt Em is shocked to recognize him as the man who tried to steal her purse in the airport--she had poked him good with her hatpin, and he fled, but she's sure it's the same man. Further investigation and Helma's looking into her aunt's checkered past leads her to believe that her aunt may well be in danger because of things that happened years ago. Enlisting the help of her 'friend,' police chief Wayne Gallant, Helma narrows down the search--although she's uneasy asking for Chief Gallant's help, as rumor has it that he is seeing his ex-wife again. I really like Helma and do enjoy this series very much, and got a kick out of Aunt Em, who is about as polar opposite of Helma as you can get. And yet they 'work well' together. Interesting story, although the mystery wasn't too mysterious, and looking forward to the next one. A.
9. THE LIONS OF THE NORTH by Edward Marston. #4 in the Domesday historical mystery series, this time the Royal Commissioners are off to York, once again settling land disputes at the behest of the King. Ralph Delchard, Gervase Bret, Canon Hubert and Brother Simon the scribe are joined by a northern noble, Tanchelm of Ghent, who is joining their group at King William's order. There are many disputes to investigate, and it's complicated by the rovings of outlaw bands, including the notorious Olaf Evil Child, who actually has the temerity to steal the group's sumpter horses at an overnight stop along the way. Insulted to the core, Ralph Delchard makes his displeasure known to his old friend, Aubrey Maminot, with whom the party will be lodging at York Castle. Aubrey allows that Olaf is already a thorn in his side, and if caught, he'll be fed to his pets--two ferocious African lions that prowl the ditches around the castle at night, and whom their trainer Ludovico and Aubrey are the only two allowed to handle. Another wonderful story full of history and a sense of time and place that is unrivaled by other writers of historical fiction and mystery. The characters are also wonderful and varied and after only four books have almost become old friends. This has fast become one of my favorite historical series--it's too bad the books are out of print and are so difficult to come by. But I eagerly look forward to the next. A+
10. BIGGIE AND THE POISONED POLITICIAN by Nancy Bell. (AUDIO) #1 in the Biggie Weatherford cozy mystery series set in fictional small-town Texas. The story is told through the eyes of Biggie's 12-year-old grandson J.R., and is a light, humorous mystery mostly focusing on small-town Texas life. Biggie is a wealthy widow and one of the movers and shakers in tiny Job's Crossing, and she pretty much does as she pleases and usually gets her way. So when a new landfill is built next to her family's cemetery, she doesn't have a hissyfit--she gets moving, marshalling her supporters to get rid of it. When the mayor--an overweight, blustery man with a heart conditions--keels over in his whipped cream at a table in the local diner, with Biggie and J.R. looking on, it's first thought he just had the inevitable heart attack. But Biggie thinks he was poisoned and sets out to prove it, although she's not sure why just yet. It must have something to do with her lodger's car blowing up though, don'tchathinkhoney? Two such bizarre events would just have to be linked, since nothing much exciting happens in Job's Crossing. I downloaded this from the library because I needed something quick and light (and of course, the first in a series) and distracting, and it was a rather fun listen. However, not sure I will continue on--there is way too much sticky-sweet southern humor for my usual taste, and if I do listen further (I believe the library has most of the series available as audio download) it will be with plenty of space between the books. B.
11. THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT by Philip Jose Farmer. #2 in the Riverworld Saga. This book, the second in a series that features a sort of repository for the dead--basically, everyone ever born on earth is resurrected in the Riverworld--focuses on Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. His big dream on Earth was to build and captain a Riverboat, and now that he's basically got all eternity, he's determined to do it. This life-after-death place isn't exactly what you'd call heaven, though--the same cliques, clans and territorial battles still break out, and as some resources are in short supply, Sam knows he will have to do battle or barter to get the materials he needs. As with the previous book, a host of different characters from history--ancient and recent--show up, often in unlikely roles. Quite entertaining and an interesting concept of what 'life after death' could be like. B+
12. THE TAKEN by Inger Ash Wolfe #2 Hazel Micallef mystery set in rural Ontario in fictional Port Dundas, although Hazel and her second, James Wingate, do spend time ruffling feathers in Toronto on his old stomping grounds when a case takes them there. A supposed body dredged up from the bottom of a local lake ends up being nothing but a mannequin--but one that someone wants the police to find--it's been weighted to stay in place and an IP address on the back of the mannequin leads them to a website showing a live feed with the merest of hints that someone is being held captive. Oddly, the case is unfolding like the serial story appearing in the local newspaper, and Micallef must butt heads with the press as she attempts to find the writer of the story. Hazel, recovering from major back surgery and dependent on the care of her ex-husband and his new wife as well as powerful painkillers, shouldn't even be back to work yet, but something about this case has yanked her chain and she is determined to find out who is manipulating the police--and her in particular--for their nefarious purposes. A very strange story, and a very interesting one, although I have to admit at first I was really tired of Hazel's pity party. It did get better and by the time I hit the halfway point had a heck of a time putting it down. I really do like Hazel--she's very human, very flawed and vulnerable for all her blustering. Eagerly awaiting the next. A.
13. IGNORANCE IS BLITZ by Anders Henrikssen. A collection of bloopers from college term papers, specifically dealing with history, from ancient times to near-modern history. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, misuse of words, punctuation and especially concepts--all things that drive me right up a tree. So a whole book of them? Made me laugh my butt off. I learned rather quickly that I could not read it while eating lunch. LOL I like the "Anguished English' books as those are examples taken from high school and the world at large. The people writing these papers actually made it into college. Though heaven only knows how! A couple of my favorites: "Judyism was the first monolithic religion. It had one big god named Yahoo." "The wholey Roman Empire amazed many when it was found in Germany." "The invention of the sex tent helped to determine place and orientation at sea." It's best read in small bits, otherwise it can tend to get overwhelming. Plus, you'll strain something laughing too much for too long if you read it all at once. :o) A.
14. AN UNACCEPTABLE DEATH by Barbara Seranella. #8 and final Munch Mancini mystery. Munch, now clean and sober for nine years and living a stable life with her adopted daughter Asia, is enjoying planning her wedding to police detective Rico Chacon, when he is shot to death by other cops in a drug bust gone wrong. Among allegations that Rico was a dirty cop, Munch stuffs her grief and despair to the back of her soul while she lets her practical side take over and sets out to prove that he wasn't. She believes Rico was killed because of her--she had just learned that there is a bounty on her head, put there by the former head of an outlaw biker gang that she all but dismantled when she went straight. Now the gang is re-forming and their first order of business is to take Munch down, and she wonders if he somehow got in the middle of that. She makes deals as a confidential informant with a couple of groups of cops and then essentially does what she needs to do anyway to figure out why Rico was killed. An excellent ending to this series, very sad and poignant, yet hopeful too. I am going to miss Munch a lot. A.
15. PLAYING WITH BONES by Kate Ellis. #2 DI Joe Plantagenet mystery set in fictional Eborby, UK--modeled after the city of York. A young girl is found dead in a dark close, strangled and then with a strange mutilation--her big toe of her left foot is severed, and an old porcelain doll is laid next to her with its toe also removed. When one of the constables brings to Joe and his boss DCI Emily Thwaite's attention a book he's reading about historical murders that contains an excerpt about the Doll Strangler of Singmass Close, they realize the strong similarity to the strangulation of four women back in the 1950's. The toe mutilation was never reported anywhere, so whoever is doing this now must have some connection to the first killer. Another case involving a missing girl intersects with the murder case. I enjoyed this second entry in this series although there seemed to be way too many red herrings and a lot of huge coincidences happening in order for things to fall into place as they do. Still, I am looking forward to the next in series and also to trying the author's other long-standing mystery series. A-
16. CASTLE IN THE AIR by Diana Wynne Jones. (AUDIO) Second in the "Castle" YA fantasy series (the first was Howl's Moving Castle) although we don't actually run into characters from the first book until about the last third of the story. Not really a series, they're just sort of loosely connected. Most of it is about Abdullah, a young carpet-seller in the desert country called Zanzib who daydreams about a life much unlike his own--with himself a prince stolen by evil men and who ends up married to a beautiful princess, and not a seller of carpets besieged by his late father's first wife's nosy family. Meanwhile, Abdullah is sold a magic carpet by a mysterious stranger, and he finds that when he sleeps on it, many of his daydreams seem to come true as he travels to far-off places--and he ends up in Ingary (the country in the first book) with a magic genie in a bottle and a disenfranchised Strangian soldier and a couple of cats, trying to chase down the Princess Flower-in-the-Night, who was stolen by an evil djinn. Full of good humor, a good story and some great characters, and very well-read also by Jenny Sterlin. Going to look for the next one in this sort-of series. B+
17. BREATHING WATER by Timothy Hallinan. #3 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. Poke gets into big trouble when he wins a poker game and the 'prize' is writing the autobiography of the loser--a rich, important man in Thailand, somewhat of a folk hero from the poor northwest of the country who rudely thumbs his nose at the rich, 'noble' class who have ruled the country for centuries. However, powerful people don't want the book written--and others want it written, but only the version they want to be told. Poke and his family are threatened, followed, menaced, attacked--and they don't even know by whom. Probably several parties, all with very powerful friends. Poke tries to figure out how to maintain his status quo without tipping off any of the warring parties what he's doing. Meanwhile, Poke's best friend Arthit, a policeman, is going through hell as he discovers that his beloved wife Noi is probably planning her own suicide as her progressive muscular degenerative disease leaves her with increasing pain that no one can help. And Miaow, Poke's adopted daughter, is having growing pains of her own, trying to figure out where she fits into the world. Another excellent, complex story of Bangkok, from the mean streets to the mansions of the powerful. I absolutely love Poke and his family and friends and was glad to see Boo back in the picture. I've just received the latest in the series, The Queen of Patpong, and it's not very likely that it will gather much dust on my TBR pile! A+
18. A CORPSE AT ST. ANDREW'S CHAPEL by Mel Starr. #2 Hugh de Singleton medieval mystery set in 1360's in the town of Bampton, UK. Still recovering from the plague two decades previously, a spate of lawlessness seems to have taken over the countryside as Hugh, a surgeon, settles into his double role as Bailiff of Bampton Castle for Lord Gilbert Talbot. When Alan the beadle is found dead--first presumed attacked by a wolf, later noted to have been shot with an arrow--Hugh must investigate the death and is attacked several times himself for his trouble. As he follows several twisty, tenuous threads trying to solve several small mysteries that come together in a somewhat pedestrian, obvious conclusion. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book--I did, very much. The sense of time and place provided by the author is outstanding and indeed is the strong point of this series so far. I do like Hugh, but he seems to be just developing as a character. The writing style is at times a bit off-putting and doesn't always flow smoothly, and also with several repetitive phrases that seemed to stand out sometimes. But the entire package was quite enjoyable and I look forward to getting to know Hugh better in the next book. B+
19. A CAST-OFF COVEN by Juliet Blackwell. #2 in the so-called "Witchcraft" series featuring Lily Ivory, a witch and vintage clothing shop owner in San Francisco. Lily is asked by her employee Maya, who is also a student at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, to come to the school and look around on behalf of the woman who runs the school. She's offered a chest full of vintage clothing they found in an old trunk in a closet, but hopes Lily can use her powers to find out about a visitation by a suspected ghost in the bell tower of the school and perhaps do something about it. The noises and ghostly presence has ramped up recently and become disruptive. While at the school, a man falls--or is pushed--down the bell tower steps on the exact site of a suicide several decades earlier. The natural conclusion drawn by many is that the ghost killed Jerry Becker--a rich big-wig with lots of money invested in the school, as well as a daughter, Andromeda, who attends there. Lily is pretty sure that Becker's killer was human, and since he wasn't well-liked and had lots of money, there are plenty of people with motive. Further investigation leads her to believe there is indeed an evil presence at the school, but not from a ghost--rather, from a demon that someone has summoned. Along the way, Lily has to deal once again with Aidan Rhodes, a powerful witch who makes her uncomfortable on several levels, and Max Carmichael, a journalist whom she went out with once and who definitely interests her (and vice versa) but who is a bit of an enigma and who finds her whole witchiness very discomfiting. She also encounters several other men who briefly caught Lily's attention as the story progressed. I enjoyed the book for the most part, although at times I'm not sure if the author is trying to pass Lily off as a witch...I mean, a real witch, or if she's got her living in some type of a paranormal world. I suppose given that she has a goblin familiar who disguises himself as her pet potbellied pig, I really shouldn't take any of it too seriously, right? This should probably be classified as light urban fantasy rather than mystery. There are things that were semi-accurate, though--and some of it just accurate enough to perhaps confuse people who aren't familiar with *actual* witch/Pagan practice and belief. The one other gripe I have is that the author's propensity to make every man Lily met or came across a potential love interest, however briefly, was really annoying. And of course there are at least a couple of permanent romantic interests to keep Lily pulled in two directions, which is one thing that has put me off many so-called mystery series that started with promise and then devolve into romantic baloney, with the mysteries taking a back seat--no, more like being hogtied in the trunk while the romance and sexual tension steer the series. (The whodunit in this one was sort of a no-brainer.) That said, I like the writing style, I like Lily and her shop and her circle of friends for the most part, and Blackwell really is able to provide a wonderful sense of place, making the city of San Francisco one of the main characters in the book. I also love Oscar to pieces! LOL I'll give the series one more read, and if the next book is obviously continuing down the romance road, as much as I like the other parts of the book, I'll probably stop there. B
CURRENT READS: THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman in audio, MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp and Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault in print.
Cheryl
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