Mystery Monday: WICKED AUTUMN

WICKED AUTUMN by G. M. Malliet: Malliet's St. Just series is one of my favorite cozy mystery series, a tongue-in-cheek homage to the classic drawing-room mysteries, so I was very excited to pick up the first in her new series, WICKED AUTUMN. The Max Tudor series is not off to an auspicious start. While St. Just grabbed me from the beginning and had me laughing in delight, WICKED AUTUMN was a hard slog. I had to make myself keep reading so I could get to the end and write my review. Max Tudor is a former MI5 agent, now a village priest in charming Nether Monkslip. The horrid Wanda Batton-Smythe, head of the Women's Institute, is murdered. Since we are told early and often of Ms. Batton-Smythe's life-threatening peanut allergy, I hardly consider it a spoiler to disclose the method of murder. Yes, Death by Peanut. I could see that coming from miles away. Will Max need to dive into the murder investigation? Will Max have at least one potential love interest with which to flirt? Is there an obligatory New Ager with whom he gets on well despite their fundamental philosophical differences? Is there a stuffy former military man who thinks he's the center of the universe? Yes, all these and more cliches abound. Where DEATH OF A COZY WRITER subverted the genre with gentle mocking, WICKED AUTUMN seems to be trudging along in its well-worn footsteps. The major problem is character development, of which there is precious little. You might think that a former MI5 agent who decides to become a priest would be complex and nuanced, but this is sadly not the case. Max seems to be acting the part of the amateur detective with a dark past, rather than embodying it. The same is true of his supporting cast. The New Ager has no dimension beyond her New Ageyness. Likewise, wealthy antiques dealer Noah is just that -- a caricature of a wealthy antiques dealer. I found not a character with enough personality for me to relate to. This, coupled with a predicable, plodding mystery, made for a book I was glad to see the last page of.

Source disclosure: I received an ARC courtesy of the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

Mystery Monday: THE STRANGER YOU SEEK

THE STRANGER YOU SEEK by Amanda Kyle Williams:

Opening line: "The sun had not even burned dew off the grass under the live oaks, but the air was thick and soupy already, air you could swim around in, and it was dead-summer hot." Welcome to Atlanta, home of disgraced FBI profiler-turned-bail recovery agent/private detective Keye Street, recovering alcoholic, Chinese-born daughter of white Southern parents, and all-around smartass. Longtime friend Lieutenant Rauser, under pressure to apprehend the sadistic, taunting Wishbone Killer, asks for Keye's help as a profiler. Inevitably, she is forced back into contact with a hated former colleague, the "official" profiler on the case. Besides the obvious need to pull Keye into an investigation to provide plot, her foray back into profiling offers psychological insight. When Keye was a profiler, she also became an alcoholic and destroyed her marriage, so her involvement brings up a delicious stew of emotional and psychological reactions.

Atlanta and the South are fully formed and alive in THE STRANGER YOU SEEK. The atmosphere, the people, the contradictions, and the neighborhood descriptions make for a rich setting. I marked several passages (in addition to the opening line) that capture Atlanta perfectly. As is obligatory in serial killer novels, passages from the psychotic killer's point-of-view are included. These are usually my least favorite part of a thriller (yes, yes, your mommy never loved you and you're a total nutjob...we get it already), but Williams chooses a fresh approach that worked well for me. The pacing is excellent -- this is a stay-up-all-night thriller -- and the twists and developments kept me guessing. Williams has surrounded Keye with a group of quirky friends, colleagues, and family members that play off her personality in different ways.

Plot, pacing, and prose are all excellent, but what makes THE STRANGER YOU SEEK stand out from the average thriller is personality, which Keye has in abundance. She's brilliant, funny, and deeply flawed, but she knows those flaws well. An exchange between Keye and Rauser:

"He thinks he's a goddamned analyst now because he's in therapy. And he's so righteous. It's painful."
"And what was Dr. Dan's diagnosis?"
"That I can't be serious. That I have intimacy issues."
Rauser chuckled. "How'd you take it?"
I sighed. "I told him, 'I got your issues right here,' and I grabbed my crotch and walked out."

And, just like that, I have a new favorite series heroine. Lucky for all of us, this is the first novel in a series, with the second and third out in 2012 and 2013.


Source disclosure: I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Random House through Shelf Awareness.

Mystery Monday: The Kate Burkholder Series

Hard to believe it's already been two years since I reviewed Linda Castillo's first book in her Kate Burkholder series, Sworn to Silence. I really liked that book! I read it in a little over a day.

I've been wanting to read Pray for Silence since I first saw it was released. It wasn't until I was going on vacation and looking for a new book that I quickly purchased it and downloaded to my NookColor. And I was not sorry I did. In this second installment of the series, seven members of an Amish family are found dead in their home leaving law enforcement officials baffled. Not until Kate finds a hidden diary written by one of the teenage daughters (Mary) in the family does she realize that Mary's boyfriend may be the #1 suspect. But Mary never mentions him by name. Throughout the case, Kate identifies with Mary as a victim. Her past catches up with her; Kate was victimized as a young Amish girl who eventually left that way of life. She finds it hard not to take it personally as she learns about Mary being taken advantage of. The only downside to this book is that there are quite a few characters on the periphery. I had to remind myself who one of the suspects was at the end.

Once I finished Pray for Silence, I was soooo excited to find a review copy of the latest book in my mailbox! I jumped right into Breaking Silence. Kate is called out to an Amish family's home where four children are left orphaned when it appears that their mamm, datt, and uncle are found dead in the manure pit in the barn. The coroner realizes at least one of them was murdered and the case turns around. Someone has been going around committing hate crimes against the Amish and they think the murders may be a part of that. However, Kate soon learns that things are not what they seem and maybe things aren't so simple in the Amish world. The family's secrets are revealed and things really twist around!

Throughout both of these books, Kate calls on John Tomasetti both to help her with the cases and to lean on in her personal life. They have both endured great personal hardship and are fighting their way back from being broken. They both have their demons but work well together. The thing I truly like about these books is the way Castillo writes the characters of Kate and Tomasetti. They are so real. And deep. Really, really great character development in this series. The only thing that bugs me a bit is that it seems that Castillo is stuck on the young innocent Amish girl being victimized. It would be nice if her next book had a fresh take on the Amish community and the case involved a storyline other than a young naive Amish girl.

Source Disclosure: I purchased Pray for Silence and received a review copy of Breaking Silence from the publisher.

Mystery Monday: THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbo

And it's another candidate for "The Next Stieg Larsson!" A thriller set in Norway (all those cold countries are the same setting, really), THE SNOWMAN enthralls when it isn't bogged down in cliche. It opens with possibly the worst sex scene in the history of thrillers, but once that's over, it captivates with the creepy statement from a child: "We're going to die." Unusually for me, especially in a book filled with red herrings, plot twists, and misdirection, I figured out who The Snowman was almost immediately and was unswayed by the multiple times the killer was "caught." I'm not sure if this was a lucky guess that took hold, or if it really is that obvious. At any rate, I enjoyed, for the most part, the unfolding to the reveal. There are excellent moments of creepiness that made me keep turning pages (or, rather, hitting the "next page" button on the Kindle), and Harry Hole skirts the edge of the "alcoholic brilliant detective" cliche carefully enough that I grew to quite like him. What I enjoy about serial killer novels (is that a genre on its own?) is the process of the detectives putting together clues to unravel the mystery, not the point-of-view of the serial killer (yes, yes, you're psychotic and your mother wasn't nice to you...we get it already), so a chapter near the end detailing the killer's rationale and process was so unbearably tedious I mostly skimmed it. I'd rather have the detectives uncover the details than have the killer's actions from childhood summarized for me.

The plot: Harry Hole is about to come up against a serial killer who kills with the first snow, leaving a creepy snowman behind. (I suspect Nesbo is trying to do for Frosty what Stephen King did for clowns.) An examination of missing-women statistics reveals that not all the bodies may have been found. Some of the murders are absurdly complicated, but that's not unusual in serial killer novels. It was an amount of suspension of disbelief I could live with. The wide pool of suspects and the revelation that it is someone with a connection to Harry makes the pages fly by. Even being certain of the killer, I enjoyed the process of Harry and his team chasing down leads to get closer to the truth. Besides a Scandinavian setting, THE SNOWMAN has nothing in common with Stieg Larsson's trilogy. It reminded me more of Michael Connolly or Jonathan Kellerman, but the setting is a compelling part of the novel, almost another character. If you're looking for a summer thriller, this is a decent one overall, with some flickers of brilliance. If you read it, come back and tell me if you guessed the killer. From the Amazon reviews, I'm not sure it's as obvious as I think it is.

Source disclosure: I purchased the Kindle edition of this book.

Flashback Friday - Kay Scarpetta

I often get it into my head to reread old favorites, especially long-running series. The profusion of medical examiner dramas on television made me want to revisit Scarpetta. I hadn't read the last couple of books, having been disappointed in more recent installments, but Port Mortuary was suggested as a good Scarpetta novel, and I enjoyed it. I decided to start the series from the beginning. How fun! First, DNA testing is still relatively new at the start of the series, and the first few books provide a brief history of forensic science, with DNA results taking weeks in the first book, and pre-DNA database, only serving a purpose when there's a suspect for comparison. Soon, PCR testing has made DNA testing much faster (and therefore more useful in solving crimes), and DNA information begins to be stored. I was able to pinpoint the book at which my interest began to wane: BLOW FLY, in which Patricia Cornwell switches to the third person and seems to hate her main character. I was happy to see that by THE SCARPETTA FACTOR, Cornwell seems somewhat less hostile toward Scarpetta (though I still miss the first-person narrative) and PORT MORTUARY is almost even enjoyable. There are some major character inconsistencies throughout the more recent books, but PORT MORTUARY sort of made up for those. At any rate, even if you don't hang in until the end of the series, the first few books are well worth reading.

The books in order:

Postmortem (1990)
Body of Evidence (1991)
All That Remains (1992)
Cruel and Unusual (1993)
The Body Farm (1994)
From Potter's Field (1995)
Cause of Death (1996)
Unnatural Exposure (1997)
Point of Origin (1998)
Black Notice (1999)
The Last Precinct (2000)
Blow Fly (2003)
Trace (2004)
Predator (2005)
Book of the Dead (2007)
Scarpetta (2008)
The Scarpetta Factor (2009)
Port Mortuary (2010)

Mystery Monday - THE INFORMATIONIST

THE INFORMATIONIST by Taylor Stevens: Something about summer inspires me to read thrillers. Perhaps it's a fast-moving plot to counter the slow-moving summer. At any rate, my thriller kick continues with this novel by Taylor Stevens, whose own life, growing up all over the world after being born into a cult, reads like a novel. Is Vanessa Michael Munroe really "the next Lisbeth Salander"? What does that even mean? She's a damaged, resourceful woman who often finds posing as a man useful in her line of work, which is collecting information. She's a chameleon, picking up language without effort, understanding the nuances of culture at a glance, so she is extremely successful at obtaining information no one else can get. What she doesn't do is find people like a private detective, but she can't resist the mystery behind Emily Burbank, who was last seen in Namibia, nor the millions offered by Emily's oil tycoon father. Hostility to her search is immediate and strong, and she ends up enlisting the help of the gunrunner with a heart of gold whom she abandoned years before. We learn more about Monroe's dark past and her reluctance to form attachments (she is horrified to find herself with a partner). As a tortured character, Monroe can't be favorably compared to the more nuanced Lisbeth Salander, but this is a solid thriller that keeps the action going and the reader guessing. I had difficulty putting it down. Highly recommended as a vacation read!

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Mystery Monday - More Scandinavian Thrillers? Yes, please.

THE HYPNOTIST by Lars Kepler: America has clearly not had enough of the Scandinavian thriller, and THE HYPNOTIST (to be published here in July) is at the top of the genre. It took me barely a day and a half to breeze through this 500+-page novel, because I simply couldn't put it down. Despite sometimes heavy-handed foreshadowing that brought the tone a bit too far into melodramatic territory, the twists and turns of the plot, the deepening understanding of the characters, are gripping enough to keep the pages flying. The novel begins as Detective Joona Linna, in desperation, calls in ex-hypnotist Erik Maria Bark to delve into the mind of the sole survivor of a brutal mass murder in order to save the last potential victim. Bark has given up hypnosis for reasons that are dribbled out throughout the novel for maximum dramatic effect. I felt this was a bit overdone, but had no trouble letting it go. The novel has very short chapters and multiple points of view, making for a choppy ride at the outset, but it's not many pages before it becomes cohesive in the reader's mind. What Bark finds out in the damaged mind of young Josef changes the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, Bark's past comes back to haunt him in a very real way, through the disappearance of his son, Benjamin. The minutes are ticking by to the next dose of the medication Benjamin must have to stay alive (if this sounds overdramatic, well, it is, but it's easily forgiven). Comparisons to Stieg Larsson are inevitable, but this is not THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Instead it's a well-researched chiller with echoes of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. It's dark. I think that's the appeal of Scandinavian thrillers; they resist the cozification or politicization that has infused American thriller/mystery. Insular cultures, remote locations, snow, ice, and long, dark winter days make a strong backdrop for twisting psychological suspense.

I did think the novel was a bit long, but it still moves quickly. I can think of a couple of subplots that could have been chucked out to streamline the book, but this is a minor quibble. If it weren't so heavy, I'd speculate that it would be the beach read of 2011 in the U.S. - although I suppose that's what e-readers are for.

Source disclosure: I received an Advance Reader's Copy from Farrar, Straus and Giroux through Shelf Awareness.

Mystery Monday - Flavia deLuce

I was unable to resist the third Flavia deLuce novel, A Red Herring Without Mustard, even though it's still in hardcover, and I was not disappointed. These, along with Susan Wittig Albert's Beatrix Potter mysteries, would also be great for middle-graders, though the mysteries are complex enough for adult fans of cozy mysteries. Flavia is a precocious eleven-year-old sleuth and eager student of chemistry (partly so that she can effect revenge on her mean older sisters), fascinated by crime-solving (life in 1950s rural England is, after all, pretty boring). I really enjoy the chemistry aspect of the books. In one of her experiments, Flavia uses some of what she's read to test for fingerprints on an object that's been submerged underwater. When a Gypsy caravan comes to Bishops Lacey, Flavia has her fortune read. The Gypsy woman who had given Flavia a puzzling fortune then turns up dead. Was it the Gypsy's odd granddaughter? The strange woman who had accused the Gypsy woman of stealing her baby years before? Is Flavia herself a suspect? And what does a bizarre religious cult have to do with any of this? Red herrings are abundant in this mystery, which also includes some further development of Flavia's character and family. This could be read alone, but I've certainly enjoyed reading this series in order.

My review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
My review of The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Mystery Monday - Arnaldur Indridason

I received Arctic Chill, the fifth book in Arnaldur Indridason's mystery series set in Iceland, featuring Inspector Erlendur, as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer selection, and had no trouble jumping right in. The fifth was so well-written that I immediately snagged the first four in the series. I'm not going to do full-on reviews of the first four books; I just wanted to mention them to anyone needing something to fill the void left by the end of the Stieg Larsson trilogy! Though the books are very different, they seem to me likely to appeal to fans of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The forbidding landscape, insular culture, and twisting mysteries are satisfying additions to my mystery shelf (shelves...who am I kidding?).

My review of Arctic Chill is right here.

Here are the first four, in order. The sixth is out in hardcover, and is called Hypothermia.

Jar City
Silence of the Grave
Voices
The Draining Lake

My overview of the series: These are excellent police procedurals, strongly rooted in solving the crime (the way I like it!), but with compelling police officers who become more nuanced with each entry in the series. Erlendur has two children, estranged until recently, and a tragedy hidden in his past that haunts him. Indridason's Iceland is bleak, insular, forbidding...and strangely captivating. When issues of racism related to immigration arise, I wondered what on earth would possess anyone to move there. Erlendur refers to "the usual Icelandic disappearances;" i.e., suicides in a casual fashion. Murders are rare and easily solved...but this series tests Erlendur's sleuthing abilities with more complex murders. Stark realism and nuanced characterization make this series stand out from a sea of procedurals.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

"Je me souviens" (I remember) is the motto of Quebec, and Bury Your Dead echoes this sentiment in every plot thread. In the acknowledgements, Penny says, "Bury Your Dead is not about death, but about life. And the need to both respect the past and let it go." (Advance Reader's Edition) The main action takes place in Quebec City, an ancient, walled settlement literally built on the bones of those who came before. Here, the dwindling English minority huddles together, surrounded by the Francophones who mostly resent their presence. Their symbolic last stand is in the Literary and Historical Society, the depository for all English-language books and papers. The old building needs an infusion of cash, but the Anglophone community responds poorly to attempts to sell off the worthless books and papers choking the Lit and His, insisting that to sell off a few books to save the many devalues the English language. It is here, in the Lit and His, that Inspector Gamache seeks refuge in the past, and is pulled into a murder investigation in the present.

Bury Your Dead is the sixth entry in the Inspector Gamache series. I first read the fifth, The Brutal Telling, then immediately ordered the first four books in the series. I was delighted to receive a review copy of the sixth, which picks up some time after The Brutal Telling. Gamache and Jean-Guy are both on leave following a disastrous case that left both men wounded, physically and emotionally. Gamache seeks refuge in Quebec City with his mentor, Emile, researching the history of another leader whose mistakes piled up until it was too late. In the basement of the Lit and His, the half-buried body of amateur archaeologist and eccentric Augustin Renaud is found, his head caved in with a shovel. Renaud is well-known as a fanatic obsessed with finding the final resting place of Champlain, the father of Quebec. French-English relations are threatened by Renaud's death in the English stronghold, and Gamache is asked to act as liaison between the two communities and assist with the investigation. Penny has dealt in intriguing fashion with the Anglophone/Francophone relations in Quebec in previous books, but this marks her most thorough discussion so far. I was fascinated by the political/historical implications of the unfolding events.

Meanwhile, Gamache is haunted by doubts and sends Jean-Guy (also on leave) to Three Pines to reopen old wounds. I can't go into detail without spoiling The Brutal Telling for those new to the series. But Jean-Guy's covert investigation is a welcome return to the charming village, intersecting with Jean-Guy's attempts to deal with his own past. The final plot thread, the disastrous last case, is teased out in remarkably effective fashion as Jean-Guy and Gamache attempt (separately) to come to terms with the tragedy. So much of both men is revealed in this entry of the series, and this unifying idea of respecting the past, but letting it go, is carried through this psychological exploration as well. It's really a breathtaking book, and I found it difficult to put down.

While a newcomer to the series wouldn't be completely at sea, I recommend against starting with the sixth, which refers to many events in The Brutal Telling. In addition, The Brutal Telling marked a deepening psychological examination of the main characters, which is further explored in Bury Your Dead. Readers will find the most satisfaction in reading the series in order from the beginning as the characters are fleshed out and relationships evolve.

Bury Your Dead is available in hardcover September 28, 2010.

FTC Source Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

My blurbs for #1-4, Still Life, A Fatal Grace, The Cruelest Month, and A Rule Against Murder.
My review of #5, The Brutal Telling.

Mystery Monday: Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham

I enjoyed John Grisham's first foray into juvenile fiction better than his recent adult novels. His knack for storytelling never gets old and translated well for a younger audience.

Theodore Boone is the thirteen year old son of two lawyers. He spends his afternoons at their law office doing his homework and helping students with occasional legal troubles. He is good friends with many of the cops, lawyers, judges and secretaries in town. When the trial of the century takes place, Theo is chomping at the bit for a front row seat. During the trial, a fellow student comes to him with information that could change the outcome of the verdict. Theo must figure out how to help without risking breaking a promise and without messing up the whole trial.

I enjoyed reading this novel and whipped right through it. I only have two complaints. One is very minor. Grisham tended to overexplain things with regard to the courtroom and he defined random words here and there. But, I realize many kids reading this book would not have knowledge of how a courtroom works so these explanations are necessary. It was just a little much for me as an adult reading the story.

My second gripe is that I felt like the book just sort of ended. I wanted a bit more closure. Not sure if Grisham's enthusiasm for writing the book just fizzled out, but I didn't feel like the ending was very polished. There was one man creeping around (Omar Cheepe), and maybe I was reading too fast and missed the background on this guy, but I didn't feel like I fully understood what this character was up to. He was following Theo around but I couldn't figure out why or how he was related to the defendant in the trial. I guess I sort of wanted an epilogue what would neatly tie it all together.

All that being said, I definitely recommend this to any young reader out there looking for a good mystery or interested in how a trial is run. I think this is a great book for children who may read above their level. Content-wise this is very appropriate for younger readers. No real violence, no bad language. Just good storytelling.

Source disclosure: I received this from the Penguin Group as part of their summer promotional package.

Mystery Monday - Laura Levine

Killer Cruise by Laura Levine is the eighth book in the Jaine Austen (Writer-for-Hire) mystery series. This is excellent beach reading. Levine has a great sense of humor, and she doesn't take herself too seriously. Instead, she infuses each entry with tongue-in-cheek observations, snappy dialogue, and Jaine getting herself into ridiculous situations...again. Jaine is a freelance writer, and she pretty much takes any job that will help keep Prozac in expensive kitty kibble. This time, she's thrilled to be offered a free Mexican cruise to fill in for the writing teacher who had cancelled. Her illusions are shattered when she's shoehorned into a closet on the Dungeon Deck with the other employees and meets her "students," one obsessed with Mary Higgins Clark (and she's the most normal). One writing exercise splits up a couple on the cruise to celebrate a milestone anniversary. And Prozac has ended up on board. To keep him quiet, Jaine agrees to read the porter's dreadful manuscript. It's the usual fun, wild ride until Jaine uncovers a murderer.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Mystery Monday - Lisa Lutz

Still in Paris! I read the newest Isabel Spellman book over a month ago, though, so I wanted to schedule a Mystery Monday post for the series, which has become one of my go-to rereading series. For fluffy, fun re-reading, I still go to Janet Evanovich and her Stephanie Plum books, but Izzy Spellman is fresh and funny, but with a more serious edge. And she's good at her job. A little TOO good...

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz (Book One): At twenty-eight, Izzy Spellman is comfortable in the family business, a detective agency, where she enjoys surveillance a little too much. And she's not the only one. The Spellmans can't seem to leave their work at the office, spying on each other with every professional resource they have, except for David, the "black sheep" of the family, who has chosen a respectable job as a lawyer. When Izzy's mother hires fourteen-year-old Rae Spellman to follow her sister to find out about Izzy's new boyfriend, Izzy decides she wants out. Her parents agree to let her go...after one more case. An impossible-to-solve fifteen-year-old missing persons case. They're banking on her insatiable curiosity keeping her in the business after the required hours have been put in. Rae, whose hobby of recreational surveillance is more than a little dangerous, disappears, presenting Izzy with the most important case of her life. The dialogue is snappy, the dysfunctional family outrageous, yet believable, and the cast of characters rich and quirky. This is pure fun.

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Book Two): Izzy is obsessed with the Spellmans' neighbor, who seems just a bit 'off.' She can't seem to leave him alone...despite the restraining order. She's arrested four times in three months, which she writes off as a hazard of the job. It all started when the friend from whom she'd been subletting an apartment showed up in the middle of the night. He's happy to be roomies, but she quickly moves back home. Rae, now fifteen, befriends a cop and great guy, Henry Stone. He really doesn't deserve to be saddled with the Spellmans, but he's so good for them, the reader hopes that he and Izzy will get together. But Izzy is preoccupied with that suspicious neighbor and with her brother David's problems. This is a worthy follow-up to a fantastic debut mystery.

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Book Three): This series just gets better and better. Izzy is in court-ordered therapy, Rae is accused of cheating on the PSAT, and a new case seizes Izzy's attention. Ernie Black's wife is probably not having an affair...but something odd is going on. Even after Ernie is satisfied, Izzy can't let go until she uncovers the secret. The transcripts of Izzy's therapy sessions are hilarious - she's a terrible client, but a funny one. Her preoccupation with Henry's annoyingly perfect new girlfriend adds another subplot. Another fun read.

The Spellmans Strike Again by Lisa Lutz (Book Four): I was delighted when Lutz released a fourth book in this series. I can't get enough of Izzy and her crazy family. Unfortunately, this looks like the final entry, but what an entry! Izzy has finally agreed to take over the family business. Her first task is to gather dirt on Rick Harkey, the competition, one she enjoys a bit too much. A mysterious disappearance convinces her to hire an actor friend to play butler in a mansion, a role he can't leave at the end of the day, driving his partner crazy. Rae, now interning by researching pro bono cases, becomes obsessed with freeing a prisoner. And what on earth does Henry Stone mean by hanging around again? A funny, delightful conclusion to a fantastically fun series.

Source disclosure: I purchased all these books.

Mystery Monday: The Chet & Bernie Series

If you're looking for a fun mystery that has a bit of a different twist, Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie series may be just what you're looking for.

Chet and Bernie are in charge of the Little Detective Agency. Bernie Little is a private investigator based in Arizona who is not very good with money, tends to drink a little too much, can be a brute when need be, but is ever loyal to his good buddy, Chet. Chet is a dog. He and Bernie are equal partners in the detective agency and what truly sets these mysteries apart is that they are written from CHET'S point of view! Yes, you read that right. The DOG is telling the story.

It took me a chapter or two to get used to Chet's point of view. But after that, I got into it. It was sort of fun to read the story from his vantage point. And it actually added a bit of suspense to the book. At times Chet knew answers to the mystery that Bernie didn't and being a dog, Chet couldn't communicate this information to Bernie. It kept you reading to find out how Bernie was eventually going to figure everything out.

In the first book Dog On It, Chet and Bernie are in search of a missing teenage girl. Chet is dognapped and happens to discover where the girl is being kept. He just has to figure out how to lead Bernie to her.

In the second installment, Thereby Hangs a Tail, Chet and Bernie are charged with guarding a prissy show dog named Princess. But Princess, her owner, and roving reporter Suzie Sanchez go missing. Chet and Bernie are on the case!

I will fully admit I am NOT a dog person at all. I have always been a bit tentative around them. But I have become a fan of these books centering around Chet. And I HIGHLY recommend them to any dog-loving mystery fans out there. I think you will really get a kick out of them. It was amusing to me how well Quinn seemed to capture the personality of a dog and the observations Chet made about humans. I'll be sure to continue reading this series!

Source disclosure: I purchased both of these books.

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny is the fifth book in the Inspector Gamache series set in the Canadian village of Three Pines (the first is Still Life). I don't ordinarily pick up books in a mystery series out of order, as I really enjoy the book-to-book character involvement, but the premise of this one was too good to resist. A stranger is found murdered in Olivier's bistro in Three Pines. At first, no one admits to knowing the murdered man, a hermit whose cabin is filled with treasures. Inspector Gamache teases out the lies (both material and inane) told by various villagers and pursues Olivier's murky past.

The combination of police procedural and village murder mystery was very well done in The Brutal Telling. Three Pines is an irresistible setting with well-wrought characters to inhabit it. Olivier and Gabri were charming, Clara and Peter, a husband and wife both pursuing careers as artists, were compelling, and the poet with the pet duck both funny and wise. On the investigation side, Inspector Gamache is complex and likable, and his team of Lacoste, Beauvoir, and Morin learn from his experience while teasing out different parts of the mystery themselves. I particularly enjoyed Morin.

I did not feel lost, though this was the fifth book in the series. However, I have purchased the first four books in the series so that I can get to know the Three Pines inhabitants and Gamache's team from the beginning. This is a fantastic book in what I can only imagine is a fantastic series.

Source disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

Mystery Monday - Juvenile Edition

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart: There's enough mystery in The Mysterious Benedict Society series to qualify it for Mystery Monday, though it's also fraught with adventure and fantasy. The extraordinary group of children assembled by Mr. Benedict in the first book, The Mysterious Benedict Society, return for their third adventure. Villainous Ledroptha Curtain is trying to reclaim the dangerous Whisperer for his own nefarious purposes, and Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance are in seclusion for their own protection. The opening Prisoner's Dilemma exercise with the children is hilarious, and the unfolding adventure is rollicking as usual, with added suspense regarding Constance's new powers and her mysterious past. This one feels like the end of the series, though the door is open for future adventures. Start with the first book.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Enola Holmes and the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer: Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. She lives alone with her mother, who disappears on Enola's fourteenth birthday. She enlists the help of her brothers, who are shocked at the decrepit state of the family estate and at Enola's total lack of femininity and polish. They plan to send her to finishing school, but Enola has no desire to be a proper Victorian lady. She dresses as a widow and escapes to London, where she becomes involved in the disappearance of a marquess while eluding her brothers. Enola is thoroughly engaging, a plucky, independent heroine trying to escape the constrained life of a Victorian lady. The mysteries (of her mother and of the marquess) are interesting and complex and the addition of Sherlock and Mycroft is great fun for those familiar with Sherlock's tales. Victorian England is beautifully imagined, in a realistically squalid way, and the language of flowers and ciphers of which her mother was fond are nice touches. I also read the next three in the series: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady, The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets, and The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, in which Enola solves more mysteries while eluding her brothers. This is a delightful series.

Source disclosure: I purchased Missing Marquess, Left-Handed Lady, and Bizarre Bouquets. I received Peculiar Pink Fan through BookMooch.

Mystery Monday!

Yes, I am taking a break from holiday craziness to get caught up on a few reviews. Several of my favorite mystery series have had recent additions.

Swan for the Money by Donna Andrews: I really enjoy the Meg Langslow mysteries, and this one was no exception. This is the eleventh entry, and by now, the characters are old friends. Andrews keeps the series fresh with a full complement of supporting characters (especially Meg's crazy family) and venue changes. In this case, Meg has been hornswaggled into overseeing a rose show. I don't have much interest in flower competitions, so I wasn't sure how exciting this entry would be, but the rose information is well-incorporated and not belabored. The prize-crazy participants, including a saboteur and a dognapper, add to the chaos and humor. An enjoyable entry in a long-running favorite. Start with the first, Murder WIth Peacocks.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke: I enjoy Hannah Swensen's mysteries and recipes, and the twelfth in the series, set during the Christmas season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, was a fun visit with familiar characters. The solution to this one was on the lame side, I thought, but the murder isn't the real draw in this series. I still find Hannah's chaste love triangle to be contrived and really implausible: Mike and Norman, her beaux, are friends with each other, and neither is bothered by her dates with the other. I have been wishing for the past few books that Fluke would just have her pick a guy and be done with it, but this is not that book. However, this entry introduces an unforeseen complication that may make the next book a doozy. Oh, have I not mentioned the murder? Larry, the owner of the Christmas tree farm, is shot in his trailer after eating Hannah's plum pudding (with actual plums!). He wasn't a particularly sympathetic guy, so I didn't care that much about the sleuthing. Hannah's holiday preparations (especially her cat, Moishe, and his response the the Christmas tree) and the mystery of Norman's mother's odd behavior are more engaging. Start with the first in the series, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

The Tale of Briar Bank by Susan Wittig Albert: I could not love this adorable series more, and it seems clear that Wittig Albert is having a great time writing it. This book blends facts from Beatrix Potter's life in the winter of 1909 with an imaginative tale involving Viking treasure, a dragon, and the local animals trying to crack the apparently accidental death of a man whose head was clobbered with a falling branch. But what of the claw marks on the tree? A delightful blend of biography, historical fiction, fantasy, and gentle mystery. Start with the first, The Tale of Hill Top Farm.

Rotton to the Core by Sheila Connolly: I really enjoyed the first in this series, One Bad Apple, and was looking forward to the next installment. I was very pleased with the follow-up. Meg Corey is settling into ownership of an apple orchard in Granford, Massachusetts, having hired a student to help manage the orchard. A young man is found dead in her orchard, and turns out to have ties to her manager. The victim, Jason, was part of GreenGrow, an organization promoting organic farming. Was his death a political statement, or something personal? Meg is a complex, interesting protagonist, and Granford a charming setting. The information about apple orchards is well-incorporated and fascinating.

Mystery Monday

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse by Charlaine Harris is the third book in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series. Book 3 finds Aurora sampling the realty business in her mother's real estate office after quitting her library job in Book 2. An alarm sounds through the real estate world when it appears there is a serial killer on the loose who just might be a real estate agent! Oh, and Aurora also seems to find love again.

I have to say, this has been my least favorite in the series so far. I just didn't find the mystery very interesting. I also wasn't convinced of Aurora's relationship with her new beau, Martin. She seemed to fall in love way too fast and he just doesn't seem like a good fit for her in my mind. However, I'll continue to read the series to see where Aurora's story goes.

I received an ARC of Linwood Barclay's Fear the Worst through Shelf Awareness. I whipped through this book in no time. I had not read anything by Linwood Barclay before. I would compare him to Harlan Coben. This book has a very similar story line and flow to many of Coben's novels.

The novel starts out with a typical exchange between a divorced father (Tim) and his teenage daughter (Sydney). They argue, she leaves the house mad, heading off to work. He, of course, feels awful about their argument and looks forward to her returning home in the evening to work things out. However, she never comes home. None of her friends have seen her. And when he goes to the hotel where she supposedly works, they tell him they do not know who she is and that she's never worked there. Huh? This starts Tim on a chase throughout the rest of the book to find out what happened to his daughter, hoping she's still alive, and saving her from whatever she's gotten herself into. As Tim delves deeper into the mystery of Sydney's disappearance, he slowly becomes a suspect with the police and not only is he chasing Sydney's kidnappers, the police are chasing him.

I enjoyed this suspenseful novel. It was a fast read and it held my interest. There was not much that bothered me about it. I think I enjoy Coben's writing just a bit more, but Barclay definitely deserves a read. I've since picked up No Time For Goodbye from Bookmooch and look forward to getting to it at some point. I'm not sure this book fully falls into the Mystery category, but it's close enough to be included here in Mystery Monday.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley: Reading does not get better than this! The story begins in 1950s rural England, where precocious eleven-year-old Flavia deLuce spends her spare time getting even with her older sisters, tinkering with poisons in her chemistry lab, and riding her bicycle from the rundown family manor to the village. When a dead bird turns up on the doorstep with a postage stamp on its beak and a barely alive stranger breathes his last, perplexing word ("Vale!") to Flavia, it is the most exciting time in her life to date. Most troubling to her: her father's shock and fright at the sight of the bird and a missing piece of the housekeeper's dreadful custard pie - who could possibly have eaten that? She digs into the investigation with relish, uncovering disturbing information about her father's school days and a postage stamp worth killing for. The police at first send Flavia off to make tea, but grow to appreciate her insights. The premise of a young aristocratic girl solving mysteries could be dreadful, but in Bradley's capable, witty hands, the material makes for an engaging mystery that manages to exude originality while evoking the Golden Age mystery. Is Flavia a realistic eleven-year-old from 1950? Really, I don't care in the least. She's so appealing, and I was so relieved that she uses her prodigious intellect for (mostly) good and not evil, that I wasn't bothered by questions of how

Fortunately, Sweetness is billed as the first in a series, and I look forward to more of Flavia's outrageous antics and penetrating deductions.

Mystery Monday

While on vacation last week, I finished up the last two books currently out in the Ophelia and Abby series by Shirley Damsgaard.

#5 The Witch is Dead: In the fifth installment of this fun series, Great Aunt Dot visits from Appalachia adding a new character and some fun. Although, she's not quite as crazy as Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series, she adds a bit of humor to the story. Her particular talent is seeing fairies and tippling homemade elderberry wine. Aunt Dot joins Tink and Ophelia on their latest adventure trying to figure out who killed the local undertaker. Tink also winds up kidnapped throwing Ophelia into a hysterical mess. Our friendly Federal agent Cobra/Ethan (from #4) makes an appearance again.

Although I liked Aunt Dot's character quite a bit, this storyline didn't grab me as much as some of the others. I'm hoping the series continues to hold my interest. I've found that it's at about book 5 or 6 where a series starts to go downhill a bit or the author has a hard time coming up with new ideas that are really good. I think Damsgaard has kept the series fresh and interesting, but this one was probably one of my least favorite.

#6 The Witch's Grave: This is the most recent in the Ophelia and Abby series. Ophelia meets a wonderful man (an author) at a fundraising event and winds up going on a walk with him where he gets shot right in front of her! She is very attracted to him and feels awful about what happened. She becomes quite obsessed with figuring out who shot him and two other people as well.

This book also takes a little different approach than the rest and has a second storyline set during WWII. It's the story of a couple working to help people during the war. This story comes to Ophelia in her dreams and Abby explains that perhaps reincarnation is at work. Abby must make a change in the present to help fix what went wrong in this person's past life. It was an interesting concept and the reincarnation story took place in France and discussed how Jews were gathered and sent to camps from France; first to Drancy and then to Auschwitz.

Ironically, I'm currently reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay which tackles this very subject. Anyhoo, I liked this last chapter of the Ophelia and Abby series and I sort of enjoyed that the story wasn't as much about Tink.

Allison's review of #6 can be found here.