TUESDAY'S GONE by Nicci French

TUESDAY'S GONE by Nicci French: This is the second book in the mystery series following psychotherapist Frieda Klein, as she assists the police in investigations. The first, BLUE MONDAY, fell squarely into the "okay" camp for me, but the series had enough potential that I was willing to give the second installment a go. It was probably my last Frieda Klein mystery. The plot setup is intriguing enough: Chief Inspector Karlsson calls in Frieda when a social worker finds her mentally ill patient serving tea to a naked, decomposing corpse. You have my attention! (The authors are married couple Nicci Gerrard and Sean French, by the way, a pairing that may explain some of the choppiness of the story.)

The reservations I had after characterizing BLUE MONDAY as just "okay" for a mystery held true in the sequel. Frieda is very closed off and I had trouble relating to her. She doesn't like to get personal, a challenging quality for a protagonist. While the premise of the book is interesting, the plot meanders, the villains are telegraphed early on, and I saw the "shocking" plot twist a mile away. A continuing arc for the series was introduced (the series is proposed to be eight books, so I suppose the eighth will be titled NEXT MONDAY or something?) that I found boring. I'm also tired of the "heroine in constant danger" trope of female-amateur-sleuth mysteries. Frieda says and does some dumb things that bring her into danger. Again. She, and not the crime, is the focus, but because she's such a private person, I'm not connecting to her at all. If the book were focused on how she solves a mystery, that would make the lack of sympathy tolerable, but the book is about her even though we don't know much about her. It's an odd setup for a series.

Source disclosure: I received an e-galley of this title courtesy of the publisher.

A Little Cozy

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by Julia Spencer-Fleming: The opening line of this reissued trade paperback is snappy: "It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby." In the small New York town of Miller's Kill, former Army helicopter pilot and current Episcopal priest Clare Fergusson is pulled into a murder mystery when she finds a baby on the steps of the church with a note indicating that his birth parents want the childless Burnses (Clare's parishioners) to adopt him. She takes on the role of advocate and counselor for the Burnses, bringing her into conflict with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. When the young mother is found brutally murdered, Clare's position as priest to many key players makes her helpful to the investigation. Naturally, Russ and Clare find a mutual attraction, but it's complicated by the existence of Russ's wife, though the marriage is struggling. The chemistry between Clare and Russ is fantastic, and her struggles with her faith (and status as a priest) and her sexuality are compelling and sympathetic, while Russ's agonizing over his failing marriage and attraction to such a compatible woman is grounded and realistic.

Clare is more nuanced than your standard cozy heroine. The military background and calling to priesthood certainly set her apart. She is also the first female priest in a parish that is not entirely on board with modern church doctrine, but she has a sense of humor about it.

"Can you tell me what happened, um..." What was he supposed to call her? "Mother?" "I go by Reverend, Chief. Ms. is fine, too." "Oh. Sorry. I never met a woman priest before." "We're just like the men priests, except we're willing to pull over and ask directions."

The abandoned baby inspires her to work on outreach and support for unwed mothers, an unpopular notion with the vestry. She also decides to ride along with Russ, in order to get a feel for the town and its problems. A thin excuse for a non-police officer to involve herself in an investigation, but that's standard in cozy mysteries. Also standard is the frustrating "too stupid to live heroine syndrome," which prompts female sleuths of all persuasions to wander off into danger without a weapon or a cell phone or letting anyone know where they've gone. But these are minor quibbles, and really, they're annoyances of the genre. The mystery is interesting and has plenty of suspects and twists and turns, but the complex relationship between Russ and Clare is what prompted me to download the next book in the series (A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD), and, one after the other, to read all the books in the series (six more after BLEAK MIDWINTER).

The bitter cold in Millers Kill is the perfect antidote to the summer heat.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

Teaser Tuesdays - DEATH IN A WINE DARK SEA

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser is from DEATH IN A WINE DARK SEA by Lisa King: "Zeppo sighed. 'Weasel. Most people would find that insulting. But I'll think of it as a term of endearment, coming from you.'" (p. 83)

Mystery Monday - BLACK SWAN by Chris Knopf

BLACK SWAN comes out in May, and I'm reviewing it now so you have a chance to read the first four books in the series before picking it up.

Sam Acquillo is a rarity in series fiction: the protagonist who starts out at rock bottom and stays interesting as he gets his life together. At this stage of his development, he is marooned on an unfriendly island off the tip of Long Island with his girlfriend, Amanda and dog, Eddie. Poor Sam. All he ever really wants to do is be left alone, but his senses of justice and chivalry once again see him embroiled in a dangerous mess. With more severe weather in the forecast, he is forced to seek shelter at the island's inn, the Black Swan, where the owner's daughter, Anika, is a lovely young thing with an eye for Sam. When Sam suspects that a suicide at the inn is the result of foul play, his nature does not permit him to walk away, despite the danger. Sam fears for Anika's safety, and for that of her computer genius brother, who appears to be the target of some very unsavory people.

In essence, this is a locked-room mystery, with the weather serving to keep the island relatively cut off from the mainland. The supporting characters keep secrets and tell lies, making for a mystery of satisfying complexity. This would be melodramatic if it weren't for Knopf's wicked sense of humor. He adds levity at just the right moments to alleviate the tension:

"I introduced her to Amanda, who complimented Anika on her leather choke collar. I'd lived among women long enough to know this was a peace ritual, an expressed hope for boundaries to be respected and good will shared among all. Anika responded with a demure glance toward the ground, a fondling of the observed object, and a suggestion that it would look far better on Amanda, given her long, slender neck. I wondered if I should now piss on the grass at Amanda's feet, anthropologically speaking" (pp. 35-6; uncorrected proof).

Sam is a complex fellow, a former boxer and former engineer who left corporate America for a quiet life by the water. His experience with solving complex problems, not to mention his right hook, have helped him get to the bottom of some thorny mysteries in the past. In the first book, he has hit rock bottom, but he is not indifferent. BLACK SWAN is the fifth book in the series. Sam has grown as a person, but Knopf has kept him complex and unpredictable. Sam is wittier than your usual hard-boiled detective, more competent than your usual amateur sleuth, and he sometimes lets his inner boxer get the better of him. He may know exactly what he ought to do, and then do the opposite. There are no ruts or predictable patterns in this series.

Knopf is equally at home describing the finer points of sailing in a storm, how to sabotage software, or the best self-defense moves in close quarters, and his clarity, wit, and precise language are the perfect backdrop for an engaging mystery. I highly recommend that you begin with THE LAST REFUGE.

FTC Source Disclosure: I received an ARE courtesy of The Permanent Press.

My review of THE LAST REFUGE

My reviews of TWO TIME, HEAD WOUNDS, and HARD STOP

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.

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor: Set a potboiler in 1786 Cambridge, and it instantly has more credibility as literature than say, The DaVinci Code. Funny how that works, that the "historical" classification adds gravity. The Anatomy of Ghosts is a historical potboiler, and a good one, but it is not transcendent literature. It is, however, a fun read, and a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours. John Holdsworth, a washed-up bookseller, is nursing the loss of his son, who drowned in an accident, and of his wife, who committed suicide after losing significant amounts of money to a "medium" who claimed to be in contact with the son. He is in dire straits when Lady Anne summons him to perform two jobs for her: to inventory her late husband's book collection and to bring her son, Frank, a Cambridge student, back from the insanity that claimed him after he supposedly saw a ghost. She feels Holdsworth is uniquely qualified to go to Cambridge and debunk Frank's "haunting" because the angry widower Holdsworth had written a scathing debunking of the spirit world called The Anatomy of Ghosts.

When Holdsworth arrives at Cambridge, he finds a strange array of clues in Frank's room, and Frank's roommate is missing. To complicate matters, a secret society called the Holy Ghost Club doesn't want Holdsworth (or anyone else) to find out what happened at Frank's "initiation" into their society the night before he went mad, the night an orphan girl and the wife of the master both died. Is one of these women haunting Frank? Or is something else afoot? What really happened the night Sylvia Whichcote died? What sort of depravity does the Holy Ghost Club get up to? Why does Frank insist on quacking? Throw in all this intrigue with a completely unbelievable "romance" (that, far from being romantic, was creepy and rather off-putting), and you have all the ingredients for a bestseller. Though I saw for the most part where the plot was going, I kept turning the pages to find out who really killed Sylvia Whichcote, and for Taylor's rich, lovingly described 18th-century Cambridge campus, whose narrow lanes and lush quads are the most realistic part of the novel. Taylor has a gift for evoking a time and place in the past, using language, descriptive passages, and perfectly phrased details to bring his setting to life.

Fans of historical settings will love Taylor's masterful depiction of Cambridge, and lovers of potboilers will enjoy the suspense, twisting plot, and depraved young men that populate it. All in all, a fun read.

FTC Source Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

Mystery Monday - Donna Andrews

Stork Raving Mad is the twelfth mystery in Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series. Meg is eight months pregnant...with twins. But her home is in more chaos than just the usual visiting family members; Caerphilly College's heating plant has failed, and she's offered up her large house as a barracks for the displaced students. When her husband asks if she minds another houseguest, Meg assumes she won't notice one more. But Senor Mendoza, an elderly Spanish playwright, has come to visit Caerphilly because one of Michael's drama students is writing his dissertation on and staging a performance of one of Mendoza's bawdy plays. A pair from the college's administration turns up, accusing the student, Ramon, of having failed to complete the requisite paperwork for his dissertation topic. The more unpleasant of the two turns up dead. If all this sounds convoluted...well, it is. The premise isn't the best in the series, and the resolution of the mystery is a bit tedious. But after twelve books, Ms. Andrews is entitled to a weaker entry, and there is still plenty for fans of Meg and the Langslow clan to enjoy. The pregnant Meg on her constant search for a snack or a place to rest, is constantly sidelined by having to investigate. Rose Noire is taking her role as caregiver extremely seriously. I enjoyed her presence in this entry, including a key plot point. While Rob was absent, some of his employees were on hand, using Meg's basement as a place to test their new software. The students added an interesting dynamic as well. In all, a fun entry in one of my favorite series. Start with the first, Murder With Peacocks.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

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.

The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is Alan Bradley's second Flavia deLuce mystery. The precocious eleven-year-old practicing chemistry out of sight of her father and horrid sisters in 1950s rural England was introduced in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, one of my favorite reads from 2009. The second book does not disappoint. A traveling puppet show is the definition of excitement in Bishops Lacey, but when he dies during the show, that's the definition of excitement for Flavia deLuce. She digs into the mystery, using her knowledge of the village and chemistry knowledge to eliminate suspects and determine how the puppeteer's death could be connected to the hanging of a young boy five years before. Meanwhile, she cleverly concocts poisons to gain revenge on her older sisters, diagnoses pregnancy with a handkerchief, and stumbles upon a hemp field. We see more of the Bishops Lacey residents in this installment, and the rural village setting continues to delight. Flavia's odd Aunt Felicity is in for a visit, which adds an interesting dimension. Flavia is simply fun to read. My husband heard me cracking up while I was reading this book and asked what was so funny. "Flavia's trying to poison her sisters again!" I told him. I think he's reevaluating my sense of humor. Flavia is smart, witty, and resourceful, and her investigation is brilliant.

This is a fantastic entry in one of my absolute favorite mystery series. Fans of cozies or historical mysteries will love Flavia.


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

St. Patrick's Day Murder

Holiday reading can be fun, so I picked up the 14th installment of Leslie Meier's Lucy Stone series in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day. I've read a few books in this series and knew it wasn't a "must read in order" series. Lucy is a reporter for the Pennysaver in Tinker's Cover, Maine. Her pregnant daughter-in-law is in the hospital with toxemia and her daughter is under the influence of a fanciful child convinced that fairies are real. But she finds time to investigate when local pub owner Old Dan is found, without his head. Old Dan's estranged brother arrives from Ireland with his abrasive wife, with plans to produce Finnegan's Wake with the local church. Lucy ends up in the chorus, despite a lack of singing talent, giving her a window into the drama behind the scenes. The ending will surprise no one. This isn't on my A list of mystery series, but Lucy is usually a fun diversion. I expected a blarney-infused installment to be highly entertaining, but the plot was dull and plodding. One victim's death is so far-fetched as to be laughable. Celtic/Irish lore is thrown in for effect, but nothing really sticks. The attitudes of the Tinker's Cove residents changing toward the newcomer is implausible, and the "surprise" toxemia grated on my nerves, since that's the sort of thing that's closely monitored. All in all, an installment you could skip, and not recommended for your St. Patrick's Day fix.

Mystery Monday - Sequels Edition

The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard is the seventh in the Abby and Ophelia series about a psychic librarian coming to terms with her heritage as a witch. For the first time, we get to see the full array of powerful women in Ophelia's family, as she and Abby travel to the North Carolina mountains for Great Aunt Mary's 100th birthday. While I missed Darci, I really enjoyed meeting the family, and a chance encounter with Cobra was also fun. Great Aunt Dot, who sees fairies, was a hoot, and the rivalry with another clan was interesting. All in all, a worthy installment. The first in the series is Witch Way to Murder, and they're probably best read in order, given the ongoing character development. These are the best paranormal mysteries I've come across.

Bridezilla by Laura Levine: The Jaine Austen mysteries are fun and quirky, but insubstantial, like popcorn. Jaine is a writer for hire who runs into a disproportionate number of dead bodies. Killing Bridezilla was a lot of fun. Jaine's former high school classmate (and Queen Bitch) Patti hires Jaine to write her wedding vows. She wants Romeo and Juliet...but snappier. The money is too good for Jaine to pass up (someone has to keep Prozac supplied with Yummy Fish Guts cat food), and she finds herself sucked back into Hermosa High history as she continually rewrites to meet Patti's demands. Patti had stolen her groom from another classmate, kicks a bridesmaid out of the party for being too fat, and generally offends everyone she meets. So it's not that surprising when she turns up dead, having plunged from the very balcony that was to serve as her stage, landing on the point of an arrow brandished by a tacky cherub statue. Jaine investigates to clear another classmate. This installment in the series was hilarious and non-stop entertainment. The high school nostalgia brings a surprisingly thoughtful element to balance the hilarity. A very cute, funny mystery. The first in the series is This Pen for Hire.

Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke: Something about the Hannah Swensen mysteries keeps me coming back again and again, now for the thirteenth time. Is it the small-town charm of Lake Eden, Minnesota? Or Hannah's array of cookie recipes (it's definitely not the hotdish recipes...)? Or the delightfully quirky cast of characters who surround her? I think it's all of these. What it's not is that love triangle with Norman the dentist and Mike the cop, which got tired several books ago. Still, it's not intrusive enough to ruin the fun for me. The twelfth book (Plum Pudding Murder), ended with the arrival of an old flame of Hannah's, promising more in this line. And the despicable Bradford Ramsay is indeed key to the mystery, having been murdered right after Hannah threatens him. Oops. You'd think in a town with a body count like Lake Eden's, people would learn to stop saying incriminating things like "You'll be sorry!" At any rate, Hannah investigates while she tries not to obsess over why Norman has been so distant since returning from a visit to dental school buddies. The usual small-town Minnesota charm ensues, and I enjoyed reading this installment. A cliffhanger ending promises that the love triangle nonsense isn't over, but I'll put up with it to visit Lake Eden again next year. The first in this series is Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

Scone Cold Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett: I enjoyed Kilt Dead, the first Liss MacCrimmon mystery, and was looking forward to the second. Really, this series should be perfect for me, as it engages me on several levels: my inexplicable fondness for Maine, my love of small-town cozies, my interest in dancing and Scottish history/culture. Liss moves back to Moosetookalook, Maine, after a knee injury ends her career as a Scottish dancer, to run her aunt's Scottish Emporium. The Highland Games setting in Kilt Dead was more fun, I think, but really, this is a case of early promise not panning out. In Scone Cold Dead, Liss's old dance troupe is coming to town and her former manager is murdered. He was so thoroughly unlikeable that I didn't particularly care who killed him, but there were more problems in this cozy. The pseudonymous Dunnett seems to have adopted the obligatory love triangle of recent cozies, and Liss's boyfriend is grumpy about one of Liss's friends, who turns out to be male. I really can't see why she likes the boyfriend. He was thoroughly unlikeable throughout the book, and Liss was insensitive. I don't buy the law enforcement professional asking for Liss's help "because she knows the dance world." Sure, interviewing her makes sense, but asking an amateur to assist in an investigation? The reasoning seemed thin - it's not like they speak a different language and he needs an interpreter. The murder method is ridiculously complex and fraught with potential for error. I plowed through to the end, hoping it would live up to the promise of Kilt Dead, but no luck. In a fit of optimism, I picked up the third book in the series, A Wee Christmas Homicide, and didn't even finish it. This is extremely rare for me. I usually at least skim to the end to find out who did it, but I couldn't be bothered. In this holiday mystery, Liss discovers she's sitting on a gold mine: the cute little kilted bears she thought brightened up the Scottish Emporium are Tiny Teddies, the must-have toy of the season. Two other Moosetookalook businesses also have supplies. Instead of just chucking them on eBay, Liss comes up with a convoluted plan to celebrate Twelve Days of Christmas and bring tourists to benefit ALL Moosetookalook businesses. The obnoxious Gavin, who had tried to fleece Liss by purchasing all her Tiny Teddies, is murdered, and good riddance I say. Why Liss investigates is beyond me, and I didn't care in the least who killed Gavin. I'm sadly giving up on this series.

Source disclosure: I purchased all these books.

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.

Mystery Monday

I've been in a mystery/detective story kind of mood this summer. I read Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey back in June. I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.

This is the first in what appears to be a new series from Quartey. The promos for it suggested that if you like The Ladies #1 Detective Agency, you may enjoy this one. I had some mixed feelings on this one.

The story of Darko Dawson, a detective in Accra, Ghana's capital, is like his name, a bit dark. A young woman, Gladys is murdered in a small town outside the capital and Darko is sent to help with the investigation. While trying to solve Gladys' murder, memories come flooding back of visits to his aunt's house as a child (she lives in the region) and of his mother's disappearance 20 years earlier. His mother had gone to visit his aunt for a few days and never returned home. His mother's disappearance and Gladys' murder become entwined and in the end both end up getting solved.

The character of Darko is very well-written. We completely understand him from his troubled childhood (dealing with his mother's disappearance and his brother's accident that leaves him in a wheelchair) to his current life with a loving wife and an ailing son who needs a heart operation. Darko has a violent side that he lets loose every now and then. And he's a very smart and dedicated police detective. I can see where he will be a good series character.

I felt the other characters were not nearly as developed which is fine and may come with time as the series progresses, but my chief complaint is that there seemed to be too many of them! I was having a hard time keeping track of everyone. It wasn't until I was about 2/3rds through that I felt like I finally had everyone down.

I really enjoy reading books set in Africa. I like reading about the culture and the enviornment and this one is no exception. Though, I'm not sure I would compare it to Alexander McCall Smith's series very much, except in setting perhaps. It was interesting to read the contrasting cultures of Accra (the big city) to Bedome (the rural community).

I may pick up the next one in the series whenever it comes out, but I'm not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to be published. Wife of the Gods came out July 14th so you can find it at your local bookstore now!

I won Linda Fairstein's Lethal Legacy in a contest back at the beginning of the year.

This is the newest book in the Alexander Cooper mystery series. I had not read any other books in this series, but I deviated from my general "start at the beginning of a series and work forward" rule. Part of this novel is set in the New York Public Library which is what drew me to it.

A young woman is murdered while clutching a valuable rare book. A.D.A. Cooper and her police counterpart Mike Chapman work together to uncover the crime and its connection to the rare book world.

I have to say I give this one 3 stars. There were things I really liked about it. And then things that just plain bugged me. So first the good, I love the Special Collections and rare books aspect of the book. I even found all the details about old maps to be interesting. However, the characters didn't really draw me in (maybe because this is just one book in a series and a later one at that--maybe the character has already been developed in previous books). And the pace of the book was VERY slow. It took me forever to read this book because there was not much gripping me to keep me from putting it down. I really love the cultural aspects of this series. But, it's lacking the excitement and thrill I hope to find in reading a more "serious" mystery.

I was looking for a quick cozy book to read and the second book in Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden series fit the bill nicely. One of Aurora's cohorts from the Real Murders Club--Jane has passed away and inexplicably left her estate (house, jewelry, and savings) to Aurora. This both baffles and excites the librarian as she sorts through what Jane left behind.

Aurora spends time at Jane's house sorting through this and that, meeting the neighbors, pondering what to do with her windfall, all the while trying to figure out A) why the neighbors on the street have all had their houses broken into, and B) why Jane had a skull hidden in her window seat.

Even though the "mystery" of this one was not particularly deep or involved, I really enjoyed it. I like Aurora as a character and enjoyed her exasperation with having her ex-boyfriend (whose newly married and expecting a baby) living across the street from her. I think Harris does a terrific job of writing Aurora's character very real. All of her thoughts, reactions, and emotions are very genuine. I'm looking forward to continuing this series.

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.

Mystery Monday!

She Shoots To Conquer by Dorothy Cannell: I love Dorothy Cannell's Ellie Haskell mysteries, but some are not quite up to par. This one is fantastic. Cannell mixes reality television with gothic mystery in this clever 13th entry. Ellie, Ben, and Mrs. Malloy take a wrong turn on a foggy night and end up at Mucklesfeld Manor, a crumbling estate owned by the financially strapped Lord Belfrey, who has decided to offer himself up in marriage for a reality television show in hopes of reviving the old estate. Our group arrives just before filming is to begin, and discover that a contestant has died in a tragic car accident. Mrs. Malloy is eager to roll up her sleeves and join the fray, competing for Lord Belfrey's heart (and title), while Ben is roped into cooking for the snobby faux-French director. Mysterious connections between various contestants abound, and Ellie finds both Lord Belfrey and a visiting black Lab besotted with her (Ellie resembles Belfrey's second wife, who had disappeared with the family jewels). I had a great time reading this one.

Death of a Tart by Kate Borden: This series sounded great: I love mysteries set in New England, for whatever reason, and the volunteer mayor of a small town sounded like a fun amateur sleuth. This debut was okay enough that i wanted to read the rest of the series, but the series really grew on me. PJ (sometimes called Peggy in an annoying inconsistency) Turner lives hand-to-mouth on the proceeds from Tom's Tools, the hardware store she and her late husband had started. She and her eleven-year-old son are just hanging on in financially strapped Cobb's Landing when Max, the mysterious new owner of the bank, proposes that Cobb's Landing turn itself into a colonial village to attract tourists, turning the long-closed button factory into a hotel, and having residents hide their satellite dishes and don period costume all summer long. The desperate residents agree, and the transition seems to be going smoothly when the town tart turns up dead on the old water wheel. Since the entire police presence in Cobb's Landing is one man, PJ and her best friend since childhood decide to look into the death. The Max angle seemed rushed (not to mention unrealistic): he turns up in town and in a speech worthy of the monorail guy on The Simpsons, instantly convinces the whole town to go along with his colonial village plan. The integration of past (witch trials) and present (the murder) was interesting, but the resolution was a bit far-fetched, and I guessed the murderer. It was engaging enough that I picked up the other two books in the mystery.

Death of a Trickster by Kate Borden: Someone is playing Halloween pranks in Cobb's Landing. The high school's science class skeleton keeps turning up, frightening people into thinking a real murder has been done. Then Papa Luigi goes missing under strange circumstances, his granddaughter acting scared of something. When the new police chief's son turns up dead beside the bound Papa Luigi, Peggy and Lavinia break out their investigator hats once more. This entry felt like it further developed the characters and the town, and I enjoyed it more. Very cozy, cute small-town mystery.

Death of a Turkey by Kate Borden: This is the third and last Cobb's Landing mystery, and it was the best yet. PJ has a new neighbor, the appalling Prunella and her ill-mannered cat. Meanwhile, Max is pushing for a colonial Thanksgiving to bring in tourists off-season. Peggy isn't thrilled about having her family Thanksgiving plans pushed aside, and no one wants to wear their colonial costumes off-season. But she's soon distracted by the mysterious death of Prunella and a break-in at her shop. The resolution was telegraphed and a little strained, but the New England charm distracted me from that a bit. It was a cute holiday read.

More on Gilda Joyce

Allison reviewed the first Gilda Joyce awhile back and I picked up the second book in the series "Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake" at the library last month. Even though I started with this one instead of the first in the series, I really didn't feel like I was missing much. It worked fine as a stand-alone book.

Gilda decides to take advantage of an opportunity to attend an all-girls private school thanks to a recommendation from her mother's boyfriend. He had an 'in' with the school's headmistress as her car salesman. After hemming and hawing, Gilda decides to attend when she discovers an interesting ghost story at the school. A few years before, a freshman drowned in the lake by the school. There is a rumor that her ghost is now haunting the school. Instead of taking her studies seriously, Gilda takes on the case and starts snooping around. She diligently records all of her observations and findings in letters to her father typed on an old typewriter. He passed away and she writes to him as a way to still feel connected to him.

I enjoyed Gilda quite a bit. And thought the mystery was quite fun. I felt it was a bit long for what it was and perhaps some of Gilda's journaling could have been edited down. I will read the others in the series at some point, though, I'm not jumping to get to them as fast as I can. Small random side note for you: Although, I like the cover of the book in and of itself, the image of Gilda kind of bugs me. She appears so elfish looking on the cover. And that is just not how I pictured her in the book. In discussing this annoyance with Allison, she pointed out that this elfish/waifish look seems to be a trend in middle-grade fiction lately. Please reference the covers of Theodosia, Joy of Spooking, and Suddenly Supernatural as further proof. Hmm...wonder why this is? Do elfish-looking female characters sell more books?

Susan at Bloggin' 'bout Books also wrote an extensive review recently of the entire Gilda series.

***********

Allison's notes:

I can't believe I forgot to review Ladies of the Lake and The Ghost Sonata! I'll just add a bit here.

Ladies of the Lake: I liked this entry in Gilda's adventures quite a bit. It's a good standalone, but it also develops Gilda a but further. The typewriter connection to her dad is very sweet. The first book had more of a Harriet the Spy feel--Gilda has outrageous costumes and spies on the neighbors--that this one was missing, because Gilda is already undercover in her school uniform.

The Ghost Sonata is the third in the series, and it's the creepiest. Gilda's best friend, Wendy Choy, is invited to participate in an international piano competition, and Gilda manages to join the group as Wendy's page-turner. Once in Oxford, Wendy is haunted by a strange melody, mysterious tarot cards, and nightmares about a ghostly boy. The girls discover that a previous participant in the program died years ago; could he be haunting Wendy through music? Backstabbing competitors and a grueling practice schedule complicate matters, but rest assured that Gilda will get to the truth while spouting outdated British slang in hilarious fashion and maybe even flirting with a British boy.

The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil

I came across this delightful book at Ms. Yingling Reads. After reading her review, I quickly added it to my wishlist and then in a book-buying splurge, I purchased a copy! And I'm really glad I did for many reasons. One: it appears The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour is going to be a first in a series (yay!); two: the story involves some museum/art info which I always like; and three: it also includes many references to literature and pop culture (Monty Python!).

The story starts off with Sophie St. Pierre seeing the face of an old woman in a church window across from the classroom she is sitting in. She and her two BFFs, Margaret and Rebecca decide to investigate and end up discovering an elderly lady that lives next door to their Catholic school. The old lady, Ms. Harriman enjoys the girls' company and enlists their help in locating a birthday present her father hid for Ms. Harriman's daughter 20 years earlier. The girls begin a treasure hunt full of fun (but relatively easy) puzzles and they are not even sure the clues or the "treasure" will still be located where Mr. Harriman hid it all those years ago. The girls embark on an adventure where they encounter clues not just in literature, but art, math, architecture, classics, and more!

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Margaret is the brainiac, Rebecca is the artist, and Sophie is a math whiz. They each seem to have their special talents. The girls are 12 years old and act like pretty typical middle school kids. Each of the characters in the book have their own family dynamic going on and I felt like we got to know them pretty well. None of the characters seemed flat. Some of the explanation for the answers to the clues got a little wordy...especially the math explanation. I'm not sure children reading this book would be thrilled to be reading an explanation of an alegbra equation or graphing algebra answers (UGH!). But please don't let that deter you from this fun middle-grade mystery. I liked the wide range of topics covered and feel like there is something for everyone in this book. This will be sure to please fans of Nancy Drew! And I'm excited to hear there will be more in this series in the future!

Mystery Monday: Sequels Edition

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz: I liked The Spellman Files, and liked the sequel, Curse of the Spellmans, even more. But the third entry, Revenge of the Spellmans, is the absolute best yet. Izzy Spellman has left her job in the family P.I. business in favor of a bartending gig. She's in court-ordered therapy after that "misunderstanding" that led to her violation of a restraining order (she has trouble letting go before an investigation is complete). She swears her car is always in a different place than she parked it. And she's squatting in her brother's basement. So she's not in the best place. She takes on a single case, a husband who wants to set his mind at ease about his wife's fidelity. It all seems routine: Linda, Ernie's wife, just meets with a friend, as she had told Ernie. But something seems off, and it's not long before Izzy has uncovered some very strange information about Linda. While I knew that learning to let go and stop obsessing over the case was probably best for Izzy, I really, really wanted her to keep obsessing because I wanted to know what the deal was with Linda and her friend Sharon. What's great about this entry is that Izzy has to grow up. She doesn't have to lose all her quirks or become less funny, but between the therapy, the threats by her parents to sell off the PI business, the imminent out-of-state move by her attorney/good friend, and her lack of a real home, something's got to give. Izzy grows a lot as a person, but she's no less entertaining. Rae, Izzy's teenaged sister, also has some growing to do, as she's embroiled in a PSAT cheating scandal and interfering (somewhat feloniously) in Henry Stone's current relationship. All the threads come together in an absolutely hilarious way that only Lutz can pull off. I highly recommend this series and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Fatally Flaky by Diane Mott Davidson: I've been reading Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Bear mysteries for years. I think they were my first cozy mysteries. Fatally Flaky is #15, and I had fun reading it, but the series is starting to lose some steam. We had murder-by-car-accident again (I think that was back in #2). Teenaged son Arch was barely there. Now he's annoying, but still, it was bizarre that he was MIA for almost the whole book. And Davidson gave Goldy a beloved godfather...who has never been mentioned once in the fourteen previous books, despite his huge influence on her life. That last one bugged me the most. The convoluted plots don't actually bother me--they're fun and campy, but I like internal consistency. That said, the recipes were great, the interaction with Boyd was hilarious, it was fun to see Julian so capable, and Tom was less constantly nagging about his wife's interference in investigations (perhaps he's given up). So it was fun, but not the best in the series, and I wonder how much longer Davidson can keep the series going.

Mystery Monday

I have been enjoying the Ophelia and Abby series by Shirley Damsgaard immensely. I'm so glad I borrowed it from Allison. My thoughts on the first two books can be found here.

Book #3: The Trouble with Witches
In this one, Ophelia and Abby (and later on Darcy) travel to rural Minnesota to investigate the disappearance of a young girl close to Rick's family. Damsgaard brought back good looking Rick from Book 1 for this installment. As Ophelia looks into the disappearance weird activity takes place. She blacks out, it seems there are ghost lights across the lake from their cabin. Abby figures out that Ophelia has been hexed. They meet an odd Native American shaman and are not sure if he is on the side of good or dark magick. Out of all of this, Ophelia gets to know a young girl Tink who appears to be a medium. Her guardians are not treating her properly and in the end Ophelia decides it might be best if she becomes Tink's foster mother.

Book #4: Witch Hunt
In Book 4, Ophelia struggles with her newfound motherhood, especially when the child is already 13 years old and dealing with all the intricacies of the junior high social scene. It also seems that bikers have invaded their quiet little Iowa town. When Darcy's cousin is accused of killing one of the motorcycle gang, Ophelia can't help but get involved.

I think I liked Books 3 and 4 better than the first two. I really enjoy the established characters. I think it was very creative for Damsgaard to find a new location for Book 3 to liven things up a bit. And then she introduced the character of Tink to bring more life into Book 4. It seems she's very aware that a book series can get stale or formulaic and she's doing a great job of keeping on top of that issue.

It's funny because I like the series so much, I jumped right into book 5. But then I realized, I needed to take a little break. I get annoyed when reading series of books too close together because I don't like some of the repetition that you find (even if its very minimal). I like to give a series a little breathing room so when I visit it again, I'm excited to see what the characters are up to. I also find I need to do this with formulaic authors such as Jodi Picoult. That's why I can only read one or two of an author's books a year. I have to spread things out. Otherwise, I get bored with the author's writing style.

Allison's reviews of books 3-5 can be found here.