1. THE GRIM REAPER by Bernard Knight. #6 book in the Crowner John medieval mystery series, set in 1195 Exeter, UK. The king’s judges are coming to town for the Eyre and Assizes to handle judgments on all the various civil and criminal cases that had been building up since their last visit. Just in time for the festivities, Crowner John has a serial murderer on his hands—someone who is killing people deemed to have sinned against God by the murderer, and worse yet, he suspects that the killer is a priest or cleric, as there is a written note next to the bodies with a quotation from the Vulgate with regard to each person’s particular sin. (The Vulgate was what the Bible of the time was called.) So few people outside the clergy could read and write—and even fewer would know the Bible well enough to quote it—not even many parish priests, so that narrowed down the suspects even more. Crowner John is dismayed when his clerk, Thomas, who is himself a defrocked priest, is put under suspicion by his brother in law the Sheriff, and aside from his goal of solving the crimes before the judges arrive, the grumpy coroner hopes he can clear Thomas’s name as well. Very engaging mystery—I hadn’t guessed who the killer was til the end of the book, though I probably *should* have, because I smacked my head with a “Doh!” when I realized the clues were there for me to find. Interesting trek back to medieval times with the Crowner and his cronies. His extreme grumpiness wasn’t quite so prevalent in this book, or at least I didn’t notice it so much which made it more enjoyable too. A.
2. GRAVE SURPRISE by Charlaine Harris (audiobook) #2 Harper Connelly paranormal mystery series, in which Harper and Tolliver are off to Memphis, TN to do a ‘cemetery reading’ for a college professor who teaches a paranormal studies class. The records of who is in the cemetery have just been discovered and have been kept locked and sealed, so Dr. Clyde Nunley, this professor, believes that he can disprove Harper’s gift of finding dead bodies and their causes of death. O Ye of little faith! LOL Harper is on a roll, having correctly “guessed” several names and causes of death when she is stunned to discover a grave with two bodies—and one of them belongs to a young girl named Tabitha that she had been hired to find (unsuccessfully) some eighteen months previously in Nashville. The police are called and of course the forensic evidence bears Harper’s revelation out, but she and Tolliver are stunned to find that Joel and Diane Morgenstern, Tabitha’s parents, now live in Memphis and they begin to wonder if the parents had something to do with her death—something they had no inkling of when they worked with them previously. Of course there are any number of other possible suspects and when Dr. Nunley’s body ends up in that same grave a couple of nights later, Harper and Tolliver are obliged to stick around until the case is solved. Enjoayble “listen” with a great reader, and a good story as well. We learn more about Harper and Tolliver’s past which makes their present actions and attitudes easier to understand as well. Once again, I have put the next in series on my “library listen” list and will likely get to that within the next couple of months. A
3. ICE HUNTER by Joseph Heywood. #1 in the Woods Cop mysteries featuring conservation officer Grady Service on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Someone is starting small fires in the Mosquito Tract area of Service’s patrol region—a largely uninhabited wilderness area near and dear to his heart, as it was to his father before him. Anyone attacking “the Skeet” is going to have a fight on their hands, and Grady pulls out all the stops to find out what’s going on—while learning quite a few things that even he didn’t know about the area. I figured out a lot of things early on—not that I’m a genius or anything—part of it is given away by the title and the cover photo. LOL The story ended up being fairly predictable, with both the mystery of the fires as well as the dead body found at one scene, a relative of the notorious poacher Limpy Allardyce, who is the patriarch of a thoroughly despicable family residing in Grady’s area. There were no surprises with Grady’s personal life either. Grady Service pretty much eats, breathes and sleeps his job, living in a ramshackle hut with his cat, and working far more hours than he bills the state for. This is one of those series that came up from Amazon’s recommendations because I rated Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series so highly. Well, Grady Service is no Walt Longmire and Joseph Heywood’s writing style didn’t capture me like Craig Johnson’s did. The dialogue seemed to be somewhat stilted and unrealistic at times and by the time I was two-thirds done with the book, I just wanted to be finished with it. And I did finish this book, but I’m not terribly eager to read the next one, and am, in fact, a bit disappointed that I recently spent a PBS credit for it. I’m thinking I may well just re-list it. This book is by no means horrible, but I’ve got no time for mediocre these days. C.
4. A TROUBLE OF FOOLS by Linda Barnes. (audiobook) #1 Carlotta Carlyle mystery, featuring a thirty-something ex-cop-turned PI in Boston, MA. This book was written over 20 years ago, which I didn’t realize until after I’d checked SYKM for the publication date—I did so because there was mention of someone having one of ‘those new-fangled answering machines.’ LOL In most ways, though, it was not dated like that and was an interesting story. Carlotta is contacted by a sixty-something woman who wants her to look for her missing younger brother. He hasn’t been seen for almost two weeks, and Eugene is the only family that Margaret Devens has left, so she’s distraught—but for some reason, doesn’t want the police involved. She and her brother lived together in the family’s old Victorian house in a suburb of Boston. Margaret is a rather reserved, refined appearing woman, but her brother Gene was a cab driver with a bit of a drinking problem and a set of rowdy friends who liked to while away their time toasting ‘the Mother country,’ which in this case is Ireland. After investigating briefly, Carlotta discovers that Eugene’s disappearance may be connected somehow to the IRA, which would explain his sister’s reluctance to involve the cops. When Margaret is brutally attacked in her home by two thugs who also ransacked the place, obviously looking for something, Carlotta is obliged to step up the investigation. She cajoles the owners of the Green & White cab company, where she had worked at one time while attending college, and where Gene was also employed, into hiring her to work nights so she could get closer to the situation. A solid first entry in the series made even better by the reader, one of my favorite female storytellers, C.J. Critt—oddly enough, I’d never heard of author Linda Barnes before stumbling upon this book listed in my library’s downloadable books catalog—though there’s at least a dozen books in the series and it’s still going strong. I have the second one on my library ‘listen’ list already and am looking forward to it. There is a romancey component to this—it remains to be seen whether or not it starts getting in the way of the mystery. B+
5. THE PEOPLE OF SPARKS by Jeanne DuPrau (audiobook) #2 in the Ember fantasy series. The people of the underground city of Ember—well, four hundred and seventeen of them, anyway—have managed to escape the underground city following Lina and Doon’s directions and have emerged aboveground. Having believed that Ember was the center of the universe, they are totally aghast at seeing sunlight, blue sky, green grass, and chickens, among other things. When they trek along until they come to the settlement of Sparks, they are at first welcomed by this small community of survivors—survivors of the disaster that, centuries ago, caused Ember to become a necessity. Up above, technology has devolved. There is no electricity, trucks are pulled by oxen, gasoline having long ago ceased to exist, and cities are dead—bombed out, scorched remnants of a bygone age. Lina and Doon and their families must now work hard to help the Sparks townspeople so that they can produce enough food to feed them all before winter. After the novelty wears off, the differences between the two groups come to the fore and tempers begin to flare, with Lina and Doon making decisions that eventually impact their new community greatly. Another great entry in the series, I really look forward to the next, The Prophet of Yonwood. The reader (Wendy Dillon) is excellent and the story is full of adventure and wisdom. A little “younger” story than I would usually read, but still very well done and very enjoyable. I sure wish there had been more stuff of this calibre around for young readers when I was a kid! A.
6. STORM TRACK by Margaret Maron. #7 Judge Deborah Knott series set in Colleton County, North Carolina. As several tropical storms and hurricanes make their way inland off the North Carolina coast, things heat up in Colleton County when the promiscuous wife of one of the rising stars in a local law firm is found strangled in a sleazy motel room with her own sexy black stocking. Preliminary investigations reveal that there are several people with good motives to kill Lynn Bullock—including, as usual, at least one of Deborah’s extensive web of relatives. Deborah learns some troubling facts about people she thought she knew well, makes some unexpected friends, and generally pokes her nose in where it shouldn’t be—but as usual, helps steer the local law to the right solution. Enjoyable read as always, and as an added bonus I didn’t figure out the baddie til close to the end of the book. These seem to get better with each successive book. A.
7. MAID FOR MURDER by Barbara Colley. #1 Charlotte LaRue “squeaky clean” mystery, about the owner/operator of a maid service in New Orleans, LA. Yep, another cozy! LOL I figured I’d be weeding this one out, but I actually ended up enjoying it. A typical light, quick cozy read. The descriptions of New Orleans were wonderful, the main character is practical and likable and there’s none of that romance-disguised-as-mystery, though there is a bit of ‘male interest’ towards the end of the book. Charlotte is a fifty-nine-year-old single woman, comfortable with herself and what she does for a living with a set of supporting characters around her that sound interesting, too. The mystery in this book centers around the murdered husband of one of her wealthy clients—oddly enough, the woman’s father was murdered in almost the same way many years before. Jeanne, the widow, is of course the police’s prime suspect at first, though Charlotte just can’t believe she’d actually have done it—but to listen to the ramblings of Jeanne’s mother, who is growing a bit senile, she probably had good reason to commit murder! There are plenty of other suspects, though, and Charlotte eventually figures it out—being a maid, you sometimes see things that other folks overlook. It would have been better of course if she’d reported those things to her niece Judith, who’s one of the homicide detectives assigned to the case, but then what kind of a cozy mystery would it be if the police actually solved the crime!?? LOL It will be interesting to read further in the series and see how or even if the author handles post-Katrina New Orleans. A few minor annoyances, but overall a good first entry in series. B+
8. ONCE WERE COPS by Ken Bruen. ARC for review. Written in the same spare, sparse, harsh prose that Bruen uses for his Jack Taylor series, Once Were Cops is primarily the story of two cops—Michael O’Shea, a serial killer doing double duty as a new cop who blackmailed his way to New York as a policeman on an exchange program from Galway, and Kebar, whom “Shea” is paired with, a rough cop-on-the-take whose one soft spot is his mentally retarded sister who lives in a group home. He panders to the mob to get extra money to keep Lucia in a good home. Both men are violent, living lives outside the law and basically do what they want. While this book is written in similar style to the Jack Taylor series, there is a huge difference. This book really had no soul; it was just nasty and violent and depressing without having the emotional connection, the poetic side to the staccato, bleak prose that Bruen infuses into the story of Jack Taylor. I really didn’t care for this book at all. I was unable to connect with the characters in any way. I can’t say I really hated them, certainly didn’t like them—I just didn’t care one way or another what happened to them. It seemed to be just one violent episode after another. If there was supposed to be some sort of message or moral or whatever, I didn’t see it. And the one thing that might have salvaged the book to make it a worthwhile read—a quirky plot twist at the end of the book—I anticipated well in advance. I’m not sure what the author was trying to achieve with this book, but all it did for me was to cause him to fall down off the pedestal he’d been firmly ensconced on previous to my reading this story. There was one good thing about this book: it was short. D+
9. TIL THE COWS COME HOME by Judy Clemens. #1 Stella Crown mystery, Stella, a young woman fast approaching thirty, runs the family dairy farm now, both her parents having died, with the help of long-time farmhand Howie and a host of interesting neighbors and friends. When someone starts sabotaging her farm with various ‘accidents’ that really aren’t, Stella, Howie and a few close friends attempt to investigate and get to the bottom of things. It’s hard enough running a small family farm and trying to fend off the banks and creditors and the big development companies without added problems. And when several area children become violently ill with some new strain of flu—and a couple of them die—Stella begins wondering if the sabotage on her farm and this mystery flu are related. While I did figure out much of the ‘mystery’ ahead of time, I still enjoyed this book a lot. Having grown up on a farm, (a dairy farm even, for awhile when I was really young) Stella’s story caused me to feel a bit like it was old home week and even brought on a brief wave of homesickness, too. Until I remembered how much work living on a farm is! I like Stella, too—she’s an infinitely practical young woman with a bit of a wild streak (she’s tattooed and her alternate form of transportation is a Harley she revamped herself) and yet a very caring, community-oriented person, too. I could see her and I getting along just fine, and my intention is to get to know her a lot better by reading on in the series. A fine beginning! A.
10. THE LEMUR by Benjamin Black. Stand-alone mystery/thriller about a former journalist who is asked by his father-in-law to write his biography for him. Bill Mulholland is a powerful man, head of a multi-national media corporation and ex-CIA operative—so John Glass knows that there will be some things in Mulholland’s background difficult to track down. He hires Dylan Riley, an internet hacker/researcher to do some digging for him, and after a brief phone call in which Riley intimates that he found something ‘really big’ and in essence tries to blackmail Glass, Riley is found by his girlfriend, murdered, with some of his laptop computers missing. Glass is hauled in by the police as his phone number was on Riley’s outgoing calls, and then he begins wondering just what it is that Riley had found and whether or not his father-in-law was involved. I received this book a month or so ago from LT early reviewers, which is weird as it’s NOT an ARC and has been out for several months. It’s a fancy looking little book, very slim, 130 pages that was only about a two-hour read, otherwise I’m not sure I’d have bothered finishing it. Very melancholy, a rather plodding writing style, and not very interesting. The characters were all rather blah—cardboard-like and stereotypical, and I found the “mystery” to be quite uninteresting. I found myself hoping that the author would put all the characters together in a locked room and blow them up or something. I was rather in a state of disbelief at seeing the $13.00 price on the inner flap, too. I’d never have paid it! This was my first book by this author—and probably my last if this is any indication of his work. Some might like it, but I didn’t. D+.
11. CHARM CITY by Laura Lippman. (audio book) #2 Tess Monaghan mystery set in Baltimore. It’s been years since I read the first in this series and that was in print, so I’d forgotten the basic bits about Tess’s life—that she’s twenty-nine years old, an ex-newspaper reporter turned PI, that she’s a fitness buff who rows in the summer and does other training in the winter, that she works primarily for a lawyer, and that she lives above her aunt’s bookstore. In this book, two mysteries cross paths—one dealing with her Uncle Spike, beaten unconscious and leaving Tess with a totally fugly Greyhound dog to care for, the other a side job undertaken for Baltimore’s lone newspaper. Recommended by a couple of her friends, the board at the Beacon-Light hires Tess to find out who got into the system’s computers and printed a story that was meant to be kept back for a few days pending further investigation. The story could have catastrophic results for Baltimore, as it casts a dark shadow over Wink Wynkowski’s past—and Wink is Baltimore’s last great hope to get an NBA franchise to town. Things turn ugly when Wink is found dead of an apparent suicide and various factions at the newspaper attempt to thwart Tess’s investigation at every turn. Of course, more dead bodies turn up as well—it did bug me a little bit that Tess couldn’t figure out the killer ahead of time, as the clues were all there. Of course, I had a ‘gut feeling’ early on about it, and was on the lookout for confirmation, but still. There were a few red herrings, but they were kinda obvious. The reader for this book was great, the story interesting, and the characters believable and likable. I remembered what it was about Tess from the first book that bugged me—the long, drawn-out descriptions of her workouts/rowing, with sweat and heavy breathing—but that wasn’t nearly such an issue in this book. I am adding this series back to my active list, whether I decide to listen to it, or find the next in print. A.
12. #12 Inspector Morse British mystery, once again centering around Oxford, specifically Lonsdale College where a new Master is about to be elected. Webs of deceit, lust, adultery and worse come to the fore as a young physiotherapist is murdered in nearby Bloxham Drive. It’s discovered that she was having an affair with one of the two candidates for Master, but after a bit of investigation, Morse and Lewis discover evidence that indicates that Rachel Ward may not even have been the intended victim—due to an odd house-numbering scheme, it may have been her neighbor, Geoffrey Owens, a newspaper reporter discovered to have a bent for blackmail who was meant to be killed. On a personal note, Morse discovers the hard way that he has diabetes, going in for a doctor visit and being carted to hospital in an ambulance due to dangerously high blood sugar. He spends a few days in hospital initially on an insulin drip cooling his heels (but not his mind!) with regard to the murder case. But as usual, with Lewis’s plodding detective work and Morse’s brilliant mind, they put together the solution. This one is, I think, among my favorite Morse books. It’s good to go back into my ‘comfort zone’ after having a few not-so-good reads earlier in the month! I can always depend on Morse! A+
13. UNCOMMON CLAY by Margaret Maron (audiobook) #8 in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series set in North Carolina, this time in “clay country” where Deborah has traveled to hear a case involving the “ED” or Equitable Distribution of property of a recently-divorced couple who also happen to be potters. Sandra Kay and James Lucas Nordan made beautiful pottery together but couldn’t manage the marriage part. And when James Lucas ends up murdered, baked in a kiln, and Deborah finds his body—family secrets, old grudges and present-day jealousies come out of the woodwork with the suspect list burgeoning. Of course Deborah takes a personal interest in the case, which is heightened when an old friend calls and asks her to check up on her son, who has gone to stay with the Nordans and who happens to be the illegitimate child of James Lucas’s older (and also deceased) brother, Donny. Deborah’s personal life also takes an interesting turn in this episode, which (with my interest in handmade pottery) I really enjoyed. The reader was once again excellent, and while I had one of my “inklings” about the bad guy, I just wasn’t able to put together the whys and wherefores until close to the end of the book. I think it won’t be too many months before I’ve caught up with this series, which has rapidly become one of my favorites. A.
14. MURDER IN MARBLE ROW by Victoria Thompson. Sixth in the “gaslight” mysteries featuring Sarah Brandt, a young widow in early 1900s New York who is also a midwife, and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy of the New York police. Teddy Roosevelt is currently police commissioner, and when he directs Malloy to investigate the murder by bombing of a wealthy businessman, Malloy is dismayed because he knows he will have to question many upper class people—and be expected to tread lightly since those people tend to be able to buy their innocence. Malloy is even more incredulous when Roosevelt tells him that he was requested to be the officer in charge by none other than Peter Decker, who just happens to be Sarah Brandt’s father! It’s believed by nearly everyone (save Malloy and Mrs. Brandt) that the dead man was blown up by his son, who has disowned his wealthy family and lives with an enclave of Russian anarchists in a poor section of town. As the two investigate and meet the son and the rest of the family, whom Sarah had known as a child, they don’t believe he’s guilty but must investigate the other privileged people around on the sly. While I had figured out the murderer by about mid-book, that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book at all. I’ve really taken a liking to this series, though the romantic tension between Malloy and Sarah does get a little tiresome at times. At least they’re not rutting in back alleys or anything. LOL A-
15. AN ICE COLD GRAVE by Charlaine Harris. (audiobook) #3 Harper Connelly mystery, this one set in Doraville, North Carolina where Harper has been hired by the grandmother of a missing boy. Actually it’s a “consortium” of people who have chipped in to hire her, because there are a total of six teenage boys gone missing over a couple of years—which were, apparently, easy for the local law to write off as runaways. However, when a new sheriff is elected, she recommends Harper to Twyla Cotton (the grandmother) as she’d heard about her from another detective Harper had previously worked with. Harper does find the six boys—and two more that were unknown—buried together in a mass grave on an old abandoned property, all brutally tortured, raped and murdered. Harper, who’s never done a ‘mass murder’ before, is literally sick from the discovery, and shortly afterward is attacked by a masked figure in black outside her hotel room, sustaining injuries enough that she is hospitalized. They hope to be able to get out of town before a major ice storm hits, but as usual the State Bureau of Investigation need her to answer a bunch of questions and the delay is enough to keep them in the area as the ice and sleet roll in. Harper and Tolliver’s relationship continues to change as well, and I have to say that I wasn’t really too crazy about the change. Those who have read the series to date will guess at the turn it takes, and all I can say is that the very graphic sex scenes were not at all romantic or sexy to me. They actually made me laugh out loud—it really seemed silly! This was one of those cases where I would have preferred a print book to audio because I could have just skimmed over that part, but since I was listening, I couldn’t. I know that this author does write romances as well, and if this is an example of her work in that genre, I’m glad that I haven’t bothered to sample any of them. Aside from that, I enjoyed the mystery and paranormal part of the book as usual. B.
16. LITTLE GIRL LOST by Richard Aleas. #1 John Blake P.I. mystery, under the “Hard Case Crime” imprint. I actually had thought to weed this book out of my TBR; it was one I’d acquired on a whim well over a year ago, and when I added it to my ‘weed out’ pile, I wondered what I’d been thinking! I was anticipating it’d be one of those kind of cheesy, stereotypical Dashiell Hammett type ‘hard ass’ PI books. I was very pleasantly surprised instead. John Blake isn’t your typical tough guy—though he is that, certainly. He’s actually got a degree in literature and there were some literary references woven into the prose, and he’s much more sensitive emotionally than any of those fifties-style PI guys. John gets involved in trying to solve the murder of Miranda Sugarman, the girl who was his high school girlfriend ten years ago. She’d gone off to college in another state, set to become an eye doctor, and he never heard from her again aside from a few sporadic letters her first year away. She ended up as a stripper in one of the seediest strip joints in New York—and died with two bullets in her head on the roof of the building where the club is located. John’s boss and mentor, Leo, advises him to leave it alone, but John feels obligated to find out what led Miranda from the path full of promise to that sad and violent end. This was a fairly quick read, but had much more substance and character than I expected. I like John and his supporting cast of characters, the book was well-written with a style that didn’t make it ‘work’ to read it. The mystery was well-plotted too, and with the surfeit of suspects and possible baddies, I wasn’t sure at all til near the end who the real bad guy was, though I did figure out part of the mystery itself well in advance. I fully expect to carry on reading this series. A.
17. THE PROPHET OF YONWOOD by Jeanne DuPrau (audiobook). This is #3 in the Ember fantasy series, though it’s actually a pre-quel to the events taking place in the first book—it’s the story of the United States (and the world in general), telling how world war broke out, how the earth was scarred and ruined and how most of the population was killed off in The Disaster, necessitating the City of Ember (a vast underground city) even being built, populated and provisioned. However, I have to say that I really didn’t like this story much. There was very little tie-in to the actual events of the first two books, it was a whole new set of characters and also a different reader than the first two. She wasn’t *bad* per se, but the woman who read the first couple was excellent and this lady just didn’t live up to her performance. I think if there’d been more of a connection between this story and the main character (Nicki, an 11-year-old girl) with the characters in Ember, it would have made more sense. Instead it was almost like two totally different stories—and this one just wasn’t as good. I understand the fourth in series has been recently released and that one goes back to the characters from Ember and Sparks, which I’m glad about. This one just didn’t do it for me much. C.
18. THE GYPSY MORPH by Terry Brooks. Third and final entry in the Genesis of Shannara fantasy trilogy in which all of the heroes and heroines of the previous two books unite—Knights of the Word Angel Perez and Logan Tom, the boy Hawk who is also the gypsy morph, and Kirisin Belloruus, the young elf who successfully found the Loden elfstone and used it to protect his people. They come together to fight the demons that have taken over the world, and in their little corner of the universe set out to find a safe haven that Hawk has been promised he will find by the King of the Silver River, where those who are protected will weather the nuclear storm that is coming. The road toward their destination is fraught with danger and some don’t make it. But some, of course, do. This series of books successfully ties together with Brooks’ Knight of the Word ‘modern fantasy’ trilogy to form the prequel to his epic “Shannara” fantasy series, begun more than thirty years ago. And he does so very successfully and in grand fashion! I greatly enjoyed this book (and the whole series) and look forward to re-reading the earlier Shannara books at some point and getting around to finally reading some of the more recent Shannara trilogies as well. Well done, Mr. Brooks! I just wonder what you’ll get up to next! A.
19. SPECIALS by Scott Westerfeld. Third in the “Uglies” young adult fantasy trilogy, in which our heroine Tally, futher surgically and technologically enhanced to become a Special—super-cool, lightning fast, uber-smart and created to protect the world from the Smokies—the so-called “Uglies” of the world who ran away, hid out, and never underwent the operation at age sixteen to change them into (basically speaking) Stepford people, clones of one another with cotton candy brains and nothing more to do than party and have fun. Tally’s been rebellious almost from the beginning, and even now as a Special she is part of a fringe group headed by her friend Shay called The Cutters. When Shay cooks up a plot to make the Cutters really look extra-Special by discovering the location of the New Smoke (the wild rebels’ hideout) and capturing their leader David (former boyfriend of both Shay and Tally), Tally goes along with it mostly to make sure her current boyfriend Zane—still recovering from his bubblehead status—is saved so he can be turned into a Special like her. Many conflicting feelings flow throughout the story which much philosophical wrangling—friendship, love, betrayal and whether any one person’s happiness overrides doing things for the greater good of many. Enjoyable read as always with lots of action and a great storyline. There are moments when you wonder if Tally’s totally lost it but then she comes back from being a cloned drone to using her brains—and her heart—to make her decisions. I’m looking forward to the next in series! A.
CR: OXYGEN by Carol Cassella, AN EYE FOR MURDER by Libby Fischer Hellmann and listening to CATCH AS CAT CAN by Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown in audio download.
Cheryl
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
September 2008 Reading
1. I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith. Delightful classic British story about a poverty-stricken family living in an old castle in the English countryside in the post-WWII era. The story is told as the ‘journal’ of Cassandra, the 17-year-old daughter of a writer who was a ‘one-hit wonder’ many years previously and now seems to be slipping into eccentricity if not downright craziness. Cassandra, her sister Rose, brother Thomas, their stepmother Topaz, and Stephen, the handyman and gardener, live quite an interesting life stretching pennies until the heirs to the castle that they’re renting arrive from America. Then things get interesting! Simon and Neil Cotton are as different as night and day, and the family begins to plot to have Rose ‘catch’ one of the Cottons (who are obviously rich!) so that their poverty will end. Ah, but the best laid plans… well, you know. I enjoyed this book a lot—I really liked the quirky Cassandra who seemed oodles more mature than most modern-day seventeen year olds, and yet she was refreshingly innocent at the same time. I wish I’d read this when I was a kid, as this type of “kids surviving mostly on their own” book was even more up my alley then than it is now. The author’s descriptions of the English countryside were brilliant, too. The book did have a few rather cheesy, romanticized moments, but I kept the fact that the book was written in 1948 in the back of my mind—and that this was the author’s first novel, also. Context is everything sometimes! B+
2. HOME FIRES by Margaret Maron. Sixth in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series set in Colleton County, North Carolina. Racial tensions run high when a black church is torched and Deborah has a personal interest when her nephew A.J. is initially implicated with a couple of ne’er do well friends of his. Past grief and grudges come forward and the media and civil rights leaders descend on Raleigh and the general area when two more churches go up in flames—and a body is found in one of them. Something smells rotten to Deborah and she begins to wonder if the burnings—and the death—are racially motivated at all, or if someone has a better reason for creating mayhem. On a personal level, Deborah is seeing the new home she’s having built on a few secluded acres given to her by her father nearing completion and her relationship with Kidd, her park ranger boyfriend seems to be deepening as well—although that thread by no means dominates the book or the series. (There’s a little bit o’lovin’ but not oodles of sappy romance. Nice! LOL) I ‘recognized’ the baddie (one of those gut feelings) very early on, but didn’t know how or why it was done til close to the end. I love this series! Typically I’m not a fan of so-called ‘Southern’ fiction but this series is a definite exception to that rule. It doesn’t even bother me to have Deborah call her father Daddy, which most of the time grates on my nerves unless the speaker is under the age of twelve. LOL Deborah has such a practical nature, a pragmatic spirit and isn’t afraid to admit her own foibles and willingly accepts the faults of her friends and family too—and yet, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Looking forward very much to the next one in the series. A.
3. FINN by Jon Clinch (audio book) This is the story of Finn, the infamous Huckleberry’s father, as mean and despicable a fictional character (or a real one, come to that) as ever graced the pages of a book, I think. His character was eluded to occasionally during the telling of Mark Twain’s classic tale, but this is his story—the tale of his upbringing, his adulthood, his relationships, his prejudices, and how Huck came to be as well. If the author is attempting to elicit sympathy for Finn—and I honestly don’t think that was his intent—he thoroughly struck out with me. Although part of what nauseated me about Finn are his deep-seated racial prejudices, that in and of itself wasn’t really enough to bring forth the feelings of disgust as in that regard he was simply a product of the times and the household that he lived in. No, it was more the utter self-centeredness of the character that sometimes left me with my jaw hanging open. I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone so selfish, so full of excuses for his despicable actions and so concerned about his own skin above all else! It took me awhile to warm up to the reader, but after an hour or so I knew I had to keep listening and after awhile I found his characterizations to be quite well-done. I don’t think saying “I enjoyed the book” is exactly the way to describe how I felt about it, as there was little in it that was “enjoyable,” but it was an excellent work of fiction and an insightfully plausible story of how one of America’s most notable fiction characters, Huckleberry Finn, might have been molded. Well done! A.
4. MOVING PICTURES by Terry Pratchett. Tenth in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series. This is Pratchett’s spoof of Hollywood and the movies, or “Holy Wood" and ‘moving pictures’ as they say on the Discworld. People don’t eat popcorn, they have ‘banged grains’ to munch while watching the moving pictures. Of course, the pictures are only 10 minutes long and no one has ever heard of a three-reel film until Throat Dibbler encouraged the movie mogul Thomas Silverfish to try it. (You can blame ‘advertising’ on him as well.) Perpetual wizard student Victor (‘Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword a little) and small-town girl Ginger are about to become big stars, first in Cohen the Barbarian and then Sworde of Passione when the magic of Holy Wood infects them and everyone else. Much hilarity ensues as Pratchett seems to catch a pretty darned accurate picture of the way things really work in (our) Hollywood when you boil it all down. Wonderful reading, hilarious light reading as always—wonderful escapism. Much better than any Hollywood (or even Holy Wood!) fillum.A.
5. A DIRTY DEATH by Rebecca Tope. #1 in the Den Cooper British police mystery, set in a rural area of Devon. The book seemed to be told from several different points of view, which is quite distracting. The main character actually seems to be Lilah Beardon, the daughter of the first (of several!) murder victims and we certainly get to know her quite well over the course of the book, though I felt like I hardly know the policeman, Den Cooper, at all! Den and Lilah meet when Lilah’s father Guy Beardon is found dead in his slurry pit on their farm. It’s deemed accidental until a neighbor is bludgeoned to death and his brother knocked senseless a few days later, at which time the police look more closely at Guy’s demise and believe the two deaths are related. He wasn’t well-liked in the community though he was a wonderful father to Lilah and she misses him dreadfully. More murder and mayhem ensues and Lilah is eager to help solve the crimes so their family can move on with their lives. I found this story to be a bit long and draggy with much extraneous information and too many circulating points of view. Everyone seemed to have dark and sordid secrets, and aside from Lilah and Den, there wasn’t a person who didn’t have some ulterior motives in the lot! I liked the writing style—I had picked this as one of my “weed-out weekend” books and was intrigued enough to keep reading beyond two chapters—but the book just went nowhere fast. The plot got stuck in the slurry pit with Guy Beardon, I think! LOL Anyway, this author has three different mystery series, and as this one is a short (four book) series that ended several years ago, I doubt I’ll read more of it, especially as they aren't easy to come by here; after reading this one I won't try very hard to acquire more, either. But I do have the first in another of her series here and I’ll give that a try. I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages and must admit I was disappointed in it, though there is promise here. B-
6. THE ALCHEMYST: THE SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL by Michael Scott (audiobook) Young Adult fantasy novel, first in a trilogy, in which teenagers Josh and Sophie Newman, living with their aunt in San Francisco for the summer and working across the street from one another—Sophie in a coffee shop and Josh in a bookstore—discover that Josh’s boss, Nick Fleming, is really the noted alchemist Nicholas Flamel, and that he’s more than 600 years old! This discovery is made when the bookshop is attacked by John Dee—yes, the same magician who served Queen Elizabeth I and who is now serving “the Dark Elders” in an effort to bring them back into power and subdue the “Humani” as they refer to the humans of this world. During the course of their adventure in which Nicholas’s wife Perry is kidnapped by Dee, and the Codex (an ancient book with many important alchemical spells, including that of The Philosopher’s Stone) is stolen—except for the final two pages which Josh inadvertently rips out when Dee takes the book—the bookstore blows up and Josh and Sophie end up on the run with Flamel, they meet many legendary creatures and persons, including several ancient gods and goddesses. Very well-written, well-read and an all-around enjoyable “listen” that I definitely look forward to continuing on with. The author also seems to know his Pagan lore very well, which is a refreshing change. :-) A.
7. SMUGGLER’S MOON by Bruce Alexander. #8 in the Sir John Fielding historical mystery series set in 1790’s London and featuring real-life historical figure, who was known as “the blind Beak of Bow Street.” Though he is blind, Sir John has an uncanny sense of what is going on around him, aided by his assistant Jeremy Proctor, who is in effect his adopted son. It’s Jeremy who tells us these stories and he tells them very well! In this installment, Mrs. Fielding is off to visit her ill mother and immediately Sir John receives a summons from the Lord Chief Justice to go to the town of Deal on the coast to investigate smuggling and to confer with the magistrate there—the magistrate has been accused of not doing his job well and letting the smuggling trade run rampant. When the Fielding household arrives—for Sir John takes with him not only Jeremy, but Clarissa, Mrs. Fielding’s young ward, as well as Constable Perkins—they discover that Albert Sarton, the magistrate, though quite young, is actually a competent and seemingly trustworthy fellow and that something is rotten in Deal. Sir John confers with several people and often leaves Jeremy in the dark til the plan comes together in a smashing conclusion—while I had figured out the main bad guy ahead of time, there were a few small side plots that added to the whole and which in no way diminished my enjoyment of the book. Pity there are only three more! A.
8. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Audiobook) Classic mystery in which Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigate a death on the moors, believed by the superstitious locals to have been caused by a ‘hound of hell’ which legend says plagued the Baskerville family for many generations. With the most recent death, suspicions are brought to Holmes by the family doctor, who wonders what he should do as the new Baskerville heir is arriving the next day from America and he does not wish him to meet the same fate as his friend. Holmes sends Watson to Dartmoor to the Baskerville estate to keep an eye open and to help protect the newest Lord of the Manor and of course subtle clue after subtle clue are dropped into the story, but it’s only Holmes who is able to pull them all together. I haven’t ‘read’ this story for many years and had forgotten whodunit and the reader for this was fabulous, so it was a real treat for me. Conan Doyle was one of my early favorite authors and he does a detective story in a way that no one else can! A.
9. GRAVE SIGHT by Charlaine Harris (audiobook). First in the Harper Connelly paranormal mystery series, featuring this young lady who has the ability to speak to the dead after being struck by lightning at the age of fifteen. She and her step-brother, Tolliver, travel around taking assignments to locate bodies. They work mostly on word of mouth, and for the most part are treated as something akin to the freaks in a circus side-show. While Harper can’t tell who killed the person if they were murdered, she can tell how they died, and actually relives the last moments of the person’s life. In our introduction to this interesting duo, Harper and Tolliver are summoned to Sarn, Arkansas by a wealthy widow who wants to locate the body of her dead son’s girlfriend, Tini Hopkins. Sybil Teague is upset because Del’s (her son) good name has been under a cloud for these many months since his death, as it’s rumored that he killed Tini and then himself, but Tini’s body was never found. Since she was a bit of a ‘wild girl,’ some folks think she just went away. Sybil wants to put the rumors to rest. Harper DOES find Tini’s body, discovers that she was shot twice in the back and also visits Del’s grave and discovers that he most certainly didn’t commit suicide. Harper and Tolliver are not made to feel welcome in Sarn at all, and while they want nothing more than to head on out to their next assignment, they are cautioned by the sheriff to stick around when Helen Hopkins, Tini’s mother, is found bludgeoned to death shortly after they visited her at her request. I liked this book a lot. The reader was excellent and I felt that she brought out the voice of Harper very well and helped me to understand her a little. I did think that the relationship between Tolliver and Harper was a bit weird, almost to the point of making me uncomfortable, and there were times when Harper’s vulnerability was a little tiresome—but then, she has had a very difficult life, even with the whole “I’ve been struck by lightning” thing aside, and her character was written in such a way that she wasn’t really trying to get sympathy or make excuses for her weakness, she just had very much of an “I am what I am” aura about her, and I liked that. I also thought Harper was pretty mature, given that she’s only twenty-four years old—it seemed that life has made her wise beyond her years. I have already got the downloadable version of the next book in this series on my list at the library and I don’t think it will be too long before I actually go and get it! A.
10. THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION by Iain Pears. Seventh and final book in the Jonathan Argyll “art history” mysteries—or, at least there’s been none for more than eight years so one must assume the series has ended. Flavia, now firmly in place as Bottando’s temporary replacement as head of the art theft squad, is called to a meeting with the Prime Minister about a painting that has been stolen for ransom. The painting is on loan from another country, part of an international exhibition and is a delicate matter as any publicity about its theft will greatly impugn not only the PM’s reputation, but all of Italy’s. Flavia is given vague directions and yet she senses that they want her to deal with this differently than what’s implied. And this begins a long and twisted plot that goes back years. Jonathan meanwhile, to avoid sitting down and actually writing a paper that’s needed for an upcoming conference, decides to track down the particulars of a small picture that Flavia’s boss Bottando has had for years, ‘a gift from a friend’ he’s said. Jonathan wants to find out its history as a retirement gift for Bottando and in so digging finds some startling information and connections. I enjoyed this book a lot—there are a few surprises, much lovable description of Italy, its food, its people and its culture. I’m unsure as to whether Pears planned this as a last installment in the series or whether it happened abruptly—argument could be made for both viewpoints. It did end on a satisfying note, but there is definitely room for further storylines as well. Excellent ending to an all-around excellent series. A.
11. THE WHISKEY REBELS by David Liss. (ARC for review, though the book does come out at the end of this month.) Historical fiction set in the immediate post-Revolutionary War period in Philadelphia and New York. The story is told from the point of view of two people: Ethan Saunders, a disgraced spy, and Joan Maycott, a young woman with literary aspirations. Ethan’s story begins in the present time while Joan’s starts in the past with her early life. Her and Ethan’s paths begin their fateful crossing when she and her husband Andrew trade in his war debt for a parcel of land in western Pennsylvania, which was in essence the great frontier at that time. They find to their horror that they have been horribly cheated and Joan begins plotting revenge against all who have wronged her. Ethan, meanwhile, in Philadelphia in 1791, is content to be a sloshing drunk and occasional thief, drowning his sorrows at being disgraced and (wrongfully) branded a traitor and his loss of the love of his life, Cynthia Fleet, to another man, and her father who was his co-conspirator as a government spy, who died in disgrace with him. I can’t say too much without giving important things away, so I won’t, but eventually Joan and Ethan’s paths cross, and the stability of the whole of the new United States of America rests on what happens. Let me say right up front that this time period in American history is NOT one of my special interests. I generally just don’t care for it, haven’t read much about it, so I have no idea how much of what the author imparts here is pure speculation, pure fiction and which parts are based on solid fact. There are many “real” historical figures in this book, but I have no knowledge of whether their portrayals were accurate. The book also dealt in large part with banking, finance and the early days of what became eventually the stock market, which, on the master lists of things I’m interested in, falls right down there near the bottom with politics, knitting sweaters for yappy little dogs and designer handbags. LOL That said, once I discovered what the book was about, it rather amazed me that I DID keep reading—and I did so because the author made the characters and the story itself irresistible. I surmised rather early on that the lives of these two characters would intersect, I just wasn’t sure when and how, and I wanted to find out! The book is a little slow and plodding in some parts and the plot was twisty and quite complicated—which, I suppose was ultimately what kept me reading. That, and wanting to find out what ultimately happened to the main characters. But I have found this slowness to be true of Liss’s other books as well—and yet, when done reading and reflecting back, I have to say that I don’t remember those slow points much and tend to think on the story as a whole as a very interesting, engaging one. Liss does not sugarcoat life in post-Revolutionary war America, and portrays it as the difficult, sometimes brutal, often fatal life that it was. Recommended especially for those who enjoy historical fiction in this time period, anyone interested in the early days of the U.S. banking system, and for those who’ve read and enjoyed the author’s previous works. A-
12. WHAT ANGELS FEAR by C. S. Harris. #1 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery, set in early 1800’s London. When a young actress is found brutally murdered and raped in a church, it is believed that she was going to meet Sebastian St. Cyr, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and nobleman with the title of Viscount Devlin. Thus, without much investigation—and indeed, with someone seemingly planting false clues—the Bow Street constables begin seeking Sebastian in the brutal killing. When a constable is seriously injured during an attempt to capture him, despite the fact that he was injured by his own co-worker, Sebastian knows that the only way to clear his name is to find Rachel Ward’s killer himself. Trained as a spy during the war, he already possesses good investigative skills, and with the help of Tom, a young street urchin, he gains access to all the darker, seedier parts of London that he would otherwise be unable to navigate without drawing attention to himself. He also calls on Kat, an actress who knew and worked with the murdered woman—and a former lover of Sebastian’s. (Yeah, gotta have at least a few bits of steamy sex—this author is also a romance writer under another name, after all. LOL) The investigation takes a troubling turn when he learns that Rachel was supposed to meet his father—and he wonders if his father might be a traitor. Plenty of other suspects come to the forefront, though, and while there is plenty of vice and avarice to go around, only one man could ultimately have done such a foul deed. Of course, I spotted him right away, though I didn’t know at the time what his motivation would be. I very much enjoyed this book—the characters were well-drawn, the settings wonderfully depicted, and I look forward to getting to know them all better next time ‘round! I marked the grade down slightly due to the several interludes of gratuitous sex; sweat-slicked flesh, deeply probing bits and heaving bosoms did nothing to either develop the characters or advance the plot. If I want romance, I’ll read a romance novel. *sigh* B+.
13. THE CITY OF EMBER by Jeanne DuPrau. (audiobook) #1 Ember fantasy series. Wow! There really seems to be a large crop of wonderful fantasy for young readers out there these days! This is a combination sci-fi/fantasy/post apocalyptic fiction for younger readers. I’d say younger than “young adult”—at least, there’s no hint of any sex or awakening hormones in it—it was pure adventure, which I much prefer. And it was an excellent story! It’s about a city called Ember, and in particular two of its citizens, 12-year-olds Doon and Lina, who are now done with school and starting their first jobs. Lina is a messenger, and Doon works in the pipeworks under the city. Ember is a city totally in the dark—once a prosperous, well-provisioned city, now shortages, power outages and scrabbling for mere subsistence living are commonplace. The citizens have been told as far back as anyone can remember that Ember is the only light in the darkness, that there is nothing beyond the city’s boundaries. But neither Doon nor Lina believe it—both have dreams that there *must* be something more, somewhere else to go. Both are increasingly worried about the more frequent and prolonged power outages, the lack of lighbulbs and other supplies. Unbeknownst to Lina, her great-grandmother many times removed (the seventh mayor of Ember) was supposed to pass along a special box with instructions to the next mayor as to what to do. But that mayor died and the box has been stashed in Lina’s closet underneath a veritable tonnage of junk for years. When Lina’s baby sister Poppy discovers the box, she opens it and begins chewing on the directions that are inside—Lina manages to save enough of it so that she realizes it’s important and tries to get someone to listen to her. During the course of her messenger duties, Lina discovered that the mayor is corrupt and has a secret stash of supplies—but the mayor knows she knows, so now his goons are after her and Doon even before they get the instructions deciphered completely. The book ends on a cliffhanger such that I know it won’t be long til I get the next in series. Not only was this a great story, but the reader for this was also excellent—she did the many and varied voices very skillfully. A.
14. MURDER IS BINDING by Lorna Barrett. First in the Tricia Miles “Booktown” mysteries. Modeled after the infamous book town of Hay-on-Wye in England, economically depressed Stoneham, New Hampshire has been remade into a prosperous village with numerous book shops—some antiquarian, many specialty shops and the like opening in the remodeled downtown area. Not a Barnes & Noble in the bunch, anyway! LOL Tricia Miles is the owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, the mystery store, and when Doris, the sourpuss owner of the cookery store down the street, ends up dead, with Tricia finding the body, she ends up being the primary suspect—both by the police, who seem to be watching her very carefully, and by the townspeople, who do love a good gossip. She and her pretentious sister Angelica, visiting from the big city, set out to clear Tricia’s name by asking more pointed questions than the police seem to be doing. When a second death occurs—an older lady who scrounged estate sales, thrift shops, etc. and sold tidbits to the store owners—things escalate more since Tricia had been the last person known to have spoken with her. This book seems to be yet another in a long line of yawningly predictable cozy mysteries with an unmarried protagonist who is a specialty-shop owner of some kind trying to clear her own name when murder happens. She does really stupid things that no sane person would do (essentially breaking into the dead woman’s cottage and snooping around after dark, for example—and then not sharing information gleaned with the police) and of course there must be at least one potential love interest making eyes at her. The mystery really wasn’t—spotted the bad guy straight away—the plot was predictable and I am disappointed to have to say that a book/series that had the potential to be something special ended up being just another cardboard-cutout-cozy. I do have the second one in this series on my PBS wishlist, and I likely will read it when I eventually get it, but I won’t be wishlisting any more of them unless the second one is a great improvement over this and I wouldn’t hesitate to delete it if I needed the space on my list. It wasn’t horrible—just very forgettable, which IMO is almost worse than being really bad—because I did waste about three precious reading hours actually reading this and if it were *really* bad I’d have stopped after fifty pages. LOL C-.
15. ANARCHY AND OLD DOGS by Colin Cotterill. #4 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery set in 1970’s Laos in which Siri gets involved with his good friend Civali in attempting to thwart a coup against the new Lao government, which also eventually involves Nurse Dtui and Phosy the policeman as well. Siri also ventures to the southern part of the country to Pakse, to investigate the death of a young boy fished out of the river and brings Civali with him to look into some political things on the sly, and while they are there, Siri encounters Daeng, a woman that he and his wife knew in their young revolutionary days. There are a couple of surprises at the end of the book, too. All in all, another very satisfying visit with Dr. Siri and crew, though I have to admit that at times all the political nuances and plots were a bit over my head. The ghosts that Siri has visitations from were somewhat more quiescent in this book, perhaps because Siri was often under the influence, consuming mass quantities of Lao cocktails, which consists of one-half rice whiskey and the other half rice whiskey. LOL I love this author’s writing style and his magical way with words. Can’t wait til the next one! A.
16. THE CASE HAS ALTERED by Martha Grimes. #14 in the Chief Supt. Richard Jury and Melrose Plant mystery series, in which Jury’s friend Jenny Kennington is arrested for two murders that occurred on the fens of Lincolnshire. The first victim was a cousin of Jenny’s that she’d long had conflicts with but had not had any contact with for several years—yet she was the last person to see the woman alive and they had argued. It’s believed the second murder was committed to keep the victim, a young local woman, quiet because she saw something. Jury can’t believe that Jenny has had anything to do with it, but of course he then begins questioning himself as to how well he really knows her—which is, apparently, not well at all. Melrose gets to play the part of an antiques appraiser in this book, as the house where Jenny and the first murder victim were staying is owned by a man who is a collector. That man, Max, was also previously married to Verna Dunn, the first murder victim, and employed the second victim, Dorcas Reese, as a kitchen helper, so Jury wants someone ‘inside’ the house to see how things lie. The reveal isn’t really terribly surprising, but as usual, I enjoyed this entry in Grimes’ long-lived series for the visit with not only Jury and company, but Melrose and his cadre of friends in Northants as well. This one was, once again, a bit bloated with a bit too much in the ‘extraneous’ department, but certainly not as bad as a couple of previous books which looked like they’d not seen an editor’s desk at all! Nothing spectacular here, just a nice comfy visit. B.
17. IN A DARK HOUSE by Deborah Crombie. (audio) I had this book in print on my TBR, but when I spotted it in audio for download on my library’s website, I decided I wanted to see if the series is as appealing when listened to as when read. It is! The reader (Michael Deehy) was excellent with the ability to do a wide range of voices very well. I was shocked to see that the price for this audiobook on CD at Amazon was $95! Glad I have a library card! LOL Anyway, in this book, a serial arsonist is at work and it has turned into murder as a body, a Jane Doe, is found inside a burned-out warehouse. Add to the fact that the warehouse belongs to a prominent local politician and Kincaid has his hands full—and it couldn’t come at a worse time, as the hearing for his custody battle for Kit with his ex-mother-in-law Eugenia Potts is coming up very quickly. When Gemma responds to a call from her friend (and Duncan’s cousin-by-marriage) Winnie who is a vicar from Glastonbury filling in for a friend of hers in London asking her to come speak to one of her parishioners who is distressed over the disappearance of her flat-mate, she finds that Elaine Holland’s disappearance may be tied in to Duncan and the fire brigade’s arson/homicide case as well. And things become even more complicated when a couple of other women who vaguely fit the description of the Jane Doe also seem to have disappeared—including the warehouse owner’s daughter! While I figured out the whole mystery well ahead of time and wanted to shake Duncan and Gemma for being so thick, I can’t really fault them—these books are generally told from the POV of several people so you as the reader have benefit of knowing things that they don’t. And the audio version is every bit as compelling as the print versions of this series—I found I was inventing things that I could do while listening so I could finish the book! After I finished my weekly cleaning and ‘batch cooking,’ I even tucked my MP3 player into my jeans pocket and took a walk….if it gets me moving, you KNOW it was good. LOL If you’ve never read any of Crombie’s books, I highly recommend them in either form! A+
18. FAULT LINES by Nancy Huston. I reviewed this ARC for Amazon Vine, and gave it an F. I don't even want to post my review here. What a waste of trees is all I can say.
19. Fifth in the “Fools Guild” medieval mysteries featuring Feste the fool, this one is actually in the form of a story told by Father Gerald, the current head of the Guild, to the children around the campfire at their new headquarters. It’s a story that features Gerald, but tells of ‘other fools’ in Denmark circa 1150’s as the different factions struggle for power. It’s a tale of treachery and loss, of how fools (i.e. spies) are recruited and trained, and how very surprising they can sometimes be. This is mostly the story of Amleth, who was the son of one of the princes or faction leaders who was murdered and betrayed by his wife and his power-hungry brother. The only one who seemed to care about Amleth was Yorick, the court fool, who trained him to juggle and play the lute and about all the other things fools generally do, like sneaking around and listening at doors. Then one day, Yorick just disappears without so much as a by your leave. When Amleth is sent to Paris to study, he packs Yorick’s bag of tricks with him and seeks training with the Guild there using the secret password that Yorick has taught him and manages to stay alive through cunning for many more years. I absolutely love this series! Alan Gordon does a wonderful job of drawing you right into the story, getting you to care about the characters, and setting the scene for whatever time period and place he’s writing about. This is one of the few series I collect in hardcover and that I know I will be reading again someday even though I already know what happens—the period detail and the stories are irresistible and I suspect will be just as enjoyable the next time around. A+
DNF: A SPOT OF BOTHER by Mark Haddon (audiobook) I’m not sure if my annoyance at the book was due to the reader or not—it was a British guy with a very “posh” accent and he had some horrible variations for the different characters. And that was also quite distracting—the frequently-changing points of view. One of the voices sounded like the Viceroy from Star Wars: Episode One which was REALLY annoying. I didn’t like what I perceived to be the main character either—a somewhat affected older man, recently retired, whose daughter announces her upcoming marriage. He seemed to have a lot of worries and anxieties and flights of fancy and panicky moments. I wanted to slap him upside the head. Anyway, after an hour and fifteen minutes, I had to stop. I don’t know if I should attempt the printed version or not, I’d probably hear that snotty, nasal voice while I was reading. LOL
And that's a wrap for September!
Cheryl
2. HOME FIRES by Margaret Maron. Sixth in the Judge Deborah Knott mystery series set in Colleton County, North Carolina. Racial tensions run high when a black church is torched and Deborah has a personal interest when her nephew A.J. is initially implicated with a couple of ne’er do well friends of his. Past grief and grudges come forward and the media and civil rights leaders descend on Raleigh and the general area when two more churches go up in flames—and a body is found in one of them. Something smells rotten to Deborah and she begins to wonder if the burnings—and the death—are racially motivated at all, or if someone has a better reason for creating mayhem. On a personal level, Deborah is seeing the new home she’s having built on a few secluded acres given to her by her father nearing completion and her relationship with Kidd, her park ranger boyfriend seems to be deepening as well—although that thread by no means dominates the book or the series. (There’s a little bit o’lovin’ but not oodles of sappy romance. Nice! LOL) I ‘recognized’ the baddie (one of those gut feelings) very early on, but didn’t know how or why it was done til close to the end. I love this series! Typically I’m not a fan of so-called ‘Southern’ fiction but this series is a definite exception to that rule. It doesn’t even bother me to have Deborah call her father Daddy, which most of the time grates on my nerves unless the speaker is under the age of twelve. LOL Deborah has such a practical nature, a pragmatic spirit and isn’t afraid to admit her own foibles and willingly accepts the faults of her friends and family too—and yet, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Looking forward very much to the next one in the series. A.
3. FINN by Jon Clinch (audio book) This is the story of Finn, the infamous Huckleberry’s father, as mean and despicable a fictional character (or a real one, come to that) as ever graced the pages of a book, I think. His character was eluded to occasionally during the telling of Mark Twain’s classic tale, but this is his story—the tale of his upbringing, his adulthood, his relationships, his prejudices, and how Huck came to be as well. If the author is attempting to elicit sympathy for Finn—and I honestly don’t think that was his intent—he thoroughly struck out with me. Although part of what nauseated me about Finn are his deep-seated racial prejudices, that in and of itself wasn’t really enough to bring forth the feelings of disgust as in that regard he was simply a product of the times and the household that he lived in. No, it was more the utter self-centeredness of the character that sometimes left me with my jaw hanging open. I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone so selfish, so full of excuses for his despicable actions and so concerned about his own skin above all else! It took me awhile to warm up to the reader, but after an hour or so I knew I had to keep listening and after awhile I found his characterizations to be quite well-done. I don’t think saying “I enjoyed the book” is exactly the way to describe how I felt about it, as there was little in it that was “enjoyable,” but it was an excellent work of fiction and an insightfully plausible story of how one of America’s most notable fiction characters, Huckleberry Finn, might have been molded. Well done! A.
4. MOVING PICTURES by Terry Pratchett. Tenth in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series. This is Pratchett’s spoof of Hollywood and the movies, or “Holy Wood" and ‘moving pictures’ as they say on the Discworld. People don’t eat popcorn, they have ‘banged grains’ to munch while watching the moving pictures. Of course, the pictures are only 10 minutes long and no one has ever heard of a three-reel film until Throat Dibbler encouraged the movie mogul Thomas Silverfish to try it. (You can blame ‘advertising’ on him as well.) Perpetual wizard student Victor (‘Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword a little) and small-town girl Ginger are about to become big stars, first in Cohen the Barbarian and then Sworde of Passione when the magic of Holy Wood infects them and everyone else. Much hilarity ensues as Pratchett seems to catch a pretty darned accurate picture of the way things really work in (our) Hollywood when you boil it all down. Wonderful reading, hilarious light reading as always—wonderful escapism. Much better than any Hollywood (or even Holy Wood!) fillum.
5. A DIRTY DEATH by Rebecca Tope. #1 in the Den Cooper British police mystery, set in a rural area of Devon. The book seemed to be told from several different points of view, which is quite distracting. The main character actually seems to be Lilah Beardon, the daughter of the first (of several!) murder victims and we certainly get to know her quite well over the course of the book, though I felt like I hardly know the policeman, Den Cooper, at all! Den and Lilah meet when Lilah’s father Guy Beardon is found dead in his slurry pit on their farm. It’s deemed accidental until a neighbor is bludgeoned to death and his brother knocked senseless a few days later, at which time the police look more closely at Guy’s demise and believe the two deaths are related. He wasn’t well-liked in the community though he was a wonderful father to Lilah and she misses him dreadfully. More murder and mayhem ensues and Lilah is eager to help solve the crimes so their family can move on with their lives. I found this story to be a bit long and draggy with much extraneous information and too many circulating points of view. Everyone seemed to have dark and sordid secrets, and aside from Lilah and Den, there wasn’t a person who didn’t have some ulterior motives in the lot! I liked the writing style—I had picked this as one of my “weed-out weekend” books and was intrigued enough to keep reading beyond two chapters—but the book just went nowhere fast. The plot got stuck in the slurry pit with Guy Beardon, I think! LOL Anyway, this author has three different mystery series, and as this one is a short (four book) series that ended several years ago, I doubt I’ll read more of it, especially as they aren't easy to come by here; after reading this one I won't try very hard to acquire more, either. But I do have the first in another of her series here and I’ll give that a try. I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages and must admit I was disappointed in it, though there is promise here. B-
6. THE ALCHEMYST: THE SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL by Michael Scott (audiobook) Young Adult fantasy novel, first in a trilogy, in which teenagers Josh and Sophie Newman, living with their aunt in San Francisco for the summer and working across the street from one another—Sophie in a coffee shop and Josh in a bookstore—discover that Josh’s boss, Nick Fleming, is really the noted alchemist Nicholas Flamel, and that he’s more than 600 years old! This discovery is made when the bookshop is attacked by John Dee—yes, the same magician who served Queen Elizabeth I and who is now serving “the Dark Elders” in an effort to bring them back into power and subdue the “Humani” as they refer to the humans of this world. During the course of their adventure in which Nicholas’s wife Perry is kidnapped by Dee, and the Codex (an ancient book with many important alchemical spells, including that of The Philosopher’s Stone) is stolen—except for the final two pages which Josh inadvertently rips out when Dee takes the book—the bookstore blows up and Josh and Sophie end up on the run with Flamel, they meet many legendary creatures and persons, including several ancient gods and goddesses. Very well-written, well-read and an all-around enjoyable “listen” that I definitely look forward to continuing on with. The author also seems to know his Pagan lore very well, which is a refreshing change. :-) A.
7. SMUGGLER’S MOON by Bruce Alexander. #8 in the Sir John Fielding historical mystery series set in 1790’s London and featuring real-life historical figure, who was known as “the blind Beak of Bow Street.” Though he is blind, Sir John has an uncanny sense of what is going on around him, aided by his assistant Jeremy Proctor, who is in effect his adopted son. It’s Jeremy who tells us these stories and he tells them very well! In this installment, Mrs. Fielding is off to visit her ill mother and immediately Sir John receives a summons from the Lord Chief Justice to go to the town of Deal on the coast to investigate smuggling and to confer with the magistrate there—the magistrate has been accused of not doing his job well and letting the smuggling trade run rampant. When the Fielding household arrives—for Sir John takes with him not only Jeremy, but Clarissa, Mrs. Fielding’s young ward, as well as Constable Perkins—they discover that Albert Sarton, the magistrate, though quite young, is actually a competent and seemingly trustworthy fellow and that something is rotten in Deal. Sir John confers with several people and often leaves Jeremy in the dark til the plan comes together in a smashing conclusion—while I had figured out the main bad guy ahead of time, there were a few small side plots that added to the whole and which in no way diminished my enjoyment of the book. Pity there are only three more! A.
8. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Audiobook) Classic mystery in which Sherlock Holmes and Watson investigate a death on the moors, believed by the superstitious locals to have been caused by a ‘hound of hell’ which legend says plagued the Baskerville family for many generations. With the most recent death, suspicions are brought to Holmes by the family doctor, who wonders what he should do as the new Baskerville heir is arriving the next day from America and he does not wish him to meet the same fate as his friend. Holmes sends Watson to Dartmoor to the Baskerville estate to keep an eye open and to help protect the newest Lord of the Manor and of course subtle clue after subtle clue are dropped into the story, but it’s only Holmes who is able to pull them all together. I haven’t ‘read’ this story for many years and had forgotten whodunit and the reader for this was fabulous, so it was a real treat for me. Conan Doyle was one of my early favorite authors and he does a detective story in a way that no one else can! A.
9. GRAVE SIGHT by Charlaine Harris (audiobook). First in the Harper Connelly paranormal mystery series, featuring this young lady who has the ability to speak to the dead after being struck by lightning at the age of fifteen. She and her step-brother, Tolliver, travel around taking assignments to locate bodies. They work mostly on word of mouth, and for the most part are treated as something akin to the freaks in a circus side-show. While Harper can’t tell who killed the person if they were murdered, she can tell how they died, and actually relives the last moments of the person’s life. In our introduction to this interesting duo, Harper and Tolliver are summoned to Sarn, Arkansas by a wealthy widow who wants to locate the body of her dead son’s girlfriend, Tini Hopkins. Sybil Teague is upset because Del’s (her son) good name has been under a cloud for these many months since his death, as it’s rumored that he killed Tini and then himself, but Tini’s body was never found. Since she was a bit of a ‘wild girl,’ some folks think she just went away. Sybil wants to put the rumors to rest. Harper DOES find Tini’s body, discovers that she was shot twice in the back and also visits Del’s grave and discovers that he most certainly didn’t commit suicide. Harper and Tolliver are not made to feel welcome in Sarn at all, and while they want nothing more than to head on out to their next assignment, they are cautioned by the sheriff to stick around when Helen Hopkins, Tini’s mother, is found bludgeoned to death shortly after they visited her at her request. I liked this book a lot. The reader was excellent and I felt that she brought out the voice of Harper very well and helped me to understand her a little. I did think that the relationship between Tolliver and Harper was a bit weird, almost to the point of making me uncomfortable, and there were times when Harper’s vulnerability was a little tiresome—but then, she has had a very difficult life, even with the whole “I’ve been struck by lightning” thing aside, and her character was written in such a way that she wasn’t really trying to get sympathy or make excuses for her weakness, she just had very much of an “I am what I am” aura about her, and I liked that. I also thought Harper was pretty mature, given that she’s only twenty-four years old—it seemed that life has made her wise beyond her years. I have already got the downloadable version of the next book in this series on my list at the library and I don’t think it will be too long before I actually go and get it! A.
10. THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION by Iain Pears. Seventh and final book in the Jonathan Argyll “art history” mysteries—or, at least there’s been none for more than eight years so one must assume the series has ended. Flavia, now firmly in place as Bottando’s temporary replacement as head of the art theft squad, is called to a meeting with the Prime Minister about a painting that has been stolen for ransom. The painting is on loan from another country, part of an international exhibition and is a delicate matter as any publicity about its theft will greatly impugn not only the PM’s reputation, but all of Italy’s. Flavia is given vague directions and yet she senses that they want her to deal with this differently than what’s implied. And this begins a long and twisted plot that goes back years. Jonathan meanwhile, to avoid sitting down and actually writing a paper that’s needed for an upcoming conference, decides to track down the particulars of a small picture that Flavia’s boss Bottando has had for years, ‘a gift from a friend’ he’s said. Jonathan wants to find out its history as a retirement gift for Bottando and in so digging finds some startling information and connections. I enjoyed this book a lot—there are a few surprises, much lovable description of Italy, its food, its people and its culture. I’m unsure as to whether Pears planned this as a last installment in the series or whether it happened abruptly—argument could be made for both viewpoints. It did end on a satisfying note, but there is definitely room for further storylines as well. Excellent ending to an all-around excellent series. A.
11. THE WHISKEY REBELS by David Liss. (ARC for review, though the book does come out at the end of this month.) Historical fiction set in the immediate post-Revolutionary War period in Philadelphia and New York. The story is told from the point of view of two people: Ethan Saunders, a disgraced spy, and Joan Maycott, a young woman with literary aspirations. Ethan’s story begins in the present time while Joan’s starts in the past with her early life. Her and Ethan’s paths begin their fateful crossing when she and her husband Andrew trade in his war debt for a parcel of land in western Pennsylvania, which was in essence the great frontier at that time. They find to their horror that they have been horribly cheated and Joan begins plotting revenge against all who have wronged her. Ethan, meanwhile, in Philadelphia in 1791, is content to be a sloshing drunk and occasional thief, drowning his sorrows at being disgraced and (wrongfully) branded a traitor and his loss of the love of his life, Cynthia Fleet, to another man, and her father who was his co-conspirator as a government spy, who died in disgrace with him. I can’t say too much without giving important things away, so I won’t, but eventually Joan and Ethan’s paths cross, and the stability of the whole of the new United States of America rests on what happens. Let me say right up front that this time period in American history is NOT one of my special interests. I generally just don’t care for it, haven’t read much about it, so I have no idea how much of what the author imparts here is pure speculation, pure fiction and which parts are based on solid fact. There are many “real” historical figures in this book, but I have no knowledge of whether their portrayals were accurate. The book also dealt in large part with banking, finance and the early days of what became eventually the stock market, which, on the master lists of things I’m interested in, falls right down there near the bottom with politics, knitting sweaters for yappy little dogs and designer handbags. LOL That said, once I discovered what the book was about, it rather amazed me that I DID keep reading—and I did so because the author made the characters and the story itself irresistible. I surmised rather early on that the lives of these two characters would intersect, I just wasn’t sure when and how, and I wanted to find out! The book is a little slow and plodding in some parts and the plot was twisty and quite complicated—which, I suppose was ultimately what kept me reading. That, and wanting to find out what ultimately happened to the main characters. But I have found this slowness to be true of Liss’s other books as well—and yet, when done reading and reflecting back, I have to say that I don’t remember those slow points much and tend to think on the story as a whole as a very interesting, engaging one. Liss does not sugarcoat life in post-Revolutionary war America, and portrays it as the difficult, sometimes brutal, often fatal life that it was. Recommended especially for those who enjoy historical fiction in this time period, anyone interested in the early days of the U.S. banking system, and for those who’ve read and enjoyed the author’s previous works. A-
12. WHAT ANGELS FEAR by C. S. Harris. #1 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery, set in early 1800’s London. When a young actress is found brutally murdered and raped in a church, it is believed that she was going to meet Sebastian St. Cyr, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and nobleman with the title of Viscount Devlin. Thus, without much investigation—and indeed, with someone seemingly planting false clues—the Bow Street constables begin seeking Sebastian in the brutal killing. When a constable is seriously injured during an attempt to capture him, despite the fact that he was injured by his own co-worker, Sebastian knows that the only way to clear his name is to find Rachel Ward’s killer himself. Trained as a spy during the war, he already possesses good investigative skills, and with the help of Tom, a young street urchin, he gains access to all the darker, seedier parts of London that he would otherwise be unable to navigate without drawing attention to himself. He also calls on Kat, an actress who knew and worked with the murdered woman—and a former lover of Sebastian’s. (Yeah, gotta have at least a few bits of steamy sex—this author is also a romance writer under another name, after all. LOL) The investigation takes a troubling turn when he learns that Rachel was supposed to meet his father—and he wonders if his father might be a traitor. Plenty of other suspects come to the forefront, though, and while there is plenty of vice and avarice to go around, only one man could ultimately have done such a foul deed. Of course, I spotted him right away, though I didn’t know at the time what his motivation would be. I very much enjoyed this book—the characters were well-drawn, the settings wonderfully depicted, and I look forward to getting to know them all better next time ‘round! I marked the grade down slightly due to the several interludes of gratuitous sex; sweat-slicked flesh, deeply probing bits and heaving bosoms did nothing to either develop the characters or advance the plot. If I want romance, I’ll read a romance novel. *sigh* B+.
13. THE CITY OF EMBER by Jeanne DuPrau. (audiobook) #1 Ember fantasy series. Wow! There really seems to be a large crop of wonderful fantasy for young readers out there these days! This is a combination sci-fi/fantasy/post apocalyptic fiction for younger readers. I’d say younger than “young adult”—at least, there’s no hint of any sex or awakening hormones in it—it was pure adventure, which I much prefer. And it was an excellent story! It’s about a city called Ember, and in particular two of its citizens, 12-year-olds Doon and Lina, who are now done with school and starting their first jobs. Lina is a messenger, and Doon works in the pipeworks under the city. Ember is a city totally in the dark—once a prosperous, well-provisioned city, now shortages, power outages and scrabbling for mere subsistence living are commonplace. The citizens have been told as far back as anyone can remember that Ember is the only light in the darkness, that there is nothing beyond the city’s boundaries. But neither Doon nor Lina believe it—both have dreams that there *must* be something more, somewhere else to go. Both are increasingly worried about the more frequent and prolonged power outages, the lack of lighbulbs and other supplies. Unbeknownst to Lina, her great-grandmother many times removed (the seventh mayor of Ember) was supposed to pass along a special box with instructions to the next mayor as to what to do. But that mayor died and the box has been stashed in Lina’s closet underneath a veritable tonnage of junk for years. When Lina’s baby sister Poppy discovers the box, she opens it and begins chewing on the directions that are inside—Lina manages to save enough of it so that she realizes it’s important and tries to get someone to listen to her. During the course of her messenger duties, Lina discovered that the mayor is corrupt and has a secret stash of supplies—but the mayor knows she knows, so now his goons are after her and Doon even before they get the instructions deciphered completely. The book ends on a cliffhanger such that I know it won’t be long til I get the next in series. Not only was this a great story, but the reader for this was also excellent—she did the many and varied voices very skillfully. A.
14. MURDER IS BINDING by Lorna Barrett. First in the Tricia Miles “Booktown” mysteries. Modeled after the infamous book town of Hay-on-Wye in England, economically depressed Stoneham, New Hampshire has been remade into a prosperous village with numerous book shops—some antiquarian, many specialty shops and the like opening in the remodeled downtown area. Not a Barnes & Noble in the bunch, anyway! LOL Tricia Miles is the owner of Haven’t Got a Clue, the mystery store, and when Doris, the sourpuss owner of the cookery store down the street, ends up dead, with Tricia finding the body, she ends up being the primary suspect—both by the police, who seem to be watching her very carefully, and by the townspeople, who do love a good gossip. She and her pretentious sister Angelica, visiting from the big city, set out to clear Tricia’s name by asking more pointed questions than the police seem to be doing. When a second death occurs—an older lady who scrounged estate sales, thrift shops, etc. and sold tidbits to the store owners—things escalate more since Tricia had been the last person known to have spoken with her. This book seems to be yet another in a long line of yawningly predictable cozy mysteries with an unmarried protagonist who is a specialty-shop owner of some kind trying to clear her own name when murder happens. She does really stupid things that no sane person would do (essentially breaking into the dead woman’s cottage and snooping around after dark, for example—and then not sharing information gleaned with the police) and of course there must be at least one potential love interest making eyes at her. The mystery really wasn’t—spotted the bad guy straight away—the plot was predictable and I am disappointed to have to say that a book/series that had the potential to be something special ended up being just another cardboard-cutout-cozy. I do have the second one in this series on my PBS wishlist, and I likely will read it when I eventually get it, but I won’t be wishlisting any more of them unless the second one is a great improvement over this and I wouldn’t hesitate to delete it if I needed the space on my list. It wasn’t horrible—just very forgettable, which IMO is almost worse than being really bad—because I did waste about three precious reading hours actually reading this and if it were *really* bad I’d have stopped after fifty pages. LOL C-.
15. ANARCHY AND OLD DOGS by Colin Cotterill. #4 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery set in 1970’s Laos in which Siri gets involved with his good friend Civali in attempting to thwart a coup against the new Lao government, which also eventually involves Nurse Dtui and Phosy the policeman as well. Siri also ventures to the southern part of the country to Pakse, to investigate the death of a young boy fished out of the river and brings Civali with him to look into some political things on the sly, and while they are there, Siri encounters Daeng, a woman that he and his wife knew in their young revolutionary days. There are a couple of surprises at the end of the book, too. All in all, another very satisfying visit with Dr. Siri and crew, though I have to admit that at times all the political nuances and plots were a bit over my head. The ghosts that Siri has visitations from were somewhat more quiescent in this book, perhaps because Siri was often under the influence, consuming mass quantities of Lao cocktails, which consists of one-half rice whiskey and the other half rice whiskey. LOL I love this author’s writing style and his magical way with words. Can’t wait til the next one! A.
16. THE CASE HAS ALTERED by Martha Grimes. #14 in the Chief Supt. Richard Jury and Melrose Plant mystery series, in which Jury’s friend Jenny Kennington is arrested for two murders that occurred on the fens of Lincolnshire. The first victim was a cousin of Jenny’s that she’d long had conflicts with but had not had any contact with for several years—yet she was the last person to see the woman alive and they had argued. It’s believed the second murder was committed to keep the victim, a young local woman, quiet because she saw something. Jury can’t believe that Jenny has had anything to do with it, but of course he then begins questioning himself as to how well he really knows her—which is, apparently, not well at all. Melrose gets to play the part of an antiques appraiser in this book, as the house where Jenny and the first murder victim were staying is owned by a man who is a collector. That man, Max, was also previously married to Verna Dunn, the first murder victim, and employed the second victim, Dorcas Reese, as a kitchen helper, so Jury wants someone ‘inside’ the house to see how things lie. The reveal isn’t really terribly surprising, but as usual, I enjoyed this entry in Grimes’ long-lived series for the visit with not only Jury and company, but Melrose and his cadre of friends in Northants as well. This one was, once again, a bit bloated with a bit too much in the ‘extraneous’ department, but certainly not as bad as a couple of previous books which looked like they’d not seen an editor’s desk at all! Nothing spectacular here, just a nice comfy visit. B.
17. IN A DARK HOUSE by Deborah Crombie. (audio) I had this book in print on my TBR, but when I spotted it in audio for download on my library’s website, I decided I wanted to see if the series is as appealing when listened to as when read. It is! The reader (Michael Deehy) was excellent with the ability to do a wide range of voices very well. I was shocked to see that the price for this audiobook on CD at Amazon was $95! Glad I have a library card! LOL Anyway, in this book, a serial arsonist is at work and it has turned into murder as a body, a Jane Doe, is found inside a burned-out warehouse. Add to the fact that the warehouse belongs to a prominent local politician and Kincaid has his hands full—and it couldn’t come at a worse time, as the hearing for his custody battle for Kit with his ex-mother-in-law Eugenia Potts is coming up very quickly. When Gemma responds to a call from her friend (and Duncan’s cousin-by-marriage) Winnie who is a vicar from Glastonbury filling in for a friend of hers in London asking her to come speak to one of her parishioners who is distressed over the disappearance of her flat-mate, she finds that Elaine Holland’s disappearance may be tied in to Duncan and the fire brigade’s arson/homicide case as well. And things become even more complicated when a couple of other women who vaguely fit the description of the Jane Doe also seem to have disappeared—including the warehouse owner’s daughter! While I figured out the whole mystery well ahead of time and wanted to shake Duncan and Gemma for being so thick, I can’t really fault them—these books are generally told from the POV of several people so you as the reader have benefit of knowing things that they don’t. And the audio version is every bit as compelling as the print versions of this series—I found I was inventing things that I could do while listening so I could finish the book! After I finished my weekly cleaning and ‘batch cooking,’ I even tucked my MP3 player into my jeans pocket and took a walk….if it gets me moving, you KNOW it was good. LOL If you’ve never read any of Crombie’s books, I highly recommend them in either form! A+
18. FAULT LINES by Nancy Huston. I reviewed this ARC for Amazon Vine, and gave it an F. I don't even want to post my review here. What a waste of trees is all I can say.
19. Fifth in the “Fools Guild” medieval mysteries featuring Feste the fool, this one is actually in the form of a story told by Father Gerald, the current head of the Guild, to the children around the campfire at their new headquarters. It’s a story that features Gerald, but tells of ‘other fools’ in Denmark circa 1150’s as the different factions struggle for power. It’s a tale of treachery and loss, of how fools (i.e. spies) are recruited and trained, and how very surprising they can sometimes be. This is mostly the story of Amleth, who was the son of one of the princes or faction leaders who was murdered and betrayed by his wife and his power-hungry brother. The only one who seemed to care about Amleth was Yorick, the court fool, who trained him to juggle and play the lute and about all the other things fools generally do, like sneaking around and listening at doors. Then one day, Yorick just disappears without so much as a by your leave. When Amleth is sent to Paris to study, he packs Yorick’s bag of tricks with him and seeks training with the Guild there using the secret password that Yorick has taught him and manages to stay alive through cunning for many more years. I absolutely love this series! Alan Gordon does a wonderful job of drawing you right into the story, getting you to care about the characters, and setting the scene for whatever time period and place he’s writing about. This is one of the few series I collect in hardcover and that I know I will be reading again someday even though I already know what happens—the period detail and the stories are irresistible and I suspect will be just as enjoyable the next time around. A+
DNF: A SPOT OF BOTHER by Mark Haddon (audiobook) I’m not sure if my annoyance at the book was due to the reader or not—it was a British guy with a very “posh” accent and he had some horrible variations for the different characters. And that was also quite distracting—the frequently-changing points of view. One of the voices sounded like the Viceroy from Star Wars: Episode One which was REALLY annoying. I didn’t like what I perceived to be the main character either—a somewhat affected older man, recently retired, whose daughter announces her upcoming marriage. He seemed to have a lot of worries and anxieties and flights of fancy and panicky moments. I wanted to slap him upside the head. Anyway, after an hour and fifteen minutes, I had to stop. I don’t know if I should attempt the printed version or not, I’d probably hear that snotty, nasal voice while I was reading. LOL
And that's a wrap for September!
Cheryl
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
AUGUST 2008
1. ANOTHER MAN’S MOCCASINS by Craig Johnson. #4 and most recent Walt Longmire mystery in which Walt and crew are back in Wyoming. Walt’s daughter Cady is also back at home doing physical therapy and recovering from the devastating head injury she received in the last book, but Walt is distracted from spending time with her because he’s trying to track down the killer of a young Vietnamese woman found on the side of the road. At first they think they have him in the form of Virgil White Buffalo, a hulking Native American found near her body with some of her belongings nearby. But things seem just a bit too pat to Walt, whose instincts take him elsewhere. First there is the girl’s grandfather—or at least another Vietnamese, a bit of a rare commodity in Absaroka County, who claims to be so. Then there’s the new bartender in town, who not only has a police record back in Chicago, but lies to Walt, albeit in a small way. And what about the hayseed ranching brothers who discovered the woman’s body while they were mowing hay along the roadside? They seem too uneasy to be completely blameless to Walt’s way of thinking. So who’s the culprit? While I’ve enjoyed all the books in this series, the last one was just a bit off-kilter with the setting having moved to Philadelphia; this one seemed to be back on track as Walt is on home turf, though he does flash back periodically throughout the book to his time in Vietnam during the war to a mystery he was chasing after then as a young Marine investigator. The answer to the old mystery was quite obvious to me, but the present-day one remained unsolved in my head until fairly close to the end as there were several plausible explanations and no ‘gut feeling bad guy’ jumped out at me. I really enjoyed this book, and it’s actually the first one I’ve read—I listened to all three of the first ones in audio, which were equally delightful. It was interesting seeing the names and places in writing and seeing how they’re spelled. ::grin:: I hope the author is home writing #5 because I’m going to be very impatient trying to wait for the next one…oh, the perils of being caught up with a good series! A.
2. ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton (audiobook) One of those classics that I never had to read in high school, so didn’t, but when I noticed while browsing through my library’s selection of audio downloads that the audio version was narrated by George Guiddell, I couldn’t resist. Short and so NOT sweet, the story takes place in the bleak New England countryside of about a hundred years ago and was very depressing. This is the tale of Ethan Frome, a man unhappily married to a sickly shrew of a woman who falls in love with her cousin who comes to live with them to ‘do’ for her. It’s a story of longing and loss, a classic love triangle with a twist. I hated ALL the characters and wanted to slap them all silly, but I must admit it was a story skillfully told and wonderfully read. How to grade it? Hmmm….B.
3. GOBLIN WAR by Jim C. Hines. Third and final entry in the “Jig the Goblin” light fantasy series in which Jig heads off to war. Goblins, hobgoblins, humans, a tangled mix of political and personal grievances to be sorted out and settled, a cranky old female chief for Jig to please, not to mention trying to figure out the wishes and motives of his God, Tymalous Shadowstar. Poor Jig! All he wants to do is retire peacefully to his corner of the mountain with Smudge, his fire spider, with enough to eat and an extra loincloth or two. Instead he’s thrust into the midst of war with his busted-up knife, dwindling healing powers and a rag-tag group of what passes for loyal followers, which isn’t saying much among the goblins. And there he goes, headed towards the ultimate battle in which the goblins attempt to secure their little corner of the mountain. I really enjoyed this series; it’s not your typical fantasy at all, more humorous and lighter in tone, yet with some underlying deeper message, too. I’ll miss Jig now that his adventures appear to be done, but will definitely be looking for more from this author. A.
4. THE BOOK THIEF by Marcus Zusak. Powerful book set during the rise of Hitler in Germany and into the WWII years, told from the point of view of Death (he was a bit overworked during that time!) and about Liesl, a young German girl who is the Book Thief mentioned in the title. The book opens with Liesl at about age 10 when she steals her first book (at her brother’s funeral) and moves forward to her years with the Hubermanns, a foster family who has taken her in and who become her Mama and Papa. The Hubermanns give the outward appearance of following the Party line, but Hans tends to be a bit rebellious and they end up hiding a Jew in their basement for many months, the son of a friend of a friend that he was in the first world war with. Max and Liesl become good friends over those months and save each other from the despair that would have crushed many other people. This is the story of Liesl, her family and the neighborhood and it was a wonderful, powerful book with the main message being, I think, that words are very powerful and have the capacity to do not only great good, but also great harm. Considering the circumstances of the main characters, the time and place they lived in and the outcome, it should have been a depressing book, but it wasn’t. Brutal, yes. The narrator, Death, didn’t mince words nor sugarcoat anything. I did cry, but I also laughed. The way the author strung words together was positively magical—I’ve put this book on my keeper shelf as I’m sure I’ll be going back over it to glean quotations from it. As it was, the story was so compelling I couldn’t be bothered to stop and write any down! A++
5. NO DOMINION by Charlie Huston. #2 Joe Pitt ‘paranormal noir’ mystery series. Joe, a Rogue Vampyre not pledged to any of the vampyre clans in New York, is feeling a bit peaky these days. He’s down to his last 3 pints of blood in the fridge and two months behind on his rent. Ever since the incident in which he pissed off a couple of the major clan bosses, the work coming his way has been slim to none. He’s about to go begging for a job when one gets thrown his way by Terry, the Society boss. New vampyres are hitting on some new drug out there that’s making them go a bit crazy and Terry wants Joe to figure out what this drug is and who’s supplying it. It’s disrupting the tentative truce between the clans and no one wants an all-out war. Or do they? Joe treks across forbidden Coalition territory to the Hood to look up a guy whose name he got from another guy—yeah, the connection is slim but when you’re not sure where your next pint of blood is coming from, and your girlfriend (who, by the way, doesn’t even KNOW you’re a vampyre!) is needing some expensive medical treatments, you get a bit desperate. What ensues is a madcap couple of days with Joe nearly meeting an untimely end several times and the unveiling of plots within plots and much political scheming. Very dark and noir, lots of graphic violins (but very little sax! LOL) and many unsavory four-letter words. In other words, my kinda book. ::grin:: I love Joe’s rogue attitude, what I call his whole “eff you personality,” since I tend to have the same attitude to belonging to groups myself. I have the next Joe Pitt book here on my TBR and I know it won’t be too long before I get to it. A.
6. WHITER THAN THE LILY by Alys Clare. #7 Abbess Helewise/Sir Josse D’Acquin historical mystery series. Josse is contacted by a neighbor to provide an introduction at Hawkenlye for some friends of his who have attempted to conceive a child unsuccessfully. Galiena Ryemarsh is many years younger than her husband Ambrose, but she is a skilled herbalist and has tried every remedy she knows to help them—so now she is off to Hawkenlye Abbey to speak to the infirmarer there and to take the healing waters. She sets off a few days ahead of her husband as he has matters of estate to tend to, but upon his arrival, she drops dead of an apparent poisoning. Ambrose himself seems ill—confused, weak, dizzy and definitely not his usual robust self. Josse and Abbess Helewise begin investigating Galiena’s death independently, and it leads Josse to an isolated pagan community on the coast and much danger. I figured out part of the plot ahead of time, but it was rather complicated and some parts weren’t really solvable til later in the book when enough information was available. I enjoy this series, but this one seemed to be a bit of a weak entry with the plot going hither and yon and a bit too much improbable and unlikely events transpiring. B.
7. HOLMES ON THE RANGE by Steve Hockensmith. #1 in the ‘Holmes on the Range’ historical mysteries series, set in 1890’s Montana. Features “Big Red” Otto Amlingmeyer and his brother “Old Red” Gustav, who are wandering cowboys who take temporary jobs offered by different ranches, and in this book they’re hired by Uly MacPherson, manager of the Castlemere Ranche, commonly known as the Bar VR. It’s not an assignment they’d normally take, as the MacPherson brothers and the Bar VR don’t exactly have a great reputation, but Old Red takes the job for two reasons. One, the Amlingmeyer brothers are about out of money, and two, Old Red fancies himself a bit of a detective and he smells a mystery afoot. Though Old Red doesn’t read, Big Red does, having been the one member of their family sent off to school and having done some clerking in his time. And what Big Red reads to Old Red around the campfire are Sherlock Holmes mystery stories! Old Red loves ‘em and often uses Holmes’ ‘deducifyin methods’ and keen observation to ferret out the answers to questions that most folks haven’t even thought to ask. And he’s right about a mystery afoot, for as quick as you can say beans and bacon, there’s two dead bodies and a host of foreigners moving in to Castlemere, and Old Red aims to figure out whodunit. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and for once I can easily understand why it was a finalist for so many different mystery awards the year it was published. (It’s not all THAT often that I agree with the people who make those decisions. LOL) The characterizations felt real to me and I got to know Big and Old Red quite well early on, and the secondary characters were also diverse and well-fleshed. I also liked that the ‘voices’ of these cowboys seemed to be very realistic and no effort was made to pretty them up—for example, one of the characters in the book is a black man, and there is rather liberal use of the “n” word, which although not pleasant, was common at the time as a part of normal everyday speech. So I guess I should add the caveat that if such things offend you, it’s probably best to avoid this book. While I am not generally a fan of this time period nor a fan at all of so-called westerns (there I go again, jumping out of my niche! LOL) I loved this book and am glad that I’ve already got the second one in the series here on my shelf. A+
8. GRENDEL by John Gardner. (Audio book) Narrated by the incomparable George Guidell, this is the Beowulf story told from the point of view of Grendel, the monster. While it is, indeed, ‘just a story,’ it’s also a commentary on the basic nature of humankind, about the darkness (and the light) that resides within each of us. I listened to this on the heels of reading The Book Thief, so it was a very contemplative week at my house. ::grin:: Guidell does a stellar job with the narration (as always!) and the story provides a different, and quite interesting spin on the tale of Beowulf, Hrodgar, Grendel and the Dragon, although of course if you’ve read the original, you know from the get-go how this is going to end. Well worth the few hours of listening time! A.
9. NOW MAY YOU WEEP by Deborah Crombie. #9 Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James British police procedural mystery, this one set in the Highlands of Scotland where Gemma and her good friend Hazel are off to for a cookery weekend at a B&B. What Gemma doesn’t know is that Hazel is headed for an assignation with an old lover, Donald Brodie, who’s the head of a Scotch distillery, and she discovers just how little she really knows about her friend’s past. When Donald ends up murdered in cold blood on the second day of their weekend, Gemma is unable to stop the local Chief Inspector, a crass and unsympathetic old coot named Ross, from hauling Hazel into custody for questioning. Meanwhile, at home, trouble is also brewing in the form of Kit’s grandmother Eugenia, who has served Duncan with papers that she intends to sue for custody. Another excellent entry in the series, although I have to admit that the historical flashbacks in this one that date back more than a hundred years to one of the women who owned a local distillery, seemed to me to be a bit distracting rather than actually enhancing the story as these tie-ins Crombie uses sometimes are. But the story itself and the descriptions of the settings in the Highlands made up for the distraction and I devoured this book much as I have every single book in this series. A.
10. THE RABBIT FACTORY by Marshall Karp. First in a series featuring LA homicide detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. When Eddie Elkins, the man inside the Rambunctions Rabbit costume at Familyland (a Disney wannabe) is found with his throat slit in the employees-only underbelly of the family-centered theme park, Lomax and Biggs are assigned to the case. When they discover that Eddie isn’t who he appears to be—that, indeed, he’s a convicted pedophile from back east—their obvious trail leads to who might have known this juicy tidbit of information and who had reason to whack him. However, the little cartoon flip-book that is left with the body screams “serial killer,” and sure enough, when another person with ties to the owners of Familyland, Lamaar Stuidos, is murdered with a similar flipbook left on the body, the boys know they’re going to be spending many sleepless nights trying to track down the killer. It seems to be someone with a grudge against Lamaar, but who? Their corporate people are less than cooperatve with our erstwhile detectives, as they’re busy trying to keep the whole thing shushed up so their stock doesn’t end take a nose dive into the basement. But Lomax and Biggs persevere, and there is a bit of a surprise twist at the end. I like Mike Lomax a lot—the book is told primarily from his POV, though that does change periodically. Karp handles the changing points of view well, though. Lomax is a recent widower, his wife Joanie having died of cancer about six months before. This book is almost like two stories, one detailing Lomax’s personal life and letting us get to know him and his family, and the other the murder case. I realize that a bit more detail is needed in introducing the main characters in the first book, but some judicious editing was definitely needed—the book was 632 pages in the hardcover edition! Granted, the author seems to write in the James Patterson style—very short chapters and lots of blank space—but still! Snip, snip, snip! LOL It took me a good 50 pages before I warmed to the mystery and the characters, but I am glad I stuck with it, because it ended up being a great debut novel. I have the next one here and it seems to be a bit shorter, so someone must’ve hit Karp with a cluestick. LOL And I have to honestly say that I’m really looking forward to it, too! A-.
11. NIGHTSHADE by Susan Wittig Albert. #17 China Bayles mystery, which finished off the thread started a couple of books ago dealing with China’s father’s death. This book focuses on the investigation that China’s recently-discovered half-brother Miles instigated by hiring McQuaid, China’s husband, to look into it. He believes that Robert Bayles’ death sixteen years ago in a firey car crash was no accident, but that he was murdered. Before he can do much work with McQuaid though, Miles Danforth ends up dead himself, the victim of a supposed hit-and-run in the parking ramp at his office building. All the heavy coincidences and bits and pieces of evidence come together in a totally not surprising ending. This book is different than others in the series, which are always told from China’s point of view. In this book, the author switches over to McQuaid’s point of view for several chapters and I must say it just does NOT work well at all! Everything from McQuaid’s point of view was written in the present tense and instead of using first person (I did this, I did that), it was written as “McQuaid does this, McQuaid does that.” I found that immensely annoying for some reason. It felt like the tale was being told by the proverbial turd in McQuaid’s pocket…someone who was right there with him, but not actually him. For example, one chapter opens with, “McQuaid has a long list of things to do this morning, but first things first.” Another starts with “McQuaid is on the road by nine thirty, heading southeast on…” Ack! Very distracting. This is, truthfully, the only book in this series that I out and out did not like. It was primarily due to that change in POV, but also many of the regular cast members weren’t much in evidence til the end of the book. I missed Ruby, I missed China’s musings in the herb garden and the shop and the folks around Pecan Springs. I’m glad that Ms. Albert has gotten the mystery of what happened to China’s father sewn up so she can move on now, and I sincerely hope she returns to the writing style she used in her previous books. I loved those, and I have already put Wormwood, the next-in-series, on my wishlist in anticipation of a GOOD return visit to Pecan Springs. C-.
12. DEATH OF AN ADDICT by M.C. Beaton. #15 Hamish MacBeth Scottish police cozy mystery. A young man who is renting a cottage in a remote part of Hamish’s patch ends up dead of a supposed overdose shortly after Hamish met him while visiting Parry MacSporran, the crofter who owns the place. The red-headed policeman is sure that the lad wasn’t on drugs and had kicked his habit, but the Strathbane usuals swarm in and close the case without so much as a by your leave and tell Hamish to mind his own business. Hamish promises the boy’s parents he’ll investigate on the QT and requests some time off—he always seems to have extra holiday time to spare so he can take a couple of weeks off! LOL He heads off to Strathbane to check out a rather cultish upstart church that Tommy was interested in—and starts out posing as a homeless man living in his car and willing to work in the church for minimal money…but somehow ends up instead in the middle of a big drug sting, wearing an Armani suit and a Rolex and posing as a drug kingpin with an attractive DI from Glasgow posing as his wife! The next thing you know, they’re off to Amsterdam. Holy whirling dervish, Batman—this book was all over the place and unlike Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen, it not only *believed* six impossible things before breakfast, it DID them. My goodness! Still, as I was scratching my head and rolling my eyes, I was reading on and mostly enjoying the story even though I knew most of it was purely improbable rubbish. I just like Hamish, even though Beaton’s plots seem to have gotten more and more bizarre as the series has gone on. The next up is A Highland Christmas, and even though I mostly enjoyed the book, I would say I’ve probably had my fill of Hamish until about that time of year. B-.
13. ONE LAST BREATH by Stephen Booth. #5 Ben Cooper/Diane Fry British police procedural set in the Peak District of the UK. When Mansell Quinn, a man who was convicted of the brutal murder of his mistress a number of years ago, is released from prison, those who knew him are a bit on edge. When he disappears just a few hours after his release and his ex-wife ends up murdered in similar fashion, a full-scale manhunt begins. But Quinn knows all the local haunts, the villages and even the caves that dot the countryside, and it’s noted in the prison library records that he took special interest in one of the caves in the area and checked out a particular book on it many times. Despite numerous sightings, he’s not an easy man to track down. When Cooper begins digging back to the original crime, he wonders if Quinn was really the guilty party after all, as he changed his story several times. Fry, frustrated at Cooper’s tangents and lack of focus, investigates the present-day case and urges Ben to do likewise, but it’s only when their two heads are put together with information about both cases that a clearer picture begins to emerge. Added to the mix is the fact that Cooper’s father Joe was the arresting officer of record, and he’s wondering if Quinn is bent on revenge against those he felt wronged him. I did figure the mystery out as to ‘whodunit’ but missed a couple of plot twists that made it even more interesting. As annoying as I personally find the character of Diane Fry, I still thoroughly enjoy these stories, love Booth’s writing style and his verbal painting of the Derbyshire countryside. Another winner! A.
14. THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE by Alexander McCall Smith. #8 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, Africa. In this book, a few stressful situations develop—Mma Makutsi resigns her job as assistant detective in a bit of a snit, Charlie the apprentice has decided to strike out on his own and open a taxi service, and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni decides to try his hand at detective work in addition to being a first-rate auto mechanic. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe is hired to investigate some suspicious deaths at the Mochudi hospital—three patients have died at the same time on the same day of the week in the same bed! Now if you know Mma Ramotswe, you know she’s not a superstitious woman, and she feels there must be a logical explanation for these events, although interviews with the doctors and nurses involved turn up no clues. This was a typically light and wonderful entry in this series—Mma Ramotswe always manages to boil down life’s problems and ups and downs into a few simple truths that always leave me feeling better for her sharing them with me. Definitely one of my “feel good” series! A
15. CLAWS AND EFFECT by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. (audio book) #9 Mrs. Murphy mystery. Something fishy is happening at Crozet hospital. The head of maintenance is found dead in the boiler room—no doubt that it’s murder with his throat brutally slit as it was—and when Harry gets nosy and decides to make a late-night stop there to ‘check things out,’ she gets konked on the head, though not hard enough to do any serious damage. A long-time member of the supporting cast also ends up shot to death a few chapters later, and this leaves Sheriff Rick Shaw seeing red and pulling out all the stops to find the killer. It doesn’t make Harry (and her critters—cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and her Welsh Corgi Tucker) any less determined, either! I had a gut feeling about the killer early on, but really had nothing to support my thoughts. But once a few choice clues were dropped later in the book, it all came together. I really enjoy the narrator of this series—she brings all the different characters to life and gives them substance that might easily be missed in a print reading. I especially enjoy the ‘animal voices.’ Excellent listen—looking forward to more. A.
16. HIDDEN WARRIOR by Lynn Flewelling. Second in the Tamir Trilogy fantasy series. Tobin, the young prince of Skala, begins to come into his own as he becomes a teenager, trains in the city of Edo at the palace with his cousin Korin (the heir to the throne) and the rest of the Companions, whose task it is to guard the royals. What no one else (save for a few wizards) knows is that Tobin is actually a girl who has been given a glamour of sorts, a binding at birth which has allowed him to look and live as a boy—specifically, as the male twin who died at birth—in order to protect his prophesied status as the next warrior queen. Tobin just found this out himself at the end of the last book and is still having difficulties dealing with this knowledge throughout this book and still thinks of himself as male even though he has seen his ‘true face.’ Brother, the ghost of this twin, is becoming more solid and can now be heard by Ki, Tobin’s squire, and Tobin remains leery of Brother’s motives and doesn’t know if he can trust him since he has a history of violence, even against Tobin. The present king, Tobin’s uncle, and his top wizard Niryn are doing all they can to stamp out the ‘fringe religions’ including the one which believes that the country’s leaders should be female and foretell of a warrior queen coming to save them. So naturally, keeping Tobin’s true nature quiet is tantamount. Meanwhile, Tobin’s wizard friends Iya and Arkoniel, use his ancestral home in the country to harbor and train up ‘rogue’ wizards who don’t join the Harriers, the ruling wizard class who have taken to burning wizards who don’t join them. They see that the time for revealing Tobin’s true nature is coming faster than they would like and are preparing as much as they can. Excellent entry in the series and I’m greatly looking forward to the conclusion. I love this author’s writing style and her intricate plotting and storytelling ability. A+
17. DIVIDED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE: A GUIDE TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH by Christopher Davies. Interesting book that talks about the differences between the “English” spoken by Americans and by those in the UK. Some of it is simply lists of translations, other parts talk about how some of these differences evolved, including the spelling differences and all those extra U’s that the Brits are known for. (Blame Nathaniel Webster for that one!) I enjoyed it as did my husband (who is from England) but there were a few phrases and words that left both of us scratching our heads as we’d never heard them used. Some were obviously regional colloquialisms. The thing I found funny was that often when a less-than-savory phrase or word was used, the author didn’t really *explain* what it meant…he just put something like, “Don’t use this phrase in the UK (or America)—vulgar phrase” and then would tell you what you should say instead. Well…THAT was real helpful to those not in the know. LOL I enjoyed this but would have liked even more about the history and evolution of the language differences and less of the listings. B+
18. THE ALEHOUSE MURDERS by Maureen Ash. #1 in the Templar Knight medieval historical mystery series featuring ex-Templar, Bascot de Marins, who was held captive in the Middle East for eight years before escaping. Now employed by Lady Nicolaa de la Haye and living in the household of Nicolaa and her husband Gerard Camville, sheriff of Lincoln, he is called upon to investigate four murders, the bodies being found in the local alehouse, but with three of them having obviously been killed elsewhere and dumped there. Some people obviously know more than they’re telling, and old rivalries, court intrigues and questions of parentage come into play as Bascot delves deeper into the lives of those involved. I liked this mystery, but I didn’t love it, with whatever magic ingredient that makes a good book a great one being missing, at least for me. It took me a long time to warm up to the main character and the writing style I found to be a little dry. However, it seems to be very well-researched and the author does an excellent job of painting the not-often-romantic realities of medieval life. By mid-book, I found I had come to like the wounded ex-Templar and his mute assistant Gianni and the mystery was an intriguing and well-plotted one, though I did spot the clues and figured out the mystery fairly early. Despite the slow start, by the end I found that I had enjoyed the book. I have the second-in-series here and will definitely continue to read on. B.
19. BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM by Kate Atkinson. This is the story of Ruby Lennox, from her inauspicious conception in a flat above a Pet Shop in 1952 in York, UK to the present day. It also delves into the lives of many of Ruby’s female ancestors in her mother’s line and ties them all together with interesting threads and themes—some minor, some major, and all very interesting. Bopping back and forth between present-day, World War I era and World War II, the author skillfully weaves the story of just how Ruby came to be and gives us some insight as to why she is the way she is—although Ruby is the last to figure this out. I did glean the major plot twist well ahead of time (as indeed, I think the author meant the reader to do) but it in no way spoiled the story. Chock full of the realities of each of the times the story lands in, I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed the imagery, the voices of the different people and once again being reminded that what we do today can have far-reaching ripples of effect for years and years. Wonderful!! A+
DNF: MURDER AT WITCH’S BLUFF by Silver RavenWolf. I have read and enjoyed some of this author’s non-fiction pagan reference books, but OMG…this attempt at fiction was just. So. Bad. Poorly written, full of cheesy clichés, and enough typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors to have me double checking the book to see if I’d accidentally picked up an ARC or uncorrected proof. (I hadn’t.) I simply couldn’t make it to 50 pages, the usual length I try to give any book. Baaaaaaad.
THE PLAYER’S BOY IS DEAD by Leonard Tourney. Historical mystery featuring a newly appointed constable (Matthew Stock) and clothing merchant in Elizabethan England. Boring. Couldn’t get into it at all, wasn’t interested in the main character or the mystery. Did give it the full fifty pages, but it just wasn’t happenin’ for me.
And that wraps up August!
Cheryl
2. ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton (audiobook) One of those classics that I never had to read in high school, so didn’t, but when I noticed while browsing through my library’s selection of audio downloads that the audio version was narrated by George Guiddell, I couldn’t resist. Short and so NOT sweet, the story takes place in the bleak New England countryside of about a hundred years ago and was very depressing. This is the tale of Ethan Frome, a man unhappily married to a sickly shrew of a woman who falls in love with her cousin who comes to live with them to ‘do’ for her. It’s a story of longing and loss, a classic love triangle with a twist. I hated ALL the characters and wanted to slap them all silly, but I must admit it was a story skillfully told and wonderfully read. How to grade it? Hmmm….B.
3. GOBLIN WAR by Jim C. Hines. Third and final entry in the “Jig the Goblin” light fantasy series in which Jig heads off to war. Goblins, hobgoblins, humans, a tangled mix of political and personal grievances to be sorted out and settled, a cranky old female chief for Jig to please, not to mention trying to figure out the wishes and motives of his God, Tymalous Shadowstar. Poor Jig! All he wants to do is retire peacefully to his corner of the mountain with Smudge, his fire spider, with enough to eat and an extra loincloth or two. Instead he’s thrust into the midst of war with his busted-up knife, dwindling healing powers and a rag-tag group of what passes for loyal followers, which isn’t saying much among the goblins. And there he goes, headed towards the ultimate battle in which the goblins attempt to secure their little corner of the mountain. I really enjoyed this series; it’s not your typical fantasy at all, more humorous and lighter in tone, yet with some underlying deeper message, too. I’ll miss Jig now that his adventures appear to be done, but will definitely be looking for more from this author. A.
4. THE BOOK THIEF by Marcus Zusak. Powerful book set during the rise of Hitler in Germany and into the WWII years, told from the point of view of Death (he was a bit overworked during that time!) and about Liesl, a young German girl who is the Book Thief mentioned in the title. The book opens with Liesl at about age 10 when she steals her first book (at her brother’s funeral) and moves forward to her years with the Hubermanns, a foster family who has taken her in and who become her Mama and Papa. The Hubermanns give the outward appearance of following the Party line, but Hans tends to be a bit rebellious and they end up hiding a Jew in their basement for many months, the son of a friend of a friend that he was in the first world war with. Max and Liesl become good friends over those months and save each other from the despair that would have crushed many other people. This is the story of Liesl, her family and the neighborhood and it was a wonderful, powerful book with the main message being, I think, that words are very powerful and have the capacity to do not only great good, but also great harm. Considering the circumstances of the main characters, the time and place they lived in and the outcome, it should have been a depressing book, but it wasn’t. Brutal, yes. The narrator, Death, didn’t mince words nor sugarcoat anything. I did cry, but I also laughed. The way the author strung words together was positively magical—I’ve put this book on my keeper shelf as I’m sure I’ll be going back over it to glean quotations from it. As it was, the story was so compelling I couldn’t be bothered to stop and write any down! A++
5. NO DOMINION by Charlie Huston. #2 Joe Pitt ‘paranormal noir’ mystery series. Joe, a Rogue Vampyre not pledged to any of the vampyre clans in New York, is feeling a bit peaky these days. He’s down to his last 3 pints of blood in the fridge and two months behind on his rent. Ever since the incident in which he pissed off a couple of the major clan bosses, the work coming his way has been slim to none. He’s about to go begging for a job when one gets thrown his way by Terry, the Society boss. New vampyres are hitting on some new drug out there that’s making them go a bit crazy and Terry wants Joe to figure out what this drug is and who’s supplying it. It’s disrupting the tentative truce between the clans and no one wants an all-out war. Or do they? Joe treks across forbidden Coalition territory to the Hood to look up a guy whose name he got from another guy—yeah, the connection is slim but when you’re not sure where your next pint of blood is coming from, and your girlfriend (who, by the way, doesn’t even KNOW you’re a vampyre!) is needing some expensive medical treatments, you get a bit desperate. What ensues is a madcap couple of days with Joe nearly meeting an untimely end several times and the unveiling of plots within plots and much political scheming. Very dark and noir, lots of graphic violins (but very little sax! LOL) and many unsavory four-letter words. In other words, my kinda book. ::grin:: I love Joe’s rogue attitude, what I call his whole “eff you personality,” since I tend to have the same attitude to belonging to groups myself. I have the next Joe Pitt book here on my TBR and I know it won’t be too long before I get to it. A.
6. WHITER THAN THE LILY by Alys Clare. #7 Abbess Helewise/Sir Josse D’Acquin historical mystery series. Josse is contacted by a neighbor to provide an introduction at Hawkenlye for some friends of his who have attempted to conceive a child unsuccessfully. Galiena Ryemarsh is many years younger than her husband Ambrose, but she is a skilled herbalist and has tried every remedy she knows to help them—so now she is off to Hawkenlye Abbey to speak to the infirmarer there and to take the healing waters. She sets off a few days ahead of her husband as he has matters of estate to tend to, but upon his arrival, she drops dead of an apparent poisoning. Ambrose himself seems ill—confused, weak, dizzy and definitely not his usual robust self. Josse and Abbess Helewise begin investigating Galiena’s death independently, and it leads Josse to an isolated pagan community on the coast and much danger. I figured out part of the plot ahead of time, but it was rather complicated and some parts weren’t really solvable til later in the book when enough information was available. I enjoy this series, but this one seemed to be a bit of a weak entry with the plot going hither and yon and a bit too much improbable and unlikely events transpiring. B.
7. HOLMES ON THE RANGE by Steve Hockensmith. #1 in the ‘Holmes on the Range’ historical mysteries series, set in 1890’s Montana. Features “Big Red” Otto Amlingmeyer and his brother “Old Red” Gustav, who are wandering cowboys who take temporary jobs offered by different ranches, and in this book they’re hired by Uly MacPherson, manager of the Castlemere Ranche, commonly known as the Bar VR. It’s not an assignment they’d normally take, as the MacPherson brothers and the Bar VR don’t exactly have a great reputation, but Old Red takes the job for two reasons. One, the Amlingmeyer brothers are about out of money, and two, Old Red fancies himself a bit of a detective and he smells a mystery afoot. Though Old Red doesn’t read, Big Red does, having been the one member of their family sent off to school and having done some clerking in his time. And what Big Red reads to Old Red around the campfire are Sherlock Holmes mystery stories! Old Red loves ‘em and often uses Holmes’ ‘deducifyin methods’ and keen observation to ferret out the answers to questions that most folks haven’t even thought to ask. And he’s right about a mystery afoot, for as quick as you can say beans and bacon, there’s two dead bodies and a host of foreigners moving in to Castlemere, and Old Red aims to figure out whodunit. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and for once I can easily understand why it was a finalist for so many different mystery awards the year it was published. (It’s not all THAT often that I agree with the people who make those decisions. LOL) The characterizations felt real to me and I got to know Big and Old Red quite well early on, and the secondary characters were also diverse and well-fleshed. I also liked that the ‘voices’ of these cowboys seemed to be very realistic and no effort was made to pretty them up—for example, one of the characters in the book is a black man, and there is rather liberal use of the “n” word, which although not pleasant, was common at the time as a part of normal everyday speech. So I guess I should add the caveat that if such things offend you, it’s probably best to avoid this book. While I am not generally a fan of this time period nor a fan at all of so-called westerns (there I go again, jumping out of my niche! LOL) I loved this book and am glad that I’ve already got the second one in the series here on my shelf. A+
8. GRENDEL by John Gardner. (Audio book) Narrated by the incomparable George Guidell, this is the Beowulf story told from the point of view of Grendel, the monster. While it is, indeed, ‘just a story,’ it’s also a commentary on the basic nature of humankind, about the darkness (and the light) that resides within each of us. I listened to this on the heels of reading The Book Thief, so it was a very contemplative week at my house. ::grin:: Guidell does a stellar job with the narration (as always!) and the story provides a different, and quite interesting spin on the tale of Beowulf, Hrodgar, Grendel and the Dragon, although of course if you’ve read the original, you know from the get-go how this is going to end. Well worth the few hours of listening time! A.
9. NOW MAY YOU WEEP by Deborah Crombie. #9 Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James British police procedural mystery, this one set in the Highlands of Scotland where Gemma and her good friend Hazel are off to for a cookery weekend at a B&B. What Gemma doesn’t know is that Hazel is headed for an assignation with an old lover, Donald Brodie, who’s the head of a Scotch distillery, and she discovers just how little she really knows about her friend’s past. When Donald ends up murdered in cold blood on the second day of their weekend, Gemma is unable to stop the local Chief Inspector, a crass and unsympathetic old coot named Ross, from hauling Hazel into custody for questioning. Meanwhile, at home, trouble is also brewing in the form of Kit’s grandmother Eugenia, who has served Duncan with papers that she intends to sue for custody. Another excellent entry in the series, although I have to admit that the historical flashbacks in this one that date back more than a hundred years to one of the women who owned a local distillery, seemed to me to be a bit distracting rather than actually enhancing the story as these tie-ins Crombie uses sometimes are. But the story itself and the descriptions of the settings in the Highlands made up for the distraction and I devoured this book much as I have every single book in this series. A.
10. THE RABBIT FACTORY by Marshall Karp. First in a series featuring LA homicide detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. When Eddie Elkins, the man inside the Rambunctions Rabbit costume at Familyland (a Disney wannabe) is found with his throat slit in the employees-only underbelly of the family-centered theme park, Lomax and Biggs are assigned to the case. When they discover that Eddie isn’t who he appears to be—that, indeed, he’s a convicted pedophile from back east—their obvious trail leads to who might have known this juicy tidbit of information and who had reason to whack him. However, the little cartoon flip-book that is left with the body screams “serial killer,” and sure enough, when another person with ties to the owners of Familyland, Lamaar Stuidos, is murdered with a similar flipbook left on the body, the boys know they’re going to be spending many sleepless nights trying to track down the killer. It seems to be someone with a grudge against Lamaar, but who? Their corporate people are less than cooperatve with our erstwhile detectives, as they’re busy trying to keep the whole thing shushed up so their stock doesn’t end take a nose dive into the basement. But Lomax and Biggs persevere, and there is a bit of a surprise twist at the end. I like Mike Lomax a lot—the book is told primarily from his POV, though that does change periodically. Karp handles the changing points of view well, though. Lomax is a recent widower, his wife Joanie having died of cancer about six months before. This book is almost like two stories, one detailing Lomax’s personal life and letting us get to know him and his family, and the other the murder case. I realize that a bit more detail is needed in introducing the main characters in the first book, but some judicious editing was definitely needed—the book was 632 pages in the hardcover edition! Granted, the author seems to write in the James Patterson style—very short chapters and lots of blank space—but still! Snip, snip, snip! LOL It took me a good 50 pages before I warmed to the mystery and the characters, but I am glad I stuck with it, because it ended up being a great debut novel. I have the next one here and it seems to be a bit shorter, so someone must’ve hit Karp with a cluestick. LOL And I have to honestly say that I’m really looking forward to it, too! A-.
11. NIGHTSHADE by Susan Wittig Albert. #17 China Bayles mystery, which finished off the thread started a couple of books ago dealing with China’s father’s death. This book focuses on the investigation that China’s recently-discovered half-brother Miles instigated by hiring McQuaid, China’s husband, to look into it. He believes that Robert Bayles’ death sixteen years ago in a firey car crash was no accident, but that he was murdered. Before he can do much work with McQuaid though, Miles Danforth ends up dead himself, the victim of a supposed hit-and-run in the parking ramp at his office building. All the heavy coincidences and bits and pieces of evidence come together in a totally not surprising ending. This book is different than others in the series, which are always told from China’s point of view. In this book, the author switches over to McQuaid’s point of view for several chapters and I must say it just does NOT work well at all! Everything from McQuaid’s point of view was written in the present tense and instead of using first person (I did this, I did that), it was written as “McQuaid does this, McQuaid does that.” I found that immensely annoying for some reason. It felt like the tale was being told by the proverbial turd in McQuaid’s pocket…someone who was right there with him, but not actually him. For example, one chapter opens with, “McQuaid has a long list of things to do this morning, but first things first.” Another starts with “McQuaid is on the road by nine thirty, heading southeast on…” Ack! Very distracting. This is, truthfully, the only book in this series that I out and out did not like. It was primarily due to that change in POV, but also many of the regular cast members weren’t much in evidence til the end of the book. I missed Ruby, I missed China’s musings in the herb garden and the shop and the folks around Pecan Springs. I’m glad that Ms. Albert has gotten the mystery of what happened to China’s father sewn up so she can move on now, and I sincerely hope she returns to the writing style she used in her previous books. I loved those, and I have already put Wormwood, the next-in-series, on my wishlist in anticipation of a GOOD return visit to Pecan Springs. C-.
12. DEATH OF AN ADDICT by M.C. Beaton. #15 Hamish MacBeth Scottish police cozy mystery. A young man who is renting a cottage in a remote part of Hamish’s patch ends up dead of a supposed overdose shortly after Hamish met him while visiting Parry MacSporran, the crofter who owns the place. The red-headed policeman is sure that the lad wasn’t on drugs and had kicked his habit, but the Strathbane usuals swarm in and close the case without so much as a by your leave and tell Hamish to mind his own business. Hamish promises the boy’s parents he’ll investigate on the QT and requests some time off—he always seems to have extra holiday time to spare so he can take a couple of weeks off! LOL He heads off to Strathbane to check out a rather cultish upstart church that Tommy was interested in—and starts out posing as a homeless man living in his car and willing to work in the church for minimal money…but somehow ends up instead in the middle of a big drug sting, wearing an Armani suit and a Rolex and posing as a drug kingpin with an attractive DI from Glasgow posing as his wife! The next thing you know, they’re off to Amsterdam. Holy whirling dervish, Batman—this book was all over the place and unlike Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen, it not only *believed* six impossible things before breakfast, it DID them. My goodness! Still, as I was scratching my head and rolling my eyes, I was reading on and mostly enjoying the story even though I knew most of it was purely improbable rubbish. I just like Hamish, even though Beaton’s plots seem to have gotten more and more bizarre as the series has gone on. The next up is A Highland Christmas, and even though I mostly enjoyed the book, I would say I’ve probably had my fill of Hamish until about that time of year. B-.
13. ONE LAST BREATH by Stephen Booth. #5 Ben Cooper/Diane Fry British police procedural set in the Peak District of the UK. When Mansell Quinn, a man who was convicted of the brutal murder of his mistress a number of years ago, is released from prison, those who knew him are a bit on edge. When he disappears just a few hours after his release and his ex-wife ends up murdered in similar fashion, a full-scale manhunt begins. But Quinn knows all the local haunts, the villages and even the caves that dot the countryside, and it’s noted in the prison library records that he took special interest in one of the caves in the area and checked out a particular book on it many times. Despite numerous sightings, he’s not an easy man to track down. When Cooper begins digging back to the original crime, he wonders if Quinn was really the guilty party after all, as he changed his story several times. Fry, frustrated at Cooper’s tangents and lack of focus, investigates the present-day case and urges Ben to do likewise, but it’s only when their two heads are put together with information about both cases that a clearer picture begins to emerge. Added to the mix is the fact that Cooper’s father Joe was the arresting officer of record, and he’s wondering if Quinn is bent on revenge against those he felt wronged him. I did figure the mystery out as to ‘whodunit’ but missed a couple of plot twists that made it even more interesting. As annoying as I personally find the character of Diane Fry, I still thoroughly enjoy these stories, love Booth’s writing style and his verbal painting of the Derbyshire countryside. Another winner! A.
14. THE GOOD HUSBAND OF ZEBRA DRIVE by Alexander McCall Smith. #8 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, Africa. In this book, a few stressful situations develop—Mma Makutsi resigns her job as assistant detective in a bit of a snit, Charlie the apprentice has decided to strike out on his own and open a taxi service, and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni decides to try his hand at detective work in addition to being a first-rate auto mechanic. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe is hired to investigate some suspicious deaths at the Mochudi hospital—three patients have died at the same time on the same day of the week in the same bed! Now if you know Mma Ramotswe, you know she’s not a superstitious woman, and she feels there must be a logical explanation for these events, although interviews with the doctors and nurses involved turn up no clues. This was a typically light and wonderful entry in this series—Mma Ramotswe always manages to boil down life’s problems and ups and downs into a few simple truths that always leave me feeling better for her sharing them with me. Definitely one of my “feel good” series! A
15. CLAWS AND EFFECT by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. (audio book) #9 Mrs. Murphy mystery. Something fishy is happening at Crozet hospital. The head of maintenance is found dead in the boiler room—no doubt that it’s murder with his throat brutally slit as it was—and when Harry gets nosy and decides to make a late-night stop there to ‘check things out,’ she gets konked on the head, though not hard enough to do any serious damage. A long-time member of the supporting cast also ends up shot to death a few chapters later, and this leaves Sheriff Rick Shaw seeing red and pulling out all the stops to find the killer. It doesn’t make Harry (and her critters—cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and her Welsh Corgi Tucker) any less determined, either! I had a gut feeling about the killer early on, but really had nothing to support my thoughts. But once a few choice clues were dropped later in the book, it all came together. I really enjoy the narrator of this series—she brings all the different characters to life and gives them substance that might easily be missed in a print reading. I especially enjoy the ‘animal voices.’ Excellent listen—looking forward to more. A.
16. HIDDEN WARRIOR by Lynn Flewelling. Second in the Tamir Trilogy fantasy series. Tobin, the young prince of Skala, begins to come into his own as he becomes a teenager, trains in the city of Edo at the palace with his cousin Korin (the heir to the throne) and the rest of the Companions, whose task it is to guard the royals. What no one else (save for a few wizards) knows is that Tobin is actually a girl who has been given a glamour of sorts, a binding at birth which has allowed him to look and live as a boy—specifically, as the male twin who died at birth—in order to protect his prophesied status as the next warrior queen. Tobin just found this out himself at the end of the last book and is still having difficulties dealing with this knowledge throughout this book and still thinks of himself as male even though he has seen his ‘true face.’ Brother, the ghost of this twin, is becoming more solid and can now be heard by Ki, Tobin’s squire, and Tobin remains leery of Brother’s motives and doesn’t know if he can trust him since he has a history of violence, even against Tobin. The present king, Tobin’s uncle, and his top wizard Niryn are doing all they can to stamp out the ‘fringe religions’ including the one which believes that the country’s leaders should be female and foretell of a warrior queen coming to save them. So naturally, keeping Tobin’s true nature quiet is tantamount. Meanwhile, Tobin’s wizard friends Iya and Arkoniel, use his ancestral home in the country to harbor and train up ‘rogue’ wizards who don’t join the Harriers, the ruling wizard class who have taken to burning wizards who don’t join them. They see that the time for revealing Tobin’s true nature is coming faster than they would like and are preparing as much as they can. Excellent entry in the series and I’m greatly looking forward to the conclusion. I love this author’s writing style and her intricate plotting and storytelling ability. A+
17. DIVIDED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE: A GUIDE TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH by Christopher Davies. Interesting book that talks about the differences between the “English” spoken by Americans and by those in the UK. Some of it is simply lists of translations, other parts talk about how some of these differences evolved, including the spelling differences and all those extra U’s that the Brits are known for. (Blame Nathaniel Webster for that one!) I enjoyed it as did my husband (who is from England) but there were a few phrases and words that left both of us scratching our heads as we’d never heard them used. Some were obviously regional colloquialisms. The thing I found funny was that often when a less-than-savory phrase or word was used, the author didn’t really *explain* what it meant…he just put something like, “Don’t use this phrase in the UK (or America)—vulgar phrase” and then would tell you what you should say instead. Well…THAT was real helpful to those not in the know. LOL I enjoyed this but would have liked even more about the history and evolution of the language differences and less of the listings. B+
18. THE ALEHOUSE MURDERS by Maureen Ash. #1 in the Templar Knight medieval historical mystery series featuring ex-Templar, Bascot de Marins, who was held captive in the Middle East for eight years before escaping. Now employed by Lady Nicolaa de la Haye and living in the household of Nicolaa and her husband Gerard Camville, sheriff of Lincoln, he is called upon to investigate four murders, the bodies being found in the local alehouse, but with three of them having obviously been killed elsewhere and dumped there. Some people obviously know more than they’re telling, and old rivalries, court intrigues and questions of parentage come into play as Bascot delves deeper into the lives of those involved. I liked this mystery, but I didn’t love it, with whatever magic ingredient that makes a good book a great one being missing, at least for me. It took me a long time to warm up to the main character and the writing style I found to be a little dry. However, it seems to be very well-researched and the author does an excellent job of painting the not-often-romantic realities of medieval life. By mid-book, I found I had come to like the wounded ex-Templar and his mute assistant Gianni and the mystery was an intriguing and well-plotted one, though I did spot the clues and figured out the mystery fairly early. Despite the slow start, by the end I found that I had enjoyed the book. I have the second-in-series here and will definitely continue to read on. B.
19. BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM by Kate Atkinson. This is the story of Ruby Lennox, from her inauspicious conception in a flat above a Pet Shop in 1952 in York, UK to the present day. It also delves into the lives of many of Ruby’s female ancestors in her mother’s line and ties them all together with interesting threads and themes—some minor, some major, and all very interesting. Bopping back and forth between present-day, World War I era and World War II, the author skillfully weaves the story of just how Ruby came to be and gives us some insight as to why she is the way she is—although Ruby is the last to figure this out. I did glean the major plot twist well ahead of time (as indeed, I think the author meant the reader to do) but it in no way spoiled the story. Chock full of the realities of each of the times the story lands in, I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed the imagery, the voices of the different people and once again being reminded that what we do today can have far-reaching ripples of effect for years and years. Wonderful!! A+
DNF: MURDER AT WITCH’S BLUFF by Silver RavenWolf. I have read and enjoyed some of this author’s non-fiction pagan reference books, but OMG…this attempt at fiction was just. So. Bad. Poorly written, full of cheesy clichés, and enough typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors to have me double checking the book to see if I’d accidentally picked up an ARC or uncorrected proof. (I hadn’t.) I simply couldn’t make it to 50 pages, the usual length I try to give any book. Baaaaaaad.
THE PLAYER’S BOY IS DEAD by Leonard Tourney. Historical mystery featuring a newly appointed constable (Matthew Stock) and clothing merchant in Elizabethan England. Boring. Couldn’t get into it at all, wasn’t interested in the main character or the mystery. Did give it the full fifty pages, but it just wasn’t happenin’ for me.
And that wraps up August!
Cheryl
Monday, July 7, 2008
JULY 2008 READING LIST
1. THE CON MAN by Ed McBain. #4 in the 87th Precinct mystery series, written way back in 1957! I’m on my way through the whole series from the beginning—have read many of the later books, but not read these before. Since they are so old, they are rather ‘dated’ but I enjoy McBain’s writing style and getting the ‘backstory’ of all the detectives I came to know and love in the later books is very interesting too. In this book, various con men and their ‘dirty tricks’ from simple graft, fraud and up to and including murder, are investigated and tracked down by several of the 87th’s detectives. Enjoyable, quick read. B+
2. MAD MOUSE by Chris Grabenstein. #2 John Ceepak mystery, featuring the Sea Haven, NJ ex-military MP, now policeman and his young partner, Danny Boyle. The books are actually told from the POV of Danny, who has just been promoted from part-time cop to full-time. When Danny and his friends become the target of a paintball shooter—who sometimes shoots real bullets as well—Ceepak works with him to try to figure out who might hold a grudge against the small group of friends. When Danny’s girlfriend Katie is critically injured by the shooter, the stakes become much higher and Danny thinks the trail leads to their sometime friend Mook—until Mook ends up dead. The new police chief wants the case wrapped up ASAP so that the beach town’s Labor Day celebration isn’t compromised, so Danny and Ceepak don’t have much time. I really like this series, love the characters, love the author’s writing style—it’s easy reading and somewhat humorous, yet the humor isn’t cheesy or forced. I have to admit I spotted the baddie when they were first introduced—wasn’t sure about the motivation or how it would tie in, but my ‘gut feeling’ kicked in and was right. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book, though—this one was as hard to put down as the first one. I’m glad I’ve got the next on my TBR—I don’t think it will be sitting there too long! A+
3. EXCURSION TO TINDARI by Andrea Camilleri. Fifth in the Italian police procedural series set in Sicily and featuring Salvo Montalbano, epitome of the grumpy inspector. But you gotta love the guy despite his less-than-sweet disposition. In this episode, Montalbano and crew are investigating two crimes—the disappearance of a reserved, quiet elderly couple, reported missing by their son, and the murder of a young twenty-something man with no visible means of support, yet who manages to live in relative style. Drug money? Or something else? And as he lives in the same apartment building as the elderly couple, is there some connection between them despite all evidence to the contrary? I absolutely love this series and hope the author keeps writing them for a long, long time. Montalbano is a complex character and the supporting cast is also well-fleshed and interesting. Catarella’s goofy speech never fails to make me laugh, and I think I want to marry Montalbano’s mostly-absent housekeeper, who prepares the most mouth-watering meals for him! LOL Anyway, another stellar entry in a wonderful series. A+
4. CARVED IN BONE by Jefferson Bass. First in the “Body Farm” mystery/thriller series, co-written by the real-life founder of that notable forensic institution. Set in Knoxville, TN and featuring fictional forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton, this series opens up with a case in which Brockton is contacted by a rural sheriff regarding a long-dead body found in a cave. The body has formed an almost-perfect coating of adipocere, a soapy/fatty substance formed in certain damp conditions over time. Dr. Brockton must remove this coating to get down the story that will be told by the body’s bones, and once back in his lab, the tale of a young, pregnant Caucasian woman dead for about 30 years begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Brockton is also testifying in a court case in which he was contacted by a sleazy defense attorney to refute testimony by the local medical examiner that the cause of death was the defendant stabbing the victim to death. While loathe to work with the defender of slimeballs, when Brockton sees the evidence, he realizes that this time the defendant really is innocent and steps over to the other side, hoping that his testimony is enough to finally get the aging, incompetent medical examiner removed from office. I really enjoyed the professional aspects of this book and the mysteries themselves were very interesting. However, I’m honestly not so struck on the character of Dr. Brockton, as he seems a bit of a wreck in his personal life in this opening book. Widowed two years ago, he seems unable to move on and does some pretty stupid things, from alienating his only child to sucking face with one of his undergraduate students. He also seemed to pass out a whole lot in this book, which seemed rather odd, but he seemed to be pulling himself together a bit by the end of the book so I hope his personal life stabilizes some as we go onward. I grade this book a little lower only because I found his constant grief and both physical and emotional weakness a bit annoying—the story itself was wonderful! B+
5. SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn. First in the Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane mystery series set in 1880’s London. Victorian England is really not among my favorite time periods, so I was almost expecting to dislike this book. But oddly enough I found it quite compelling, despite the “romancey” undertone that was threaded all throughout the book. I actually wanted to hate the main character as I tend to find most Victorian “Ladies” just silly, and there *were* times I wanted to smack Julia upside the head. But I found that by the end of the book, I actually liked her and was rooting for her. The book opens with the death of Lady Julia’s husband Edward—which is not seen as a surprise as he’s suffered for years from a congenital heart defect. But when a mysterious stranger, Nicholas Brisbane—who happened to be present when Edward went into a convulsion and died—calls on Lady Julia and says he believes Edward was murdered. When she learns that Edward had hired him to investigate some threatening letters that he’d received, Julia is aghast and at first unbelieving. It doesn’t take long to convince her, though, and soon she and Mr. Brisbane are investigating, both separately and together. The romantic/sexual undertone in their relationship left me a little vexed at times (as you know, I am NOT a fan of romance novels, nor of books classified as ‘mystery’ or ‘fantasy’ or some other genre but are really just romances in disguise) but this book didn’t really fall into that category--the mystery itself and the unfolding story kept me reading on undaunted. I have the next book in series here, and look forward to the continuation of the story and getting to know not only Lady Julia and Nicholas better, but the supporting characters too. A-.
6. BLACK POWDER WAR by Naomi Novik. #3 in the Temeraire historical fantasy series that mingles the Napoleonic wars with fantasy and the inclusion of dragons into the mix. Laurence and Temeraire are dispatched to retrieve three dragon eggs from Istanbul, and must go overland due to a devastating fire aboard their ship while it was docked in China. The journey is fraught with peril, and when they finally arrive, it’s to discover that the ambassador is dead and his main assistant has apparently scarpered with the money that was to be paid to the Sultan for the dragon eggs. Virtually held prisoner while the city is obviously preparing for war, Laurence attempts to investigate as much as he can while under guard, and eventually the whole company is in for a huge surprise when they finally meet the Sultan only to find that Lien, the Chinese dragon whose rider was killed in the last book, sitting behind the Sultan’s throne. This is not good news, as she harbors much hatred for Laurence and Temeraire and indeed all things British. The small company then decides to abscond with the eggs that had been purchased and escape and much more adventure ensues. I enjoyed this book more than the last one—which was almost entirely at sea—because I really do prefer solid ground to “naval stuff.” Looking forward to the next in series, which is sitting on my TBR making quiet noises to be read already. LOL A.
7. ERIC by Terry Pratchett. Ninth book in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series, published in 1990, so I’m only 18 years behind now. LOL Once again featuring Rincewind, the Luggage and a thirteen-year-old demonologist named Eric—who has summoned a demon and got Rincewind instead—as they travel through time and space trying to grant Eric the three wishes he’s demanded. (Yes, he’s a bit confused…Rincewind is a wizard, not a demon NOR a genie! LOL) Somehow he manages to be well on the way to granting those wishes for the boy, although Eric soon finds out that it wasn’t *quite* what he was expecting or wanting after all. Great, rollicking LOL fun in the land of Discworld. A.
8. INTO THE FOREST by Jean Hegland. Although this sometimes classified as “post apocalyptic fiction” I would say it deals more with the collapse of our modern USA civilization rather than an actual apocalypse. The fall of an empire as seen from one small corner of the country. This book was very thought-provoking and in some ways disturbing, I think because the way society collapsed was so plausible. It happened slowly, over many months—and didn’t reach the people in the story until weeks after it actually happened because they were rather isolated. You could easily see that indeed this COULD happen just as the author outlined. Eva and Nell, eighteen and seventeen year old girls and their father, a school principal, live in a country home five miles from their nearest neighbor and thirty miles from town. Their mother died of cancer just before the worst of these problems started, so their grief is still new and raw. They’ve always been somewhat isolated, the girls having been home-schooled, their mother working at home as a spinner and weaver. The problems start with occasional interruption in electrical and phone service, with internet news talking about shortages and cutbacks. Soon those outages become part of everyday life. A trip to town for groceries and supplies a few weeks later shocks them when they realize that most businesses are boarded up, gas stations closed, everyone they know dead of some deadly flu or they simply left, homes abandoned, and they are eyed suspiciously by everyone. The few groceries they manage to find at the local warehouse store cost them most of their savings, and the few people who will talk to them have only bad news. Economic collapse. No government services. No power, no water, no medical care. At home, their computer and telephone are now useless--dusty, chilling reminders of their old lives. They are now out of gasoline save enough for the chainsaw, so another trip to town is impractical. They work their garden, chop wood for fuel, ration their goods and plan to preserve and can the fruit of the orchard and garden for the winter months ahead, looking forward to spring for the time when ‘things get back to normal,’ when Eva can resume her ballet lessons and Nell can make her application to Harvard. Until it becomes apparent that things are not getting back to normal. What a powerful and wonderful book! While the whole setting ‘makes’ the story, as with all stories, it’s really about the people and their interactions. I highly recommend this book. If it doesn’t make my top ten list of the year, whatever books supplant it will have to be uber-super-great. A++
9. THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy (audio) Very skillfully read by the same guy who read No Country For Old Men, another of McCarthy's books that I listened to earlier in the year. It seems to be the month for end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it type books. This one is much darker and edgier than the above-mentioned book, and certainly no less powerful. Rather than being isolated in one small area, this book actually takes us with a father and his young son southward down “The Road,” where they hope to eventually come to the sea, somewhere warm, somewhere they can find a place with a little safety and food and shelter. The earth is scorched and scarred, polluted and burnt and almost devoid of life, save for small wandering bands of humans who scavenge what little remains of the former lives of the human race, including, sometimes, the humans themselves. Pushing a shopping cart with a few dented cans of food retrieved from who knows where along the way, a tarp for shelter and a few other odds and ends, The Man and The Boy traverse The Road, encountering few others—and those they do encounter are seldom benevolent. Near-starving, with the man wracked with a worsening bloody cough, the pistol with two bullets in it that The Man carries in his pocket weighs heavily on his heart and mind. Suicide is contemplated often, as well as the question of whether he’ll be able to put the boy out of his misery when the time comes as well. He doesn’t really see any point to it, but they keep plodding onward. The book is, in many ways, raw pain and hurt and really should be more depressing than it ultimately ends up being. I expected to weep, whatever the ending might be, but I didn’t. Another definite possibility for my top ten of the year list. A+
10. WEDNESDAY’S CHILD by Peter Robinson. Sixth DCI Alan Banks British police procedural mystery set in Yorkshire. A seven-year-old girl is abducted from her mother’s Eastvale home by a man and a woman posing as social workers, and the race is on for Banks and his crew to find her before she turns up dead. Having two people in on such an abduction is unusual, since pedophiles generally work alone, so Jenny Fuller, psychologist, is once again called in on the case to advise the police on what they might be looking for. A couple of days later, an ex-con working as a gardener to one of the local ‘country estate’ owners turns up dead in an old mine, disemboweled and slit stem to stern and Alan must take his attention away from Gemma Scupham’s case to find Carl Johnson’s murderer. When some odd coincidences make it seem that the two cases are somehow related, the clues start stacking up and it’s a furious race to the finish. Excellent entry in this series, possibly the best one so far. None of the things that sometimes annoy me about Alan did in this book. Whether that was just my mood or whether the author had actually toned down those things (for one thing, the constant and repeated descriptions of Alan and his co-workers smoking and drinking) enough that I didn’t notice them, I don’t know, but I enjoyed it! A.
11. MORE THAN PETTICOATS: REMARKABLE MINNESOTA WOMEN by Bonnye E. Stuart. Brief biographies of a dozen or so women who were important in the history of Minnesota, beginning back in the 1840’s when it was just a frontier territory to more ‘modern’ post-WWII history. I was vaguely familiar with about half the women in the book, the others I’d never heard of, so certainly a lot of knowledge was gleaned and absorbed, but I did find this book a bit dry; it felt like recitations of the women’s accomplishments and didn’t really allow you to get to ‘know’ the women. This is one reason I prefer historical fiction to historical ‘non-fiction’ books—more speculation is allowed into people’s motivations, more insight into their character rather than just ‘this is what they did when.’ This is the second book in this series I’ve read, and I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous one, which was about Washington state. C+
12. FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE by Rhys Bowen. Third in the Molly Murphy historical mystery series featuring a young Irish immigrant in early 1900’s New York. Molly is struggling to make it as a private investigator, having appropriated her former boss’s business—since he’s dead, he really can’t complain about it, and no family has stepped forward to claim the business or his money. She’s finding it difficult, since women don’t have the same freedoms men do, and she’s dragged off to jail several times by constables who are often bribed off and just as corrupt as the criminals they’re supposed to be arresting. Molly takes a job as a garment worker to try to ferret out for the boss of the company who’s stealing designs from him and selling them to another company, and the horrible working conditions she experiences sparks a desire to help organize the workers. She also takes on a missing persons case, a young English woman who ran off with her father’s stable worker, a charming Irish fellow, and sailed to America. The two cases soon intersect, and Molly finds herself in the middle of the fray, getting noticed by the Eastman gang, being rescued from jail by Captain Daniel Sullivan, the policeman she’s fallen in love with but cannot have as he’s betrothed to a young lady of ‘good birth’ and will not break the engagement for fear of hurting his chances of promotion in his job. Molly also meets another interesting young man, a photographer who is working on the side of organizing trade unions. Jacob, a young Jewish man, seems interested in her, and she is caught between the two trying to decide what to do. (Typical! This ‘torn between two lovers’ thing better not carry on book after book or I’m going to be steamed. LOL) I do enjoy this series, though Molly seems to do some awfully stupid things at times, ‘fiercely independent woman’ or no. I enjoy her supporting characters as well, and the settings and mysteries are also interesting. Looking forward to the next in series. A.
13. HEN’S TEETH by Manda Scott. First in the Kellen Stewart mystery series set in Glasgow, Scotland and surrounding countryside, with our protagonist being a doctor, a therapist and a lesbian. This book is one of my TBR Challenge Books that’s been sitting on my shelf for a long time, at least a couple of years. When Kellen is called in the middle of the night by an old friend to inform her that Bridget, her former lover, has been found dead, supposedly of a heart attack at the age of forty-one, Kellen reluctantly drives to their farm to sit with her friend and support her during the police questioning. There she learns that not only is Bridget dead, but her brother Malcolm, who had been Kellen’s mentor in medical school, died of the (apparent) same cause a couple of months previously while Kellen was out of the country. Malcolm had turned from doing medical work to genetic research and soon the mystery surrounding what he was working on with Bantam chickens seems to be at the center of the mystery. Kellen calls on her old friend Lee Adams, a thoroughly free spirited rebel who also happens to be a pathologist at the local hospital, to help investigate. I enjoyed the book and really like the main character and her cronies, but I was a little puzzled at first, as there seemed to be some backstory that I just wasn’t getting or that was possibly edited out or something, and it left me feeling a bit scattered, though that settled down eventually. Quite an interesting mystery as well as a thriller as Kellen and Lee finally learn just who is behind the whole chicken caper and nearly get themselves killed in the process. Very enjoyable read, and I’ve already ordered the next book in the series. B+
14. THE FAITHFUL SPY by Alex Berenson. Modern-day thriller/spy novel, I believe it’s first in a series and features rogue CIA agent John Wells. John was sent to Iran to attempt to turn spies for work infiltrating the Taliban and al Quaeda, and ended up a terrible failure at recruitment, but he did manage to become a member of al Quaeda himself. Living abroad in the rough for years, speaking mainly Arabic but fluent in several other languages, initially going through the motions of the Muslim religion and eventually even converting, John is outraged at the way the fundamentalist extremists have twisted what he sees as a beautiful religion for their own purposes. He has not been able to get a message ‘home’ in a long, long time and is assumed by many to be dead, and is even forgotten by all but a few. Eventually he is accepted by the people he lives and works with as a leader of a small band of guerillas, and is even summoned to meet Sheikh bin Laden, though nothing important seems to come of it. He learned about 9/11 well after the fact, not having a clue that it was coming to pass, and seems to have not done anything really ‘useful’ for his agency or country, living a meager subsistence sort of life fighting minor skirmishes in the mountains. That is, until one day he is summoned from his group, sent back to the United States on a false passport and told to wait for contact. He travels to Montana to see his family, and his ex-wife alerts the CIA, who haul him in and treat him like a traitor. He knows that al Quaeda has been planning something. Something big. But he has no idea what and has no useful information. Eventually he escapes—or is allowed to escape?—and disappears, waiting for contact from Omar Khadri, the ‘big cheese’ of al Quaeda’s North American operations. It’s been a long time since I read a real honest-to-goodness spy novel, and most of those that I read in the past were seriously outdated…Russian spies, Cold War type of stuff. This was waaaaaay too real and plausible and kept me right on the edge of my seat up til the end. Very well written with a believable main character, I will definitely continue reading in this series. Quite different from anything I’ve read in recent months, a nice change of pace. A.
15. THE DEAD SURVIVORS by K.J. Erickson. Second in the Marshall “Mars” Bahr police procedural series set in Minneapolis. Mars is a Special Investigator assigned to a unique task force that only handles homicides not gang- or drug-related. Business has been a little slow and there are concerns that the creation of the group is a waste of time and money. This book starts with Mars being asked by a patrolman that he’d had contact with on a previous case to look at a death that was written off as a suicide by the patrolman’s Sergeant. Some things just didn’t ‘sit right’ and after only a short time investigating, Mars’ infamous gut feelings are leading him to the same conclusion, and a homicide investigation is opened fairly shortly afterwards. The investigation leads to connections to another murder in Wisconsin, and a possible serial killer who seems to be killing people who had ancestors who were tied to a Civil War battle, but just how they’re connected, how the killer is choosing them and of course who the killer is remain unanswered questions. How to investigate properly without alarming millions of people is a big consideration, and the whole investigation is complicated by the fact that Mars ends up in hospital with appendicitis and has surgery and by the fact that it’s the Christmas holidays. Who can be expected to evoke much cooperation with other agencies during the holidays? As some of you know, the Civil War is not one of my favorite time periods but while there was a strong tie-in to the Battle of Gettysburg, most of the action was firmly in the present time and the storyline kept me thoroughly enthralled. I liked this book better than the first in series and am looking forward to the next one. A.
16. DEATH AND RESTORATION by Iain Pears. Sixth (and second to last) in the Jonathan Argyll “art history” mysteries. Big changes are afoot at the Art Theft Squad and Flavia needs to choose whether to join her boss Bottando on an international task force or to take over the day-to-day running of the Art Theft Squad. She’s a hands-on type of person and doesn’t relish sitting behind a desk, though the more regular hours would make it possible to spend more time with Jonathan. The Squad gets a tip that there is to be a theft at a local Abbey, but that particular institution has nothing of real value so they are puzzled as to what a thief would want. But when a rather notorious thief named Mary Verney is spotted entering Rome, Flavia assigns her to be watched closely. But that doesn’t stop a small icon at the abbey from being stolen right out from under their noses—and the head of the abbey is clonked on the head and severely injured as well. Is the loud-mouthed American restorer working on another picture in the abbey to blame? Or did Mary Verney slip out of their surveillance? Or is an unknown factor involved? I really enjoy this series—I always learn a bit about the art world, and enjoy both Jonathan and Flavia and their relationship and the supporting cast, too. The author also often will manage to surprise me a bit and this book was no exception. One more left in the series, then that’s it! Bummer! A.
17. BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jacqueline Winspear. Second in the Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series, set in post-WWI England. It’s been over a year since I read the first in series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I don’t know why I put off reading this one for so long. Maisie is hired to find a young woman who’s left her home without notice—she is over thirty years old and has a history of doing such things, so no one is terribly worried, but her controlling father wants her back. When Maisie learns that Charlotte Waite is connected to another young woman recently murdered, she begins investigating in earnest. Meanwhile, she also must deal with the cocaine addiction of her beloved assistant, Billy Beale, and the recuperation of her father from a serious accident in which he is severely injured during the foaling of Lady Rowan’s favorite horse. I enjoyed the book a lot and certainly was compelled to keep on reading, though I did figure out the culprit about midway through when a couple of major clues were dropped in our laps. One thing I did find annoying though was that Maisie didn’t share some important details with Detective Inspector Stratton but then in her own mind chided him for taking a wrong turn in the investigation. Perhaps if he had all the information he may have actually listened to you, silly girl! Also annoying was the appearance of another possible love interest for Maisie (to offset Stratton) and which one she chose to dine with was left dangling as a cliffhanger for the next book. Perhaps I’ve just had my fill of female historical fiction characters semi-smitten with their policemen or something, but when I read the next book, it won’t be because I want to know which it was. I could care less! I love the way Winspear is able to set the historical scene (although, again, this is NOT my favorite time period! LOL) and I enjoy Maisie and the supporting cast of interesting characters, so despite the minor annoyances I most certainly enjoyed the book and will be reading onward. A-.
18, TAKEOVER by Lisa Black. ARC for review, due for release next month (August) I believe. This is a thriller featuring forensic scientist Teresa McLean, who lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. Teresa is processing a crime scene in the wee hours of the morning, a man found dead outside his home with his head bashed in. No one likes being up in the middle of the night, but at least Teresa gets to work with her fiancé, Paul, who’s a detective with the Cleveland police force. But how quickly things can change. A few hours later, Teresa is called and told that Paul is one of the hostages in a stand-off at the Federal Reserve Bank—where he had gone to question the co-workers of the murdered man only to be accosted by a couple of would-be bank robbers. Coincidence? Not very likely. Tess arrives at the scene—or where the negotiations will be conducted, in a building across the street—and must maintain her professional demeanor in a very stressful situation—a situation that only becomes more stressful as the hours wear on. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to like the book; we were virtually thrown into the story almost immediately with very little backstory or explanation. But this was indeed quite a ‘thrilling’ book—I was compelled to read it almost in one sitting. The writing style is very appealing; it’s clear and easy to read. However, I did figure out the plot twist way ahead of time—the clues were way too clearly broadcast so that when the entire situation was finally revealed, it was very much of a relief—I was certain that everyone who was ‘investigating’ in the book must be really stupid or something! Figuring out the mystery ahead of time in a cozy mystery isn’t really such a big deal, but in a “thriller,” it certainly works better if there is a big surprise at the end. Aside from making the solution too obvious, the other flaw I saw was lack of character development. I tend to be a reader of series books, and depth of character is even more important in those type of books than plotting—at least for me. I’m not sure if the author is intending to make this into a series or if it’s a ‘one-off’ book, but if there are more books with Tess to come, I would advise spending a bit more time on getting the reader to care about her, to let us really know her. Despite everything she went through in this book, I still found her to be a bit two-dimensional, even at the end. That was part of the problem I had with being thrown headfirst into the story—I really didn’t care at all about Teresa at that point. The forensic bits were interesting, certainly. And it was a good story. It would’ve been better with a bit more flesh on its bones, though. There is much promise here and I hope the author continues to write--I will be looking for more from her for certain. B.
19. THE ST. JOHN’S FERN by Kate Sedley. #9 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery in which a newly-married Roger heads off to Plymouth, directed there by one of his dreams, and sure enough, finds a mystery that needs solving. Oliver Capstick was murdered in his home about five months ago, and everyone knows the culprit—his nephew, Beric Gifford. They had argued heatedly the day before and he was seen both coming and going from the uncle’s home, even to the point of having a dark stain on his tunic on his way out. But no one, including the Sheriff’s posse, can find him, despite searching not only the countryside, known haunts and his manor estate. Everyone thinks he took St. John’s Fern, a flower that legend says can make a person disappear. Roger is a bit skeptical of course, though isn’t one to totally discount the supernatural. His travels lead him over the countryside to several villages and to Beric’s home of Villetort Manor in search of the young man or at least a search for some clue as to w here he’s gone. I always enjoy this series, even though I thought the solution to the mystery in this one was quite obvious right from the beginning. In fact, I wanted to clunk Roger over the head with the oh-so-simple clues, but I let him off easily since he was a newlywed and likely to be a bit muddled. LOL Anyway, another wonderful foray into 1400’s England; I wish these weren’t so difficult to find—I always have to order them from my library and I hate giving them back. A
20. ACQUA ALTA by Donna Leon #5 Commissario Guido Brunetti police procedural set in Venice, Italy. Guido starts out investigating the assault of Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist/pottery expert who is in Venice visiting her lover, one of the opera singers who was featured in Leon’s first book, Death at La Fenice. Brett is threatened and told not to attend a meeting she had set up with a local museum director to discuss some antiquities that had been in a display from China that she’d spearheaded a couple of years earlier—which she now discovers are fake. There are also some derogatory comments made about her lesbianism by the thugs who beat her up, so she isn’t sure just why she was attacked. When the museum director ends up dead, the necessity of finding the connection intensifies, and Guido digs and investigates while out of doors, Mother Nature provides the usual annual onslaught of ‘acqua alta’ or the torrential winter rains that cause severe flooding throughout the city. I love this series—the characters, the setting, the food, the poetic prose…the only part of these books that sometimes annoys me is the constant background presence of the Mafia, and this book that featured rather heavily. It seems sometimes that it’s just too convenient and too pat a solution to whatever problem is presented. But I still loved it! A
DNF: MAGICAL HEARTH: HOME FOR THE MODERN PAGAN by Janet Thompson. I struggled through about 20 pages, but there were numerous typographical and/or spelling and word form/grammatical errors that made it impossible for me to read. In addition, the information that was provided in the little that I read was poorly organized and widely scattered. Perhaps someone else will find it useful--I'll be passing it along via PBS.
Up next: I'm making my way through PAGAN EVERY DAY: FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN OUR ORDINARY LIVES by Barbara Ardinger. This will likely take me several weeks or months as it's a daily meditative type thing filled with short, page-long essays about different topics. I'll be starting August off with ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS by Craig Johnson.
Cheryl
2. MAD MOUSE by Chris Grabenstein. #2 John Ceepak mystery, featuring the Sea Haven, NJ ex-military MP, now policeman and his young partner, Danny Boyle. The books are actually told from the POV of Danny, who has just been promoted from part-time cop to full-time. When Danny and his friends become the target of a paintball shooter—who sometimes shoots real bullets as well—Ceepak works with him to try to figure out who might hold a grudge against the small group of friends. When Danny’s girlfriend Katie is critically injured by the shooter, the stakes become much higher and Danny thinks the trail leads to their sometime friend Mook—until Mook ends up dead. The new police chief wants the case wrapped up ASAP so that the beach town’s Labor Day celebration isn’t compromised, so Danny and Ceepak don’t have much time. I really like this series, love the characters, love the author’s writing style—it’s easy reading and somewhat humorous, yet the humor isn’t cheesy or forced. I have to admit I spotted the baddie when they were first introduced—wasn’t sure about the motivation or how it would tie in, but my ‘gut feeling’ kicked in and was right. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book, though—this one was as hard to put down as the first one. I’m glad I’ve got the next on my TBR—I don’t think it will be sitting there too long! A+
3. EXCURSION TO TINDARI by Andrea Camilleri. Fifth in the Italian police procedural series set in Sicily and featuring Salvo Montalbano, epitome of the grumpy inspector. But you gotta love the guy despite his less-than-sweet disposition. In this episode, Montalbano and crew are investigating two crimes—the disappearance of a reserved, quiet elderly couple, reported missing by their son, and the murder of a young twenty-something man with no visible means of support, yet who manages to live in relative style. Drug money? Or something else? And as he lives in the same apartment building as the elderly couple, is there some connection between them despite all evidence to the contrary? I absolutely love this series and hope the author keeps writing them for a long, long time. Montalbano is a complex character and the supporting cast is also well-fleshed and interesting. Catarella’s goofy speech never fails to make me laugh, and I think I want to marry Montalbano’s mostly-absent housekeeper, who prepares the most mouth-watering meals for him! LOL Anyway, another stellar entry in a wonderful series. A+
4. CARVED IN BONE by Jefferson Bass. First in the “Body Farm” mystery/thriller series, co-written by the real-life founder of that notable forensic institution. Set in Knoxville, TN and featuring fictional forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton, this series opens up with a case in which Brockton is contacted by a rural sheriff regarding a long-dead body found in a cave. The body has formed an almost-perfect coating of adipocere, a soapy/fatty substance formed in certain damp conditions over time. Dr. Brockton must remove this coating to get down the story that will be told by the body’s bones, and once back in his lab, the tale of a young, pregnant Caucasian woman dead for about 30 years begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Brockton is also testifying in a court case in which he was contacted by a sleazy defense attorney to refute testimony by the local medical examiner that the cause of death was the defendant stabbing the victim to death. While loathe to work with the defender of slimeballs, when Brockton sees the evidence, he realizes that this time the defendant really is innocent and steps over to the other side, hoping that his testimony is enough to finally get the aging, incompetent medical examiner removed from office. I really enjoyed the professional aspects of this book and the mysteries themselves were very interesting. However, I’m honestly not so struck on the character of Dr. Brockton, as he seems a bit of a wreck in his personal life in this opening book. Widowed two years ago, he seems unable to move on and does some pretty stupid things, from alienating his only child to sucking face with one of his undergraduate students. He also seemed to pass out a whole lot in this book, which seemed rather odd, but he seemed to be pulling himself together a bit by the end of the book so I hope his personal life stabilizes some as we go onward. I grade this book a little lower only because I found his constant grief and both physical and emotional weakness a bit annoying—the story itself was wonderful! B+
5. SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn. First in the Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane mystery series set in 1880’s London. Victorian England is really not among my favorite time periods, so I was almost expecting to dislike this book. But oddly enough I found it quite compelling, despite the “romancey” undertone that was threaded all throughout the book. I actually wanted to hate the main character as I tend to find most Victorian “Ladies” just silly, and there *were* times I wanted to smack Julia upside the head. But I found that by the end of the book, I actually liked her and was rooting for her. The book opens with the death of Lady Julia’s husband Edward—which is not seen as a surprise as he’s suffered for years from a congenital heart defect. But when a mysterious stranger, Nicholas Brisbane—who happened to be present when Edward went into a convulsion and died—calls on Lady Julia and says he believes Edward was murdered. When she learns that Edward had hired him to investigate some threatening letters that he’d received, Julia is aghast and at first unbelieving. It doesn’t take long to convince her, though, and soon she and Mr. Brisbane are investigating, both separately and together. The romantic/sexual undertone in their relationship left me a little vexed at times (as you know, I am NOT a fan of romance novels, nor of books classified as ‘mystery’ or ‘fantasy’ or some other genre but are really just romances in disguise) but this book didn’t really fall into that category--the mystery itself and the unfolding story kept me reading on undaunted. I have the next book in series here, and look forward to the continuation of the story and getting to know not only Lady Julia and Nicholas better, but the supporting characters too. A-.
6. BLACK POWDER WAR by Naomi Novik. #3 in the Temeraire historical fantasy series that mingles the Napoleonic wars with fantasy and the inclusion of dragons into the mix. Laurence and Temeraire are dispatched to retrieve three dragon eggs from Istanbul, and must go overland due to a devastating fire aboard their ship while it was docked in China. The journey is fraught with peril, and when they finally arrive, it’s to discover that the ambassador is dead and his main assistant has apparently scarpered with the money that was to be paid to the Sultan for the dragon eggs. Virtually held prisoner while the city is obviously preparing for war, Laurence attempts to investigate as much as he can while under guard, and eventually the whole company is in for a huge surprise when they finally meet the Sultan only to find that Lien, the Chinese dragon whose rider was killed in the last book, sitting behind the Sultan’s throne. This is not good news, as she harbors much hatred for Laurence and Temeraire and indeed all things British. The small company then decides to abscond with the eggs that had been purchased and escape and much more adventure ensues. I enjoyed this book more than the last one—which was almost entirely at sea—because I really do prefer solid ground to “naval stuff.” Looking forward to the next in series, which is sitting on my TBR making quiet noises to be read already. LOL A.
7. ERIC by Terry Pratchett. Ninth book in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series, published in 1990, so I’m only 18 years behind now. LOL Once again featuring Rincewind, the Luggage and a thirteen-year-old demonologist named Eric—who has summoned a demon and got Rincewind instead—as they travel through time and space trying to grant Eric the three wishes he’s demanded. (Yes, he’s a bit confused…Rincewind is a wizard, not a demon NOR a genie! LOL) Somehow he manages to be well on the way to granting those wishes for the boy, although Eric soon finds out that it wasn’t *quite* what he was expecting or wanting after all. Great, rollicking LOL fun in the land of Discworld. A.
8. INTO THE FOREST by Jean Hegland. Although this sometimes classified as “post apocalyptic fiction” I would say it deals more with the collapse of our modern USA civilization rather than an actual apocalypse. The fall of an empire as seen from one small corner of the country. This book was very thought-provoking and in some ways disturbing, I think because the way society collapsed was so plausible. It happened slowly, over many months—and didn’t reach the people in the story until weeks after it actually happened because they were rather isolated. You could easily see that indeed this COULD happen just as the author outlined. Eva and Nell, eighteen and seventeen year old girls and their father, a school principal, live in a country home five miles from their nearest neighbor and thirty miles from town. Their mother died of cancer just before the worst of these problems started, so their grief is still new and raw. They’ve always been somewhat isolated, the girls having been home-schooled, their mother working at home as a spinner and weaver. The problems start with occasional interruption in electrical and phone service, with internet news talking about shortages and cutbacks. Soon those outages become part of everyday life. A trip to town for groceries and supplies a few weeks later shocks them when they realize that most businesses are boarded up, gas stations closed, everyone they know dead of some deadly flu or they simply left, homes abandoned, and they are eyed suspiciously by everyone. The few groceries they manage to find at the local warehouse store cost them most of their savings, and the few people who will talk to them have only bad news. Economic collapse. No government services. No power, no water, no medical care. At home, their computer and telephone are now useless--dusty, chilling reminders of their old lives. They are now out of gasoline save enough for the chainsaw, so another trip to town is impractical. They work their garden, chop wood for fuel, ration their goods and plan to preserve and can the fruit of the orchard and garden for the winter months ahead, looking forward to spring for the time when ‘things get back to normal,’ when Eva can resume her ballet lessons and Nell can make her application to Harvard. Until it becomes apparent that things are not getting back to normal. What a powerful and wonderful book! While the whole setting ‘makes’ the story, as with all stories, it’s really about the people and their interactions. I highly recommend this book. If it doesn’t make my top ten list of the year, whatever books supplant it will have to be uber-super-great. A++
9. THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy (audio) Very skillfully read by the same guy who read No Country For Old Men, another of McCarthy's books that I listened to earlier in the year. It seems to be the month for end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it type books. This one is much darker and edgier than the above-mentioned book, and certainly no less powerful. Rather than being isolated in one small area, this book actually takes us with a father and his young son southward down “The Road,” where they hope to eventually come to the sea, somewhere warm, somewhere they can find a place with a little safety and food and shelter. The earth is scorched and scarred, polluted and burnt and almost devoid of life, save for small wandering bands of humans who scavenge what little remains of the former lives of the human race, including, sometimes, the humans themselves. Pushing a shopping cart with a few dented cans of food retrieved from who knows where along the way, a tarp for shelter and a few other odds and ends, The Man and The Boy traverse The Road, encountering few others—and those they do encounter are seldom benevolent. Near-starving, with the man wracked with a worsening bloody cough, the pistol with two bullets in it that The Man carries in his pocket weighs heavily on his heart and mind. Suicide is contemplated often, as well as the question of whether he’ll be able to put the boy out of his misery when the time comes as well. He doesn’t really see any point to it, but they keep plodding onward. The book is, in many ways, raw pain and hurt and really should be more depressing than it ultimately ends up being. I expected to weep, whatever the ending might be, but I didn’t. Another definite possibility for my top ten of the year list. A+
10. WEDNESDAY’S CHILD by Peter Robinson. Sixth DCI Alan Banks British police procedural mystery set in Yorkshire. A seven-year-old girl is abducted from her mother’s Eastvale home by a man and a woman posing as social workers, and the race is on for Banks and his crew to find her before she turns up dead. Having two people in on such an abduction is unusual, since pedophiles generally work alone, so Jenny Fuller, psychologist, is once again called in on the case to advise the police on what they might be looking for. A couple of days later, an ex-con working as a gardener to one of the local ‘country estate’ owners turns up dead in an old mine, disemboweled and slit stem to stern and Alan must take his attention away from Gemma Scupham’s case to find Carl Johnson’s murderer. When some odd coincidences make it seem that the two cases are somehow related, the clues start stacking up and it’s a furious race to the finish. Excellent entry in this series, possibly the best one so far. None of the things that sometimes annoy me about Alan did in this book. Whether that was just my mood or whether the author had actually toned down those things (for one thing, the constant and repeated descriptions of Alan and his co-workers smoking and drinking) enough that I didn’t notice them, I don’t know, but I enjoyed it! A.
11. MORE THAN PETTICOATS: REMARKABLE MINNESOTA WOMEN by Bonnye E. Stuart. Brief biographies of a dozen or so women who were important in the history of Minnesota, beginning back in the 1840’s when it was just a frontier territory to more ‘modern’ post-WWII history. I was vaguely familiar with about half the women in the book, the others I’d never heard of, so certainly a lot of knowledge was gleaned and absorbed, but I did find this book a bit dry; it felt like recitations of the women’s accomplishments and didn’t really allow you to get to ‘know’ the women. This is one reason I prefer historical fiction to historical ‘non-fiction’ books—more speculation is allowed into people’s motivations, more insight into their character rather than just ‘this is what they did when.’ This is the second book in this series I’ve read, and I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous one, which was about Washington state. C+
12. FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE by Rhys Bowen. Third in the Molly Murphy historical mystery series featuring a young Irish immigrant in early 1900’s New York. Molly is struggling to make it as a private investigator, having appropriated her former boss’s business—since he’s dead, he really can’t complain about it, and no family has stepped forward to claim the business or his money. She’s finding it difficult, since women don’t have the same freedoms men do, and she’s dragged off to jail several times by constables who are often bribed off and just as corrupt as the criminals they’re supposed to be arresting. Molly takes a job as a garment worker to try to ferret out for the boss of the company who’s stealing designs from him and selling them to another company, and the horrible working conditions she experiences sparks a desire to help organize the workers. She also takes on a missing persons case, a young English woman who ran off with her father’s stable worker, a charming Irish fellow, and sailed to America. The two cases soon intersect, and Molly finds herself in the middle of the fray, getting noticed by the Eastman gang, being rescued from jail by Captain Daniel Sullivan, the policeman she’s fallen in love with but cannot have as he’s betrothed to a young lady of ‘good birth’ and will not break the engagement for fear of hurting his chances of promotion in his job. Molly also meets another interesting young man, a photographer who is working on the side of organizing trade unions. Jacob, a young Jewish man, seems interested in her, and she is caught between the two trying to decide what to do. (Typical! This ‘torn between two lovers’ thing better not carry on book after book or I’m going to be steamed. LOL) I do enjoy this series, though Molly seems to do some awfully stupid things at times, ‘fiercely independent woman’ or no. I enjoy her supporting characters as well, and the settings and mysteries are also interesting. Looking forward to the next in series. A.
13. HEN’S TEETH by Manda Scott. First in the Kellen Stewart mystery series set in Glasgow, Scotland and surrounding countryside, with our protagonist being a doctor, a therapist and a lesbian. This book is one of my TBR Challenge Books that’s been sitting on my shelf for a long time, at least a couple of years. When Kellen is called in the middle of the night by an old friend to inform her that Bridget, her former lover, has been found dead, supposedly of a heart attack at the age of forty-one, Kellen reluctantly drives to their farm to sit with her friend and support her during the police questioning. There she learns that not only is Bridget dead, but her brother Malcolm, who had been Kellen’s mentor in medical school, died of the (apparent) same cause a couple of months previously while Kellen was out of the country. Malcolm had turned from doing medical work to genetic research and soon the mystery surrounding what he was working on with Bantam chickens seems to be at the center of the mystery. Kellen calls on her old friend Lee Adams, a thoroughly free spirited rebel who also happens to be a pathologist at the local hospital, to help investigate. I enjoyed the book and really like the main character and her cronies, but I was a little puzzled at first, as there seemed to be some backstory that I just wasn’t getting or that was possibly edited out or something, and it left me feeling a bit scattered, though that settled down eventually. Quite an interesting mystery as well as a thriller as Kellen and Lee finally learn just who is behind the whole chicken caper and nearly get themselves killed in the process. Very enjoyable read, and I’ve already ordered the next book in the series. B+
14. THE FAITHFUL SPY by Alex Berenson. Modern-day thriller/spy novel, I believe it’s first in a series and features rogue CIA agent John Wells. John was sent to Iran to attempt to turn spies for work infiltrating the Taliban and al Quaeda, and ended up a terrible failure at recruitment, but he did manage to become a member of al Quaeda himself. Living abroad in the rough for years, speaking mainly Arabic but fluent in several other languages, initially going through the motions of the Muslim religion and eventually even converting, John is outraged at the way the fundamentalist extremists have twisted what he sees as a beautiful religion for their own purposes. He has not been able to get a message ‘home’ in a long, long time and is assumed by many to be dead, and is even forgotten by all but a few. Eventually he is accepted by the people he lives and works with as a leader of a small band of guerillas, and is even summoned to meet Sheikh bin Laden, though nothing important seems to come of it. He learned about 9/11 well after the fact, not having a clue that it was coming to pass, and seems to have not done anything really ‘useful’ for his agency or country, living a meager subsistence sort of life fighting minor skirmishes in the mountains. That is, until one day he is summoned from his group, sent back to the United States on a false passport and told to wait for contact. He travels to Montana to see his family, and his ex-wife alerts the CIA, who haul him in and treat him like a traitor. He knows that al Quaeda has been planning something. Something big. But he has no idea what and has no useful information. Eventually he escapes—or is allowed to escape?—and disappears, waiting for contact from Omar Khadri, the ‘big cheese’ of al Quaeda’s North American operations. It’s been a long time since I read a real honest-to-goodness spy novel, and most of those that I read in the past were seriously outdated…Russian spies, Cold War type of stuff. This was waaaaaay too real and plausible and kept me right on the edge of my seat up til the end. Very well written with a believable main character, I will definitely continue reading in this series. Quite different from anything I’ve read in recent months, a nice change of pace. A.
15. THE DEAD SURVIVORS by K.J. Erickson. Second in the Marshall “Mars” Bahr police procedural series set in Minneapolis. Mars is a Special Investigator assigned to a unique task force that only handles homicides not gang- or drug-related. Business has been a little slow and there are concerns that the creation of the group is a waste of time and money. This book starts with Mars being asked by a patrolman that he’d had contact with on a previous case to look at a death that was written off as a suicide by the patrolman’s Sergeant. Some things just didn’t ‘sit right’ and after only a short time investigating, Mars’ infamous gut feelings are leading him to the same conclusion, and a homicide investigation is opened fairly shortly afterwards. The investigation leads to connections to another murder in Wisconsin, and a possible serial killer who seems to be killing people who had ancestors who were tied to a Civil War battle, but just how they’re connected, how the killer is choosing them and of course who the killer is remain unanswered questions. How to investigate properly without alarming millions of people is a big consideration, and the whole investigation is complicated by the fact that Mars ends up in hospital with appendicitis and has surgery and by the fact that it’s the Christmas holidays. Who can be expected to evoke much cooperation with other agencies during the holidays? As some of you know, the Civil War is not one of my favorite time periods but while there was a strong tie-in to the Battle of Gettysburg, most of the action was firmly in the present time and the storyline kept me thoroughly enthralled. I liked this book better than the first in series and am looking forward to the next one. A.
16. DEATH AND RESTORATION by Iain Pears. Sixth (and second to last) in the Jonathan Argyll “art history” mysteries. Big changes are afoot at the Art Theft Squad and Flavia needs to choose whether to join her boss Bottando on an international task force or to take over the day-to-day running of the Art Theft Squad. She’s a hands-on type of person and doesn’t relish sitting behind a desk, though the more regular hours would make it possible to spend more time with Jonathan. The Squad gets a tip that there is to be a theft at a local Abbey, but that particular institution has nothing of real value so they are puzzled as to what a thief would want. But when a rather notorious thief named Mary Verney is spotted entering Rome, Flavia assigns her to be watched closely. But that doesn’t stop a small icon at the abbey from being stolen right out from under their noses—and the head of the abbey is clonked on the head and severely injured as well. Is the loud-mouthed American restorer working on another picture in the abbey to blame? Or did Mary Verney slip out of their surveillance? Or is an unknown factor involved? I really enjoy this series—I always learn a bit about the art world, and enjoy both Jonathan and Flavia and their relationship and the supporting cast, too. The author also often will manage to surprise me a bit and this book was no exception. One more left in the series, then that’s it! Bummer! A.
17. BIRDS OF A FEATHER by Jacqueline Winspear. Second in the Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series, set in post-WWI England. It’s been over a year since I read the first in series, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I don’t know why I put off reading this one for so long. Maisie is hired to find a young woman who’s left her home without notice—she is over thirty years old and has a history of doing such things, so no one is terribly worried, but her controlling father wants her back. When Maisie learns that Charlotte Waite is connected to another young woman recently murdered, she begins investigating in earnest. Meanwhile, she also must deal with the cocaine addiction of her beloved assistant, Billy Beale, and the recuperation of her father from a serious accident in which he is severely injured during the foaling of Lady Rowan’s favorite horse. I enjoyed the book a lot and certainly was compelled to keep on reading, though I did figure out the culprit about midway through when a couple of major clues were dropped in our laps. One thing I did find annoying though was that Maisie didn’t share some important details with Detective Inspector Stratton but then in her own mind chided him for taking a wrong turn in the investigation. Perhaps if he had all the information he may have actually listened to you, silly girl! Also annoying was the appearance of another possible love interest for Maisie (to offset Stratton) and which one she chose to dine with was left dangling as a cliffhanger for the next book. Perhaps I’ve just had my fill of female historical fiction characters semi-smitten with their policemen or something, but when I read the next book, it won’t be because I want to know which it was. I could care less! I love the way Winspear is able to set the historical scene (although, again, this is NOT my favorite time period! LOL) and I enjoy Maisie and the supporting cast of interesting characters, so despite the minor annoyances I most certainly enjoyed the book and will be reading onward. A-.
18, TAKEOVER by Lisa Black. ARC for review, due for release next month (August) I believe. This is a thriller featuring forensic scientist Teresa McLean, who lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. Teresa is processing a crime scene in the wee hours of the morning, a man found dead outside his home with his head bashed in. No one likes being up in the middle of the night, but at least Teresa gets to work with her fiancé, Paul, who’s a detective with the Cleveland police force. But how quickly things can change. A few hours later, Teresa is called and told that Paul is one of the hostages in a stand-off at the Federal Reserve Bank—where he had gone to question the co-workers of the murdered man only to be accosted by a couple of would-be bank robbers. Coincidence? Not very likely. Tess arrives at the scene—or where the negotiations will be conducted, in a building across the street—and must maintain her professional demeanor in a very stressful situation—a situation that only becomes more stressful as the hours wear on. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to like the book; we were virtually thrown into the story almost immediately with very little backstory or explanation. But this was indeed quite a ‘thrilling’ book—I was compelled to read it almost in one sitting. The writing style is very appealing; it’s clear and easy to read. However, I did figure out the plot twist way ahead of time—the clues were way too clearly broadcast so that when the entire situation was finally revealed, it was very much of a relief—I was certain that everyone who was ‘investigating’ in the book must be really stupid or something! Figuring out the mystery ahead of time in a cozy mystery isn’t really such a big deal, but in a “thriller,” it certainly works better if there is a big surprise at the end. Aside from making the solution too obvious, the other flaw I saw was lack of character development. I tend to be a reader of series books, and depth of character is even more important in those type of books than plotting—at least for me. I’m not sure if the author is intending to make this into a series or if it’s a ‘one-off’ book, but if there are more books with Tess to come, I would advise spending a bit more time on getting the reader to care about her, to let us really know her. Despite everything she went through in this book, I still found her to be a bit two-dimensional, even at the end. That was part of the problem I had with being thrown headfirst into the story—I really didn’t care at all about Teresa at that point. The forensic bits were interesting, certainly. And it was a good story. It would’ve been better with a bit more flesh on its bones, though. There is much promise here and I hope the author continues to write--I will be looking for more from her for certain. B.
19. THE ST. JOHN’S FERN by Kate Sedley. #9 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery in which a newly-married Roger heads off to Plymouth, directed there by one of his dreams, and sure enough, finds a mystery that needs solving. Oliver Capstick was murdered in his home about five months ago, and everyone knows the culprit—his nephew, Beric Gifford. They had argued heatedly the day before and he was seen both coming and going from the uncle’s home, even to the point of having a dark stain on his tunic on his way out. But no one, including the Sheriff’s posse, can find him, despite searching not only the countryside, known haunts and his manor estate. Everyone thinks he took St. John’s Fern, a flower that legend says can make a person disappear. Roger is a bit skeptical of course, though isn’t one to totally discount the supernatural. His travels lead him over the countryside to several villages and to Beric’s home of Villetort Manor in search of the young man or at least a search for some clue as to w here he’s gone. I always enjoy this series, even though I thought the solution to the mystery in this one was quite obvious right from the beginning. In fact, I wanted to clunk Roger over the head with the oh-so-simple clues, but I let him off easily since he was a newlywed and likely to be a bit muddled. LOL Anyway, another wonderful foray into 1400’s England; I wish these weren’t so difficult to find—I always have to order them from my library and I hate giving them back. A
20. ACQUA ALTA by Donna Leon #5 Commissario Guido Brunetti police procedural set in Venice, Italy. Guido starts out investigating the assault of Brett Lynch, an American archaeologist/pottery expert who is in Venice visiting her lover, one of the opera singers who was featured in Leon’s first book, Death at La Fenice. Brett is threatened and told not to attend a meeting she had set up with a local museum director to discuss some antiquities that had been in a display from China that she’d spearheaded a couple of years earlier—which she now discovers are fake. There are also some derogatory comments made about her lesbianism by the thugs who beat her up, so she isn’t sure just why she was attacked. When the museum director ends up dead, the necessity of finding the connection intensifies, and Guido digs and investigates while out of doors, Mother Nature provides the usual annual onslaught of ‘acqua alta’ or the torrential winter rains that cause severe flooding throughout the city. I love this series—the characters, the setting, the food, the poetic prose…the only part of these books that sometimes annoys me is the constant background presence of the Mafia, and this book that featured rather heavily. It seems sometimes that it’s just too convenient and too pat a solution to whatever problem is presented. But I still loved it! A
DNF: MAGICAL HEARTH: HOME FOR THE MODERN PAGAN by Janet Thompson. I struggled through about 20 pages, but there were numerous typographical and/or spelling and word form/grammatical errors that made it impossible for me to read. In addition, the information that was provided in the little that I read was poorly organized and widely scattered. Perhaps someone else will find it useful--I'll be passing it along via PBS.
Up next: I'm making my way through PAGAN EVERY DAY: FINDING THE EXTRAORDINARY IN OUR ORDINARY LIVES by Barbara Ardinger. This will likely take me several weeks or months as it's a daily meditative type thing filled with short, page-long essays about different topics. I'll be starting August off with ANOTHER MAN'S MOCCASINS by Craig Johnson.
Cheryl
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