1. LOVE IS THE BOND by M.R. Sellars. #6 Rowan Gant Investigation, in which the dominatrix Mistress Miranda makes her first appearance. In this book, it's Rowan's wife Felicity who is vulnerable to negative energies/spirits as she begins channeling the spirit of Miranda, with her personality and even her soft Irish lilt changing to Miranda's southern accent. Rowan is troubled, wondering whether the body of his wife in possession of Miranda is the one who brutally murdered her sex slaves or if she is just soaking up those energies enough to change her from the loving wife he knows to a prickly, domineering sex kitten that he doesn't. It's always a pleasure to read books that treat the Pagan/Wiccan paths as real and valid and not necessarily 'paranormal' although I have to say in these most recent books, it does seem a bit over the top--which the author admits himself. There's little charm of the first few books with the details of Pagan beliefs & celebrations, assisting friends from their coven, etc. This is mostly just running from one problem to the next, Rowan with his headaches and Felicity getting weirder as Miranda takes over her personality. I'm gong to keep reading, as I have the next three books in the series here, but this has ceased to become one of my favorites. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I prefer a book/series with a little more substance and a little less gratuitous sax & violins. :) I've also come to dislike books that end on a cliffhanger where you have to read on to the next book to know what happens. Progression in a series is fine, but each book should have a story that wraps up at the end too. C+
2. HARDWARE by Linda Barnes. #6 Carlotta Carlyle mystery. Winter's approaching in Boston, and someone is beating up cab drivers. Carlotta, who drives cab part time to help pay the bills when her PI business doesn't do well enough (which is most of the time) is approached by two different people to investigate--an official in the local Hackneys association, and her boss and friend Gloria, who is part owner of G&W cabs. Gloria isn't sure whether someone is targeting just her small company or cab drivers in general, and can't quite figure out what they would stand to gain by intimidating drivers. Is it something personal or something to do with the politics of the cab medallions--the license issued by the city to own and run a cab, of which there are a fixed number. Meanwhile, Carlotta's on-again, off-again lover Sam Gianelli, son of a mob boss though not involved in mob business himself, has been spending a lot of time away from Boston in recent weeks and Carlotta's wondering why. Sam owns the other half of G&W, and would prefer that she not investigate at all, which also puzzles her. He also insists that she needs to get into the computer age and introduces her to an old friend who gets her set up with a state of the art system for next to nothing. Once again, Carlotta's puzzled as to the motivation for this move. I've come to really enjoy this series a lot and this one was quite enjoyable with an ending I didn't expect and more plot twists than I could count. Very much looking forward to the next in the series. A.
3. SCARED TO LIVE by Stephen Booth. #7 Ben Cooper/Diane Fry police procedural mystery set in the Peak District of the UK. Two major cases are plaguing the local cop shop--a house fire that killed a mother and her two children, determined later to be arson, and thus murder, and the professional-style killing of a sixty-ish reclusive woman in a small neighboring village. No one really knew Rose Shepherd, as she'd moved in just 10 months previously and 'kept herself to herself' as they say. Her history and paper trail was very brief, but Ben Cooper knows if he can find out where the enigmatic woman came from and who she was, he will find a motive for her murder. Diane concentrates on the fire, believing that if she can solve such a grisly, heart-wrenching crime, it will be a big feather in her cap towards promotion. Ben is in the beginnings of a relationship with a crime scene technician, Liz Petty, and also has to deal with his brother Matt's worries about the inheritability of schizophrenia, which their mother suffered from badly. I really like this series--the author does a great job of setting the scene in the beautiful Peak District, and I quite enjoy Ben Cooper's character. Diane Fry bugs the hell out of me, but she is at least consistently done. The one thing that I find sets my teeth on edge is that the dialogue at times sounds stilted and unnatural, the characters using each others' names in conversation when they are the only ones in the room and could only be talking to each other, for example. Who does that? But aside from that one flaw, Booth's stories always read and flow easily, although I figured the ending plot twist out about 2/3 of the way through so it wasn't much of a surprise. A-.
4. A MURDEROUS PROCESSION by Ariana Franklin (AUDIO) #4 "Mistress of the Art of Death" mystery featuring female physician Adelia Aguilar in 12th C. England. This time, after a two-year hiatus, Adelia is sent to France by King Henry II--who is essentially keeping her daughter Ally hostage with his wife Eleanor to ensure that Adelia does as she is asked--to accompany his daughter Joanna and her wedding party. Of course, he has a secret motive aside from sending a physician to look after Joanna's health--he wants her to keep an eye on Excalibur, the sword they rescued from Glastonbury Tor in the last book. He's hidden it in a plain looking relic but knows that any number of people seek it and the power they believe it wields, including his brothers. So Adelia, Monsur (her Moorish assistant, who must pose as the doctor because women aren't allowed to practice medicine in medieval England) her lover and Ally's father (Bishop Rowley) and a host of others cross the channel. What Adelia doesn't realize is that Scarry, an evil man from a previous book who is stark raving mad and bent on revenge, travels with her and seeks nothing more than her downfall and death. Skillfully read by Jill Tanner with a variety of accents and a good pace and tone, the audio version was quite enjoyable to listen to, although I think this one meandered a bit more than the others have. and I found myself getting impatient at the detours, some of which seemed totally unnecessary. I'm also a little dismayed at the romance hum that's kicking up in the background. *sigh* B.
5. MENDOZA IN HOLLYWOOD by Kage Baker. #3 in the "Company" series, which is a time-traveling sci-fi fantasy series set pretty much everywhere in history. Mendoza, a botanist, travels through time collecting plant specimens that are going to become extinct to save them in a repository for Dr. Zeus, Inc., aka The Company, an all-powerful entity from some time in the future. Human children, usually orphaned, are chosen and made into immortal cyborg-types and perform these various feats for the Company all over the world in various times. Mendoza is in 1863 in this book, in the place where Hollywood will eventually be built. Encamped with several other Company staff in the still-desolate Hollywood Hills, Mendoza comes across a man who is a dead ringer for her former mortal lover, Nicholas Harpole. This man proves to be a British spy who is attempting to take over Catalina Island for some reason. Since Mendoza already knows what happens in the future, and since history cannot be changed, she knows that he never becomes famous and that England's attempted takeover fails--but she has to live through it to find out how and just what happened. Disobeying Company orders to help him, she puts herself in mortal danger although she knows this is a misnomer because she is immortal. The book is Mendoza telling her story under the influence of Theobromos (chocolate) which is akin to a mind-altering drug for the immortals. I enjoy this unconventional time travel series and was very sorry to hear that the author died earlier this year of cancer. Now I will have to portion the rest of the series books out to make them last! A.
6. DRAMA COMES TO PRIOR'S FORD by Eve Houston. #2 in the Prior's Ford series, which is what I'd call a sort of cozy-ish Scottish village soap opera. Set in the fictional village of Prior's Ford, the series is about the live of various villagers--their ups and downs, joys and sorrows and struggles through life. In this book, a famous actress rents Willow Cottage for a year (while the newly-widowed owner is on a year-long trip around the world.) Meredith Whitelaw is "resting" away from the London spotlight after having been killed off in a TV series, and gets involved with the Prior's Ford amateur drama group to the delight of some and the dismay of others. Jenny Forsyth and her husband Andrew take in Jenny's long lost stepdaughter Maggie when her aging grandfather becomes ill and her grandmother must devote all her energy towards nursing him. Helen Campbell starts a new career as an "agony aunt" for a local newspaper. Fliss and Hector Ralston-Kerr begin using the money they were given last book to get their manor home in repair and working for the first time in years. This isn't the sort of book I normally read and was surprised at the end of the first one how much I'd enjoyed it. This one was much the same. At times cheesy and too-sweet, yet very endearing; a nice, calming read which makes a welcome change from some of the bloody, harsh mysteries I read. Looking forward to the next one! A.
7. THEREBY HANGS A TAIL by Spencer Quinn. (AUDIO) #2 Chet and Bernie mystery, Chet being a dog and Bernie his person, a down-on-his-luck PI in Arizona. The Little Detective Agency (Bernie's last name is Little) is thrown a bone by a local cop friend, doing bodyguard work for a woman and her valuable dog who is set to appear in a major dog show. The woman has received a threat against Princess, but after meeting Bernie, unshaven and hungover, and Chet, very much a mutt, the Countess Adelina declines to hire them. Within a few hours, both Princess and Adelina have been abducted, followed shortly by Bernie's sometime-girlfriend, reporter Suzy Sanchez. The whole world of dog shows and competition is foreign ground to Bernie, and he just can't imagine someone risking kidnapping charges to put the doggie competition out of the way, so he and Chet seek employment from Adelina's husband, an Italian Count who seems more worried about his dog than his wife. Because of Suzy's involvement, they would be on the case anyway, but money is always tight so someone bankrolling expenses would be a good thing. As they look into those who would stand to gain if Princess and Adelina were out of the way, Bernie finds the puzzle pieces just aren't fitting together right. Are one or more of the Count's employees involved? A rival dog owner? Or even some corrupt cops? Told from Chet's point of view, this is a delightful narration of the story, and still 'works' although with this one I did notice a fair bit of repetition of phrases as Chet describes his state of mind, how he 'almost was remembering' or 'didn't know what that meant, but...' So I do think the author needs to be careful with the next one in the series not to make it too much of the same thing. But I definitely did enjoy this one! A.
8. THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING by Nancy Pickard. Jody Linder has spent the last 23 years learning over and over that it doesn't pay to get too happy, because happiness is always followed by events that will snatch it away. Her father was murdered during a violent thunderstorm when Jody was three years old, and her mother disappeared, her body never found. Everyone knows it was Billy Crosby, local drunk and wife-beater, who killed them, revenge for perceived slights from Jody's grandfather, the big money rancher in rural Henderson County, Kansas. And he's been sitting in prison for 23 years, convicted of Hugh-Jay Linder's murder. He never would tell where Laurie's body was buried and Jody obsesses that perhaps her mother is alive somewhere out there still. And now, Billy Crosby has been released, his sentence commuted because there were some irregularities with the investigation--evidence not reported, brought up for review by Collin, Billy's son who has become a lawyer. Jody and her whole family--her grandparents, uncles--indeed, the whole town of Rose is in shock. When Jody actually begins talking to people, she realizes that some of the townspeople--including her current lover--have doubts about Billy's guilt in the murder and that everyone has protected her from these doubts ever surfacing over the years. Now her entire world seems to be unraveling, and Jody's just not sure where her life is headed. I really, really loved this book--it was virtually unputdownable--until the last fifty pages or so. I can't say more without spoiling it, but the ending was so disappointing, cobbled together and...well, lame for lack of a better word, that it dragged my impression of the book down immensely. B-
9. THE HAND OF JUSTICE by Susanna Gregory. #10 Matthew Bartholomew medieval mystery in which the Cambridge scholar/physician becomes the official Corpse Examiner for the University, specifically for Brother Michael, the senior proctor. More physicians have come to Cambridge, easing the pressure on Matt so he no longer needs to run here and there treating everyone and struggle to do his teaching at Michaelhouse college. A war is heating up in Cambridge--aside from the usual "town and gown" conflicts, there are rival mills vying for business. When two bodies are found mangled in the wheels of one of them, it's believed at first to be a horrible accident, but Matt in his role as corpse examiner finds that each body has a nail rammed into the mouth and up into the brain, which was the cause of death. The two were locked in the mill and there was no one else there, so how did they die? Matt and Michael both are convinced that two young men who had been convicted of murder but received a pardon from the King and were released have something to do with it--but how to accuse them without being charged with treason themselves--for surely to question the King's judgment is treason. Before long, other bodies and attempted attacks muddy the waters further as the author takes us on another long and convoluted trek through medieval Cambridge with all the political and religious posturing. Truly, these books seem to get longer and more twisty with each one, and I find myself skimming quite a lot because they just get off track and too wordy. I love the characters and the author's sense of place and time, but they could easily be at least a hundred pages shorter (each is about 500 pages of small print) without losing any of the story. B.
10. SEEKING THE DEAD by Kate Ellis. #1 Joe Plantagenet police procedural set in the fictional Eborby in Yorkshire, UK. Joe is a DI who has suffered a number of losses in his relatively young life--widowhood only a few months after marrying, his cop partner Kevin's death in a shooting that also injured Joe. A serial killer seems to be on the loose, one who is particularly cruel--abducting his victim, restraining them, putting them in a coffin and letting them suffocate to death--and then displaying them in a rural churchyard location. Joe and his new boss, DCI Emily Thwaite, can't seem to find a connection between the victims, but a secondary case involving a pub frequented by Goths and suspected of being the site of black magic rituals seems to tie in somehow. Joe receives a call from Kevin's widow in Leeds, asking him to check in on their daughter Carmel, who unwittingly plays a role in the investigation. Joe doesn't know Emily very well yet, but he senses that she is troubled, and he's right--the DCI is carrying a rather dark secret of her own. Excellent first in series with engaging characters, interesting historical features tied in to the current-day investigation, adept plotting and a good pace with a balance of character development and casework. Very much looking forward to the next in series and will definitely have to try the author's other series as well! A.
11. A PRAYER FOR THE DAMNED by Peter Tremayne. The umpteenth in the Sister Fidelma series set in 7th c. Ireland. Fidelma and Eadulf's wedding ceremony is postponed by the murder of an odious abbot who had come to Cashel specifically to protest their wedding, being a proponent of the Roman way of thinking which demands celibacy for the Christian religious. But Ireland has no such rules, and Rome does not have an official ban on marriage among the religious either--and Abbot Ultan had other reasons for being among the highest ranking political and religious people in the land, all gathered together at Cashel. But before he can make much more than a stir, he is stabbed to death and Fidelma, who is also a high-ranking lawyer besides being a religieux, is asked by the man accused of the crime to defend him. While Fidelma can find no one with a kind word to say about Ultan and motives are everywhere, no one but her client was seen leaving the abbot's room minutes before his death. As usual, Fidelma and Eadulf work together to solve the crime, and of course more bodies join the abbot's along the way before Fidelma reveals all at the end. Enjoyable visit to Cashel as always, if somewhat predictable. B+
12. BLACKLANDS by Belinda Bauer. (AUDIO) In this stand-alone mystery, Steven Lamb, an unhappy twelve-year-old boy living in a small town in Somerset, UK, spends his spare time digging up the nearby moors. He's hoping to find the body of his uncle Billy, whom he's never met because Billy disappeared 19 years previously when he was just eleven. Presumed to be the victim of a notorious serial killer/pedophile, Billy is sill mourned by his mother and sister--Steven's gran and mother, with whom he lives a miserable existence, Billy's disappearance coloring everything in their lives a dull gray. He thinks that finding Billy's body will give the adults in his life a sense of closure and allow them to actually get on with being a normal family. Arnold Avery, stuck away in Longmoor prison, has never admitted to Billy's abduction and killing as he has six of the others, so Steven, who's been doing a lot of reading about serial killers, undertakes to write him and simply ask--but must play a cat-and-mouse game to get his letters through the censors who read the letters to and from prisoners. Avery, who has spent years making nice so he can hope for some sort of parole, has his interest piqued by the letters written by "S.L" and is glad for something to occupy his thoughts and time. As events begin spiraling out of Steven's control, the ending seems to be a bit inevitable, but leaves you sitting on the edge of your proverbial seat just the same. Told from the point of view of both Steven and Arnold Avery, this is not a book for the squeamish or faint of heart. But it's very well done, and excellently read, too. I hope to read more by this author in the future! A.
13. LABYRINTH by Kat Richardson. #5 Harper Blaine paranormal mystery set in and around Seattle and magical environs. Harper is learning more about herself, her connection to the shadowy world of the Grey--that in-between place where mythical and magical and ghostly beings reside--and also about her father, his death and his role in her current state as a Greywalker. Returning from London and barely having time to drop her suitcase, Harper is chucked into a state of high alarm with Edward, the head vampire in the city having been kidnapped, and Wygan, the Pharaohn of another type of vampire, setting traps for not only Harper, but some other Grey characters she would prefer not to have to deal with. But she finds she must cooperate with them to find out what she needs to know and bring Wygan down once and for all while still keeping her boyfriend Quinton and her other mortal friends safe, too. Action-packed, careening from one crisis to the next and with a cliff-hanger ending, I found it sometimes confusing and difficult to keep up with everything in this book, partly due to Harper's new abilities and status in the Grey, I think. It would have been nice to have more of a break from the action with some rest for Harper and a chance to get to know her human side better. The last two books were great, but I kind of feel like I lost the thread somewhat in this one. B.
14. TIN CITY by David Housewright. #2 Mac MacKenzie mystery set in and around the Twin Cities, MN. Mac works as a private investigator but due to having his own financial resources, often takes cases without a paying client. In this book, Mr. Mosley, and old friend of his father's, asks him to look into what could be causing the demise of the honeybees in his hives. Mac hires a research assistant to a friend of his at the University to go out and take soil samples--and when she ends up getting shot at by an unknown farmer, Mac pays the farm a visit and ends up embroiled in a case of a rogue mafia don and a rogue FBI agent having a power struggle. The problem is, Mac's friends end up getting in the crossfire, with Mr. Mosley dead and his lawyer's wife attacked. Determine to find the man who killed Mr. Mosley and bring him to justice, Mac passes himself off as a journalist from South Dakota doing a story on the city of Hilltop, a small enclave that seceded from the suburb of Columbia Heights. The FBI agent resides there temporarily and Mac wants to find out what he is up to in the hopes that he will be led to the mafia guy, whom he believes is responsible for Mr. Mosley's death. As much as I enjoy the writing style and the wonderful local color and ambiance, I find this story, much like the first in this series, to be too fantastical to be believed. Far too many coincidences, and the main character has an almost super-hero list of friends who will go to no end of trouble to do very big, very strange favors for him. I mean, it's almost laughable at times, and I found myself snorting and mumbling, "yeah, right!" because it was one extremely-unlikely situation after another. Still, I did mostly enjoy it and liked the little history lesson about Hilltop as well. B.
15. BREWED, CRUDE AND TATTOOED by Sandra Balzo. In this great fourth Maggy Thorsen 'coffee house' mystery, an unexpected spring snowstorm leaves Maggy and several other tenants from the strip mall where her coffee shop Uncommon Grounds is located totally stranded and cut off from the outside world. So when the owner of the mall, Way Benson, is found stabbed in the back and his head mutilated by a snowblower, the suspect list is pretty small, since the opportunity for an outsider to have done it is minimal. Maggy, who's already seen her share of dead bodies, starts asking questions, trying to think like her boyfriend, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, who is nowhere around. Just about everyone who knew Way had good reason to hate the man, but trying to find someone who had not only motive but means and opportunity as well isn't going to be easy. And things get even more complicated when Way's ex-wife is also killed. I am really enjoying this series a lot. It's cozy, but an edgy, funky kind of cozy where 'adult themes' and the occasional four-letter word aren't swept under the rug. Maggy has a wicked sense of humor and I find myself liking her very much--she's sort of a fish out of water, since the suburb she lives in is a gossipy, high-class enclave and Maggy is struggling to make ends meet and isn't so worried about what the Joneses think of her. I think I especially liked this entry in the series because the boyfriend wasn't around so the romancey bits which I often find annoying weren't there at all in this one. I have to admit that the little bit of 'love interest' in this series isn't ever intrusive though, and it doesn't take over the whole story line, so kudos to the author for that, too! A mystery that's actually a mystery instead of a romance in disguise! Imagine that! A.
16. MEDICUS by Ruth Downie. #1 in the Gaius Petreius Ruso historical mystery series set in Roman-occupied Britannia. Ruso, a recently-divorced doctor who has moved from his family home in Gaul to an army outpost in Deva (modern-day Chester, UK) and stumbles immediately into a mystery, with the dead, naked body of a young woman brought into his surgery. Most of her red hair has been lopped off, and he's curious not only about her, but about her killer. When he discovers that she was a "dancing girl" from one of the local bars and that another woman who worked there has disappeared, and no one is investigating, he takes an unofficial but widely-known interest and begins nosing around. All this while attempting to deal with long hours in his duties as a doctor/surgeon, a slave girl he purchased who has a bit of an attitude problem and is unable to do anything because of injuries that need healing, a roommate (in a rather run-down, filthy home) who is vying with him for the position of Chief Medical Officer--a job Ruso badly needs so he can send his family money and avoid their farm going under, and a host of other little problems. Poor Ruso! He's made the mistake of being someone who cares and seems to get slapped down for it time and again in a series of unfortunate events. The story is written in an engaging style with plenty of wry humor and well-developed characters. The only regret I have is that this book sat on my TBR stacks for way too long--but I am glad to have the next two waiting for me. Excellent! A+
17. KITTY GOES TO WAR by Carrie Vaughn. In this eighth series book featuring Kitty Norville, werewolf and radio talk show host, Kitty is asked by the military to help round up some soldiers who were also werewolves--members of an elite group specifically turned werewolf by their commanding officer in an attempt to develop a 'super soldier.' Recently returned from Afghanistan, now only three of the unit remain, the rest having been killed off by the dominant male, and they are headed for Denver right into Kitty and Ben's territory. Kitty hopes they can be helps, and with the help of her pack, will assess them to see if they can be rehabilitated back into society or if they are too far 'gone wolf' and would pose a danger to the public. She also is dealing with a lawsuit from the owner of a national chain of convenience stores that she is investigating, since a lot of hinky things seem to happen at those stores. Kitty's callers on The Midnight Hour keep calling with examples of weird goings-on at Speedy Marts all over the country and she (with help from Cormac, now out of prison) hopes to nail down just what Harold Franklin is up to. I enjoy this paranormal series very much--the stories have substance and aren't just thinly veiled romance/erotica in disguise but are more paranormal mystery. Kitty and Ben are married and obviously do have a sexual relationship and that's talked about both in human and werewolf terms, but it is not the focus of the stories. The writing style is smooth and easily read and the characters very engaging, too. One of my favorite series! A
CURRENT READS: THE STAR by David Skibbins, LET THE DEAD LIE by Malla Nunn in audio, A WITCH'S HALLOWEEN by Gerina Dunwich.
Cheryl
Monday, September 6, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
AUGUST 2010
1. MISSING MARK by Julie Kramer. (AUDIO) #2 Riley Spartz 'amateur sleuth' mystery set in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Riley is an investigative television reporter trying to come up with an interesting story for the upcoming "sweeps week" when ratings are even more important than usual. Perusing the want ads in the newspaper, she sees an ad that piques her interest: "For Sale: Wedding dress, never worn." Intrigued, she answers the ad on the pretense of wanting to buy the dress to learn why the bride-to-be never got to wear the dress. It turns out she was left at the altar, the groom vanishing into thin air about six months ago, and yet Riley is wondering why no one has made much of an effort to find him. She comes clean to Madeline Post, the bride, and confesses to her real purpose, and convinces her that doing the story might bring new information about where Mark, her fiance, may have gone. When Riley starts investigating, she finds a lot of interesting secrets about the groom--and the bride, and several other people. Her boss isn't really interested in the story, and wants Riley to focus on covering the kidnapping of a huge lake bass from the Underwater Adventures park at the Mall of America. A radical animal rights groups supposedly is taking credit, but that smells fishy to Riley. It's hard to get into details without giving too much away here--but suffice it to say, this was an awesome book! I am not a fan of the TV news--or news in general really, and much of the reason for that is explained in this series by the author who used to be a TV news producer herself. It's sad that so much of what passes for news is drivel designed to increase ratings rather than actually report newsworthy things. That said, I really like Riley, and the author is an obvious native to the area as the whole book is soaked with the ambiance of Minnesota. I think even if you don't know the Twin Cities, you'll still like this, though. While I guessed at the bad guy fairly early on, there were a couple of plot twists I didn't see coming at all. And I learned something too, about a subject I'd never heard of before, "face blindness." How odd! Anyway--read it! Great book! Or even listen to it like I did. The reader, Bernadette Dunn--who was a new-to-me narrator--did a spectacular job! A+
2. VEIL OF LIES by Jeri Westerson. #1 Crispin Guest "medieval noir" mystery set in 1380's England. Crispin is a fallen knight, set to be hung for being part of a treasonous plot against Richard II. He was given a last-minute reprieve; his life was spared, but he was stripped of lands, property and title and now makes a living on the mean streets of London, living hand to mouth and shunned by those of his former class. Known as 'the Tracker,' he investigates, finds things, tracks people down and cobbles together a bleak living with tiny living quarters above a tinker's shop. Despite his fall from grace, Crispin has little sympathy for those of the lower classes that he's now forced to hobnob with, and still believes he is above them, and of a better class. It's now eight years after his disgrace. When Crispin is asked by a wealthy cloth merchant to follow his wife and find out if she's cheating on him, he takes the case though it's only his empty pockets that make him do so. When he returns to report the wife's infidelity and collect payment, Crispin finds Nicholas Walcote dead--murdered by stabbing. The local sheriff is called in, and as in most private eye cases, bumbles through, making headway only by listening to Crispin's observations. When the widow--whom Crispin learns was once a chambermaid before marrying her master--wants to hire him to find a religious relic that her husband was said to have hidden, he is reluctant, but a fat coin purse persuades him otherwise--and he is intrigued by Mrs. Walcote, as well. Eventually links are shown to international trade sabotage and a plot against the government. I really enjoyed this book--the writing style was easy to read, the characters very interesting, and even though Crispin could be somewhat of a butthead at times, I ultimately liked him too. Lots of great historical detail--sometimes even a bit too much...I am not terribly interested in fashion, whether it be modern or historical, and this book did have a lot of descriptions of the clothing, which I admit to sometimes skimming a bit. Otherwise--great! A.
3. EVIL UNDER THE SUN by Agatha Christie. (AUDIO) One of the Hercule Poirot mysteries, read by David Suchet, who plays the detective in the TV series. Poirot is on holiday, at the English seaside in August. No one quite believes he's not there working on something, though. And of course when the body of beautiful former actress Arlena Stewart Marshall turns up on a deserted cove, many suspects--including her husband and her lover--come to the fore as Poirot helps the local police with their inquiries. But nearly everyone who had a motive and large enough hands to strangle her has an ironclad alibi--including being in Poirot's company at the time of the killing. So who did the dastardly deed and how? Suchet is a delightful reader, getting a variety of accents, from Poirot's himself (of course!) to various English regional accents to an American Texas drawl. No one plots a mystery better than Christie, and though I had read this book many years ago, I'd forgotten how it was done, so it was delightful to listen along as the story unfolds until finally Poirot unveils the secret at the end. Wonderful stuff, and will definitely be getting more of these to listen to. A+
4. THE FLANDERS PANEL by Arturo Perez-Reverte. A meaty, rich and literary mystery set in Spain. Julia, an art restorer, has become infatuated with the painting she's currently working on, The Game of Chess painted by one of the Flemish masters, Pieter Van Huys. (The artist is real, the painting fictional.) In the painting, two men play chess while a woman in black reads a book in the background, and Julia discovers a hidden inscription via x-ray, in Latin which translates to 'Who Killed the Knight?' Does the inscription refer to the man in the picture--a knight who was indeed killed by a crossbow some months after the painting was done--or the chess knight? Julia's intrigued by the story the painting tells and begins researching its history, when she receives a card with a chess move on it. Her friend and mentor, Cesar, an older antiquarian collector, helps her locate a chess master, Munoz, who assists Julia in replaying the chess match backwards to see if they can determine who 'took' the knight in the game. When an art historian (and former lover) Julia asked to look into the painting ends up dead in suspicious circumstances, Julia becomes frightened but also more drawn into the intrigue. I liked this story, although it was (like most heavy literary mysteries) slow-going in places, and also liked it despite the fact that I don't play chess--I think it would be much more interesting to someone who does, as the book came illustrated with diagrams of the various moves which meant essentially nothing to me. I was surprised at the ending as I had someone else altogether in mind for the bad guy, and the book was quite suspenseful as it went on. It wasn't a book I was crazy about but was quite good and filled the bill as the "something different" I was looking for when I picked it up. B+
5. THE WINDS OF CHANGE by Martha Grimes Number umpteen in Scotland Yard's Chief Superintendent Richard Jury series. Jury once again teams up with Melrose Plant--this time posing as a "turf specialist" at the estate of a wealthy man where an unknown woman was found murdered. Cmdr. Brian Macalvie has called Jury in and he goes willingly, believing there may be a connection between the murdered woman and the murder of a young girl in London. There is a question of a pedophile ring, of cases of mistaken identity, and as always, deceit and treachery. Jury is still recovering physically from the gunshot wound he suffered a few months ago, but his brain is as active as always, making connections that others don't see. I love the characters in this series--after reading so many of them, they have become dear friends, although I still find it a bit ludicrous that Jury has Melrose posing as all these weird 'specialists' in fields he knows nothing about. This mystery was actually quite intriguing and I was sucked into the story from the beginning. This was one of the better recent entries I've read--some have been rather disappointing but this was back on track, if a bit predictable. B+
6. THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by Susan Hill. First in a police procedural series set in the fictional UK town of Lafferton. Although it's billed as a "Simon Serrailler" series, we barely get to meet this Chief Inspector and nothing is told from his point of view til the very end. We spend most of our time with his new DS, Freya Graffham, newly installed, a transfer from the Metropolitan Police in London. She's looking for a little peace and quiet and time away after a brief but disastrously disheartening marriage. When the owner of a small care home for dementia patients calls in at the police station to report one of her employees missing, Freya investigates briefly and gets a feeling that something is 'off' about the disappearance. When a second person, a young depressed girl also vanishes, her boss gives the go-ahead for a more in-depth investigation and Freya discovers several other missing people from the town that have as yet gone unexplained. They are of both sexes, a variety of ages and backgrounds, and seemingly have nothing in common. We know what's going on, as some chapters are written from the POV of the person who has taken these people--we just don't know who he is, although I did guess that about halfway through. It's still very interesting to watch Freya and her DC make the connections, often relying on intuition as to what clues are important.
The story itself is wonderful with great details about the town and surroundings, the settings, and Freya's life. There's a surprise ending that takes your breath away, and some parts of the story and some characters that don't have a whole lot of connection to the main problem, but are interesting nonetheless. What threw me off is the publisher's calling this the "Serrailler" series...for unless we actually get to see Simon Serrailler in action more next time, to me it would be best just called the Lafferton series, as we're introduced to many other characters that we know much better than Simon. Although he's intriguing, he's still nothing more than a cardboard cutout of a character at this point. A.
7. A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD by Julia Spencer-Fleming. #2 Rev. Clare Fergusson/Sheriff Russ Van Alstyne mystery set in Miller's Kill, NY. When the local medical examiner is badly beaten up, followed by savage beating to a video store owner, Clare begins to suspect the attacks as hate crimes against homosexuals and is frustrated when Russ won't alert the public to be extra wary. Russ fears the public panicking, or other hate mongers perpetrating copycat crimes. But when a third man--a developer in the area to build a luxury spa complex--is killed, and Clare finds the body, in her shaken state, she makes a passionate statement to a reporter about the connections, angering Russ beyond words. She decides to redeem herself by looking more closely into the developer's dealings, and in the process does some really unbelievably stupid things, putting herself in harm's way several times. Now, I love this author's writing style. It's smooth and easy to read and the dialogue is natural and believable. I like her sense of place and I even like both Clare and Russ as individuals. The mystery I figured out fairly early on, but I often do, so that wasn't a huge problem. What I find hard to swallow are first, the continual stupid, precarious situations Clare puts herself in (a tipsy minister searching the bedroom of the host of a party she attends, who then ends up jumping out the bathroom window when he comes into the bedroom...after she's hidden there listening in on a long conversation between him and another person??) and second, the relationship between her and Russ and the continual sexual tension. If that is going to continue book to book to book, I am just plain not going to continue reading the series. He's a married man. She's a minister, and while celibacy is not a requirement of the Episcopalian church, she even says herself in this book that if a minister isn't married, chasteness is the expectation. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but there's nothing I dislike more than a hypocrite. So to continue to play up this part of the relationship to me just seems unwise and would be annoying (to me anyway) to no end. Kill off the wife or something. Have Clare leave her post. But please don't continue on as they are. Still undecided if I will continue reading or not--as I said, I like the writing. I just get really tired of romance masquerading as mystery is all. C+
8. DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER by Elizabeth Zelvin. #1 Bruce Kohler mystery. Bruce is an alcoholic who finds himself waking up from a blackout in the detox center in the Bowery in New York--which is considered to be pretty low. Especially since it's Christmas. The first couple of days go by in a fog, but Bruce remembers finding the body of an old man who was known to be dying of cancer in the laundry room at the detox. Bruce strikes up a friendship with a younger man named Godfrey Kettleworth, a moneyed man who must've fallen quite far to be where he is now--although he still teasingly introduces himself as God. Known as Guff to the few people whom he calls friend, he returns from his New Year's pass and dies a few hours later in a series of horrible convulsions as Bruce looks on. It's easy to write these deaths off as the natural sequelae of alcoholism, but things just don't seem right to Bruce. His childhood friend Jimmy (also an alcoholic, though sober now for several years) and Jimmy's girlfriend Barbara, also with addiction issues and now a counselor, have distanced themselves from Bruce and his hurtful alcoholic escapades over the years. But when he visits them, they both see something different in him and believe this time he may actually be serious about sobriety. Barbara encourages Bruce to look into the deaths of these people--and they later learn through the grapevine that there's been more deaths than usual among the detox client community in other facilities, too. But was Guff's death a personal matter relating to his many relatives that he'd alienated over the years? Bruce makes his tentative steps through sobriety in an effort to find out. Loved this book--loved the characters, the information about addiction and recovery and the real sense of place the author gives to New York. I've never been there, and don't really want to go, but she paints such a great picture of it that I feel I don't really have to! A.
9. WITCHES ABROAD by Terry Pratchett. #12 in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series, this is a re-read for me of one of my favorites in the series in which the witches--Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and Magrat Garlick (oh, and don't forget Greebo!) are off to "foreign parts" to try to stop an evil godmother from making people play parts in the usual fairy tales. Hilarious and yet with plenty of poignant observation about life (and DEATH) as usual. Wonderful! A++ as always.
10. HOLLY BLUES by Susan Wittig Albert. #18 in the China Bayles "herb shop" mystery series. Pecan Springs is getting ready for Christmas, and China is glad to see an upswing in business at Thyme & Seasons. The poor economy has hit small businesses hard, especially businesses that sell non-essential items, so belts are beginning to tighten a bit in the McQuaid-Bayles household. They are also adjusting to having China's niece whom she and Mike have adopted since the death of her half-brother. This will be Kate's first Christmas with them, and China wants it to be special. So obviously when Mike's crazy ex-wife Sally--mother to Brian, his teenage son--shows up at the shop, China's not thrilled. Still, in the spirit of the season, she invites Sally, who is once again down on her luck and in trouble, to stay with them over the holiday--much to McQuaid's displeasure. When China makes the invitation, she doesn't realize just how MUCH trouble Sally is in--but of course she finds out before too long. I started out listening to the audio version of this book and had to set it aside after about 5 chapters and switch to the print version, which I thankfully had on hand. The reader's voice and reading style just annoyed me, plus her voices were terrible and hard to distinguish one from another. The book takes place in Texas and as far as I remember, most of the main characters are native Texans, and yet Ruby was the only one with even a hint of a Texas accent, and it was so overdone and fake sounding it grated on my nerves. I think my enjoyment of the book was somewhat lessened by remembering that voice even when I switched to print. It was a fairly typical visit to Pecan Springs, and I liked the visit with old friends. I will definitely stick to the print version of this series in future, though! B.
11. SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR by Fred Vargas. #2 in the Chief Inspector Adamsberg series set in France. A large wolf is killing sheep in the mountains of France, and when Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg hears about it on the news, his interest is piqued, as he grew up in the Pyrenees and is familiar with wolf lore. When a woman is killed in her sheep barn, supposedly by the same wolf, his interest heightens, as he knows wolves don't typically attack humans. When he notices his lost love, Camille, on the news report in the village where the attack takes place, he follows the story more closely. Camille, meanwhile, is on a quest of her own to find the wolf--and the man she and her lover, a Canadian wildlife researcher--believe is controlling it. Rumors spread about him being a werewolf, but that doesn't put Camille off as she travels from village to village with the shepherd and the adopted son of the woman who was killed, trying to find the man. When another human is dead, attacked the same way, Camille finally breaks down and calls Adamsberg and asks for his help since the police are not really involved in any way at this point--they believe that Suzanne was killed by a wolf, and thus there is nothing for them to investigate. Very intriguing book written in a unique style. Although I had an inkling about the bad guy fairly early on, I had no idea of the whys and wherefores, so it was still quite interesting. Adamsberg is a unique character and I much look forward to reading more in this series. A.
12. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS by Agatha Christie (AUDIO) My umpteenth re-reading--but first listening experience--of one of my favorite mysteries of all time, and a classic from the grand dame of mystery. The Orient Express, a train heading out from Istanbul, is trapped by a snowstorm in the mountains of Yugoslavia. A man is killed--a man who, a few hours previously, had tried to hire Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, to find the person who was after him. Poirot had told him he wasn't interested but then is asked by the head of the railway company (who happened to be on board) to investigate the man's death. Which Poirot does with his usual flair and cunning mind. Excellent book, and wonderfully read by David Suchet, who portrayed Poirot on the TV series. He does the other voices brilliantly too. A+
13. THE MERMAID'S MADNESS by Jim C. Hines. #2 in the Princess light fantasy series featuring Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (aka Snow, Talia and Danielle.) While attempting to make a yearly gift to the undine (merfolk) the royals of Lorindar find out that Lirea, daughter of the king of the undine, has killed him in a coup and is now out to conquer the human race as well. The undine attack and Queen Beatrice is stabbed with a magical knife that sucks her soul out, leaving the shell of her body barely alive. The three princesses venture off to an isolated island where Lirea's grandmother, a powerful sorceress, is living in exile, hoping that she can undo the magic of the knife and reunite Bea's soul with her body. Dangers and treachery lie ahead for the three young women as the story unfolds. I like this series, although I had my doubts--since it was billed as a sort of fairy tale Charlie's Angels. But it's mostly fairy tales with a darker twist and a very interesting backstory--happily ever after being somewhat of a myth. Looking forward to the third book in the trilogy, and then to see what interesting concept the author will come up with next. A.
14. THE FOURTH WATCHER by Timothy Hallinan. #2 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. Poke comes face to face with a ghost from his past--his father, Frank Rafferty, who left he and his mother and moved to China when Poke was sixteen and whom he's not seen since. Frank is in trouble, and he thinks Poke may be as well, simply by virtue of his kinship. A well-connected Colonel Chu is after Frank, and he is a ruthless man who stops at nothing to get what he wants. When a North Korean counterfeiting scheme affects Poke's girlfriend Rose's housecleaning business because of some fake bills her business partner received from the bank, he must deal with a nasty US agent investigating the counterfeit bills on top of his father's reappearance--and the discovery that he has a full-grown half-sister too, it's about all the poor man can handle. On the up side though, Rose finally accepts his marriage proposal, but they have to get these two intersecting problems sorted out before they can begin to make any wedding plans. All I can say about this book is WOW! It's almost unputdownable--although of course I had to reluctantly do so, as work tends to get in the way--a real rollercoaster ride through Bangkok and it's seedier side as Poke tries to deal with these two urgent, life-threatening situations without getting any of his friends and family killed or jailed. I absolutely love Poke and his family, love the author's writing style and the ambiance he is able to create just by stringing a few words together. I have the third book in the series here waiting for me, and I'm sure it's not going to be too long before it calls my name. A+
15. THE ELIXIR OF DEATH by Bernard Knight. #10 Crowner John mystery set in medieval Devon county, UK. When the dead bodies of Thorgils, a ship's captain and his crew wash up in the mouth of the river along with their battered ship, Crowner John first believes it's a case of straightforward piracy. But further investigation makes him think that something else is afoot, and he's right. There's another plot against King Richard, set up by none other than Prince John--with the help of John's brother-in-law, former Sheriff Richard de Revelle. They've brought an alchemist to Devon from Outremer to work with a local alchemist in an attempt to turn base metals into gold that John can then use in his efforts to overthrow his brother from the throne. Since Thorgils is the husband of one of John's former mistresses, he feels honor-bound to get to the cause of his death, and before long, the vicious murder and decapitation of a manor lord with a similar stab wound to Thorgils' begin to make the tenuous connection between the two crimes--John and his crew are off across the county asking questions and gleaning information over pots of ale in local taverns. On a personal note, Thomas, John's defrocked clerk, is reinstated by the church and apologized to for wrongfully removing him from the priesthood, having been falsely accused of raping a young female student. And John is once again trying to balance his time between his duties as Crowner, his mistress Nesta at the Bush Inn and his loathsome wife Matilda. Enjoyable as always, with great characters and a wonderful sense of place and time. A.
16. TEA TIME FOR THE TRADITIONALLY BUILT by Alexander McCall Smith. #10 Ladies No.1 Detective Agency cozy mystery set in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi investigate a local football team at the behest of their owner who can't understand why such a talented team has suddenly stopped winning. He thinks someone has been paid to throw games and he wants the Ladies to find out who it is. Meanwhile, Phuti Radiphuti, Mma Makutsi's fiance, unknowingly hires her arch enemy, Violet Septholo to work as a saleswoman in the bed department at his Double Comfort Furniture Store. Mma Makutsi is certain that Violet is after her fiance, but knows she is likely to drive Phuti away if she says anything. She and Mma Ramotswe puzzle out how to approach the situation. And it's a sad day for Mma Ramotswe, as her tiny white van finally coughs its last breaths and must be replaced by a medium-sized blue van. A great visit as usual, not much of a mystery, just some wonderful characters and an ambiance that can't be beat. A.
17. THE CALLING by Inger Ash Wolfe First in the Hazel Micallef mystery series set in small-town Canada. Hazel is a Detective Inspector in a small town and she's been clamoring for years to get a "real" chief at their station but has been constantly put off by the higher-ups, saying no one more senior is needed since major crime is so rarely a problem. She's sixty-one, nearing retirement age, has a chronic back pain problem and likes her booze rather too much, and lives with her elderly (but still spry) mother, who is the former mayor. When an elderly citizen of the town is found murdered in her home, and brutally so, Hazel begs to differ about the lack of need for more assistance. Delia Chandler was dying and it's believed she invited someone into her home to help with an assisted suicide, but that the person then took things to another level. The killer was very meticulous and left very few clues to go on. Another killing not too far away a couple of days later makes Hazel think they are dealing with a serial killer, even though there are notable differences. Hazel again appeals for help and is turned down, so she musters what forces she can and begins investigating--not always strictly following procedure--and to her horror, discovers that this killer has been working his away across Canada from the west and that his likely victims number in the double digits over the past couple of months. As the investigation continues with Hazel's renegade style dictating the course, Hazel tracks the killer but also gets herself in some hot water with the higher-ups. I did see the plot twist at the end coming, but this book was excellent and virtually un-put-down-able. Hazel was well-fleshed and an interesting character from the get-go, and the killer as twisted and strange as they come. Very much looking forward to the next in series and getting to know Hazel's friends and family better too. Highly recommended! A+
Current reads: Listening to A MURDEROUS PROCESSION by ARIANA FRANKLIN in audio from the library. In print, reading LOVE IS THE BOND by M.R. Sellars and HARDWARE by Linda Barnes.
Cheryl
2. VEIL OF LIES by Jeri Westerson. #1 Crispin Guest "medieval noir" mystery set in 1380's England. Crispin is a fallen knight, set to be hung for being part of a treasonous plot against Richard II. He was given a last-minute reprieve; his life was spared, but he was stripped of lands, property and title and now makes a living on the mean streets of London, living hand to mouth and shunned by those of his former class. Known as 'the Tracker,' he investigates, finds things, tracks people down and cobbles together a bleak living with tiny living quarters above a tinker's shop. Despite his fall from grace, Crispin has little sympathy for those of the lower classes that he's now forced to hobnob with, and still believes he is above them, and of a better class. It's now eight years after his disgrace. When Crispin is asked by a wealthy cloth merchant to follow his wife and find out if she's cheating on him, he takes the case though it's only his empty pockets that make him do so. When he returns to report the wife's infidelity and collect payment, Crispin finds Nicholas Walcote dead--murdered by stabbing. The local sheriff is called in, and as in most private eye cases, bumbles through, making headway only by listening to Crispin's observations. When the widow--whom Crispin learns was once a chambermaid before marrying her master--wants to hire him to find a religious relic that her husband was said to have hidden, he is reluctant, but a fat coin purse persuades him otherwise--and he is intrigued by Mrs. Walcote, as well. Eventually links are shown to international trade sabotage and a plot against the government. I really enjoyed this book--the writing style was easy to read, the characters very interesting, and even though Crispin could be somewhat of a butthead at times, I ultimately liked him too. Lots of great historical detail--sometimes even a bit too much...I am not terribly interested in fashion, whether it be modern or historical, and this book did have a lot of descriptions of the clothing, which I admit to sometimes skimming a bit. Otherwise--great! A.
3. EVIL UNDER THE SUN by Agatha Christie. (AUDIO) One of the Hercule Poirot mysteries, read by David Suchet, who plays the detective in the TV series. Poirot is on holiday, at the English seaside in August. No one quite believes he's not there working on something, though. And of course when the body of beautiful former actress Arlena Stewart Marshall turns up on a deserted cove, many suspects--including her husband and her lover--come to the fore as Poirot helps the local police with their inquiries. But nearly everyone who had a motive and large enough hands to strangle her has an ironclad alibi--including being in Poirot's company at the time of the killing. So who did the dastardly deed and how? Suchet is a delightful reader, getting a variety of accents, from Poirot's himself (of course!) to various English regional accents to an American Texas drawl. No one plots a mystery better than Christie, and though I had read this book many years ago, I'd forgotten how it was done, so it was delightful to listen along as the story unfolds until finally Poirot unveils the secret at the end. Wonderful stuff, and will definitely be getting more of these to listen to. A+
4. THE FLANDERS PANEL by Arturo Perez-Reverte. A meaty, rich and literary mystery set in Spain. Julia, an art restorer, has become infatuated with the painting she's currently working on, The Game of Chess painted by one of the Flemish masters, Pieter Van Huys. (The artist is real, the painting fictional.) In the painting, two men play chess while a woman in black reads a book in the background, and Julia discovers a hidden inscription via x-ray, in Latin which translates to 'Who Killed the Knight?' Does the inscription refer to the man in the picture--a knight who was indeed killed by a crossbow some months after the painting was done--or the chess knight? Julia's intrigued by the story the painting tells and begins researching its history, when she receives a card with a chess move on it. Her friend and mentor, Cesar, an older antiquarian collector, helps her locate a chess master, Munoz, who assists Julia in replaying the chess match backwards to see if they can determine who 'took' the knight in the game. When an art historian (and former lover) Julia asked to look into the painting ends up dead in suspicious circumstances, Julia becomes frightened but also more drawn into the intrigue. I liked this story, although it was (like most heavy literary mysteries) slow-going in places, and also liked it despite the fact that I don't play chess--I think it would be much more interesting to someone who does, as the book came illustrated with diagrams of the various moves which meant essentially nothing to me. I was surprised at the ending as I had someone else altogether in mind for the bad guy, and the book was quite suspenseful as it went on. It wasn't a book I was crazy about but was quite good and filled the bill as the "something different" I was looking for when I picked it up. B+
5. THE WINDS OF CHANGE by Martha Grimes Number umpteen in Scotland Yard's Chief Superintendent Richard Jury series. Jury once again teams up with Melrose Plant--this time posing as a "turf specialist" at the estate of a wealthy man where an unknown woman was found murdered. Cmdr. Brian Macalvie has called Jury in and he goes willingly, believing there may be a connection between the murdered woman and the murder of a young girl in London. There is a question of a pedophile ring, of cases of mistaken identity, and as always, deceit and treachery. Jury is still recovering physically from the gunshot wound he suffered a few months ago, but his brain is as active as always, making connections that others don't see. I love the characters in this series--after reading so many of them, they have become dear friends, although I still find it a bit ludicrous that Jury has Melrose posing as all these weird 'specialists' in fields he knows nothing about. This mystery was actually quite intriguing and I was sucked into the story from the beginning. This was one of the better recent entries I've read--some have been rather disappointing but this was back on track, if a bit predictable. B+
6. THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by Susan Hill. First in a police procedural series set in the fictional UK town of Lafferton. Although it's billed as a "Simon Serrailler" series, we barely get to meet this Chief Inspector and nothing is told from his point of view til the very end. We spend most of our time with his new DS, Freya Graffham, newly installed, a transfer from the Metropolitan Police in London. She's looking for a little peace and quiet and time away after a brief but disastrously disheartening marriage. When the owner of a small care home for dementia patients calls in at the police station to report one of her employees missing, Freya investigates briefly and gets a feeling that something is 'off' about the disappearance. When a second person, a young depressed girl also vanishes, her boss gives the go-ahead for a more in-depth investigation and Freya discovers several other missing people from the town that have as yet gone unexplained. They are of both sexes, a variety of ages and backgrounds, and seemingly have nothing in common. We know what's going on, as some chapters are written from the POV of the person who has taken these people--we just don't know who he is, although I did guess that about halfway through. It's still very interesting to watch Freya and her DC make the connections, often relying on intuition as to what clues are important.
The story itself is wonderful with great details about the town and surroundings, the settings, and Freya's life. There's a surprise ending that takes your breath away, and some parts of the story and some characters that don't have a whole lot of connection to the main problem, but are interesting nonetheless. What threw me off is the publisher's calling this the "Serrailler" series...for unless we actually get to see Simon Serrailler in action more next time, to me it would be best just called the Lafferton series, as we're introduced to many other characters that we know much better than Simon. Although he's intriguing, he's still nothing more than a cardboard cutout of a character at this point. A.
7. A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD by Julia Spencer-Fleming. #2 Rev. Clare Fergusson/Sheriff Russ Van Alstyne mystery set in Miller's Kill, NY. When the local medical examiner is badly beaten up, followed by savage beating to a video store owner, Clare begins to suspect the attacks as hate crimes against homosexuals and is frustrated when Russ won't alert the public to be extra wary. Russ fears the public panicking, or other hate mongers perpetrating copycat crimes. But when a third man--a developer in the area to build a luxury spa complex--is killed, and Clare finds the body, in her shaken state, she makes a passionate statement to a reporter about the connections, angering Russ beyond words. She decides to redeem herself by looking more closely into the developer's dealings, and in the process does some really unbelievably stupid things, putting herself in harm's way several times. Now, I love this author's writing style. It's smooth and easy to read and the dialogue is natural and believable. I like her sense of place and I even like both Clare and Russ as individuals. The mystery I figured out fairly early on, but I often do, so that wasn't a huge problem. What I find hard to swallow are first, the continual stupid, precarious situations Clare puts herself in (a tipsy minister searching the bedroom of the host of a party she attends, who then ends up jumping out the bathroom window when he comes into the bedroom...after she's hidden there listening in on a long conversation between him and another person??) and second, the relationship between her and Russ and the continual sexual tension. If that is going to continue book to book to book, I am just plain not going to continue reading the series. He's a married man. She's a minister, and while celibacy is not a requirement of the Episcopalian church, she even says herself in this book that if a minister isn't married, chasteness is the expectation. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but there's nothing I dislike more than a hypocrite. So to continue to play up this part of the relationship to me just seems unwise and would be annoying (to me anyway) to no end. Kill off the wife or something. Have Clare leave her post. But please don't continue on as they are. Still undecided if I will continue reading or not--as I said, I like the writing. I just get really tired of romance masquerading as mystery is all. C+
8. DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER by Elizabeth Zelvin. #1 Bruce Kohler mystery. Bruce is an alcoholic who finds himself waking up from a blackout in the detox center in the Bowery in New York--which is considered to be pretty low. Especially since it's Christmas. The first couple of days go by in a fog, but Bruce remembers finding the body of an old man who was known to be dying of cancer in the laundry room at the detox. Bruce strikes up a friendship with a younger man named Godfrey Kettleworth, a moneyed man who must've fallen quite far to be where he is now--although he still teasingly introduces himself as God. Known as Guff to the few people whom he calls friend, he returns from his New Year's pass and dies a few hours later in a series of horrible convulsions as Bruce looks on. It's easy to write these deaths off as the natural sequelae of alcoholism, but things just don't seem right to Bruce. His childhood friend Jimmy (also an alcoholic, though sober now for several years) and Jimmy's girlfriend Barbara, also with addiction issues and now a counselor, have distanced themselves from Bruce and his hurtful alcoholic escapades over the years. But when he visits them, they both see something different in him and believe this time he may actually be serious about sobriety. Barbara encourages Bruce to look into the deaths of these people--and they later learn through the grapevine that there's been more deaths than usual among the detox client community in other facilities, too. But was Guff's death a personal matter relating to his many relatives that he'd alienated over the years? Bruce makes his tentative steps through sobriety in an effort to find out. Loved this book--loved the characters, the information about addiction and recovery and the real sense of place the author gives to New York. I've never been there, and don't really want to go, but she paints such a great picture of it that I feel I don't really have to! A.
9. WITCHES ABROAD by Terry Pratchett. #12 in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series, this is a re-read for me of one of my favorites in the series in which the witches--Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and Magrat Garlick (oh, and don't forget Greebo!) are off to "foreign parts" to try to stop an evil godmother from making people play parts in the usual fairy tales. Hilarious and yet with plenty of poignant observation about life (and DEATH) as usual. Wonderful! A++ as always.
10. HOLLY BLUES by Susan Wittig Albert. #18 in the China Bayles "herb shop" mystery series. Pecan Springs is getting ready for Christmas, and China is glad to see an upswing in business at Thyme & Seasons. The poor economy has hit small businesses hard, especially businesses that sell non-essential items, so belts are beginning to tighten a bit in the McQuaid-Bayles household. They are also adjusting to having China's niece whom she and Mike have adopted since the death of her half-brother. This will be Kate's first Christmas with them, and China wants it to be special. So obviously when Mike's crazy ex-wife Sally--mother to Brian, his teenage son--shows up at the shop, China's not thrilled. Still, in the spirit of the season, she invites Sally, who is once again down on her luck and in trouble, to stay with them over the holiday--much to McQuaid's displeasure. When China makes the invitation, she doesn't realize just how MUCH trouble Sally is in--but of course she finds out before too long. I started out listening to the audio version of this book and had to set it aside after about 5 chapters and switch to the print version, which I thankfully had on hand. The reader's voice and reading style just annoyed me, plus her voices were terrible and hard to distinguish one from another. The book takes place in Texas and as far as I remember, most of the main characters are native Texans, and yet Ruby was the only one with even a hint of a Texas accent, and it was so overdone and fake sounding it grated on my nerves. I think my enjoyment of the book was somewhat lessened by remembering that voice even when I switched to print. It was a fairly typical visit to Pecan Springs, and I liked the visit with old friends. I will definitely stick to the print version of this series in future, though! B.
11. SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR by Fred Vargas. #2 in the Chief Inspector Adamsberg series set in France. A large wolf is killing sheep in the mountains of France, and when Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg hears about it on the news, his interest is piqued, as he grew up in the Pyrenees and is familiar with wolf lore. When a woman is killed in her sheep barn, supposedly by the same wolf, his interest heightens, as he knows wolves don't typically attack humans. When he notices his lost love, Camille, on the news report in the village where the attack takes place, he follows the story more closely. Camille, meanwhile, is on a quest of her own to find the wolf--and the man she and her lover, a Canadian wildlife researcher--believe is controlling it. Rumors spread about him being a werewolf, but that doesn't put Camille off as she travels from village to village with the shepherd and the adopted son of the woman who was killed, trying to find the man. When another human is dead, attacked the same way, Camille finally breaks down and calls Adamsberg and asks for his help since the police are not really involved in any way at this point--they believe that Suzanne was killed by a wolf, and thus there is nothing for them to investigate. Very intriguing book written in a unique style. Although I had an inkling about the bad guy fairly early on, I had no idea of the whys and wherefores, so it was still quite interesting. Adamsberg is a unique character and I much look forward to reading more in this series. A.
12. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS by Agatha Christie (AUDIO) My umpteenth re-reading--but first listening experience--of one of my favorite mysteries of all time, and a classic from the grand dame of mystery. The Orient Express, a train heading out from Istanbul, is trapped by a snowstorm in the mountains of Yugoslavia. A man is killed--a man who, a few hours previously, had tried to hire Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, to find the person who was after him. Poirot had told him he wasn't interested but then is asked by the head of the railway company (who happened to be on board) to investigate the man's death. Which Poirot does with his usual flair and cunning mind. Excellent book, and wonderfully read by David Suchet, who portrayed Poirot on the TV series. He does the other voices brilliantly too. A+
13. THE MERMAID'S MADNESS by Jim C. Hines. #2 in the Princess light fantasy series featuring Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella (aka Snow, Talia and Danielle.) While attempting to make a yearly gift to the undine (merfolk) the royals of Lorindar find out that Lirea, daughter of the king of the undine, has killed him in a coup and is now out to conquer the human race as well. The undine attack and Queen Beatrice is stabbed with a magical knife that sucks her soul out, leaving the shell of her body barely alive. The three princesses venture off to an isolated island where Lirea's grandmother, a powerful sorceress, is living in exile, hoping that she can undo the magic of the knife and reunite Bea's soul with her body. Dangers and treachery lie ahead for the three young women as the story unfolds. I like this series, although I had my doubts--since it was billed as a sort of fairy tale Charlie's Angels. But it's mostly fairy tales with a darker twist and a very interesting backstory--happily ever after being somewhat of a myth. Looking forward to the third book in the trilogy, and then to see what interesting concept the author will come up with next. A.
14. THE FOURTH WATCHER by Timothy Hallinan. #2 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. Poke comes face to face with a ghost from his past--his father, Frank Rafferty, who left he and his mother and moved to China when Poke was sixteen and whom he's not seen since. Frank is in trouble, and he thinks Poke may be as well, simply by virtue of his kinship. A well-connected Colonel Chu is after Frank, and he is a ruthless man who stops at nothing to get what he wants. When a North Korean counterfeiting scheme affects Poke's girlfriend Rose's housecleaning business because of some fake bills her business partner received from the bank, he must deal with a nasty US agent investigating the counterfeit bills on top of his father's reappearance--and the discovery that he has a full-grown half-sister too, it's about all the poor man can handle. On the up side though, Rose finally accepts his marriage proposal, but they have to get these two intersecting problems sorted out before they can begin to make any wedding plans. All I can say about this book is WOW! It's almost unputdownable--although of course I had to reluctantly do so, as work tends to get in the way--a real rollercoaster ride through Bangkok and it's seedier side as Poke tries to deal with these two urgent, life-threatening situations without getting any of his friends and family killed or jailed. I absolutely love Poke and his family, love the author's writing style and the ambiance he is able to create just by stringing a few words together. I have the third book in the series here waiting for me, and I'm sure it's not going to be too long before it calls my name. A+
15. THE ELIXIR OF DEATH by Bernard Knight. #10 Crowner John mystery set in medieval Devon county, UK. When the dead bodies of Thorgils, a ship's captain and his crew wash up in the mouth of the river along with their battered ship, Crowner John first believes it's a case of straightforward piracy. But further investigation makes him think that something else is afoot, and he's right. There's another plot against King Richard, set up by none other than Prince John--with the help of John's brother-in-law, former Sheriff Richard de Revelle. They've brought an alchemist to Devon from Outremer to work with a local alchemist in an attempt to turn base metals into gold that John can then use in his efforts to overthrow his brother from the throne. Since Thorgils is the husband of one of John's former mistresses, he feels honor-bound to get to the cause of his death, and before long, the vicious murder and decapitation of a manor lord with a similar stab wound to Thorgils' begin to make the tenuous connection between the two crimes--John and his crew are off across the county asking questions and gleaning information over pots of ale in local taverns. On a personal note, Thomas, John's defrocked clerk, is reinstated by the church and apologized to for wrongfully removing him from the priesthood, having been falsely accused of raping a young female student. And John is once again trying to balance his time between his duties as Crowner, his mistress Nesta at the Bush Inn and his loathsome wife Matilda. Enjoyable as always, with great characters and a wonderful sense of place and time. A.
16. TEA TIME FOR THE TRADITIONALLY BUILT by Alexander McCall Smith. #10 Ladies No.1 Detective Agency cozy mystery set in Botswana. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi investigate a local football team at the behest of their owner who can't understand why such a talented team has suddenly stopped winning. He thinks someone has been paid to throw games and he wants the Ladies to find out who it is. Meanwhile, Phuti Radiphuti, Mma Makutsi's fiance, unknowingly hires her arch enemy, Violet Septholo to work as a saleswoman in the bed department at his Double Comfort Furniture Store. Mma Makutsi is certain that Violet is after her fiance, but knows she is likely to drive Phuti away if she says anything. She and Mma Ramotswe puzzle out how to approach the situation. And it's a sad day for Mma Ramotswe, as her tiny white van finally coughs its last breaths and must be replaced by a medium-sized blue van. A great visit as usual, not much of a mystery, just some wonderful characters and an ambiance that can't be beat. A.
17. THE CALLING by Inger Ash Wolfe First in the Hazel Micallef mystery series set in small-town Canada. Hazel is a Detective Inspector in a small town and she's been clamoring for years to get a "real" chief at their station but has been constantly put off by the higher-ups, saying no one more senior is needed since major crime is so rarely a problem. She's sixty-one, nearing retirement age, has a chronic back pain problem and likes her booze rather too much, and lives with her elderly (but still spry) mother, who is the former mayor. When an elderly citizen of the town is found murdered in her home, and brutally so, Hazel begs to differ about the lack of need for more assistance. Delia Chandler was dying and it's believed she invited someone into her home to help with an assisted suicide, but that the person then took things to another level. The killer was very meticulous and left very few clues to go on. Another killing not too far away a couple of days later makes Hazel think they are dealing with a serial killer, even though there are notable differences. Hazel again appeals for help and is turned down, so she musters what forces she can and begins investigating--not always strictly following procedure--and to her horror, discovers that this killer has been working his away across Canada from the west and that his likely victims number in the double digits over the past couple of months. As the investigation continues with Hazel's renegade style dictating the course, Hazel tracks the killer but also gets herself in some hot water with the higher-ups. I did see the plot twist at the end coming, but this book was excellent and virtually un-put-down-able. Hazel was well-fleshed and an interesting character from the get-go, and the killer as twisted and strange as they come. Very much looking forward to the next in series and getting to know Hazel's friends and family better too. Highly recommended! A+
Current reads: Listening to A MURDEROUS PROCESSION by ARIANA FRANKLIN in audio from the library. In print, reading LOVE IS THE BOND by M.R. Sellars and HARDWARE by Linda Barnes.
Cheryl
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
JULY 2010
1. PRETTY IN INK by Karen E. Olson. #2 Tattoo Shop mystery, featuring Brett Kavanaugh, who owns the Painted Lady tattoo shop in Las Vegas. Brett is at a drag queen show, an invited guest because she did tattoos for several of the stars, when one of them is attacked deliberately during the show--a champagne cork popped directly at her. When Trevor (aka Britney Brassieres) later ends up dead, the apparent victim of poison, Brett gets involved in a bizarre case involving several other drag queens, her trainee employee Charlotte, and the police detective who is now dating her brother Tim's ex-fiancee. Oh, and there's a handsome emergency room doctor in the mix as well. Soon the FBI is involved, as the poison was nothing less than ricin, a seriously dangerous chemical often used in terrorist attacks. Somehow, Brett's employee Charlotte is mixed up in all of it, though she's not sure just how, and she begins to doubt how well she really knew the girl. I actually liked this better than the first one. I feel like I'm getting to know Brett better, and while there is a little romance thrown in, it didn't feel like the focus of the book, and this was definitely better than your average cozy, although as usual with amateur sleuth mysteries, the main character ends up doing some pretty stupid stuff. The tattoo informaton is interesting too, of course. I give it a solid B+.
2. BONE RATTLER by Eliot Pattison. #1 Duncan McCallum mystery set in Colonial America, New York state of 1750's. Duncan is a Highland Scot, once training as a doctor, now an indentured servant to the Ramsey Company, plucked from prison (where he was put for supposedly aiding the Highland rebellion) to go to the new world. When the new tutor to the Ramsey children is murdered on board the ship heading to America, Duncan is bullied into taking his place. He does so fearfully, having received a mysterious warning from his friend Adam who died a few days previously, and also a posthumous warning from the tutor himself in the form of cryptic messages. Once he gets to the new world, Duncan begins to see just what the Ramsey Company is up to--at odds with the military and the Native American tribes, Lord Ramsey seeks to turn his portion of the world into another kingdom where he has all the control and power, and sets various factions against one another to make it so. This was a wonderful book, although I can say it won't be for everyone. There are a lot of mystical elements to it, especially featuring Native American spirituality as well as the myths and old religion of the Scottish Highlands intermingled. It's a thick, meaty, literary mystery with lots of lush prose and a tangled plot, many interesting characters. While this is neither my favorite time or place historically, aside from a few slow spots where it seemed to take forever for things to move forward, I really enjoyed this mystery and look forward to the next one in the series. A-
3. DEATH OF AN ENGLISHMAN by Magdalen Nabb. #1 Marshal Guarnaccia mystery, featuring this Carabinieri stationed in Florence, Italy. It's Christmas Eve, the Marshal has a terrible case of flu, and he's planning to head south to visit family for the holidays, but a murdered Englishman who had retired to live there in Italy takes precedence. A somewhat pudgy man with an eye condition that makes them water profusely in any sort of sunlight, the Marshal actually sleeps through much of the beginning stages of the investigation, so wracked with fever is he, and his subordinates do much of the evidence gathering. The Englishman was apparently well-connected politically too, as Scotland Yard sends two detectives to observe and assist where needed, although they aren't officially there. Eventually though, the Marshal is well enough to put his two cents in and solves the case. This was a slim little book, quickly read, although not really that engaging. It was interesting to see how things looked from the Carabinieri side of Italian police work vs. the regular police that I've read about in a couple of other mystery series, but I couldn't really get interested much in any of the characters in this book and found the mystery rather blah. It was an okay read, but not good enough for me to want to pursue further entries in the series, at least for now. C+
4.HERESY by SJ Parris (AUDIO) Set in 1580's Oxford, England, this novel is told from the point of view of real historical figure Giordano Bruno, an excommunicated Italian monk who was sought by the Inquisition for heresy. Known as a poet, philosopher, magician and scientist, in this book he is recruited by Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. Ostensibly in Oxford to participate in a philosophical debate with the Master of one of the colleges, Bruno is also keeping his eyes out for a possible nest of Catholics who are still hoping to unseat Elizabeth from the throne. But a series of puzzling murders featuring members of the college leave Bruno stumped, and he must investigate on the sly so as not to arouse further suspicion against himself, already being a foreigner and known for some of his heretical views. Unsure of whom he can trust (and sometimes choosing unwisely) he ventures from one theory to the next while trying to determine if the murders have anything to do with the Catholics' plot against Elizabeth or are something else altogether, often placing himself in grave danger along the way. This was an excellent book, and I'm hoping that it will become a series. The way it ended certainly left it open for another episode. The reader was excellent, using a wide variety of accents and distinct voices that made it easy to tell who was speaking. The historical atmosphere and sense of place was wonderfully evocative and the mystery was interesting as well--although I had my suspicions about the bad guy, there were plenty of plot twists that kept it interesting. Very well done! A.
5. MISS ZUKAS AND THE STROKE OF DEATH by Jo Dereske. #3 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma. a librarian in fictional small-town Washington State, is called by her friend Ruth who finds a dead body in the alley behind her house. Of course it was someone Ruth had seen in a bar earlier the same day, and was heard threatening him because he was bothering her. Ruth doesn't know who he is, and though she's under suspicion, stolidly maintains her innocence. Helma must once again contact Chief Gallant to see if he will leak any information that will help them figure out who did kill the man--a despicable being, from everything they've been able to learn. Helma must also decide whether to join the library's team in the annual Slope to Surf race--a five-part race involving downhill and cross-country skiing, canoeing, running and kayaking. The person doing the canoe part of the race can't participate and Helma does have experience as a paddler--and a gorgeous canoe handmade by her uncle back in Michigan when she was a teenager. But she's really not keen on competition and fears the changes being part of such a group would make in her usually solitary life, which she finds mostly satisfactory. The mystery wasn't much of a surprise, but the ending was! It will be interesting to see if this particular incident is mentioned again sometime in the future. I like Helma and the cast of interesting secondary characters and I find this quite a satisfying series given that it's mostly what you'd call a cozy--although there is a bit of an edge at times and some hidden, unexpected off-color humor too. Looking forward to the next one! A-
6. A PLACE OF SAFETY by Caroline Graham. #6 in the Chief Inspector Barnaby series, which was adapted for TV as the "Midsomer Murder" series. (I still haven't seen any of them!) Barnaby and Sgt. Troy are off to the village of Ferne Bassett, where a local gardener/handyman's body has been found dead, his dog having been discovered earlier in the day, severely beaten and barely alive. While no one in the village liked Charlie Leathers--including his wife--it's uncertain who would dislike him enough to murder him. As we meet each of the players in the village drama--the tormented children's author and his recently-divorced sister, the local (sort of) vicar who (along with his much younger wife) takes in troubled teens and several others--we find that village life isn't as idyllic as is often portrayed. Each person has secrets, resentments, shattered dreams and broken hearts--but how do they tie into Leathers' murder, and the disappearance of young Carlotta Ryan, one of the troubled teens? Leathers was certainly blackmailing someone, but who? And is it related to his murder, or is there something else happening below the surface? This series has quite a few thins that make it somewhat atypical of your usual police mystery--telling the story from the point of view of many of the various characters, for one thing, and setting the scene very firmly before ever introducing the police for another. It does get a bit long-winded sometimes with the emotional descriptions of each person's despair and problems and petty resentments built up over a lifetime, but I suppose those are somewhat necessary to help understand the motivations of the characters. The mystery wasn't much of one, but I do like Tom Barnaby and his family, and even and his sour-puss Sgt. Troy too. The series tends to be kind of hit or miss (there were a couple of earlier books that I barely made it through) but I did enjoy this one quite a lot. Only one more left in the series, and I will look forward to it--then I can feel free to watch the TV series based on these characters. B+
7. STALKED by Brian Freeman. #3 Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial mystery. Thankfully, the story takes place back in Duluth, Stride's hometown, where he's decided to return after a brief stint in Las Vegas. Serena has accompanied him and they are settling into life again on the shores of Lake Superior. Stride's former detective partner Maggie is accused of murdering her husband, and though he must recuse himself from working the case officially, he is convinced of her innocence despite the damning evidence and looks into things in his spare time, thus ticking off the detective in charge of the case--who also happens to be the person Stride bumped out of the head of detectives job when he moved back to Duluth. Meanwhile, Serena, now working as a private investigator, is hired by the local district attorney to uncover a blackmailer. When the two cases begin intersecting, it leads to clues in several cold cases, and some hot new ones--more disappearances and deaths with tendrils curling into several prominent people's lives. To be honest, this wasn't all that much of a thriller, per se. I thought the main solution was fairly obvious, and also thought there was way too much coincidental linking of the cases and too much bizarre stuff going on to be really believable. There was also a lot of what I'd call gratuitous sex stuff that wasn't really germane to the cases. I'm not a prude of any sort, but sex for the sake of it within a mystery is kind of....well, boring. I rolled my eyes a lot. I also thought that Serena, now that she was a private detective, fell into the amateur sleuth trap of doing Really Stupid Things. Frequently. If it weren't for Freeman's atmospheric portrayal of Minnesota, and Duluth in particular, I'm not sure if I would have finished it or not. I do like Stride and the secondary characters too, and because I already have the next couple of books I'm sure I'll read them. I'm just not as enthusiastic as I once was. C+
9. IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY by Rhys Bowen. #6 in the Molly Murphy historical series set in early 1900's New York. This episode takes Molly back across the sea to her homeland, having been hired by a rich theatre producer to see if she can trace his long-lost sister. He hadn't known of her existence until his mother confessed on her deathbed that she had left the baby, who had become ill, in the care of a priest. There's little hope of finding the now-fifty-year-old woman, but the man is paying well, and Molly needs the money. She also needs to have some time away from Captain Daniel Sullivan, so she boards the very ship she came across on two years previously and sails for Ireland. Before the boat even leaves, the famous actress Oona Sheehan whom Molly had met briefly at the party where she met the producer, approaches her and asks Molly to take her place for the duration of the voyage so that she can enjoy some much-needed privacy and rest from the constant adulation of her fans. It looks like easy money to Molly--a hundred dollars!--for living the week of the crossing in luxury. But the murder of Oona's maid Rose only a day out from Ireland leaves Molly reeling, and near the top of the suspect list, since Oona herself apparently left the ship moments before it sailed. Once in Ireland, Molly sets about her task and even manages to enjoy being back in her homeland, until her search for MaryAnn Burke gets her entangled in a complicated political plot which puts her seriously in harm's way from several directions. I liked this book better than the last one--since she was out of New York and away from Capt. Sullivan, there was less of the romance and more of the mystery and the setting of Ireland was a nice change, too. I like this author's writing style and I like Molly, too. A.
10. CHARLIE BONE AND THE RED KNIGHT by Jenny Nimmo. (AUDIO) This seems to be the last in the Charlie Bone "Children of the Red King" young adult fantasy series, and it was definitely a winner with all of the loose ends tied up nicely. Charlie's parents are still off on their second honeymoon, his friend Billy Raven has been captured by the evil enchanter Harken and trapped in Badlock, and Charlie must find a way to rescue him--and then discovers that his parents may be in danger as "Dagbert the Drowner's" father is in town, probably to do harm to the Bones by causing a disturbance in the sea. Charlie and his friends are also looking for a box that holds the Red King's true will, which leaves his true heir (believed to be Billy Raven, NOT Ezekiel Bloor!) as the owner of Bloor's Academy as well as much other property and wealth. Charlie and his friends are fighting the evil heirs of the Red King with all their magic and might on several fronts, and are helped in the background by the Red Knight--a mysteries figure that no one knows the identity of. As all the different threads begin coming together towards an exciting conclusion, Charlie and his friends' lives are hanging in the balance. Very well done, enjoyable end to this series. I'm now going to have to seek out more books by this author, as she's got a couple of other series that were written before this one. Highly recommended, but do read these in order, or they won't make much sense. A+
11. THE MIDSUMMER ROSE by Kate Sedley. #13 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery. Mid-summer is approaching and Roger the Chapman is on the road, peddling his wares across rural England. Just a few miles from home, he's crossing the river with a ferryman and realizes he is near an abandoned home that his first wife had told him about--a strange murder had taken place there fifty years before and was haunted. He decides to take a look in before heading home, and ends up witnessing a stabbing, and is then clonked on the head and thrown in the river--rescued only because his leather jerkin kept him afloat so he didn't drown before the ferryman could pull him out. At first people believe he was hallucinating, his overactive mind making up things related to the old murder. But when a body turns up in the river a week later, Roger is vindicated, although it's awhile before he knows who it was who committed that murder. When another man related to the case turns up dead and a friend of Roger's is implicated, he redoubles his efforts to meddle in the law's affairs and do their job for the lazy Sheriff. And what is Timothy Plummer, spymaster to the royal family, doing in town in disguise? Is there another political plot afoot? I really enjoy this series. Roger is one of my favorite fictional historical characters and his well-fleshed secondary characters are great, too. Very atmospheric writing that puts you in the time and place with the descriptions of sounds, smells and attitudes, too. Excellent visit as usual, although these do become a bit predictable after awhile. B+
12. ALICE I HAVE BEEN by Melanie Benjamin. (AUDIO) Her interest captured by a photograph of young Alice Liddell, the 'real' Alice that Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) based his Wonderland books on, dressed as a beggar girl and really looking nothing like the blonde and immaculate Alice who tumbled down a rabbit hole, the author sets out to make up a story about what Alice Liddell's life has been like. An 80-year-old Alice looks back and tells of her childhood growing up in Oxford where her father was Dean of Christ Church College, and she and her sisters were brought up in the strict Victorian fashion of the day. It tells how Dodgson told the story of Alice verbally to the Liddell girls, and how she begged him to write it down, and of the impact it had on her life. She bounces around in time from her 80-year-old self, to a giddy young woman in love, to an older married woman watching her sons go off to war, and back time and again to the young Alice, in awe of and often at odds with the rest of the world. I listened eagerly to the first parts of the book, but found that it did bog down somewhat in the middle and had to take a break from it. Samantha Eggar narrates and does a truly wonderful job of capturing the perfect Victorian tone for Alice's narration and does an excellent job with the other voices as well. I'm glad I did go back to listening as the last few discs once again picked up the pace and finished off a truly wonderful story. Highly recommend this, especially if you are a fan of Lewis Carroll's works. A.
13. MANDARIN PLAID by SJ Rozan. #3 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series set in New York. This series alternates between Lydia and Bill's point of view, and this is a "Lydia" book. Hired to make a ransom drop--$50,000 for the return of some sketches of exclusive clothing design items for her client Genna Jing's upcoming line called Mandarin Plaid--Lydia is shot at just after the drop takes place and the money disappears. A call to Genna shortly afterwards indicates that it was not the sketch thief who got the money, and Lydia feels she betrayed her client by letting the money be lost. Bill had been watching but chased the shooter (to no avail) and even though the client is now skittish and actually tells them to stop investigating when they apparently get too close to some secret she's harboring, Bill and Lydia carry on, having discovered that a possible suspect in the thefts is now dead. As they get further into the tangled, dangerous web of designer fashion, Lydia and Bill must sort out who stands to gain the most if Mandarin Plaid doesn't hit the runways. There were a few surprising plot twists, but the ultimate solution wasn't much of a surprise to me--which was fine, it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book. On a personal level, Lydia also continues to battle her family's resistance to her profession and her mother's continued attempts to set her up with a "nice Chinese boy" while Lydia struggles with her ever-growing feelings for Bill, whom Lydia's mother refuses to acknowledge and calls "Crooked Face." I enjoy this series a lot, with Lydia caught between the two worlds, never fully at home in either, and yet still being a very strong person doing just what she wishes--except perhaps when it comes to Bill. Looking forward to the next in series. A.
14. THE SINGING SWORD by Jack Whyte. #2 Camulod Chronicles historical Arthurian fantasy. It's 360's A.D. and Publius Varrus, the co-leader of the Colony in the western part of what is now England, faces new challenges as ever-bolder Saxon (and other!) raiders threaten his peaceful home. Together with Caius Britannicus, his brother-in-law, who leads the self-sufficient group with him, he steps up to meet those challenges, which include strengthening their defenses and learning a new way to fight with heavy cavalry. Publius, a blacksmith by trade, begins to attempt to forge a new type of weapon that will serve as sword and spear to soldiers mounted on large warhorses. And always at the back of his mind is the sword he wants to forge, made of the special 'skystone' that fell from the sky in the previous book, the perfect weapon that would be his life's work. Meanwhile, his daughters are growing up and their friend and neighbor to the north, Ullic Pendragon, comes calling asking for an unheard-of allegiance between his Celts and the Roman Britons, forged in a marriage between Veronica, Publius' daughter, and Uric, Ullic's son. Throughout this time, the Colony sets out building a large hill fort to keep their people safe in the face of increasing raids and violence, which is completed and christened Camulod. Spanning several years, this book in the series sets things up for the actual time of Arthur--at the end of this book, Uther Pendragon (Veronica and Uric's son) and Caius Merlyn Brittanicus (son of Ullic's sister Enid and Picus Britannicus, Caius' son) are mere infants, having been born at exactly the same time. Wonderful book, enjoyable story--not all pleasant as there is plenty of violence and death which was appropriate for the times--and with interesting historical detail. I'm looking forward to the next one very much. A.
15. THE WIDOWER'S TWO-STEP by Rick Riordan. (AUDIO) #2 in the Tres Navarre PI series set in Texas. Tres, with his PhD in English, is using his degree in the way many English majors do--by doing something totally unrelated to their studies. He's almost got enough hours logged in with his mentor to apply for an official Private Investigator's license when a person he's staking out is shot right while he's (supposed to be) watching. Julie Kearns was a fiddle player, suspected of stealing the demo tape of an up and coming country singer, Miranda Daniels--and now she's dead. Tres's boss is not happy with him and asks him to think seriously about whether he wants to continue in this line of work. He thinks it's in his blood--his father, Jackson Navarre II, was Sheriff for many years. His mother sets up an (unwanted) interview with a local university where he would be able to teach and use the degree he earned back in California, but he has now been drawn fully into the case of the fiddle player's death, and the intrigue of who really did steal the demo tape. More bodies stack up, Miranda's manager has disappeared off the face of the earth, and Tres isn't such which way to look for suspects. Eventually things get solved--and I admit to being totally surprised by the plot twist at the end. I really like Tres, with his literary references, yet he's very much down to earth and not at all a stuffed shirt. The secondary characters are great too, from his siren mother with her toy boy boyfriend, his wheelchair-bound, pot-smoking brother Garrett, to his friend Ralph, who seems to be somewhat of a gangster with the Mexican mob. The audio version was well-done, narrated by Tom Stechshulte, who did a variety of voices skillfully, such that I was just able to picture the speaker right in my head by listening. Enjoyable second entry and very much looking forward to the next. A.
16. MURDER IN THE RAW by C.S. Challinor. #2 Rex Graves mystery. Rex, a Scottish lawyer, is off to the Caribbean at the behest of the Winslows, owners of the inn where he stayed the Christmas before and solved a murder. It seems one of their guests, a famous French actress, has disappeared into thin air and they'd like Rex to look into things since the gendarmerie on the island don't seem very interested. Rex agrees, and then they mention, "Oh, by the way--this resort is a naturalist resort." (i.e., a nudist colony!) Rex arrives and before long adjusts somewhat to the nudity, and begins questioning the other resort-goers, most of whom are long-time friends of the Winslows who vacation together each year. Sabine Durand left behind a small fragment of blood-soaked fabric hooked on a rock on the beach, the fragment believed to be from a gauzy cover-up she was seen wearing awhile before she disappeared. The gendarmes think a shark got her, but Rex discovers that Sabine wasn't terribly well-liked, and was known to have flings with men--is her much-older husband the culprit as some believe? This was a quick, light read and despite being relatively cozy, I liked it. The writing is sort of stoic and staid, and the characters a bit clichéd, the mystery itself terribly easy to figure out and predict the outcome, but with the occasional wry humor tucked in to make things interesting, it's very readable. The series reminds me somewhat of the tone and writing style of the Miss Zukas series, which is another series I was kind of surprised that I liked. At any rate, I'm planning to read on to the next one. Not a spectacular read but still quite good, nice to read as my 'bedtime' book before drifting off to la-la land. B.
17. THE DRAGONS OF ARCHENFIELD by Edward Marston. #3 Domesday medieval mystery series set across England in the 1080's. Ralph Delchard, a knight, and Gervase Bret, a lawyer, travel across England with their retinue resolving land disputes and investigating claims and set tax rates for the Conqueror. In this instance they are going to Archenfield, near the Welsh border, where resentments among the Welsh still run high against the Norman conquerors as well as the Saxons. A disputed portion of land is sought by two sworn enemies, but the third man who has claim to it is suddenly burned to death, trapped in his own home with a red dragon carved in the earth and colored with cow's blood from the man's own cow. The red dragon is the symbol of Wales, so nearly everyone thinks the murder was done by Welsh insurrectionists, but the man got along peaceably with his neighbors and had no personal squabble with the Welsh, and Ralph and his team feel that the killing had a very personal element to it. Did one of the two men coveting his land kill him so brutally or was it another, more personal, matter? Ralph and Gervase are determined to find out, and during their investigation are threatened by both of the powerful landowners and Gervase is captured and tossed in a dungeon--by whom, he doesn't know. I figured out one of the plot twists ahead of time but the main mystery remained a mystery til near the end. I quite enjoy this series, set in one of my favorite historical time periods. I like both Ralph and Gervase, although they are quite different men--and their secondary characters are also now quite familiar. Wonderful period detail, interesting weaving of real historical events with fictionalized details. Excellent as always, looking forward to the next, although they are getting harder to track down--I think the library will need to cough up the next one. A.
18. BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest. This is a historical fantasy/sci-fi book in a sub-genre called Steampunk--which I'd never heard of until a year or so ago. Set in the era where steam power prevailed, and usually featuring lots of cool gadgets and inventions (a la Jules Verne), and alternate history, this is the first entry in this genre I've read, and I have to admit I loved it! Of course, it had the added bonus of also containing zombies. LOL This one is set in Seattle during the Civil War--although in this version, the war carried on into the 1880's. Sixteen years previously, much of the city--then little more than a cow town--was devastated by a machine invented by one Leviticus Blue, the winning entry in a contest to make a device that would cut through hundreds of feet of ice to get at the gold everyone was sure was under Alaska's soil in the Klondike region. Instead, the machine went wild and tore up Seattle's underground, including the vaults of several banks. The money was never found, nor was Blue's body. The Boneshaker unwittingly tapped into a vein of plague-bearing gas which turned those exposed to it into zombies (or 'rotters' as they're called). A huge wall was built to encase the city center where the Boneshaker dug tunnels, and soon those left inside were either zombies or outcasts seeking to avoid them. Except for the mysterious Dr. Minnericht, who was sort of the Godfather down there "inside." Or so Briar Wilkes--once Briar Blue, widow of Levi had heard. Was the incident an accident as Blue proclaimed, or was he deviously trying to get at the bank's money all along? If Briar knows, she's not telling, and sixteen years later, their son Zeke needs to know. He sets off inside the walls to find answers, and Briar heads in after him. Wonderful adventure story full of great gadgets, a wide variety of interesting characters, and penned with an easy-reading style that makes it hard to put down. It looks like there will be more books in this style/series called The Clockwork Century, although it doesn't look like the next one features these same characters. I will definitely be reading it, though, and looking for more Steampunk too. A+
Current reads: VEIL OF LIES by Jeri Westerson, THE FLANDERS PANEL by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and listening to MISSING MARK by Julie Kramer.
Cheryl
2. BONE RATTLER by Eliot Pattison. #1 Duncan McCallum mystery set in Colonial America, New York state of 1750's. Duncan is a Highland Scot, once training as a doctor, now an indentured servant to the Ramsey Company, plucked from prison (where he was put for supposedly aiding the Highland rebellion) to go to the new world. When the new tutor to the Ramsey children is murdered on board the ship heading to America, Duncan is bullied into taking his place. He does so fearfully, having received a mysterious warning from his friend Adam who died a few days previously, and also a posthumous warning from the tutor himself in the form of cryptic messages. Once he gets to the new world, Duncan begins to see just what the Ramsey Company is up to--at odds with the military and the Native American tribes, Lord Ramsey seeks to turn his portion of the world into another kingdom where he has all the control and power, and sets various factions against one another to make it so. This was a wonderful book, although I can say it won't be for everyone. There are a lot of mystical elements to it, especially featuring Native American spirituality as well as the myths and old religion of the Scottish Highlands intermingled. It's a thick, meaty, literary mystery with lots of lush prose and a tangled plot, many interesting characters. While this is neither my favorite time or place historically, aside from a few slow spots where it seemed to take forever for things to move forward, I really enjoyed this mystery and look forward to the next one in the series. A-
3. DEATH OF AN ENGLISHMAN by Magdalen Nabb. #1 Marshal Guarnaccia mystery, featuring this Carabinieri stationed in Florence, Italy. It's Christmas Eve, the Marshal has a terrible case of flu, and he's planning to head south to visit family for the holidays, but a murdered Englishman who had retired to live there in Italy takes precedence. A somewhat pudgy man with an eye condition that makes them water profusely in any sort of sunlight, the Marshal actually sleeps through much of the beginning stages of the investigation, so wracked with fever is he, and his subordinates do much of the evidence gathering. The Englishman was apparently well-connected politically too, as Scotland Yard sends two detectives to observe and assist where needed, although they aren't officially there. Eventually though, the Marshal is well enough to put his two cents in and solves the case. This was a slim little book, quickly read, although not really that engaging. It was interesting to see how things looked from the Carabinieri side of Italian police work vs. the regular police that I've read about in a couple of other mystery series, but I couldn't really get interested much in any of the characters in this book and found the mystery rather blah. It was an okay read, but not good enough for me to want to pursue further entries in the series, at least for now. C+
4.HERESY by SJ Parris (AUDIO) Set in 1580's Oxford, England, this novel is told from the point of view of real historical figure Giordano Bruno, an excommunicated Italian monk who was sought by the Inquisition for heresy. Known as a poet, philosopher, magician and scientist, in this book he is recruited by Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. Ostensibly in Oxford to participate in a philosophical debate with the Master of one of the colleges, Bruno is also keeping his eyes out for a possible nest of Catholics who are still hoping to unseat Elizabeth from the throne. But a series of puzzling murders featuring members of the college leave Bruno stumped, and he must investigate on the sly so as not to arouse further suspicion against himself, already being a foreigner and known for some of his heretical views. Unsure of whom he can trust (and sometimes choosing unwisely) he ventures from one theory to the next while trying to determine if the murders have anything to do with the Catholics' plot against Elizabeth or are something else altogether, often placing himself in grave danger along the way. This was an excellent book, and I'm hoping that it will become a series. The way it ended certainly left it open for another episode. The reader was excellent, using a wide variety of accents and distinct voices that made it easy to tell who was speaking. The historical atmosphere and sense of place was wonderfully evocative and the mystery was interesting as well--although I had my suspicions about the bad guy, there were plenty of plot twists that kept it interesting. Very well done! A.
5. MISS ZUKAS AND THE STROKE OF DEATH by Jo Dereske. #3 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma. a librarian in fictional small-town Washington State, is called by her friend Ruth who finds a dead body in the alley behind her house. Of course it was someone Ruth had seen in a bar earlier the same day, and was heard threatening him because he was bothering her. Ruth doesn't know who he is, and though she's under suspicion, stolidly maintains her innocence. Helma must once again contact Chief Gallant to see if he will leak any information that will help them figure out who did kill the man--a despicable being, from everything they've been able to learn. Helma must also decide whether to join the library's team in the annual Slope to Surf race--a five-part race involving downhill and cross-country skiing, canoeing, running and kayaking. The person doing the canoe part of the race can't participate and Helma does have experience as a paddler--and a gorgeous canoe handmade by her uncle back in Michigan when she was a teenager. But she's really not keen on competition and fears the changes being part of such a group would make in her usually solitary life, which she finds mostly satisfactory. The mystery wasn't much of a surprise, but the ending was! It will be interesting to see if this particular incident is mentioned again sometime in the future. I like Helma and the cast of interesting secondary characters and I find this quite a satisfying series given that it's mostly what you'd call a cozy--although there is a bit of an edge at times and some hidden, unexpected off-color humor too. Looking forward to the next one! A-
6. A PLACE OF SAFETY by Caroline Graham. #6 in the Chief Inspector Barnaby series, which was adapted for TV as the "Midsomer Murder" series. (I still haven't seen any of them!) Barnaby and Sgt. Troy are off to the village of Ferne Bassett, where a local gardener/handyman's body has been found dead, his dog having been discovered earlier in the day, severely beaten and barely alive. While no one in the village liked Charlie Leathers--including his wife--it's uncertain who would dislike him enough to murder him. As we meet each of the players in the village drama--the tormented children's author and his recently-divorced sister, the local (sort of) vicar who (along with his much younger wife) takes in troubled teens and several others--we find that village life isn't as idyllic as is often portrayed. Each person has secrets, resentments, shattered dreams and broken hearts--but how do they tie into Leathers' murder, and the disappearance of young Carlotta Ryan, one of the troubled teens? Leathers was certainly blackmailing someone, but who? And is it related to his murder, or is there something else happening below the surface? This series has quite a few thins that make it somewhat atypical of your usual police mystery--telling the story from the point of view of many of the various characters, for one thing, and setting the scene very firmly before ever introducing the police for another. It does get a bit long-winded sometimes with the emotional descriptions of each person's despair and problems and petty resentments built up over a lifetime, but I suppose those are somewhat necessary to help understand the motivations of the characters. The mystery wasn't much of one, but I do like Tom Barnaby and his family, and even and his sour-puss Sgt. Troy too. The series tends to be kind of hit or miss (there were a couple of earlier books that I barely made it through) but I did enjoy this one quite a lot. Only one more left in the series, and I will look forward to it--then I can feel free to watch the TV series based on these characters. B+
7. STALKED by Brian Freeman. #3 Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial mystery. Thankfully, the story takes place back in Duluth, Stride's hometown, where he's decided to return after a brief stint in Las Vegas. Serena has accompanied him and they are settling into life again on the shores of Lake Superior. Stride's former detective partner Maggie is accused of murdering her husband, and though he must recuse himself from working the case officially, he is convinced of her innocence despite the damning evidence and looks into things in his spare time, thus ticking off the detective in charge of the case--who also happens to be the person Stride bumped out of the head of detectives job when he moved back to Duluth. Meanwhile, Serena, now working as a private investigator, is hired by the local district attorney to uncover a blackmailer. When the two cases begin intersecting, it leads to clues in several cold cases, and some hot new ones--more disappearances and deaths with tendrils curling into several prominent people's lives. To be honest, this wasn't all that much of a thriller, per se. I thought the main solution was fairly obvious, and also thought there was way too much coincidental linking of the cases and too much bizarre stuff going on to be really believable. There was also a lot of what I'd call gratuitous sex stuff that wasn't really germane to the cases. I'm not a prude of any sort, but sex for the sake of it within a mystery is kind of....well, boring. I rolled my eyes a lot. I also thought that Serena, now that she was a private detective, fell into the amateur sleuth trap of doing Really Stupid Things. Frequently. If it weren't for Freeman's atmospheric portrayal of Minnesota, and Duluth in particular, I'm not sure if I would have finished it or not. I do like Stride and the secondary characters too, and because I already have the next couple of books I'm sure I'll read them. I'm just not as enthusiastic as I once was. C+
9. IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY by Rhys Bowen. #6 in the Molly Murphy historical series set in early 1900's New York. This episode takes Molly back across the sea to her homeland, having been hired by a rich theatre producer to see if she can trace his long-lost sister. He hadn't known of her existence until his mother confessed on her deathbed that she had left the baby, who had become ill, in the care of a priest. There's little hope of finding the now-fifty-year-old woman, but the man is paying well, and Molly needs the money. She also needs to have some time away from Captain Daniel Sullivan, so she boards the very ship she came across on two years previously and sails for Ireland. Before the boat even leaves, the famous actress Oona Sheehan whom Molly had met briefly at the party where she met the producer, approaches her and asks Molly to take her place for the duration of the voyage so that she can enjoy some much-needed privacy and rest from the constant adulation of her fans. It looks like easy money to Molly--a hundred dollars!--for living the week of the crossing in luxury. But the murder of Oona's maid Rose only a day out from Ireland leaves Molly reeling, and near the top of the suspect list, since Oona herself apparently left the ship moments before it sailed. Once in Ireland, Molly sets about her task and even manages to enjoy being back in her homeland, until her search for MaryAnn Burke gets her entangled in a complicated political plot which puts her seriously in harm's way from several directions. I liked this book better than the last one--since she was out of New York and away from Capt. Sullivan, there was less of the romance and more of the mystery and the setting of Ireland was a nice change, too. I like this author's writing style and I like Molly, too. A.
10. CHARLIE BONE AND THE RED KNIGHT by Jenny Nimmo. (AUDIO) This seems to be the last in the Charlie Bone "Children of the Red King" young adult fantasy series, and it was definitely a winner with all of the loose ends tied up nicely. Charlie's parents are still off on their second honeymoon, his friend Billy Raven has been captured by the evil enchanter Harken and trapped in Badlock, and Charlie must find a way to rescue him--and then discovers that his parents may be in danger as "Dagbert the Drowner's" father is in town, probably to do harm to the Bones by causing a disturbance in the sea. Charlie and his friends are also looking for a box that holds the Red King's true will, which leaves his true heir (believed to be Billy Raven, NOT Ezekiel Bloor!) as the owner of Bloor's Academy as well as much other property and wealth. Charlie and his friends are fighting the evil heirs of the Red King with all their magic and might on several fronts, and are helped in the background by the Red Knight--a mysteries figure that no one knows the identity of. As all the different threads begin coming together towards an exciting conclusion, Charlie and his friends' lives are hanging in the balance. Very well done, enjoyable end to this series. I'm now going to have to seek out more books by this author, as she's got a couple of other series that were written before this one. Highly recommended, but do read these in order, or they won't make much sense. A+
11. THE MIDSUMMER ROSE by Kate Sedley. #13 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery. Mid-summer is approaching and Roger the Chapman is on the road, peddling his wares across rural England. Just a few miles from home, he's crossing the river with a ferryman and realizes he is near an abandoned home that his first wife had told him about--a strange murder had taken place there fifty years before and was haunted. He decides to take a look in before heading home, and ends up witnessing a stabbing, and is then clonked on the head and thrown in the river--rescued only because his leather jerkin kept him afloat so he didn't drown before the ferryman could pull him out. At first people believe he was hallucinating, his overactive mind making up things related to the old murder. But when a body turns up in the river a week later, Roger is vindicated, although it's awhile before he knows who it was who committed that murder. When another man related to the case turns up dead and a friend of Roger's is implicated, he redoubles his efforts to meddle in the law's affairs and do their job for the lazy Sheriff. And what is Timothy Plummer, spymaster to the royal family, doing in town in disguise? Is there another political plot afoot? I really enjoy this series. Roger is one of my favorite fictional historical characters and his well-fleshed secondary characters are great, too. Very atmospheric writing that puts you in the time and place with the descriptions of sounds, smells and attitudes, too. Excellent visit as usual, although these do become a bit predictable after awhile. B+
12. ALICE I HAVE BEEN by Melanie Benjamin. (AUDIO) Her interest captured by a photograph of young Alice Liddell, the 'real' Alice that Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson) based his Wonderland books on, dressed as a beggar girl and really looking nothing like the blonde and immaculate Alice who tumbled down a rabbit hole, the author sets out to make up a story about what Alice Liddell's life has been like. An 80-year-old Alice looks back and tells of her childhood growing up in Oxford where her father was Dean of Christ Church College, and she and her sisters were brought up in the strict Victorian fashion of the day. It tells how Dodgson told the story of Alice verbally to the Liddell girls, and how she begged him to write it down, and of the impact it had on her life. She bounces around in time from her 80-year-old self, to a giddy young woman in love, to an older married woman watching her sons go off to war, and back time and again to the young Alice, in awe of and often at odds with the rest of the world. I listened eagerly to the first parts of the book, but found that it did bog down somewhat in the middle and had to take a break from it. Samantha Eggar narrates and does a truly wonderful job of capturing the perfect Victorian tone for Alice's narration and does an excellent job with the other voices as well. I'm glad I did go back to listening as the last few discs once again picked up the pace and finished off a truly wonderful story. Highly recommend this, especially if you are a fan of Lewis Carroll's works. A.
13. MANDARIN PLAID by SJ Rozan. #3 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series set in New York. This series alternates between Lydia and Bill's point of view, and this is a "Lydia" book. Hired to make a ransom drop--$50,000 for the return of some sketches of exclusive clothing design items for her client Genna Jing's upcoming line called Mandarin Plaid--Lydia is shot at just after the drop takes place and the money disappears. A call to Genna shortly afterwards indicates that it was not the sketch thief who got the money, and Lydia feels she betrayed her client by letting the money be lost. Bill had been watching but chased the shooter (to no avail) and even though the client is now skittish and actually tells them to stop investigating when they apparently get too close to some secret she's harboring, Bill and Lydia carry on, having discovered that a possible suspect in the thefts is now dead. As they get further into the tangled, dangerous web of designer fashion, Lydia and Bill must sort out who stands to gain the most if Mandarin Plaid doesn't hit the runways. There were a few surprising plot twists, but the ultimate solution wasn't much of a surprise to me--which was fine, it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book. On a personal level, Lydia also continues to battle her family's resistance to her profession and her mother's continued attempts to set her up with a "nice Chinese boy" while Lydia struggles with her ever-growing feelings for Bill, whom Lydia's mother refuses to acknowledge and calls "Crooked Face." I enjoy this series a lot, with Lydia caught between the two worlds, never fully at home in either, and yet still being a very strong person doing just what she wishes--except perhaps when it comes to Bill. Looking forward to the next in series. A.
14. THE SINGING SWORD by Jack Whyte. #2 Camulod Chronicles historical Arthurian fantasy. It's 360's A.D. and Publius Varrus, the co-leader of the Colony in the western part of what is now England, faces new challenges as ever-bolder Saxon (and other!) raiders threaten his peaceful home. Together with Caius Britannicus, his brother-in-law, who leads the self-sufficient group with him, he steps up to meet those challenges, which include strengthening their defenses and learning a new way to fight with heavy cavalry. Publius, a blacksmith by trade, begins to attempt to forge a new type of weapon that will serve as sword and spear to soldiers mounted on large warhorses. And always at the back of his mind is the sword he wants to forge, made of the special 'skystone' that fell from the sky in the previous book, the perfect weapon that would be his life's work. Meanwhile, his daughters are growing up and their friend and neighbor to the north, Ullic Pendragon, comes calling asking for an unheard-of allegiance between his Celts and the Roman Britons, forged in a marriage between Veronica, Publius' daughter, and Uric, Ullic's son. Throughout this time, the Colony sets out building a large hill fort to keep their people safe in the face of increasing raids and violence, which is completed and christened Camulod. Spanning several years, this book in the series sets things up for the actual time of Arthur--at the end of this book, Uther Pendragon (Veronica and Uric's son) and Caius Merlyn Brittanicus (son of Ullic's sister Enid and Picus Britannicus, Caius' son) are mere infants, having been born at exactly the same time. Wonderful book, enjoyable story--not all pleasant as there is plenty of violence and death which was appropriate for the times--and with interesting historical detail. I'm looking forward to the next one very much. A.
15. THE WIDOWER'S TWO-STEP by Rick Riordan. (AUDIO) #2 in the Tres Navarre PI series set in Texas. Tres, with his PhD in English, is using his degree in the way many English majors do--by doing something totally unrelated to their studies. He's almost got enough hours logged in with his mentor to apply for an official Private Investigator's license when a person he's staking out is shot right while he's (supposed to be) watching. Julie Kearns was a fiddle player, suspected of stealing the demo tape of an up and coming country singer, Miranda Daniels--and now she's dead. Tres's boss is not happy with him and asks him to think seriously about whether he wants to continue in this line of work. He thinks it's in his blood--his father, Jackson Navarre II, was Sheriff for many years. His mother sets up an (unwanted) interview with a local university where he would be able to teach and use the degree he earned back in California, but he has now been drawn fully into the case of the fiddle player's death, and the intrigue of who really did steal the demo tape. More bodies stack up, Miranda's manager has disappeared off the face of the earth, and Tres isn't such which way to look for suspects. Eventually things get solved--and I admit to being totally surprised by the plot twist at the end. I really like Tres, with his literary references, yet he's very much down to earth and not at all a stuffed shirt. The secondary characters are great too, from his siren mother with her toy boy boyfriend, his wheelchair-bound, pot-smoking brother Garrett, to his friend Ralph, who seems to be somewhat of a gangster with the Mexican mob. The audio version was well-done, narrated by Tom Stechshulte, who did a variety of voices skillfully, such that I was just able to picture the speaker right in my head by listening. Enjoyable second entry and very much looking forward to the next. A.
16. MURDER IN THE RAW by C.S. Challinor. #2 Rex Graves mystery. Rex, a Scottish lawyer, is off to the Caribbean at the behest of the Winslows, owners of the inn where he stayed the Christmas before and solved a murder. It seems one of their guests, a famous French actress, has disappeared into thin air and they'd like Rex to look into things since the gendarmerie on the island don't seem very interested. Rex agrees, and then they mention, "Oh, by the way--this resort is a naturalist resort." (i.e., a nudist colony!) Rex arrives and before long adjusts somewhat to the nudity, and begins questioning the other resort-goers, most of whom are long-time friends of the Winslows who vacation together each year. Sabine Durand left behind a small fragment of blood-soaked fabric hooked on a rock on the beach, the fragment believed to be from a gauzy cover-up she was seen wearing awhile before she disappeared. The gendarmes think a shark got her, but Rex discovers that Sabine wasn't terribly well-liked, and was known to have flings with men--is her much-older husband the culprit as some believe? This was a quick, light read and despite being relatively cozy, I liked it. The writing is sort of stoic and staid, and the characters a bit clichéd, the mystery itself terribly easy to figure out and predict the outcome, but with the occasional wry humor tucked in to make things interesting, it's very readable. The series reminds me somewhat of the tone and writing style of the Miss Zukas series, which is another series I was kind of surprised that I liked. At any rate, I'm planning to read on to the next one. Not a spectacular read but still quite good, nice to read as my 'bedtime' book before drifting off to la-la land. B.
17. THE DRAGONS OF ARCHENFIELD by Edward Marston. #3 Domesday medieval mystery series set across England in the 1080's. Ralph Delchard, a knight, and Gervase Bret, a lawyer, travel across England with their retinue resolving land disputes and investigating claims and set tax rates for the Conqueror. In this instance they are going to Archenfield, near the Welsh border, where resentments among the Welsh still run high against the Norman conquerors as well as the Saxons. A disputed portion of land is sought by two sworn enemies, but the third man who has claim to it is suddenly burned to death, trapped in his own home with a red dragon carved in the earth and colored with cow's blood from the man's own cow. The red dragon is the symbol of Wales, so nearly everyone thinks the murder was done by Welsh insurrectionists, but the man got along peaceably with his neighbors and had no personal squabble with the Welsh, and Ralph and his team feel that the killing had a very personal element to it. Did one of the two men coveting his land kill him so brutally or was it another, more personal, matter? Ralph and Gervase are determined to find out, and during their investigation are threatened by both of the powerful landowners and Gervase is captured and tossed in a dungeon--by whom, he doesn't know. I figured out one of the plot twists ahead of time but the main mystery remained a mystery til near the end. I quite enjoy this series, set in one of my favorite historical time periods. I like both Ralph and Gervase, although they are quite different men--and their secondary characters are also now quite familiar. Wonderful period detail, interesting weaving of real historical events with fictionalized details. Excellent as always, looking forward to the next, although they are getting harder to track down--I think the library will need to cough up the next one. A.
18. BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest. This is a historical fantasy/sci-fi book in a sub-genre called Steampunk--which I'd never heard of until a year or so ago. Set in the era where steam power prevailed, and usually featuring lots of cool gadgets and inventions (a la Jules Verne), and alternate history, this is the first entry in this genre I've read, and I have to admit I loved it! Of course, it had the added bonus of also containing zombies. LOL This one is set in Seattle during the Civil War--although in this version, the war carried on into the 1880's. Sixteen years previously, much of the city--then little more than a cow town--was devastated by a machine invented by one Leviticus Blue, the winning entry in a contest to make a device that would cut through hundreds of feet of ice to get at the gold everyone was sure was under Alaska's soil in the Klondike region. Instead, the machine went wild and tore up Seattle's underground, including the vaults of several banks. The money was never found, nor was Blue's body. The Boneshaker unwittingly tapped into a vein of plague-bearing gas which turned those exposed to it into zombies (or 'rotters' as they're called). A huge wall was built to encase the city center where the Boneshaker dug tunnels, and soon those left inside were either zombies or outcasts seeking to avoid them. Except for the mysterious Dr. Minnericht, who was sort of the Godfather down there "inside." Or so Briar Wilkes--once Briar Blue, widow of Levi had heard. Was the incident an accident as Blue proclaimed, or was he deviously trying to get at the bank's money all along? If Briar knows, she's not telling, and sixteen years later, their son Zeke needs to know. He sets off inside the walls to find answers, and Briar heads in after him. Wonderful adventure story full of great gadgets, a wide variety of interesting characters, and penned with an easy-reading style that makes it hard to put down. It looks like there will be more books in this style/series called The Clockwork Century, although it doesn't look like the next one features these same characters. I will definitely be reading it, though, and looking for more Steampunk too. A+
Current reads: VEIL OF LIES by Jeri Westerson, THE FLANDERS PANEL by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and listening to MISSING MARK by Julie Kramer.
Cheryl
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
June 2010
1. A BAD DAY FOR SORRY by Sophie Littlefield. #1 Stella Hardesty series, featuring a 50-ish widow who owns a sewing shop in small town in rural Missouri. Sounds like a nice new cozy series, right? Um...well....not exactly. Stella has a side business--an unofficial business--of paying men who abuse their wives "visits" to help them realize they need to be nice. She put up with 30 years of abuse herself before (shall we say) embracing widowhood and resolving to help other women who are in a place she once was. Plumpish, graying and prone to mood swings and hot flashes (we have a lot in common! LOL) she put herself on a 'get in shape' regimen, oiled her guns (ok, so we don't have THAT much in common!) and put the word out. She's helped quite a few women over the past couple of years so when Chrissy Shaw approached her, bruises barely fading, asking her to 'talk to' her ex-husband Roy Dean, Stella does--but then finds she needs to make a second visit when he is spotted being nasty to another girl in a public place. Second visits are something that don't happen often. When Chrissy's toddler, Tucker, goes missing after Stella's second visit, she's certain it was Roy Dean who took him...but it's not even his child, so why would he? Stella sets out to find Tucker, but also notifies the Sheriff, whom she of course has a crush on but can't do anything about it given her sideline. What she discovers is that Roy Dean was involved with some pretty nasty people and she's really hoping that Tucker isn't in their hands. But she and Chrissy are determined to find out. I really enjoyed this book, although I can imagine it may stir up a bit of controversy. I've never been a proponent of violence and I hate guns with a passion, but then, I've never been an abused woman. I find it hard to understand women who let themselves stay in those situations for years, so if I had "met" Stella earlier in her life, I would most likely not have related to her very well. I'm thinking that Stella may help me to understand them a bit better. Now that she's seen the light, however, she's determined to help as many other women as she can and she does so with guts, grit, humor and pragmatism that are hard to argue with. The book was written in an easy-to-read style, and while her secondary characters aren't yet firmed up, I expect that will come along with subsequent books. I'm really looking forward to the next in series. A.
2. JUNKYARD DOGS by Craig Johnson. #6 Walt Longmire mystery series set in Durant, Wyoming. Sheriff Longmire, still gimping around with his bad leg, doesn't fancy chasing up and down the road in constant sub-zero temperatures and a series of Rocky Mountain blizzards, but that's just what he has to do. It starts with a report of the elderly owner of the local junkyard, Geo Stewart, having been towed behind his granddaughter-in-law's car with a rope. (It's a long story! LOL) It ends with Geo's death (among others) a couple of days later and the ride in between is the usual series of bizarre events which include the discovery of a severed thumb in a cooler at the junkyard, Walt's deputy Sancho wanting to quit, his undersheriff Vic trying to buy a house, and Walt himself getting his arse bit by one of Geo's big slobbery junkyard dogs. Is the issue land development, secrets from Geo's past, or something totally different that's kicking off this storm within a storm? I'm not telling! I love this series so much, it's hard to keep my hands off the brand new ones when they come out and then I'm left waiting for the next in eager anticipation. The characters are diverse and well-fleshed, the sense of place that Johnson imparts makes you feel as though you are right in the mountains of Wyoming, and the writing style is easy to read, humorous and yet poignant too. The mystery itself? Well, I had the bad guy spotted fairly early, but there were some doubts as the story went on, and I certainly hadn't guessed the backstory or real motive...just my gut telling me "That's the guy!" If you haven't read this series, I highly recommend it--but do read them in order. While the book stands on its own merit, it will make more sense if you read them in order. A+
3. IN A STRANGE CITY by Laura Lippman. (AUDIO) #6 Tess Monaghan, PI series set in Baltimore. This book focused on Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Baltimore, and his museum, memorabilia, and mostly the famous cloaked, anonymous "visitor" who stops by every year with roses and cognac for his grave. An antiques dealer tries to hire Tess into finding who the visitor is and unmasking him because the visitor has something that belongs to him and the only way he can get it is to threaten him with exposure. Tess declines, but is curious and she and boyfriend Crow camp out in frigid weather to watch the yearly ritual. But a second visitor--someone dressed nearly identically--shows up and is shot dead by someone also watching. So was the dead man the intended target, or was the real visitor (who disappeared in the aftermath) the one that was meant to be shot? And what was the motive, in either case? When the dead man is revealed to be a gay man, the press (including an old acquaintance of Tess's) try to tie it in to another hate crime that occurred a few weeks previously. Tess, now fully interested in the case but without a real client, digs around anyway--and then she starts getting roses, cognac and letters in an antique-looking font with clues as to where she needs to go. Tess begins educating herself in Poe lore and is hot on the trail before long. I enjoyed this audio production, although sometimes the reader's (Barbara Rosenblat) voice annoys me. I've gotten used to her, but she often slurs, squeaks and sounds all around as though she's had a couple too many drinks. Still, she does capture Tess's spirit I think, and does a good job with the different voices. I have come to really enjoy this series, and this entry was special as Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite authors and his poem Alone, which is among my top five all time favorites, featured heavily in the mystery. The only detriment was that sometimes this book did get bogged down somewhat in all the Poe history and stuff--if it wasn't something you were interested in, it could have really been a slog, I think. Also, the bad guy was ridiculously easy to spot, and towards the end I wanted to smack Tess because she was being so stupid about not figuring it out. But this happens to me fairly often and it didn't really detract too much from the story. Looking forward to the next! A-
4. A SMALL SACRIFICE by Ellen Hart. #5 Jane Lawless mystery, featuring the lesbian restaurateur from Minneapolis. In this book, Jane's friend Cordelia figures more heavily as it involves a group of theatre friends Cordelia has known since college days. The first part of the book takes place in 1972 to provide the backstory, and then moves to 1994 (when the book was written) at a reunion of the group. Diana, the member who made it the biggest, has bought an old church in a small town in Wisconsin and rehabilitated it into a theatre. The problem is, Diana needs a bit of rehab herself--her lifelong love of alcohol has fried her liver and her physician has given her only a year to live if she doesn't reform. Orson, another of the group, contacts all the former members and proposes that they do an "intervention" with the help of a trained psychiatrist and get her into a rehab program. Cordelia agrees somewhat reluctantly to participate, putting her own rehearsal schedule in her assistant's hands for a few days to attend the grand opening of the theatre, after which the intervention is to occur. When another of the group, Theo, ends up dead before that can happen, Cordelia calls Jane (who knows most of the group members, if only slightly) and given her past sleuthing history, asks her to come up and poke her nose in--it's being called a heart attack, but seems very suspicious. I was a little puzzled by the relationship between these group members--they are touted as the best of friends, but almost all of the relationships within them as well as the group dynamic itself was very negative and stormy with a lot more prickliness and aggravation than friendship displayed. I can't imagine wanting to willingly be part of such a group. Of course a group that made nice and was happy and without conflict wouldn't have made much of a story and there wouldn't be a reason for murder I guess, but all that tension got hard to read about after awhile. The mystery itself couldn't really be figured out until later in the book when the clues started dropping, although I did make some fairly reasonable guesses early on. I like these characters, but this wasn't my favorite in the series--hope that Jane is back at the forefront in the next book. B-
5. THE OUTCAST DOVE by Sharan Newman. #9 Catherine LeVendeur mystery set in medieval France. Actually in this book, Catherine doesn't figure much at all except for the fact that she is related to some of the players--Solomon, her cousin, is the main character in this one. He is traveling around as usual as a merchant, but it's more precarious than usual. Solomon is a Jew, and things are getting more tough and more restrictive for the Jews. Catherine, a Christian, keeps secret the fact that Solomon is her cousin--officially he is her husband Edgar's business partner and nothing more. She isn't ashamed of him but keeps their association minimal for the sake of their family, as there is real danger in even being associated with Jews. Catherine's father used to run the business but decided to renounce the Christianity he had been raised in and go back to his Jewish roots, and is now studying as a scholar. On this trip, Solomon not only encounters his uncle Hubert (Catherine's father) but also his real father, James--a Christian convert who is rabidly attempting to convert other Jews, or to condemn them, and Jehan, a knight who was formerly acquainted with the LeVendeurs in Paris and now hires out as a mercenary/guard. When a young monk is brutally beaten and a teenage Jewish girl disappears, the authorities suspect and question several members of the Jewish community, and Catherine's family's lives are in mortal danger. She knows little of this, as she is back in Paris, heavy with child, with Edgar at her side instead of accompanying Solomon on this trip. It's funny, in the foreward the author mentions Catherine's absence and says she knows those who love the series will miss her--I actually didn't! I like Solomon much better. I love this series in general, but Catherine wears on my nerves after awhile, so it was actually refreshing not to have her in the book. There's only one more in this series, and I plan to finish it off before the end of the year. B+
6. SHOOT TO THRILL by P.J. Tracy. (AUDIO) #5 "Monkeewrench" mystery set in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and featuring MPD homicide detectives Rolseth and Magozzi and the Monkeewrench computer team. Monkeewrench--a very computer saavy bunch who operate somewhat outside the law for the greater good--has been asked by the FBI to assist in tracking down a killer or killers who are posting video of their kills on the web. Their own crack squad can't find anything, so they aren't above seeking outside help when needed.So far, five victims in five cities killed in five different ways make them believe the murders are being committed by different people and are only related by the complex web of secret servers and routing methods that hide their real identity. But when Rolseth and Magozzi get called out to a body found in the Mississippi River (which first appears to be a drunken drag queen who fell in the river and drowned) that ends up as the sixth case, they begin working with Monkeewrench (Grace, Harley, Annie and RoadRunner) and FBI agent John Smith, who has been assigned to the case from Washington. Is there a connection between the murders? Of course there is. I have to admit that I was disappointed in this latest book in one of my favorite mystery series. It started out strong but kind of fizzled out after awhile when the bad guy became rather obvious (at least to me) and there was a lot of ranting from various people (but especially Rolseth) about the evils of the Internet. I also have to admit I wasn't crazy about the narrator for this book. His female voices sounded very fake, there wasn't much differentiation between some of the male voices, and none of the characters sounded even remotely like they were from Minnesota. I have enjoyed the previous books in the series quite a lot, but perhaps in part because I'd been waiting so long for this installment in the series, I felt let down by the cobbled-together plot and the mediocre narration. It was good to visit with old friends, though. B-
7. KUSHIEL'S AVATAR by Jacqueline Carey. Third in the fantasy trilogy featuring Phédre nó Delauney, set in a world much like Renaissance Europe. Phédre is an anguissette, a bearer of pain, marked by two demi-gods, the cruel Kushiel and the loving Naamah. Queen of the Courtesans, she now travels through the equivalent of Europe and the Middle East with her consort Jocelin (a former Casseline monk) and a small and varying band of trusted guides on a two-fold mission. The first is to learn the true Name of God so that it can be spoken on Three Sisters Island to break the curse her childhood friend Hyacinthe bears, leaving him trapped on the Island as Master of the Straits. The second is quite a surprise--she is summoned by Melisande Shahrizai, her arch-enemy (and also her most compelling patron) who betrayed not only Phédre herself but all of Terre d'Ange, seeing many good friends killed. Melisande's son Imriel, having been kept hidden in secret has disappeared and she wants Phédre to find him. This journey leads them into mortal danger and to the dark, hopeless, evil place where she and Jocelin must free Imriel, perhaps at the cost of their own lives. This is a wonderful conclusion to the entire series, in a richly woven world with many outstanding characters. Although this is a door-stopper of a book, it reads much more quickly than you'd think due to the excellent writing style and storytelling ability of the author. I let myself get totally sucked into the realm and was not disappointed with the ending--although the series does continue in the same world with more trilogies, the next one featuring Imriel. I can't say too much without giving away a lot of spoilers, but suffice it to say, this book (and series) is highly recommended, although you really must start at the beginning with Kushiel's Dart. A+
8. AFTERMATH by Peter Robinson. (AUDIO) #12 Chief Inspector Alan Banks series set in Yorkshire, UK. Banks has moved up the ranks temporarily in this book, filling in for his boss who is out on a medical leave, and he's finding he doesn't like those shoes much, sleeping poorly and worrying incessantly. Working on the Chameleon Killer case involving the disappearance and apparent abduction of several blonde teenage girls, Alan has the killer land in his lap when a 999 call from a neighbor reporting a domestic incident leads a patrol car to the home of Terrance and Lucy Payne. PC Janet Taylor nearly beats Terrance to death when he attacks her partner with a machete. Lucy Payne, bruised and dazed is carted off to hospital, but it's what's in the basement that gets Alan involved--the dead body of the most recently-abducted girl, staked out on a mattress, with several others found buried in a side room. But as the case progresses, Banks finds he's not satisfied with things, and wonders if Lucy Payne was complicit in the crimes, or if she was really as ignorant of her husband's activities downstairs as she claims to be. Payne is in a coma and unable to talk, and Lucy has latched onto her doctor's mention of "retrograde amnesia" and "post traumatic stress" and is being less than cooperative, egged on by her neighbor Maggie, who is also an abused wife who escaped from her husband back in Canada. And if Payne is the Chameleon Killer, there's a body missing. Banks' personal life also takes several interesting twists, which I won't comment much on so as not to give away spoilers. I've already read the next book in this series--it was the first Banks book I read, and after doing so decided to go back to the beginning and do it properly--which was also very excellent. I like the reader for this series although his voices of the different characters aren't always really distinct, but certainly pleasant enough and sets a good tone for the book. Enjoyable, although perhaps a bit long-winded with some needless repetition. B+
9. TEN SECOND STAIRCASE by Christopher Fowler. In this fourth installment involving London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, especially the unit's two elderly icons, Arthur Bryant and John May, the team is fighting for their literal lives as higher-ups plot to close the unit down. Unconventional methods and scads of broken rules and laws are frequently employed by Bryant and May, although their younger co-workers tend to do things a little more conventionally. A controversial artist is murdered right in her own display--fetuses floating in a tank of chemicals--and was reported by one of the children visiting the museum to have been thrown into the tank by a man on horseback wearing a historical costume. Obviously a job for the PCU, especially when The Highwayman (as he comes to be called) kills several more times and leaves them obscure clues until the bunch of them working together manage to piece them together and solve the crimes, as well as an old cold case from earlier in their career that's plagued them for many years. I love this group of eccentric detectives! They all work a little differently, Bryant relying frequently on intuitive reasoning and May taking the more logical, deductive approach. The other members of the group, although featured in less detail, support them well. The mysteries are interesting and bizarre, and there are often ties to historical elements that lead you to learning a lot of cool things without realizing you're doing so. A wild, rollicking, unorthodox trek across London and across time with plenty of laughs and some very poignant moments as well--very enjoyable as always. A.
10. SPEAK DAGGERS TO HER by Rosemary Edghill. #1 in the Bast mystery series, featuring Karen Hightower, a Wiccan living in New York whose magical name is Bast. When Miriam, a friend from the Pagan Community is found by her lover dead at home with no apparent injuries, the lover panics because of some run-ins with the law and calls Bast. A quick perusal of Miriam and her home reveals that she had gotten involved with some questionable practitioners--she's wearing a chicken claw necklace and Bast finds a strange, small book that looks similar to a Catholic missal, but it's written with blood. Things get even stranger when Bast checks her answering machine messages later in the day and finds one from Miriam asking for her help. If not for that, Bast might've been willing to let it slide. The police aren't interested in Miriam's death, her sister in the midwest is estranged from her, and how would you convict someone of causing death magically anyway? For that's what Bast believes has happens and sets out to prove it for her own (and Miriam's) peace. Her searches eventually lead her to Ruslan, who heads a group practicing a form of Russian shamanism that involve drugs, submission and black magic. The few people she tells within her own coven and circle of friends at first don't believe her and then are unwilling to help bring justice for Miriam's death. Bast examines her own beliefs and practices as she decides how she will proceed. I really enjoyed this book, first of all because it's realistic (although, written in the mid-90's, a bit dated) and doesn't treat the idea of Witches and Pagans as a "para"normal thing, but as a real system of beliefs and practices--which it is. I like Bast, I liked her grasp on the whole Pagan Community and I loved the sense of place the author imparted--this is New York, yes, but New York seen from a Pagan point of view. Unfortunately there are only three in this series...fortunately, I have the other two and am looking forward to them! A.
11. THE WINGS OF THE SPHINX by Andrea Camilleri #11 Salvo Montalbano mystery series set in and around Montelusa, Sicily, Italy. A young woman's body is found in a dump, shot through the head with a weapon that caused enough damage to make her face unidentifiable. But she does have a small tattoo of a moth on her left shoulderblade that should make identification a little easier. When Montalbano urges his friend at the TV news station to broadcast the picture though, several calls come in that would seem to indicate that there is a whole fleet of young Russian women out there with this same tattoo. Montalbano, naturally, smells a rat and begins looking to determine what connects these women and hopefully to find which of them is dead by process of elimination. Meanwhile, the Commissioner is breathing down his neck about a high-profile kidnapping case in which there has been no ransom demand from the kidnappers and no contact. Montalbano also is (as often is the case) contemplating his relationship with Livia, the woman he's been with off and on for years. They have a long-distance relationship which is probably a good thing or it would have been permanently off long ago! He also is enjoying his usual wonderful drool-worthy fresh Italian delights from the local trattorias and his housekeeper Adelia. Great visit to Sicily as always, now caught up (again) and waiting for the next to be released. I know that this author is quite elderly, but I sure hope he keeps writing these for a good long time! A.
12.THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan (AUDIO) This review applies to the audio CD version. This is the first in a new young adult fantasy series called The Kane Chronicles. Sadie and Carter Kane, brother and sister who have lived apart since early childhood when their mother died, are reunited in London. Twelve-year-old Sadie lives there with her maternal grandparents, and fourteen-year-old Carter lives and travels with his father, Julius Kane, a noted Egyptologist. They generally get to visit Sadie only twice a year, and on Christmas Eve, Carter and his father arrive in London to visit, only to be waylaid by several people wanting Mr. Kane's attention rather insistently. Before they know it, he is attempting to summon a god in the Egyptian display at the British Museum, and he vanishes in a flash of light. Then all heck breaks loose as Egyptian gods and goddesses begin coming to life and fighting their ancient wars and battles all over again. Carter and Sadie find out that one of the men who met with their father is their uncle, and that they are of a royal bloodline, descended from the Pharaohs of Egypt. They also discover why they were separated when their mother died--their magical powers 'do' things when combined together that aren't always pleasant. As they travel (not always in this world) across country, they learn more about their parents, their magical heritage, and about their mother's death, and must step up to the plate to help save the world. Okay. I loved the Percy Jackson series. This one, I'm not so sure about. There were two readers, one male and one female, and neither one of them were what I would call spectacular. Sadie, who lived in London most of her life, has a British accent. Carter has an American accent. Both of them sound fakey and contrived at times, and the reading was done as if done by someone on speed...much of the reading was virtually 'yelled' by the reader, especially the female one. It was a fast-paced and action-packed book, but the frenzied pace of the reading meant I had to listen in small chunks and it very nearly gave me a headache. I'm not sure how much my lesser opinion of the book was due to the reader vs. the book itself. The story was interesting, but honestly I was not as enthralled as I was with the Percy Jackson books. These two characters just don't strike a chord with me as much, I guess. It was good, but I think if I continue on, I will read in print rather than listening. C+
13. THE POEMS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE by Edgar Allan Poe This was a re-read for me of an illustrated version of the author's poetry works, which contain two of my favorite all-time poems, The Raven and especially Alone. How do you critique poetry? I dunno. It's not my favored form of communication, but when I like it, I really like it. And I do I like Poe's stuff, although I'm not always in the mood for it, especially the overly dramatic, romanticized parts. Still, I recommend reading at least a few of his poems if you've never done so. B+
14.U IS FOR UNDERTOW by Sue Grafton. #21 in the Kinsey Millhone "alphabet" mysteries. Kinsey is approached by a young man who thinks he may have seen something related to a twenty-year-old kidnapping case. He went to the police and Kinsey's detective buddy referred him to her. Michael Sutton was only six when he saw two guys who he thought were dressed as pirates burying something in the backyard of the neighbor to a friend his mother had sent him to visit. He's sure this was around the same time a six year old girl was kidnapped, and reading about it in the local paper triggered the memory. Kinsey investigates, and the case intrigues her--much of what Sutton reports checks out and is plausible, until they find the spot and a dead dog's body is discovered there, not a little girl's. Case closed. Or is it? Things continue to niggle in Kinsey's mind and she keeps checking things out, only to discover that Sutton may not be a reliable witness at all, given his history. She feels taken in but still can't help believe the core of his story and won't put it totally aside just yet. Kinsey also has to deal with some personal issues relating to her family--the family she didn't even know she had until a few years previously, most notably her grandmother whom she'd always believed was indifferent to her and now finds out this may not be the case. This is one of the few 'bestseller' type series I'm into, and that I've stayed caught up with. Some are better than others, but Kinsey has remained one of my favorite fictional characters of all time over the years, stuck as she is in the 1980's before things were made easy for private eyes by computers, electronic records and instant communication. Kinsey has to do things the hard way. I liked this entry in the series a lot, with an intriguing story with a couple of interesting twists, although the story was fairly plainly spelled out as it was told from the point of view of several of the players in the drama. Enjoyable! A.
Current Reads: PRETTY IN INK by Karen E. Olson, BONE RATTLER by Eliot Pattison and listening to HERESY by SJ Parris.
Cheryl
2. JUNKYARD DOGS by Craig Johnson. #6 Walt Longmire mystery series set in Durant, Wyoming. Sheriff Longmire, still gimping around with his bad leg, doesn't fancy chasing up and down the road in constant sub-zero temperatures and a series of Rocky Mountain blizzards, but that's just what he has to do. It starts with a report of the elderly owner of the local junkyard, Geo Stewart, having been towed behind his granddaughter-in-law's car with a rope. (It's a long story! LOL) It ends with Geo's death (among others) a couple of days later and the ride in between is the usual series of bizarre events which include the discovery of a severed thumb in a cooler at the junkyard, Walt's deputy Sancho wanting to quit, his undersheriff Vic trying to buy a house, and Walt himself getting his arse bit by one of Geo's big slobbery junkyard dogs. Is the issue land development, secrets from Geo's past, or something totally different that's kicking off this storm within a storm? I'm not telling! I love this series so much, it's hard to keep my hands off the brand new ones when they come out and then I'm left waiting for the next in eager anticipation. The characters are diverse and well-fleshed, the sense of place that Johnson imparts makes you feel as though you are right in the mountains of Wyoming, and the writing style is easy to read, humorous and yet poignant too. The mystery itself? Well, I had the bad guy spotted fairly early, but there were some doubts as the story went on, and I certainly hadn't guessed the backstory or real motive...just my gut telling me "That's the guy!" If you haven't read this series, I highly recommend it--but do read them in order. While the book stands on its own merit, it will make more sense if you read them in order. A+
3. IN A STRANGE CITY by Laura Lippman. (AUDIO) #6 Tess Monaghan, PI series set in Baltimore. This book focused on Edgar Allan Poe, who lived in Baltimore, and his museum, memorabilia, and mostly the famous cloaked, anonymous "visitor" who stops by every year with roses and cognac for his grave. An antiques dealer tries to hire Tess into finding who the visitor is and unmasking him because the visitor has something that belongs to him and the only way he can get it is to threaten him with exposure. Tess declines, but is curious and she and boyfriend Crow camp out in frigid weather to watch the yearly ritual. But a second visitor--someone dressed nearly identically--shows up and is shot dead by someone also watching. So was the dead man the intended target, or was the real visitor (who disappeared in the aftermath) the one that was meant to be shot? And what was the motive, in either case? When the dead man is revealed to be a gay man, the press (including an old acquaintance of Tess's) try to tie it in to another hate crime that occurred a few weeks previously. Tess, now fully interested in the case but without a real client, digs around anyway--and then she starts getting roses, cognac and letters in an antique-looking font with clues as to where she needs to go. Tess begins educating herself in Poe lore and is hot on the trail before long. I enjoyed this audio production, although sometimes the reader's (Barbara Rosenblat) voice annoys me. I've gotten used to her, but she often slurs, squeaks and sounds all around as though she's had a couple too many drinks. Still, she does capture Tess's spirit I think, and does a good job with the different voices. I have come to really enjoy this series, and this entry was special as Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite authors and his poem Alone, which is among my top five all time favorites, featured heavily in the mystery. The only detriment was that sometimes this book did get bogged down somewhat in all the Poe history and stuff--if it wasn't something you were interested in, it could have really been a slog, I think. Also, the bad guy was ridiculously easy to spot, and towards the end I wanted to smack Tess because she was being so stupid about not figuring it out. But this happens to me fairly often and it didn't really detract too much from the story. Looking forward to the next! A-
4. A SMALL SACRIFICE by Ellen Hart. #5 Jane Lawless mystery, featuring the lesbian restaurateur from Minneapolis. In this book, Jane's friend Cordelia figures more heavily as it involves a group of theatre friends Cordelia has known since college days. The first part of the book takes place in 1972 to provide the backstory, and then moves to 1994 (when the book was written) at a reunion of the group. Diana, the member who made it the biggest, has bought an old church in a small town in Wisconsin and rehabilitated it into a theatre. The problem is, Diana needs a bit of rehab herself--her lifelong love of alcohol has fried her liver and her physician has given her only a year to live if she doesn't reform. Orson, another of the group, contacts all the former members and proposes that they do an "intervention" with the help of a trained psychiatrist and get her into a rehab program. Cordelia agrees somewhat reluctantly to participate, putting her own rehearsal schedule in her assistant's hands for a few days to attend the grand opening of the theatre, after which the intervention is to occur. When another of the group, Theo, ends up dead before that can happen, Cordelia calls Jane (who knows most of the group members, if only slightly) and given her past sleuthing history, asks her to come up and poke her nose in--it's being called a heart attack, but seems very suspicious. I was a little puzzled by the relationship between these group members--they are touted as the best of friends, but almost all of the relationships within them as well as the group dynamic itself was very negative and stormy with a lot more prickliness and aggravation than friendship displayed. I can't imagine wanting to willingly be part of such a group. Of course a group that made nice and was happy and without conflict wouldn't have made much of a story and there wouldn't be a reason for murder I guess, but all that tension got hard to read about after awhile. The mystery itself couldn't really be figured out until later in the book when the clues started dropping, although I did make some fairly reasonable guesses early on. I like these characters, but this wasn't my favorite in the series--hope that Jane is back at the forefront in the next book. B-
5. THE OUTCAST DOVE by Sharan Newman. #9 Catherine LeVendeur mystery set in medieval France. Actually in this book, Catherine doesn't figure much at all except for the fact that she is related to some of the players--Solomon, her cousin, is the main character in this one. He is traveling around as usual as a merchant, but it's more precarious than usual. Solomon is a Jew, and things are getting more tough and more restrictive for the Jews. Catherine, a Christian, keeps secret the fact that Solomon is her cousin--officially he is her husband Edgar's business partner and nothing more. She isn't ashamed of him but keeps their association minimal for the sake of their family, as there is real danger in even being associated with Jews. Catherine's father used to run the business but decided to renounce the Christianity he had been raised in and go back to his Jewish roots, and is now studying as a scholar. On this trip, Solomon not only encounters his uncle Hubert (Catherine's father) but also his real father, James--a Christian convert who is rabidly attempting to convert other Jews, or to condemn them, and Jehan, a knight who was formerly acquainted with the LeVendeurs in Paris and now hires out as a mercenary/guard. When a young monk is brutally beaten and a teenage Jewish girl disappears, the authorities suspect and question several members of the Jewish community, and Catherine's family's lives are in mortal danger. She knows little of this, as she is back in Paris, heavy with child, with Edgar at her side instead of accompanying Solomon on this trip. It's funny, in the foreward the author mentions Catherine's absence and says she knows those who love the series will miss her--I actually didn't! I like Solomon much better. I love this series in general, but Catherine wears on my nerves after awhile, so it was actually refreshing not to have her in the book. There's only one more in this series, and I plan to finish it off before the end of the year. B+
6. SHOOT TO THRILL by P.J. Tracy. (AUDIO) #5 "Monkeewrench" mystery set in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and featuring MPD homicide detectives Rolseth and Magozzi and the Monkeewrench computer team. Monkeewrench--a very computer saavy bunch who operate somewhat outside the law for the greater good--has been asked by the FBI to assist in tracking down a killer or killers who are posting video of their kills on the web. Their own crack squad can't find anything, so they aren't above seeking outside help when needed.So far, five victims in five cities killed in five different ways make them believe the murders are being committed by different people and are only related by the complex web of secret servers and routing methods that hide their real identity. But when Rolseth and Magozzi get called out to a body found in the Mississippi River (which first appears to be a drunken drag queen who fell in the river and drowned) that ends up as the sixth case, they begin working with Monkeewrench (Grace, Harley, Annie and RoadRunner) and FBI agent John Smith, who has been assigned to the case from Washington. Is there a connection between the murders? Of course there is. I have to admit that I was disappointed in this latest book in one of my favorite mystery series. It started out strong but kind of fizzled out after awhile when the bad guy became rather obvious (at least to me) and there was a lot of ranting from various people (but especially Rolseth) about the evils of the Internet. I also have to admit I wasn't crazy about the narrator for this book. His female voices sounded very fake, there wasn't much differentiation between some of the male voices, and none of the characters sounded even remotely like they were from Minnesota. I have enjoyed the previous books in the series quite a lot, but perhaps in part because I'd been waiting so long for this installment in the series, I felt let down by the cobbled-together plot and the mediocre narration. It was good to visit with old friends, though. B-
7. KUSHIEL'S AVATAR by Jacqueline Carey. Third in the fantasy trilogy featuring Phédre nó Delauney, set in a world much like Renaissance Europe. Phédre is an anguissette, a bearer of pain, marked by two demi-gods, the cruel Kushiel and the loving Naamah. Queen of the Courtesans, she now travels through the equivalent of Europe and the Middle East with her consort Jocelin (a former Casseline monk) and a small and varying band of trusted guides on a two-fold mission. The first is to learn the true Name of God so that it can be spoken on Three Sisters Island to break the curse her childhood friend Hyacinthe bears, leaving him trapped on the Island as Master of the Straits. The second is quite a surprise--she is summoned by Melisande Shahrizai, her arch-enemy (and also her most compelling patron) who betrayed not only Phédre herself but all of Terre d'Ange, seeing many good friends killed. Melisande's son Imriel, having been kept hidden in secret has disappeared and she wants Phédre to find him. This journey leads them into mortal danger and to the dark, hopeless, evil place where she and Jocelin must free Imriel, perhaps at the cost of their own lives. This is a wonderful conclusion to the entire series, in a richly woven world with many outstanding characters. Although this is a door-stopper of a book, it reads much more quickly than you'd think due to the excellent writing style and storytelling ability of the author. I let myself get totally sucked into the realm and was not disappointed with the ending--although the series does continue in the same world with more trilogies, the next one featuring Imriel. I can't say too much without giving away a lot of spoilers, but suffice it to say, this book (and series) is highly recommended, although you really must start at the beginning with Kushiel's Dart. A+
8. AFTERMATH by Peter Robinson. (AUDIO) #12 Chief Inspector Alan Banks series set in Yorkshire, UK. Banks has moved up the ranks temporarily in this book, filling in for his boss who is out on a medical leave, and he's finding he doesn't like those shoes much, sleeping poorly and worrying incessantly. Working on the Chameleon Killer case involving the disappearance and apparent abduction of several blonde teenage girls, Alan has the killer land in his lap when a 999 call from a neighbor reporting a domestic incident leads a patrol car to the home of Terrance and Lucy Payne. PC Janet Taylor nearly beats Terrance to death when he attacks her partner with a machete. Lucy Payne, bruised and dazed is carted off to hospital, but it's what's in the basement that gets Alan involved--the dead body of the most recently-abducted girl, staked out on a mattress, with several others found buried in a side room. But as the case progresses, Banks finds he's not satisfied with things, and wonders if Lucy Payne was complicit in the crimes, or if she was really as ignorant of her husband's activities downstairs as she claims to be. Payne is in a coma and unable to talk, and Lucy has latched onto her doctor's mention of "retrograde amnesia" and "post traumatic stress" and is being less than cooperative, egged on by her neighbor Maggie, who is also an abused wife who escaped from her husband back in Canada. And if Payne is the Chameleon Killer, there's a body missing. Banks' personal life also takes several interesting twists, which I won't comment much on so as not to give away spoilers. I've already read the next book in this series--it was the first Banks book I read, and after doing so decided to go back to the beginning and do it properly--which was also very excellent. I like the reader for this series although his voices of the different characters aren't always really distinct, but certainly pleasant enough and sets a good tone for the book. Enjoyable, although perhaps a bit long-winded with some needless repetition. B+
9. TEN SECOND STAIRCASE by Christopher Fowler. In this fourth installment involving London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, especially the unit's two elderly icons, Arthur Bryant and John May, the team is fighting for their literal lives as higher-ups plot to close the unit down. Unconventional methods and scads of broken rules and laws are frequently employed by Bryant and May, although their younger co-workers tend to do things a little more conventionally. A controversial artist is murdered right in her own display--fetuses floating in a tank of chemicals--and was reported by one of the children visiting the museum to have been thrown into the tank by a man on horseback wearing a historical costume. Obviously a job for the PCU, especially when The Highwayman (as he comes to be called) kills several more times and leaves them obscure clues until the bunch of them working together manage to piece them together and solve the crimes, as well as an old cold case from earlier in their career that's plagued them for many years. I love this group of eccentric detectives! They all work a little differently, Bryant relying frequently on intuitive reasoning and May taking the more logical, deductive approach. The other members of the group, although featured in less detail, support them well. The mysteries are interesting and bizarre, and there are often ties to historical elements that lead you to learning a lot of cool things without realizing you're doing so. A wild, rollicking, unorthodox trek across London and across time with plenty of laughs and some very poignant moments as well--very enjoyable as always. A.
10. SPEAK DAGGERS TO HER by Rosemary Edghill. #1 in the Bast mystery series, featuring Karen Hightower, a Wiccan living in New York whose magical name is Bast. When Miriam, a friend from the Pagan Community is found by her lover dead at home with no apparent injuries, the lover panics because of some run-ins with the law and calls Bast. A quick perusal of Miriam and her home reveals that she had gotten involved with some questionable practitioners--she's wearing a chicken claw necklace and Bast finds a strange, small book that looks similar to a Catholic missal, but it's written with blood. Things get even stranger when Bast checks her answering machine messages later in the day and finds one from Miriam asking for her help. If not for that, Bast might've been willing to let it slide. The police aren't interested in Miriam's death, her sister in the midwest is estranged from her, and how would you convict someone of causing death magically anyway? For that's what Bast believes has happens and sets out to prove it for her own (and Miriam's) peace. Her searches eventually lead her to Ruslan, who heads a group practicing a form of Russian shamanism that involve drugs, submission and black magic. The few people she tells within her own coven and circle of friends at first don't believe her and then are unwilling to help bring justice for Miriam's death. Bast examines her own beliefs and practices as she decides how she will proceed. I really enjoyed this book, first of all because it's realistic (although, written in the mid-90's, a bit dated) and doesn't treat the idea of Witches and Pagans as a "para"normal thing, but as a real system of beliefs and practices--which it is. I like Bast, I liked her grasp on the whole Pagan Community and I loved the sense of place the author imparted--this is New York, yes, but New York seen from a Pagan point of view. Unfortunately there are only three in this series...fortunately, I have the other two and am looking forward to them! A.
11. THE WINGS OF THE SPHINX by Andrea Camilleri #11 Salvo Montalbano mystery series set in and around Montelusa, Sicily, Italy. A young woman's body is found in a dump, shot through the head with a weapon that caused enough damage to make her face unidentifiable. But she does have a small tattoo of a moth on her left shoulderblade that should make identification a little easier. When Montalbano urges his friend at the TV news station to broadcast the picture though, several calls come in that would seem to indicate that there is a whole fleet of young Russian women out there with this same tattoo. Montalbano, naturally, smells a rat and begins looking to determine what connects these women and hopefully to find which of them is dead by process of elimination. Meanwhile, the Commissioner is breathing down his neck about a high-profile kidnapping case in which there has been no ransom demand from the kidnappers and no contact. Montalbano also is (as often is the case) contemplating his relationship with Livia, the woman he's been with off and on for years. They have a long-distance relationship which is probably a good thing or it would have been permanently off long ago! He also is enjoying his usual wonderful drool-worthy fresh Italian delights from the local trattorias and his housekeeper Adelia. Great visit to Sicily as always, now caught up (again) and waiting for the next to be released. I know that this author is quite elderly, but I sure hope he keeps writing these for a good long time! A.
12.THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan (AUDIO) This review applies to the audio CD version. This is the first in a new young adult fantasy series called The Kane Chronicles. Sadie and Carter Kane, brother and sister who have lived apart since early childhood when their mother died, are reunited in London. Twelve-year-old Sadie lives there with her maternal grandparents, and fourteen-year-old Carter lives and travels with his father, Julius Kane, a noted Egyptologist. They generally get to visit Sadie only twice a year, and on Christmas Eve, Carter and his father arrive in London to visit, only to be waylaid by several people wanting Mr. Kane's attention rather insistently. Before they know it, he is attempting to summon a god in the Egyptian display at the British Museum, and he vanishes in a flash of light. Then all heck breaks loose as Egyptian gods and goddesses begin coming to life and fighting their ancient wars and battles all over again. Carter and Sadie find out that one of the men who met with their father is their uncle, and that they are of a royal bloodline, descended from the Pharaohs of Egypt. They also discover why they were separated when their mother died--their magical powers 'do' things when combined together that aren't always pleasant. As they travel (not always in this world) across country, they learn more about their parents, their magical heritage, and about their mother's death, and must step up to the plate to help save the world. Okay. I loved the Percy Jackson series. This one, I'm not so sure about. There were two readers, one male and one female, and neither one of them were what I would call spectacular. Sadie, who lived in London most of her life, has a British accent. Carter has an American accent. Both of them sound fakey and contrived at times, and the reading was done as if done by someone on speed...much of the reading was virtually 'yelled' by the reader, especially the female one. It was a fast-paced and action-packed book, but the frenzied pace of the reading meant I had to listen in small chunks and it very nearly gave me a headache. I'm not sure how much my lesser opinion of the book was due to the reader vs. the book itself. The story was interesting, but honestly I was not as enthralled as I was with the Percy Jackson books. These two characters just don't strike a chord with me as much, I guess. It was good, but I think if I continue on, I will read in print rather than listening. C+
13. THE POEMS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE by Edgar Allan Poe This was a re-read for me of an illustrated version of the author's poetry works, which contain two of my favorite all-time poems, The Raven and especially Alone. How do you critique poetry? I dunno. It's not my favored form of communication, but when I like it, I really like it. And I do I like Poe's stuff, although I'm not always in the mood for it, especially the overly dramatic, romanticized parts. Still, I recommend reading at least a few of his poems if you've never done so. B+
14.U IS FOR UNDERTOW by Sue Grafton. #21 in the Kinsey Millhone "alphabet" mysteries. Kinsey is approached by a young man who thinks he may have seen something related to a twenty-year-old kidnapping case. He went to the police and Kinsey's detective buddy referred him to her. Michael Sutton was only six when he saw two guys who he thought were dressed as pirates burying something in the backyard of the neighbor to a friend his mother had sent him to visit. He's sure this was around the same time a six year old girl was kidnapped, and reading about it in the local paper triggered the memory. Kinsey investigates, and the case intrigues her--much of what Sutton reports checks out and is plausible, until they find the spot and a dead dog's body is discovered there, not a little girl's. Case closed. Or is it? Things continue to niggle in Kinsey's mind and she keeps checking things out, only to discover that Sutton may not be a reliable witness at all, given his history. She feels taken in but still can't help believe the core of his story and won't put it totally aside just yet. Kinsey also has to deal with some personal issues relating to her family--the family she didn't even know she had until a few years previously, most notably her grandmother whom she'd always believed was indifferent to her and now finds out this may not be the case. This is one of the few 'bestseller' type series I'm into, and that I've stayed caught up with. Some are better than others, but Kinsey has remained one of my favorite fictional characters of all time over the years, stuck as she is in the 1980's before things were made easy for private eyes by computers, electronic records and instant communication. Kinsey has to do things the hard way. I liked this entry in the series a lot, with an intriguing story with a couple of interesting twists, although the story was fairly plainly spelled out as it was told from the point of view of several of the players in the drama. Enjoyable! A.
Current Reads: PRETTY IN INK by Karen E. Olson, BONE RATTLER by Eliot Pattison and listening to HERESY by SJ Parris.
Cheryl
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