So Many Books

Third Grave Dead Ahead, by Darynda Jones

2012-02-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

Jones is doing all the right things; she's introducing new characters and old characters in new realms; she's got a range of relationships in various states of well-being; and she runs multiple plot lines so the reader doesn't get weary of the glacial pace of the Reyes-Charley end of the universe story. But somehow, I am running out of enthusiasm for the series. Here she has to find a missing wife, must find Reyes's evil supposedly dead father, meets a nun who can eavesdrop on angel gossip, and gets a new guardian. Makes me particularly impressed with Deborah Harkness's plan to construct her universe and tell her whole story in three books. Period. Of course, in a year, when I see book four, I'll need to know what comes next. Lorelei King is a good reader, enjoying herself.

The Drop, by Michael Connelly

2012-02-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

This book seems to be more about politics (city, office, personal) than crime solving -- the phrase "high jingo" is used a lot. Harry Bosch is assigned to two cases, the suspicious death of Irvin Irving's son, and the cold case murder of a young student from Ohio. Having known Harry for 20 years, I'm just not sure he could so easily get past Hannah Stone's work running a halfway house for paroled felons, convicted of sexually based crimes. By no means bad, but perhaps not his best.

Taken, by Robert Crais

2012-02-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

Crais is very good, and this is one of his best Elvis Cole books. The pitch and pacing are just about perfect as the book leaps from viewpoint to viewpoint, from action to horror to Elvis and Joe's efforts to outsmart and track down the bad guys. Elvis is hired to find a missing college student and her boyfriend by the girl's mother, who suspects they may have just run off. But the reader already knows that the two have been swept up in the hijacking of a truckload of immigrants by bajadores who steal the human cargo from coyotes, then ransom, and ultimately kill their captives when the families can no longer pay. During the attempted rescue Elvis is also captured, and then Joe Pike and John Stone are on the hunt, with the boyfriend's ATF aunt is getting in the way -- or trying to. I usually don't much care for books that toss aside chronology, but Crais makes it work very nicely.

The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead, by Paul Elwork

2012-02-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

The twins, Emily and Michael, are 13 years old in 1925 when Emily discovers that she can make an eerie cracking sound with her ankle. In their playhouse, they begin to hold seances for neighborhood children evoking the spirits of ghosts of their own romantic imaginations. The game becomes dangerous when adults get involved and ask Emily and Michael to help them reach their own loved ones. It's a sad book about life and death, truth and lies, jealousies and the impulse to help and heal.

On Canaan's Side, by Sebastian Barry

2012-02-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

Two soul-crushing events steal Lilly Bere's will to live. One we learn about at the start of the book -- Lilly's beloved grandson Bill has killed himself. One is revealed at the end. In between are stories of Lily's long life and many loves, America, Tadg, Callie, Joe, and Mr. Nolan, and the children, Ed and Bill. These vignettes are interspersed with current day happenings involving Mrs. Wolohan, Lilly's former employer; Mr. Dillinger, the traveler and writer; and Mr. Eugenides, the pharmacist. The book is presented at Lilly's daily confession during the first 17 days she must live without Bill. Maybe I'm wrong to hope that Lilly finds something worth living in the sight of the dancing bear.

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, by Eoin Colfer

2012-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

Colfer does such a good job with the Artemis Fowl books. They are funny, unpredictable, imaginative, and ethically complex. Time Paradox is particularly nifty as the reader gets to see Artemis as an 18-year-old, who is growing both a heart and a conscience, pitted against himself as a 10-year-old morally bankrupt, single-minded master criminal. Artemis the Elder is trying to find the cure for a fairy-borne illness that is killing his mother by returning to his own past at a juncture when Artemis the Younger sold the last surviving silky sifaka lemur to a group of extinctionists. Enn Reitel is a great reader.

The Chalk Girl, by Carol O'Connell

2012-01-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

Reading an O'Connell book is an exquisite form of torture. So much of the book hurt my heart to read: the diary entries of the lost boy Ernest Nadler, Coco's efforts to win the love of Mallory, and Butler's failure to even hope that Mallory has any love in her and the acts of betrayal that grow out of his lack of faith. But the twisty plot, the black humor, and Mallory's ruthless pursuit of truth and justice are as compelling as ever. Is Mallory changing? Will Charles's love without liking or knowledge of Mallory destroy them both? Learning a bit about Williams Syndrome was a fascinating bit of icing.

Mother Love, by Maureen Carter

2012-01-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

Sarah Quinn, the Ice Queen Cop, returns with her nemesis, the purely opportunistic journalist, Caroline King. They are both racing to locate an abducted teacher, Olivia Kent, who has been in the hands of a sadistic kidnapper for many days before her absence is questioned. Creepy, smart, briskly paced, with a pinch of sardonic humor -- Carter writes a fine mystery.

Deeply, Desperately, by Heather Webber

2012-01-29T10:12:00.000-08:00

This is the second Lucy Valentine book, and it might be my favorite. Lucy isn't as spineless, and I enjoyed the introduction of the aura-reading half-brother. Lucy puts her special St. Anthony skills to work looking for a missing teenager, and a long-lost love, while being harrassed with threatening letters and trying to figure out why her father is behaving so mysteriously. Lots going on in a thoroughly enjoyable way.

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, by Jasper Fforde

2012-01-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Fforde is such a smart and funny guy. In this book, Thursday Next has gone missing, and the written Thursday Next sets off with her robotic butler Sprockett on a series of adventures in the real world and within various genres to find her. The parts about the Thursday Next series losing readers were sad, and the discerned differences between the Real World and BookWorld were clever. The book is so dense, I needed to listen a couple of times to large portions. A moment's inattention caused me to be a little lost for the whole first disc.

Absolutely, Positively, by Heather Webber

2012-01-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

Oops, I skipped one, so I was a bit confused about the new characters and their backstories. I need to see if there is a bookstore left in the Valley, so I can pick up Deeply, Desperately. Webber is doing a great job keeping the series fresh and interesting, with new characters and new dimensions to the paranormal. I'm looking forward to Lucy's next interactions of the other lightning-struck psychic. The cases involved a man dubbed the Lone Ranger throwing money to the crowds, a missing childhood sweetheart, an art thief, a stinky aging rock star, and a missing older man. All well introduced and resolved; unfortunately, I'm still finding the Lucy/Sean dynamic tiresome.

Freezing, by Clea Koff

2012-01-10T11:03:00.000-08:00

I give Koff credit for good intentions, but the execution is wide by a mile. The premise is interesting -- two forensic anthropologists start a non-profit to develop physical profiles of missing people from information provided by families to help law enforcement identify the missing people from among John/Jane Does or living people who don't know who they are. Koff actually started such a non-profit. The characters, Jayne Hall and Steelie Land (the anthropologists) and Scott Houston and Eric Ramos (FBI agents), are developed in sort of an unexpected way. But the serial killer plot is utterly ridiculous. Koff has received bad advice from someone on what to explain -- who doesn't know what BOLO stands for? -- and what parts of the science to gloss over. She has the pedagogical level set too low for my taste. Her autobiographical book, Bone Woman, might be worth looking into.

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

2012-01-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

A very interesting and entertaining, well-conceived look at the lives of three Brown University students just before and after graduation, which takes some satiric pokes at higher education and prolonged adolescence. The main characters are Madeleine Hanna, who personifies affluence and lack of direction; Leonard Bankhead, beloved of Madeleine, whose mental illness is its own bully of a character; and Mitchell Grammaticus, who in addition for his romantic love for Madeleine, has an intellectual love of theology, but lacks the spiritual center to make it binding. Some readers found it funnier than I did; Madeleine and Leonard hurt my heart. Literature feels no compulsion to resolve anything for the reader, as opposed to genre fiction where resolution seems to be the whole point. I hate that I may never know what happens to Maddie, Leonard, and Mitchell.

Natural Law, by D. R. Schanker

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

I wonder why Schanker stopped writing after this one. Maybe the good people of Indiana asked him to. The state is painted broadly as basketball obsessed, racist, and full of crooked cops and politicians. Nora Lumsey returns to tilt at windmills on behalf of Stormi Skye, a really mean, drug-addicted prostitute, but Nora isn't the central character. That would be Luther Cox, the haunted police detective assigned to find the killer of a womanizing law professor, who just happened to have been Nora's lover. Cox reads some of the professor's writings on natural law, which seem a bit like satire. I hope Schanker returns to writing one day.

Criminal Appeal, by D. R. Schanker

2011-12-26T12:59:00.000-08:00

Nora Lumsey is a self-proclaimed (often) big-boned, farm-raised Indiana woman, starting her law career as a clerk in a judge's office, who becomes entangled in the efforts of a neighbor to win the release of his 10-year old deaf grandson from prison on appeal. She isn't actually allowed to do anything of the sort, and must keep a host of secrets from everyone close to her. It's a book that deals head on with issues of race and racism, judicial politics, religion and family. I'm not sure I'd agree with all of Schanker's observations, but I give him credit for putting them on the page. Is it a little odd for a man to make his main character a woman and deal with issues like toiletries and dating?

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

2011-12-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

This is the story of Thomas Cromwell as he ascends through the civil power hierarchy during the reign of Henry VIII (1500-1535). To a certain extent the focus is on his battle with Sir Thomas More, though Henry, Anne Boleyn, her father and her sister Mary, Cardinal Wolsey, Norfolk and Suffolk, Jane Seymour, and many other historical figures are depicted in very human detail. Cromwell's political dealings show him to be eternally pragmatic, but his family life shows a gentle and loving side. The reading by Simon Slater was masterly, turning Mantel's prose into poetry. Two sequels are planned, Bring Up the Bodies, which tracks the downfall of Anne Boleyn, and The Mirror And The Light, which traces Cromwell's own downfall. Wolf Hall makes it clear that downfalls are inevitable in Henry's court, though it wasn't clear to me why the book was called Wolf Hall, residence of the Seymours.

Crying Out Loud, by Cath Staincliffe

2011-12-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

I am so glad Severn House is releasing Stancliffe's books in the US as well as the UK. The Sal Kilkenny series is wonderful, real and human, smart and well written. Sal and her daughter Maddie share a house with Ray and his son Tom. For most of the series, Sal and Ray were platonic co-parents, but recently they've become a couple with a lot of sexual heat between them. I enjoyed the parts of the book about the two of them trying to negotiate this new territory as much as the mysteries, which were plenty good themselves. Sal is hired by the lover of a murdered man to investigate whether the man in jail for the murder is actually guilty. At the same time, a infant is left on Sal and Ray's doorstep with a note saying the mother will return, but not who she is. An increasingly broody Sal decides to wait for the mother's return, though Ray wants her to turn the child over to the authorities and the newness of a baby in the house runs out for Maddie and Tom as well. Love this series.

KickBack, by Garry Disher

2011-12-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

The first in the Wyatt series. I'm not sure Disher knew precisely where he was going with Wyatt in the beginning. Some of the qualities that become staples in later books are just hinted at here. Still Wyatt's capacity for patience, careful planning to ensure that things go smoothly, and quick thinking when they don't are in place. In this book, after a long dry spell, professional thief Wyatt is hired to rob a crooked lawyer whose safe is full of kickback money. His crew isn't 100% sound, and there are bad guys on his trail.

Death Comes to Pemberley, by P. D. James

2011-12-17T21:27:00.000-08:00

What can I say? It wasn't Austen, wasn't even P. D. James. It does seem like P. D. James had fun bringing all of the characters from Pride and Prejudice forward six years and positing answers to questions James seems to have had about plot points in Pride and Prejudice (e.g., who told Lady Catherine about Darcy's proposal?) She even pulled in a few characters from Persuasion and Emma. But her version of the married Darcys rang false, she was unnecessarily harsh in her take on Charlotte Collins and Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the mystery (who killed Denny?) was secondary and poorly carried out.

Truly, Madly, by Heather Webber

2011-12-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

The premise: Thanks to Cupid, the Valentine family has the ability to see people's auras and use them to run a successful matchmaking business. Lucy, a member of the youngest generation, lost her ability to see auras because of an electrical surge, but now can find lost objects by touching the person to whom they belong. When the Valentine parents leave the country, Lucy must take over the family business temporarily, and find a way to use her personal gift to help people. The book starts bright, inventive, and fun, then gets bogged down mid-stream with endless repetition and teeth gnashing. Happily it perks up in the final third, brings everything to a satisfying conclusion, and leads into the next book.

The Blood Royal, by Barbara Cleverly

2011-12-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

I thought I would never like any of the Joe Sandilands books as well as I liked the ones set in India and Afghanistan, but Cleverly is pretty skilled at creating exotic worlds within post-World War I English society too. The addition of the new character, Constable Lily Wentworth, makes the series all that much richer and entertaining. In this story, a string of assassination of military officers is thought to be the work of Finian terrorists, but not for long. Far more personal motives are at work, and discerning them requires both Sandilands and Wentworth to hobnob with British and Russian nobility and with the families of the dead.

Eyes of the Innocent, by Brad Parks

2011-12-07T22:55:00.000-08:00

Carter Ross, investigative reporter for the Newark Eagle-Examiner, returns. It's not quite as good as Faces of the Gone, but is still pretty fine. Ross investigates a fire that kills two young boys, and soon finds that things are far from clear cut. Ross is teamed with an intern (Lauren aka Sweet Thang aka Thang, Sweet) who embodies just about every newsroom stereotype you can imagine: blessed with a publisher uncle, innocent yet sexy, with a crush on Ross, a tendency to trust everyone, and an ability to worm her way into the heart of every interviewee. Happily, Tommy, the gay Cuban intern from Faces of the Gone, has been promoted from comic relief. Parks thanks librarians in two paragraphs of his acknowledgements. Gotta love him for that.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson

2011-12-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

Major Ernest Pettigrew is a widower and former school teacher, and Mrs. Jasmina Ali is a widow who owns a shop in Edgecomb St. Mary where Major Pettigrew buys his tea. They become friends inspite of cultural differences, village gossips, and disapproving family members. It's a sweet story that manages to build quite a bit of tension, as the obstacles to their romance arise in increasingly threatening ways. Peter Altschuler did a fine job reading.

The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen

2011-12-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

A pretty interesting book, told from two perspectives. Some chapters are told from the viewpoint of Danish Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Mørck, who has been made the head of Department Q to deal with high profile cold cases and to keep him out of trouble. He is given a basement office and a Syrian assistant, who magically makes things happen. Mørck is tormented and has difficulty with authority, and his parts of the book have humor, sorrow, and brilliant police work. The remaining chapters are told from the perspective of Merete Lynggard, who is kidnapped and tortured, physically and psychologically, for five years. These chapters are gruesome and difficult to read. I'll keep an eye out for translations of Olsen-Adler. Also published under the title Mercy.

Faces of the Gone, by Brad Parks

2011-11-29T07:49:00.000-08:00

Another good one, and quite happily a couple of years old, so Parks has a more recent book out and another due in March. Parks was a newspaper reporter, as is his main character, Carter Ross. In the series debut, Ross is assigned to cover the execution-styled death of four drug dealers, and finds that each sold a brand of heroin called The Stuff. Ross is endearing -- funny, self-deprecating, fearful but somehow dauntless. Parks paints a gritty but human Newark.

Ice Hunter, by Joseph Heywood

2011-11-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

I think this was the first in the Woods Cop series, and it made me want more. I like Heywood's characters, Grady Service, a Conservation Officer (CO), his coworkers, his lovers, and his just-a-bit-too-perfect dog. Heywood seems to want the reader to know what a CO's life is like, so he throws in all of the mundane interactions with the hunters, fishermen, drivers, and Upper Peninsula residents, whether they advance the main plot line or not. The mystery involved some shady land deals and near illegal mining on public lands, and the potential of rumors of diamonds to destroy the Mosquito Tract wilderness area.

New York to Dallas, by J. D. Robb

2011-11-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Few of the regular characters make an appearance in this book, as it takes place largely in Dallas. Eve Dallas's first collar, the violent pedophile Isaac McQueen, escapes from prison and seeks revenge. She must return to the city where she killed her father and the memories it invokes to recapture McQueen and his partner.

Hot, Shot, and Bothered, by Nora McFarland

2011-11-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

McFarland is an extraordinary writer. Her description of the Central California wildfires was so harrowing that I nearly jumped out of my chair when someone interrupted my reading. McFarland isn't afraid to make her main character, news photographer Lilly Hawkins, pretty unlikeable at times, as, for instance, Lilly compulsively pursues clues to solving the murder of a childhood acquaintance at the risk of her own career, and more distastefully, her lover's. McFarland also shows Lilly capable of self-examination and change, but she remains a pretty flawed character in spite of her new-found ability to bite her tongue -- sometimes. Everything McFarland writes has the ring of truth. Nora McFarland has donated a copy of Hot, Shot, and Bothered to UCLA's College Library. The students (and faculty) are going to love it!

Three-Day Town, by Margaret Maron

2011-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

I'll bet Maron has been asked for years what happened to Sigrid Harald. She answers in this book that brings almost newlyweds Judge Deborah Knott and Deputy Dwight Bryant to New York City for a honeymoon of sorts. Turns out Deborah and Sigrid are distant cousins, and Deborah is tasked with delivering a lewd and racist statuette to Sigrid. When Phil the super is found dead in the apartment that Deborah and Dwight have been loaned, Sigrid sets about solving the crime. I remember Sigrid, ice queen that she was, and she's changed quite a bit in the 3 (really?) years since her last appearance. The narrative voice shifts from Deborah to Sigrid, and I loved the fact that Deborah didn't know what the police knew, and maintained several misapprehensions while the reader was in the know.

Be on the lookout

2011-11-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

From LJ, thanks to Ruth:
Dana Stabenow. Restless in the Grave. (Feb 2012)
Brad Parks. The Girl Next Door (Mar 2012)
Richard Helms. The Unresolved Seventh (April 2012)
Jassy Mackensie. The Fallen (April 2012 -- Can't wait!)
Anna Dean. A Woman of Consequence (April 2012)
Susan Rogers Cooper. Husband and Wives (April 2012)
Cath Staincliffe. Crying Out Loud (Feb 2012)
K. J. Larsen. Sticks and Stones (Feb 2012)
Michael Lee West. A Teeny Bit of Trouble (April 2012)

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

2011-11-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

Two wizards challenge each other through the accomplishments of their students, using a circus that operates only at night as the battleground. The wizards are not very nice people, but their students, Celia and Marco, are, and the circus is populated with some intriguing characters, including Tsukiko, the contortionist, the lovely twins Poppet and Widget, and Herr Thiessen, the clock maker. There are a great many characters in this book, and for a time I thought Morgenstern was indulging herself with the creation of such a large cast, but she pulled it all together in a very satisfying manner. The descriptions of the feats of magic are lyrical, and Jim Dale's reading is wonderful, of course.

The Hangman's Row Inquiry, by Ann Purser

2011-11-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is the first in the Ivy Beasley series, mysteries set in the village of Barrington, featuring the 70ish Ivy and her younger cousin Dierdre, the mysterious Augustus Halfhide, and the ancient Roy Goodman. Retired and bored, they come together to form the inquiry agency, Inquire Within, after a widely despised neighbor is murdered. The mystery is overly complicated, but has a lot of heart when it comes to describing aging and all its physical, mental, and social manifestations.

Blood of the Prodigal, by P. L. Gaus

2011-11-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

The book is about the mistrustful co-existence of Amish and English in small town Ohio. The mystery involves a history professor, Mike Branden and his wife, Caroline, who are drawn into the search for a missing Amish boy through their friendship with a pastor. Turns out the boy was taken by his father, who had been banned from his community ten years before. There are parts that make sense and others that don't. I didn't realize that this was the first book in the Ohio Amish Mystery Series. I felt like I was missing backstory that had been presented in a previous book. Readers say Gaus gets better.

Feast Day of Fools, by James Lee Burke

2011-11-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

I read a lot of the early Dave Robicheaux books, and I was curious about the Hackberry Holland series. I don't recall Burke being this prone to pontificating - within and outside of characters' dialogue. Sheriff Hackberry Holland is an odd duck of a character, his relationship with Deputy Pam Tibbs is as unsatisfying for the reader as it is for Pam Tibbs, and three of four of his very bad villains are capable of regret and sacrifice. Actually, even the good guys are full of regret and sacrifice. It's a complicated plot, with lots of political and religious themes to go on and on about. The plots circle around a weapons designer (who Will Patton makes sound like a moron) who is running around loose with a missile design in his head, and everybody bad guy and government agency wants to catch him to steal or protect the design. I don't know whether I want to back track and read more of the Hack Holland books or not.

A Bad Day's Work, by Nora McFarland

2011-11-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

Lilly Hawkins is a TV news shooter in California's central valley, who is having a streak of very bad luck. Mics not working, taking home the wronger pager, reporters asking for other shooters. She goes out to film to a crime scene and takes footage that nobody wants to see the air. She's chased, beaten up, threatened and bribed. She trusts no one, and no one seems to have her back. It's a fast-moving story, with an interesting depth, as Lilly comes to realize that her lack of people skills are seriously getting in her way. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

A Timely Vision, by Joyce and Jim Lavene

2011-11-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

A decent airplane book, the right size and density to keep one's mind off crashing but not actually requiring attention. Dae O'Donnell is the mayor of Duck, a small fairytale town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Like her grandmother, she can locate lost things by holding the hands of the person who has lost them. She does this just about every 50 pages, whether it advances the plot or not. Though it's clear to the casual observer that the new guy in town, ex-FBI agent Kevin Brickman is smitten with her, she's seems remarkably obtuse about it. And, of course, there is a murder -- 90-year-old Miss Lizzie is murdered, and her older sister, Miss Mildred, is accused.

Spider Bones, by Kathy Reichs

2011-10-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

It starts with a man who died in Canada in an autoerotic accident, and who is identified by his fingerprints as Spider Lowery. But Spider Lowery was supposed to have died in Vietnam. So who is buried in Spider Lowery's grave? Temperance Brennan and her daughter go to Hawaii, where the agency responsible for identifying bodies that might belong to the MIA of the past several wars operates, to figure it all out. They're joined by Brennan's Canadian squeeze, Ryan, and his daughter. While in town, Brennan is asked to identify a couple of bodies based on the few body parts that the sharks left in a cove, bringing her afoul of a Samoan drug trafficking gang. It all gets so very complicated.

Quickstep to Murder, by Ella Barrick

2011-10-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

I like mysteries that contextualize the formula within some strange (to me) subculture, or other time or place. I realized reading Barrick's book how important it is that the writer know enough about that context that the readers feel like they are learning something. Barrick doesn't know that much about ballroom dancing. She and her husband took lessons for a while, and attend the competitions, but she tries to paint characters who are single-minded about dancing. She often prefaces some pretty uninsightful observations with "Most people don't realize"... that ballroom dancers pay a lot for their costumes... work out incessantly... wear a lot of make up... I don't feel like I learned anything new about the ballroom dancing world. On the other happier hand, Barrick writes wittily and well, and her plotting was perfectly fine.

Farewell, Miss Zukas, by Jo Dereske

2011-10-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Who knew there were twelve books in the Miss Zukas series? I read several when the series began but stopped at some point. I'm glad I read the final book in the series, getting to see Helma's edges soften but certainly not her mind. I remember when Moonbeam was introduced as the new library director, and how over the top I thought she was. Now years later, Moon tries to present an aura of transforming the library by simply changing the names of things and shows herself to have a self-interested, ethically hazy underside. Miss Zukas continues to represent all that's good in seasoned librarians, but Dereske begins to point to her background as the daughter of a Lithuanian immigrant as part of her stiffness and aloofness. Dereske refuses to state explicitly what caused the robber's plunge from Aunt Em's window.

Killing Kate, by Julie Kramer

2011-10-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

A very entertaining book set in a TV newsroom. Reporter Riley Spartz is a great character, smart, strong, self-confident, a bit of a maverick; the newsroom dynamics are fun and fast; giving the killer a voice and perspective brings a multidimensionality to the narrative. Riley is focused on the murderer of her college friend's sister, discovering a link to other murders in other states. The responsibility of the media for the aftermath of its coverage is considered in an extreme way.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, by Susan Orlean

2011-10-24T14:49:00.000-07:00

I don't think it was a question of me having unreasonably high expections based on the glowing reviews, I think this is a really poorly written book -- redundant, meandering, full of unconvincing stabs at social psychology, social history, and uninteresting introspection. It might have been a good magazine article -- there is a tiny little core story here, Lee Duncan finding the puppy Rin Tin Tin on the battlefield and breaking him into the movies. The stories about the television show decades later were some of the best. Who knows, maybe if I'd been old enough to watch the original tv show, or young enough to see it when re-released, I'd feel greater connection to this story and be more forgiving of its flaws.

A Bitter Truth, by Charles Todd

2011-10-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Bess Crawford series is pretty remarkable. Todd paints the periods before and during the first World War, with a compelling respect and appreciation for the suffering and sacrifice that was so widespread. Bess is a nursing sister from a military family serving in France. In this book, almost against her will, she becomes embroiled in a family drama that seems to be central to a series of murders. The family with all the drama is full of selfish and self-interested characters. Per usual, her friend Simon Brandon is key to uncovering the killer, though the new appealing character, Australian Sargeant Lattimore plays an important role too.

Girls in White Dresses, by Jennifer Close

2011-10-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

This set of vignettes about young women who meet in college and remain friends through their twenties is funny, thoughtful and sometimes moving. Bridal and baby showers and weddings bring them back together as life pulls them apart. They are seen finding careers and partners, and trying to stay connected with friends who are at different places in their lives. Careers, serious relationships, marriages, babies and divorce are presented as obstacles to maintaining single-girl relationships but not entirely insurmountable ones.

A Paradise for Fools, by Nicholas Kilmer

2011-10-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

Kilmer is not an easy read; his pinball machine dialogues and stream of consciousness internal monologues slow the reader down, but I like him anyway. Here Fred tries to find the painting that inspired the body art created by a tattoo artist, believing it might be a lost Hieronymus Bosch. He meets Molly at the library (she is very public service oriented) and after several coffees and meals together, asks for the honor of meeting her children. Nice. He's already working for Clayton, who is abroad.

Second Grave on the Left, by Darynda Jones

2011-10-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Darynda Jones does a pretty good job of genre-bending. She successfully combines comedic, paranormal, romantic, and mystery elements into her novels about Charlotte Davidson, the Grim Reaper. Second Grave on the Left picks up where First Grave on the Right left off, and juggles the mysteries of the missing Mimi and the missing body of the Son of Satan. An interview with Darynda Jones revealed her to be a sweetheart.

Jar City, by Arnaldur Indriðason

2011-10-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

A solid police procedural, set in Reykjavík and the towns around it. An old man is murdered and Inspector Erlendur and his team must seek the motives behind his death in his brutal past. Erlendur's drug addict pregnant daughter is an interesting aside, as she tries to get clean for her child's sake. Indriðason offers an interesting perspective on crime and policing in Iceland. Apparently there's an Icelandic movie based on the book that could be pretty interesting, and an American version that will be placed in Louisiana. Louisiana = Iceland?? Hmmm.

Maine, by J. Courtney Sullivan

2011-10-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

The book revels in the reasons and ways that people are nasty to one another, primarily within families, but also within other kinds of relationships. The nastiness of almost all of the characters grows out of guilt, jealousy, envy, resentment, a sense of superiority and/or the desire or need to push someone away. Even a nice character reverts to nasty form in the right button-pushing context. Not a great deal of fun to read.

Nairobi Heat, by Mukoma Wa Ngugi

2011-10-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating little book, a lightening read, and an interesting discourse on the price of collective guilt, the epidemiology of violence, and the relationship of African Americans to Africa. The protagonist is Ishmael Fofona, a Black police detective from Madison, Wisconsin, who finds himself in Kenya trying to unravel the mystery behind the death of a beautiful young blonde woman on the door step of a peace activist, Joshua Hakizimana, who is said to have rescued thousands of refugees from the genocide in Rwanda. Ishmael hates being called a white man in Kenya, where he finds a sense of belonging in spite of language and cultural divides. I hope a series grows out of this. Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a political columnist, born in Illinois, raised in Kenya.

The Surrogate, by Tania Carver

2011-10-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

There isn't a whole lot to love about the book: the story of the hunt for a serial killer who rips live babies from the wombs of their mothers is kind of sickening; most of the characters aren't very likeable; the book is chock full of sociopaths and psychopaths with lots of gorey backstory. DI Philip Brennan is a likeable character, but his sidekick criminal psychologist Marina Esposito is distastefully selfish. The writing was so-so, though the pace picked up for the final third.

Paydirt, by Garry Disher

2011-10-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is the second Wyatt book, the one that explains how the Mesics got "Wyatt's money," or the money from the payroll heist that Wyatt planned and almost executed. Lots of betrayals, but not always from the person expected. Wyatt on the run is always a good time.

A Criminal to Remember, by Michael Van Rooy

2011-10-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

I think this was Van Rooy's last book before his heart attack and death in January. The book has two parallel tracks: On the cynical track, Monty is recruited to run for president of the civilian police oversight board by people who plan to use him to defeat their serious opponent, and on the creepy track Clare is stalked by a serial killer called the Shy Man, and Monty must protect her and their son Fred. The writing and plotting are both clever, and the ending grisly. I'll miss this series; there's something sad I can't pinpoint about having a signed copy of the book.

The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill

2011-09-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

This is Hill's version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Financier Wolf Hadda is falsely accused and imprisoned for defrauding investors and making child pornography. The prison psychiatrist, Alva Ozibo, is his Abbe Faria enabling his release, and his former wife and friends are the conspirators on whom he seeks revenge after his release from prison. I'm still a bit confused about the JC master spy, and where his role begins and ends. All in all a pretty good time.

Crosskill, by Garry Disher

2011-09-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

The fourth Wyatt book, and I seem to have missed the third. So I'm not entirely clear on why Wyatt is after the Mesics, who have his money, or why the Outfit is after Wyatt. There's a bit of honor among thieves, as well as a larger bit of backstabbing, some faithless wives, dirty cops, and a female assassin.

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

2011-09-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Oh my gracious. That was quite a book. The story begins with Marina Singh, a pharmacologist, learning of the death of her office mate in the Amazon. She is urged by her boss and lover, Mr. Fox, to go to the Brazil and complete the mission of Anders, but resists until the request is echoed by Anders's wife who needs to know more about the death of her husband than was relayed in a letter from the creepy Dr. Swenson. Dr. Swenson, who was once and ill-fatedly Marina's teacher at Johns Hopkins, is conducting fertility research funded by Marina and Ander's employer among the Lakashi people who bear children well into their 70s. The twist of fate at the end of the novel rips at the heart, and the many unanswered questions make the sudden ending a bit of a betrayal.

Deathdeal, by Garry Disher

2011-09-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

The second Wyatt book. In this one, Wyatt is his usual smart, methodical, careful self, but everyone else seems to have all the luck. He follows his three rules for keeping out of jail (1. people who cross you will do it again -- never give them a break; 2. never let your feelings affect your judgement; and 3. never tell the people you work with more than they need to know) except when it comes to Anna Reid. The bad guys include a drug/gun runner, a gambling bank manager, a gambling private detective, and a prison officer.

Wicked Autumn, by G. M. Malliet

2011-09-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

A light as air cozy village mystery with some lovely characters, chief among them the dishy Anglican priest Max Tudor, formerly of MI5, and his close friend, the new age shop owner, Awena Owen. Because of the impossibly incompetent village constable, Max is recruited to interview the many suspects in the murder of Women's Institute terror, Wanda Batton-Smythe. I hope there is more mayhem to come in Nether Monkslip.

Nemesis: Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys, by Peter Evans

2011-09-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Peter Evans makes the case that Aristotle Onassis knowingly funded the assassination of Bobby Kennedy to get even for Kennedy's successes in blocking some of Onassis's shadier business dealings and to clear the way for his marriage to Jackie. I'd say the evidence is circumstantial and his confession to Helene Gaillet not entirely reliable. I probably couldn't convict. Besides the Kennedy assassination, there are lots of deaths and lots of questions are raised about those deaths. And lots of loveless marriages and secret and public affairs. Pretty darned readable.

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, by Alexander McCall Smith

2011-09-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

This may not be the best of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, but there were things about it I quite liked: Mma Ramotswe didn't find all the answers and had to be content with not knowing; Charlie showed his finer side; Mma Makutsi sacrificed the most beautiful shoes in the world for her friend and her preparations for her wedding included preparing mentally for a life that is not threaded through with want. Two false steps: Would Mma Ramotswe allow Mma Makutsi to be the one to approach Charlie about this responsibilities for his children and their mother? After their history of antagonism? Would Mma Matkutsi not invite Mma Potokwani to her wedding, when she helped rescue Phuti Radiphuti from his aunt and took him in after his accident? In Botswana, where courtesy is paramount? Don't think so.

A Trick of the Light, by Louise Penny

2011-09-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

The mystery concerns the murder of a recovering alcoholic in Clara's garden. The meditations are about hope (it is essential), addiction (it destroys everything and everyone in its path), the ability of people to change (not often, not fundamentally, not always for the better), and forgiveness (its healing power is stronger for the person who forgives than the person who is forgiven). The question that lingers most strongly in my mind is how to apply these lessons to Jean-Guy's addiction to pain-killers and Clara and Peter's shattered marriage. The next book will provide answers, hopefully, in a way less sad than the way the questions came to be posed.

The Fallout, by Garry Disher

2011-09-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

Clearly, I'm kind of liking the Disher Wyatt novels. The Fallout begins where Port Vila Blues ended. Wyatt's nephew, Ray, is introduced politely robbing banks, and being conned into financing a salvage operation. To finance the hunt for sunken treasure, he assists in the jail break of a killer and drags his uncle into an art theft. Nobody gets along, and many people are killed or battered. Suspended police officer Liz Redding throws spanners into the works here and there.

Port Vila Blues, by Garry Disher

2011-09-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

This was the 5th Wyatt novel. Wyatt creates a storm of trouble for himself and everyone else when he robs a politician on the take and puts an already once stolen Tiffany pin on the market. Once again, Disher creates a world where nearly everyone is a bad guy, whether he or she is a police officer, judge, politician, blueprinter or thief. There is one good cop, Liz Redding, who is fighting a losing battle against corruption in the squad and is somewhat taken with Wyatt, as he is with her.

Crime Fraiche, by Alexander Campion

2011-09-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure this was an entirely successful mystery, but many bits and pieces of the novel are so rich and engrossing that I couldn't help but enjoy it. As he did in his first mystery, Campion describes food glowingly that you can almost taste it, but here he talks about the sports and industry that put meat on the table. Equally detailed, but not nearly as appetizing are descriptions of rabbit hunting with ferrets, stag hunting, pheasant hunting with beaters, and the abattoirs where the white Charolais cattle are slaughtered. While Capucine tries to solve the mystery of a series of deadly hunting accidents at her uncle's estate in Normandy, her husband food critic Alexandre learns how to be a shotgun-toting country squire. A woman who steals a piece of art from collectors is sought by Capucine's team back in Paris. Justice is served only part of the time.

The Burning, by Jane Casey

2011-09-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Another solid mystery featuring DC Maeve Kerrigan. This works on so many levels: the mystery is complex, the interactions among DI Godley's team intriguingly juvenile, the alternative narrators often offering different perspectives on the same events. Five women are bludgeoned to death and set on fire, and the small distinctions between the last murder and the preceding four call for a separate smaller scale investigation run by Kerrigan. Kerrigan spends her time looking into the life of Rebecca, trying to discover what caused her to spiral out of control in her final months. Rebecca's best friend Louise is one of the narrators.

Mobbed, by Carol Higgins Clark

2011-09-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

Blech.

The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

2011-08-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not typically drawn to sad books, and this one was achingly sad for much of its length. Victoria Jones was abandoned when she was three weeks old and spent the first nine years of her life in foster homes where she learned not to trust, to love or to hope. Then she has a last chance at a happy childhood with Elizabeth, a vintner and a damaged soul herself. The story tracks her short months learning the language of flowers and the possibility of being loved in chapters that alternate with Victoria's life as a 18 year old who is able to use her knowledge of the symbolism of flowers to build a specific clientele for a florist shop. In both time frames, the foreshadowing of the sadness to come builds unbearable tension. There's beauty in the language, and unvarnished truth in the story; Victoria, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's nephew Grant are characters you come to care about; there's even a wry tone that can elicit a smile here and there. But sad. Very, very sad. Tara Sands did a great job reading.

A Crack in Everything, by Angela Gerst

2011-08-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

Overall, I'd say this was a pretty mediocre book: the writing humdrum, the characters forgettable, and the plot overly complicated and contrived. The protagonist is Susan Callisto, who is both an attorney and a political consultant. She's involved in local elections, questionable real estate dealings, EPA violations, medical research in search of a fountain of youth, infidelities and betrayals, and a couple of murders and additional vicious attacks. Her intermittent heartthrob is a police detective.

Plugged, by Eoin Colfer

2011-08-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is a comic crime novel, set in the underworld of Cloisters, NJ. There are many mysteries to be solved by hero, ex-soldier Daniel McEvoy: who killed Connie, the hostess at Slotz, the dive where Daniel is the doorman? why did the stranger try to kill Dan and what was he looking for in Dr. Zeb Kronski's office? what happened to Dr. Zeb? why did Det. Ronnie Deacon's partner try to kill her? Definitely some funny bits, a few involving Ghost Zeb who takes up residence in Daniel's head. Lots of backstory on McEvoy's time in the army and time on the shrink's couch. It amused me when Coifer would create an ending, then start the book up again to present the solution to the next mystery in line, end again, then start up again. Keating had better control of his accents here.

Wyatt, by Garry Disher

2011-08-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

An entertaining crime thriller featuring Wyatt Wareen, an Australian thief who goes after high-end scores with forethought, casualness and, intermittently, violence. Disher presents an underworld where some thieves have honor and some thieves don't, and those who don't behave honorably invariably end up dead. There's quite a bit of humor; Khandi Kaine and Tyler Gadd were particularly entertaining characters. The plot involves millions in bearer bonds which are stolen from a courier at the beginning of the book, and go from hand to hand throughout the book. Lots of bodies and an equal number of burned out cars. Looks like I'll have to use ILL to read the others in the series.

An Ordinary Decent Criminal, by Michael Van Rooy

2011-08-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

This is the book that introduced ex-criminal Monty Haaviko and his wife Claire, and Monty's efforts to turn away from his criminal and drug addicted past -- a little. He's shown getting his first-ever non-felonious job, and making and abiding by the conscious choice to turn away from drugs, alcohol, and crime every single day. After a home invasion attempt, during which Monty kills the invaders, he becomes the moving target of the police, the gang boss who sent the home invaders, and his neighbors. The book offers a crash course in booby trapping one's back yard, creating a lock pick from an electric toothbrush, and making the most revolting sounding barbeque sauce in the world. Fast, entertaining, and a bit creepy. There's a movie by the same name, but not based on the book.

Game of Secrets, by Dawn Tripp

2011-08-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is quite a book: compact, dense, and lyrical. It tells the stories of the rippling effects of a love affair between Ada, married to Silas, and Luce, married to Emily, on the lovers and their families. Perspectives and time frames shift from 1957, when Luce is murdered, to 1962, when Luce and Emily's daughter, Jane, falls in love with Carl as Ada and Silas's son Huck pines for her, to 2004, when Jane and Carl's daughter Marne returns home from a vagabond life and begins a erratic romantic relationship with Ada and Silas's youngest son Ray. The 2004 story line runs chronologically, as Marne who makes objects from paper, and Ray, a salvager, overcome the facts that Marne is the granddaughter of a man who Ray's father is presumed to have killed, that Marne's brother Alex is Ray's best friend, and that Marne can't abide Ray's brother Huck. Huck is probably the most interesting character in the book, a poet and artist wrapped in a thug's demeanor. Ada as a cranky old woman is pretty intriguing too, and her weekly Scrabble games with Jane, are a character in themselves. I think it takes place in coastal Massachusetts.

An American Heiress, by Daisy Goodwin

2011-08-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

I think I'm correct in calling this a Regency romance. It has a bit more heft than Georgette Heyer, but not as much sparkle. The story is an old standard: A young heiress, this time an American, falls madly in love with a dark and brooding Duke, and must uncover the tragic secrets of his past before they can find happiness. The heiress, Cora Cash, is a dimwit, always trusting the wrong people, making the wrong steps, choosing the wrong battles, and being hopelessly confused about why her husband in particular is angry with her. Duke Ivo isn't an especially nice guy, but the two have strong chemistry. There's a downstairs component circling around Cora's African-American ladies' maid, Bertha, who is as much a fish out of water as her mistress. The audio version has a brief interview with Daisy Goodwin, sister of Jason, in which she extols the virtues of audio books. I had thought that Katherine Kellgren had done a good job reading, but when Goodwin talked about the abundant humor in the book, I wondered if Kellgren had somehow read it out.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal, by Michael Van Rooy

2011-08-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Montgomery Haaviko is such a guilty pleasure. His banter with his wife Claire is very clever, his role as babysitter for a handful of neighborhood toddlers is endearing, his unbridled willingness to bring all guns (as well as fire hoses, arrows, box cutters, booby traps, etc.) to bear on anyone threatening his family or neighborhood is chilling. His efforts to go straight-ish are entertaining and a bit heroic. In this, Van Rooy's second book, Monty takes a job building an underground railroad for smuggling people into and out of Canada for the good guys. Unfortunately, the railroad is seen as a perfect smuggling route for the bad guys who decide to take it over. Monty takes care of the bad guys in a thorough and violent way. Van Rooy died in January 2011.

A Question of Despair, by Maureen Carter

2011-08-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

This new series has some interesting characters and relationship dynamics. The two main characters are Detective Inspector Sarah Quinn (the Ice Queen) and Caroline King, a ruthless TV news reporter. The two have had personal issues since Sarah discovered that Caroline was using Sarah's own lover as a source and stud-muffin. This is probably the first book I've read where it is implied that relations between police and press should be mutually beneficial. There's a bit of humor and the plotting sustained my interest. The mystery involves two missing and ultimately dead babies. Not my favorite theme.

Killed at the Whim of a Hat, by Colin Cotterill

2011-08-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've loved Cotterill's writing since reading Thirty-Three Teeth, and adored him as a person since hearing him tell his life story in cartoons at the Mystery Bookstore. This is the first book in a new series, featuring Jimm Juree, a freelance crime reporter and resort operator in rural Thailand, and her family of odd ducks and dogs. In this book, Jimm, assisted by her sister and Lt. Shampoon, solves the mysteries surrounding two skeletons found in a long buried VW van and the more recent murder of a Buddhist abbot. The books featuring the Laotian coroner, Dr. Siri Paiboun, have a solid core of political satire. The Jimm Juree series is sweeter and gentler, while still quite funny and charming. Each chapter begins with a nonsensical quote from George W. Bush.

But Remember Their Names, by Hillary Bell Locke

2011-08-11T14:18:00.000-07:00

Confession: Often I skip to the end of a mystery novel to find out who done it, so I can watch the author build the clues one upon the other toward the solution. Particularly from this perspective, Locke didn't do a very good job of constructing the mystery. There were some nice prose passages and turns of phrase, and Cynthia Jacubek, her father Vince and her employer Luis Mendoza are endearing characters. However, the murder of the philanthropist/art collector didn't quite make sense to me, and poor Cindy/Jake's ill-fated romance lacked credibility. According to Locke, it was Robert Kennedy who said "Forgive your enemies, but remember their names." Others attribute it to brother John.

A Death in Summer, by Benjamin Black

2011-08-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

John Banville should either make an honest effort with the Benjamin Black books or just stop now. The first Quirke book was wonderful, the next pretty humdrum, the third back in great form, the last a complete bust. Admittedly having a dreadful readers hammers lots of painful nails into the coffin of a mediocre book, but it's not all the fault of Keating. The book begins with a headless tycoon and meanders casually through some fairly grim territory -- a ring of powerful child molesters, a horrific orphanage-cum-brothel, a maiming, a couple of fratricides. The anti-semitism thread weaves steadily throughout but ultimately goes nowhere, and I was disappointed in Quirke for his risky affairs with drink and Francoise.

In Search of the Rose Notes, by Emily Arsenault

2011-08-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

When a brilliant author takes on the mystery genre, the results can be staggering. In Search of is set in three time frames: before the disappearance of Rose, the babysitter of two paranormal-obsessed young teens, Nora and Charlotte; after Rose's disappearance, when the girls try to use the paranormal to solve the mystery; and in modern day after the discovery of Rose's body, when Nora returns to her hometown of Waverly to tread over old ground with Charlotte. The impact of Rose's disappearance on Nora and Charlotte and their friends is cataclysmic, and it seems to take all of Nora's hard-won self-possession to face Waverly again as an adult.

Minding Frankie, by Maeve Binchy

2011-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

If this had been my first Binchy, it would probably have been my last. It's sort of a cobbled together series of plot devices and ill-formed characters. When a dying pregnant woman places her daughter in the care of her one-night-stand father, the immature, alcoholic father changes his directionless and dissolute ways to make a home and life for the baby with the help of a Mary-Poppins-esque American cousin and a dozen people from a Dublin neighborhood who pull together to mind baby Frankie. A damaged social worker hovers, becoming ever more convinced that Frankie should be taken into care. Death, grief, dangerous situations for the baby, love and moral quandries are all stapled together. Kate Binchy did the reading.

Very Bad Men, by Harry Dolan

2011-07-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

Harry Dolan is a very talented writer. David Loogan, the editor of a mystery magazine, Grey Streets, and Elizabeth Waishkey, an Ann Arbor police detective, are great creations. Very Bad Men did not need an editor like "a basket of kittens," but a like a tiger with a buzzsaw. So many characters, so many layers of villains, so many plot twists, so many dead people. Most often a mystery that reaches 412 pages has lost its way. I hope Dolan gets a better editor for book three or that Amy stops worrying about whether he likes her.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, by Sara Gran

2011-07-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Sara Gran has brought magical realism to the mystery genre, with resounding success. She describes the grit, heartbreak and pervasive danger of New Orleans a year after the storm with a sharp-eyed honesty, but mixes humorous and magical elements into the solving of the mystery of a missing assistant district attorney. It's amazing that she can follow a fairly traditional mystery structure when clues fall out of the sky and in through Claire's dreams. Pretty great reading.

Iron House, by John Hart

2011-07-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

John Hart has a very specific voice. I'm not sure he could be confused with anyone else. His books provide suspense, pathos and gobs of violence. His world is pretty grim, but not hopeless. Here, the main character is Michael, a mob hitman, who falls in love with Elena and tries to exit the life. When the mob chieftain who okayed his departure dies, the new boss sends Michael's sadistic former instructor in the arts of enforcement to kill him and his pregnant lover. On the run, Michael must return to North Carolina, where he was raised in the horrific Iron House orphanage, to ensure the safety of the younger brother who he both saved and abandoned. It's a good book, easy to read in a day, but I question one of the underlying premises that killing people can leave one unscathed.

I Think I Love You, by Allison Pearson

2011-07-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

A truly lovely book for anyone who has ever fancied him or herself in love with a pop star. The first part of the book is told from the perspectives of Petra, a 13-year old Welch girl, who adores David Cassidy, and Bill, a young writer for the Essential David Cassidy magazine, who writes columns and answers letters as David. Petra's efforts to belong and her ill-fated trip to see Cassidy in person are both funny and a little heart-breaking. Bill's worklife at the fan magazine and homelife pretending to be a serious music journalist are described with empathy and a bit of mockery. The second part of the book takes place 20-some years later when Petra and her childhood friend Sharon are given the opportunity to meet David Cassidy in Las Vegas. The audio version ended with Pearson reading an interview she conducted with David Cassidy prior to writing this book. Pearson wrote I Don't Know How She Does It: A Comedy about Failure, a Tragedy about Success, which was also pretty wonderful. Sian Thomas was a great reader.

Hell Is Empty, by Craig Johnson

2011-07-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

Craig Johnson writes wonderful books. Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear are a couple of my favorite characters, and usually Johnson provides a taut plot, with abundant action, heart, and humor. I guess you can't fault an author for wanting to try something new, but I don't think this was Johnson's most successful effort. The preponderance of this book is about Walt's solo chase for a deranged killer through a mountain blizzard. Much of the action goes on inside Walt's mind. I don't know Dante's Inferno, but I suspect if I did I'd find abundant parallels.

The Sentry, by Robert Crais

2011-07-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm partial to the Elvis Cole mysteries, and I've appreciated the role of Joe Pike in each one. I'm just not sure Joe can carry a whole book. I see that Crais is trying to flesh him out, but he isn't there yet. Joe Pike is still a bit of a stick figure. In this book, Joe happens upon a sandwich shop owner being beaten up by local Venice gang members, and intervenes pretty successfully. He is taken with the shop owner's niece and tries to protect her and her uncle from all manner of threats, even after he accepts that nothing he has been told about the two has been true.

Death Toll, by Jim Kelly

2011-07-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Jim Kelly writes a fine mystery. I loved the Phillip Dryen series, and the Shaw and Valentine series seems equally good. DCI Peter Shaw is school smart, caring, and dogged; DC George Valentine is street smart, cunning, and wounded from the damage done to his career by mishandled evidence in an old cold case. My problem with the book is in the vast number of characters willing to kill, maim, torture, poison, lie, and assault other people to discover or bury the truth. There seems to be quite a number of soulless inhabitants of South Lynn. But how about this for a description? "Down the channel which led to the open sea an automatic foghorn called to a beat as slow as a dying heart."

Bad Day for Scandal, by Sophie Littlefield

2011-06-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

I like the Bad Day books. Stella Hardesty, the avenger, is resourceful and determined. Chrissy is becoming a true partner. Noelle is no longer the obnoxious, judgmental daughter. Sheriff Goat isn't much of a character, but Stella's attraction to him and her knowledge that he will be her downfall are some of the best parts. This story follows Priss Porter's efforts to blackmail Stella into helping with the disposal of a body with photos of Stella beating up an abusive husband (her night job), and Stella's following Priss's body-strewn path to retrieve the photos.

Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See

2011-06-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

I went to listen to Lisa See talk about this book, so I got to hear about Pearl, May, Joy and Z.G.and the 17th century Chinese villa before they each came into the story, making the setting and characters even more richly hued. This is See's one story with a happy ending, with a horrifying path to get the reader there. After the events of Shanghai Girls, Joy leaves LA to find her birth father and join the People's Revolution in China. Soon after Pearl travels to China to bring Joy back home. The horrors of the famines brought on by the absurd practices of the Great Leap Forward are painted vividly, as is corruption, honor, kindness and the will to survive. Joy's voice, immature, idealistic, is a feat.

The Wreckage, by Michael Robotham

2011-06-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

Robotham writes an amazing novel. His familiar characters -- the former police officer Vincent Ruiz, the journalist Luca Terracini, and the psychologist Joe O'Loughlin -- are great, and the new ones -- Daniela Garner the accountant and Holly Knight the damaged thief -- are equally well-imagined and unique. The story takes facts about the global financial crisis and posits a remarkably believable banking conspiracy.

An Evil Eye, by Jason Goodwin

2011-06-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

An Evil Eye is wonderful addition to the series, which is set in Turkey during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire. The main character is Yashim, an investigator and fixer, who serves the power elite. The fact that he is also a eunuch gives him access to both the men's and women's worlds. In An Evil Eye, Sultan Mahmut II has just died and the political realm is kind of dicey. Yashim needs to solve the murder of a Russian quickly before an international incident begins, while ensuring that he can keep his freedom outside of the palace. The Bellini Card was a little dull, but in An Evil Eye, Goodwin is back in form.

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris

2011-06-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

As of today, 576 people have posted user reviews on Amazon of Dead Reckoning. About the same number of people loved it as hated it, though the number who sort of hated it is bigger than the number who sort of loved it. I guess it just proves that you can't please all of the people all the time. In comparison to her last couple of Sookie Stackhouse books, this one is shorter and lighter in tone. I find Sookie's take on the world, even at its grisliest, pretty funny. This book provides backstory on Gran's relationship to the Finton, fairy humor, and Victor's wickedness, and sets up a number of new directions for future books, such as Eric's arranged marriage and the Cluviel Dor. I'll go there with her, as long as Johanna Parker keeps reading.

The King's Speech, by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi

2011-06-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

Not precisely scintillating. Drawn from journals, letters, and newspaper clippings, this book traces the life of Lionel Logue, the speech therapist, from his young adulthood in Australia to his death in England in April 1953. Particular attention is paid to his long personal and professional relationship with George VI of England. Life is duller than fiction. The audio version includes one of George's wartime speeches.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

2011-06-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Egan has me running full-tilt back to mysteries. If I were to have read each section as a separate, independent short story, I'd have been happier with the book, but trying to find the links between the characters and understand the stories' chronological relationships made reading the book work. Hard work. Someone should have warned me to make notes on each character as I was reading along, so that I could refer back to the notes when the characters reappeared in some tangential way later on. There are images that will remain in my mind forever -- Dolly, a publicist, had a party for everyone who was anyone, and somehow managed accidentally to maim or burn most of the people in attendance. After spending years in jail and exile, she discovered that hundreds of people scarred themselves to give the impression that they had been important enough to be at the party. Sasha's daughter's schematic representation of family life was very clever, very funny, and Sasha's uncle's taking money from his sister to search for her daughter in Italy and turning that quest into a vacation in Naples was entertaining. But Pulitzer Prize? Really?

Devil-Devil, by Graeme Kent

2011-06-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Set in the 1960's in the Solomon Islands, this book sets Ben Kella, a native of Malaita, and American-born Sister Conchita to solving quite a number of mysteries -- the death more than a decade ago of an Australian beach comber, the deaths of a grand-father and grandson, and the disappearance of an Amercian anthropologist. The book is populated with bushmen, saltwater men, a headman, and a few more westerners. Kella was born to be an aofia but raised in Western ways; Sister Conchita has a bit of Sound of Music in her. Kent spent years working in the Soloman Islands, and I have no reason to mistrust him, but it's not a book that made me feel that I'd learned some true things about the Solomon Islands pre-independence.

Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin

2011-06-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

I don't read this genre very much, so I don't know if Martin's approach to storytelling is bizarre or the norm for the fantasy/speculative fiction genre. It seems that Song of Fire and Ice is one very, very long book, rather than a multi-part series, and that each segment ends when one or more of your favorite characters dies or takes off in a new direction. Martin's writing is mezmerizing and his characters are broadly drawn. Lots of action, lots of violence and mayhem, lots of imagination. The series is about multiple struggles for power in a Britain-esque land + dragons, zombies, and years-long winters. The HBO rendition is a hoot. The reader is magnificient.

Death on Tour, by Janice Hamrick

2011-05-31T15:46:00.000-07:00

This book won the Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, and I see why. Hamrick did a great job with her Egyptian setting, a medium-end tour of Egypt; the hapless, gauche, annoying and friendly folks on tour; and the relations between the cousins, Jocelyn and Kyla. The plotting was careful and the herrings suitably red. Maybe I need to take a tour of Egypt some March.

Instruments of Darkness, by Imogen Robertson

2011-05-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

A new series, featuring Harriet Westerman, the wife of a British naval officer who is running her household and raising her children with her younger sister, while her husband is at sea; and Gabriel Crowther, an anatomist and recluse, who she recruits to help her solve a neighborhood mystery. There were some interesting bits about the 1780 Gordon Riots in London, and the British perspective on the American Revolutionary War. The core mystery, however, is a little over the top. The bad guys are very very bad, and the good guys are saintly. Sordid little secrets abound.

Stolen Lives, by Jassy Mackenzie

2011-05-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

There are so many things to like about this book. PI Jade de Jong is a great character, and Superintendent David Patel is a wonderful moral counterpoint. Bringing in the British detectives was interesting as well, though I guess it should have clued me into the fact that Jade's bodyguard gig and the police's human trafficking investigation might have something to do with each other. Duh. South Africa still ranks low in my vacation destinations thanks to Mackenzie.

Did Not Survive, by Ann Littlewood

2011-05-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

The second zoo-keeper book featuring Iris Oakley. This time she's dealing with elephants and animal rights activists who are picketing the zoo. Why would Iris's colleagues suggest that she investigate the death of the elephant keeper? Why would she agree? Can't say I remember much about this book, other than thinking that her first book was better.

Fall From Grace, by Wayne Arthurson

2011-05-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sure, we all like our heros flawed, but Leo Desroches is pushing things. A half-Cree/half-French-Canadian gambling addict who lost his family, job, and self-respect to the addiction, Deroches is making slow progress toward reestablishing himself as a journalist and father. He holds the gambling addiction at bay with drugs and ... bank robberies. Yes, that's right. I thought maybe they had changed the point of view when Desroches politely robbed his first bank. Really, Mr. Arthurson? The mystery revolves around a string of deaths of Native prostitutes in Edmonton, Alberta, that the police are unwilling to view as the work of a serial killer despite the similarities. It appears to be quite chilly in Edmonton in the winter.

The Coroner, The Disappeared and The Redeemed, by M. R. Hall

2011-05-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

The newly minted British coroner, Jenny Cooper, is the protagonist of this series. She is a mess. Recently divorced, estranged from her son, taking more medication than House to get through the day, she holds on to each case as if it is going to be her salvation from the ghosts that haunt her. In The Coroner, she investigates the deaths of two young people who were recently incarcerated in a privately run juvenile detention facility. She meets her investigative officer, Alison, and her lover, Steve, you get to see the hideous relationship she had and still has with her ex-husband, and you see a truly positive depiction of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. Big (prison) business tries to stop her (and everyone who helps her) from messing up their deal to build a gazillion dollar detention facility. In The Disappeared, she looks into the disappearance of a young Muslim man when after seven years his Mom has him declared dead. Nobody wants her doing that either. In The Redeemed, she investigates the death of a former porn star, who became the face of an anti-porn movement after being disfigured in an acid attack. The timing of Cooper's investigation is threatening the passing of a Decency Law, so nobody supports her in this one either. I like the parts about the Welsh police.