Spuddie's Book Blog

FEBRUARY 2012

2012-02-07T15:39:00.002-06:00

A new month, and moved in to the new apartment, but still with lots to do to get really settled in. Hope to get a bit more reading done this month than last, though!

Oh...I wanted to add that I finally actually *bought* a book, the first since Dec. 30, 2010! There is a wonderful series by Dolores Stewart Riccio about a small group of Wiccan women, the lead character being Cass Shipton. I read what was then the "last" one a few years ago, but last year, discovered that since then she got a new publisher and there are now FOUR more for me to read! I had them all on my wishlist and if I was ever tempted to stray off my resolution for 2011 and buy, it was this book. But I held out til now. I ordered the fifth in the series (The Divine Circle of Ladies Playing With Fire) from Amazon and hope to be enjoying it very soon! :)

1. COOKING UP MURDER by Miranda Bliss (Kindle) (#1 Cooking Class Mystery) Grade: C-/D+ Trying to find a lighter, cozier series to read at bedtime so thought I would give this, the first "Cooking Class Mystery" a try. *sigh* Like so many cozy series, it ended up being mostly a romance with the main female character doing lots of fantasizing and drooling over the main male character. Very stereotypical characters--Annie (main character) has less-than-perfect looks and low self-esteem due to cheating hubby and recent divorce. Her best friend Eve is a vivacious drop dead gorgeous blonde, and the cooking instructor is a hot guy complete with a sexy Scottish accent. (Can you hear my eyes rolling? LOL) The plot and story just didn't have much depth, a cookie-cutter mystery, just boring and predictable...I didn't hate it or the main character, she was so devoid of character that I just didn't care one way or another what happened. I finished it, but I won't be continuing on in the series.

2. THE TWELVE by Stuart Neville (also published as "The Ghosts of Belfast" in the UK) Grade: A While this book is listed as the first in a series featuring Belfast cop Jack Lennon, he is really only introduced minimally here, and former enforcer for the IRA, Gerry Fegan, is the lead character. Haunted by the ghosts of those he killed during his "career," he has been drowning his sorrows in drink since being released from prison nine years previously. Now the twelve ghosts follow him, imploring him to seek justice for them on those who engineered their deaths, even if Gerry is the one who did the deed. As the Irish factions strive to (at least outwardly) settle things politically rather than with the violence of old, Gerry's destruction of some of the former IRA movers and shakers is very ill-timed, and Davy Campbell, an intelligence agent in deep cover close to the current top man, is tasked with finding and silencing Gerry--permanently. Who will find whom first? Stark, haunting and brutally violent, this is not a book for the weak of heart or stomach. But it is a very good book, sucking you into the story from the first paragraph until the surprising ending.

3. THE STATE OF THE ONION by Julie Hyzy (Kindle) (#1 White House Chef mystery) Grade: B In this first "White House Chef" mystery featuring Olivia "Ollie" Paras, assistant executive chef in the presidential residence, we're introduced to the world of not only cooking but also to the behind the scenes world of working at the White House in a normally lower profile job. Ollie, however, seems to have a knack for getting in trouble and begins the story by clobbering an intruder who got by the Secret Service and guards onto the White House grounds--with a silver frying pan she'd had engraved for her boss Henry, the executive chef who will soon be retiring. Things sort of skyrocket and go downhill for Ollie from there as it turns out the man she clobbered wasn't a real bad guy, but someone trying to warn the President of a plot against his life. Against the backdrop of diplomacy and trade/peace negotiations, Henry, Ollie and the rest of the small permanent staff are trying to plan an important state dinner as well as hosting Ollie's rival for the position of executive chef for her audition day. As usual when I start a new cozy series, I start out with a bit of trepidation, because I simply don't like so many of them. This was not bad--a little too much of Ollie's lamenting her rocky relationship with her sometime-boyfriend because I'm never impressed when a main character's mood or self-esteem is tied to a love interest. But the setting I think was unique enough that I quite enjoyed the story and learning about all the things that go into considering cooking for functions at the White House that you normally wouldn't think about. I will definitely read on in the series, and unless it gets to be too formulaic or too romance-bound, it sounds like a pretty good one.

4. A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by Louise Penny (AUDIO) #7 Armand Gamache "Three Pines" mystery) Grade: A+ Another wonderful visit to Three Pines, although there is much hurt and internal strife among Armand Gamache's homicide team with the Surete du Quebec as they all are still attempting to recover from the devastating attack that left both Armand and his second, Jean-Guy Beauvior, seriously injured. And another body found in Three Pines, in the garden of Clara and Peter Morrow the morning after a party celebrating Clara's solo art show in Montreal dampens things even further. Though not recognized immediately, it's later determined that the victim was a childhood friend of Clara's, which leaves her at the top of the suspect list, at least theoretically. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio production of the book which was well-read, and the story itself was interesting too. Most of all though, I love this series for the village of Three Pines itself and for the eccentric, well-defined characters, and for the ongoing development in the main characters' lives. Definitely among my top ten favorite series.

5. WHAT REMAINS OF HEAVEN by C.S. Harris #5 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery. Grade: A+ Another excellent entry in this historical series set in the 1810's in London. A bishop is murdered, struck down in a crypt that had been blocked up 30 years previously--and when the bishop's body is discovered, another body--also murdered--is found nearby. The Archbishop of London, well aware of Viscount Devlin (Sebastian St. Cyr) and his knack for solving difficult murders, implores him (with the help of his aunt, whom he dotes on) to find the killer. Sebastian is intrigued by the case, given the older dead body too. As he investigates, he discovers some troubling things about his own past and also again encounters Miss Hero Jarvis nosing around the case too--she even had a meeting with the Bishop shortly before he went off to the village where he was killed. This series is well-written, well-plotted, and has engaging characters, as well as a real sense of place and time in history. It's fast becoming one of my favorite historical series although it falls much later in time than my main interest. Highly recommended!

6. THE BODY ON THE BEACH by Simon Brett (AUDIO) #1 "Fethering" mystery. Grade A- First in a series set in Fethering on the south coast of England, featuring Carole Seddon, a fifty-something retired woman. I wasn't sure I was going to finish this when I first started it--Carole started out as an insufferable prig, concerned only with 'what the neighbors think' but after a bit she started loosening up and by the end was almost human. Walking her dog along the beach early one morning, Carole discovers a dead body washed up on shore. She reports this to the police but when they go to check it out, it's disappeared and they obviously think her some hysterical menopausal freak. Together with her new neighbor Jude, a much more relaxed and easy-going person, they begin to investigate where the body might have gone--as well as who it was and whodunit, of course. As mentioned, at first I was dubious about this main character, but by about a third of the way through I actually started to enjoy the story and finished it up in one day. The mystery wasn't difficult to figure out ahead, but that is often the case for me, so not really an issue. The reader was excellent, which helped too. Definitely going to move forward in the series.

Currently reading:

A DEADLY PENANCE by Maureen Ash (Kindle) #6 Bascot de Marins medieval "Templar Knight" mystery

THE MIND'S EYE by Håkan Nesser (AUDIO) (#1 Inspector Van Veeteren mystery)

OTHER GODS by Barbara Reichmuth Geisler (#1 Averiallan Chronicles historical mystery)

Cheryl

January 2012

2012-01-11T12:22:00.003-06:00

My gosh, it's the second week of January and I haven't updated yet! I have read a few books, but am packing to move at the end of the month, so reviews are going to be very sketchy if they are forthcoming at all.

Top news: I met my 2011 Book Resolution--not to purchase for money ANY books during the year! Yay me! And right now I'm so broke, I haven't bought any yet this year either. LOL My 2012 Book Resolution is to read one "classic" a month. Some are more recent classics, others older, but I'm just trying to expand my horizons a bit. I read mostly mysteries and sometimes get tired of the same old, same old...have gotten pickier in my dotage, too.

1. MURDER ON LEXINGTON AVENUE by Victoria Thompson. (#12 "Gaslight" historical mystery) B+

2. A GAME OF LIES by Rebecca Cantrell (#3 Hannah Vogel historical mystery) A+

3. THE RISK OF DARKNESS by Susan Hill (#3 Simon Serrailler mystery) (AUDIO) A+

4. DEVIL'S PEAK by Deon Meyer (#1 Benny Griessel mystery) (KINDLE) A+

5. THE STRANGER by Albert Camus (my classic for the month) B+

6. ABOUT FACE by Donna Leon (#18 Commissario Guido Brunetti) (AUDIO) B

7. BLOODY MARY by J.A. Konrath #2 Jack Daniels mystery) (KINDLE) B+

8. BRYANT & MAY ON THE LOOSE by Christopher Fowler (#7 Bryant & May mystery) A+

9. I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT by Terry Pratchett (#38 Discworld, #4 Tiffany Aching sub-series) A+

10. DRAGONSEYE by Anne McCaffrey (#4 Dragonriders of Pern fantasy) (KINDLE) A

DNF: THE MERLOT MURDERS by Ellen Crosby (#1 Wine Country mystery) (AUDIO)

Cheryl

TOPS n BOTTOMS 2011

2011-12-23T07:30:00.002-06:00

END OF YEAR SUMMARY

Total Books Read: 214

DNFs: 6

Books in/books out (note that this is since Feb. 1, 2011 so is actually only 11 months worth:

Books Acquired (all from Paperbackswap and Amazon Vine): 92

Books Lost (traded, sold, donated) from physical TBR shelves: 543

Net loss: 451 books

Total left on TBR: To be announced--still compiling...

TOPS n BOTTOMS:
This was VERY difficult...but this is what I eventually settled on. Even with the honorable mentions listed, there were a LOT of excellent books that didn't make the list!

TOP TEN MYSTERIES (in no particular order...but I did cheat a little, counting series books that I read this year in the same series as one entry)

1. A TRACE OF SMOKE/A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES by Rebecca Cantrell (#1 & 2 Hannah Vogel series)

2. BREATHING WATER/THE QUEEN OF PATPONG by Timothy Hallinan (#3 & 4 Poke Rafferty series)

3. AMONG THE MAD/THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH/A LESSON IN SECRETS by Jacqueline Winspear (#6, 7 & 8 Maisie Dobbs series)

4. THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler (#6 Bryant & May mysteries)

5. A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD/I AM HALF SICK OF SHADOWS by Alan Bradley (audio) (#3/4 Flavia de Luce series)

6. SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN/BLOOD HINA by Naomi Hirahara (#3/4 Mas Arai series)

7. LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE/SLASH AND BURN by Colin Cotterill (#7/8 Dr. Siri Paiboun series)

8. GUNSHOT ROAD by Adrian Hyland (#2 Emily Tempest mystery)

9. BURY YOUR DEAD by Louise Penny (#6 Three Pines mystery)

10. THE WEAVER AND THE FACTORY MAID/FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN/MATTY GROVES by Deborah Grabien (#1/2/3 "Haunted Ballad" mysteries)

Honorable mention:

A FIELD OF DARKNESS by Cornelia Read (#1 Madeline Dare mystery)

CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith (#1 Leo Demidov mystery--note: I didn't like the second one nearly as well)

IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM by Stefanie Pintoff (#1 Simon Ziele historical mystery)

THE LIONS OF THE NORTH by Edward Marston (#4 Domesday medieval mysteries)

THE PURE IN HEART by Susan Hill (#2 Simon Serrailler mystery)

THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT/THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING by Tarquin Hall (audio) (#1/2 Vish Puri mysteries)

FROM THE GROUNDS UP/A CUP OF JO by Sandra Balzo (#5/6 Maggy Thorsen mystery)

TO FETCH A THIEF/THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Spencer Quinn (audio) (#3/4 Chet & Bernie)

TOP "OTHER" GENRES

1. THE WEE FREE MEN/A HAT FULL OF SKY/WINTERSMITH by Terry Pratchett (Discworld fantasy series, Tiffany Aching sub-series)

2. THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell (#1 Saxon historical fiction series)

3. THE LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie (#3 First Law fantasy trilogy)

4. THE WARDED MAN by Peter V. Brett (#1 Demon Cycle trilogy, fantasy)

5. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (audio)

6. THE EAGLE'S BROOD by Jack Whyte (#3 Camulod Chronicles historical fantasy)

7. DOWNPOUR by Kat Richardson (#6 Greywalker paranormal mystery)

8. BLOODSHOT: CHESHIRE RED REPORTS by Cherie Priest (#1 Cheshire Red paranormal)

BOTTOMS--WORST MYSTERIES (that I actually finished...DNF's not counted)

MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp

CAT OF THE CENTURY by Rita Mae Brown

CUT SHORT by Leigh Russell

DEAD CONNECTION by Alafair Burke (audio)

PRETTY GIRL GONE by David Housewright

THE INDIAN BRIDE by Karin Fossum

I will amend this post later to do a summary of my year's reading--# of books, the status of my TBR pile, etc. Roll on 2012...it's going to be a GREAT year! :)

Cheryl

December 2011

2011-12-06T07:26:00.005-06:00

Well, here it is, the last month of my self-imposed book-buying ban. I can't say I've really suffered much--the Hennepin County Library System is wonderful, and I've still allowed myself books from Paperbackswap, so it's not like I've been totally bereft. There are lots of great books to read for Kindle that are free from the library and the Kindle Lending Library (free with my Prime account) so haven't needed to buy any even for that. I am going to do one last big TBR culling this month and then consolidate what's left on the bookshelves to see how I'm doing space-wise. I'll issue a final report after the first of the year on how I did with paring those TBR shelves down. AND to let you know the first books I actually buy in 2012. :)

Now, on to the reading list for December!

1. CHILDREN OF THE STREET by Kwei Quartey. (Kindle) B+ Second in the Darko Dawson series, with Darko being a police detective with CID in Accra, Ghana. A series of brutal murders of street children in Accra has Dawson chasing down an invisible killer, while he also has to deal with the deteriorating health of his seven-year-old son who has an atrial-septal defect. Very good second in series--I liked it better than the first, am finding Dawson's character more fleshed out in this book and getting to know the secondary characters better as well. I also did not figure out whodunit til nearly the end. Excellent immersion into a culture which is totally foreign to me, something I always enjoy.

2. THE GRAVEYARD GAME by Kage Baker. B+ #4 Company fantasy series. It's really hard to describe this series, about an all-powerful Company from the future who makes orphaned children immortals and sends them into the past to save various relics, artifacts, works of art and the like. Sounds noble, but it's more for the financial benefit of the Company, run by Dr. Zeus. In this book, one of the characters we've met in the first three books, the Botanist Mendoza, has disappeared, and her recruiter, the Facilitator Joseph, as well as her dear friend Lewis (who is secretly in love with her) are determined to find her. Fearing that the Company has sent Mendoza to some unknown facility and deactivated her somehow, they must covertly search, as their actions and speech are monitored by The Company. Sometimes confusing with the forward and backward time frames, the series is otherwise brilliant--you just have to be sure to focus totally while you're reading as small bits of information end up being important later on.

3. THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Spencer Quinn. (AUDIO) A #4 Chet & Bernie mystery. Another great entry in this series set in Arizona, told from the point of view of Chet, a failed police academy dog and his partner Bernie Little. Together they are the sum total of the Little Detective Agency, which is always on precarious ground--not because of any failing in the private detection part, but because Bernie's a bit less than a stellar business manager and often too kind-hearted and generous with his time. So when big-time PI company owner Georgie Malouf offers Bernie a permanent job with a substantial increase in pay and benefits, it stands to reason that he'll accept. Right? Wrong. Bernie likes his independence and shows it by accepting a case to essentially bodyguard a woman who is picking up her son from a mountain camp and expects trouble from her ex-husband. And trouble there is, although not the kind they expected. Devon, her son, has disappeared, wandered off the trail, and Chet & Bernie are off to search, only to find the murdered body of the camp counselor who was on the hike with Devon's group. Crooked cops with something to hide end up shanghi-ing Bernie into jail where he finds himself accused of the murder.Meanwhile, Chet finds his way back home, hooks up with Bernie's girlfriend Suzie and...well, you'll have to read it. Or listen. I have listened to all this series in audio format and as long as they continue to be available, will continue to do so. The reader is absolutely brilliant in depicting Chet's "voice" and the tone of the books. I always enjoy these immensely--and then am sorry that I now have to wait so long for the next one.

4. BY A SPIDER'S THREAD by Laura Lippman (Kindle) A #8 Tess Monaghan series set in Baltimore. An Orthodox Jewish man seeks Tess on the recommendation of her uncle (Tess is, despite the name, half-Jewish herself) when his wife disappears without trace with their three children. Mark Rubin can think of no good reason for this, insisting that their marriage was happy, but the police refuse to investigate, finding no evidence of any foul play. Tess finds the going slow at first--Natalie Rubin used no credit cards to make her escape and she seems to have faded into the woodwork. Until the elder Rubin son, Isaac, aged nine, manages to phone Mark briefly leaving a caller ID of a pay phone at a McDonalds in a small town in Indiana. Then Tess's newfound online circle of female PI's known as SnoopSisters swings into action and Tess's digging begins to pay off. Another great entry in the series, which I like because there's just the right balance of personal and professional details and of action and introspection.

5. WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND by Fred Vargas. A #4 Chief Inspector Adamsberg mystery set in France, although this one takes place partially in Quebec as Adamsberg and his close associates go there for a two-week training seminar on forensic advancements. Adamsberg is on the trail of a serial killer who has killed over decades, often spacing his kills by years and then vanishing from the area such that suspicion is not aroused. It's personal for Jean-Baptiste though, as one of the people whom this killer--also a powerful Judge--framed was his brother Raphael, when the boy was barely out of his teens. Now, after a long hiatus, he seems to have struck again--despite having died sixteen years ago! But the Judge knows Adamsberg is on his trail and sets him up for a fall much like his brother's and it will take every bit of the wily detective's cunning--and a little help from his friends--to nab the crafty killer. While this whole scenario seemed to me wholly implausible in many ways, it still sucked me in and kept me interested right through til the end, and I very much look forward to the next book in the series.

6. BLOODSHOT: CHESHIRE RED REPORTS by Cherie Priest. (AUDIO) A #1 in the Cheshire Red series, featuring vampire Raylene Pendle whose alias is Cheshire Red, a notorious thief who's been stealing valuables for decades and is presumed to be a man. Raylene is a lone vampire, not affiliated with any House, and seldom interacts with other vamps. Paranoid almost to a fault, she has several safe houses, multiple identities and almost no one except a couple of very discreet clients have her cell phone number, much less know where she lives. So when she is contacted at her home by Ian Stott, who wants to hire her to steal papers and medical records from a study he was involved in, she is intrigued--and horrified--because the experiments, which were done against his will, left Ian blind, and physical deformities are just not something that happen to vampires. To top it off, the studies were conducted by the U.S. Government which shocks Raylene, as she had no idea Uncle Sam was even aware of the existence of vampires. Raylene goes against all her usual tendencies--which include running and hiding at the first sign of trouble--and heads right into danger to find out what horrible things the government might be intending for vampires--including herself. If she's caught, that is--something Raylene is not going to allow to happen. Excellent first book in this paranormal series, not a cozy "but I'm a GOOD Vampire!" type series at all with plenty of off-color language, adult situations and...well, Raylene isn't exactly a good vampire. Audio version read perfectly by Natalie Ross. Looking forward to the next in series.

7. DEAD CONNECTIONS by Alafair Burke (AUDIO) C- #1 Ellie Hatcher mystery. Singularly uninspired first in series about a NYC detective, pulled from general duty to the murder squad to help with a serial killer who's using an online dating site to choose victims. Ellie Hatcher has a haunted past herself, trying to convince the world that her father did not commit suicide but was the victim of the serial killer he was after and never could catch. While this book was competently written, and wasn't horrible, it felt sort of like an "instant mystery" where you add boiling water to a cup o'noodles and wait for 3 minutes. It is a story, but there's not much meat, the flavor's less than savory and the overall impression is one of "I'll only eat this stuff (read this series) again if there's nothing better." The characters were more like caricatures without any real substance, and I was never very interested in the case, finding it and the characters just blah--including Ellie herself. I believe I will pass on the rest of the series.

8. THE LONE TRAVELLER by Susan Kelly. A #1 Supt. Gregory Summers mystery set in the Thames Valley. It's the summer solstice and the gypsies and New Age enthusiasts have come into town for the faire and celebration at a nearby stone circle. Tensions heat up between the two groups, and between the townsfolk and the travellers, and when a six-year-old girl goes missing, those tensions mount high, and explode once the inevitable happens and the girl's body is found. Summers has all he can do to try to keep the town under control and precious little time to actually work on investigating young Jordan's death. This book captured me right from the beginning, although at first, one aspect of the main character's personal life was a little off-putting--those of you who have read it will know what I mean. But by the end of the book, I felt I knew Greg Summers much better and although I figured out his mystery for him before he did, I am definitely going to be reading on in this series.

9. THE QUEEN OF PATPONG by Timothy Hallinan. A+ #4 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. In this fourth Poke Rafferty mystery, the story is all about Rose, Poke's wife. A man from her past recognizes her in a restaurant as Poke, Rose and their daughter Miaow are dining and threatens her. The usually unflappable Rose turns into an instant basket case, claiming she thought he was dead--and that she had killed him! Eventually she tells her story from the beginning to her family--from when she was Kwan, a seventeen-year-old village girl until she became Rose, a dancer, bar girl and prostitute. This is a very typical story for Thai girls from outlying villages who come to Bangkok and become workers in the booming sex trade industry. Poke knew of Rose's former occupation of course, but nothing about Howard Horner, whom Rose took up with years previously, thinking they were going to marry. There is not much to be said about this book that "WOW!" won't cover. This has quickly become one of my very favorite series for a whole lot of reasons and I had been hoarding this book for months before I couldn't take it any more and had to read it. Now I just hope the author has the next one in the wings for publication SOON...so I can hoard that one for awhile. LOL

10. INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS by Imogen Robertson. (Kindle) B+ First of a series set in 1780's Sussex, UK and featuring Gabriel Crowther, a gentleman who relinquished his title and is now mostly a recluse and a 'man of science' and Harriet Westerman, who runs the manor next door while her sea captain husband is away. Mrs. Westerman finds a murdered body on her land and having read a paper Mr. Crowther wrote about evidence at murder scenes, seeks him out immediately. This leads to an extensive investigation which is tied to the missing heir of Thornleigh Hall (another neighbor of theirs). Eventually a couple of other murders yield more clues as the pair investigate, since the local squire seems to be in Thornleigh Hall's pocket and isn't much interested in the truth. I freely admit that this is not my favorite historical time period, so I started the book with a bit of a jaundiced eye. The characters and the story were interesting enough to get me into it right away though, and the writing style is easy to read and well-constructed. The only reason I don't give it five stars is that it did bog down a bit in the middle and was a bit overlong--I'm not sure all the detail about Captain Thornleigh's past and flashbacks to years previous were really necessary. The mystery itself was fairly easy to figure out but I still really enjoyed the story and will definitely read on.

11.EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES by Marcia Muller. (AUDIO) B+ First of the Sharon McCone series in San Francisco, this was published in 1977, which is the year I graduated from high school, so it's OLD. LOL The book has Sharon, a P.I. working for a law cooperative, looking into first a series of vandalism and property attacks in a small neighborhood to the murder of one of the proprietors, an older woman who ran an antique shop. Because Sharon had inside information about the locals from her investigation, she 'independently assists' the police with their inquiries. A little bit dated, which is only to be expected from a 35 year old book, but I enjoyed it anyway...in a time when detection meant going to the library for research, not turning on a computer, and when you didn't have a cell phone to ring the police when you were in trouble. This is the first time I've read this author and I will definitely be continuing on with the series--I like Sharon already and the tone of the writing is middle of the road--neither dark and gory nor sweetness-and-light cozy. It will be a LONG time until I can catch up, too...there are many many books in this series, so obviously a few other people liked it too. :)

12.DEATH OF THE MANTIS by Michael Stanley (Kindle) B. In this third mystery set in Botswana, Assistant Supt. David "Kubu" Bengu is settling into life as a new father when an old friend of his, a Bushman that he knew in childhood, calls him about a murder case in the Kalahari which has resulted in the arrest of three Bushmen for the crime. Bushmen are by nature non-violent and although Kubu is loathe to get involved, he feels that he owes his friend at least a look-see, so he leaves his struggling wife Joy and baby daughter for a trip to the desert country. He begins to see immediately that his friend is right--the detective in charge of the case has made up his mind that the Bushmen are responsible, and thus remains closed against other possible suspects. Kubu points out several inconsistencies and a lack of hard evidence results in the Bushmen being released--followed, of course, by more deaths. I love the characters in this series--it's more realistic and true-to-life than the super-cozy Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series, set in the same general locale. The immersion into the culture is very interesting, and the perspective changes generally enhance the storyline too. But this book was not quite up to par with the others, I didn't think. The bad guy was very obvious to me early on (those clues seemed almost circled in red!) and there was a lot of extraneous and repetitious prose; I really felt that a hundred pages could have been lopped off without losing the story at all.

13.THE ROUGH COLLIER by Pat McIntosh. B+ #5 Gil Cunningham mystery set in 15th century Glasgow and environs. Gil and his bride Alys are off to visit his mother in the country and while there his expertise is sought when a corpse is found in a peat bog by peat cutters. At first they think it's a local who's been missing for a few weeks, but later it's determined that the body has been there much longer. However, Gil is curious as to why the hue and cry hasn't been officially raised about the man who's been missing some five weeks, and further investigation uncovers a lot of different reasons why he may have disappeared. I really enjoy this series and the immersion into the culture of the place and time, the only drawback continuing to be the repeated use of the vernacular in the dialogue, which at times makes it difficult to understand since there isn't even much resemblance to modern-day Scots slang. I've had to stop and look up words that I'm not able to sort out even with context--which is distracting from the story itself. I don't mind learning new things, but most of the words I'll never have need of again so it seems a bit pointless. I complain about this every time and still I read on though--I do like the the characters and series otherwise and would give it 5 stars if it weren't for this one issue.

14. THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES by Agatha Christie. (AUDIO) A The very first Hercule Poirot mystery, narrated by the actor who does the TV character of Poirot, David Suchet. Reading Agatha Christie is always a treat for me--I love her characters, and she was a master at plotting, as I never can figure out whodunit. Well, rarely--and usually if I do, it's a guess at best. This one was no exception, even though I did read this book years ago. There are so many of them, the plots get mixed up in my head. Anyway, if you've never indulged in an audio version of one of these books, I would highly recommend them!

15. MOM, WILL THIS CHICKEN GIVE ME MAN BOOBS? by Robyn Harding. C- Autobiographical account of the struggles of a whiny Canadian woman with trying to be "green" and live an eco-friendly life. I guess I was just expecting more hints and tips--or even some real INFORMATION about living a green life rather than just a long-winded justification as to why she didn't/couldn't/wouldn't do certain 'green' things. She tried to be funny, but the humor was forced and most of the time didn't even elicit a smile from me. She mostly sounded like a spoiled brat whose sole purpose was to appear to be a certain way to people around her. It was guilt trip after guilt trip as she showed how she didn't keep up with the Greens in her efforts, followed by a big shrug and "Oh well, I did try, and at least I'm not a crazy nutball like the real tree huggers." Whatever. If this hadn't been my bathroom book, read in small chunks over many weeks, I doubt I would have finished it.

16.SLASH AND BURN by Colin Cotterill. A+ #7 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery set in 1970's Laos. Dr. Siri really wants to retire from his post as the national coroner of Laos. He's only just recovered from near-death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and since he's over seventy, he figures he deserves to spend a few years relaxing with his wife. But he gets roped into one last job on a junket to northern Laos looking for the remains of a missing American pilot. Accompanying Siri--at his insistence, via a little blackmail of Judge Haeng, his nemesis--will be his wife Madame Daeng, his nurse Dtui and her policeman husband Phosy, his morgue assistant Mr. Geung, his good friend Civiali, a few Lao officials and a bunch of American officials, including a delightful American girl who was raised in Laos by missionary parents who serves as their interpreter--since the Judge's nephew who is the 'official' interpreter doesn't actually speak English. When one of the American contingent ends up dead--a supposed accidental suicide--the niggling thought Siri's been having that the whole trip is a set-up comes to the fore as the pieces fall into place and he begins to sort things out. Another wonderful adventure filled with wry humor, outstanding characters and a unique perspective on life. Can't wait til the next one!

And here I am...3 hours and 10 minutes from the end of my self-imposed book buying moratorium. Happy New Year and roll on 2012!

Cheryl

November 2011

2011-11-06T21:34:00.004-06:00

The year is fast drawing to a close--I'm still hanging in there and have not purchased any books this year. Still doing the occasional cull from my TBR stacks, and planning to do a bunch more this month in a last-ditch effort to close down a few of my bookshelves before we move in February.

BUT...I've just ordered a Kindle Fire! Never thought I'd do it, as I really love "real" books, but I think it's almost a necessity with the limited space I'll have at the new place. Still not going to order any books for it til 2012, but I'll have to borrow a couple to try it out. :) Addendum: so far, so good! I think the Kindle Fire will be great! I am still fiddling with it and playing around...have read a few chapters in my borrowed book and it reads easy, I have to say.

On to the reading list!

1. DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM by Elizabeth Zelvin (#2 Bruce Kohler mystery) C+ Second (and so far last) book in the Bruce Kohler mystery series. Bruce is a recovering alcohol/drug addict living in New York and the story centers around him and his two best friends, Jimmy (also in recovery) and Barbara (Jimmy's girlfriend, and a counselor.) A friend of Barbara's is suspected of killing her drug-dealer boyfriend and the trio get involved with trying to figure out who else might have killed him so as to clear Luz's name. While I like these characters well enough, for me the book was just a little too heavy on recovery/addict jargon, and the whole recovery process was focused on much more than the mystery itself IMO. The first book was more interesting because it was different--Bruce woke up hungover in a detox unit in the Bowery, so was newly sober. Now he is 10 months out and his whole life centers around AA and staying sober. Perhaps for someone with addiction issues it would be more interesting, but it was just too much for me.

2. A TASTE FOR DEATH by P.D. James (#7 Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh mystery) (AUDIO) C+ I normally enjoy the Adam Dalgliesh series very much, but this one seemed to drag on and on as the mystery into the murder of Sir Paul Barrone, a Minister of Parliament, and a tramp in the vestry of a church went onwards. There just seemed to be too much extraneous detail, too much wandering off into the lives of minor characters which left me often thinking, "Get ON with the story already!" It's also one of the few where I knew the bad guy almost straight away. I guess every author is allowed an 'off' book--it's certainly not enough to put me off reading more. Another consideration is that this book is the first audio production of a P.D. James book I've listened to rather than read in print, so perhaps that impacted my feeling about the book too. Although the reader was perfectly skillful, the excess of posh, snooty voices grew rather tiresome after awhile.

3. TERRA INCOGNITA by Ruth Downie (#2 Ruso the Medicus historical mystery) C+ This second book in the series sees Ruso, a medicus with the Twentieth legion, on the way north from Deva (modern-day Chester) to the border with the 'wild barbarians' of which his housekeeper Tilla is one. A near-fatal cart accident along the way necessitates an amputation and Ruso is conscripted to fill in for the local medic who's gone mad, and also to investigate the death of the trumpeter, who had an interesting sideline. I enjoyed the story, I really like Ruso and the other main characters, the humor, the period detail. BUT. It was just too long and convoluted, with too many characters to keep straight and too many little side plots distracting from the main mystery. I found myself skimming through the midsection of the book.

4. THE WARDED MAN by Peter V. Brett (#1 Demon trilogy) A WOW! An excellent first book of a planned trilogy set in a world 300 years after a great war left mankind struggling to stay alive against demons, which come out at sunset and fade with the dawn. The corelings as the demons are called, take various shapes and have different qualities but very few humans survive interaction with them, staying inside their heavily warded homes after dusk. Magic symbols make up the wardings that keep the demons from attacking, and only brave men like the Messengers who carry powerful portable warding circles, would be outdoors after dark. This story tells of three children--Arlen, Leesha and Rojer--who grow up in different isolated villages and have dreams of seeing the world one day. They all have different talents and the story takes place over several years as they grow into adulthood and their talents become more readily apparent. Excellent storytelling, great characters, looks like another wonderful series in the 'dark fantasy' subgenre. Yay!

5. A CUP OF JO by Sandra Balzo (#6 Maggy Thorsen mystery) See review on the Paperbackswap Mystery Monday blog here: http://blog.paperbackswap.com/mystery-monday-a-cup-of-jo/2011/11/

6. RIVER MARKED by Patricia Briggs (#6 Mercy Thompson paranormal) (AUDIO) C+ Sixth in this series about 'walker' Mercy Thompson (she shapeshifts to Coyote) and her mate, werewolf pack leader Adam Hauptmann. They are off on their honeymoon and get tangled in a web of Native American myths and legends as they are asked to help kill a vicious river monster. First one of these I've listened to rather than read, and I liked the reader's voice and reading style. However, the story itself was somewhat lacking for me. Okay, but not as good as the others.

7. WICKED GAMES by Ellen Hart (#8 Jane Lawless mystery) B- I like this series, and have liked recent ones more than early ones, but this book took a step backwards with Jane turning into a jellyfish, insecure and wibbling about her new love and seeming almost desperate when she suspects Julia is lying to her and is evasive about her life. This is not the Jane I have come to know and enjoy spending time with. On the mystery end of things, Jane gets involved in the family dynamics of the wealthy Kastner family when their son rents Jane's third-floor apartment and the daughter moves down the street and shows an inordinate amount of interest in Jane. Then a private detective contacts Jane to inform her of some of the family's colored past.

8. THE CROSSING PLACES by Elly Griffiths (#1 Ruth Galloway/Harry Nelson mystery) (AUDIO) B+ This first book in series featuring forensic archaeologist and professor Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson started off with a real bang and sucked me into the story right away. Bones have been found in the salt marsh near King's Lynn and Nelson has been led to Ruth to check them out. He believes they might be the bones of a young girl who went missing 10 years previously. They end up being about 2000 years old, but when another girl goes missing in similar circumstances, and Ruth's cat is brutally killed and left on her doorstep, Harry and Ruth's paths keep crossing. I have some serious plausibility issues with the thread dealing with Lucy, the missing girl from 10 years previously which is the only reason I marked the grade down a notch--can't say much without giving things away, but suffice it to say it just didn't seem very likely as written by the author. Other than that though--it was a great book! I have the second one on my library list already.

9. MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs B+ An interesting book about a strange boy who finds out the hard way why he's strange. All his life, he believed his grandfather's fanciful stories were just that--made-up stories about monsters and peculiar children living in a home where they were loved and accepted. Even the old photographs Jake suspected were altered--surely there is no girl who can levitate off the ground or another who can lift boulders with one hand?! When his grandfather dies, Jake finds things in his grandfather's belongings that lead him to ask for a trip to a small island off the Welsh coast, and his father, an avid ornithologist, agrees to accompany him to study birds. What Jake finds there astonishes him. A very interesting story, although I am not sure what I thought about the ending. It does seem to leave an opening for a possible sequel.

10. ANGELS PASSING by Graham Hurley (#3 Joe Faraday mystery) B+ Another interesting entry in this British police procedural series set in and around Portsmouth. DI Joe Faraday, once again being sought for promotion, is too busy investigating the death of a teenage girl who may or may not have thrown herself off the roof to even consider it. Meanwhile some of his team are seconded to Major Crimes to work on a hanging death. Faraday's personal life is also in an uproar and he tries to deal with that as well. As usual, quite a page turner, with a good balance of the police cases and personal details of the various characters.

11. THE POACHER'S SON by Paul Doiron (#1 Mike Bowditch mystery) B- Mike Bowditch, 24-year-old Maine Wildlife Ranger finds himself distracted from his job duties when a state-wide manhunt for the killer of two men takes over the whole north woods of Maine. The distraction comes because the man they are hunting is none other than his father, Jack Bowditch, an alcoholic tracker, woodsman and poacher, who is believed to have shot a deputy and the head of a land-development company in cold blood. Mike has never been close to his father, since he and his mother left when Mike was 9 years old--and in fact hadn't spoken to him at all for two years. But while Mike agrees that his dad is a first-class prick, he can't see a motive for his father behind this killing--'he's a bar-brawler, not a cold-blooded killer.' Intent on clearing his father's name, he risks his job, friendships and his life, often wondering why he's doing so. This was a decent first book in series, but I was rather surprised at the award nomination...although I often am, so that's nothing new. LOL For me it had one major flaw that permeated the whole book and undermined the believability of it and it was primarily this than sunk my opinion of it: unless Mike Bowditch was an alien with a vastly different lifespan, there is no way in hell he was 24 years old. It may have been partly the 'voice' the reader on the audio version gave him, but it was more than that--his attitudes, actions and his world-weary demeanor made him seem to be a man in (at the very least) his late 30's, more like someone in their 40's. To me, if you can't believe the character is who he is supposed to be, how can you believe the rest of the story?

12.INK FLAMINGOS by Karen E. Olson (#4 Tattoo Shop mystery) B- This is apparently the last book in the tattoo shop series featuring tattooist Brett Kavanaugh, and I for one am relieved. It sort of ended with a fizzle in my opinion. I like the author's writing style and really enjoyed her other series (which I wish she would have continued) but this one just never worked for me as well...but then, I am no fan of typical cozy mysteries, of which this is one. The tattoo shop setting is what made it unique and interesting for me. I did like the ending, though.

13. SERPENT IN THE THORNS by Jeri Westerson (#2 Crispin Guest medieval mystery) C+ Second in this medieval mystery series featuring Crispin Guest, a former knight who was stripped of lands, title and wealth but spared his life when caught in a treasonous plot seven years previously against young King Richard. Now he lives in the London slums and works as a Tracker, basically a private detective. In this book, he is hired by a scullion in an inn, whose mentally challenged sister keeps confessing to the killing of a French courier--who was carrying a relic that may be the genuine Crown of Thorns. When Crispin comes across the man who betrayed him--and who now happens to be Richard's Captain of the Archers--and he is tied to the case, he tries to find a way to solve the mystery as well as have his revenge. This book was somewhat disappointing, though I can't quite put my finger on exactly why. I know I was somewhat distracted by several typos I found--well, not typos that would have been found on spell check, but things like "that" instead of "than" or the wrong spelling of a word, for example, "make due with..." instead of "make do." So the proofreading/editing was somewhat less than professional. It's dubbed as "medieval noir" but I didn't find it particularly noir-ish. Certainly not a cozy, but noir? Not really. It also gets somewhat repetitious with frequent descriptions of the stink and dirtiness of medieval London. A good story, and I do like Crispin and Jack, but...a bit off the mark this time.

14. WHISKEY SOUR by J.A. Konrath (#1 Jack Daniels mystery) (KINDLE) A This book has the distinction of being the first book I read on my new Kindle Fire. It was easy to read, pages easy to turn, and on top of all that, it was actually a great story! It features Chicago police Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels, who is in hot pursuit of a brutal, sadistic serial killer--who tortures women and dismembers them, then dumps them in garbage cans, leaving a shellacked Gingerbread cookie as his calling card. The Gingerbread Man sees Jack as a worthy foe and targets her personally to be one of his victims. Great introduction to this tough Chicago cop and looking forward to reading more in the series!

15. CROWNER ROYAL by Bernard Knight (#13 Crowner John medieval mystery) (AUDIO) B- Crowner John has moved from the Devon west country where he was the Coroner for the county of Devon, but now at the behest of his king has become Coroner of the Verge, dealing with cases within a 12-mile radius of the King's Court, wherever it might be. He's homesick (as is his assistant Gwyn) and bored, as there seems to be very little activity--and when a dead body or two do show up, his jurisdiction is questioned at every turn by the local sheriff.
I wasn't as fond of this book as previous ones in the series...I liked the Devon setting as it's where my husband sister lives, so it was interesting reading about local history there. London and Winchester have been done to death, so to speak. LOL This book was also more fraught with political intrigue on the Royal level (as opposed to local political infighting as in previous books) which has never been a huge interest of mine. So far there's only one more book in this series, so perhaps the author also realizes that the series is growing a little lackluster and is stopping it. I'll certainly finish it off, but if Plague of Heretics is indeed the last, I think it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

16. A LETTER OF MARY by Laurie R. King. #3 Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell historical mystery. A It seems to me that each book in this series gets better--after the first one, which I thought was too long and convoluted, I wasn't sure if I would continue reading the series, but the second and this, the third, were absolutely brilliant! Sherlock Holmes and his new wife, Mary Russell, work again to solve the suspicious death of an old acquaintance, an archaeologist who comes back to England from Palestine with a peculiar gift for Mary. A day later, Dorothy Ruskin is struck down in a London street by an unmarked black motorcar, and only a fool would not make a connection between the two--especially when the Holmes' home is ransacked a day later.Wonderful, multi-faceted mystery with red herrings all over the place and the deeply-layered characters becoming better known to the reader too. Very much looking forward to the next one!

17. I AM HALF SICK OF SHADOWS by Alan Bradley #4 Flavia de Luce historical mystery. (AUDIO) A. (Review pending)

Current reads:

Kindle: CHILDREN OF THE STREET by Kwei Quartey (#2 Darko Dawson mystery set in Ghana)

Audio: THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Spencer Quinn (#4 Chet and Bernie mystery)

Print: THE GRAVEYARD GAME by Kage Baker (#4 in The Company Sci-fi/fantasy series)

Cheryl

Cheryl

OCTOBER 2011

2011-10-05T07:08:00.000-05:00

1. INDEX TO MURDER by Jo Dereske. (#11 Miss Zukas mystery) A

2. GUNSHOT ROAD by Adrian Hyland (#2 Emily Tempest mystery) A+

3. ALL THE COLOURS OF DARKNESS by Peter Robinson (#17 DCI Alan Banks mystery) (AUDIO) B

4. AN ARTIFICIAL NIGHT by Seanan McGuire (#3 October Daye paranormal mystery) B+

5. THE FLEET STREET MURDERS by Charles Finch (#3 Charles Lenox historical mystery) A

6. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS by Kate Atkinson (#3 Jackson Brodie mystery) (AUDIO) A

7. KILLING KATE by Julie Kramer (#4 Riley Spartz mystery) C+

8. SOUL MUSIC by Terry Pratchett (#16 Discworld fantasy) A

9. THE GREEN MAN by Kate Sedley (#17 Roger the Chapman historical mystery) B

10. THE PURE IN HEART by Susan Hill (#2 Simon Serrailler mystery) A

11. A LESSON IN SECRETS by Jacqueline Winspear (# 8 Maisie Dobbs historical mystery) (AUDIO) A

12. WHITE TOMBS by Christopher Valen (#1 John Santana mystery) C-

13. IN A GILDED CAGE by Rhys Bowen (#8 Molly Murphy mystery) B

14. BURY YOUR DEAD by Louise Penny (#6 Three Pines) A+

15. KITTY'S BIG TROUBLE by Carrie Vaughn (#9 Kitty Norville paranormal) B+

16. IN THE WIND by Barbara Fister (#1 Anni Koskinen mystery) B

17. BEARERS OF THE BLACK STAFF by Terry Brooks ($1 Legends of Shannara) (AUDIO) A

Current reads:

TERRA INCOGNITO by Ruth Downie

DEATH WILL HELP YOU LEAVE HIM by Elizabeth Zelvin

THE WARDED MAN by Peter V. Brett

A TASTE FOR DEATH by P.D. James (audio)

Cheryl

SEPTEMBER 2011

2011-09-10T18:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm maintaining my abstinence from book-buying, and am still getting rid of TBR books at a greater rate than I'm acquiring them, although I haven't made a culling run through my shelves for a month or so.

Current numbers (from Feb. 1) are as follows:

Books acquired: 78 (all from Paperbackswap except for 2 freebies from Amazon Vine)

TBR books released: 347

Net loss: 269 books gone

Now, onto my September reading list:

1. THE ENCHANTER'S FOREST by Alys Clare (Hawkenlye Abbey historical mystery #10) B

2. TONIGHT I SAID GOODBYE by Michael Koryta (Lincoln Perry mystery #1) (AUDIO) B

3. HEXES AND HEMLINES by Juliet Blackwell (#3 Lily Ivory 'witchcraft' mystery) B-

4. RESOLUTION by Denise Mina (#3 Garnethill trilogy) A

5. THE DAY WILL COME by Judy Clemens (#4 Stella Crown mystery) A

6. A TRAIL OF INK by Mel Starr (#3 Hugh de Singleton historical mystery) B

7. THE HERMIT OF EYTON FOREST by Ellis Peters (#14 Brother Cadfael mystery) (AUDIO) A

8. ARTIFACTS by Mary Anna Evans (#1 Faye Longchamp mystery) B

9. THE DEVIL'S COMPANY by David Liss (#3 Benjamin Weaver historical mystery) (AUDIO) A-

10. READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline B

11. WILD INFERNO by Sandi Ault (#2 Jamaica Wild mystery) C+

12. THE PROTECTOR'S WAR by S.M. Stirling (#2 Change series) A

13. THE SECRET SPEECH by Tom Rob Smith (#2 Leo Demidov mystery) (AUDIO) B

14. HIDDEN MOON by James Church (#2 Inspector O mystery) B+

Cheryl

AUGUST 2011

2011-08-07T08:44:00.001-05:00

Sorry, I'm just too busy and somewhat disinclined to take the time to write reviews, even brief ones. But here's a list of what I've read with grades. That'll have to do for now.

1. A BITTER FEAST by S.J. Rozan. (#5 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery) B+

2. MATTY GROVES by Deborah Grabien (#3 Haunted Ballad mystery) A

3. ENGLISH LESSONS by J.M. Hayes. (#6 Mad Dog & Englishman mystery) A

4. CROSS by Ken Bruen (#6 Jack Taylor series) A

5. THE BLACK CAT by Martha Grimes (audio) (#22 Richard Jury mystery) B+

6. THE EAGLES' BROOD by Jack Whyte (#3 Camulod Chronicles historical fantasy series) A

7. KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT by Colin Cotterill (#1 Jimm Juree mystery) A

8. THE MANOR OF DEATH by Bernard Knight (#12 Crowner John historical mystery) B

9. NEW TRICKS by David Rosenfelt (audio) (#7 Andy Carpenter mystery) A

10. AFTERTIME by Sophie Littlefield (#1 Aftertime fantasy) B

11. THE VICTIM IN VICTORIA STATION by Jeanne M. Dams (#5 Dorothy Martin mystery) C

12. A PIECE OF JUSTICE by Jill Paton Walsh (#2 Imogen Quy mystery) A

13. THE MAPPING OF LOVE AND DEATH by Jacqueline Winspear (audio)(#7 Maisie Dobbs) A+

14. MARCH VIOLETS by Philip Kerr (#1 Bernie Guenther historical mystery) B+

15. THE GREAT TYPO HUNT by Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson (non-fiction) B

16. THE KILLING WAY by Tony Hays (#1 Arthurian mystery) A

17. THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING by Tarquin Hall (audio) (#2 Vish Puri mystery) A

18. THE TAKE by Graham Hurley (#2 Joe Faraday mystery) B+

19. DOWNPOUR by Kat Richardson (#6 Greywalker paranormal mystery) A

20. TIL DEATH by Ed McBain (#9 87th Precinct mystery) B

21. THE BIG DIG by Linda Barnes (AUDIO)(#9 Carlotta Carlyle mystery) B+

22. ARABESK by Barbara Nadel (#3 Cetin Ikmen mystery) B

23. AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR by Patrick Taylor (#1 Irish Country Doctor serial) A

24. MOURNING GLORIA by Susan Wittig Albert (#19 China Bayles mystery)

Cheryl

JULY 2011 Reading List

2011-07-10T18:26:00.000-05:00

1. THE INDIAN BRIDE (APA: CALLING OUT FOR YOU) by Karin Fossum. (AUDIO) #4 Inspector Conrad Sejer mystery in Norway. An Indian woman is found beaten savagely to death near a remote Norwegian village, her face all but unrecognizable. Turns out to be the new bride of one of the villagers who had just returned from Mumbai. He had been unable to collect his wife from the airport because just as he was to leave, he got a call that his sister was very badly injured in a car crash and he had to go to hospital--the cab he'd sent to pick Poona up couldn't locate her, either. Who would do such a thing to a stranger, and why? I didn't like the reader for this book very much, but to be honest, the story itself was rather "meh" as well. Supposed to be a 'thriller' but I found nothing really thrilling about it. I ended up being very annoyed with the detail spent on unimportant things and the lack of actual police work. I wanted to smack Inspector Sejer upside the head, and was totally peeved at the ending, so I have decided this will be the last of this series for me. C-

2. FLESH HOUSE by Stuart MacBride. #4 DS Logan McRae series set in Aberdeen, Scotland. Logan and his co-workers are on the trail of The Flesher, a serial killer who butchers his victims like cattle and dines on his work. He first surfaced nearly twenty years previously, when Logan's boss DI Insch was on the case and failed to successfully prosecute Ken Wiseman, the man everyone knew was guilty. So when human remains turn up at Wiseman's cousin's butcher shop, and several bloody murders ensue, the hounds are once again after Wiseman to exclusion of all others. But is he--was he, even then--the real killer? Gory and full of violence, blood and plenty of macabre humor, I very much enjoyed the book as I have the previous in series. The one problem I have with the series continues to be typos ('out' instead of 'our') misspellings ('wierd' rather than 'weird') and use of wrong word forms ('chord' instead of 'cord') and the like. The body count by the end of the book also (as always) seems excessive and almost ludicrous. But I still really liked the darn thing. Go figure! A

3. THE SEPTEMBER SOCIETY by Charles Finch. #2 Charles Lenox historical mystery set in London in the 1860's. Charles, a peer of the realm as well as (to his family's dismay) a private investigator, is hired by a woman whose son has disappeared from Lincoln College at Oxford. Assured by everyone who knew George Payson that disappearing without notice is definitely out of character, Charles discovers clues that may lead back to the death of George's father in India some twenty years previously. Not my favorite time period, but I do enjoy this cozy historical series which has a good balance of personal character development, historical setting and a rollicking good mystery--which I didn't figure out til the end. Very enjoyable! A

4. MADHOUSE by Rob Thurman. #3 Cal and Niko Leandros paranormal mystery series. Another fast-moving, action-packed read as Cal, Niko and their friends dash around New York battling another otherworldly beast who likes to dine on human flesh. Cal, half-human and half-Auphe (demon) and his all-human warrior brother Niko are on the trail of Sawney Beane with Niko's vampire girlfriend Promise, the puck Robin Goodfellow and a host of others. Dark and at times depressing, quite gory and explicitly violent, the action is also accompanied by plenty of snappy, witty and risque dialogue. This series is what I would call an R-rated Harry Dresden clone, which is probably why I enjoy it so much. Oh, there are differences of course but the tone is much the same--and like the Dresden series (and UNlike so many other paranormals) it's not just a sleazy, poorly-disguised romance. A

5. BLOOD HINA by Naomi Hirahara. #4 Mas Arai mystery, featuring the seventy-something Japanese-American gardener in LA. Mas investigates the theft of some Hina dolls that belonged to his best friend's fiance Spoon--and their disappearance caused the bride-to-be to cancel the wedding on the big day itself. Then Haruo himself disappears and Mas is fraught with worry as he uses his harmless old man persona to overhear some interesting information that may lead back to the death of Spoon's first husband some twenty years previously and would mean his friend's life is in jeopardy. Another excellent entry in this series and I'm really, really hoping there will be more forthcoming. I've grown very fond of Mas and want to hear about the next chapter in his story. A+

6. ROBBER'S WINE by Ellen Hart. #7 Jane Lawless mystery in which Jane and her friend Cordelia are heading north on vacation and agree to a slight detour to give a friend whose car is in the shop a ride to her mother's lake home near Grand Rapids to attend an 'important family meeting.' They arrive to find Belle (the mother) missing and the entire household in an uproar, as simply disappearing without notice is very unlike her. Of course she does turn up dead, and Jane and Cordelia forego the pleasure of a trip to the north shore of Lake Superior to stick around for the family and be nosy, which isn't a real comfortable thing since most of the suspects are family. I enjoyed this book quite a lot, although I'm not really that crazy about the popping between points of view often of some rather extraneous characters...sometimes it feels like Jane fades into the background too much. But still a good entry in the series and I look forward to the next. B+

7. DEXTER IS DELICIOUS by Jeff Lindsay. (AUDIO) #5 Dexter mystery, in which the blood-spatter expert and secret serial killer also becomes Dex-Daddy, as his wife Rita gives birth to their daughter Lily Anne. Dex-Daddy is caught off guard by the strong actual human feelings he has for his new offspring and decides that he needs to reform his ways, pushing his 'Dark Passenger' down deep, not listening to its insistent stirrings. Meanwhile, Dexter and his sister, Sergeant Deborah, are on the trail of a coven of cannibals, which would normally be right up Dexter's alley--but leaves him feeling distinctly uncomfortable now that he's trying to lay off the killing, righteous or not. Enjoyable listen--narrated by the author himself, which often doesn't work at all, but in this case is very well done, and the author even sounds somewhat like the guy who plays Dexter on the TV series. The ending was a bit predictable, but I surely did enjoy the getting there, with plenty of dark humor as well as the usual blood and gore and the interesting commentary on normal human behavior from a psychopath. A

8. A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN by Laurie R. King. #2 Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery set in the early 1920's in London and Oxford. Mary becomes involved with an odd spiritualist who also is a suffragette championing the cause of women. When she learns of several deaths associated with the inner circle of Margery Childe's Temple, she investigates and her friend Sherlock Holmes assists peripherally, until Mary herself ends up in grave danger, and then Holmes' role intensifies. I wasn't sure I was going to continue reading this series after the first one, which I liked but found a bit cumbersome. This second entry, by contrast, was nearly impossible to put down. A

9. A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES by Rebecca Cantrell. #2 Hannah Vogel historical mystery set in 1930's Germany. Hannah and her son by default, Anton, are on a zeppelin from South America (where they have been hiding for 3 years) to Switzerland, covering a news story, when it is diverted to Germany. Ernst Rohm has found her and captures Hannah and Anton--who is supposedly his natural son--intending to force her to marry him to quash rumors of his (forbidden) homosexuality. Before that can happen, Rohm is snatched and executed by Hitler, and someone has kidnapped Anton. Hannah will not leave Germany until she gets him back and this leads her on a dangerous journey that puts her life in mortal danger many times as she struggles to figure out who she can trust. Excellent second entry in this series with immersion into the culture of Germany as the Nazi party is just coming into control of the country. Hannah is an interesting, well-fleshed character and I look forward to the next entry to see what she gets up to. Highly recommended! A+

10. WHERE DEATH DELIGHTS by Bernard Knight. First of a series set in 1950's England that features Dr. Richard Pryor, a forensic pathologist just setting up his independent business after being given his notice at his former job in Singapore. He moves into a large house on the Welsh-English border that he inherited from his aunt and with business partner Dr. Angela Bray, who handles the lab side of things, sets out to make his mark. Working by word of mouth and referrals from colleagues, Dr. Pryor soon finds himself busier than a one-armed paperhanger with several cases. While this book is somewhat bland, I did enjoy it and was amazed how quickly I finished. It's an interesting historical perspective, both with forensic detail when that field was just beginning to bloom, and from the setting of England in 1955 just beginning the post-war boom. The characters were rather two-dimensional and somewhat stereotypical, but I enjoyed the book overall and will continue reading the series. B

11. TURNSTONE by Graham Hurley. #1 DI Joe Faraday series set in Portsmouth, UK. This book introduces Faraday, a long-time widower about to become an empty-nester as his 22-year-old son JJ, who is deaf, finds love in France. Joe tends to be one of those cops who follows his gut instincts rather than 'just the facts, ma'am' and this often gets him in trouble with his superiors. A kind, sensitive soul who is an avid birdwatcher, Faraday chases vague clues about a man who is missing, reported so by his eight-year-old daughter, and believes him dead, but he's having a hard time convincing his boss to put serious effort into the investigation, which centers around the Fastnet yacht races. Meanwhile, there's also an ongoing drugs investigation, the owner of a high-end mall complex screaming bloody murder about vandalism done to luxury autos in their parking garage. Faraday himself is a well-fleshed, likable character, but the rest of his team were, to me, kind of cliched and not terribly interesting. I liked the author's writing style and the real sense of place with the beaches and shores around Portsmouth and environs, although the mystery wasn't terribly hard to figure out. A very enjoyable first entry in series. A-

12. THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS by Donna Leon. (AUDIO) #17 Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery set in Venice. Brunetti investigates the drowning death of a young Rom (gypsy) girl, who apparently died during a home robbery. The question: did she fall or was she pushed into the canal? He also looks into the affairs of the leader of an odd cult, asked by a childhood friend of his brother's, now a priest. Is the man a charlatan, luring money away from gullible followers, or is he genuinely concerned with the welfare of his group? Guido also adjusts to life without his aged, demented mother who has passed away. Enjoyable, atmospheric visit to Venice, as always, but I have to say that I grow a bit weary of this same plot--the 'bad guys' being powerful people--or at least people with powerful friends--whom Guido and his fellow officers are not even allowed to question or investigate too closely and who will likely never see 'justice' in the sense of legal prosecution. This was the first time I have listened to an audio book of this series, and the narration was well done--I think it's just that these stories are getting a bit tired. B+

13. THE THREE KINGS OF COLOGNE by Kate Sedley. #16 Roger the Chapman historical mystery set in the late 1400's England. A body discovered on a patch of land that had belonged to a nunnery, now being developed by the mayor-elect of Bristol as an almshouse and sanctuary proves to be a missing young woman who disappeared twenty years previously. The mayor pays Roger to investigate and hopes to find the girl's killer so he feels right about having the ground reconsecrated. This is the first time Roger has set his chapman's bag aside and accepted money for his investigations, and he's uneasy about doing so. As usual, he noses around, is attacked and warned off a few times before coming to the truth. Enjoyable as always. A

14. WHITE NIGHTS by Ann Cleeves. #2 of the Shetland Island quartet featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez. At an art showing that features well-known Island matriarch Bella Sinclair as well as her nephew, famous fiddler Roddy Sinclair, and also the artwork of Perez's new girlfriend Fran Hunter, a stranger in black stops in front of a painting and begins sobbing hysterically, claiming he can't remember who he is and why he is there, or why he is so moved by the painting. He disappears into the night, but the next morning he's found hanging in a fishing shack not far from the gallery, but it's easily ascertained that he was murdered. The first step is to figure out who the guy is and also to isolate who had possible opportunity to do the deed. After the initial oddness of the story sucked me in, there were parts of the book that seemed rather washed out, as though they were filler in the book, and wandered a bit off track sometimes and lost focus. I was also not real keen on Perez's constant relationship angst and self-doubt, which gets old after a bit. I had the killer pegged from the get-go and had a good guess as to the reason once a few clues fell in place. Despite these flaws, the wonderful atmosphere of the Shetland Islands painted with the author's words made it a definite worthwhile read and I do intend to finish this series. B

15. FLIPPING OUT by Marshall Karp. #3 Lomax and Biggs mystery in which the two detectives investigate the murder of several of their co-workers' wives. Eventually the potential pool of victims is narrowed to a few people involved with a 'house flipping' business where a home is purchased, made famous by one of the members--a mystery writer--and then renovated and sold at huge profit. Problem is, there doesn't seem to be a motive as the business is hugely successful and anyone associated with it is making money. Our savvy detectives eventually get there, though, flying under their boss's radar. A quick, fun read although I had figured out the bad guy way in advance, I didn't know exactly what the motive was until close to the end. I like the two detectives a lot and enjoy the sassy writing style. Looking forward to the next. A

16. CATALOGUE OF DEATH by Jo Dereske. #10 Miss Zukas mystery in which a snowstorm hits the usually temperate Bellehaven and during the storm, an explosion kills an elderly man who was the library's benefactor, he having donated the land for the new library. Or did he? Miss Zukas finds out through her investigation that there was no written agreement and now his family are squabbling over the land which his brothers had wanted developed for condominiums. Enjoyable visit to Bellehaven with Helma, Ruth and the rest of the gang. A

17. THE BOWL OF NIGHT by Rosemary Edghill. #3 and final Bast mystery set in mid 1990's New York. Karen Hightower, a Wiccan who thinks of herself as Bast, is headed out of the city for HallowFest, a Pagan festival set on a campground a couple hours' drive north of New York. Shortly after arriving, she discovers the murdered body of a preacher whom no one liked, with his vociferous rantings about the evils of paganism. When Bast looks closely at the body, he appears to have been ritually murdered, although she cannot imagine anyone she knows doing such a thing. Before long, she's working with one of the deputies as a sort of liaison between the police and the Pagans, many of whom are less than cooperative with law enforcement, given previous bad experiences they've had. Enjoyable ending to the series; I do like this character and wish the author had been able to continue on. B

18. IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM by Stefanie Pintoff. #1 Simon Ziele historical mystery set in 1905 New York and also Dobson, a smaller town north of the city. The brutal murder of a young woman in Dobson leads Ziele back to the city, dealing with academics from Columbia University, criminologists who are studying the minds of criminals--and who suspect they know who committed this horrible crime. Of course, it's very rarely the first person suspected who is the actual killer, and this was a cat and mouse tale until the very end with plenty of action as well as character development so that by the end of the book I felt I had a pretty good idea of who Simon Ziele was--and he's someone I definitely want to read more about. Excellent first entry--hard to believe it was a first novel!--and glad to have the next here waiting for me. A

19. HANGING CURVE by Troy Soos. (AUDIO) Final entry in the Mickey Rawlings historical baseball series. The books' settings are each spaced out by a few years, and this one takes place in 1922 St. Louis as Mickey, still a utility infielder, plays for the St. Louis Browns. Each of his books also deals with social issues of the day, and this one deals with the Negro baseball leagues, Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and lynchings, and it was a very painful book to listen to. It was excellent--just made me mad as hell. I am sad, too, that there are no more books in this series. I've thoroughly enjoyed knowing Mickey and Margie, his friends and (the author's real strength) the historical settings and social issues happening in the different cities Mickey's played in. I've listened to all these in the audio format, read by Johnny Heller, who does an excellent job with the 'tone' of the books and has become Mickey's voice to me. Farewell, Mickey, and thanks for the entertainment! A.

Currently reading:

A BITTER FEAST by S.J. Rozan
THE EAGLES' BROOD by Jack Whyte
MATTY GROVES by Deborah Grabien

Cheryl

JUNE 2011 Reading

2011-06-04T17:48:00.000-05:00

Another month, and still holding fast with my pledge not to buy any books for money this year. I've been working at paring down my physical TBR stacks too, so far having a net loss of about 120 books that I've either read and gotten rid of or else removed and posted at Paperbackswap. I'm also continuing to remove books from my Wishlist and adding them to my library lists.

I am also going to be paring down on my book reviews somewhat, and just making note of what I've read and give a grade and a few brief thoughts, with occasional exceptions. Writing reviews is getting to seem too much like a job, especially when I'm busy and get behind with a dozen or so to spit out...I'd rather spend my time actually reading than trying to coherently tell you what I thought of a book.

So...here's my list for June:

1. THE GHOSTWAY by Tony Hillerman. (AUDIO) #6 in the Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee "Navajo" mysteries, although this one featured just Jim Chee. Read by George Guidall, my favorite reader, so it was a delight to listen to. Chee begins to investigate a shooting death, mostly on his own since the FBI is involved and has warned the Navajo Tribal cops off. Lucky for him, he finds that the shooting is related to the disappearance of a Navajo girl that he's already been investigating. Excellent as always. A.

2. THE OTTOMAN CAGE by Barbara Nadel. #2 Cetin Ikmen mystery set in modern Istanbul, Turkey. Ikman, Sgt. Suleyman and their team investigate the death of a young drug addict found in a bizarre locked room in an apartment next to the Topkapi Palace, and the autopsy brings up a number of irregularities that has everyone scratching their heads. Very atmospheric, with an interesting protagonist--how many police stories are written with the main character married with eight children?--and some strong secondary characters, but honestly the mystery itself was almost not a mystery the clues laid out so openly even a caveman could figure this one out. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it though! B+

3. SPILLING THE BEANS by Clarissa Dickson Wright. Autobiography of the television personality who makes up half of the "Two Fat Ladies" which was one of my favorite cooking shows. While the stories and anecdotes themselves were very interesting and worth reading, I found that the book itself was not very well written/constructed with lots of jumping around, rambling, and a general lack of cohesiveness. I liked finding out more about this very amazing woman, but I wished the book had been a little easier to read. B.

4. SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN by Donna Leon. #16 Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery set in Venice, Italy. Guido is called out in the middle of the night because the Carabinieri have done a raid on a prominent pediatrician's home and busted him for adopting a child illegally. The wife called the police since she had no idea what was happening, so Guido's team showed up only to find the invaders WERE the police...but they had not been pre-informed by the Carabinieri of the impending raid, as is standard procedure. The doctor was beaten, the story being that he attacked one of the officers (who had a minor injury) but the severity of the beating belies this. Guido then gets involved with the investigation into an illegal adoption ring, involving foreign women handing their babies over to brokers, who then place the child in homes of people with mega-moola to pay. Once again his superior has warned him off looking too deep, so most of Guido's investigating is on his own and of course ties into another legitimate investigation. Enjoyable visit to Venice as always, with another hot social topic addressed. A.

5. THE FAMOUS FLOWER OF SERVING MEN by Deborah Grabien. #2 in the "Haunted Ballads" series featuring the couple Ringan Laine (folk singer and property restorer) and Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes (actress and theatre troupe leader.) Penny is left a bequest in a will--an abandoned theatre in London--from an eccentric great-aunt she met only once. The theatre is, of course, haunted and as they begin restoration on it and rehearsals for the first play, the troupe members and both Penny and Ringan begin hearing voices in French as well as a nasty stench. This means they need to research to find who the ghost is and how they can get rid of her. Sounds sort of simplistic, but it's really not--it's a very atmospheric, eerie, graphic ghost story tied to the folk song with the same title as the book. As the author owns in her forward to the book, some of the information is historically sound and other parts are made up--it IS fiction, after all. I thoroughly enjoyed and devoured this book, with the author's setting you down right in the midst of wherever she put you at the time and you becoming oblivious to the outside world. Wunnerful! A.

6. BOOKMARKED TO DIE by Jo Dereske. #9 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma's forty-second birthday comes around and leaves her feeling a little out of sorts, especially when Chief of Police, Wayne Gallant, doesn't send a card or gift or even acknowledge the day. Distracted as she is, Helma still has time to investigate the deaths of a couple of Local Authors who have attended a meeting at the library to spotlight their works. She's also busy looking for her cat, whom Helma's friend Ruth managed to lose. Enjoyable visit to Bellehaven and the library as always. A.

7. PROPHECY by S.J. Parris. (AUDIO) #2 in the Giordano Bruno historical series set in and around events at Queen Elizabeth's court in the 1580's. Bruno, an excommunicated Catholic monk, works for Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and has infiltrated the home of the French Ambassador to see if he can learn more about a Catholic plot against QE. Along the way, he hopes to do some consulting and studying with Dr. John Dee, Elizabeth's head astrologer, but ends up being too busy to do much work on his book, as the deaths of two of QE's court ladies keeps him hopping. Enjoyable enough read with John Lee doing the narrating, but I didn't like this as well as the first in series. This one was right at QE's court (whereas the first one was somewhat distanced) and I pretty much OD'd on the Good Queen Bess a few years ago, so it was less than enthralling. I do like Bruno as a central character though and will likely continue listening on when Sacrilege comes out next year. B.

8. THE GODFATHER OF KATHMANDU by John Burdett. #4 Sonchai Jitpleecheep mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand (and also in part in Kathmandu, Nepal.) Sonchai is called to the scene of a brutal murder, an American film producer/director who was essentially gutted, with the top of his head sawed off and a few bites of his brains scooped onto a plate, partially consumed. (No...this is not a cozy. LOL) This murder mystery takes the back seat to the rest of the goings-on, with Sonchai becoming his boss Colonel Vikorn's consigliere (after Vikorn watches The Godfather) in his drug-running business, thus heading to Kathmandu and meeting an advanced Buddhist scholar who blows Sonchai's mind (or something like that.) I nearly gave up on the book, because at first it is very confusing and scattered. It then turned into a great story during the middle third, and then wandered again, with portions that are hard to understand (lots to do with Buddhist philosophy/belief) and some tangents that are just a little too far out there, even for me, who loves the weird and esoteric. Not sure yet if I will continue this series, but this certainly was a disappointment to me. C.

9. A SECRET AND UNLAWFUL KILLING by Cora Harrison. #2 Burren historical mystery featuring the Brehon Mara. When the unpopular steward of clan MacNamara is found murdered in a churchyard the day after the Michealmas faire, it's up to Mara to determine who killed him and enforce the Brehon laws that have governed Ireland for centuries. A second death complicates matters, but the miller Aengus may actually have been killed before the steward. Mara can't help but believe they are somehow connected, but has difficulty figuring out who had motive, means and opportunity to commit both crimes. Enjoyable historical, very atmospheric and with a strong sense of place and time, although I must admit I felt a bit weary at the end of it all, with Mara having to traipse up and down the roads several times a day on her horse to gather information. I have to admit I wasn't sure who the killer was until close to the end. B+

10. FRIEND OF THE DEVIL by Peter Robinson. (AUDIO) #17 DCI Alan Banks mystery set in Yorkshire, UK. An old case resurfaces when DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to a nearby constabulary, determines that the young, wheelchair-bound woman with her throat slashed was not Karen Drew, but none other than Lucy Payne, part of a notorious husband-and-wife team who kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered several teenage girls six years previously. (The events taking place in Robinson's book Aftermath.) Meanwhile, Banks is working on the rape and strangulation murder of a college student in a dark and secluded maze in Eastvale, and a second murder in that case eventually ties together with Annie's case. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook version, although the reader (Simon Prebble) is a different one than previous books in the series, I've listened to him read before and had no problem with the transition. Skillfully plotted, although the solution to Annie's case was very obvious to me. I like Banks and Annie, and it was hard to watch Annie go through some difficult personal problems in this book. Only two more to catch up to current, so now the rationing comes in. LOL A.

11. THE MERCHANT'S HOUSE by Kate Ellis. #1 DS Wesley Peterson mystery. Wesley is newly installed as a DS in Tradmouth, South Devon after working for several years in London. He's greeted on his first day with a murder when a dog-walker finds a body of an unidentified woman, her face bashed in. While he's soon busy jumping right in with the investigation, Wesley has a few personal things to deal with too--his wife's depression over her continued infertility and being a minority in a predominantly white population. There's also a missing toddler case, and Wesley's archaeologist friend Neil's dig, in which they find a centuries-old murdered corpse as well. I found this book to be rather choppy, scattered and somewhat amateurishly written, but that may be because I've read some of the author's later work (her second series) and it's quite obvious that she's matured as a writer over the years. It's a decent introduction, but there seemed to be too much going on in such a short book, and it was definitely not up to par with her later work. If I weren't aware of the later improvement, I'm not sure I'd continue reading this series. C+

12. DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS by P.D. James. #6 Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh mystery in which he heads north to a rather remote village to investigate the death of the Director of a crime lab. Dr. Lorrimer was much-disliked, with many suspects with motive, but means and opportunity are problematic as he was in the lab building after hours and access was much restricted. As usual, James spends about the first third of the book setting the scene before Dalgliesh even enters the picture, and as usual, the story was brilliantly, intricately plotted with all the clues there, but well-hidden. Enjoyable classic mystery read! A

13. THE FOURTH ASSASSIN by Matt Beynon Rees. #4 Omar Yussef mystery. These are usually set in Bethlehem, where Omar works as a teacher, but he is in New York this time to give a talk to the UN about education in the refugee camps. Upon arrival, he goes to visit his son, but finds a decapitated body at Ala's apartment, a body that turns out to be Ala's roommate and Omar's former student. Ala is subsequently arrested and Omar is frantic to get him released. Bethlehem's police chief is also in NY providing security for their President at the UN conference, and the two of them set out to investigate, encountering the usual political corruption and violence along the way. I'm not usually fond of series books that send the main character on a road trip away from their home base, but this one works pretty well, putting Omar Yussef in the Little Palestine area of New York. The story is well-told, but it's hard to read these without feeling a great sense of sadness and anger at the mess we've made of our world. I do hope the author plans to continue the series--Omar is a strong character with flaws that make him very believable and I've come to be very fond of him. A

14. STILL MIDNIGHT by Denise Mina. (AUDIO) #1 Alex Morrow mystery set in Glasgow, Scotland. Alex is a Detective Sergeant who ends up working a botched kidnapping case in which the sixty-year-old Amir Anwar is taken rom his comfortable suburban home by an amateurish group of thugs. Problem is, the kidnappers seem to have gotten the wrong guy--they were after some guy named Bob. Mr. Anwar is a Ugandan political refugee who owns a small corner shop, not someone you'd expect to have a two million quid ransom lying around. The case looks to be a big one and Morrow is disappointed when her rival of the same rank, golden boy Grant Bannerman, is given SIO for the case and she has to take orders from him. Morrow also deals with personal demons that make just doing the day-to-day of her job none too easy. Wonderfully read by Jane MacFarlane, this book kept me listening for hours at a time and not wanting to stop. Gritty and fast-paced with interesting twists and turns, and I look forward to seeing what Alex gets up to in her next adventure. A

15. FLASHPOINT by Linda Barnes. #8 Carlotta Carlyle mystery set in Boston. Carlotta, a licensed PI, is hired by an elderly woman in a rent-controlled property--one of the few remaining in the Fens neighborhood--as a security consultant. When the seemingly paranoid and batty woman is found dead by Carlotta upon returning with her new locks and equipment, Carlotta is then hired by a wealthy music-business owner to see if the woman was his great-grandmother. Interesting, fast-paced read with snappy dialogue and the always-interesting characters, although with a fairly obvious murderer. Enjoyable. B

16. HAVE MERCY ON US ALL by Fred Vargas. #3 Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg mystery set in Paris. In this atmospheric thriller, a history scholar reports to the police that someone may be about to unleash the plague on Paris. Someone has been anonymously posting messages via a town crier in one of the neighborhoods, and the scholar finally pieces together where the messages are taken from. This news coupled with someone painting bizarre-looking 4's on doors in a few neighborhoods has Adamsberg worried, and sure enough, it's not long before their first victim turns up--not dead of plague, although they are meant to look like it. More bodies begins to incite widespread panic as Adamsberg and his team hunt down leads. A very interesting mystery with a very interesting main character. A

17. WINTERSMITH by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #3 in the Tiffany Aching sub-series of the Discworld fantasy novels, in which Tiffany, a witch-in-training, attends the Black Morris dance (signaling the beginning of winter) and accidentally dances with the Wintersmith who subsequently thinks she is the Summer Lady and sets out to make himself human so he can woo her. Tiffany, meanwhile, also has to deal with her current tutor, Miss Treason, dying and having her sort-of friend and fellow trainee Annagramma take over Miss Treason's cottage as a full-fledged witch, displacing Tiffany to the tutelage of Nanny Ogg up Lancre way. And of course all the while the Nac Mac Feegle are in the thick of things protecting their 'wee big hag,' with Tiffany's blue cheese wheel Horace donning a kilt and joining them. Brilliant is about all I can say, though it's not nearly enough. A+

18. HELL IS EMPTY by Craig Johnson. #7 Walt Longmire mystery in which Walt ends up mostly alone in the high reaches of the Bighorn Mountains as he plods after a prisoner, a ruthless psychopath who escaped in a prisoner transfer gone horribly wrong. Alone with his thoughts, fears, and possibly some strange Native American spirits, Walt isn't sure what's real and what's not. I will say that so far this is my least favorite of the series--not because of the large amount of so-called 'woo woo' ('paranormal/spirit activity') but because one of the big strengths of this series--the wonderful secondary characters--were largely missing, as was the banter and interaction between Walt and his friends, family and co-workers. I fully respect the author's right to fiddle around and make each book unique in its own right, I'm just saying I didn't like this one as much. I rather felt the same way about the one that took Walt out of Wyoming to Philadelphia, as that one was missing another important character in the series--the Wyoming setting. What can I say--I likes what I likes! B

Current reads:

19. AMONG THE MAD by Jacqueline Winspear
20. THE INDIAN BRIDE by Karin Fossum (APA CALLING OUT FOR YOU) (AUDIO)

Cheryl

May 2011

2011-05-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

1. THE SATURDY BIG-TENT WEDDING PARTY by Alexander McCall Smith (AUDIO) #12 No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series in which Mma Kutsi and her fiance Phuti Radiphuti finally are planning their wedding, and in which Mma Ramotswe has heard rumors that someone has fixed her (former) tiny white van and thinks she may have spotted it around Gabarone. While her new blue van is fine, she still has feelings for that tiny white van and would like nothing more than to be able to drive it again. She also deals with a case in which someone has killed a couple of cattle belonging to a farmer out near Lobatse--and not just killed, but sliced the tendons in their legs so that their death was slow and painful, which is totally unacceptable to Mma Ramotswe, whose father the late Obed Ramotswe was a cattle man. The lady detectives also have problems with Charlie, one of the apprentices at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors--he is apparently the father of twins and is not owning up to his responsibility as their father. As with all of these books, there isn't much of a mystery, it's more a visit with friends to hear the continuing saga of their lives and spend a few hours in a totally different culture. As always, I enjoyed this visit even if it is a somewhat syrupy-sweet view through rose-colored glasses. The reader for the audio versions is great and does a wonderful job with the voices, accents and nuances of the stories. A

2. THE PRODIGAL SON by Kate Sedley. #15 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery set in the UK. Roger is in the Green Lattis pub savoring an ale when a stranger approaches several people including the chapman, asking after news of his brother's ship that sailed from Bristol several weeks previously. There has been no news, but Roger thinks he's met the young man somewhere before, but can't quite place John Wedmore. Until a day later when the sheriff comes calling, stating he's got young Mr. Wedmore in his jail, accused of being a thief and murderer, implicated by a countrywoman who named him her page six years ago. And he's asked to speak to Roger--who subsequently learns that John Wedmore is his previously unknown half-brother and he realizes he 'recognized' his father's facial features in the young man. Roger ends up journeying out to Wells, where he was born and grew up, to the country manor of his brother's accuser to see what he can learn about this six-year-old murder in hopes of exonerating him. Meanwhile, a long lost son returns to that manor at the same time as Roger and begins stirring up a hornet's nest. Enjoyable visit as always to 14th century England. The mysteries are not terribly difficult to figure out, but the writing style, the characters and historical ambience make all the difference. A

3. GARDEN SPELLS by Sarah Addison Allen. Not sure how to categorize this book...I guess a combination of magical realism (comparable to Alice Hoffman, perhaps)...and a hefty dose of chick lit would be about right. It's the story of the Waverley sisters, Claire and Sydney, and how they each come to find themselves and some basic truths about their family. Everyone in the small town they live in knows the Waverley women have always been a little strange, and the present generation has also inherited some of the Waverley magic. Claire now lives in the old Waverley house, working as a caterer who does 'special' work--meals concocted from edible flowers and herbs from the Waverley garden that affect people certain ways depending on the ingredients. There's also an apple tree in the garden that throws apples at people. Sydney, who's been absent for ten years without a word, flitting around the country much as their mother did, Claire imagines, shows up one day with her daughter Bay in tow, seeking refuge. As they learn to become sisters again and deal with their strange elderly Aunt Evanelle and the unwanted attentions of a couple of local men, both women begin to find where they fit into the grand scheme of things. An interesting, though easily read book without any real surprises, predictable in many ways, and yet this author has such a wonderful way of weaving words together that it has moments of absolute brilliance and was very difficult to put down, although the neatly wrapped up ending was rather anti-climactic. When looking back on the whole package though...it was okay, though not spectacular. B+

4. A FIELD OF DARKNESS by Cornelia Read. #1 Madeline Dare mystery set in 1980's Syracuse, NY. Madeline is a reporter--well, she writes mostly filler pieces for the local newspaper in Syracuse, NY where she moved with her husband Dean who is an engineer, a designer, mostly roughing it working on railroads while on the side working on a device that will save a lot of time and money. Madeline comes from old money, as in Mayflower old money--but her parents fell out of the money loop--her mother having divorced and remarried several times and her father a paranoid aging hippy living in a trailer in California. Madeline longs to be part of that inner circle again, but she's not a whiner--she just does what she has to do to get by, including living in butt-ugly Syracuse in a dismal apartment. Then one day Dean's uncle--his family are farmers in the area near Syracuse--brings up an old unsolved mystery in which two girls who were never identified were brutally murdered, their bodies posed--and hands Madeline a set of dog tags that just happen to belong to her cousin Lapthorne--one of the moneyed set. They were found by a local farmer not far from where the girls were found but never reported to the police--and Madeline is instantly intrigued and sets out to clear her cousin's name--even though she hasn't seen him in more than ten years, he's always been one of the good guys in her eyes and she doesn't want to go to the police yet. Her searches lead her down some dark and scary paths, with suspects suddenly falling out of the trees, and when it's obvious the killer realizes she's investigating, she begins to fear for her own safety--but is her fear misplaced? Someone close to her is leaking information, but who? Great read! I am not a big fan of frou-frou books about people with money, but I really like Madeline, and this story was a doozie! The author also is a very dynamic writer, with certain phrases and descriptions that leap out at you and give such a sense of place and...I don't know...feeling, I guess. Definitely not a cozy, and probably not the best choice for my "bedtime" read, but a great one nonetheless. A+

5.HUNTING A DETROIT TIGER by Troy Soos. (AUDIO) #4 Mickey Rawlings historical baseball mystery series, this one set mostly in Detroit in 1920, where Mickey is currently playing ball as a utility infielder. Mickey, at a union organizing rally, ends up accused of shooting one of the principals, Emmet Siever, although he's not charged as it's termed self-defense. Trouble is, Mickey didn't shoot him at all, and he wants to know who's set him up so conveniently--and who the real killer is. The publicity has turned his Tiger teammates against him, and a union-busting 'personnel manager' with the backing of the Tigers owner wants him to badmouth the union--when what Mickey wants is not to be involved at all. Add in a mysterious fake policeman (whom Mickey later learns is actually a federal agent in the organization that was the predecessor of the FBI) and Marguerite Turner, an actress that Mickey had a relationship with a couple of books ago and the story gets really interesting. Karl Landfors, Mickey's socialist newspaper reporter friend also makes an appearance to help Mickey navigate his way through all the different radical groups trying to organize workers. Very enjoyable listen as always. The reader does a great job at setting the tone and with the various voices throughout the book. The author picks a social issue of the times in each book, one that intersects somehow with baseball. In this book, it's the birth of the unions, the attempts to organize baseball players and the beginnings of the FBI and the power they wield over those whom they target as radicals, regardless of the truth. Great sense of time and place, infused with the spirit of baseball when it was young. A

6. WALKING A PERFECT SQUARE by Reed Farrel Coleman. #1 Moe Prager mystery set in New York City in the late 1970s--and in the late 1990's as well. Moe is an ex-cop, farmed out on disability from an on the job injury. In 1978, one of his cop buddies asks him to look privately into the disappearance of a college student, Patrick Maloney, even though Moe isn't officially a PI. He's been missing about 2 months when Moe first encounters the case, which the boy's father is 'paying' him in favors to look into...expediting the liquor license Moe and his brother Aaron will need for their planned wine shop--and some help in getting the wine shop itself going. After just a short time, Moe senses something is decidedly askew with the Maloney's disappearance--and with his father's efforts to find him. For example, the photo used for the 'have you seen this person?' flyers is from his high school prom--a couple of years old, and Maloney had drastically changed his appearance since then. Why would Mr. Maloney not use the up-to-date likeness of his son instead? In talking with friends and family of Patrick, Moe gets very different vibes as to what he was like--and he definitely had some sort of mental condition, possibly obsessive-compulsive disorder. As Moe continues investigating, he is first warned anonymously and then paid off by the father to drop it. However, Patrick's sister Katy hires Moe to continue, and he finds himself falling for her. He knows there must be something fishy going on because he's attacked and his car is blown up--which just makes him more curious. The story intermittently pops ahead into 1998, with Moe going to the bedside of a dying man in a hospice who has asked his nurse to summon Moe--he has no idea who he is, but he's uttered the magic words, "Patrick Maloney." I really enjoyed this story, and I like Moe a lot. There were a few typos or misspelled words/wrong homophones used ('sight' instead of 'site' is one I recall off the top of my head) that I found a bit distracting, but the writing style is very readable and the story itself sucked me in right from the get-go and I found it difficult to put down. I'll definitely be continuing on in this series! A-

7. PIECE OF MY HEART by Peter Robinson (AUDIO) #16 DCI Alan Banks mystery set in Yorkshire, UK. Nick Barber, a music journalist, ends up murdered in a holiday cottage in a Yorkshire village with no apparent motive for the killing. The story line bounces back and forth between present day and 1969 and the murder of a young woman at a local rock festival, whose death is (of course!) related to Barber's. Barber was doing an investigative piece on rock band The Mad Hatters, as there is an upcoming reunion planned. The Hatters were just getting started in 1969 and played at the Brimley Festival where young Linda Lofthouse died. Had Barber found something out about the murder, despite the fact that someone went to prison for Linda's murder--or perhaps it was the death of Robin Merchant, the Hatters bass player, which had been deemed an accidental drowning in the pool at a local Lord's country estate. Despite Banks' ambitious new boss trying to steer him in other directions, he's convinced that the past ties to Nick Barber's murder and sets out to find the connection. Well-narrated, interesting story, and although I didn't figure out the killer til close to the end, the pieces fell into place for me before they did for Banks. Strong characterizations, with plenty of fully-fleshed characters besides Banks himself, interesting story and plot, and the historical part provided an interesting cornerstone in time to weave together with the present-day story. Enjoyable as always...and scary to realize I'm fast approaching being caught up with this series. A

8. FROM THE GROUNDS UP by Sandra Balzo. #5 Maggy Thorsen coffee shop mystery set in fictional Brookhills, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Maggy is looking for somewhere to house Uncommon Grounds, since the coffee shop burned down along with the rest of the small strip mall it was located in during events in the last book. On an almost non-existent budget and now sans Caron, her business partner, who must bow out due to financial strains, Maggy is wondering what to do. Then her moody friend Sarah, a real estate agent, offers to take Caron's place as her partner AND provide a building--an old railroad depot that (unknown to many) is about to become active again when Brookhills once again becomes a train stop. Sarah owns the building, as it was willed to her by her recently-deceased aunt, and her cousin Ronny is a contractor/developer, so it would seem that things are looking up. However, as soon as the papers are signed and they begin making plans, accidents start happening at the depot site, including the death of Sarah's crabby step-uncle, whose car was t-boned by a passing train when it stalled on the tracks. Maggy senses that someone doesn't want her to re-open Uncommon Grounds--at least not at the depot--but who? Of course she begins poking her nose in and with a few dropped clues from her boyfriend the Sheriff, discovers that Uncle Kornell's 'accident' was actually a murder. Love this series with its edgy, slightly irreverent humor, relaxed atmosphere and easy reading style. Maggy is a breath of fresh air compared to most of the cookie-cutter cozy heroines, and her friends are fully-fleshed, great characters too--including her gassy sheepdog, Frank. (She really ought to be nominated for a Watson award for the best sidekick! LOL) Very much looking forward to the next book in the series. A

9. MURDER ON WAVERLY PLACE by Victoria Thompson. #11 Gaslight mystery featuring midwife Sarah Brandt in early 1900's New York. Sarah is persuaded to attend a seance hosted by spiritualist Madame Serafina by her mother, the society matron Mrs. Peter Decker. Mrs. Decker hopes to contact Sarah's dead sister to seek her forgiveness for the terrible way they treated her. Sarah of course is certain the people conducting the seance are charlatans and hopes to show her mother that she's being ripped off. But after the very convincing performance, a few niggling doubts find their way into Sarah's mind, too. A few days later, she is summoned to the home where Madame Serafina holds her seances by Det. Sgt. Frank Molloy--it seems someone at a seance was murdered, and Mrs. Decker was in attendance. Sarah takes Madame Serafina into her home to keep her safe, and as she and Molloy investigate, the secrets of the seances start revealing themselves slowly, as do the suspects since those who would benefit from Mrs. Gittings' murder (she hosted the seances and was Mme. Serafina's patroness). Enjoyable enough, but rather predictable as I figured out the bad guy well in advance and there's very few surprises in these books--I think the author needs to shake herself out of the formula a bit and do something 'different' although not sure just what that means. The continued 'romantic tension' between Sarah and Molloy has gotten a bit old, although it's never as pervasive in this series as in some others. B

10. BOOK OF MOONS by Rosemary Edghill #2 Bast mystery. Second in the "Bast" mystery series featuring Karen Hightower, a Wiccan and member of Changings coven in New York, and whose witch name is Bast. It's set in contemporary New York--although this was written at least 15 years ago--and deals with the life of contemporary Pagans. In this book, Bast's friend Glitter calls her, distraught, because her BoS (Book of Shadows--a witch's own personal self-written "Bible" and spellbook as it were) has disappeared. Since Glitter tends to be a bit absent-minded, Bast helps her search but doesn't find the book. Life goes on, Bast assists Belle, her High Priestess, in informally interviewing a prospective new member. And then she starts hearing snippets of conversation at a communal picnic about other people missing their BoS as well, although most are simply writing it off to misplacing it. And when the prospective new member, Ned, makes a fool of himself by claiming to have an 'original' BoS from ancient times, he is laughed out of the picnic by skeptical Pagans who've heard it all before. When Ilona, the owner of a local Pagan bookstore, is found murdered, her assistant--none other than the aforementioned Ned--contacts Bast and gives her a package to hold for him. And when he turns up dead and she opens the package, to no one's surprise (or at least not mine!) it contains several stolen BoS and a very old book that claims to be the BoS of Mary, Queen of Scots. This book wasn't as good as the first one--for one thing, the bad guy stood out like a sore thumb almost from the time of introduction into the book, and for another, it just seemed full of melancholy and angst. I do find this series refreshing because it's about the life of normal everyday Pagans and isn't treated as a "paranormal" mystery just because of the beliefs and practices the main character has. I enjoyed it though and look forward to seeing how the author ties up the trilogy with the next one. B

11. THE BRUTAL TELLING by Louise Penny. In this fifth "Three Pines" mystery featuring the head of the Surete du Quebec, Armand Gamache, he and his team of homicide detectives are once again off to the quiet village nestled in the countryside. And yet again, the idyllic setting is marred by a dead body, this one lying on the floor of the bistro owned by Olivier and Gabri. Olivier is in absolute shock as he recognizes the man as a hermit who lives in a well-hidden cottage some distance from the village--and in fact he's just visited him that very night, but he can't tell the police that. Gamache picks up on the fact that something is bothering Olivier right from the beginning and knows something is being kept from him, but as to what it is or why, he has no idea. Once the team begins their ferreting, and the autopsy is complete, much information comes to light, including the location of his cabin--which is full of antique treasures, long lost to the world. Olivier begins revealing his involvement in bits and pieces, frustrating Gamache and his team to no end with each tidbit. I have a confession to make, that I have read comments from some of my reading buddies about this book and their dislike of it, and also their further comments about the NEXT book, where some unresolved issues from this one are sorted out. Without that knowledge, I would have very likely marked down this book as it just seemed to leave things hanging without a real final 'close the book/end of story' ending. As it is, I enjoyed the book itself with the cozy village atmosphere, the odd collection of characters, the wonderful foods and the literary references and the like. But the ending did NOT make me happy! It won't be long until I get to that next one, let me tell you! A-

12. THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT by Tarquin Hall. (AUDIO) In this thoroughly enjoyable first in series featuring PI Vish Puri in Delhi, India, you are not only introduced to a whole cache of fun and interesting characters but given a cultural tour of a middle-class Indian household as well. Puri is contacted by an old friend, a prominent lawyer who is being set up to take the fall for doing away with one of his former maidservants who disappeared a couple of months previously.
Puri and his crack team--whom he's given hilarious nicknames like Facecream, Handbrake, and Tubelight--begin digging, surveilling and infiltrating the home of the lawyer to find out all the things that they aren't being told. As the investigation is underway, a body is actually discovered and suddenly witnesses are coming out of the woodwork who saw the lawyer disposing of it. Given the corruption in the Indian police force and political system, it's entirely possible that someone has it in for the lawyer and is framing him--and it's Puri's job to find out who and why. The reader was excellent, handling a variety of voices and accents well, with a pace and tone that captures the essence of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, both the reader and the story itself, and the cultural immersion as well. There was a good mix of humor--the tone was light, but some serious issues were also addressed. The main mystery was fairly easy to figure out, as were the side mysteries but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story. A

13. MALICE IN MINIATURE by Jeanne M. Dams. #4 Dorothy Martin mystery. Dorothy, an American widow now re-married to Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt and living in Sherebury, UK has been asked by her friend/house cleaner Ada Finch to help clear her son Bob's name. Bob's a drunk, admittedly, but he appreciates his job as maintenance and odd-job man at Brocklesby Hall, and there's no way he stole some miniature doll house pieces from the museum housed there. Dorothy heads out to the museum to have a look around and meets the owner, Sir Mordred Brocklesby, a man much obsessed with doll house miniatures. There she learns that the issue over the missing pieces Bob is accused of stealing has been resolved, but she meets some strange characters and a nice woman named Meg Cunningham who is the curator and it sounds like something is definitely 'off.' A couple of days later, Ada summons her again--this time Bob's been set up for murder, as the old battleaxe of a housekeeper has been found dead of poisoning. Dorothy, cognizant of her new position as the CC's wife, tries to investigate inconspicuously so word won't get back to Alan, but of course that backfires. I didn't like this entry in the series as much as the previous ones, partly because so many words in the book were devoted to Dorothy's angst over not making Alan look bad if she did something wrong., and also to her thoughts about possibly moving to a different area, since Alan was offered a promotion elsewhere. She's just a bit too prissy for my taste. Also, there were some fairly preposterous coincidences involved in this story that made me snort and roll my eyes. I think I'll give the series a rest for awhile, but it's likely that I will come back to it later at some point. C

14. PRETTY GIRL GONE by David Housewright. #3 Rushmore "Mac" MacKenzie mystery set in and around St. Paul, MN. Mac is an unlicensed PI who works essentially doing favors for friends, given that he inherited a bundle of money a few years ago, left the police force and now lives a life of leisure most of the time. In this book, he's contacted by an old girlfriend from high school, who now just happens to be the first lady of Minnesota. The Governor has apparently been threatened although he doesn't know it--an e-mail to his wife says that he murdered his high-school sweetheart back in Victoria, MN, a crime that had never been solved. Lindsey wants Mac to look into it and so he sends out his tendrils of query and almost immediately he's captured at gunpoint and brought to an office building to meet a circle of powerful men who, between them, own much of the Twin Cities and control most of the running of the state behind the scenes. They want Governor Barrett's little problem to go away so he can become a US Senator and perhaps even go beyond that and they want Mac to know they can assist him in his quest to help Mrs. Barrett. Meanwhile, another faction threatens Mac and states that Barrett must NOT run for Senate. Caught in the middle, Mac figures the present problems are buried in the past so he heads to Victoria to try to figure out what happened those many years ago when Barrett's girlfriend was killed. Okay--I like Mac well enough; he's a tough, smart-alecky, independent kind of guy. But I find these stories to be nigh on unbelievable, with the perfect circumstances he's in where he has no work timetable, no one to answer to, no money issues, dozens of people who owe him big favors that he calls in at every turn, etc. to be a detriment to the story. ANYONE could solve crimes under those circumstances unless he was an idiot. Give me a story with the hero stuck in a dead-end job with a mortgage, back taxes to pay and a car that barely stays on the road who's stuck in a dead-end job. This story was worse than previous ones with the political shenanigans and conspiracy theories thrown in. The mystery of who killed the girl was obvious with a trail of clues marked with big red circles around them--or at least that's how I saw them--and I admit I skimmed to the end just to be sure I was right. I have to say that at this point, the ONLY reason I continue reading this series is the author's capturing the sense of place of the Twin Cities so well and it's fun to read about Mac driving down roads I drive down, past scenes I see with my own eyes. But at this point, I'm not sure it's enough to keep me reading. I'm taking a break for awhile, at least. C-

15. MEN AT ARMS by Terry Pratchett. #15 Discworld novel (in order of publication), this one following the 'Night Watch' sub-series, as might be guessed by the title. Captain Sam Vimes is about to retire--since he is getting married to a wealthy noblewoman. As he contemplates life without his job on the Night Watch, he's wondering if it's really worth it, but doesn't have time to think about it very long because a big case has fallen in their laps with a string of corpses from the various Guilds. Corporal Carrot is attempting to get his latest batch of recruits trained in, and a motley mix they are, with a dwarf, a troll and a female werewolf. Green as they are, Carrot uses them to investigate the series of deaths despite being 'warned off the case' by the higher-ups and informed by the various Guild masters that they are handling their own investigations as usual. Hilarious romp through Ankh-Morpork as Pratchett pokes fun at affirmative action, political correctness and police forces everywhere. The Night Watch string of books isn't my favorite Discworld sub-series, but still an enjoyable, light read with laugh out loud funny dialogue and wordplay. A

16. A LOCAL HABITATION by Seanan McGuire. #2 October "Toby" Daye paranormal mystery. Toby is sent on an errand by her liege lord Sylvester to check on his niece whom he's been fairly close to, but hasn't been returning his calls for several weeks. So Toby and Quentin, one of Sylvester's knights-in-training, head off to Fremont, CA--the real world place where the small duchy of Tamed Lightning is, which is where January O'Leary resides. And since it's right between two larger faerie counties, both with political aspirations to greatness, there is cause for worry. Once they arrive and see that January is okay, Toby is somewhat relieved, but puzzled when she insists that it is her uncle who has not been available--that she's left many voicemails for him with no response. Something seems 'off' to Toby, and once she begins poking around, it's not long before a dead body turns up, and Toby discovers that there have been two other mysterious deaths over the past month, both employees of the computer company that January runs. The mystery to "who dunnit" was very easily figured out very far in advance but the particulars as to how and why were still interesting to read about. I like this series and Toby's an interesting character. Much of it is based on Celtic myth and lore and seems pretty accurately researched, although there is something just slightly "off" about it and about Toby that keeps me from really loving the series--not sure yet what that is. I do intend to read on, but it's not one of those 'must read as soon as I get the next book' type things. B

17. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. (AUDIO). I've never been much of a Jane Austen fan, so I have to say I LOVE what they've done with the book with 'the manky unmentionables' added to the mix. Oh, it's the same story, basically...but much more fun with zombies and ninjas. And that's all I'm gonna say. Hehehe. I loved the narration of the book by this reader, who managed every voice from the quintessential Regency hoity-toity posh "Lady" voices, to one of the characters who was infected with the zombie plague and had almost totally turned and could barely speak. There were some LOL moments and of course when she was prattling on in the voice of Mrs. Bennet or her airhead youngest daughter Lydia, she did such a great job that it set my teeth on edge--as it was meant to. Looking forward to reading the continuation of the series--a sequel and then a prequel, both written by Steve Hockensmith, one of my favorite writers. A

18. THE PALE BLUE EYE by Louis Bayard. Historical mystery set at West Point Academy in 1830, when none other than Edgar Allan Poe was briefly a cadet there. This story weaves Poe nicely into the mix as he becomes an informant for retired detective Gus Landor, who was asked to investigate the heinous death of cadet Leroy Fry. He had apparently hung himself, but afterward, while the officers were being summoned, his body was stolen and his heart cut out. Believing it to be the work of Satanists--or at least the possibility--Landor convinces the lead officer that he's working with to let Poe assist him by infiltrating the most likely group of cadets. Eventually this leads to trouble when Poe finds himself falling for the lead suspect's sister, but his letters/reports to Landor are a delight to read. Rich with historical detail and weighty, twisty prose redolent of the times, with bits of Poe's poetry tossed in for good measure, an interesting mystery and a freaky plot twist at the end, this is an great example of a Gothic horror/suspense novel with one of my favorite writers brought to life. I will say it did get a bit boggy in places and you need some patience to get through those sections--if you're used to reading light, easily resolved mysteries you may have a hard time with this. But I quite enjoyed it. B+

DNF: RUNNING ON EMPTY by Sandra Balzo--first entry in a new series that was a big disappointment for me since I love her coffee shop series so much. I just couldn't get interested.

Cheryl

APRIL 2011

2011-04-03T08:25:00.000-05:00

Thought I would post an update on how I'm doing in my year-long quest to not acquire books. Well, I have made it through the first quarter without purchasing any books for money...(takes a bow)...I can do this!

I've also joined a challenge over at one of the Paperbackswap forums called "The Biggest Book Loser." Basically, the winner is the person who pares the most books from their physical TBR (To Be Read) pile--that is to say, books that are in your possession that you haven't yet read, those on a library list or wish list not counting. I know I probably won't win the challenge as I am still acquiring books fairly regularly from my PBS wishlist, but as we are moving next year to a smaller apartment and thus will have less room, I am determined to have my physical TBR down to 400 or under by 2/1/2012. (This started on Feb. 1 of this year.)

Progress so far: I have acquired 27 books and removed 80 from the TBR stacks, with a net loss of 53 books. The acquisitions were all from my PBS wishlist except for one freebie ARC from Amazon Vine. The removals were either those I read and posted to PBS or donated or those I culled without reading, deciding I'm no longer interested in reading them now or in the near future. I also pared my PBS wishlist down considerably, eliminating many titles that are readily available at my local (superb!) library system...my wishlist is down to about 160 now, and it hasn't been that low in years. Will do a quarterly update--this wasn't too bad considering I didn't join in til Feb. 1 so only 2 months worth of work. :)

Now, on to my April reading adventures!

1. MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD by Troy Soos (AUDIO) #3 Mickey Rawlings historical mystery. It's now 1918 and WWI is in full swing. Mickey and his fellow major league baseball players await word from the top whether they will be allowed to continue the season without fear of being drafted, or whether baseball will be deemed 'non-essential' entertainment. Because of all the other players who've enlisted, Mickey now has a starting role playing second base for the Chicago Cubs. While marching in the 4th of July parade entering the stadium, Mickey's friend and roommate, shortstop Willie Kaiser, is shot dead, and Mickey vows to find out who killed him and why, even if Willie's sister hadn't asked him to. He's also supposed to be looking into the matter of who has been sabotaging things at the ballpark, making things difficult for his boss. Mickey wonders if Willie's death was random or if his German heritage had something to do with his demise--anti-German sentiment runs strong, so much so that things like eating pretzels and owning dachshunds are seen as 'un-patriotic' and one must watch what they say lest someone have them arrested for treason according to the new anti-sedition laws which forbid any sort of criticism of the United States Government. Vigilante groups like the Patriotic Knights of Liberty are running rampant, and when Mickey learns that Willie worked part time in a munitions plant where several of the bosses are members of that group, he gets hired there to snoop around and soon finds himself being targeted for injury or death too. Although this book seemed a bit slower-moving than previous ones, I still enjoyed the reading of it immensely--the reader (Johnny Heller) is perfect for the series and there was a lot of interesting historical information passed along through the course of the story, woven skillfully into the plot itself so that it didn't feel like a lecture at all. Very enjoyable and very much looking forward to the next in series--and sorry to see that the series isn't longer. A.

2. THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie. One of the Hercule Poirot mysteries told from the point of view of Dr. Sheppard, the physician in a fictional rural UK village. When the wealthy lord of the manor is found stabbed to death in his study, it's determined that many people had motive to kill him. Dr. Sheppard relates the story from his diary notes, including his surprise when the mysterious neighbor next door turns out to be none other than Hercule Poirot, now mostly retired and living somewhat reclusively. Using Dr. Sheppard as his Hastings, Poirot--who's been asked by the victim's niece to investigate alongside the police--gathers evidence in his usual meticulous fashion and then applies his little grey cells, of course comes up with the solution by the end of the book--an interesting plot twist that (having read the book before) I did anticipate. A charming visit to the English countryside of the 1920's, including a dip below the surface to reveal all the usual baser human emotions of hate, greed, jealousy and fear under the idyllic appearance. A+

3. A HAT FULL OF SKY by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #32 overall Discworld, #2 in the Tiffany Aching mini-series. Something is after Tiffany Aching--a witch, aged 11. She's off to the mountains to be an apprentice witch and helper for Miss Level, who lives in two bodies at once. What is after Tiffany is the Hiver--an existential mindless nightmare parasite that takes over a host and twists its mind and actions, and not for the better. The Nac Mac Feegle note this catastrophe and even though Rob Anybody Mac Feegle is about to become a father, his new bride the Keldar tells him he must save Tiffany, so the troop of six-inch-tall blue men are off to help their 'big wee hag' out of her dilemma. Granny Weatherwax, senior witch from Lancre also makes an appearance and assists Tiffany in getting rid of her pest. Another great entry in this series within a series--great fun, plenty of wisdom, and Pratchett's usual well-drawn characters. A

4. THE WEAVER AND THE FACTORY MAID by Deborah Grabien. #1 Haunted Ballad mystery set in the UK. Is it a mystery? A gothic ghost story? A charming English story? Yes, yes and yes. Ringan Laine is the guitarist and vocalist in a traditional folk band, which doesn't often pay enough of a living wage to subsist on. So he also does home restorations. When the owner of the manor home he's nearly finished restoring explains that he isn't able to pay him in cash due to a problem with the courts tying up his liquid assets, Ringan is livid--until the man offers him the title to a plot of land with a cottage and old tithe barn instead. Worth much more than the few thousand quid he was owing, Ringan accepts, and then finds out that the house and barn are both haunted. When his longtime girlfriend Penny arrives to check out his new home, they both have chilling experiences that unsettle them to the core, each with a different ghost. Eventually, they feel they must figure out the mystery of just who is haunting the property, and why. And they do discover it, but then the question becomes how to banish the spirits so that they can carry on living in the cottage? What an interesting story! Not a lot of 'action' per se, and not even that much of a mystery in that you discover whodunit right along with the protagonists. Very atmospheric, with a sense of place that puts you right in the middle of things without being overtly 'descriptive'--that is to say, it's not a bunch of adjectives strung together, but a true multi-dimensional picture woven together with words. If you don't like a paranormal element to your books, you probably should pass on this. If you've an open mind or like ghost stories, I highly recommend it. The writing is wonderful and I already feel as though Ringan and Penny and their circle are my friends--and I can't wait for another visit! A.

5. TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN by Rhys Bowen. #7 Molly Murphy historical mystery set in 1902 in New York. In one of those 'be careful what you wish for' scenarios, Molly--a private detective--finds herself suddenly overrun with cases and struggles to keep up. She decides to ask her beau--Daniel Sullivan, a police captain who is still on suspension--to help her out. This doesn't sit well with Daniel, somewhat of a traditionalist, but if he's actually going to wed Molly someday, he'd better get used to her independent spirit! He's bored, so he agrees and works at following a young man whom Molly was asked to investigate by his fiance's parents while Molly takes a non-speaking part in a Broadway musical in an attempt to ferret out who is trying to ruin the show--and the lead actress, former vaudeville performer Blanche Lovejoy--by pretending to be an angry ghost, causing some quite dangerous accidents. Meanwhile, Molly and Daniel stumble on a well-dressed young woman in a snow bank in Central Park, near frozen, who doesn't respond verbally or appear to even understand what's being said, despite several different languages being tried. Molly takes steps to prevent her from being sent to the insane asylum since no one claims her--and on top of all that, Mrs. Van Woekem, a society matron whom Molly has become friends with wants her nephew found--he's apparently on the run, having gone beyond his usual hijinks into robbery and murder, according to his friend and the New Haven police. Still, it's all in a day's work for Molly. The plot was somewhat predictable as I did figure out how several of the cases strung together and the ending wasn't much of a surprise. Still, I enjoy the author's writing style and Molly, Daniel and their circle of friends as well as the historical ambiance. Looking forward to the next one. B+

6. A THOUSAND CUTS by Simon Lelic. The book was originally published with the title "Rupture" in the UK--a much more appropriate title, I thought. Blast publishers who feel the need to tweak titles in different countries! This is a first novel, a police mystery about a school shooting in London where the perpetrator was a teacher who shot several students, a fellow teacher, and then himself. The teacher, Samuel Szajkowski, was the new history teacher at an exclusive prep school and had apparently endured unremitting bullying and pranks from everyone from the headmaster down to the students almost from his first moments at the school. The investigation is conducted by DI Lucia May, who is unwilling to glide through her investigation--which on the surface, seems cut and dried. We know whodunit--does it really matter why? Eventually, Lucia wonders if the shooting was connected somehow to the vicious beating of another student that had already been under investigation. She also wonders why her boss is so eager to put the 'closed' stamp on the case and is attempting to rein Lucia and her investigation in well before she thinks it's time. The story is told partially in first-person as Lucia listens to the various witnesses, and partially in third-person narrative from Lucia's point of view, alternating chapters. It's a very effective and interesting tool, and the author skillfully brings each witness into focus without ever naming who they are. A very timely piece of fiction, focusing on bullying, which has been so much in the news of late. I can't say I really enjoyed the story itself--the whole scenario is just plain gut-wrenchingly horrible. But I did very much enjoy the author's thought-provoking telling of the story. Going to be looking for more from Mr. Lelic, to be sure! A.

7. MISS ZUKAS SHELVES THE EVIDENCE by Jo Dereske. #8 in the Helma Zukas mystery series set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma, a librarian, is meeting her "friend" Wayne Gallant's teenage children for the first time. Before they can spend much time together, Wayne--who is also the chief of police--is seriously injured when he falls or was pushed off a cliff, sustaining a serious head injury. He was investigating the death of a professor from a local university, at first thought to be a heart attack until an injection site and unusually high levels of insulin in his blood were found. The professor's much-younger wife is the daughter of Helma's new neighbor, the former wrestler known as TNT. The professor was not diabetic, but after nosing around a bit at the behest of TNT--who can't stand his daughter's crying and carrying on--she discovers that the wife's cat WAS diabetic and on insulin. Mary Jane becomes the primary suspect then, but Helma doesn't believe her guilty and she carries on investigating--also hoping to find out who injured Wayne Gallant--all while trying to keep up with his two teenaged children. As Helma tends to be rather set in her ways and somewhat rigid, she needs some help and she gets by with assistance from her colorful friend Ruth and her mother and aged Aunt Em and ventures rather far outside her usual behavior. I have still not been able to pinpoint exactly why I enjoy this series so much--cozies have become far from my favorites, but I look forward eagerly to each of these, and also am dreading the end of the series as there's only three left. A.

8.LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE by Colin Cotterill. #7 Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery set in 1970's Laos. Dr. Siri, the national coroner, has a serial killer on his hands--a killer who has brutally murdered three young women with a fencing epee, something that's not exactly lying around on every corner in Laos. Most people don't even have a clue what it is. So tracking this killer should be simple, right? Tell that to Siri's policeman friend Phosy, who thinks he has it all figured out until he reads a note with some very pointed questions from Siri--who has gone off on an all-expense-paid political junket to Cambodia with his friend Civilai and ends up as guests of the Khmer Rouge--who are not quite the benign entity they were believed to be before their reign of terror started. Siri ends up separated from Civilai, accused of being a spy and imprisoned and comes close to meeting his ghostly friends up close and personal. Another wonderful story that reads much too quickly. These characters have truly become friends over the course of the series and I've learned a lot about this time and place that I don't think any amount of factual lecturing could impart. I was very relieved to see there is already a next in series due for release next year. A+

9.THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE by Agatha Christie (AUDIO) One of the later Miss Marple mysteries in which an American movie star, Marina Gregg, and her husband buy Gossington Hall, a local manor house near St. Mary Mead. As they hold a fete to welcome the village to their home, Heather Badcock, one of the organizers, dies--first thought a fit of some sort, later determined to be poison, or at the very least, a massive overdose of a fairly common anti-anxiety medicine that's all the rage among the movie set. But was the dose meant for Mrs. Badcock--or for Marina Gregg? Miss Marple's friend who attended the do, said that she had seen a look of abject horror on Miss Gregg's face shortly before the death took place. Miss Marple's Scotland Yard friend, Inspector Craddock, makes an appearance and once again enlists her to assist, by using her knowledge of the village itself and of human nature--since she is now quite elderly and almost confined to home, she must rely on others' eyes and observations to solve the crime. Delightfully read by Rosemary Leach, very much enjoyed. I'd read the print version years ago and vaguely remembered about halfway through 'whodunit' but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the reading at all. A

10. THE HOB'S BARGAIN by Patricia Briggs. Stand-alone fantasy novel featuring a young woman, Aren of Fallbrook, who hides in a crawl space under her home as her husband of one night and her entire family are killed by roving bandits. She is besieged with guilt as she had a vision of something horrible but didn't say anything to warn them--she has magic that has long been kept secret and not many in their small village know about it. Now it seems magic is awakening again and Aren's visions become stronger and more frequent--and then a violent earthquake destroys much of the area around their home. Traveling to Hob's Mountain with a traveling minstrel and Kith, longtime friend of Aren's dead brother, they encounter several magical creatures, including the Hob himself--last of his kind. He is willing to help the villagers with the bandits--who are visiting more frequently and becoming more violent--but he will need to strike a bargain for something he needs as well--and Aren is likely the one who will pay the price. Enjoyable read, quite different from Briggs' current paranormal 'urban' fantasies. I wouldn't mind seeing more books set in this realm actually. There is a certain amateurishness about the book--it doesn't seem fully developed--but there is a lot of promise here. B

11. THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell. #1 Saxon Chronicles historical fiction series. This book, set in the ninth century A.D. in England introduces Uhtred who is just a boy when the Danes come calling at Bebbanburg--now Bamburgh--for the first time. His father is the lord there, and the Danes end up killing him and his elder brother, which leaves Uhtred the lord...but he is captured by the Danes and essentially raised by them. He comes to love Earl Ragnar, who treats him more like a son than his blood father ever did, such that when he is a young man and is returned to the English, his loyalties are seriously divided. He does want to regain his father's lands from his uncle though, determined to become Uhtred of Bebbanburg in more than just name. But which allegiance can get him there? Fight with the Danish Vikings who have already captured most of England, or back King Alfred, who holds the last kingdom on the island for the English? Well, what can I say? It's Bernard Cornwell, so the storytelling is brilliant, the descriptions of battle are horrendously evocative, and the characters are very well-fleshed and complete, especially Uhtred, whose voice tells this story. I very much look forward to continuing on to read the other books in the series, and like the rest of Cornwell's books, these will remain on my Keeper shelf in hardcover. A+

12. CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith. #1 Leo Demidov mystery set in 1950's Russia. Leo is a State Security agent--one of those who arrests the people who are guilty of traitorous actions, who are to be "questioned" (read: tortured) and then either sent to the Gulags or executed. Of course not all these people are actually guilty--but Leo is so indoctrinated into the "party line" that he just doesn't see it that way. If you are accused, then you MUST be guilty and deserve whatever you get. Until a vicious, ambitious co-worker who has it in for him inserts Leo's wife's name into another prisoner's confession and thus Leo is asked to investigate his own wife and then denounce her. He refuses, and he and Raisa are sent to do the lowest of lowly jobs in a remote manufacturing community. Shortly after their arrival, Leo finds the body of a child in the snow--stripped, its stomach cut out and soil stuffed in its mouth. Horrified, Leo realizes that this crime must have been committed by the same person who killed the son of another agent back in Moscow months earlier--a crime that he helped to cover up and officially called 'an accident' without ever actually seeing the body or crime scene. Suddenly he is gripped by the need to solve this crime and to his dismay as he secretly begins an investigation, discovers dozens of other similar murders occurring in small towns along the railroad line, all having been covered up by the State and never formally acknowledged as murder. With the help of some others willing to risk their skins, Leo and Raisa gather information and knowing full well it means execution at the end of the line if they are caught, set out to stop the monster preying on Russia's children. What a wonderful book! Not the details of the story, mind you--those were nothing short of horrible. It seems very well-researched and also well-written; the author manages to make you somehow take Leo's side even though at the beginning he is a high-ranking officer in a machine that systematically terrorized and destroyed the whole vastness of the Soviet Union. I was able to figure out the plot twist well ahead of time with the carefully laid down clues the author left, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story. Dark, graphically violent and deeply philosophical, this book won't appeal to everyone, but I personally am very much looking forward to the next entry in the series. A+

13. FAINT PRAISE by Ellen Hart. #6 Jane Lawless mystery set in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. Jane is asked by her friend Roz to move into a vacant loft in her building, Linden Lofts, to see if she can figure out what is going on there. The previous renter, Arno Heywood (a well-known local television personality) recently committed suicide by jumping out a window on the Foshay Tower--in drag, no less--and since then, a number of apartments in the historic building have been broken into with strange goings-on. Jane, ever curious--not only about the goings on, but about what it would be like to live in an expensive historic building--agrees, despite the Christmas season and things being very busy at Jane's restaurant, Lyme House. Then her aunt Beryl falls ill and is hospitalized and Jane finds she has her hands more than full. But when she herself witnesses some of the strange events at Linden House, she is determined to find who is behind them and even possibly who drove Arno Heywood to his death. Of course she ends up in trouble herself a few times along the way, but also meets a possible love interest, the daughter of one of the other tenants. I really enjoyed this entry in the series--some of the others have been just so-so, but this one felt to me like it was clicking on all cylinders. I was relieved especially to have Jane back as the focus of the book--the last one with Cordelia, her theatre-producer friend at the helm and as the focus, I didn't much like at all. The local flavor in this series is especially wonderful for those who live in the area. A

14. DYING TO SIN by Stephen Booth. #8 DC Ben Cooper/DS Diane Fry mystery set in the Peak District of England. A body has been found at Pity Wood Farm, an old family farm recently sold off when the last remaining Sutton brother, Raymond, goes into a care home. Developers are digging and re-doing much of the farmstead when a college student unearths a hand while digging--which soon proves to be attached to a body, estimated to have been in the ground for about a year. While the forensic and pathology departments try to determine cause of death, Cooper and Fry begin interviewing neighbors and old Mr. Sutton, whose mind isn't very sharp anymore. No one has been reported missing in the area, although the villagers and people living on the surrounding farms are decidedly reticent in dealings with the police, so they're stumped as to who the body might have been. They're surmising that it may have been one of the many seasonal workers, often foreign help provided by agencies when another body turns up wrapped in the same plastic, only estimated to have died about four years previously. As Christmas approaches, the whole of the police force groans with the knowledge that celebrations with family and friends may be in short supply, and a new Det. Superintendent seems hell bent on making some major changes--one that may see Diane Fry transferring out. Cooper, meanwhile, struggles with his deepening relationship with SOCO Liz Petty. I picked up on many of the clues as to 'what was going on' fairly early on (and am surprised that the cops didn't!) but didn't figure out the whole package until just before the reveal. Another enjoyable visit to Edendale and surrounding area. The relationship between Cooper and Fry still irks me and the dialogue still at times feels somewhat unnatural, but the stories themselves are wonderful. Fry bugs the heck out of me, and sometimes I want to smack Cooper upside the head, too, but something about the books keeps drawing me back to the series and they never disappoint. A

15. MOONSHINE by Rob Thurman. #2 in the Cal and Niko Leandros paranormal mystery series. Having defeated the big bad Auphe in the last book, Cal and Niko are now somewhat settled in New York, doing investigative and security work for hire with Niko's girlfriend, the vampire named Promise as business partner. They're asked to investigate a lower-level member of The Kin, a werewolf mafia gang, by a fellow member who thinks he's going to be taken down as part of his co-gang member's aspirations to rise to the top. Not particularly wanting to get involved in a gang war, they're set to refuse when a $50,000 fee is dangled in front of them--and money is always in short supply, especially now that Niko is back in college, pursuing his dream of studying history. They end up at a gambling parlor for non-humans called Moonshine and there the story takes off with loads of plot twists, plenty of action and surprises. Meanwhile, Cal (who is only half human) is relentlessly pursued (romantically that is) by Georgina ("George") a seer whom Cal is trying to fend off because he doesn't want to get involved with anyone given his monster half, figuring it can only lead to bad things. I really enjoyed this book--I liked the first one, but it was kind of slow moving at first to set the backstory down. This one was action almost from the get-go, and yet it wasn't ALL action...you get to know Cal & Niko better, and several of the secondary characters really have some flesh added to their bare bones in this one, too. I like the writing style, the author's refusal to shy away from a bit of raunchiness and 'language' and adult themes, and Cal's irreverent sense of humor has me laughing throughout. Glad I have the next one available here--I think this could become another of my favorite paranormal series. A

16. THE MARK OF A MURDERER by Susanna Gregory. #11 Matthew Bartholomew medieval mystery set in Cambridge in the mid-1300's. Matthew and Brother Michael investigate a series of murders in Cambridge that begin after the town/gown riots in Oxford resulting in dozens of deaths. Some Oxford scholars run to Cambridge, and almost immediately, two of them end up dead, followed by several others, who appear to have been ravaged by a wolf, or something with sharp teeth that ripped their throats out. The Oxford people think that the Cambridge scholars had something to do with it, and one of Cambridge's own people who was attacked but survived saw one of Michaelhouse's scholars, Clippesby--known for his rather crazy and eccentric ways--near him, and thinks he is the one who did it. Matthew, who is Clippesby's doctor, hospitalizes him to keep an eye on him, but the killings continue. I must admit I was surprised by the ending and the bad guy in this one, unlike most of the books in this series which are rather easy to figure out. I notice that I am leaving longer and longer spaces between reading books in this series, because they are getting to be somewhat wearying and formulaic with the constant scrapping between the scholars and the townspeople, Matthew's constant harping at Michael about his weight and frequent descriptions of Michael's piggy eating style, etc. They also tend to re-hash details and ask the same questions over and over throughout the course of the book, much of which could be cut out and not be detrimental to the story at all. I like these characters and the setting, and I think as long as I continue to leave many months between readings, I will continue them, but they are no longer a favorite series as they used to be. B-

DNF: THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY by Charles Lilliford, FALCONER'S CRUSADE by Ian Morson.

Cheryl

March 2011

2011-03-09T06:10:00.000-06:00

1.CUT SHORT by Leigh Russell. #1 DI Geraldine Steel mystery set near fictional Woolsmarsh, a small town in the UK. Geraldine has just relocated to this area after ending a relationship and right off the bat, there's a young woman strangled in a local park. With little time to get settled into her new flat, she must acquaint herself with her new co-workers and dive right in to interviews and evidence, trying to track down the killer. Several suspects spring to light without much to actually connect them and a second body a few days later eliminates most of those. Then it is the proverbial race against the killer's inner need, trying to prevent a third victim. I quite frankly didn't enjoy this book much. It was a rather obvious first book, with almost all aspects of it being very superficial. DI Steel herself was a cliche--the thirty-something single woman, her career causing the break-up of her relationship which drives her further into workaholism, spending evenings poring over case notes with a glass of wine at her elbow. There was nothing different or even very likable about her, mostly because there just wasn't much substance to her character. Equally banal were the tough-as-nails female DCI in charge and the affable newly promoted Sergeant, DS Peterson, that Geraldine primarily works with. The dialogue was often unnatural sounding and stilted and there were frequent little forays off into moments of peripheral characters lives that left me scratching my head as to the intent or relevance. There were these odd changes in point of view that sometimes happened mid-paragraph. It was just awkward to read and I admit I skimmed the last 50 or so pages, but there really were no surprises. I won't be reading further in this series. D+

2.THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler. #6 Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery set in London. When a middle-aged woman dies in suspicious circumstances in a London street, Arthur Bryant recognizes her, having seen her entering a pub the evening before as he was walking home half-souses from Oswald Finch's wake. The problem comes when he and his partner John May go to find the pub and find that not only is it not there, but it hadn't been there since sometime in the 1800's. When several other middle aged-women die in similar circumstances in various pubs around town, they know there's a connection--but what? Of course the PCU employs all their usual offbeat methods to piece things together, even with their newest member--former nemesis from the Met, Sgt. Jack Renfield--now a member of the team and set to watch them like hawks for rules violations. When the eventually find the killer, they're relieved, but Bryant still isn't satisfied because he knows the killer--while capable of killing--couldn't possibly have masterminded such a complicated scheme and thus he knows they need to seek out the brains behind the young man's actions. But how, when the PCU is once again set to be disbanded since they've lost the tenancy on their office building through a loophole in the paperwork process discovered by their arch-nemesis Kasavian at the Home Office. Another delightfully quirky mystery with the octogenarian duo and their younger cohorts brilliantly sniffing out crime through the use of decidedly unconventional methods. Looking forward to the next! A+

3. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie. #3 in the First Law fantasy trilogy. The conclusion of this epic fantasy series takes up where the second left off, with the weary travelers who went to the edge of the world with Bayaz, First of the Magi seeking The Seed--a powerful magical artifact--now back in Adua and dispersing to other parts in an attempt to resume their former lives. Not an easy task when all have been profoundly changed by their adventures. Loren Ninefingers is off to the north to help Dogman, Grim, Black Dow and the other Named Men fight the self-proclaimed King of the North, Bethod. They hope to join forces with Collum West and the Union army. Meanwhile, back in Adua, Ferro Maljinn sticks around and hopes to figure out what Bayaz is really up to, and Jezal dan Luthar, once somewhat of a dandy and now an almost-seasoned warrior, seeks out Collum West's sister Ardee, once the love of his life, but Bayaz has other plans for him. And my own personal hero, Sand dan Glokta, crippled and bitter from his years of torture in a Gurkish prison, continues as lead Inquisitor with only Arch Lector Sult above him in power. They are busy trying to machinate the votes for the next King, as the old one has died and his son has been killed in battle. All of these internal battles pale when it is learned that the Gurkish are heading for Adua en force at just the time when the Union army is scattered. Excellent conclusion to this series, although there is some wiggle room for the possibility of additional books or spin-offs with some of the characters. Dark and depressing at times with a none-too-hopeful take on humanity and with its brutal and broken protagonists, I daresay this series won't be to everyone's liking, but I thoroughly enjoyed all three books. Got a couple of stand-alones by this author and look forward to reading them as well. A+

4. HOLY TERROR IN THE HEBRIDES by Jeanne M. Dams. #3 Dorothy Martin mystery, this one set on the island of Iona off Scotland's coast. Dorothy is planning to join friends who are renting a cottage on Iona for a couple of weeks, only to have her friend's husband have a mild heart attack just before so they are unable to go. Since the cottage is paid for, they urge Dorothy to go on ahead, and as her policeman friend Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt is out of the country at a conference, she decides to do just that. She unwittingly forgets the key to the rented cottage back in Sherebury and thus spends a couple of days at a hotel along with an ecumenical church group from the Chicago area--but they certainly seem to be having some problems with getting along together! A diverse group from several Christian sects and a Jewish Rabbi, their number dwindles by one when Robert Williams--whom none of the others liked--dies in front of Dorothy's eyes, slipping off a cliff inside Fingal's Cave, bouncing off rocks and into the water. But the more Dorothy thinks about it, the more she thinks his death wasn't entirely accidental. Then a major storm with hurricane-force winds besieges the island and she doesn't have much time to consider it--without phone or electricity working in her cottage, Dorothy once again takes refuge in the hotel where they have a generator, and where she can observe the members of the religious party more closely and look for clues as to who might have sabotaged Bob Williams, causing him to fall. This was a pleasant, light cozy read--another of these series that I inexplicably enjoy. I learned a lot of interesting things about Iona and its history, and despite Dorothy sometimes being a silly twit, I do like her and find the author's writing style easy to read and enjoyable. Not earth-shatteringly wonderful, but a certainly enjoyable read, and a series I'll continue to read through. B.

5. DUST by Martha Grimes. (AUDIO) #21 Supt. Richard Jury mystery. Jury is called to the scene of a murder by young Benny Keegan--Benny is working (illegally, as he's only 13) in a hotel and had delivered some coffee to a patron's room and found him shot dead on the balcony. Billy Maples lived part of the time at Lamb House in Rye, the one-time home of author Henry James (and later, E.F. Benson). He was also the grandson of Jury's old acquaintance, Oswald Maples, who was a code-breaker during WWII. Jury fears he is treading on the Islington police patch but the DI in charge, Lu Aguilar, invites him to assist her because of his acquaintance with Oswald Maples--and Jury inexplicably ends up in bed with her, even though he's seeing Dr. Phyllis Nancy, one of the pathologists. Poor Jury. He goes through books and books without "getting any" and then he's drowning in it. ROFL! At any rate, trying to discover just who Billy Maples was isn't easy--he was apparently bi-polar and untreated, so what he was like depends on whom you spoke to about him and when. Is there a connection back to Billy's grandfather's code-breaking days? Or something to do with his philanthropic efforts in the art world? Or something more personal? Melrose Plant comes into the story as he volunteers to take up the tenancy at Lamb House since the National Trust are in urgent need of someone to move in with Billy's death, and he can get the feel of things in Rye while Jury is working on the London connection. This book was okay, but definitely not one of the best in series. Too cobbled together with a lot of weird coincidences, and Jury's behavior was just--I don't know. I think he was possessed. It was read by John Lee, who sometimes does a stellar job, but sometimes all his voices sound the same, which was pretty much the case here. C.

6. MISS ZUKAS IN DEATH'S SHADOW by Jo Dereske. #7 Helma Zukas mystery. Helma once again is around when a dead body is discovered--this time at the local men's shelter/soup kitchen where she's been sentenced to serve community service for refusing to pay a ticket that she feels was not deserved. The body is that of Quinton Boyd, a local financier and property developer who served on the Mission's board of directors and was at the Mission for a meeting. A young man who stays at the mission occasionally confesses to killing Boyd, but he is a simpleton and no one believes he actually did it. Tony's friend "Skitz" begins tailing Helma and wants her to prove that Tony didn't do it. Then someone starts implicating Helma herself, sending an anonymous letter to the police and planting the gun that was used in her car. Helma does (on the surface) have a motive, given that Boyd also served on the library board of directors and he and Helma had crossed horns there. To make matters worse, an old beau of Helma's from high school shows up courting her, just as police chief Wayne Gallant seems finally poised to make his move on Helma himself. Another light, enjoyable read in fictional Bellehaven, WA with Helma, Ruth and some interesting characters from the shelter. A.

7. SILVER BORNE by Patricia Briggs. #5 Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson paranormal mystery set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. Mercy is a coyote shapeshifter whose mate is the Alpha werewolf of the local pack. Not everyone in Adam's pack is happy about Mercy, a non-wolf, being mated to their leader, as she discovers when one or more of them get inside her head and attempt to influence her behavior while she and Adam are out on a date. Mercy hadn't realized that the pack could have that much influence, and it takes her awhile to figure out what had happened--but then, she's got other problems, including her roommate Sam 'going wolf' after a botched suicide attempt and a missing friend, owner of a bookstore who left a strange looking book with her before he disappeared--only to have some very powerful fae looking for the book and for Phin. Another enjoyable visit with Mercy, Adam, and the gang as Mercy continues to feel her way around trying to make her life situation work within pack laws. Because of all the different elements to the book (various storylines) it did feel a bit scattered at times, but the author did a nice job of tying many of those threads together into a somewhat cohesive plot. Looking forward to River Marked! B+

8. DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey. #5 Inspector Alan Grant mystery--I hadn't realized when I chose it that it was part of a series. I thought it was a standalone as I hear this book mentioned all the time but had never heard of the other books in the series even once. I've even seen other books modeled after this plot--a police detective hospitalized and physically incapacitated who uses his mental muscles to solve a crime--in this case, one that is centuries old. Attempting to snap him out of the rut of boredom, Alan's friend Marta brings him a sheaf of photos and prints of interesting faces (Alan's weakness!) of people throughout history--and the one that intrigues him is that of King Richard III, the one who was accused of killing off his two nephews, 'the princes in the Tower.' The portrait Alan sees makes him think that the man could not be a murderer, so he sets a young friend of Marta's to doing some research to see what proof exists to convict Richard--and finds, to his amazement, that far from proving his guilt, much evidence exists to exonerate him. He certainly comes up with a lot of interesting evidence, and by the end of the story managed to convince me, and I guess a lot of other people over time too, that history books sometimes have got a lot to answer for. (The book is a classic, written in 1951--the author died the following year and never got to see just how revered it became.) It's not your standard whodunit by any stretch of the imagination and of course is quite dated, but a very interesting and well-done book. A-.

9. TO FETCH A THIEF by Spencer Quinn. (AUDIO) #3 Chet and Bernie mystery. Bernie Little and his dog, Chet, really dislike doing divorce work. But when money's tight, it does pay the bills. Of course, when the woman they are following ends up at a motel with none other than Bernie's ex-wife's boyfriend Malcolm, things get decidedly more complicated--at least for Bernie. Chet's not sure what all the fuss is about. The client gives them some tickets to the circus as a bonus, so Bernie, Chet and Charlie, Bernie's six-year-old son, are off to see Peanut the elephant and all the other circus acts. Only they discover upon arrival that the circus is closed because Peanut and her trainer have disappeared overnight. The story going around says that Uri DeLeath, known as a humanitarian trainer, finally felt the pressure of the animal rights groups and stole off with Peanut in the night. Bernie, who arrives when his cop friend Rick is beginning his interviews and sits in, isn't so sure--and is glad when Popo the Clown hires him to find Uri (who is his life partner) and Peanut when the police aren't able to give more time and resources to the hunt for them. Anything to take his mind off the problem with Lita and Malcolm. So Chet and Bernie are off on another wild adventure across country (and even across borders) on the trail of wild animals, smugglers and all-around bad guys. Told from Chet's point of view, I worried after the first book that the whole novelty of stories told by a dog would fade and the series would lose its luster, but I have continued to enjoy each of the audio versions as much as the first. Very well-read with just the right "tone" by Jim Frangione. Looking forward to the next one! A

10. SHROUD OF DISHONOR by Maureen Ash. #5 Bascot de Marins "Templar Knight" mystery set in 1194 Lincoln UK and surrounding area. When a local prostitute is murdered and stashed in a chest in the Templar's chapel, everyone is firstly aghast that someone could get into the enclave unobserved and commit such a heinous crime under the Templars noses, and also that anyone would want to. Bascot de Marins, set to leave Lincoln for Portugal in just a few days, is asked to undertake the investigation for the Templars, working with the Sheriff on the secular side since the victim was a Lincoln citizen. A second body with the Templar sigil carved on the whore's belly confirms that there is a serial killer about with a grudge against the Templars--or perhaps it's one of the Templars themselves? Bascot works with the Sheriff's men--whom he'd investigated earlier cases with when he was a retainer of castellan Nicolaa de la Haye before rejoining the Templars--and even a little help from Gianni, his former servant now training as a scribe in de la Haye's household. I enjoyed this entry in the series with the historical detail, although I still don't feel that Bascot is a fully developed character yet. Characterization seems to be this author's weakness, as well as a somewhat pedestrian writing style, and yet the books read quickly and tell an interesting story. B

11. NO COLDER PLACE by S.J. Rozan. #4 Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery set in New York City. This series is somewhat unique in that it alternates points of view every other book. This one is told from Bill's point of view. Both are private investigators with separate agencies who work together. Bill would like their relationship to be more than it is, and I think Lydia would as well, except that her family is traditional Chinese and her mother dislikes Bill--or the idea that any Caucasian would woo her daughter. Bill is contacted by an old cop friend who now runs his own much larger and more sophisticated PI agency. A construction company boss has hired him to discover who's stealing from his company--and also if possible to find a worker who disappeared a few days ago, seemingly without a trace. They have an idea who the thief might be, but proving it and dismissing him without the Union raising a fuss is another matter--and as Joe Romeo is also suspected of being a bookie and possibly running other kinds of illegal activities on site, even trickier. Bill goes undercover as a mason working with the company--not so far-fetched as he did construction work when he was younger. First day on the job, there is an 'accident' that puts one of Bill's co-workers in the hospital in a coma, and the second day, they dig up the body of the missing guy in an elevator pit that needed to be redone due to water seepage. The situation deteriorates from there, when Bill discovers (via Lydia, whom the client has agreed to putting in the office as a temporary 'secretary' to keeping an eye out there) that the company is having financial problems, that the architect has her own agenda, and that there may well be a mob connection somewhere in the works. I enjoy this series and find that the switching back and forth from Bill's and Lydia's point of view in every other book works great--much better, IMO, than swapping about within the same book. It gives the story more cohesiveness. Although I had figured out most aspects of the actual mystery and figured out the murderer well in advance, I still enjoyed this book immensely. Looking forward very much to the next one! A.

12. ROLLING THUNDER by Chris Grabenstein. #6 John Ceepak/Danny Boyle mystery set in fictional Sea Haven on the Jersey Shore. Ceepak and Danny are working at the opening of the new boardwalk amusement, the Rolling Thunder, a gigantic wooden roller coaster. Excitement ensues when the wife of the owner has a heart attack during the inaugural ride, and even Ceepak performing CPR after climbing up the roller coaster tracks can't save her. Although some members of the dysfunctional O'Malley family don't seem to be too grief-stricken, there's no evidence that it was anything other than a natural death--although, admittedly, not exactly good advertisement for the ride. Later, when a local woman, a waitress at a local dive that Ceepak and Danny stop for speeding and issue a warning to ends up hacked to death and packaged in two suitcases just hours later, it seems there may be a link back to the heart attack death as the young woman was apparently the mistress of Paddy O'Malley. Suddenly evidence pointing at O'Malley starts turning up left and right, and it's rather obvious even to the still-green Danny that someone really wants him implicated not only in the young woman's death but his wife's as well. Ceepak of course sees through this ruse from the beginning and digs to the heart of the matter by the end of the case, which ends with more heart-stopping moments up on the Rolling Thunder. Another great visit to Sea Haven, with Danny, Ceepak, Rita and the rest of the regular crew--although some of the peripheral characters change regularly, including Danny's girlfriend-of-the-month. Poor guy--he'll find the right one someday, I have no doubt! Easy reading style, great story and wonderful characters--a perfect light summer beach read if you're into that sort of thing--me, I couldn't hold out that long. Reading this catches me up to the current end of the series--now I'm stuck waiting a whole year til the next one comes out. Boo hoo! A.

13.STARVATION LAKE by Bryan Gruley. First in a (I think) series set in the small fictional resort town of Starvation Lake, Michigan. (There is a lake named 'Starvation Lake' but no town by that name.) Starvation Lake, where they eat, sleep and breathe hockey, and where Gus Carpenter grew up. Gus has to spend every day of his life living down the humiliation of letting the winning goal past him in the one state championship game that the River Rats ever made it to. His coach, Jack Blackburn, never spoke to him after that game. Gus moved away, became a reporter in Detroit, and then ended up returning to his hometown in shame after his newspaper was sued over an investigative story that he wrote with a primary source that was later shown to have an ulterior motive for blowing the whistle. So now he lives with the double humiliation (although no one knows about the exact reason why he came back from Detroit--that shame is mostly Gus's alone) and leads a mostly quiet life as a small town newspaperman--until the snowmobile that Coach Jack Blackburn was driving when it went through the ice on Starvation Lake ten years previously washes up on shore on Walleye Lake, five miles away. New questions about Blackburn's death begin to be raised, and Gus and his young reporter Joanie McCarthy start digging and find some very disturbing information about the much-loved Coach. This was an excellent read with a story that hooked me in right from the beginning, even though I'm not a huge hockey fan. While the initial mystery about Coach wasn't too hard to untangle fairly early on, the other plot twists at the end of the book were quite unexpected and increased my respect for the author's plotting skills. He also does a great job of providing a sense of place in the small, isolated town. It will be interesting to see what he does with the second book in the series. Highly recommended! A.

14.A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD by Alan Bradley. (AUDIO) #3 Flavia de Luce mystery set in 1950's England. At the church fete in Bishop's Lacey, Flavia encounters a gypsy fortuneteller who makes allusions to her dead mother Harriet. Although a very smart cookie for an eleven-year-old, and a chemistry whiz, Flavia tends to have a blind spot when it comes to the mother she never knew and is intrigued by the gypsy--enough to upset a candle which causes a fire in her tent. Feeling remorseful, Flavia invites her to park her caravan on a secluded corner of her family's estate and accompanies the woman there. When she returns the next day, finds that the woman has been attacked, beaten and near death. She summons help, and only a few hours later discovers the body of local ne'er-do-well hanging from a fountain with a lobster pick from her own family home stuffed up his nostril. Later, when the police come 'round, the lobster pick isn't there. As Flavia noses around and tries to connect the strange middle-of-the-night goings on at her home, the puzzle of an almost-extinct religious group, and the odd behavior of the gypsy's granddaughter with the seemingly unrelated beating of the gypsy woman and Brookie's death, she of course must deal with her two annoying and mean older sisters, her distant father--who has financial problems and is starting to sell off the family silver--and the ever-watchful police inspector who encountered Flavia's meddlesome self on earlier cases. Thoroughly enjoyable book as read by Jayne Entwistle--light, entertaining and charming without being sappy. Looking forward to the next! A.

15. THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY by Donna Leon. #15 in the Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery series set in Venice. Brunetti is asked by Vianello, recently promoted to Inspector, to see what can be done about a friend of his family who was arrested in an environmental protest. While this doesn't have much to do with the eventual mystery, it does lead to another personal entreaty by the environmentalist's wife to determine whether her father, the owner of a glass factory on the island of Murano, is serious when he makes crazy threats against his son-in-law. During the course of that visit to Murano, he meets a night worker who assumes Brunetti has come to visit him about the letters he's been writing to the police and several other agencies protesting the unsafe conditions in the fornaci on Murano and how they caused birth defects in one of his children. The man seems obsessed and nearly crazy, but when he turns up dead of an apparent accident a few days later, Brunetti begins to give more weight to his rantings and investigates--even though he's been told to leave it alone by Vice-Questore Patta. (As usual!) One wonders whether the police are ever allowed to actually be police in Italy given that Brunetti is almost always called off of cases by his political-minded superior. As always, though, despite some of the repetitive themes, this was an enjoyable visit to Venice with Guido, Paola and her cooking and the city itself. A.

16. WHERE SERPENTS SLEEP by C.S. Harris. #4 Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery set in Regency-era London. Sebastian is approached by Hero Jarvis, daughter of his mortal enemy Lord Jarvis, to ask his assistance in solving a crime that the Bow Street Runners have been ordered--by her father--not to investigate. The Magdalene House--a Quaker refuge for prostitutes trying to get out of the life--is burned down while Miss Jarvis was there interviewing one of the girls, a wellborn young woman going by the name of Rose. From what Hero observed, Rose herself was targeted specifically and was actually shot to death, and Hero wants to know why, and also wants to see justice done for those whom no one else will speak. Sebastian is not eager to work with Miss Jarvis, but the case is intriguing enough to pique his interest and get him out of the doldrums of drink and gambling where he's spent the last many months since his relationship with Kat Boleyn ended. They pursue different avenues, using decidedly different methods, first trying to determine who Rose was, and then why someone would target her for death. As they begin to uncover answers, both find themselves followed and attacked, so they know that the person whom they seek must be someone in a place of power with an explosive secret to keep. Enjoyable read as always, although the ending on this one was a bit predictable. Interesting characters, easy-reading style and great historical detail--physical as well as social--make these books a treat to read. A.

17. COLD CASE by Linda Barnes. #8 Carlotta Carlyle mystery set in Boston and environs. Carlotta is approached by an older man who gives her the first chapter of a manuscript to read--he believes that Thea Janis is alive. She had written a brilliant, seductive novel that read well beyond her fifteen years--and then disappeared. She wrote using a particular paper and ink in a certain style and this manuscript certainly reads a lot like Nightmare's Dawn. But a little digging makes Carlotta wonder what her client is playing at--when it's revealed that Thea--whose real name was Dorothy Cameron, one of the politically rich and powerful Cameron family--was actually dead, the killer having confessed and her body being buried. Suddenly, the client--who also is not whom he claims to be--wants the manuscript back and to un-hire Carlotta, but by then the old, cold case has got her intrigued and she's not likely to give up so quickly. Leaving most of the laws and ethics of a good private investigator behind, she plunges ahead anyway--otherwise, there would probably be no story here. LOL Meanwhile, the drug lord natural father of Carlotta's "little sister" Paolina has disappeared and she engages her dispatcher pal Gloria to harass his lawyer until she knows where he is--and she's being followed by someone she suspects is either one of Carlos' thugs or else a DEA agent. Or is it someone connected with the Cameron family who don't want her digging too deeply into Thea's death? Every time I read one of these books, I'm amazed how the series flew under my radar for so many years, and that the author isn't more well-known. Great main character, interesting secondary characters, very atmospheric with plenty of action and realistic dialogue. Another winner! A.

18. SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN by Naomi Hirahara. #3 Mas Arai mystery set in LA. Mas, a seventy-something-year-old Japanese-American gardener who is also a Hiroshima bomb survivor, gets sucked into another mystery when a party he's coerced into attending by his friend GI Hasuike to celebrate the Vegas jackpot GI's friend Randy won sports an interesting ending--Randy being murdered in the parking lot, next to him a broken antique shamisen--an Okinawan musical instrument. Once again, history plays a role in the case, which Mas works on with Juanita Gushiken, a licensed PI and GI's girlfriend. As he begins to trace the shamisen, he finds out some interesting details about Randy that even GI didn't know, and the murder could tie into the disappearance of a Japanese national some fifty years previously. Mas must set aside his naturally reticent nature to go knocking on doors and be persistent about asking questions. I always learn something when I read this series and this book was no exception. Although the story can be a little difficult to follow at times, with the use of some Japanese terms as well as the strange sort of combination English-Japanese speech that many of Mas's generation use, I've gotten somewhat used to it now by this third book. I really like Mas and look forward to reading his next adventure. A

19.SILENCING SAM by Julie Kramer (AUDIO) #3 Riley Spartz mystery set in the Twin Cities, MN. Riley, a TV reporter, is herself a suspect in the shooting death of a newspaper gossip columnist who had thrown some nasty tidbits about her in his column. They'd been seen arguing--she threw wine at him--and she had no alibi. To make matters worse, a new reporter from Texas was stealing all the good stories and annoying Riley to death with his condescending attitude, calling her "little lady" even after she'd requested that he stop. Since she isn't allowed near the Sam Pierce case, Riley is determined to scoop Clay by solving the headless murder story. She also continues working on the story of someone sabotaging wind turbines on a wind farm to the south of the Twin Cities near where her parents live. I'm going to be blunt and say that I was very disappointed with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the series--one read in print, the other listened to--but the reader for this book was horrible. I had to double check because I remember liking the reader for the last one, and sure enough, this was a different audio company that produced it and a different reader. Besides her narrative voice being somewhat annoying, the reader's dialogue voices--male and female--were almost enough alike to be interchangeable, except for Clay--the Texan--who had a decidedly fake accent. The timing was also off, with lots of inappropriately placed pauses. Not sure if it was the director of the piece or the reader, but I nearly stopped listening at one point. I kept on only because it's a relatively short book. The story itself wasn't too bad, but it didn't capture my attention nearly as much as the first two books in the series did. There also seemed to be a lot of re-hashing of events in previous books and at times the narrative explaining various procedures with news production seemed more like a dry lecture than being woven in as part of the story. The local flavor was still there, and I did enjoy that familiarity, and I like the way the author picks an interesting topic to focus on (in this case, wind power) that I get to learn a little something about. I'm planning to continue reading the series, but I will definitely read the print version if the same reader is used next time. C+

20. THE TIME MACHINE by HG WELLS (AUDIO) Classic sci-fi story written in 1895 about a group of men who meet at their club in London. They witness a little machine made by one of their number--they refer to him only as The Time Traveller--disappear. And the following week, the machine's owner shows up late to their dinner and has a fantastic tale of traveling to the year 802, 701 A.D. where he meets a people called the Eloi--humanoid, but very different from the humans he knows from Victorian London. Before long, he also meets another set of creatures whom he christens the Morlocks, who live in the dark subterranean depths of the planet and who make the effortless lives of the Eloi possible--or so he thinks. He develops several theories about how humans evolved to this state, some of which are disproved by himself over what feels like just a few days. He also travels briefly on his way 'home' to other times and sees interesting and often horrific things. When he returns, he's only been gone a few hours and of course no one believes he's figured out how to traverse the fourth dimension. Enjoyably read by Simon Puttock, it was good to return to a bit of classic literature. Better than either of the movie versions, that's for sure! Going to try to listen to a little more of this classic stuff. A.

21. #2 Stella Hardesty mystery set in rural Missouri. Stella is still recovering from the events at the end of book one, so her 'activities' (persuading the county's abusive men to be a little friendlier to their wives) have been curtailed. Until a tornado plows through Prosper, bringing back a lot of bad memories for Stella--her uncle was killed in a tornado when she was a little girl and she's always gotten a little panicky in bad weather since then. This one rips the snack shack at the local fairgrounds out of the ground, exposing the mummified body of a woman, and a friend of Stella's who was working on the shack when it was built three years previously is arrested for the murder. Stella tries to get Sheriff Goat Jones to reveal what they have against Neb Donovan, but he's being closemouthed--especially since the night of the tornado when he was in the midst of serving Stella dinner when his ex-wife Brandy showed up on his doorstep. Stella's trying to figure out if he still has the hots for the ex or if she should keep trying to snag him for herself. Strangely, Brandy's appearance ends up tying into Stella's case (she's being paid by Neb's wife to clear his name--mostly nosing around, no real physical action just yet) as the clues lead back to some mighty strange goings-on, even resulting in Stella and Brandy having some quality girl-time. Another wild and wacky romp across rural Missouri with a whole parcel of eccentric characters and a strange and twisty plot that tugs equally at your heartstrings and your funny bone. Very enjoyable, and I'm very much looking forward to the next in series. A.

DNF: THE GOLDEN ORANGE by Joseph Wambaugh. Just...argh

Currently reading: MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD by Troy Soos (audio), TELL ME, PRETTY MAIDEN by Rhys Bowen, THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD by Agatha Christie and THE LAST KINGDOM by Bernard Cornwell.

Cheryl

February 2011

2011-02-04T22:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I made it through January with my New Years Resolution intact...no books were purchased for money this month...now, on to February!

1.WILD INDIGO by Sandi Ault. #1 Jamaica Wild mystery. Jamaica Wild is a resource protection agent for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in northern New Mexico. She's also sort of adopted a Pueblo Indian woman whom she calls Momma Anna as her surrogate mother, learning something of the Pueblo ways, which doesn't sit well with all the clan, as maintaining the secrets of the tribe is a big part of the tradition. Jamaica lives in a cabin in the middle of nowhere without a phone and with her wolf pup, Mountain. When she witnesses what looks like a suicide--a young Pueblo man standing in the middle of a buffalo stampede--she feels traumatized as the young man was Jerome Santana, Momma Anna's son. It only gets worse when the leaders of the local Pueblo government make it known that they believe Jamaica was the one who started the stampede that killed Jerome. Her boss wants her to play down her involvement and stay quiet, but every bone in Jamaica's body won't let her stay out of it and leads her to find out the truth about Jerome's death. Steeped in the culture and lore and mysticism of the Pueblo Indians, this was quite an interesting story, easy to read (if occasionally a little...I don't know....clumsy or awkward, maybe) with a somewhat unique and engaging lead character. I picked this book up to fulfill a requirement in a mystery reading challenge (something with the word Indigo in the title) and am very glad I did so. I'd not heard of this author until this title popped up in a search--coincidentally, the next day I noticed when the Left Coast Crime awards were announced that the latest book in the series is nominated for a Watson (best sidekick) and a Hillerman Sky Award for a book that captures the landscape of the Southwest. This book certainly did a great job with that, too. Looking forward to more! B+

2.THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman. (AUDIO) #5 in the Navajo mysteries, this one featuring only Sgt. Jim Chee, who works for the Navajo Tribal Police. Chee is out on a stakeout, watching a new windmill that has twice been vandalized to try to catch the culprit in the act, when he witnesses a small plane crash not far away. It's a small plane, and very shortly after he arrives on the scene, the pilot dies. While he's briefly inspecting the site, he hears a gunshot not far off, and then a car driving away. The plane ends up being part of a smuggling ring, carting loads of drugs into the country under cover of darkness, and an arrogant, annoying DEA officer gets involved, as well as the FBI. Chee is supposed to just drop that case and concentrate on finding the windmill vandals, and then a body appears on the scene, obviously dead for quite some time. Of course the cases all eventually tie together as Chee bends and twists the rules and follows the clues while disobeying orders to find the solution. Atmospheric and educational, mystical and steeped in Navajo and Hopi tradition, this series is wonderfully read by George Guidall, whom I would happily listen to reciting the phone book. LOL Anyway, this was another enjoyable entry in the series, although I do like the books that have both Leaphorn and Chee in them a little better. A

3.MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp. #2 Mace Bauer mystery, set in central Florida. Mace and her Mama are trying to do a little bonding by camping and riding the 120-mile Cracker Trail--the week-long ride an educational trek celebrating the ways of the old-time Florida cattlemen. On the first day of the ride, Lawton Bramble, one of the ranchers who was allowing them to camp on his land and providing vats of his famous Cow Hunter Chili, dies. His much-younger wife comes upon him as he was presumably stirring up his chili and had a heart attack. (He was well-known to have a bad heart.) But Mace is suspicious--especially when she notices Lawton's gun which appeared to have dropped out of his hand when he died. Why would he have it so close to hand? But old Doc, who treated Lawton, declares it a heart attack and that's that--until Lawton's kids start pointing fingers at their new stepmother and making noises that his death wasn't natural. Lawton, being a rich cattleman, has plenty of enemies. Mace's questioning Doc's diagnosis gets around of course and causes the expected attacks and attempted attacks on her person, but she's persistent (like many amateur sleuths, almost stupidly so) and eventually she solves the (very predictable) case. In between, there was a lot of romancey hogwash--Mace's love interest from the last book who had moved back to Miami some time ago "just happens" to be on trail as well, and of course there's Lawton's son Trey, who was a big high school football star at Mace's high school, whom she ends up smooching with as well. It was just...silly. Lots of eye rolling on my part. Mace is supposedly thirty-something years old, but she sure didn't act like she was much out of her teens. The first book was kind of cute despite all the Southern talk and Mace's annoying, nosy, preachy, interfering Mama. This time it was just over the top. I actually liked Mace in the first book, but she seemed almost like a different person in this book. I skimmed the last hundred pages or so, but I won't be continuing on with the series. The dialogue, as with the first in series, doesn't sound very natural and the plot was scattered all over the place with just too many unbelievable coincidences needed to make it come together. C.

4. THE BURGUNDIAN'S TALE by Kate Sedley. #14 Roger the Chapman medieval mystery. Roger is once again off from Bristol as his cobbled-together family begins to wear on his nerves and after more than a year, he decides to hit the open road selling his wares. Before he can leave, Master Timothy Plummer, agent and spy for Duke Richard of Gloucester comes to Bristol and finds Roger with a summons from Richard himself. It seems the son of one of his sister's (Margaret of York, now the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy) favorite ladies has been murdered and he wishes the crime to be solved before Margaret must go back to Burgundy. Fulk Quantrell was just eighteen but much wiser than his years, having learned to charm the ladies, including his aunt who changed her will for him, leaving him not only her home, but the embroidery shop she'd inherited from her husband. Supposedly coshed on the head by a footpad and robbed, Roger discovers that death scenario for Fulk unlikely as the killer left his purse and jewels on him--they were taken, but by two beggars who moved his body from in front of their patch after they found him dead. Despite all the women Fulk came into contact with singing his praises, Roger soon discovers that he wasn't such a charming young man underneath it all, and that there are plenty of people who were not sorry he was dead. Roger's astute powers of observation and refusal to give up eventually have him solving the crime. I really enjoyed this installment in the series--the easy-reading style of writing, the historical detail and sense of place, and the interesting characters, including plenty of real historical people as well. A.

5. MURDER IN BELLEVILLE by Cara Black. #2 Aimee Leduc mystery set in Paris. Aimee, a private investigator who apparently usually deals in computer investigations, once again gets caught up in more physical pursuits when she attempts to help a friend of hers whose husband is a diplomat dealing with some touchy foreign negotiations with Algeria. Anais leaves Aimee a cryptic message telling her where to meet, and when she arrives, she sees Anais talking with a woman whose car blows up right in front of them as the woman gets in it to leave--and then some thugs begin chasing them as they make a harried getaway on Aimee's moped down the subway tunnel. Shaken to the core, Aimee learns that the woman was Anais' husband's mistress, who has some possible connection to arms dealing and also possibly to the negotiations that Philippe is involved in. As she careens from one improbable situation to another, the story seems to get more and more out of control. That said--if it weren't for some of these silly situations--I like Aimee for the most part, and her circle of friends, including her business partner, her dog named Miles Davis, and the haunting clues about her past. I do get a bit tired of all the designer clothes and accessories mentioned (not my thing) but there are enough strong points about this book to keep me wanting to read on and to just take some parts with a grain of salt. B.

6. STRANGE AFFAIR by Peter Robinson. #15 DCI Alan Banks police procedural set in Yorkshire, UK. Banks, still recovering from the devastating fire at his cottage that almost cost him his life, is on holiday and wondering what to do with his time when he receives a couple of cryptic voicemails from his brother Roy, a wheeling-and-dealing financier in London. Alan and his younger brother are not close and never have been, and they rarely speak on the phone unless there's a problem, so the message--which sounds almost desperate though gives no details--intrigues him. When he tries to reach Roy in response, he's nowhere to be found, so Alan is off to London, where he discovers that Roy has all but disappeared. Knowing that his brother sometimes skated close to the edge of the law in his dealings, Banks decides to try to locate him first through "unofficial" channels lest he get little brother in trouble with the law by opening a missing persons case. Meanwhile, back in Eastvale, DI Annie Cabbot is dealing with a murder--a young woman shot execution style in the head, left in her car in a ditch along a deserted roadway--and surprise of surprises, she has Alan Banks' name and address scribbled on a piece of paper in her back jeans pocket--but even more intriguingly, it's the address to his burned-out cottage where he hasn't lived for several months. As Annie and Supt. Gristhorpe try to track Banks down (he's left his mobile on the kitchen table at his temporary apartment) and find the connection, Banks investigates Roy's life and begins to finally get to know his little brother. Robinson's series seems to just get better and better with each entry! I thoroughly enjoyed this one, found it hard to put down with a twisty plot (and even some surprises!), great characters and just the right balance between visceral and cerebral moments. Can't wait to read the next one! A.

7. LADY KILLER by Ed McBain. #8 in publication order of the 87th Precinct mysteries, this one features a case without a killer--at least to begin with. A young boy is sent into the precinct house with an envelope which contains a letter pieced together with cut out letters from the newspaper threatening to kill The Lady if they police can't stop him by 8 pm. First they must figure out if it's a crank letter, and then determine who 'The Lady' is. It's quite a hoot reading these old mysteries that are very dated because they mention the cost of items and salaries of policemen and where the only forensic evidence are fingerprints, which take a very long time to process. Of course, this means the detectives actually have to detect, and not just push a few buttons on a computer or phone to get the answers they need. Usually these books mention all the detectives at least in passing, and then tend to feature a couple of them as primary protagonists. In this one we get to know Cotton Hawes a little better, and it was an enjoyable quick read looking at police work back in the years when I was born. B.

8. MURDER AT EBBETS FIELD BY Troy Soos. (AUDIO) #2 in the Mickey Rawlings historical mystery series featuring the utility infielder who currently plays for the New York Giants. Mickey is told by his manager, the cranky, no-nonsense John McGraw, that he will have to go to a movie studio on his time off. He's had a request from a local movie producer making a baseball movie to provide a player for a bit part, and since he can't spare any of his more well-known starting players, Mickey it is. As he gets involved in the production and attends a party that evening, he meets Marguerite Turner, an actress he knows from seeing in "jungle movies." She has a bit part in this movie, taking a back seat to her friend, the much more famous and classically beautiful Florence Hampton. Mickey tries champagne for the first time and of course overindulges so ends up booking a room at the hotel where the party is held. Imagine his surprise when he finds the naked body of Miss Hampton under the boardwalk near the hotel early the next morning! There's no outward evidence of foul play, but Mickey is asked by his reporter friend Carl and then by Miss Turner to look into Florence's death--which Mickey does, all while trying not to aggravate the movie people, a vindictive newspaper reporter for a scandal rag, or the Brooklyn Dodgers players, several of whom seemed to have been involved with her. I have come to really enjoy this series, although the mystery was easy to figure out. I particularly like listening to the audio version with the story being well-told and with just the right mix of humor and seriousness. Looking forward to listening to the next one. A

9. HEART OF ICE by Alys Clare. #9 in the Hawkenlye Abbey historical mystery series set in 1194 England. A young man seeks care at the healing waters of Hawkenlye Abbey, but before he reaches them, he is struck on the head and killed by an unknown assailant and shoved into a pond that freezes over. A couple of days later, his body is discovered and at first he's believed to be the victim of some type of wasting disease--until the knot on his head is discovered. Soon, more sick people arrive at Hawkenlye and Abbess Helewise and the sisters and brothers have a full-fledged plague on their hands. Sir Josse d'Acquin is off to Tonbridge and even further afield trying to find out the young man's identity and where he had traveled to try to locate the source of the illness or at least the path so it can be contained and stopped. Meanwhile, Abbess Helewise is troubled and as she watches people die and even some of her beloved sisters and brothers fall ill, considers making a journey into the forest to find the Pagan healer Joanna, one-time lover of Sir Josse. The story then swtiches to Joanna's story, telling of the last few months and how she is brought to an island to learn the healing ways and learn the true identity of her mother and other mysteries. I enjoy this series, although the continued romantic tension between Josse and Helewise does get old after awhile. The author does a good job of incorporating historical events and people into the plots of the books and this one was no exception, although I'm not sure how well the overly-long section about Joanna worked here. Don't get me wrong--as a Pagan myself, I found it quite interesting and a good story in and of itself, but I think an abbreviated version of it would have worked better for the purpose of this book. All in all, a satisfying read and I look forward to continuing on in the series. B+

10. DRIVEN TO INK by Karen E. Olson. #3 in the Tattoo shop mysteries featuring Brett Kavanaugh, owner of the Painted Lady tattoo salon in Las Vegas. Brett kindly loans her red Mustang convertible to an elderly friend who is getting married--they are using one of the drive-through wedding chapels in Vegas and wanted something more classy than Sylvia's battered Gremlin. The morning after, Brett returns from a trip to Red Rocks where she does some hiking--only to discover a body in the trunk--dead as a doornail, with a dead rat underneath it. The body looks, at first glance, like Dean Martin, but ends up being one of the impersonators who worked at the wedding chapel. When she tries to reach Sylvia and Bernie, they can't be found either by herself, Sylvia's son or the police--Brett calls her brother Tim, a detective with LVPD, but because of her involvement in the case, it must be handled by another detective. Brett and Jeff Coleman, rival tattoo shop owner, sort-of friend and son of Sylvia, put their heads together to try to locate the newlyweds and find out who the body in her trunk is and who put him there, and of course this gets them in trouble (several times) with the law as well as with the killer. While the storyline here sounds good, I have to say that this book and I got off on the wrong foot on page 3, when the wrong form of a word was used--'incidence' being used instead of simply the plural of 'incident.' Argh! It's one of those mistakes you need a human proofreader for and the kind I find more annoying than a simple typo. I enjoy the information about tattoos and the real sense of place that Olson gives to the Vegas venue. Brett's character is likable enough in general, it just seems that she continues to become dumb and dumber as she goes off on her own pursuing leads, withholding valuable information from the police, and doing otherwise unbelievable things. I like a story where the protagonist might be defiant and high-spirited, yet I like to be able to insert myself into the story, thinking "I might do the same thing if I were in her shoes." But I rarely feel that way with Brett. And again, it's another case where almost every eligible man she comes across, she 'checks out' and is ready to follow with puppy eyes after just a few minutes. It gets old, and my eye muscles get a good workout from all the eye-rolling I do. I have to admit I really miss the author's much-feistier, less cozy character from her previous series--as much as I like the author's writing style, this series is fast drifting back into the pack of cookie-cutter cozy series. Not bad, just not worth crowing about. C+

11. THE LAST KING OF TEXAS by Rick Riordan. (AUDIO) #3 Tres Navarre series set in San Antonio TX. A few months ago, Tres Navarre--private investigator and PhD in English lit--turned down a professorship at a local university to pursue the necessary training for his official PI license. Now that the guy who took the job has been shot--after the university receives multiple threatening letters regarding racist statements made by another former professor--he's offered the job again in a dual role: he'll also get to keep his PI hat on. The first day on the job, a package with a homemade bomb explodes as it's delivered to Dr. Aaron Brandon's (or rather, Tres's) office, which clinches the deal: he's interested now! Soon after beginning his investigation--at the protestation of the local police, including the very attractive Det. Anna DeLeon--Tres discovers a dark history about Dr. Brandon and his family that may signal other motives for his death other than just his role as an Anglo professor. Connected to a powerful local family known for their oppression and mistreatment of their Hispanic employees, there are dozens of people who may have wanted revenge. When it's known that Zeta Sanchez, the drug-running gang boss suspected of killing Dr. Brandon's father several years ago is back in the area, he becomes the obvious suspect and the target of the police investigation. Tres, however, isn't so sure and pursues other avenues, only to end up in a heap of trouble several times, with other murders and attacks along the way before he figures out who's behind all the killings. I do enjoy this series, and especially enjoy the reading by Tom Stechshulte who does a great job with the voices and the whole tone of the book. I like Tres a lot, and the author is able to provide a real sense of place which serves to make the city itself one of the characters in the book. There is a lot of violence in these books, as with many mysteries, a rather inordinate amount such that in real life, one would, I think, hesitate to be friends with someone like Tres who has dead bodies falling everywhere around him. I did figure out the mystery ahead of time, but not too early, just picking up on a couple of deftly-placed clues that made me sure I was right. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series. A.

12.THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King. #1 Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mystery. Set during WWI, Mary Russell is a young woman who is neighbor to Sherlock Holmes in the countryside, he having retired to live a quiet life. She stumbles upon him watching his bees and after a brief conversation, figures out who he is--and he recognizes that he's met a superior mind as well. That chance meeting begins a friendship and Miss Russell spends much time with Holmes, learning his methods of deduction, conducting scientific experiments and the like. Her 'home' life with an aunt who seeks only to criticize--her guardian since her parents died, but essentially dependent on Mary as she has the trust fund--Mary spends as much time away from there as she can. Soon she's enrolled at Oxford, coming home to visit Holmes on breaks, and they embark on several cases using his technique of disguise and employing various forensic techniques that were way ahead of their time. When Holmes is sought indirectly by an American Senator whose daughter has been kidnapped, he takes Mary along and they work their magic to get the six-year-old Jessica Simpson (ha ha!) back--and only then realize that they are working against a foe who has targeted Holmes specifically--someone who is as brilliant as Holmes himself with far-reaching plans. I enjoyed this take on the whole Holmes character and I liked Mary Russell too, but at times the book was just...I don't know...too wordy, too explanatory, too long-winded, too detailed and I wished she'd just get on with it already. Lots and lots of prose and not a whole lot of dialogue--sometimes it just got sloggy, as interesting as the story was. I also figured quite far in advance who the baddie was, which surprised me. I do intend to read on in the series but probably will space these out quite a lot. B

13. MURDER IN A COLD CLIMATE by Scott Young. #1 of a series set in the Northwest Territories of Canada, featuring Matthew "Matteesie" Kitologitak, an Inuk (singular of Inuit) Inspector for the RCMP. Actually, he's been primarily working for Northern Affairs, not doing much police work but attending conferences living mostly in Toronto. We know from the get-go that Matteesie is not your everyday hero--the opening pages see him with his long-time mistress in the northern town of Inuvik, waiting to fly out to Leningrad for a conference. (His wife, a white woman, is back in Toronto.) He's also not your typical burly-brawny tough guy--at 5'6" with a brown, round face, he doesn't exactly scare many folks, even bundled up in his parka. His RCMP boss, Buster, calls and asks him to look into something for him as a favor (it's been several years since he did any police work)--the disappearance of a small plane that had a well-known government official's son as the pilot. Meanwhile though, a murder happens right in front of Matteesie and he feels his inspector's instincts kick into gear as he puts that incident first--and of course after digging a bit, figures the two incidents are actually connected. Off he goes across the wild northern wilderness trying to track down a killer and find the connection to the missing plane. This book provided a great sense of place and a immersion into a culture that I didn't know all that much about. The author brought home in a very real way just how isolated things are up near the Arctic Circle, and how things most of us 'down here' (and even in southern Canada) take for granted--including the usual police procedures--which just aren't the same there. I liked Matteesie but the story itself was kind of all over the place, especially at first; it was hard to keep people and places straight in part because of the strange names, and it wasn't until the middle third of the book that I finally started 'getting' it enough so that the storyline made more sense. All in all, though, an enjoyable book and I will at some point continue reading on if I can lay hands on the second in the series. B.

14. CAT OF THE CENTURY by Rita Mae Brown (AUDIO) #18 Mrs. Murphy mystery also featuring Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen in Crozet, Virginia. Harry is off on a road trip with her pets to help Aunt Tally celebrate her 100th birthday at her college alma mater back in Missouri. One of the organizers disappears, and another lets "slip" that the missing woman has probably done a runner since she knows of some shady business practices that have gone on. Once back in Virginia, the accuser ends up dead, believed killed by the missing woman. Harry, who of course has her nose in the middle of it, isn't so sure. I'm not sure why I chose this book, except I needed something very quick and light, since I have two other audio books I'm #1 in line for at the library and I didn't want to get stuck in the midst of something more meaty. It's part of a series I really used to enjoy. I'm not a fan of cozy mysteries as a rule, but have always liked listening to this series, even though some of the main characters are animals. The reader does them well and they aren't too sappy. However, the last few have been not much more than soapboxes for the author to spout various political and social opinions and this one was no different. I did finish it, as the reader does a good job and I do like to visit with Harry and the gang now and then, but even that aspect was minimal this time as the story was told from the point of view of so many different characters that we hardly even spent any time with Harry and the pets. No more. D.

15. THE WEE FREE MEN by Terry Pratchett. (AUDIO) #30 in publication order of the Discworld fantasy novels but #1 in the Tiffany Aching 'mini series' and the second DW novel aimed at younger readers. Tiffany is interested in becoming a witch--and she has a visit from Miss Tick--a witch who's surprised to have detected Tiffany's natural talent on 'the Chalk' which is 'much too soft to grow a proper witch.' Tiffany explains about some strange things she's seen and Miss Tick recognizes trouble and goes off to find more witches to help fight it. Tiffany conveniently forgets to mention the little bluish men with red hair she's seen as well, but when her annoying and perpetually sticky little brother Wentworth goes missing, these creatures come to her aid. The Nac Mac Feegle, she learns later. Not Pixies, but Pictsies...the Wee Free Men, known as thieves, drinkers and fighters and rarely a help to anyone. They're certain that the wee lad has been stolen and taken to a magical land by 'the Quin' who loves wee bairns, they lead Tiffany--who now wishes she'd gotten to know her grandmother, Granny Aching, better as she is learning that she was probably a witch herself. Once I started listening to this, I simply couldn't stop--it was hilarious and yet somewhat profound at the same time if that makes any sense. (Pretty much like most of the Discworld books, actually.) The reader was excellent and did a great job with the Scottish burr of the Nac Mac Feegle, such that I laughed out loud many times. Can't wait to see what interesting things Tiffany gets up to next. A+

DNF: GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss (audio) I listened to a couple hours of this before finally deciding it was a load of whiny, pretentious twaddle. The premise sounded interesting--the story of a writing desk and the people who owned it over time--but it was just...bleh.

Currently reading:

1. LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS by Joe Abercrombie (#3 of the First Law fantasy trilogy)
2. THE VICTORIA VANISHES by Christopher Fowler (#6 Bryant & May mystery)
3. DUST by Martha Grimes (AUDIO)

Cheryl

JANUARY 2011

2011-01-05T07:40:00.000-06:00

It's a brand new year! My New Year's Resolution this year is not to purchase (with money) ANY books this year! PBS trading is okay and library borrowing will be a must, but no money-for-books exchanges. It's not going to be easy, but I know I can do it. :)

1. A TRACE OF SMOKE by Rebecca Cantrell. #1 Hannah Vogel mystery set in 1931 Germany. Hannah, a thirty-something independent woman who has resigned herself to life alone after her fiance died in the Great War, is now working as a newspaper reporter (but writing under a man's name.) She is at the police station to get some information for a story from her friend Fritz, but is instead horrified to see a photograph of her younger brother Ernst on the "Hall of the Unnamed Dead," a series of images put up on the wall so that citizens can help the police identify unnamed corpses that are found. Ernst led a reckless life as a cross-dressing homosexual, singing burlesque in one of Berlin's 'queer clubs' in the days before the Nazis took complete power and shut such things down. Hannah, who cared for the decade-younger Ernst after her parents had both died, is devastated and sets out to find out who killed him and why. Using her guise as a reporter, she numbly goes through several days asking questions of his known friends, co-workers at his club, even following some of them into rather seedy places and even uses her police friend, never letting on to anyone that Ernst is dead. While she had reconciled herself to Ernst's lifestyle and loved him fiercely, what she discovers shocks her to the core, as it involves some very senior level people in the up-and-coming Nazi party. What an excellent way to start the new year! This is definitely not my favorite time in history, but the author does a great job of putting you in the time and place and describing life from the point of view of an average non-Nazi citizen as they watch the Party slowly take over the country. The story and the mystery were also intriguing, and I found myself really liking Hannah a lot. She seems to be, to me, the 'opposite woman' to Maisie Dobbs, whose story takes place in about the same time over in England. Interesting looking at things from the German viewpoint. Very difficult to put down and definitely looking forward to the next one! A+

2. THE LAST PLACE by Laura Lippman. (AUDIO) #7 Tess Monaghan mystery set in Baltimore. Whitney, Tess's good friend, sends some work her way from a consortium of non-profits that she is on the board of. They're researching police techniques in the rural areas around the city in hopes of finding some fuel for their fire: more funding for domestic violence prevention. If they can prove that the rural police messed up and need more education, they hope to lobby the legislature for the funding. They hand Tess five unrelated, unsolved homicides from the outlying areas and ask her to see how they were investigated. What ends up happening is that the cases aren't quite as unrelated as they thought. Tess hooks up with a former cop out on disability who had obsessed over one of the cases, and they are allowed to assist the state police peripherally when they bring the evidence of the serial killer to them. I have to admit that the mystery itself was rather easy to figure out--the clues were just dangled in front of you and I kept wanting to smack Tess because she didn't see certain things. Then again, she was a bit distracted--having had to go into court-ordered anger-management therapy after she (and Whitney, although Tess never implicated her friend) tracked down a guy who seduced Whitney's teenage niece in an internet chat room. (Apparently the use of Nair on the entire body warrants assault. LOL) Still a very enjoyable visit with Tess and Crow, the dogs and her friends, even though I was at least two steps ahead of them all the way. And I think I'm finally getting used to the narrator's (Barbara Rosenblatt) voice, which I found annoying as hell at first. A

3. FART PROUDLY: WRITINGS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN YOU NEVER READ IN SCHOOL by Carl Japiske. A collection of stories, newspaper articles and letters written by the esteemed Mr. Franklin, which, as the subtitle indicates, are not likely to be included in school curriculums. The book opens with the quote, "He who lives on hope dies farting" which was published in Poor Richard's almanac in 1736. The other pieces run in a similar vein, with Franklin leaving his guise as diplomat, statesman, inventor and wise, respected philosopher behind--he gets downright bawdy at times, other times inciting rebellion and scandal. Which is probably why I enjoyed it so much--it made an excellent 'bathroom book' for the past few weeks. LOL A.

4. LORDS AND LADIES by Terry Pratchett. #14 in publication order in the humorous fantasy Discworld series. We're once again back in Lancre with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and...well, Magrat Garlick used to be the third member of their witches' coven until King Verence proposed. Now she's Queen-in-waiting, planning her wedding and bored silly, so not able to help much when Granny and Nanny make their plans to take on the Lords and Ladies--the elves--who are trying to get through to this dimension through a stone circle in the Ramtops. They know how truly nasty elves are--nothing like the sweet, beautiful creatures they project themselves to be. As the Bursar, Archchancellor and Librarian of Unseen University make their way to Lancre for the wedding (picking up the dwarf Casanunda--an old friend of Nanny Ogg's--on the way) and the rest of the town prepare, a series of events unfolds--in at least one dimension--that makes the whole town want to crawl under their beds. Very enjoyable--I had forgotten how much I love this book (read it years ago) and had totally forgotten Casanunda--he's now emerged again as one of my favorite Discworld characters. A+

5. THE TRACK OF SAND by Andrea Camilleri. #12 Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily. What are the odds that you would look out your window one morning and see a dead horse lying on the beach? This is how Salvo Montalbano's day begins, and things continue to stay weird for several days. By the time he follows the horse's tracks and locates where he was killed--a victim of a brutal beating--the corpse has disappeared. When a beautiful woman comes into the police station to report her horse missing, things get even weirder, and as usual the case intersects with another and gets all muddled up before the lightbulb goes off over Montalbano's head. Meanwhile, he deals with people breaking into his home, women trouble, consumes much yummy food, has his share of grumpy and melancholy thoughts, buffaloes his superiors and baffles his staff, but eventually gets to where he's going in the end, solving both cases--once he starts following the right track. Enjoyable visit to Montelusa and surrounding area with my favorite Italian curmudgeon, as usual and expected. Keep them coming, Mr. Camilleri! A.

6. SARAH'S KEY by Tatiana de Rosnay. (AUDIO) This book is part historical fiction, set in 1942 Paris, and part modern. The first part tells the story of Sarah Starcyzinski, a young French Jewish girl born of Polish parents. The events take place during July of that year, when the "Vel Dhiv" roundup took place--with thousands of Jewish families arrested (by French police, not the Gestapo) and initially held in a cycling velodrome, then moved first to interment camps within France and eventually on to Auschwitz. Sarah has her own particular horror to live through that involves her young brother Michel, who gets left behind when the family is arrested. Meanwhile, in modern-day Paris, Julia Jarmond, a middle-aged American now living in Paris (and married to a Frenchman) is set to move into the apartment where Sarah's family lived in 1942. Julia discovers this connection when she begins researching the "Vel Dhiv" roundup for a newspaper article she's writing and then, when she learns that her hsuband's family took the apartment when a Jewish family was arrested, becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to that family, which eventually leads her to Sarah's trail. The two stories intersect, of course. This book sounded a lot better than it was. I didn't like the main character in the modern part very much, and there was a point in the last third of the book where Sarah's voice goes away and her story is left dangling--and that's when I really lost interest, not really wanting to put up with the whiny Julia's ramblings. I enjoyed the story overall, and learning about an event in history that I really had no knowledge of, but it could have done with a lot less of the minutiae of Julia's life. C+

7. THE CORPSE IN THE KORYO by James Church. #1 Inspector O mystery, set in modern day North Korea, mostly in the capital Pyongyang, but O also travels out to several outlying areas. The story begins with him on a stakeout to take a picture of a car going by on a road in a rural area outside the city. Those are his orders, but of course the camera fails due to dead batteries and the story moves along to a tale of intrigue and espionage between one Ministry and another, sort of a Spy vs. Spy kind of thing with a friend of O's boss named Kang directing much of the action as he tries to evade the Military Security branch run by Colonel Kim. Many deaths occurred along the way, and O is never quite sure who to trust, so mostly he doesn't trust anyone. It was confusing at first, since I had virtually no knowledge of how things are in North Korea, or what life is like. But I quickly came to like Inspector O, and once I stopped trying to figure everything out and sat back to enjoy the story, it was fine, the details fell into place and I really enjoyed getting to know the country and the main character. The writing style is hard to describe--somewhat of a literary, lyrical side to it, and a definite dry sense of humor there in the background too. I have to read the next book just to find out if O ever gets his cup of tea! A.

8.FINAL NOTICE by Jo Dereske. #6 Miss Zukas mystery set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma has her elderly, somewhat eccentric Aunt Emily come to stay with her after she has a 'brain incident' and isn't able to stay alone just yet. Shortly after her arrival, a man is killed outside Helma's apartment, and Aunt Em is shocked to recognize him as the man who tried to steal her purse in the airport--she had poked him good with her hatpin, and he fled, but she's sure it's the same man. Further investigation and Helma's looking into her aunt's checkered past leads her to believe that her aunt may well be in danger because of things that happened years ago. Enlisting the help of her 'friend,' police chief Wayne Gallant, Helma narrows down the search--although she's uneasy asking for Chief Gallant's help, as rumor has it that he is seeing his ex-wife again. I really like Helma and do enjoy this series very much, and got a kick out of Aunt Em, who is about as polar opposite of Helma as you can get. And yet they 'work well' together. Interesting story, although the mystery wasn't too mysterious, and looking forward to the next one. A.

9. THE LIONS OF THE NORTH by Edward Marston. #4 in the Domesday historical mystery series, this time the Royal Commissioners are off to York, once again settling land disputes at the behest of the King. Ralph Delchard, Gervase Bret, Canon Hubert and Brother Simon the scribe are joined by a northern noble, Tanchelm of Ghent, who is joining their group at King William's order. There are many disputes to investigate, and it's complicated by the rovings of outlaw bands, including the notorious Olaf Evil Child, who actually has the temerity to steal the group's sumpter horses at an overnight stop along the way. Insulted to the core, Ralph Delchard makes his displeasure known to his old friend, Aubrey Maminot, with whom the party will be lodging at York Castle. Aubrey allows that Olaf is already a thorn in his side, and if caught, he'll be fed to his pets--two ferocious African lions that prowl the ditches around the castle at night, and whom their trainer Ludovico and Aubrey are the only two allowed to handle. Another wonderful story full of history and a sense of time and place that is unrivaled by other writers of historical fiction and mystery. The characters are also wonderful and varied and after only four books have almost become old friends. This has fast become one of my favorite historical series--it's too bad the books are out of print and are so difficult to come by. But I eagerly look forward to the next. A+

10. BIGGIE AND THE POISONED POLITICIAN by Nancy Bell. (AUDIO) #1 in the Biggie Weatherford cozy mystery series set in fictional small-town Texas. The story is told through the eyes of Biggie's 12-year-old grandson J.R., and is a light, humorous mystery mostly focusing on small-town Texas life. Biggie is a wealthy widow and one of the movers and shakers in tiny Job's Crossing, and she pretty much does as she pleases and usually gets her way. So when a new landfill is built next to her family's cemetery, she doesn't have a hissyfit--she gets moving, marshalling her supporters to get rid of it. When the mayor--an overweight, blustery man with a heart conditions--keels over in his whipped cream at a table in the local diner, with Biggie and J.R. looking on, it's first thought he just had the inevitable heart attack. But Biggie thinks he was poisoned and sets out to prove it, although she's not sure why just yet. It must have something to do with her lodger's car blowing up though, don'tchathinkhoney? Two such bizarre events would just have to be linked, since nothing much exciting happens in Job's Crossing. I downloaded this from the library because I needed something quick and light (and of course, the first in a series) and distracting, and it was a rather fun listen. However, not sure I will continue on--there is way too much sticky-sweet southern humor for my usual taste, and if I do listen further (I believe the library has most of the series available as audio download) it will be with plenty of space between the books. B.

11. THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT by Philip Jose Farmer. #2 in the Riverworld Saga. This book, the second in a series that features a sort of repository for the dead--basically, everyone ever born on earth is resurrected in the Riverworld--focuses on Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. His big dream on Earth was to build and captain a Riverboat, and now that he's basically got all eternity, he's determined to do it. This life-after-death place isn't exactly what you'd call heaven, though--the same cliques, clans and territorial battles still break out, and as some resources are in short supply, Sam knows he will have to do battle or barter to get the materials he needs. As with the previous book, a host of different characters from history--ancient and recent--show up, often in unlikely roles. Quite entertaining and an interesting concept of what 'life after death' could be like. B+

12. THE TAKEN by Inger Ash Wolfe #2 Hazel Micallef mystery set in rural Ontario in fictional Port Dundas, although Hazel and her second, James Wingate, do spend time ruffling feathers in Toronto on his old stomping grounds when a case takes them there. A supposed body dredged up from the bottom of a local lake ends up being nothing but a mannequin--but one that someone wants the police to find--it's been weighted to stay in place and an IP address on the back of the mannequin leads them to a website showing a live feed with the merest of hints that someone is being held captive. Oddly, the case is unfolding like the serial story appearing in the local newspaper, and Micallef must butt heads with the press as she attempts to find the writer of the story. Hazel, recovering from major back surgery and dependent on the care of her ex-husband and his new wife as well as powerful painkillers, shouldn't even be back to work yet, but something about this case has yanked her chain and she is determined to find out who is manipulating the police--and her in particular--for their nefarious purposes. A very strange story, and a very interesting one, although I have to admit at first I was really tired of Hazel's pity party. It did get better and by the time I hit the halfway point had a heck of a time putting it down. I really do like Hazel--she's very human, very flawed and vulnerable for all her blustering. Eagerly awaiting the next. A.

13. IGNORANCE IS BLITZ by Anders Henrikssen. A collection of bloopers from college term papers, specifically dealing with history, from ancient times to near-modern history. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, misuse of words, punctuation and especially concepts--all things that drive me right up a tree. So a whole book of them? Made me laugh my butt off. I learned rather quickly that I could not read it while eating lunch. LOL I like the "Anguished English' books as those are examples taken from high school and the world at large. The people writing these papers actually made it into college. Though heaven only knows how! A couple of my favorites: "Judyism was the first monolithic religion. It had one big god named Yahoo." "The wholey Roman Empire amazed many when it was found in Germany." "The invention of the sex tent helped to determine place and orientation at sea." It's best read in small bits, otherwise it can tend to get overwhelming. Plus, you'll strain something laughing too much for too long if you read it all at once. :o) A.

14. AN UNACCEPTABLE DEATH by Barbara Seranella. #8 and final Munch Mancini mystery. Munch, now clean and sober for nine years and living a stable life with her adopted daughter Asia, is enjoying planning her wedding to police detective Rico Chacon, when he is shot to death by other cops in a drug bust gone wrong. Among allegations that Rico was a dirty cop, Munch stuffs her grief and despair to the back of her soul while she lets her practical side take over and sets out to prove that he wasn't. She believes Rico was killed because of her--she had just learned that there is a bounty on her head, put there by the former head of an outlaw biker gang that she all but dismantled when she went straight. Now the gang is re-forming and their first order of business is to take Munch down, and she wonders if he somehow got in the middle of that. She makes deals as a confidential informant with a couple of groups of cops and then essentially does what she needs to do anyway to figure out why Rico was killed. An excellent ending to this series, very sad and poignant, yet hopeful too. I am going to miss Munch a lot. A.

15. PLAYING WITH BONES by Kate Ellis. #2 DI Joe Plantagenet mystery set in fictional Eborby, UK--modeled after the city of York. A young girl is found dead in a dark close, strangled and then with a strange mutilation--her big toe of her left foot is severed, and an old porcelain doll is laid next to her with its toe also removed. When one of the constables brings to Joe and his boss DCI Emily Thwaite's attention a book he's reading about historical murders that contains an excerpt about the Doll Strangler of Singmass Close, they realize the strong similarity to the strangulation of four women back in the 1950's. The toe mutilation was never reported anywhere, so whoever is doing this now must have some connection to the first killer. Another case involving a missing girl intersects with the murder case. I enjoyed this second entry in this series although there seemed to be way too many red herrings and a lot of huge coincidences happening in order for things to fall into place as they do. Still, I am looking forward to the next in series and also to trying the author's other long-standing mystery series. A-

16. CASTLE IN THE AIR by Diana Wynne Jones. (AUDIO) Second in the "Castle" YA fantasy series (the first was Howl's Moving Castle) although we don't actually run into characters from the first book until about the last third of the story. Not really a series, they're just sort of loosely connected. Most of it is about Abdullah, a young carpet-seller in the desert country called Zanzib who daydreams about a life much unlike his own--with himself a prince stolen by evil men and who ends up married to a beautiful princess, and not a seller of carpets besieged by his late father's first wife's nosy family. Meanwhile, Abdullah is sold a magic carpet by a mysterious stranger, and he finds that when he sleeps on it, many of his daydreams seem to come true as he travels to far-off places--and he ends up in Ingary (the country in the first book) with a magic genie in a bottle and a disenfranchised Strangian soldier and a couple of cats, trying to chase down the Princess Flower-in-the-Night, who was stolen by an evil djinn. Full of good humor, a good story and some great characters, and very well-read also by Jenny Sterlin. Going to look for the next one in this sort-of series. B+

17. BREATHING WATER by Timothy Hallinan. #3 Poke Rafferty mystery set in Bangkok, Thailand. Poke gets into big trouble when he wins a poker game and the 'prize' is writing the autobiography of the loser--a rich, important man in Thailand, somewhat of a folk hero from the poor northwest of the country who rudely thumbs his nose at the rich, 'noble' class who have ruled the country for centuries. However, powerful people don't want the book written--and others want it written, but only the version they want to be told. Poke and his family are threatened, followed, menaced, attacked--and they don't even know by whom. Probably several parties, all with very powerful friends. Poke tries to figure out how to maintain his status quo without tipping off any of the warring parties what he's doing. Meanwhile, Poke's best friend Arthit, a policeman, is going through hell as he discovers that his beloved wife Noi is probably planning her own suicide as her progressive muscular degenerative disease leaves her with increasing pain that no one can help. And Miaow, Poke's adopted daughter, is having growing pains of her own, trying to figure out where she fits into the world. Another excellent, complex story of Bangkok, from the mean streets to the mansions of the powerful. I absolutely love Poke and his family and friends and was glad to see Boo back in the picture. I've just received the latest in the series, The Queen of Patpong, and it's not very likely that it will gather much dust on my TBR pile! A+

18. A CORPSE AT ST. ANDREW'S CHAPEL by Mel Starr. #2 Hugh de Singleton medieval mystery set in 1360's in the town of Bampton, UK. Still recovering from the plague two decades previously, a spate of lawlessness seems to have taken over the countryside as Hugh, a surgeon, settles into his double role as Bailiff of Bampton Castle for Lord Gilbert Talbot. When Alan the beadle is found dead--first presumed attacked by a wolf, later noted to have been shot with an arrow--Hugh must investigate the death and is attacked several times himself for his trouble. As he follows several twisty, tenuous threads trying to solve several small mysteries that come together in a somewhat pedestrian, obvious conclusion. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book--I did, very much. The sense of time and place provided by the author is outstanding and indeed is the strong point of this series so far. I do like Hugh, but he seems to be just developing as a character. The writing style is at times a bit off-putting and doesn't always flow smoothly, and also with several repetitive phrases that seemed to stand out sometimes. But the entire package was quite enjoyable and I look forward to getting to know Hugh better in the next book. B+

19. A CAST-OFF COVEN by Juliet Blackwell. #2 in the so-called "Witchcraft" series featuring Lily Ivory, a witch and vintage clothing shop owner in San Francisco. Lily is asked by her employee Maya, who is also a student at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, to come to the school and look around on behalf of the woman who runs the school. She's offered a chest full of vintage clothing they found in an old trunk in a closet, but hopes Lily can use her powers to find out about a visitation by a suspected ghost in the bell tower of the school and perhaps do something about it. The noises and ghostly presence has ramped up recently and become disruptive. While at the school, a man falls--or is pushed--down the bell tower steps on the exact site of a suicide several decades earlier. The natural conclusion drawn by many is that the ghost killed Jerry Becker--a rich big-wig with lots of money invested in the school, as well as a daughter, Andromeda, who attends there. Lily is pretty sure that Becker's killer was human, and since he wasn't well-liked and had lots of money, there are plenty of people with motive. Further investigation leads her to believe there is indeed an evil presence at the school, but not from a ghost--rather, from a demon that someone has summoned. Along the way, Lily has to deal once again with Aidan Rhodes, a powerful witch who makes her uncomfortable on several levels, and Max Carmichael, a journalist whom she went out with once and who definitely interests her (and vice versa) but who is a bit of an enigma and who finds her whole witchiness very discomfiting. She also encounters several other men who briefly caught Lily's attention as the story progressed. I enjoyed the book for the most part, although at times I'm not sure if the author is trying to pass Lily off as a witch...I mean, a real witch, or if she's got her living in some type of a paranormal world. I suppose given that she has a goblin familiar who disguises himself as her pet potbellied pig, I really shouldn't take any of it too seriously, right? This should probably be classified as light urban fantasy rather than mystery. There are things that were semi-accurate, though--and some of it just accurate enough to perhaps confuse people who aren't familiar with *actual* witch/Pagan practice and belief. The one other gripe I have is that the author's propensity to make every man Lily met or came across a potential love interest, however briefly, was really annoying. And of course there are at least a couple of permanent romantic interests to keep Lily pulled in two directions, which is one thing that has put me off many so-called mystery series that started with promise and then devolve into romantic baloney, with the mysteries taking a back seat--no, more like being hogtied in the trunk while the romance and sexual tension steer the series. (The whodunit in this one was sort of a no-brainer.) That said, I like the writing style, I like Lily and her shop and her circle of friends for the most part, and Blackwell really is able to provide a wonderful sense of place, making the city of San Francisco one of the main characters in the book. I also love Oscar to pieces! LOL I'll give the series one more read, and if the next book is obviously continuing down the romance road, as much as I like the other parts of the book, I'll probably stop there. B

CURRENT READS: THE DARK WIND by Tony Hillerman in audio, MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN by Deborah Sharp and Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault in print.

Cheryl

2010 YEAR END SUMMARY

2010-12-31T17:08:00.001-06:00

It's time once again for that year-end summary. It's been another great reading year with many excellent reads and fewer DNFs than even last year. I finished off quite a few "dead" series and caught up to the current release on many others. I also have discovered some interesting new-to-me authors.

Here's the vital statistics:

Total books read: 198. (Down from last year's 234.)

DNFs (Did Not Finish): Only 5 this year, down from 11 last year. I like to think this means I'm getting better at knowing my reading tastes. It might just be pure luck, though. :)

TOPS and BOTTOMS of the year. I have a separate category for mysteries since that's the genre I read most. This was very difficult!! Lots of excellent books didn't make it into the top ten.

There aren't many bottoms, because if I'm not enjoying a book, I simply stop reading it, and I don't review books I don't finish. So it's not necessarily that the bottoms are horrible--just my least favorite of those I did finish. And these are not necessarily books *released* during this year, just books I've read during this year; I'm often several years behind on 'what's hot' currently.

TOP TEN MYSTERIES: (in no particular order)

1. Moonlight Downs by Adrian Hyland
2. Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
3. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
4. The Unquiet Bones by Melvin R. Starr
5. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
6. A Nail Through the Heart by Timothy Hallinan
7. Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson
8. Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn
9. The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
10.Medicus by Ruth Downie
11.Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
12.An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
13.Missing Mark by Julie Kramer
14.Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
15.Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron

Yes...I know. Math was never my strong suit. :)

TOP TEN "OTHER" (anything not a mystery):

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
3. Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
4. The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry
5. Changes by Jim Butcher
6. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
7. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
8. Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
9. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
10.Sleepless by Charlie Huston

Bottoms:

Our Lady of Immaculate Deception by Nancy Martin
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger
The Stolen Blue by Judith Van Gieson
A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb
Stalked by Brian Freeman

And for once, I do have an actual New Year's Resolution, and it's one that involves books: I pledge not to purchase any books this year. (I am still going to trade books at Paperbackswap.com, but will not spend actual money for books in 2011.) I'm not sure what kind of odds the bookmakers are giving, but I am DETERMINED.

Roll on 2011! Happy Reading in the New Year, everyone!

Cheryl

December 2010

2010-12-06T21:49:00.000-06:00

1. ROSEMARY AND RUE by Seanan McGuire. #1 October "Toby" Daye paranormal. October is half-human, half fae changeling, who has just come out of the pond--having been cursed, she spent 14 years as a fish in a koi pond in a public park in San Francisco. During that time, she lost everything--her boyfriend, her daughter--who was four when she 'disappeared' and now wants nothing to do with her--her private eye business, and she remembers very little of her time underwater. Only the fae world, which time affects differently, still know who she is, although she is trying to make it in the human world. Working nights in a supermarket and living hand-to-mouth in a crummy apartment, October's life suddenly changes forever--again--when she is charged by a dying fae sometime friend to find her killer--and it's a request that Toby can neither refuse nor ignore--it is tied to a curse that will see her dead if she doesn't fulfill the directive. Trying to navigate fae politics and current feuds and alliances, she finds that much has changed even in the short (by fae standards) time she was gone. I enjoyed this quite a lot, although there were a lot of different characters and 'types' of fae to try to keep straight, and the subplots were perhaps a bit complicated for an introductory book. The few main characters were very interesting and well-fleshed though--Toby especially--and I'm definitely planning to read on. B+

2. THE OLD WINE SHADES by Martha Grimes. #20 Chief Supt. Richard Jury mystery set in the UK. This story sucked me in right from the beginning, with a man in a pub telling Jury a story about his friend whose wife, autistic son and dog disappeared into thin air about nine months previously. They had made a trip to a small town in Surrey that had a good private school for autistic children, and where they hoped to move if things checked out well. While she looked at one cottage she was scheduled to view, the estate agent stated she'd never come back to return the key for the second one, which was an unoccupied estate with a spooky history. "But the dog came back," Harry Johnson says, and produces a shaggy mutt called Mungo. Jury, on administrative leave from Scotland Yard, spends several pleasant evenings talking with Harry explaining about his friend Hugh, who became so distraught at his wife's disappearance that he is now in a private psychiatric facility attempting to gain his equilibrium back. Jury quietly (and unofficially) investigates, and of course brings his friend Melrose Plant into things as well. All went relatively well until the ending, which I found to be anticlimactic and rather lame--and I did see the plot twist coming. But still, I enjoy these visits with this set of characters that I have come to know and love over the years. B.

3. AN IMPARTIAL WITNESS by Charles Todd. (AUDIO) #2 Bess Crawford historical mystery set during WWI in England. Bess, a nurse, is escorting several patients back to a care facility in England from the battles in France. While she is at the train station making her own way back to London for a quick twenty-four hour leave, she recognizes a woman on the platform as Mrs. Evenson--the wife of one of the severely burned men she has just deposited. He carried her picture with him all the time, so Bess would be hard-pressed NOT to recognize her. But troublingly, the woman was crying and talking to another man--an officer in the Wiltshire Division. The scene disturbed her, but not as much as reading a newspaper article about her murder several weeks later when back in France--the newspaper was already old, being in a care package for one of her co-workers from home. Police are asking anyone who saw the woman on the day of her disappearance to help with enquiries, and Bess writes Scotland Yard to share her experience. They summon her back to England to speak with them and through other coincidences gets involved in helping solve the case with her amateur sleuthing. I rather liked the first book of this series, but this one I just could not get interested in. Bess seems rather devolved as a character, and it's hard for me to say that I know her very well--she's all over the place with regards to her thoughts, actions, emotions, etc. The mystery was rather obvious and I couldn't say that I felt particularly immersed in the time and place either--some parts felt kind of superficial where it seemed things should have been explored in depth, and other things that I felt were side issues were dwelt upon overly much. The book was competently read, although the reader had a couple of annoying habits--but honestly, I don't think it made a difference to my opinion about the book itself. I finished this, but honestly I think I will just stop here in this series. C.

4. THE WITCH IN THE WELL by Sharan Newman. #10 Catherine LeVendeur historical mystery set in 12th-century France. Catherine is at the home of her brother Guillaume and family when they are summoned to the home of their grandfather near Boisvert--the well is running dry, and there is apparently an old pagan folk story that everyone (but Catherine) in the family knows--all the family is in grave danger unless they can figure out why the well is going dry and stop it. Catherine, an ex-novice and very religious, heartily disbelieves in pagan tales, but feels a strange compulsion and they should be going to her grandfather's, and so she and husband Edgar and their children pack up and hit the road only to be met by several surprises once they arrive. I started out absolutely loving this series, but I have to admit I've grown a bit weary of it for these last few books. It's almost like a love-hate relationship with the books. One minute I'm loving the historical detail and sense of place, the next I want to throw it across the room because the characters and storyline has become so predictable, rehashed and recycled. Tedious. I dunno. It's kind of hard to explain. This is the last book in the series, and while I have mostly enjoyed the ride over these past several years, I was glad to close this final book and call it done. C+

5. THIEF IN RETREAT by Aimee and David Thurlo. #2 Sister Agatha mystery set in New Mexico. Sister Agatha is asked by the Archbishop to go out to a resort and retreat center to catalogue crates of stuff that were stored there (it was formerly a monastery) so that some renovations can occur. There is a secondary purpose to her trek also--the owners of the resort believe that certain religious art works have been stolen and replaced with fakes, but they have no real proof--and the appraiser they've hired has disappeared into thin air. Sister Agatha, who is an extern at the monastery she's a member of--meaning she can interact with the public--has a bit of a rep with the Archbishop and he wants her to help solve that crime while doing her cataloguing. Of course there is a ghost story to go with it, and Sister Agatha herself sees Juanita, the so-called lilac-smelling ghost, one night. Does the ghost have anything to do with the missing (or replaced) art work, though--or is she just an interesting side story? Sheriff Tom Green is also there, attending a workshop for cops, and he is helping Sister keep an eye out--but of course doesn't prevent her from finding the dead body of the appraiser. Part of me likes this quiet, cozy series, but part of me finds it a little too quiet, kind of repetitive in places, and somewhat unimaginative with a cliched set of characters. I've got one more book in the series here, and that one will be my decision-maker as to whether to continue reading the series or not. I'm teetering on the fence at the moment. B-

6. THE DOUBLE COMFORT SAFARI CLUB by Alexander McCall Smith. (AUDIO) #11 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency cozy mystery series set in Botswana. We're off on another journey to Gabarone, Botswana to visit Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, Mr. JLB Matekoni and the rest of the circle of friends. Mma Ramotswe is commissioned by a wife--and then by her husband--to find out if the other is having an affair. The second case comes via letter from America, a lawyer asking her to track down a guide--name unknown--at a safari camp--name also unknown--in the Okavango Delta in the north of the country. A woman has died and left some money to that guide who was very kind to her on her safari trip a few years past. Mma Kutsi's fiance is seriously injured in an accident involving a delivery truck and she must battle his old auntie, who doesn't like Mma Kutsi and attempts to keep her from seeing Phuti. As always, a lovely visit with lots of wise words and warm fuzzies and not a whole lot of "mystery" per se. Very skillfully read by Lisette Lecat. A

7. SKIN by Mo Hayder. #4 DI Jack Caffrey mystery. Jack, still working in Bristol and still reeling from events in the last book, feels he is being watched by the Tokoloshe, an African mystical creature. He's supposed to have moved on to the next case--the disappearance of a popular footballer's wife from a local drug rehab facility--but he can't help but feel that they missed something on the case before, and he continues to pursue leads. Meanwhile, DS Phoebe "Flea" Marley, leader of the dive team--who also recover particularly messy, decomposing bodies--continues to deal with her mentally unstable brother Thom, and feels spooked by a diving incident in one of the old quarries--searching for the body of a young woman presumed dead. The cases merge toward one another and become thoroughly enmeshed when Flea makes a horrible discovery about Thom. I enjoy this series although I've felt these last couple of books haven't been as cohesive as the first couple. There seems to have to be a lot of suspension of disbelief to get on with the story--not necessarily the mystical element, more like the outrageous actions of these two police persons and the totally strange situations they find themselves in. Very violent and gory, which doesn't bother me, except that it does seem to me that much of it is meant simply to shock rather than to further the story along. The serial killer was not very well developed, and there seemed to be a lot of attention paid to some of the minor side characters, yet both of the main characters seem totally adrift and I hope the author will resolve some of this and settle them a bit next time out. B.

8. BLOOD FROM A STONE by Donna Leon. #14 Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery set in Venice. When a black immigrant (probably illegal) is shot to death in a crowded marketplace where he was selling knock-off designer handbags, Guido begins an investigation--which is made doubly difficult by the fact that, since the man and his friends are in the country illegally, no one knows who he is, where he lives, or what the motive for murder could possibly be. Guido calls in a few favors to slightly underground friends around town and locates the man's home, but of course the friends refuse to give any information, being afraid of any police authority based on experience in their home country of Senegal. But Guido finds a stash of diamonds hidden in a box of salt in the man's meager apartment, and thus believes he's found something of a motive--and then his boss, Vice-Questore Patta calls him off the investigation without explanation except, "We're letting this go." Of course that means he's gotten direction from higher up, but why? On a personal note, it's just days to Christmas and Guido is having problems choosing gifts for his family, and Paola and Chiara (his wife and daughter) are on the outs because of a disparaging comment Chiara made about the man whose death Guido is investigating. Excellent as always--I can't believe this is already #14 in the series and that by next year I'll probably be caught up. Love, love, LOVE Guido, his family and Venice! A+

9. THE BLACK TOWER by P.D. James. #5 Commander Adam Dalgliesh mystery. Dalgliesh is recovering from a bout of mononucleosis (at first thought to be leukemia) when he receives a letter from Father Baddeley, an old friend of his father's who asks to see him on a 'professional' matter. He lives at Hope Cottage near the sea and near a privately run care facility for young disabled people called Toynton Grange, and when Adam arrives, he finds that Fr. Baddeley died ten days previously. Of course he's suspicious at first about the death--although the priest had only just returned from hospital after having a heart attack--and he sets out to find what it was that he'd been summoned about. While there, he learns of the presumed suicide of a patient a few days previous to the priest's death and meets a whole cast of strange characters--patients, medical professionals, caretakers and other hangers-on. Something just doesn't set right and more deaths ensue before Dalgliesh can figure out how they all tie together, as of course they must do. I enjoyed the atmospheric setting of this mystery, but it had altogether too many peripheral characters to try to keep straight, and sometimes things happened that just seemed bizarre until I remember that the book was written in the '70's and it's most likely accurate for the place and time. As usual, the plot is the strong suit in James' novels, but her characterizations have definitely improved from the first book in this series. A.

10. CHRISTMAS MOURNING by Margaret Maron. (AUDIO) In this latest Judge Deborah Knott and clan mystery, it's Christmas time once again and Deborah and Dwight are celebrating their first anniversary as well. A series of fatal car crashes involving young folks has set a bit of a pall over Colleton County's festivities, though, especially the most recent, involving Mallory Johnson, head cheerleader at West Colleton High. By everyone's account, she's practically perfect, so when a small amount of alcohol is found in her blood, everyone is shocked, and her father insists that someone must have spiked her soda pop. Otherwise why would she have crashed on a straight stretch of road in good driving weather? And who would do such a thing? As the town mourns her loss, deeper investigation of course reveals that Mallory wasn't without her flaws, but it takes two more deaths for Dwight to connect the dots. A very enjoyable visit to Colleton County, laced with big doses of family lore and Christmas tradition and history. Great story, and as always, the author tackles social issues along the way and gives you something to think about, although the mystery wasn't too much of a puzzle to figure out fairly well in advance. Wonderfully read by CJ Critt, as always. A+

11. SERVER DOWN by J.M. Hayes. #5 (and so far, the last) Mad Dog & Englishman mystery. Usually the series is set in fictional small-town Kansas, but in this book, part of the story takes place in Tuscon, AZ where Englishman's daughter Heather is attending law school, and where her uncle Mad Dog has driven off to in order to observe a sacred Native American rite. Unfortunately, MD doesn't get to see much of the rite as he is almost immediately attacked and accused of murdering a tribal officer and ends up on the run with his half-wolf Hailey. Meanwhile, back in Kansas, Mad Dog's house is blown to smithereens. He subsequently learns that a character from the online video game he plays called War of Worldcraft--an evil Vampire Wizard named Fig Zit--is the one behind his frame-up and destruction of his home. Mad Dog has no idea how Fig Zit found out who he was in real life or why he would want to cause him harm, but he's certain that's what's happening. Everyone else, of course, thinks he's nuts--not that they hadn't already suspected as much before. It takes the adept play of Mrs. Krause (Sheriff English's office manager), a fairly good WoW player herself, to make the connection. Meanwhile, it's a madcap chase across Tuscon and the Internet with Mad Dog and Heather running into one scrape after another along the way. I really enjoyed this entry in the series, since I myself play World of Warcraft, the game that the author based his spoofy game on. It's obvious he also played the game because so much of his characterization and game play was spot on--and very funny, too. This book was published in 2008, so not sure if there are going to be any more books in the series or not--I do hope so! It would be interesting to continue it on with Heather in the lead role, I think, since Sheriff English played a somewhat diminished role in this book anyway. Wacky, goofy, crazy, much under-recognized and utterly delightful series. A.

12. EXILE by Denise Mina. #2 of the Garnethill trilogy featuring Maureen O'Donnell, a troubled young Glaswegian woman. Still struggling to overcome her past, filled with abuse, drugs and alcohol, Maureen is up in arms trying to deal with the fact that her abusive father is once again back in town. Looking for something to take her mind off her nightmares, she once again gets involved in a murder case when a woman who had been staying at the women's shelter where she works turns up beaten to death in London, stuffed in a mattress and chucked in the river. The natural suspect is the woman's husband, but Maureen has met Jimmy, who is now trying to raise their four children by himself--her friend Leslie asked her to check him out as he is actually her cousin--and doesn't believe he's guilty. So she begins poking her nose in, takes the bus to London to try to retrace Ann's steps to see who she was hooked up with down there, and of course meets plenty of violent and other sundry unsavory characters along the way as well. Bleak and at times painful to read, I nevertheless love this character and the author's writing style. Looking forward to the conclusion of the series in the third book, aptly titled Resolution. I like to think that despite her problems, Maureen is going to be all right. We shall see! A.

13. MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins. (AUDIO) The final book in the Hunger Games trilogy finds Katniss Everdeen working with the rebel forces as the Mockingjay, symbol of rebellion against the Capitol forces. She finds herself being scripted, made up and costumed for video spots much like she was during her time as a Hunger Games participant, and continues to struggle with her sanity as nightmares make sleep nearly impossible. Foremost in her list of goals is to rescue Peta from President Snow in the Capitol, where he has been for weeks being tortured. She knows that no one will be safe until Snow is dead, and she makes it her personal goal to be the one to do the deed. This book was rather slow in the middle section with much repetitive action, and I felt the ending was rather predictable. I can't say too much without giving a lot away, but I will say that ultimately I was pleased with the ending to the book and I think when I've had more time to digest the whole thing I'll like it even more. It gives much food for thought all throughout the series. At any rate, it was a fit ending to a great series. A.

14. THE HANGED MAN by David Skibbins. In this fifth (and so far, last) Warren Ritter mystery, Warren gets involved with helping a friend of his girlfriend Sally. The friend has been accused of murdering one of her clients--she's a dominatrix. So Warren takes up training so that he can get into the BDSM scene and ferret out who might have wanted to frame Therese. Meanwhile, Warren is also trying to protect a set of ancient tarot cards willed to him by his mentor, and there are several people who want to get their hands on them who are after Warren. Warren's bipolar disorder seems relatively in control at this point, and he continues on his journey of self-discovery. I do like this series, but I've tended to notice with these last couple of books that the dialogue and conversations are somewhat stilted and don't sound very natural. Aside from that, I love Warren and his quirky "family" and am hoping for more entries in this series at some point. B+

15. RED HOOD'S REVENGE by Jim C. Hines. Third book in the Princess fantasy series--which I had thought was going to be a trilogy but now I see another coming out next year. Featuring several fairy tale legends as the main cast of the book--Sleeping Beauty (Talia), Snow White (er...Snow) and Cinderella (Danielle), the women on this trip encounter Roudette (aka Little Red Riding Hood) who has spent her life seeking revenge against The Wild Hunt that killed her family. The fairy tales don't get it quite right...the woodsman was the bad guy, and Roudette has 'bonded' with the Big Bad Wolf in such a way that she's a bit other-than-human. Roudette is working now as a paid assassin, and the Princesses must first of all figure out just who has hired her wolfiness, and which of them she's specifically targeted. Eventually they realize it's Talia, and they are off to Talia's homeland of Arathea, where she's sought for killing the son of the current queen who also happens to be the father of her twin boys, who are now under the care of said queen. Can Snow overcome fairy magic in order for Talia to get at the evil fairy who hired Roudette? Not by herself, of course--as always, it's a team effort, with Roudette even helping along the way. I am still surprised by how much I enjoy this series, not being one for girly-girl stories. But these three are anything but your typical girly girls. Great story, easy-to-read writing style and enjoyable fusion of fairy tale, myth and fantasy. Very much looking forward to the next one! A.

Cheryl

November 2010

2010-11-13T09:21:00.000-06:00

1. TO SHIELD THE QUEEN by Fiona Buckley. #1 Ursula Blanchard Elizabethan historical mystery. Ursula, recently widowed and left nearly penniless, is given a place at Queen Elizabeth's court and ends up involved in political plots and intrigue when she is sent to attend to Lady Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert Dudley--widely known as a favorite of the Queen. Lady Amy is dying of breast cancer--essentially untreatable in that time--and Dudley wants someone there to witness the fact that he does not wish her ill nor is he plotting to kill her so he can be free to wed the Queen. While Ursula is there, Amy Dudley does die in suspicious circumstances, having fallen down the stairs and broken her neck while the entire household was at the village fair--at Amy's insistence. Then Ursula's servant John Wilton is murdered, and she seeks to follow a lead given her by John with his last breath, and THAT leads her to a possible plot against the Queen herself. This was a pretty good read, although I am not overly fond of the Elizabethan period having O.D.'d on it a few years back. I read one of the later books in this series a few years ago, and liked it enough to get this first one, intending to read through the series, but it ended up sitting on my shelf for over five years. I am not going to actively seek to continue the series for now, but at some point I probably will do so. B.

2. THE NOBLE OUTLAW by Bernard Knight (AUDIO) #11 Crowner John historical mystery set in Devon, UK in the 1195. A desiccated corpse is found in an old forge being renovated into a school, and due to the length of time he's been dead, the only thing clear is that the man was murdered--a nail protrudes from his neck. Eventually the Coroner and his assistants track down his identity, but shortly thereafter, two other--fresher--bodies killed and displayed in gruesome ways, are found. The men were all prominent tradesmen, leaders of their respective guilds. And then John's wife Matilda is brutally attacked on her way home from Christmas Mass, the attacker whispering to her that the killings were revenge killings against her brother, former Sheriff Richard de Revelle, and that he'll be getting his soon enough. The finger points most strongly to a man who was declared outlaw at the behest of Richard, who then seized his lands and property, but Crowner wonders if someone is deliberately pointing him in that direction--and then he learns that the outlaw "Nick of the Moor" has a wife who's been staying with family in Exeter and that she is Matilda's new friend from church. Once the Crowner gets to meet the outlaw and hear his story, he is determined to bring his case before the King, or at least the Lord Justiciar. This is the first of this series that I've listened to in audio format, and have quite enjoyed it. The reader is very good, skillfully telling the story and doing an excellent job with a myriad of different voices and accents. The series itself I always find enjoyable, and the author manages to impart a lot of historical detail and information such that I'm learning things without realizing it as the story goes on. Will listen to more of these if the library has them available for sure! A.

3. SMALL GODS by Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett tackles organized religion on the Discworld. Need I say more? Hilarious, but also very poignant, too. A.

4. WHITE CORRIDOR by Christopher Fowler. #5 in the Bryant & May "Peculiar Crimes Unit" mystery series set in London. In this episode, acting director Raymond Land closes the unit for a week while the computers and electronics are updated, so Bryant convinces May to accompany him to a spiritualist convention out in the rural west country. The two elderly detectives set off and run into a horrendous snowstorm that leaves them stuck in a ditch and stranded along with dozens of other travelers--one of whom is a murderer, as they discover when they find the body of a truck driver with his throat slashed. Meanwhile, back in London, the unit's pathologist Oswald Finch dies while beginning an autopsy on a young girl, a drug addict who is more than what she seems. His death comes just days before his impending retirement, and the remaining staff must figure out if it was murder (only they have keys and the door was locked!), suicide or a bizarre accident. Communicating with their senior colleagues by mobile phone, DS Janice Longbright must finally begin to put all the teachings of her mentors to work to solve the crime--before a royal visit scheduled last minute by their nemesis, Oscar Kasavian, could derail the unit once and for all. Enjoyable read as always with crazy characters, well-plotted mysteries, red herrings galore, and plenty of laughs. Though I was sad at the death of crotchety old Finch, his demise was an interesting puzzle for the Unit to solve. A

5. THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU by Michael Stanley. #2 in the Detective David "Kubu" Bengu series set in Botswana. This book has Kubu venturing far from home in Gaborone to the north of Botswana to a tourist camp in the jungle where two brutal murders beg to be solved. One of the men killed turns out to be a South African policeman. The other, Goodluck Tinubu, appears to be not what he seems--which was a quiet, well-loved teacher from a school in Mochudi. According to his fingerprints, he had already died once in the Rhodesian war thirty years previously. Since his body was mutilated after death in a way that indicates it was a gang killing related to the political upheavals in Zimbabwe, and since another man staying at the camp left sooner than planned and has now disappeared, it is assumed that he is the killer they're looking for. But as Kubu and Tatwa, the local detective in charge, begin investigating, they discover that some of the camp's other guests are not exactly who they seem to be either, and some have dark secrets of their own. A twisty tale of political unrest, smuggling, and old festering wounds, this book reads much more quickly than its 480 pages would have you think. Great characters, a lot of information--not all of it pleasant, with the history of these African countries--and immersion into the culture without being 'teachy or preachy.' Good mystery too, although I had a gut feeling about the killer. Hope there will be more in the series! A.

6. PLAYING WITH FIRE (audio) by Peter Robinson. #14 Chief Inspector Alan Banks series set in Yorkshire. Two derelict boats on the canal burn, with two dead--one body on each boat. It's determined that accelerant was used and thus it becomes a murder AND arson investigation. Both boats were occupied by essentially squatters--one, a down-on-his-luck artist and the other a young drug user and her boyfriend, who was away from the boat that evening. Suspects are many in the early days as Banks and his team, including DI Annie Cabot, sift through the myriad of evidence, interview principals and the like. When another suspicious fire in an abandoned caravan kills another man--someone the artist on the boat knew--they begin to suspect a serial arsonist/murderer. Personally, I thought the bad guy was very obvious, although Robinson does throw out plenty of appealing red herrings. But even so, this was one of the best of this series in my opinion, and I enjoyed the story, the history, and the whole package very much. Skillfully read as usual by Ron Keith. Looking forward to the next and hoping my library has it available in one audio format or another! A.

7. UNWILLING ACCOMPLICE by Barbara Seranella. #7 Munch Mancini mystery set in 1980's Los Angeles, and featuring our favorite female mechanic and ex-junkie. Things are going along well for Munch and her adopted daughter Asia when a blast from the past--Asia's aunt Lisa and her two girls--call and ask to get together. Munch, clean and sober for many years now, is always reluctant to let her past leak into her new, stable life, but Lisa is Asia's blood kin and Asia wants to meet her cousins, so she agrees. When the elder daughter Charlotte goes missing a couple of days later, a distraught Lisa calls Munch as the police don't seem very interested in a Goth-looking fifteen-year-old whom they think ran away. Charlotte was friends with a boy who was killed a few days previously as part of a robbery, and Munch wonders if this had something to do with her disappearance--Lisa is convinced she was abducted, and some threatening phone calls later bear this out. Meanwhile, Munch learns some interesting information about Rico, her former boyfriend who had broken their relationship off when his ex-girlfriend turned up pregnant, as he planned to 'do the right thing' and marry her. I always enjoy a visit with Munch and Asia and Munch's unique perspective on life and this book was no exception. Only one left in the series. :( A.

8. DEXTER BY DESIGN by Jeff Lindsay. (Audio) #4 Dexter series book. Dexter Morgan--the blood spatter forensics expert who works with the Miami police department and also happens to be a cold-blooded killer--is on his honeymoon with Rita in Paris. Of course he's bored silly while Rita is in seventh heaven--until they come upon a strange art exhibit featuring self-amputation as art. 'Jennifer's Leg' depicts Jennifer slowly removing parts of her leg and she appears at the end of the display in the flesh--on crutches, of course. Dexter is enthralled! Upon arriving back in Miami, it doesn't take long for the honeymoon to be literally over as someone is displaying their own 'body art'--corpses with their insides removed, posed and stuffed with various items advertising 'The New Miami.' Dex's sister Sgt. Deborah is in charge of the case and looking to her brother--whom she now knows about--to help with clues. But before they get very far, Deborah is stabbed nearly fatally by one of the suspects and Dexter is on his own--under the too-watchful eye of her partner, Lt. Coulter and the ever present Sgt Doakes. This is the first of the series that I have listened to in audio format and I really enjoyed it--the reader did a great job capturing Dexter's "spirit." Despite the dark subject matter, there were several laugh out loud moments and it was interesting seeing how Dexter would get out of yet another scrape. One of the funnier parts was Dexter's step-kids telling him he was in trouble with Rita, because he was going to be in the "poop van." In actuality, she was fixing a special French dinner, and her atrocious pronunciation had the kids thinking she had said "caca-van" instead of "coq au vin." LOL A.

9. OUT OF CIRCULATION by Jo Dereske. #5 Helma Zukas, librarian, mystery set in fictional Bellehaven, WA. Helma and her good friend Ruth set off on a 3-day camping trip/hike up in the mountains near the Canadian border when they are trapped by a snowstorm in an emergency cabin with several other hikers. Helma is as prepared as she can be with plenty of dried foods and a backpack full of useful things--unlike Ruth, who insisted on hiking in a skirt, of all things. Of course there are dead bodies, guns, suspicious behavior and at least one murderer--but who? And how will Helma keep the killer from suspecting that she may have figured out the mystery long enough for the storm to abate and the group to be rescued? I enjoy this series a lot. Helma is an odd duck for sure--she "seems" a lot older than she is, rather prim and proper and yet she definitely has sense of humor too. It's not often I find a cozy-ish series that I enjoy these days, but this is definitely one of them. A.

10. BLOOD LAKE by K.j.a. Wishnia. This is the sixth (and last) Filomena Buscarsela mystery--at least, there has not been a new one since 2002, which I think is really a shame as this is a great series, with an interesting setting and a unique protagonist. Fil is back in her native Ecuador, taking her daughter Antonia to meet her extended family--although she must be careful as her "real" self is a former dissident, wanted by the police. Back once again to the heat and humidity, the poverty with basic essentials we take for granted in short supply, she still feels the love of her family and friends surround her and wants Antonia to know 'this' part of her homeland. Of course she becomes embroiled in the local and national political scene, and her detective's instincts lead her down some dark paths to confront ghosts from her past that may not spell good things for her future. Although I really like this series, and I love Fil to bits, I found the actual mystery in this one rather predictable--I knew who would be dead before they died, and had a good idea whodunit, too. It was perhaps a bit too long with a few too many side trips, and even a bit too much of the socio-economic inequity angst laid on, but I still enjoyed it much, and was sorry that Filomena's declaration at the end, "The mess I get into when we get back there is a whole other story." is a story that will apparently never be told. :( B+

11. SAVAGE RUN by C.J. Box. #2 Joe Pickett mystery. Joe, a game warden in the Bighorn mountains in Wyoming, is on scene when an exploding cow kills famed eco-terrorist Stewie Woods. It's assumed by the Sheriff that Woods was rigging the explosive himself in one of his infamous protests against ranchers, and died in a case of instant karma, but why is the owner of the ranch, a powerful man with friends in high places, not surprised or even curious about the incident? Joe aims to nail him for poaching a trophy bull elk out of season, but ends up getting sucked back into investigating Stewie Woods' death (and NOT at the invitation of the Sheriff!) when several other noted eco-terrorists end up dead in other freakish accidents. Things get even more complicated when someone proclaiming that he's Stewie Woods keeps calling Joe's house and talking to his wife Marybeth--and he learns that Marybeth and Stewie were high school sweethearts. Enjoyable enough read, but there is just something missing. Not sure what it is--I am not fully engaged with the main character I don't think, there didn't seem to be much in the way of character development since book one, and there also seemed to be a whole string of really improbable things happening and weird coincidences such that it was just outside the realm of being believable. I like the author's writing style and the sense of place is awesome too. I just hope Joe becomes more "real" to me as the series goes on. Hopefully this was just the old 'sophomore slump.' B.

12. HANGMAN BLIND by Cassandra Clark. #1 Abbess of Meaux historical mystery set in early 1380's York. Sister Hildegard, a Cistercian nun and a widow with an inheritance to spend, hopes to procure property from a local lord, Roger de Hutton. She grew up in the area and knew Roger and his family before taking the veil, and being out of the cloister for the first time in seven years and back on familiar ground leaves her with mixed emotions. Things are tense, with many disputes between the serfs, mostly Saxons, and their Norman manor lords, and hints of a new uprising being planned. When there is an attempted murder against Roger during a feast celebrating the birth of his heir, his new nephew, and other deaths follow, Hildegard and Ulf, an old friend of hers and Roger's steward, must seek to solve the crimes to prevent a full-blown riot. Definitely not your typical cozy historical, this book is steeped in realistic detail of life in those trying medieval times, not sparing the reader's sensibilities as the poverty, disparity between rich and poor, and the often violent death awaiting many people is met head on. Plenty of mud, blood and guts and yet it's also got some very interesting characters along with a heroine that I already feel attached to. Glad I have the next one in series waiting. A.

13. A VIGIL OF SPIES by Candace Robb. #10 Owen Archer medieval mystery set in 1370's York--just a few years previous to the above book, in fact! Owen is attending to his employer, Archbishop John Thoresby as he nears his death. The Princess of Wales in bringing her entourage to visit the Archbishop, much to Owen's chagrin, as it's his job as Captain of the Archbishop's guards to keep them all safe. When a young servant of a messenger accompanying Her Grace's party from William Wykeham--ever a thorn in Owen's side--dies on the way, a brief investigation leads Owen to believe it was murder, possibly aimed at the messenger. When inspection of the documents he was carrying prove to be blank parchments, obviously substituted at some point, Owen and the few people he trusts--including, grudgingly, Geoffrey Chaucer--must not only find who took them, but what they contained, and do so discreetly. It more than likely relates to who will be chosen as Thoresby's successor when he dies. More deaths follow and Owen is pitched into despair when he discovers that one of his most trusted men has betrayed him and he begins to question everything. I love this series and really hope the author continues on with it--she says in the afterward that she's got more adventures planned, but it's been almost 3 years now since this was published. Owen and his wife Lucie and their growing family are among my favorites, and I liked this book much better than the last one. Not sure why, but I found this very enjoyable and an interesting take on the author's view of things. It's not always easy to deal with a lot of characters who were real people but she does so very plausibly I think. A+

14. CITY OF VEILS by Zoe Ferraris. #2 Nayir Sharqui and Katya Hijazi mystery set in modern day Saudi Arabia. Nayir and Katya have both spent several miserable months not speaking to one another and are thrown together again when Nayir's uncle asks him to find something out from the coroner's office (where Katya works) about a friend who died. Katya ends up assisting a police detective with the death of a young woman who was beaten to death and apparently tortured beforehand. Because of the Muslim religious laws, they must have a woman policeman question the women, and the detective's only available female officer was recently fired for lying about being married. (Unmarried women are not allowed to be policewomen.) The secondary case, part of the story told from the point of view of Miriam Walker, an American woman whose husband works for a Saudi company there, who is thrown into a state of turmoil when her husband disappears. Katya's case intersects with Miriam's dilemma and a whole tangled web ensues. Despite this sounding complicated, it was a very enjoyable book, read skillfully and with an interesting mystery. The only detrimental thing is that it was told from the POV of several different people, and while I understand why the author did it--to help the reader gain perspective of the strict laws and the whole Muslim way of life there through the eyes of many different sub-groups--it was, at times, distracting and didn't really allow for more full development of any one character. That was the only thing that kept me from giving this an A-plus. I do hope there will be more in this series! A.

15. BLOODSHOT by Stuart MacBride. #3 Logan MacRae mystery set in Aberdeen, Scotland. Det. Sgt. Logan MacRae is once again subject to frequently-discussed lousy Aberdeen weather as he is pulled from one investigation to another, caught in a tug-of-war between warring DI's Steel and Insch as he sleeps little, manages to get himself in trouble several times, but eventually solves the crimes. Three equally odd cases--an eight-year-old murderer keeps eluding Logan and his counterparts, a prominent footballer is suspected of rape but keeps slipping away due to lack of forensic evidence, and a man dropped off by an unknown person near dead at the hospital eventually dies and it appears to be the result of some bizarre BDSM practices. I really like Logan and this series but I do find that these books are somewhat repetitive on many levels--the constant reference to the bad weather, the frequent negative descriptions of his superior officers, and reviewing over and over Logan's lack of sleep, state of being hung over, etc etc gets rather old after awhile. Seems like there's a lot of stuff that is "filler" material that doesn't really advance the story. Still--I liked this book and enjoy the series and will continue to read on. A-

CURRENT READS: ROSEMARY AND RUE by Seanan McGuire and THE OLD WINE SHADES by Martha Grimes.

I'm working on finishing off a few 'dead' mystery series these last couple months of the year and early next year, so I don't feel so guilty starting some new stuff. Got WAY too many series going...this is a chronic condition of mine though. LOL

Cheryl

October 2010

2010-10-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

1. THE STAR by David Skibbins #3 Warren Ritter "Tarot Card" mystery. Warren, formerly known as Weather Underground radical Richard Green, is determined to settle into his new life and not run away again. (Richard Green "died" in an explosion twenty odd years earlier, and Warren Ritter is one of several incarnations he has used since then.) Doing well on his meds for his bi-polar disease and with his computer hacker girlfriend Sally, he is still working on his relationship with his newfound daughter Fran. So when Fran shows up on his doorstep early one morning needing his help--she shares his bipolar gene--he steps in to do what he can. When her husband first disappears with their baby Justin, and later ends up murdered with Fran the primary suspect, he sets aside his job as a street tarot reader for a few days and investigates. He finds another blast from his past, a fellow radical who used to be a member of the Black Panthers. What connection could he possibly have to Orrin's death? And what about Fran and Orrin's minister, whom Warren discovers has a secret past? I really enjoy this series a lot--it's a shame there's only one more waiting. (Hopefully the series will continue, but the last one was published in 2008, so we shall see. The author writes very knowledgably about mental health issues and the treatment/medical system, his characters are engaging, and the mysteries interesting. This one I had sort of figured out, though not the logistics of it til the end. Anyway, another enjoyable entry in the series! A.

2. THE SHOTGUN RULE by Charlie Huston. Stand-alone noir about four teenaged boys--brothers George and Andy, and their friends Paul and Hector--each with their own family and personal demons that they try to obliterate with the usual weapons of alcohol, drugs and a concerted effort at appearing not to give a shit about anything. Minor criminals--thieving, smoking weed and drinking, getting by with doing as little schooling as possible, they go up against the Arroyo brothers, big brutes who are more hardened criminals, when their younger brother steals Andy's bike. The foursome sets up the Arroyos so that two of them get arrested, one of them shot in the leg during the arrest--and then the boys waltz in to their place and steal a bunch of their stuff--including weed, some jewelry, and unknown to the others, Paul also lifts a huge bag of crystal meth. They bring the jewelry to an older friend of theirs to fence, and make enquiries about unloading it, (Paul discreetly asking about the meth also) none of them realizing that person he's brought the stuff to was exactly the *wrong* person, which leads down a very slippery slope and into a series of events that will affect them all for the rest of their lives. Brutal and violent as per Huston's usual style, this is an excellent read if you don't mind those things. Gritty, depressing, with realistic dialogue, the story illustrates perfectly how one decision can impact everything else not only in your own life but the lives of many others. Oddly enough, despite the violent nature of the book, the title actually has nothing to do with guns as I assumed it had--it's referring to the rule involved when getting into a car and calling "shotgun!" (Who gets to ride in the front passenger seat.) LOL A

3. DOCTORED EVIDENCE by Donna Leon. While Commissario Guido Brunetti is away on vacation, an elderly woman is brutally murdered in her apartment, struck down several times with a statuette. It was presumed that her foreign maid killed her and stole some money, as she fled the police and was subsequently killed herself when they chased her and she tripped on a train track in front of an oncoming train. When Guido returns, one of the murdered woman's neighbors returns from her own time abroad and reads the stories about the dead woman and comes to the police station with information that more than likely exonerates the woman's maid, who was in the country on an illegal passport and most likely fled because of that. But if the maid didn't kill the woman, who did? There are plenty of suspects as she was a nasty woman, and a wealthy one too. Guido must investigate clandestinely as Lieutenant Scarpa, his nemesis, was in charge of the case and he doesn't believe the neighbor woman or that her evidence has any signficance. But Guido does, so he goes behind Scarpa's back to find the real killer with the help of the station's very capable secretary, Signorina Elettra. Wonderful, twisting plot, great characters, with the city of Venice itself being one of them. Plenty of drool-worthy cooking mentioned, too. Excellent as always. A.

4. A WITCH'S HALLOWEEN by Gerina Dunwich. A collection of stories, folklore, history tidbits, recipes and rituals associated with Halloween, or Samhain as Wiccans and some Pagans know it by. I started this book in September, hoping for once to finish a book about a particular Sabbat in a timely manner so as to glean some information to use for my own celebration--this time I actually did it! Unfortunately the information in this book is pretty basic and there was very little I hadn't heard or read before so I didn't really get much I could use. It would be an excellent resource for non-Pagans or people who are curious about Wicca or Paganism, though. Some of the food/beverage recipes sounded interesting, from Mandrake Wine to "Bread of the Dead." LOL B+

5. LET THE DEAD LIE by Malla Nunn (AUDIO) #2 Emmanuel Cooper mystery set in 1950's South Africa. Cooper, forced to resign from the police force due to the machinations of enemies in the Security Branch resulting from events in the first book, is now working the docks in Durban as a laborer--he's also had his race classification changed to 'mixed-race' which limits his opportunities. While he is doing his regular job he is also working a side job undercover trying to ferret out police corruption for his old boss, Major van Niekirk, who has transferred to Durban. It all goes pear-shaped when he comes across the body of a white slum kid, Jolly Marks, and his old detective's instincts kick in. He is eventually picked up and questioned in the crime, and when his landlady and her maid are also murdered, he is caught literally 'red-handed' and jailed. The Major pulls some strings to get him out of jail, but he has only 48 hours to clear his name by finding the real killer of Jolly and the two women, which leads him on a crazy chase across the seedier side of Durban and surrounding area, even involving a couple of characters from the first book. Once again, the writing style, the immersion into the culture and the times is extremely well done. Deftly plotted, well-written, and with wonderful characters, this series--and I do hope the author intends to write more!--is destined to become a favorite. It's not easy to stare apartheid in the face, but the author does a great job of making it an actual character in the story. The reader for this audio version (Saul Reichlin) did a fantastic job once again with all the different accents and set the tone for the book very well. Excellent! A+

6. MISS ZUKAS AND THE RAVEN'S DANCE by Jo Dereske. #4 Helma Zukas, library mystery set in fictional Bellhaven, WA. Helma takes over cataloguing duties at a Native American cultural center after the previous librarian (although he really wasn't accredited) is murdered--brutally, with a paper spindle shoved through his heart in the Ladies' room, clutching a Barbie doll of all things. Helma naturally feels inclined to investigate Stanley Plummer's death, especially after she has a few scary moments herself. I don't quite know why I like this series so much, but I really do. Helma is not an old woman, but she rather acts like one, sort of staid and stoic and very precise and set in her ways. Yet there is some wry humor that sometimes catches you by surprise and adds a whole different dimension to the story. The characters are well-fleshed and the stories interesting, too. I enjoyed it! A.

7. DEATH ON THE NILE by Agatha Christie (AUDIO) Classic mystery featuring the fussy Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, read by David Suchet who portrays the detective on the TV version. A wealthy young woman in Egypt on her honeymoon is killed in cold blood with a gunshot through the head while she slept. The obvious choice for murderess--her new husband's former fiancee--has an airtight alibi, so it's up to Poirot and his friend Colonel Race to figure out the whys, wherefores, and how it was done. Skillfully plotted as usual, but with rather stereotypical characters--except for the excellent Poirot himself, this was wonderfully read by Suchet with his variety of accents and of course the perfect Poirot. Always enjoyable, and though I had read this years ago, I didn't remember whodunit or how it was done til the reveal. A.

8. FAKING IT by Marianne MacDonald. Last (at least so far) in the Dido Hoare mystery series, Dido being an antiquarian bookseller in London. With her father Barnabas, a retired Oxford professor, her four-year-old son Ben and Ernie, her shop assistant, Dido buys and sells old books. When one of the many book scouts she's dealt with in the past pays her a visit after an absence of a couple of years, he's showing her some run-of-the-mill books when he gets a phone call that upsets him and he then shows her an old looking manuscript that he would like cash for immediately. Dido has him accompany her to the bank--she's very interested in the medieval-looking book--and a few hours later, Gabriel the bookseller is dead, no sign of the cash she paid him. At first glance it looks like a bike accident, but police investigators later determine he was killed elsewhere with the bike 'accident' being staged. Then a strange-looking man starts appearing around the shop and Dido's getting hang-up calls. Barnabas is also very interested in the book and they take photos of it and put it in safekeeping while he researches it to figure out what the value might be so they can sell it for (hopefully) a tidy profit. The strange man is Gabriel's friend from Amsterdam, an American artist, whose shop has just been torched. The police are interested in Ishmael Peters, but Dido just wishes he'd go away. Later she finds out that there are worse people than Peters after that manuscript, and Barnabas learns some disappointing information about it. I like this series and Dido although I have to admit she does some pretty stupid things, which is fairly par for the course for a female amateur sleuth, I guess...wouldn't be much of a story if they did the sensible thing, would there? And while I enjoy the books for the most part, something just rings somewhat false about them, especially these latest few. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it stems partly from the fact that the book veers sharply from providing too much detail in some parts to skimming and leaving out too much in other parts. Much of Dido's day-to-day life doesn't seem to be too consistent with what the mother of a four-year-old boy would be doing, maybe. Not sure. At any rate, this is the last in the series at least for now, but it feels as though it was 'left hanging' so I do hope the author is able to write at least one more to close the book on Dido and family properly. I actually wish she would continue the series but make it about Barnabas, whom I find much more interesting. B.

9. MURDER IN THE MARAIS by Cara Black. #1 Aimee LeDuc mystery set in Paris, France. Aimee is a private investigator who took over her father's business after his death, her specialty being computer espionage. So when she is approached by an old friend of her father's to retrieve an old photograph and deliver it to a woman in the Jewish quarter of Paris, Aimee balks at first. The pay is good for what seems to be a simple job--until she finds the woman she's to make the delivery to dead in her home with a swastika emblazoned on her forehead. Soli Hecht, the old friend, then delivers a large sum of money to Aimee to find her killer--and as she and her business partner Rene are behind on paying the bills, she dives headfirst into this case that has its roots back in the days during the war when many French Jews were carted off to the concentration camps. Why would Lili Stein be killed all these years later? What did she know and whom did it threaten? Aimee must find these answers before her own life becomes expendable to someone who has some very dark secrets to protect. I really got sucked into this story almost from the first paragraph, despite the fact that I really am not a fan of much of anything French. I liked Aimee right away--she's plucky and independent, yet not invulnerable nor infallible either. There's an interesting cast of secondary characters and the story itself was also quite intriguing, even though I figured out the bad guy well before the end. Definitely will be continuing on with this series. A.

10. BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED by Joe Abercrombie. #2 First Law fantasy trilogy. This second book furthers the stories of the motley mix of characters introduced in book one, some of whom think others among them are dead. Scattered to the corners of the globe, traveling in groups on very different missions, our friends experience the travails of war--both open war and impending war. Bayaz (the First of the Magi) travels with Loren Ninefingers, Jezal dan Luthar and others in search of an ancient magical relic on the other side of the world. Threetrees, Black Dow, Dogman and their crew join Colonel West, who is trying to protect Crown Prince Ladisla and his entourage, who are off to war and totally ill-equipped for it, having led lives at court as spoiled royalty and never been in battle. Sand dan Glokta and his Practicals are off to Durgosta where he is to become Superior Inquisitor of the city and investigate what happened to his predecessor, who seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. A very interesting, widely differing group of characters in a stark, unforgiving, war-torn world. Not your usual unicorns and faeries type fantasy, I would call this series more of a dark fantasy, and definitely not for the prim, proper or faint of heart. I really enjoy this series and look forward to the third one, which should tie all these threads together nicely. There was a little bit of the 'middle book' curse to it, in that the book couldn't really end and have a story that was self-inclusive, but it did do a wonderful job of progressing the various storylines along. A.

11. AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE by Jacqueline Winspear #5 Maisie Dobbs historical mystery set in 1931 England. Once again, two cases intersect when Maisie is consulted by James Compton, her benefactor's son, to investigate some incidences occurring in a village where the company is thinking of buying a brickworks. They want to make sure that the area is stable and that there won't be problems if and when they purchase and take over the company. Meanwhile, Maisie's assistant Billy Beale is on his holiday and off to that same area of Kent with his family to pick hops as they do every year. When the young sons of a friend of Billy's working on the farm are accused of theft from the local Lord--who just happens to be the same fellow Compton's are possibly buying the brickworks from--Maisie agrees to investigate that case at the same time as long as she'll be in the neighborhood. Maisie also gets to find out more about a part of her heritage that she has not explored much--her maternal grandmother was a gypsy and they figure prominently in this mystery. I really enjoy this series, more with each book. The mysteries aren't terribly complicated or difficult, but the settings, characters, atmosphere conveyed and the teaching/learning that occurs each book is also wonderful. In this book I learned a bit more about gypsies and also about hop picking in that era. Looking forward to the next! A.

12. BAD FAITH by Aimee and David Thurlo. #1 Sister Agatha mystery set in a cloistered monastery in New Mexico. When the monastery's chaplain collapses and dies during a Mass at the monastery and it's later determined by the coroner to be poison, the sisters are the obvious first choices for suspects. Sister Agatha is one of only two externs--nuns who deal with the outside world--and she is absolutely certain that it wasn't anyone within the cloister who would harm the priest they all revered. When the local sheriff--an old flame of Sister Agatha's from school days--seems determined to disrupt the cloister's life and routine, she is just as determined to investigate and find the real culprit so they can get back to normal. I did figure the mystery out well in advance, but wasn't sure of the whys and wherefores, just knew 'who' had done it. I wasn't sure I'd like this book--in fact I started reading it because I was looking to do a bit of a culling from my TBR. But even though it's in a religious setting and there are parts where I tended to roll my eyes, mostly I was just able to see Sister Agatha as a human being. I think she had me hooked in the first chapter when she revealed her name for the old, rickety, frequently-broken-down car the monastery owned--the Antichrysler. LOL! Anyway, it was an overall enjoyable book and I likely will read at least a couple more in the series to see if my enjoyment continues. B+

13. MURDER ON BANK STREET by Victoria Thompson. #10 Gaslight mystery featuring widowed midwife Sarah Brandt in early 1900's New York. Sarah's friend Det. Sgt. Frank Malloy continues the investigation into Sarah's husband's murder several years previously, chasing down leads obtained in the last book. He believes the killer was the father of one of four women that Dr. Brandt had been working with before his death, trying to cure an odd disease called Old Maid's Disease--an obsessive mental disorder that causes women to imagine great love affairs where none exist. Frank learns some disturbing information that he's not sure if he wants Sarah to know about, given that it paints Dr. Brandt in a less than glowing light. Maeve, the young woman that Sarah has taken into her home to be nursemaid to her adopted daughter Catherine, is determined to help Malloy solve the crime and actually tries to get herself hired as a servant into one of the homes Malloy is investigating. Of course Sarah really cannot chastise her, since she's gotten involved in many of Malloy's investigations in the past. It was good to finally have the murder of Dr. Brandt solved and will be interesting to see how the series proceeds. It's obvious that Sarah and Malloy should end up together, but despite that romance side to the series, I find it's not as pervasive as in some series and it doesn't really bother me much. A-.

14. CHANGES by Jim Butcher. (AUDIO) #12 Harry Dresden Paranormal series, and a very apt title. Harry's life is definitely *full* of changes in this book. The first is that he receives a call from his former girlfriend Susan informing him that their daughter (whom Harry didn't know existed!) has been kidnapped by Duchess Ariana of the Red Court Vampires for some nefarious purpose. Susan is a half-vampire/half-human who went out of Harry's life years previously when she was bitten and took up with a group of like-minded people fighting the Red Court. Harry and Susan put together a team to get Maggie back from Ariana and are thrown into a maelstrom of trouble coming from many fronts. Within a short period of time, Harry's office is blown up, his home burned down, and he makes some alliances and some discoveries about his ancestry that leave him reeling. Excellent entry in this most excellent of paranormal series, perfectly read by James Marsters who captures the very essence of Harry and his friends and life. Left with a terrible cliffhanger, I'm very anxious to get to the next in the series when it becomes available. A+

15. THE TATTOO MURDER CASE by Akimitsu Takagi. Mystery written in the late 1940's and set in 1947 Tokyo. The main character, Kenzo, a doctor who is furthering his studies, attends a tattoo showing with both men and women displaying their artistic full-body (and totally illegal at the time!) tattoos. He meets and becomes enthralled with the young woman who wins the contest. He has one steamy night with her, and when she summons him in a letter a couple of days later, saying she fears for her life, he goes to her home at the appointed time the next morning only to discover her dismembered body in her bathroom--which is locked from the inside. Amazingly, the entire torso, with the most intricate of the tattoos, is missing. Also, one of Kenzo's university professors--a man who is obsessed with collecting the skins of people with tattoos to save them for display--arrives at the same time. The solution couldn't be that simple, could it? Of course not. Kenzo's older brother happens to be the chief of detectives for the Tokyo police, so he is called in on the case and he and Kenzo end up working on it together--and Kenzo conveniently doesn't mention his relationship with the woman. Over the course of months, the brothers eliminate one suspect after another, and then the woman's common-law husband and her brother both end up murdered as well. It's not until Kenzo's brilliant friend is brought into their circle to work on the problem that the who, how and why becomes evident as the very complicated plot unfolds. This was a very different sort of mystery in many ways, with the Japanese culture at that time and the whole 'tattoo community' playing a major factor in the case. In other ways though it was a classic 'locked room' mystery, and I enjoyed it very much. This book sat on my shelf for over five years, and of course I do regret not reading it sooner. Will definitely seek out more work by this author! A.

DNF: A GHOST IN THE MACHINE by Caroline Graham
JOURNAL OF A PLAGUE YEAR by Daniel DeFoe (audio)

The problem with both of the DNFs is that they were mind-numbingly boring. I did give A Ghost in the Machine a full 100 pages, but it was overblown, overly-detailed, and I just didn't care about the characters or the story...and as it was 500 pages long, reading another 400 pages just wasn't an option.

CURRENTLY READING: TO SHIELD THE QUEEN by Fiona Buckley (#1 Ursula Blanchard historical mystery) and listening to A NOBLE OUTLAW by Bernard Knight, one of the Crowner John historical mysteries.

Cheryl

September 2010

2010-09-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

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

AUGUST 2010

2010-08-11T08:46:00.000-05:00

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

JULY 2010

2010-07-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

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

June 2010

2010-06-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

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

May 2010

2010-05-09T09:09:00.000-05:00

1. THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS by Terry Pratchett. First in the Discworld Children's book series. Pratchett's take on the Pied Piper story. Every city has rats, especially in Discworld. But the city of Bad Blintz is special--they are so overrun with rats that they employ not one but two rat catchers and even at that are nearly starving because the rats are eating all the food. Enter Maurice--a talking tabby cat--and his thinking, talking rats with interesting names like Dangerous Beans, Peaches, Darktan and Nourishing. (They took their names from labels on tins and bottles in the trash, primarily.) With them is Keith, a rather nondescript lad who plays the pipe. Maurice's scam is to sneak his educated rodents into town, have them show themselves at inopportune moments, widdle on some foodstuffs, and then have Keith pipe them out of town. Voila--instant reward! They figure Bad Blintz is ripe for the picking with an already bad infestation. Problem is, Dangerous Beans and the others can find NO rats when they check out the town's sewers and dark places. Not a one! Turns out the rat catchers have a scheme of their own going, which Maurice, the rats, Keith and the Mayor's strange daughter Malicia set out to thwart. I really enjoyed this first Discworld book written more for young readers. The regular lot of characters aren't really mentioned, and the story could've taken place in any town, Discworld or otherwise. I would say this isn't for very young children as there is some violence and death...but then I guess, there is in pretty much every fairy tale, isn't there? Pratchett's usual wacky sense of humor is in evidence, albeit with less footnotes. It may be Discworld Lite, but it's not to be missed! B+

2. MOONLIGHT DOWNS by Adrian Hyland. Set in the outback of Australia, this is the first in a series featuring Emily Tempest, the 26-year-old daughter of a whitefeller miner and an Aboriginal woman. Emily returns to the outback after several years meandering around, trying various university courses, and still not sure what to do with her life. Since her mother died young, she spent much of her time growing up in Moonlight Downs, the blackfeller settlement in the outback, but she doesn't feel totally a part of either the white or the black community. Returning now, she almost feels like she's home, but the feeling is shattered when the elderly head of the settlement who was like a second father to her, is brutally murdered just a couple of days later. Emily is crushed as the community scatters, most back to the town of Bluebush, a scrubby settlement full of rough-living folks with no redeeming qualities. But there Emily ends up too, working in a menial job and living in a tiny, squalid apartment, as she has basically nowhere else to go. Lincoln's daughter Hazel, Emily's best friend, has gone off to do her grieving the aboriginal way. Emily puzzles over who could have killed Lincoln--was it Blakie, the wild, crazed witchdoctor who lived in the bush? Earl Marsh, a cattle baron set on buying up neighboring property? Or someone else? Emily feels like the police aren't too interested in finding the truth so begins poking her nose in and gets herself into some sticky situations along the way. All I can say is....WOW! What an awesome book! The author did such a great job with Emily's character, the cultural immersion, and the outback itself as a main character in the story. The racial tensions and societal norms were treated matter-of-factly and neither glossed over nor played up--they just WERE. I learned so much, and had no idea at the time that I was being educated--the book was a total pleasure read! I have to admit that I did spot the bad guy as soon as he was introduced, at least was pretty sure it was him, but that in no way diminished my enjoyment of the book. I am so glad I've got the second in the series on the way to me, as I know it won't be long before I get to it. If this isn't among my top ten of the year, I'll eat my shorts. :D A++

3. WHEN THE DEVIL HOLDS THE CANDLE by Karin Fossum. #3 Inspector Conrad Sejer series set in Norway. This book seems to be more about the lives of several people involved in various crimes than with the police procedures or crime detection. Andreas, an 18 year old, is reported missing by his frantic mother. Determined to convince the police that he is a 'good boy,' which seems to hold true on the surface--he had a steady job, never gave his mother trouble, had no police record--she refers them to her friend Irma as a character reference for Andreas. Unknown to his mother, Irma has been a victim of Andreas and his friend Zipp. We see a different story told from the point of view of Zipp, an indolent unemployed youth who is Andreas' best friend. He and Andreas would drive or wander around the town committing petty theft and burglary, looking for easy marks to steal a handbag from and get some beer money. It's also told from the point of view of Irma, an aging woman who seems virtually alone in the world and is definitely mentally ill in some way. I enjoy these series of mysteries, but they're always a little odd, skittering here and there from varying points of view such that it's sometimes hard to get a coherent picture of things. I also don't feel like I have a good grasp on who Sejer is, because there isn't all that much time spent on his police work or his personal life--bits and pieces here and there is all. It's an interesting book, and I will continue to read on in the series, but I came away from this one feeling somehow let down and dissatisfied--like I knew I was supposed to be more horrified than I was, or something. Hard to put a finger on it, but not as enjoyable to me as her previous books were. B.

4. MERCY FALLS by William Kent Krueger. (AUDIO) #5 Cork O'Connor mystery set in northern Minnesota (and partially in Chicago in this book.) Cork, sheriff of Tamarack County, has two investigations to divide his time between. First, a sniper shoots one of his deputies--and the bullet was most likely meant for him. Although Marcia Dodds will recover, Cork feels a certain amount of guilt and wants to find out the reason for the attempted hit and who's responsible. But he also has to investigate the brutal death of Eddie Jacoby, a man from Chicago who is in town on business. It turns out that Eddie is the half-brother of Ben Jacoby, an old flame of Jo's (Cork's wife) from college, part of a rich and powerful family who even fly in a 'security expert' to help. The threats against Cork continue, so he sends Jo and the kids to her sister Rose's in Chicago. Through a long and twisty tale, Cork, his team, Dina Willner (the security expert) chase clues and false trails in an attempt to find the bad guy. It has been several years since I read the previous book in this series. I've tried hard to like it because the author is local and I used to live in the area the books take place in. The books have interesting stories and I do love the local flavor. Cork and his secondary characters are likable and interesting. And yet some niggling thing about these books always annoys the heck out of me. I still can't figure out what exactly bugs me, but it wasn't any different this time--even listening to the book in audio instead of reading in print didn't change things. Part of it is the relationship between Cork and Jo, his wife. Something is just "off" there. Also, the plots seem kind of contrived. In this book--as with previous books in the series--the bad guy was very obvious to me from the time they entered the picture. A whole slew of red herrings didn't change my mind about that and I kept wanting to slap Cork upside the head for missing big clues. The plot seemed really stretched with way too many coincidences popping up. And I absolutely HATE it when an author doesn't wrap up the story in the book at hand. Yes, there has to be some continuity from one book to the next, perhaps leaving questions about what happens to some aspect of the main character's personal life--but to totally omit a resolution to the crimes committed during the book, even if the 'answer' was known to a couple of people is just deplorable, IMO. Here's the deal: this cliffhanger, more than wanting me to go out and read the next book, makes me realize that I don't really care one way or another what happens. And whatever the mysterious "it" is that bugs me about this series, I'm going to listen to it and just stop right here. C-

5. THE SAMARITAN'S SECRET by Matt Beynon Rees. #3 Omar Yussef Sirhan mystery set in Palestine, this one in the city of Nablus where Omar and his family have come for his friend Sami's wedding. Before that happens though, Sami, a police officer, gets tangled up in an investigation regarding a murdered Samaritan--a small religious sect related to Judaism with a temple on Mt. Gerishim above the city. When Sami is warned off the investigation by one of the powerful political sects, Omar takes up the slack and investigates with his friend Khamis Zeydan, Bethlehem's police chief (also in town for the wedding) and discover that Khamis has a personal tie to the investigation. Was the young man's death related to the recent theft of an ancient, sacred scroll or was it motivated by something personal or political. In Palenstine, it seems that politics figure heavily in every investigation and the police are often in the pay of various political sects who then direct how the investigation should go. Omar Yussef is outraged by this and wants to get at the truth--which often (and in this case also) leads to him putting himself in harm's way. Eventually they do get to the heart of the matter, with an interesting plot twist that I should have seen coming (one of those head-slapping moments, because the clues were there!) but didn't. Another stellar entry in this series, the author puts you right in the heart of the city of Nablus and without letting on that he's doing so, gives you an interesting education into the city's history, the mingling of various religions and political parties, and the current state of affairs. I always walk away from these books feeling saddened at the way things are in the Middle East, how people must be torn in many directions in their daily lives, to live with things hanging over their heads that we in the Western world can only begin to imagine. I like Omar Yussef a lot--he's an engaging, believable character with a striped past and his own flaws but with an inherent integrity that nevertheless leaves him open to temptation at times. Very much looking forward to the next in this wonderful series. A.

6. A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH by Charles Finch. #1 Charles Lenox historical mystery set in 1865 London. Charles, a member of the nobility, has decided to spend his spare time being a private detective, although he accepts no money for his services. His good friend Lady Jane Grey has approached him to look into the death of a former lady's maid of hers, Prudence Smith, who was said to have committed suicide but was later found to have been murdered by a rare botanical poison. Charles has help from Lady Jane, his doctor friend Tom McConnell, his butler Graham and even his brother, Lord Edmund the baronet and eventually the mysteries--another body turns up later, one of Charles' prime suspects--do get solved. I wasn't sure I'd like this book as it's set in a time period that's one of my least favorite, and I've never been fond of books featuring a lot of the high nobility muckety-mucking about. But this one was quite pleasant, with lots of warm, blazing fires and pots of tea and toast--probably all the more pleasant because I read it primarily over a cool and rainy weekend. LOL The cast of characters were fairly lively and atypical for the nobility of the time, although some of the quirkiness was a bit cliched. I spotted a number of historical errors and anachronisms, but they didn't significantly interfere with the mystery, I didn't think. I did catch some of the clues as they came up but didn't realize their significance until the end when Charles pieced them altogether. A fairly light, quick read and while I wouldn't call it excellent it was a good, enjoyable book despite the historical inaccuracies. B

7. THE STOLEN BLUE by Judith Van Gieson. #1 Claire Reynier mystery. Claire is the collections librarian for a university in New Mexico, fairly recently divorced and loving her newfound freedom. She heads into the Blue, an isolated area a couple of hundred miles from Santa Fe to see an old mentor of hers who is in ill health and is donating his private collection to her university's library. While she is there to collect the books, Burke tells her he's made her the executor of his will, which he's just changed and has witnessed in front of her, talks about what he wants done--and the next morning he ends up dead. His newly discovered daughter Mariah says she followed his wishes and helped him commit suicide the way he wanted. No one thinks much of it, Claire included, because it sounds exactly as though it's how he would have wanted to go. But then his other children raise a stink because his isolated ranch is worth a lot of money. When a single carton of the rarest of Burke's donated books is stolen from Claire's truck before it can even be catalogued into the library, she seeks to find out who stole them and why--and then more questions are raised about Burke's death when the heirs are set to contest the will. Did he die of his own hand, or did someone else help him along in a way he did NOT want? This was an okay book, but I wasn't enthralled. While I thought some of Claire's antics were interesting, the author wrote about her almost dispassionately and I found it hard to feel much of anything about her, her situations, etc. It was just sort of blah. I did finish it, but I'm really not eager to get on with the series, at least not at this time. I just didn't much care one way or another who did what to whom. C.

8. THE HANGING HILL by Chris Grabenstein. #2 in the YA paranormal mystery series featuring Zack Jennings and his family. Eleven-year-old Zack and his stepmother Judy are off to Chatham, CT where Judy's book Curiosity Cat is being produced as a play by the rather famous director Reginald Grimes at the Hanging Hill Theatre. Theatres are notoriously full of ghosts as Zack and Judy, who can also see ghosts, find out quickly, much to their dismay. Some ghosts are benevolent, others seem neutral and still others downright evil. Zack is excited to learn that one of his favorite actresses, Meghan McKenna, will be playing the girl's role in the play and when they meet they get along famously--and Zack learns that Meghan can also see ghosts. Her co-star, Derek Stone, can't--and he's also got an annoying Hollywood mom and is allergic to Zack's beloved dog, Zipper. Strange things begin happening almost from the moment of their arrival and soon Zack and Meghan are off exploring and uncover a deadly plot headed by none other than the strange Grimes himself and which many of the theatre's ghosts are involved in, too. This was a wonderful book, plenty of scary moments and lots of great fun throughout, whether you're eleven years old or eleven plus forty! Highly recommended, and though it stands well on its own, I think it's best enjoyed if you read The Crossroads, the first book featuring Zack and Judy, first. A.

9. THREE MONKEYS by Marianne MacDonald. #7 in the Dido Hoare, antiquarian bookseller mystery series. When an old homeless man Dido has seen around discovers parts of a dismembered body in the trash near Dido's home and bookstore, she becomes involved in yet another strange mystery. The old man had a monkey which Dido eventually captures and which ends up staying with a friend of her father's. As per usual, there are many things Dido somehow "forgets" to report to the police (I'm beginning to call this 'amateur sleuth syndrome' so prevalent is it among these types of books! LOL) and keeps poking into things herself with the help of her sort-of boyfriend, Chris Kennedy, an investigative reporter. She's puzzled by a quite rare and valuable book the man once had shown Dido which isn't in his belongings when he's in hospital after being hit by a car. Of course before solving the crimes, Dido eventually ends up in danger herself, through a series of what I can only call bad choices. Maybe it was just my mood, but there seemed to be a lot of "filler" in this book with the making and drinking of endless cups of tea and coffee, picking Ben (Dido's four-year-old son) up from or taking him to nursery, etc. I like Dido and I LOVE Barnabas, but I would have liked more interesting tidbits about books and the bookselling business as filler instead of the other things. In the earlier books, I got a real sense of Dido's love for her shop and for what she does, but that's been missing for these past couple of books which takes a bit of the sparkle out of them. B-

10. TURN COAT by Jim Butcher. #11 in the Dresden Files paranormal mystery series in which wizard Harry Dresden is sought by Donald Morgan, one of the elite of the Wizard's White Council--and certainly no friend to Harry in the past--to protect him. He shows up on Harry's doorstep seriously wounded and bloodied with the story that the White Council is after him as he is believed to have killed another wizard, which he swears he didn't do, and he figures that seeking solace from Harry would be the last place the Council would expect him to go. Harry believes Morgan and sets out to solve the crime, as he also believes this ties in to his certainty that there is a "Black" Council with someone very high up on the inside feeding information to the Council's enemies. With fingers in multiple pies--protecting Morgan, gleaning information about the murder, and also trying to locate his brother Thomas who's been kidnapped by a skinwalker (whom Harry calls Shagnasty--ha ha ha!)--it's not easy for Wizard Dresden to get done what needs doing and as usual it means sacrificing sleep and pissing a few people off along the way. Another wild tale across Chicago, through the Never-Never, to Edinburgh (where the White Council's headquarters are currently located) and with unexpected alliances, strange creatures, and an impossibly entangled set of twisty circumstances that leaves you wondering what's going to happen right up til the end. Very skillfully narrated by James Marsters, who seems to capture instinctively the heart, soul and the essence of Harry, and who does quite a wide variety of accents and voices very well. I started out reading this series in print, but after listening to the last few in audio, I doubt I would go back now. Very enjoyable! A.

11. IN THE WOODS by Tana French. First in a series featuring characters from Dublin, Ireland police team. (Not truly a series--the second book features only one of the detectives this book does and the third, I understand, features someone totally different. I may be wrong about that, just going by book blurbs.) ANYway....Detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox of the Dublin Murder Squad are called out to the small town of Knocknaree to investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl, found bludgeoned to death and then positioned on an altar stone at an archaeological dig nearby. This is a blow to the gut for Ryan, who lived in Knocknaree as a child and was part of a huge investigation twenty years previously when HE was twelve and his two best friends disappeared in "The Wood" near the village and were never seen again. Rob (who used to be called Adam and now goes by his middle name) was found in the wood with his shoes soaked with blood, clinging to a tree, and totally without memory of what happened. He can't even remember much of anything from before that time. His family moved away, he went to boarding school in England and acquired a bit of a posh accent, and he just blocked that part of his life out--until now. He doesn't tell his boss about his connection to the place, although Cassie knows, and this leads him down some dark paths later in the book. The murder is complicated in that it could be related to many things--the child's father was head of a local group set to preserve the archaelogical dig, which is set to close down and be bulldozed to make room for a motorway. Or could it be a serial pedophile? Or perhaps Katy just saw something she wasn't intended to. Is there a connection between Katy's death and the disappearance of Peter and Jamie, Rob's friends from years ago? There are many different veins to explore before the tale is told, although I did figure it out fairly well in advance. This book sucked me in right from the beginning with the story Rob tells about that summer day when he was twelve. It's a perfect blend of personal story and police investigation, richly written with a compelling style. It was a meaty book that took me a full week to read and digest--but definitely not a slog! If there was a downfall, it was the ending which was a bit anti-climactic. But I am eagerly looking forward to the next one which apparently features only Cassie Maddox in it. A

12. SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE by P.D. James. #4 Adam Dalgliesh British mystery, in which the Scotland Yard detective and his team are off to a nursing school to investigate the untimely death of two nursing students--both dead by poison of different types a couple of weeks apart. One was administered during a demonstration of gastric feeding during an inspection by the General Nursing Council, when Nurse Pearce, playing the role of the patient has her stomach dissolved by a caustic substance added to the milk feed. The second death of Nurse Fallon was at first thought to be suicide as the poison was in her bedtime whisky and lemon. Dalgliesh and crew are called in after the second death and put in many long hours cataloguing who was where during each of the deaths and trying to come up with some background and possible connection between the two nurses, since the idea that the two deaths are unrelated seems almost impossible. Neither of the women were particularly well-liked, but murder? An interesting study on life in an English nursing school in the early70's--very different than my own American nursing education that started about ten years later. P.D. James is the master at weaving an intricate plot, dropping plenty of clues (and red herrings!) and then springing the result on you at the last moment. Very enjoyable classic mystery--I'm sure I read this one years ago, but didn't remember whodunit and look forward to moving ahead in the series. A

13. THE END OF MARKING TIME by C.J. West. Standalone thriller that I would classify as dystopian fiction, set in the near future in a time when all prisoners have been released from their physical prisons and forced to undergo "Re-learning" through a variety of programs. The story is told from the point of view of Michael O'Connor, a twenty-five year old professional burglar who was injured in a police chase and spent several years in a coma, waking up to find a very different place than when he went to sleep. Gone are the jury trials, plea bargaining and time off for good behavior. Instead, you're electronically monitored 24/7 and given lessons and tasks to complete and learn before you can move on--and the punishments for not completing them or for re-offending are...shall we say, severe. Michael, after strengthening his muscles so he can learn to walk and move again, is set up in his own apartment--which he thinks isn't going to be so bad. He's beaten the system before, after all. But the system has gotten a whole lot sneakier while he's been asleep, and the rules have changed. As he careens from one mistake to the next, he's not sure who his friends are (if he has any) nor is he even certain what the objective is that he's supposed to be aiming for. I'm a bit of a fan of dystopian fiction, so the idea of this book really appealed to me. The storyline is very creative and the world Michael now lives in just as uniquely horrific as many other books of this type, where there has been plagues, wars or social upheaval. However, the book had one major problem (at least, it was a problem to me!) which distracted me quite a lot from the story itself. Writing a book in first person singular is not an easy thing to do effectively. The key is to tell the story in an interesting way from the point of view of the main character without over-populating the prose with the word "I" in all its various forms. Unfortunately, this book was written in just that style, with the opening paragraph containing "I" thirteen times. While the story itself was interesting, I could only read a few short chapters at a time without having to put the book aside to read something else for awhile--which is just a personal thing, since the "I" overuse is something that drives me particularly crazy. I'm afraid I wanted to hit that red button rather early on, as the "I" thing makes the protagonist seem very self-centered and much less engaging than he could have been, and I would have graded it higher if not for that one thing. B-

14. BIG RED TEQUILA by Rick Riordan (audio) #1 Jackson "Tres" Navarre mystery set in San Antonio, TX. Tres has just arrived back home from San Francisco, having been gone for more than ten years. His old girlfriend Lillian has asked him to come back, and he does so with hopes of starting things off where they were before. In addition, he begins looking into the murder of his father, who had been Sheriff at the time and who had been gunned down in front of his house with Tres looking on. There are a lot of people who really wish Tres would have just stayed gone and would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie, but that's not going to happen. When Lillian disappears a few days later, the list of possible reasons begins to multiply the more Tres looks into things. Tres is a bit of an atypical Texas 'cowboy'--he has an English degree and is a Tai Chi master, and though there were things he loved about San Francisco--including a feisty Chinese lawyer named May Lee who actually comes to San Antonio to help him--he realizes that this really is his home. The book's name comes from Tres's favored beverage--tequila mixed with Big Red cream soda--which he becomes reacquainted with before too long. I enjoyed this quite a lot, which sort of surprised me, as generally I'm not crazy about books set in the South or full of rednecks. There were a lot of great characters in this book, and I do hope at least some of them are recurring folks in the series.The reader did an excellent job with the book, the different voices and the 'tone' of the book was just right, too. I hadn't figured out the bad guy for sure--there were lots of red herrings being tossed around--til right up to the end, which was a nice surprise, and I will definitely read on (or listen on, if I can!) to see what Tres gets up to next. A.

15. THE MAP OF TRUE PLACES by Brunonia Barry. Novel set in Salem, MA about Zee Finch, a woman in her 30's who comes to her hometown from Boston, where she'd been working as a psychologist. Her father has Parkinson's disease and at his request, his longtime boyfriend Melville had kept from her how seriously ill Finch was. But now Finch has kicked Melville out of the house over some old slight and Zee is left to try to figure out how to care for him. She also is mourning a patient of hers, a bi-polar woman named Lilly who committed suicide and reminds Zee so much of her own mother that lines become blurred. Zee's engagement crumbles as she stays away from Boston longer and realizes that she really didn't want to marry Michael anyway. I really enjoyed this story, although I did see the plot twist coming from a mile away. I like the author's writing style, blending a bit of the mystical with the practical and capturing the essence of Salem, lots of literary and historical references too. Some of the characters from her previous book, The Lace Reader are briefly mentioned also and I hope she writes more stories set here. Her characters, even the minor ones, are wonderfully drawn--I could clearly see them in my mind's eye and felt I knew them very well by the end of the book. In short, a great escape of a novel that leaves you with a little something to think about while you're enjoying the ride. A.

16. MAGICAL AROMATHERAPY by Scott Cunningham. A slim little reference book that takes traditional aromatherapy one step further and describes how to apply the power of scent magickally by empowering the energy within the plants (or parts of the plants being used) that provide the scent as well as the scents themselves. It's a handy reference with type of plant, parts used, magickal association, and techniques for use as well as the appropriate cautions and warnings. The appendices with where to get supplies and such are mostly outdated now, but all in all, a handy tool for a quick reference, though given a choice between the two, I think I prefer his Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews. B.

18. MURDER FOR CHRIST'S MASS by Maureen Ash. #4 Bascot de Marins "Templar Knight" mystery set in Lincoln, UK in 1201. Bascot, a Templar Knight recovering from several years of capture in the Middle East by serving as a household knight to Nicolaa de la Haye, castellan for the city of Lincoln, investigates a murder for her husband, Gerard Camville who is the Sheriff. A young apprentice who works at the mint is found stabbed in the heart on Christmas morning, although he has been dead a few days already. Bascot's observant young assistant Gianni spots a coin in the vicinity, and it turns out to be an old coin minted during the reign of King Stephen decades ago. Bascot and Camville both fear this means there is a treasure trove nearby and seek to find it lest King John accuse Camville of treachery and withholding monies from the crown--while Nicolaa de la Haye holds the king's favor, the Sheriff has been less than supportive in times past. One death leads to another as Bascot, Gianni and Camville strive to locate not only the murderer from among a whole smorgasbord of suspects, but to find the treasure trove before Twelfth Night, which signals the end of the Christmas holidays and the return of the county's coroner--who would be sure to put in a bad word for Gerard Camville with the King any time he can. I really enjoy this series as the author does a wonderful job of showing 'what things were like' back in that time period without making you realize she's taught you something. While some of the minor characters are a bit two-dimensional, and the dialogue sometimes seems a little flat, the sense of time and mood is truly outstanding. It will be interesting to see in the next book if Bascot truly does rejoin the Templar order and leaves Gianni training as a clerk in Lincoln, or if circumstances have him staying around. B+.

DNF: PLAGUE YEAR by Jeff Carlson--audio version. It started off very promising but after awhile the author wandered off on tangents into the past with numerous details of the main players' lives that distracted from the story. I gave up listening after about 2 hours of narration.

Currently Reading: THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Thomas L. Friedman, which is quite the door-stopper and non-fiction to boot, so I'm sure I'll be at it for quite awhile. Listening to IN A STRANGE CITY by Laura Lippman, one of the Tess Monaghan series. I'm not reading anything else in print at the moment as I'm having a bit of a "weed out weekend" and trying to find a few books I can throw back...running out of shelf space yet again. *sigh*

Cheryl