Mystery Sequel Round-Up

I've accumulated a few mystery reads, and thought I'd group them. I'm never exactly sure how to handle reviews of series books: do I treat each book as an individual or do I review the series as a whole? Do I judge the book based on its context in the series or as a stand-alone? Certainly, if I'm reading #2 in a series (and particularly later books), I consider the series worth reading, and that's going to color my review. I think I tend toward reviewing the series and I try to avoid revealing anything about subsequent books (in terms of larger plot and character developments) that might spoil things for someone who decides to start with the first. Anyway, onto the books:

Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn by Joan Hess: The title is not mistyped! This, the second entry in Joan Hess's Claire Malloy series (the first is Strangled Prose), takes place at a murder mystery weekend held at the Mimosa Inn. Farber College's theater troupe stages several disagreements, clues are planted, and Claire is excited to show off her investigative skills. Things change abruptly when the murder victim turns out to have been actually murdered. Claire must sift through the fake motives and alibis provided for entertainment to unmask the unscripted killer. I find Joan Hess to be really funny in a dry, erudite sort of way (I hope that's not off-putting--she seriously cracks me up!). Sometimes if I'm skimming a bit, I realize I almost missed a funny wordplay joke. Claire is likeable and her trials with her fourteen-year-old daughter, Caron, are entertaining. Her competitive streak with regard to investigating murders manifests itself in funny ways, too. I thought this was an excellent entry in the series--the confusion of the murder mystery weekend was an enjoyable venue, and the supporting characters are a lot of fun. Caron, annoyed at having been dragged on this trip with her mother, is particularly overdramatic. I've enjoyed the first few in the series and am re-reading them after a few years (I think I read 1-4 or something). The first novel was published in 1986 or so, I believe, so they might seem a bit dated. I think of them as historical :)

Dear Miss Demeanor by Joan Hess: In #3 of the Claire Malloy series, Caron begs her mother to investigate the allegations that Miss Parchester, Journalism teacher at Farber High, has embezzled funds. Caron's interest in the matter is entirely self-serving; the senior who pens the Dear Miss Demeanor etiquette column in the school newspaper has mono and Caron is up for her job as long as Miss Parchester can return to work. Claire goes undercover as Miss Parchester's replacement. Her total apathy for what the students learn under her wing is hilarious, as are her descriptions of the other teachers. Not surprisingly, scandals abound and the stakes are raised when the principal's last meal turns out to be poisoned compote left in the teacher's lounge by Miss Parchester herself. I really thought the high school setting and supporting characters were fun; the overworked/underpaid teachers, the vice principal obsessed with rules and regulations, Caron's desperation to make her mark as Miss Demeanor, all make for good entertainment. There are enough red herrings that I was guessing until the end.

Here's my review of Strangled Prose.

Dig Deep For Murder by Kate Kingsbury: This is #4 in the Manor House series, and I enjoyed my visit with Lady Elizabeth and the tenants at Sitting Marsh during WWII. The solution to the mystery in this one was rather obvious to me early on, but no matter. The real entertainment here is the soap opera. Will Lady Elizabeth and her American Major get together this time? What's up with the ghosts the butler keeps seeing--is he just barmy or is something more sinister at work? Will Rita finally lead the Housewives Brigades to invade Germany (kidding!)? I've read that her Pennyfoot Hotel series (set in Edwardian London, I believe) is better, so I started with this one. The first is A Bicycle Built for Murder, and I think this series is a wonderful guilty pleasure. You can pretend it's historical and therefore weightier than it is :)

Here's my review of A Bicycle Built for Murder.

New Book Stash!!!

I recently went a little crazy and took advantage of Amazon's 4-for-3 promotion and bought several books. I haven't bought any books in awhile so I splurged a bit. They all came in the mail today!! Oh, what fun!


I got a couple chapter books that looked fun for when my daughter is ready to move on from Easy Readers. I've been on a Harlan Coben kick lately so there are a few of those. A friend recommended Steve Berry's books to me so I picked up a couple of those. I've always been curious about Sue Grafton's Alphabet series, but I'm anal and like to start at the beginning of the series, so I got A is for Alibi. Kathy Reichs 3rd Temperance Brennen installment, Deadly Decisions, because I enjoyed the first two. I like Sarah Strohmeyer's writing with the Bubbles books so I thought I'd try one of her fairy tale books with The Sleeping Beauty Proposal. Someone reviewed The Chatham School Affair on one of the book blogs I read and I thought it sounded interesting. And Shadow Catcher sounded good to me when I read about it as a Tournament of Books selection so I threw that one in the cart as well. Whew!

And as if those are not enough new additions to my overflowing bookshelves, I received a box from Allison in the mail last Saturday! Thanks so much Allison!


I'm so excited to read Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart (Thanks again Gwyneth!!), and Allison has been waiting forever for me to read the rest of the Bubbles books. (Allison, admittedly, you have me very intrigued now!) She also threw in the Pauline Sokol series as well as a Jennifer Crusie and Joan Duett. Oh, and Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, which sounds right up my alley as well!

Oh, what fun it will be for me to go in search of a new book on my shelves! So many choices, so little time! :-)

Diary of a Fairy Godmother by Esme Raji Codell

In sticking with Allison's current theme of reading youth novels, I picked up Diary of a Fairy Godmother off my shelf. I was in the mood for something light, fun and easy to read after America America. I bought Diary of a Fairy Godmother a while back during Barnes and Noble's Bargain sale. It looked like a fun book my daughters might like someday. I read it extremely quickly and enjoyed it very much.

It's the story of Hunky Dory who according to her mother will be "the wickedest witch wherever the four winds blow". But Hunky Dory discovers she might be more inclined toward wishcraft than witchcraft. Once this is known, she is ostracized by her family and friends and cast out on her own. She comes up with a very successful idea to make a living granting wishes; the wishing well. She finds that she is very satisfied with granting others' wishes and becomes a bona fide Fairy Godmother. In the end her old family and friends accept her for who she is and everyone appears to live happily ever after.

This is a very cute story with retellings of Sleeping Beauty (Aurora), Rumpelstiltskin, and Cinderella, and also mentions Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, among others. It's fun to see how the author puts these fairy tales into Hunky Dory's world. This is listed as a book for ages 9-12. I'd say that's right for actual reading level, but I think kids as young as 6 or 7 could enjoy having this book read to them. There are some larger vocabulary words that are defined in the same sentence or the next one. Younger readers might find the actual reading of it a bit difficult, but they would probably know the fairy tales well and think it was fun to listen to the story. There are entertaining illustrations throughout the book as well.

Fablehaven Book Two

Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star by Brandon Mull. I so enjoyed Fablehaven that I took my $5 in Borders bucks and dragged Lilah to pick up the sequel! And having finished it fairly quickly, I'm ready to take my 30% off coupon to Borders to get #3. Book Two does not disappoint. The story starts off with a bang. A new boy shows up in Kendra's class at the end of the school year. Her friends all have crushes on the handsome boy, but Kendra realizes that he isn't human. When she and Seth are approached by Errol, who knows all sorts of things about the two kids, they agree to help him get rid of the boy. They are soon taken back to Fablehaven, where it will be safer for them. Their grandparents have assembled a potions master, a magical creatures expert, and a magical objects expert to help protect Fablehaven by recovering a lost artifact. When strange occurrences suggest a traitor is in their midst, Kendra and Seth once again become key to saving Fablehaven. We end on a big huge cliffhanger, so have Book Three ready!

The story was compelling right from the start. Kendra and Seth are believable kids and have the affection and rivalry of real siblings. ("What are you doing?" "I'm thinking. It's what some of us do before we talk.") They care deeply about each other, but still snipe and tease. We see even more of Fablehaven, and I enjoyed seeing the familiar characters as well as the new ones brought in for this story. Mull's writing is simple, clear, and often funny. The plot and character developments move along at a brisk pace, and the suspense is very well carried throughout the sequel. I thought this book might have been even better than the first, but at any rate, I recommend both to those who enjoy Harry Potter and the like and are looking for an imaginative, fun journey to a well-drawn, magical place!

Read my review of Fablehaven here.

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye

Reading kids' books rarely makes me feel old. I *get* them. I've always wanted to go to Hogwarts. I can't wait for the final book in the Inkheart series. I pre-ordered Percy Jackson. But after reading glowing review after glowing review of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, I have to say...I just don't get it. Don't get me wrong--it's not completely unlikeable (more on that later). But one of the characters has the special gift of turning things to ice, which I thought appropriate, as this book moves at a glacial pace. In case you're like me and would expect to get to Foo sometime during this book, let me tell you right now: You're not going to get there in the first 340+ pages, except in glimpses of the super-annoying and one-dimensional bad guy. We spent the ENTIRE book trying to get to Foo, in the most methodical way possible. Skye (is it just me, or does Obert Skye sound like one of those names you create using your first pet's name and the street you grew up on or something?) has obviously taken a lot of time developing Foo (to a Tolkien-like level of detail, complete with an unnecessary map at the end and a glossary of the types of beings found in Foo), but we never get to SEE it. Presumably, the next book takes place in Foo, but I'm not sure I'm going to get there.

The writing is not great, but with some really funny bits ("I'm sorry, I think even if you're going to be sinister you can take five minutes a day to floss and brush"--hahaha!), but there is far too much overwritten prose like "The hot windy sky quickly became a thick sticky trap" and "Weaved together like a rug that humanity was about to unknowingly wipe its feet on." Is there a quota on adverbs and adjectives that Skye is trying to meet? Speaking of adverbs, rarely does a character just "say" anything. They "shiver" or "smile" or "sigh" their words, and if they do "say" anything, it's modified by an adverb. In fact, within six sentences, Geth says two different things "strongly." But enough grammar/style nitpicking; after all, JK Rowling herself is guilty of over-modifying dialogue tags, and I try to ignore it with the Harry Potter books. Overall, I felt this book read more like the first chapter or two of a more exciting book, and since it is the first in the series, maybe subsequent books move along a bit better. This one went back and forth between the several points-of-view so that we learn all past and present events in excruciating detail, and all the back stories of all the characters. Seriously, I felt a little like I would be quizzed on Foo trivia at the end. It lacked the joy of fantasy reading that I found in Fablehaven, and I was really slogging through for the first 80 or so pages until Leven and Winter finally meet and the Fellowship sets out to destroy the ring...oops, I mean portal. Skye seems to feel that if you can tell it, why bother showing it? This is a constant source of reader-frustration in the book. The bad guy is bad, I'm told over and over and over and over, primarily through his long, megalomaniacal speeches (in which he italicizes all references to himself, which drove me nuts).

An important note: If you're plowing through this book thinking that Leven's poor eyesight (I didn't count the number of references, but I believe it exceeded a dozen) is somehow important to the plot, I can save you some annoyance at the end: it has no impact on anything. At all.

Harry Potter checklist:
Parents dead? Check!
Raised by mean aunt? Check!
Distinguishing mark? Check!
Unusual gift? Check!
Told about otherworldly nature by strange creature? Check!

I almost did a Lord of the Rings checklist, too, and this Harry Potter one could be much longer, but that would be really self-indulgent of me. Okay, moving to the positive. The idea of Foo, a world that exists so we on earth can dream, is really cool and clever. Winter and Leven are funny together (when Leven isn't whining about how he isn't good enough, smart enough, etc.), and the glimpses of Foo we get through Clover's candy collection are pretty funny. I guess I would recommend this to very patient fantasy readers who need a Harry Potter fix and are willing to make it through this book in the hopes that the sequels are better.

America America by Ethan Canin

This was another Advanced Reader Copy from the Early Reviewers Group on LibraryThing. In America America, a young man, Corey Sifter is swept up into the lives of a small town’s most wealthy and powerful family. Corey comes from a working class home and accepts a job on the Metarey Family’s estate in the late 1960’s. Before he knows it, the family patriarch takes him under his wing offering him advice about succeeding in life and the chance to further himself by attending a prestigious private boarding school. The story is told through alternating chapters in at least three different time periods (all at once!); Corey in high school, Corey in college, and Corey as a middle-age adult. The tale is told mostly through Corey’s eyes, but every now and then strays to one of the lesser characters’ point of view.

The book centers on a political campaign (of Senator Bonwiller) run during Nixon’s second presidential campaign and focuses on the Metarey family’s and therefore Corey’s involvement with the campaign.

There are many facets to this book. It is modern historical fiction and contains a portrait of the proverbial American Dream. A Scottish man (Eoghan Metarey) coming to America and rising from nothing to become wealthy and powerful through hard work (and perhaps some questionable decisions). And then the legacy he leaves behind for his family. The book centers a great deal on what one generation can learn from the next and how each generation affects another. It also portrays the political world of the late 1960’s, early 70’s before the world of the computer age when newspapers and reporters were an integral part of the campaign. Also, the lengths politicians will go during a campaign (not that any of this has changed much, just the medium through which the information is disseminated has). The American Dream is also shown through Corey’s family where he has the opportunity to learn more and have more of an education than his father did. There is an interesting storyline about the relationship with Corey and his father toward the end of the book.

It’s hard for me to decide if I liked this book or not. I think it is very well written and I think many of the characters are developed well. I like the way Canin creates the relationships in the book between Corey and his father, Corey and Liam Metarey, and Corey and the Metarey daughters. A good section of the book deals with the political campaign and I found some of these parts to be very boring and I wondered if I would actually be able to get to the end of the book. Through much of the book, Corey refers to his spouse as “my wife” and not by name, so we’re not entirely sure which character he has chosen to marry until quite close to the end of the book. There is also an “incident” that is talked about in much of the book that really has too much of a build up. I wasn’t that into the Senator’s character or his affair with a young woman and the ensuing incident.

The timing of the book is good (it comes out June 24th) with this being an election year and with as close as the primaries are, its sort of fun to read a bit about politics. I think overall this book is probably 4 out of 5 if I’m impartial about it. But for my personal tastes, I think it was a bit long and not quite as gripping as I might like (I’m also usually not very engrossed by politics) so it could be a 3.5. If you like the author, Richard Russo, I would recommend this one. It reminded me a great deal of Bridge of Sighs and Empire Falls.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I'm taking a little break from mysteries to work my way through my juvenile fiction pile. I didn't have extremely high hopes for Fablehaven, to be honest. It sounded like a Harry Potter knockoff, and I was only expecting a reasonably competent one. I was very glad to be wrong! Thirteen-year-old Kendra and her eleven-year-old brother, Seth, are dropped off at their seldom-seen grandparents' house (can you tell that seldom-seen modifies 'grandparents' instead of 'house'? I might re-write that sentence if I have time) when their parents can't find other child care during their upcoming 17-day cruise. No one is happy with the arrangement at first, but Kendra and Seth soon learn that her grandfather is caretaker of Fablehaven, a preserve for mystical creatures that is guided by ancient laws. When Seth breaks one of the laws, chaos ensues, and after Midsummer Night's Eve, a crazy time at Fablehaven under normal circumstances, the kids awake to find their grandfather missing and the house in ruins. They must save their grandfather and Fablehaven itself from the evil trapped within the preserve. There are some minor annoyances that (for me) were overcome by exuberant storytelling, believable characters, and imaginative plotting. Kendra never breaks rules, and it's pretty obvious that she'll have to learn to judiciously break some rules in order to help save Fablehaven. Seth ignores rules (and the insistence of Kendra that he follow them), causing mayhem. With fewer than a hundred pages left, the action stops for some pretty heavy exposition. I also found the buying and selling of fairies, characterized as human-like (at least in appearance) and the treatment of the cow a bit disturbing. But these are minor quibbles with a magical story told by a capable, earnest storyteller. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, and I may not be able to hold out for #3 to come out in paperback.

I started Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo immediately following Fablehaven, and it's suffering in comparison. While Fablehaven is a fun story of siblings, family, and the otherworldly told by an enthusiastic author, Leven Thumps is methodical and overwritten, more a Lord of the Rings style of fantasy (and I love Lord of the Rings) where every aspect of the world has been planned out. It's slow going after the exuberance and sheer joy of Fablehaven, but I hope I get into it and enjoy it.

Mystery! Again!

Death Is In The Air and For Whom Death Tolls by Kate Kingsbury: These are #2 and 3 in the Manor House series. This is a mystery series set during WWII. Lady Elizabeth, the lady of the manor in the village of Sitting Marsh, has uninvited guests, a group of American officers billeted in the deserted East Wing of her home. Tensions are high in the village between the American GIs and the British citizens. In Death Is In The Air, a German parachutes into Sitting Marsh, coinciding with a brutal murder. In For Whom Death Tolls, an American GI is found hanging from the bell tower at the church. The mysteries in these novels (beginning with A Bicycle Built For Murder, which I confess I bought only for the title) are fine, but the real fun is in the portrayal of village life and the budding romance between Lady Elizabeth and an American officer. These move at a snail's pace (it's not until book #2 that Earl is allowed to call Lady Elizabeth by her first name), so they're almost like a longer serialized novel. I didn't mind the slowness--it's like popping into a beloved village to see what's going on with my favorite residents. If you're a cozy mystery fan (heavy on the cozy), I recommend checking out this series.

Strangled Prose by Joan Hess: This is the first in the Claire Malloy mysteries, which take place in Farberville, Arkansas. Claire, a widow, owns a bookshop, and ends up coerced into hosting an event for Mildred Twiller, who writes romance novels under the name Azalea Twilight. Mildred and her husband are both professors at Farber College (as was Claire's husband), and Mildred's latest book features barely disguised members of its academic community. When Mildred is found strangled, everyone is a suspect. Claire's daughter Caron and her wimpy friend Inez appear to know something about the murder, so Claire decides to investigate to protect Caron. I think Joan Hess is very funny, and I enjoyed this light, frothy mystery.

Is that Jack Frost?

For an inexplicable reason, I picked up The Candy Cane Murders about the same time I picked up Sugar and Spice (review here, both holiday collections featuring Hannah Swensen novellas by Joanne Fluke, despite the fact that both are Christmas-themed. I've been on a Hannah Swensen kick, reading the whole series (except for Carrot Cake Murder, which I'm waiting to come out in hardback), and I have a bit of a compulsive streak when it comes to series, and I really want to read the whole series, and in order. So publishers love me because they can trick me into buying collections featuring my favorite series characters, which exposes me to other authors with the same publisher. In the case of Sugar and Spice, it didn't work because it was more romance, while I'm more of a mystery gal, so I just read the Hannah Swensen and skipped the rest. But Candy Cane Murders was a big hit with me. Not only was the Hannah Swensen novella a fun diversion with great-sounding recipes, I read on and really enjoyed the Laura Levine entry. I think I read This Pen For Hire, the first in the Jaine Austen mysteries, but it didn't make much of an impression. The novella here, The Dangers of Candy Canes, was really funny and well-plotted, making me interested in trying Levine again. I also kept going and read the Leslie Meier novella, a Lucy Stone story told in flashback. I read several of the Lucy Stones at one point, and I think they're perfectly serviceable cozies, but not my favorites. This novella was surprisingly sweet and if it hadn't been 85 degrees, might have put me in the Christmas spirit. If you've enjoyed books in any of the three series, or are a mystery fan looking for some holiday cheer in your stocking, this book is probably worth picking up.

Another Giveaway!

This time Heather from Book Addiction is giving away Jodi Picoult's latest book, Change of Heart. I am currently 695 out of 730 to get this one from the library so I would love to win a free copy!! If you're interested, hop on over and post in her comments for your chance to win. If you post on your own blog you get TWO chances! Hence, my post here. :-)

Mystery!

I've been on a mystery kick again!

Through the Grinder by Cleo Coyle: This is the second Coffeehouse Mystery featuring Clare Cosi. The Village Blend has started offering a singles night with speed-dating, and one after another, women who frequent the blend are committing suicide. Or are they? I thought this was a weaker mystery than the first in the series, but we get a lot more development of Clare as she dates Bruce, dodges her ex-husband, and flirts with her cop friend. Coyle persists in thinking that passages from the deranged killer's point-of-view heighten the drama and tension, when in fact, they reek of cheesiness and drive me to distraction. At any rate, I thought this entry was a decent one in the series, although the brutal ending was sort of shocking. I picked up the third, Latte Trouble, but the first paragraphs were in deranged-killer-speak, and I wasn't in the mood, so I went on to some historical mysteries.

A Late Phoenix by Catherine Aird: Three words: Fun. British. Mystery. I discovered these when visiting my high school English teacher a couple of weeks ago. He had Catherine Aird novels strewn about, and I had never heard of her. A Late Phoenix was published in 1971, so they're not new. I think they're mostly out-of-print, but are easily found either used on amazon or in lots on eBay. Developers start a project at a WWII bomb site, only to uncover a skeleton, a woman not killed in the bombing. C.D. Sloane is assigned the case (along with Crosby, an idiot partner). Sloane is wry, witty, and astute, and he teases apart the threads of the mystery with interviews and even trips to the library. This is a good, old-fashioned detective novel with tight plotting and a bit of humor to lighten it up. I loved it!

A Bicycle Built for Murder by Kate Kingsbury: Along the historical mystery front, I found a used copy of this, Kingsbury's first Manor House novel. She has another series, Pennyfoot Hotel, that is devilishly hard to find (at least at a reasonable price). Anyway, Lady Elizabeth is Lady of the Manor, so when her tenant begs her to help solve the mystery of her teenaged daughter's disappearance, Lady Elizabeth agrees. At the same time, her house has been chosen to house some American troops (did I mention this takes place during WWII? Oops, I forgot, and it's kind of important). And the Major who liaises with her on this matter is really attractive. (Why do mystery novels written in the last 20 years or so HAVE to have a romance angle if the sleuth is a woman?) Kingsbury does a nice job of evoking the time period and Lady Elizabeth is a sympathetic heroine. The mystery is nicely done and the supporting cast enjoyable. I thought it was a good start to the series, and I'll be looking for more. I've read that the Pennyfoot series is actually better, so I'll have to try to find some of them.

Edited to add: I knew I was forgetting something! I also read Withering Heights by Dorothy Cannell, a recent Ellie Haskell mystery. Her first, The Thin Woman, is one of my all-time favorite mysteries. This entry was really quite good! It takes place in a huge old house and gently spoofs gothic mysteries. Ellie, Ben, and Mrs. Malloy head to Yorkshire to return Ben's cousin's teenaged daughter home and manage to solve murder, mayhem, and ghostly happenings while there. If you enjoy cozies and haven't read Cannell yet, order a copy of The Thin Woman used on amazon for pretty much the cost of shipping right now!

I think that's it for now. I'm reading Strangled Prose by Joan Hess, the first Claire Malloy mystery. I read a couple of these a while ago and then kind of forgot about Joan Hess. She also writes the Maggody series.

Bobbie Faye Returns

Bobbie Faye and the (kinda, sorta, not-exactly) Family Jewels by Toni McGee Causey follows up Bobbie Faye's Very, (very, very, very) Bad Day. This sequel starts up a couple months after the first disaster and many of the same characters appear. Bobby Faye is working at Ce Ce's store one day when her cousin Francesca shows up asking Bobbie Faye to help her find stolen diamonds her mother, Marie, hid somewhere. Francesca's father, Emile, head of a mob organization and the person Marie stole the diamonds from, thinks Bobbie Faye knows where they are at. Within the first several chapters of the book, Bobbie Faye is shot at, kidnapped on the same block by three separate groups of people, and her car blows up on a bridge, taking part of the bridge with it. So you could say the sequel starts off with a bang.

Throughout the book, we get to meet more of Bobbie Faye's crazy family, including her father, she blows up other things, comes near death several times, all while trying to figure out her feelings for Trevor (well those feelings are pretty obvious) and Cam (not so obvious). Bobbie Faye is also accused of murder not once, but twice through the course of the book. Trevor and Cam know she is innocent and try to figure out a way to keep every cop in the state from killing her on sight.

Causey's second attempt with Bobbie Faye does not disappoint. However, I don't think it quite lives up to the first one. A little less time is spent on the action and running around (just a little, there's still a lot of action) and more time is spent developing the relationship she has with Trevor and Cam. There are also a ton of characters in this book, sometimes a little difficult to keep track of. And I didn't laugh out loud quite as much as the first one. With all that being said, I was still highly entertained and liked the ending. I won't give too much away, but we find out a little more about best friend Nina at the end of book. Hmm.....perhaps we're setting up for a third installment?

My copy of Bobbie Faye's Family Jewels was an Advanced Reader Copy from LibraryThing. But you won't have to wait long, it will be in bookstores on May 27th!

A Couple of Little Things

I forgot to mention that I read On What Grounds by Cleo Coyle, the first in the Coffeehouse series. I had read this and maybe one of the sequels ages ago. It's a decent cozy mystery series with enticing recipes. A few things bug me. It starts out with a prologue from the stalker's point-of-view a la James Patterson or Jonathan Kellerman, which I think is super cheesy. Despite throwing around Italian terms like someone who knows what she's doing, Coyle (or her editor) has used the wrong accent over the 'e' in the Italian word 'caffe,' (It should be the opposite accent of the one over the 'e' in the French word 'cafe,' but I can't figure out how to do diacritical marks in Blogger) and spelled 'baci' (which means 'kisses') 'bocci.' There are other typos in plain old English, typical of this genre's mediocre editing. Despite some annoyances, the book is kind of cute and I enjoyed the coffee information, which I thought complemented, rather than distracted from, the narrative flow. Clare Cosi returns from suburban New Jersey to manage once again The Village Blend, an historic coffeehouse in New York City at the request of her former mother-in-law. You can bet the ex-husband will be around to bug her/be strangely attractive. One morning, Clare arrives at the coffeehouse to find it empty and dark. She finds her employee, Annabel, dead at the bottom of the basement steps. The police are treating the death as a tragic accident, but Clare thinks differently. Also, she thinks the detective is pretty cute. Typical cozy mystery investigating ensues, in more-interesting-than-average-cozy fashion. I'll read the second one, Through the Grinder, soon.

I also read "The Twelve Desserts of Christmas" by Joanne Fluke, one of four novellas in the holiday romance collection Sugar and Spice (available for the cost of shipping--used on amazon.com). I didn't read the other three, which are more typical romance, but I thought the Joanne Fluke story, featuring two teachers stuck with six kids at a boarding school over the holidays, was a cute confection. Hannah Swensen delivers desserts to the group and solves an innocuous little mystery. Most of the recipes are title recipes from previous books, but a couple may be new (I'd have to check Sugar Cookie Murder, which has tons). If (like me) you're waiting for Carrot Cake Murder to come out in paperback, this is a nice little diversion.

Bobbie Faye review, redux

Oops, I meant to link to Holly's review of this book, so I'm editing to add that in!

I read THE FUNNIEST BOOK in the history of the world! Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but Bobbie Faye's Very (Very, Very, Very) Bad Day by Toni McGee Causey had me laughing out loud. With a clever, official-looking map at the beginning labeled "Louisiana State Insurance Archive of Bobbie Faye Sumrall Disasters (Southwest Region)," you know you're going to be suspending disbelief. Each chapter has a quote about Bobbie Faye, and the first quote is, "You know how some people are born to Greatness? Well, Bobbie Faye Sumrall woke up one morning, kicked Greatness in the teeth, kneed it in the balls, took it hostage, and it's been begging for mercy ever since," attributed to "a former Louisiana mayor after Bobbie Faye accidentally ran her car into his office, knocking pages of fraud evidence into the street, which helped land him in Federal prison." Those two components at the very beginning could be setting us up for a fun ride or trying to compensate for a lackluster novel. Fortunately for us, it's the first!

Bobbie Faye is having the worst day of her life, and for someone inadvertently attracted to disaster like a moth to a flame, that's saying something. She wakes up in the morning to her five-year-old niece remarking that there's a swimming pool inside. She's caring for her niece while her sister is drying out, as ordered by the courts, and her trailer has flooded because her no-good brother Roy hasn't fixed the washing machine. The Sumralls have been fixtures in Lake Charles, Louisiana ("if someone had labeled it 'home of the hard drinkers who make Mardi Gras revelers look like big fluffy candy asses,' it might have staggered to attention and saluted") for generations, and Bobbie Faye is the latest in a long line of Contraband Days Queens since her mother died, complete with a battered tiara. It turns out that Roy has been kidnapped by someone demanding the worthless tiara, but when Bobbie Faye takes it out of the safety-deposit box (it may be worthless, but she didn't want her sister hocking it for booze), she loses it to bank robbers. She takes a guy hostage and goes in pursuit of the robbers, with the FBI and local police (led by her ex-husband of all people) following closely behind. This is a wild ride with abundant humor, a touch of mystery (who *is* this guy she took hostage? why would anyone want that tiara this badly?), and over-the-top action. Can Bobbie Faye find the tiara, save her brother, keep temporary custody of her niece, avoid mushy thoughts about her handsome hostage, and survive this day? I can't think of anyone who wouldn't compulsively read this one to find out!

Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge

This was our book club pick for May. I actually did not vote for this one when we were voting on new choices and I thought the description of it sounded really depressing. So I was not actually looking forward to reading this one. However, this is a case of don't judge a book by its cover. I really enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

The book is about a woman, Alice, who spends nine years in prison for running over the drunk driver who killed one of her two sons. While in prison, her husband divorces her and eventually her son does not want to visit her anymore. She gets out and returns to the small town where she grew up. She tries to rebuild her life and get to know her son and family again despite the stigma of being an ex-con. She also meets a new man (Colin) who lost his wife in the 9/11 attacks and is just coming out a downward spiral himself. As if all of this is not difficult enough for her to deal with, her son is falsely accused of raping a girl and finds himself in trouble with the law. Hmmm...like mother, like son?

See, I told you depressing, right? BUT, it turns out, it's not quite as depressing as it sounds. And there is a back story interspersed throughout the book about Alice's grandmother and Colin's grandfather. A love story. This book actually somewhat reminded me of a Jodi Picoult book without the extra legal thriller part of it. The whole book is about different relationships old and new. And in the end all the different threads come together. I absolutely loved the epilogue. I think Goudge did a great job writing this and keeping all the characters interesting with a solid story line. It's as long as it needs to be without anything extra. This is definitely not one I would have picked up at the bookstore, but I'm glad I had the chance to read it. And really I had a hard time putting it down!

Honk if you love Percy!

Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan: The fourth installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is action-packed, funny, clever, and original, with character and plot developments we've been waiting for since Book 1, The Lightning Thief. Percy is a clever boy (I think he's 12 in book 1) who's been kicked out of multiple schools, has ADHD and dyslexia, and a knack for trouble. In The Lightning Thief, he learns he's a half-blood, the son of a Greek god, and discovers there are others like him at Camp Half Blood. If you haven't read the series, I don't want to give away too many details of the plot of Book 4. Battle of the Labyrinth opens with Percy's orientation at his new school, which is equipped with monster cheerleaders (yes, that's literal) before heading off to Camp Half-Blood, which is in danger like never before. A chunk of this installment takes place in the Labyrinth, the monster-infested, ever-changing maze underneath the U.S. Any juvenile fantasy is compared to Harry Potter these days, and I have to say, I love both series. Percy Jackson is not derivative of Harry Potter, and Riordan manages a fresh and funny take on ancient stories (the Greek myths). I can't recommend this series and this installment highly enough, and I can't wait for Book 5 (and it's very clear there will be a Book 5, though I believe that will be the last).

Edited to add: I went looking for the source of my belief that there will be five books (sadly it's true--next year's will be the last, though the first film will be out next year, too), and discovered a short story that's available on Rick Riordan's blog. Here are the three parts (part 1 is at the bottom of the page). Here's fun bonus Percy!

Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews

Okay, after three books, I have to say I quite like Mary Kay Andrews. I think I actually liked Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze a bit better than Deep Dish because I enjoy the mystery component, which is absent from Deep Dish, but Deep Dish was fun Southern chick lit. This one is set partially in Atlanta, too, which is fun when Gina is stuck in traffic on I-285. Hahaha! I'm always stuck in traffic on I-285! Gina has a regional cooking show produced by her boyfriend, Scott, that is canceled when Scott is found sleeping with the show's sponsor's wife. Oops. But it turns out that Food Network...erm, I mean The Cooking Channel...is looking for a Southern cooking show to add to their lineup. They're in town to look at Tate's kill 'em and grill 'em show (which is called Vittles, a really lame name--Kill 'Em and Grill 'Em would have been better) and decide to take a look at Gina. Soon Gina and Tate are in competition for the time slot in an Iron Chef kind of battle out on an island (yes, really). Tate and Gina go between attraction to each other and competitive dislike, and there's little suspense--if you can't tell they're going to end up together, you've probably never read chick lit before. There's also little suspense on the outcome of the cooking show, though Andrews throws in some unexpected challenges that bring in some laughs. The development of Tate and Gina's relationship from competitors to ready to get married isn't all that fleshed out, but I'm used to that in chick lit. All of a sudden, the man and woman are in love...whatever. I thought this was a cute, breezy summer read, but I'd wait until it's in paperback (it was lent to me, or I wouldn't have read it yet!).

Southern Fried Nancy Drew

A negative reviewer on Amazon gave Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews a single star and lambasted it with, "If you're craving a Southern fried version of Nancy Drew and her pals, then carry on." Well, obviously my taste is not as refined as this reviewers because while I agreed with her assessment, I thought this book was great fun, even with some flaws, but I love Nancy Drew, too! I would characterize it as Southern Chick Lit With Mystery. Anyway, the story is about Weezie, a divorcee who won the carriage house behind her carefully renovated once-home (which her husband and his new fiancee, the atrocious Caroline, now live). Weezie is a "picker," scouring yard sales and dumpsters for hidden treasures that she can fix up and sell to antiques dealers. Sneaking into an estate sale early to answer a call of nature, she stumbles over Caroline's body and is promptly arrested for the murder. The story is slowed a bit by chapters from the point of view of Uncle James, Weezie's attorney, which were really unnecessary and I can't believe they weren't edited out. Weezie, her best friend Bebe, and Daniel, the attractive chef at Bebe's restaurant, set out to solve the murder themselves and clear Weezie's name. There really wasn't much suspense in this one, but the bumbling crime-solving trio, Southern charm, and insight into the antiques business made it a lot of fun. I recommend this as an excellent beach read.

After reading Savannah Blues, I picked up Savannah Breeze, the sequel, which details Bebe's life following her financial ruin at the hands of a handsome con man (she's distracted by family issues at the time). Apparently, Ms. Andrews has trouble deciding which story she's telling, because in this one, too, there are chapters from a secondary character's point of view--this time, Weezie's. I found this distracting and didn't think it added to the story at all, but other than that, I thought this was even more fun than the first book. Bebe discovers that she is now owner of the Breeze Motel on Tybee Beach (the con man, Reddy, hadn't had time to unload it before splitting), and she decides to make a go of renovating and running the Breeze. With the help of Weezie and the Breeze's on-site manager, the handsome and unrefined Harry, Bebe sets out to get back what Reddy has stolen from her when the police decline to pursue him. Another fun beach read.

The Innocent by Harlan Coben

I enjoyed reading Coben's The Woods last year and when I saw The Innocent and Deal Breaker in the Barnes and Noble bargain sale I snatched them up. I've spent the last couple days reading The Innocent and thoroughly enjoyed it!

The blurb on the back of the book does not really give you full insight into the story, which in this case was a good thing. The main character, Matt Hunter, accidentally kills a man when a fight breaks out at a party during college. Matt serves his time in prison and manages to still have a life afterwards with a decent job and wife with a baby on the way. He receives a couple startling photos on his cell phone that make him think he does not really know his wife and he wonders if he can really trust her. Thus starts a journey of discovery that lasts a couple days and is filled with suspense. This book also has short chapters which actually added to the suspense. It switched back and forth between characters' viewpoints leaving you in suspense with one while catching up with another. Eventually all the points of view come together at the end. It wasn't entirely predictable and had a few nice reveals toward the end.

I don't want to say too much and give anything away because I think this story is much better if you go into it blind. I thought it was well-written and Coben unfolds the story very well. If you're a fan of more serious mystery/suspense I recommend this book. I believe I enjoyed it even more than The Woods. And I'm looking forward to reading Deal Breaker which is the first book in Coben's Myron Bolitor series.

Almost time for Percy!

The fourth Percy Jackson book comes out May 6th! Yeah! Camille over at BookMoot had a fun post relating to Percy and included the video below. Just thought I would share because I was amused by it. Don't get me wrong, I still like Harry Potter. :-)