So many tornadoes, and more predicted for Thursday as I write this. I hope you’re all okay.
Such a good weekend. My sister, Linda and I went to visit my Mom for a long weekend. We stopped first at my sister, Christie’s who was babysitting for her grandson. Of course, the other grandmother, Linda, had to hold him for a couple hours. Nice visit with her. He was baptized on Sunday and there was a small celebration afterwards. We also did a little running, and played pinocle two different nights. Just a nice weekend.
Then, as I mentioned to Carol, when she brought it up, I read Paranoia, but also took some much needed time to nap and regroup. It was fun to see myself as a character in the book, though. I never bought naming rights at an auction for mystery conferences. But, Jim Born, James Patterson’s co-author, knows me well enough to tell a story that he and I shared over ten years ago. It was fun to see it in the book.
Tomorrow is the last Friday for Favorites of 2024. Check in to see what David Chaudoir read.
I’ll be watching basketball with March Madness for the next few weeks, but I’m just starting Gigi Pandian’s The Library Game. It’s the fourth in her Secret Staircase mystery series. I haven’t read this series, but I read many of her Jaya Jones Treasure Hunter books.
In The Library Game, Tempest Raj and Secret Staircase Construction are renovating a classic detective fiction library that just got its first real-life mystery.
Tempest Raj couldn’t be happier that the family business, Secret Staircase Construction, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Known for enchanting architectural features like sliding bookshelves and secret passageways, the company is now taking on a dream project: transforming a home into a public library that celebrates history’s greatest fictional detectives.
Though the work is far from done, Gray House Library’s new owner is eager to host a murder mystery dinner and literary themed escape room. But when a rehearsal ends with an actor murdered and the body vanishes, Tempest is witness to a seemingly impossible crime. Fueled by her grandfather’s Scottish and Indian meals, Tempest and the rest of the crew must figure out who is making beloved classic mystery plots come to life in a deadly game.
So, what about you? What have you been doing this past week? And, what are you reading?
I hope you’re okay! I’ve been through earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires, but nothing terrifies me more than tornadoes.
I finished a debut mystery, THE VOICES OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS, by Michael Rigg. You know how connected I feel to New Orleans, and I loved Michael’s book. I
I’m okay, Ellen. Thanks for asking. We’ve been lucky so far this year, and haven’t had any warnings.
I love debut mysteries, Ellen!
Last Saturday’s planned visit with 7-year-old Evelyn and our son and daughter-in-law didn’t happen in the end because Evelyn was sick with a horrid cough/cold thing. So we had a quiet week. Other than the very worrying light flashes and zooming small black dots in my eye, that is. I was worried about retinal detachment since I’ve been warned I’m at high risk for that, but the optometrist said that was not what I had thank goodness. Instead it turned out to be a posterior vitreous detachment, which was the jelly-like substance in the eye shrinking and pulling away from the optic nerve. Not entirely uncommon he said. But the zooming black dots are here to stay. Sigh.
Two books this week:
THE LAMPLIGHTER’S BOOKSHOP by Sophie Austin
This book appealed to me from the get-go with its beautiful cover (I do love a great cover) and with its premise, and I was not disappointed.
Set in England in the late 1800s, Evelyn and her mother Cecilia have been turned out of their mansion with little more than some clothes. Evelyn’s father abandoned the two of them years ago and his debts have finally caught up with him; their home and all their possessions have been seized to help pay off the debts. Now homeless, Evelyn and her mother seek refuge with Aunt Clara.
In Victorian times options for women are limited but Evelyn knows that nothing about their current situation will change unless she tries to do something about it herself. To that end she answers a help-wanted advertisement for the bookshop of the title. She keeps this information secret from her mother since working in a shop is far beneath their status in society.
Then there’s William, aspiring writer and nephew of the bookshop owner. William has been away in London attempting to secure a publishing deal for the novel he’s written. He’s back now but with secrets of his own, and he’s not best pleased to see Evelyn working at ‘his’ job at his uncle’s bookshop.
Throw in some great side characters – Aunt Clara, the evil, conniving lady Violet, and others and all the ingredients for a good story are in place. Everyone is keeping secrets of one sort or another and lying about them but the book is about finding redemption, forgiveness, learning to trust, honesty – both with others and with oneself, love, and dealing with adversity.
The debut author provides a vivid sense of time and place, and I liked that we saw things equally from both of the main character’s viewpoints. We saw why secrets were being kept and hoped whole-heartedly that the characters would find their complicated way to the truth and perhaps to a happy ending.
A quick, thoroughly engaging read with a mix of historical fiction, social commentary, and romance.
THE PARIS EXPRESS by Emma Donoghue
What a fascinating book. I’m so glad I read it. In 1895 there was a railway disaster in France and this book is a fictional retelling of that event. But it’s so much more than that. The story is about people foremost – the train company employees, and the passengers on this express train, whether travelling first class, second, or third class. We become enthralled with them and their lives are revealed to us little by little with great skill and superb dialogue and the story becomes more and more personal as we become ever more invested. All of humanity is laid before us; class, colour, the rich, the poor, good, bad, and in-between, illness, depravity, fear, courage, hope. The political climate of Victorian France is also at play. By the end, the suspense is such that we feel we’re moving at breakneck speed just like the train itself.
The author’s notes at the end are wonderful. In them she tells us about what happened to various people afterwards (many of the novel’s characters were real people) and it just brought everything full circle. Extensively researched and a gripping historical novel.
Lindy, I’m sorry to hear about your eyes and those black dots. I’m sure it’s bothersone, and especially when you’re trying to read.
Victorian times for both books! They both sound good.
I hope you get time with your granddaughtter soon.
Try to land on an evil witch, Lesa!
This week has mostly been windy and rainy, which is okay, because the rainy season will end all too soon for us.
This week I went to a kite fair, which was interesting. There was this kite the size of a house shaped like a giant octopus.
I also went to an kimono expo. Well, they called it an expo, but there was really only one seller in a small room, so maybe it was a pop up shop? I mean, an expo is supposed to have several booths, at least, right? I was reminded of Lincoln’s metaphor about the lamb. How many legs does a lamb have if you count the tail as a leg? Four, because even if you call a tail a leg, it’s a tail. Still, there were some high quality robes.
This week I read:
Ms. Tree Vol. 6: Fallen Tree by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty; A collection of one of the best comics of the 1980’s, before the manga influence took over all the art.
Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin; Rebus is in anger management class to bust some crooked cops. Good a place as any, I suppose.
The Messy First Christmas by Frank Gary Pierce; An Inspirational history about the birth of Jesus Christ. Goes into some of the social mores of the time, but doesn’t get to the magi.
Syndrome E by Frack Thilliez; A silent film makes viewer go blind. It’s a French take on a Japanese horror movie like The Ring. Very interesting seeing the cultural cross currents.
Sea of Gray by Tom Chaffin; It’s like the premise of several westerns. A military operation takes place, only for the soldier to learn too late that the war is over. In this case, transfer that over to a ship of privateers who find out they’re pirates. There is some question as to when they learned the war was over. With the Trump administration talking about reviving Letter of Manque (contained in the Constitution), to take on the Cartels, this is book is more relevant than ever.
That’s funny about the evil witch, Glen. I’ll try.
Interesting collection this week. Sounds as if most of them were good.
I hope that the weather isn’t so, so, so bad. Tornadoes sound terrifying. I am currently reading 5 days at Memorial – it’s about Memorial Hospital during Katrina. Not light that’s for sure. My next read (or reads!) will have to be a bit lighter to make up for it!
5 Days at Memorial certainly isn’t light reading, Melissa. You’re right. You’ll need something lighter afterward.
May the tornados stay away from you, Lesa, and the rest of you. Switzerland has blizzards and avalanches but NO tornados. Today I’m off to Zürich on the train (one hour) to have lunch with my son, who lives there. I’m looking forward to it a lot!
I finished listening to HANG ON ST CHRISTOPHER, Adrian McKinty’s latest Sean Duffy book, and from the way it was written, I got a strong feeling that he was setting it up to be his last in the series. We’ll see. Quite honestly, it drags a bit, but I still enjoyed it. Now I’m listening to THE TOMB OF DRAGONS, the third in a series by the author of THE GOBLIN EMPEROR, Katherine Addison, which was one of my bests of 2024. This series is about a character in the same world of goblins and elves who can communicate with the newly dead to find out what happened to them or what they want to tell others. I’ve like the series very much so far.
I mentioned last week that I was reading SHY CREATURES by Clare Chambers, and I finished it. Excellent story about an art therapist in a mental hospital in the 1960s who works with a man in his 40s who has been kept inside his aunts’ house for decades. The detailed explanation for his “imprisonment” comes out slowly in flashbacks, which works very well. Now starting a new book by another of 2024 favorite authors, Natasha Pulley, who wrote THE MARS HOUSE. Not science fiction this time, but history/myth: a tale of the birth of the god Dionysus. The hero is a soldier of Thebes who rescues him as a baby and is fascinated by him. Can’t say more yet, but I’m enjoying it.
Oh yes. Last week Rosemary wrote how much she enjoyed another book by Clare Chambers called SMALL PLEASURES. I’ve bought it! Thanks, Rosemary.
Oh! I forgot to mention the title of the Dionysus book. It’s called THE HYMN TO DIONYSUS.
Thank you, Kim! It’s just the beginning of tornado season, so I hope we avoid them. Enjoy your lunch with your son!
I haven’t read as much since I moved here. I hope I’m back to reading in quantities again soon. Not that I’m looking for numbers. I’m really looking for variety.
I’m spending the week in Virginia. We are currently at Cape Charles which is on the Chesapeake Bay.The weather is beautiful. My brother and sister-in-law who live in Georgia are here working at the state park. They belong to a group of RV ers who volunteer their time doing different projects throughout the country. It’s pretty cool. From here, we will go to see my friends who live on the west side of the state. I love coming here. There’s so much to see and do.
I’m now caught up on the Riley Thorn books. This week, I read THE CORPSE IN THE CLOSET by Lucy Score. A social media influencer is murdered in her closet and Riley and Nick are hired to look into it. Then a loser ex-husband is murdered and Riley makes a connection between the two murders with a glitter bomb. While all the murders are taking place, Riley’s disapproving grandmother shows up to make life miserable for everyone. Another fun read.
Then it was on to THE CORPSE FROM THE PAST by Lucy Score. Riley and Nick move into the house next to the octogenarians. Finally,they can get some peace and quiet. Nope, those oldsters come and go as they please. Nick is consumed by finding Weber’s long lost sister and forgetting about everything else including Riley which is not settling well. While Riley is out and about, she notices a white limo following her, she approaches it to find Weber’s sister. And that’s when the fun begins. This is the last of the series for me and I am sad. Doesn’t look like she has a Riley Thorn book coming out in 2025.
I haven’t read much this week yet but we have some down time tomorrow. The first couple of days were spend catching up on sleep. I have to remember not to take 5:00 a.m. flights in the future.
Between catching up with sleep and spending time with family, it’s no wonder you haven’t read much this week, Bev. I never read when I’m spending time with famiy. I hope those RV’ers don’t have to take on the national parks soon, if the national parks even exist.
I’m sorry you’re finished with a series you really enjoy.
Good morning, all. Lesa, that’s one of the better things about New York (along with our water, for another), that we rarely get any extreme weather, and never tornadoes. Glad it passed you by. In South Florida, it’s been a mostly warm and sunny, if occasionally very windy, week, and most of the rain has been elsewhere. We are in for one change, as they are predicting a very warm 86 today and a very cool (for March) 70 and windy tomorrow.
If there are any other fans of Jimmy Buffett here, let me say that we went to see The Coral Reefer Band in concert at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood on Florida, and they really did a nice show, as well as talking about Jimmy and showing pictures and videos. The band will be opening for The Doobie Brothers this summer in 19 concerts, in case you’re interested.
Books. Jackie has been reading more than usual lately. After BOOK LOVERS, she read another Emily Henry book, PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION, which she liked too. Now she has gone back to an old favorite, Linda Lael Miller, and is reading her Montana-set CHRISTMAS IN PAINTED PONY CREEK, part of a series about various members of the McKettrick family. I think she has another one to read after this one, which she is enjoying too.
Last Thursday, I finished the short, fast moving, Jack Taylor book by Ken Bruen, Galway’s Edge, which is perhaps not quite as dark as recent books in the series about former Garda turned PI Taylor. Fans of Galway like Lesa will find much to enjoy, though it is also darker than most of the books she usually reads.
I’m still reading the mostly very short short stories by James Sallis, Bright Schemes – I’ve read 28 stories so far – but I might be ready to move on to something else.
What is your definition of a thriller? It certainly involves non-stop action and movement, probably a certain amount of violence, and generally a tough central protagonist who can take a beating, dish out one of his own, and keep the reader’s sympathy. Think Jack Reacher. Or Nick Petrie’s Peter Ash. Or James Byrne’s Dez Limerick. Now one thing all these books have in common is, despite the often frantic pace, there are generally at least some slower periods where they regroup, give the reader exposition, plan the next move, etc. There is no such thing as start to finish non-stop action, right? Or is there? In the last Dez Limerick book, Chain Reaction, the author throws you into the action almost immediately, and the first 100 pages race by like a whirlwind, but after that there is a plateau, where Dez and his helper regroup, and, frankly, as good as the rest of the book was, it never (to my mind) quite regains the excitement of the first section of the book. This is all prologue to talking about a book that is basically 287 pages of non-stop action, from the opening home invasion to the conclusion, Andrew Welsh-Huggins’s The Mailman. Is it believable? Well, +perhaps not so much, but you shouldn’t let that stop you enjoying it. Mercury (Merc) Carter is a former US Postal Inspector, injured in the past – this is a perfect example of how to put necessary exposition into a book while continuing the action – who is now what he describes as kind of a freelance courier. He delivers packages, up to and including people (like a woman and child escaping a violent spouse). He has never failed to complete his delivery. Thus, when he turns up at the right place at the right time, just after a vicious gang of four is about to torture lawyer Rachel Stanfield (the parcel’s recipient) and her husband Glenn for some unknown information, he doesn’t just let it go. Using previously acquired skills, he disables most of the gang, though they manage to escape with Rachel. Thus starts the non-stop chase and several violent set pieces. You may find some of the lengths Merc goes to to complete his mission as unbelievable as the bad guys do – if only the real Postal Service was this determined to do the job perfectly! – but you won’t be bored. Highly recommended, given the previous caveats.
Adrian McKinty has been a favorite of mine since I read his first Sean Duffy book, The Cold Cold Ground (2012). One of the books, Gun Street Girl, won an Edgar Award. Yet, after book 6, 2017’s Police At the Station And They Don’t Look Friendly, McKinty quit writing after losing his rental apartment because his books weren’t selling. He was driving an Uber! But fellow mystery writer Don Winslow hooked him up with hos own agent (and a screenwriter), who convinced him to write a standalone thriller, and even fronted him $10,000 to live on while he was writing it. This was the enormously successful The Chain, a nasty little book published in 37 languages and selling millions. Frankly, I prefer Duffy, but you can’t argue with success, I guess. This was followed by a really nasty book I quit reading, The Island. Then, finally, McKinty got back to what he does best, a new Duffy book after 6 years, 2023’s The Detective Up Late. Duffy and his girlfriend and their daughter have moved across to Scotland, a two hour ferry ride from Belfast, and Duffy, now 40 and an Inspector as 1990 begins, will be working part-time, 7 days a month, for the next three years to get his lifetime pension. But first, there is One. Last. Case. 15 year old Traveler girl Kat has disappeared. Has she run off to France, where she once lived? Was she really an “escort” as she was seen with several older men? Did she kill herself or was she murdered, or…? Then her car is found in the river, empty, with the doors open. Everyone pretty much assumes it was suicide, except Duffy. He is not giving up Duffy’s Last Case without an answer. This is the usual mix of an excellent series, with Duffy discussing music – when he moves to Scotland he leaves a third of his record collection behind to listen to, 15,000 LPs! – and politics and throwing in the odd line that lets us know he is in the future looking back on his life. I will be reading the new one as soon as it comes in (I see Kim was lukewarm about it), but I definitely recommend you start with book one, as long as you don’t mind reading about some very violent times in Northern Ireland.
I didn’t read The Detective Up Late, Jeff, but that one sounds good. I may have to go back and pick that one up.
I’m glad you liked The Mailman! You’re right, but then I can’t think of any thrillers that I find realistic.
Your weather sounds wonderful to me!
I’ve read some of Linda Lael Miller’s books, and enjoyed them. I like her characters.
Glad you had a nice visit Lesa. It’s been a quiet week here, just getting the garden cleaned up for spring planting.
I read an ARC of MURDER ON THE STEEL PIER by Rosie Genova. After a night out in Atlantic City celebrating her birthday Tess wakes up in a strange room. She soon figures out that she’s somehow gone back in time to 1955 and is inhabiting the body of an aunt who disappeared before she was born. When Tess’ future grandfather is arrested for murder Tess realizes that she needs to clear his name or her father won’t be born.
THE BLANKET CATS by Kyoshi Shigematsu. Seven short stories all connected by a store that rents cats for exactly three days.
Well, that’s an interesting premise with Murder on the Steel Pier. It sounds good. Enjoy working in your garden, Sandy. I hope you have good gardening weather.
I lived in the Midwest for several years and hated those tornado warnings and the storms have increased in ferocity. Nerve-wracking!
I read two selections from my holds list at the library:
Tess Gerritsen’s THE SPY COAST from 2023. Lesa, you mentioned it here earlier this year in anticipation of the second book in her Martini Club series (The Summer Guests). She’s a new-to-me author and I really enjoyed the story and the writing style. But why, oh why, didn’t I put my hold on the sequel in then? I’m #30 – fortunately five copies ordered.
And a nonfiction selection, HURRICANE LIZARDS AND PLASTIC SQUID: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change. Thor Hanson has a wonderful approach to science writing and also has a new book out this year – Close to Home : The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door.
Something else I can’t believe – why I procrastinated on Peter Grainger’s DC Smith series. Kim Hays – Thanks for being persistent in recommending!
I listened to the first in the series last week (An Accidental Death) and have already finished the second, BUT FOR THE GRACE. This one has DC Smith assigned a suspicious death at Rosemary House Care Home. Interesting characters and a plot with underlying moral uncertainty.
Next week, I’m venturing down to the largest national park in the lower 48 – Death Valley (temperature shock, forecast to be in the high nineties). I’ve been to the Park several times in the past, but it’s my first time staying at the Historic Inn. I’ve packed my sunscreen & extra water.
Sounds like wonderful family time, Lesa! And pinochle – super fun!
We had rain and snow and wind last night – carrying over into the morning. A nasty surprise for the Spring Equinox ! Everything is closed and internet is down. I blame it on our snowplow guy who removed the driveway stakes earlier this week! Looking forward to a relaxing day now that my plans have been canceled.
This past week I read “How to Read a Book” by Monica Wood. Such a good book, I didn’t want it to end. Told in alternating chapters by the three main characters Harriet Larson, Violet Powell, and Frank Daigle. Harriet runs a once-a-week book club in a women’s prison, Violet Powell is a soon to be released 22 year old prisoner who is serving a 3 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter, Frank Daigle is a widower, whose wife Lorraine was the victim of Violet’s accident. Frank is working in a bookshop as a maintenance man. Harriet frequents this bookshop and Frank has a crush on her from afar (they are both in their 60’s). When Violet is released, she ends up in the bookstore and inadvertently meets up with Frank and Harriett. Their lives become entwined and a love story of friendship and forgiveness unfolds between these three beautiful characters. Highly recommend.
Happy Spring!