Thursday, my favorite day of the week, thanks to all of you. How many of you are snowed in, and expecting more? I’m lucky. We’re getting the cold from that polar vortex this weekend, but we haven’t had much snow. I feel sorry for all of you in the east. You’re lucky if you don’t have to get out.
I don’t like to talk about the books I’m reviewing for Library Journal until release date, but I will talk about this book because I’ll only review it here in April. Madeline Martin’s The Last Bookshop in London is an April release, but, if you’re interested in the novel, you might be able to put a hold on it at your library. Or, add it to your “want-to-read” list, if you like World War II domestic novels. Two young women head to London just before the war starts. One of them, who isn’t a reader, ends up working in a bookshop. It’s a story of the love of books and reading, how she discovers and shares that. But, it’s also realistic enough to have moments of loss and death. I sobbed over this book. It’s not going to be “great literature”. It’s a good story, and I’m recommending it for those who appreciate some details of life during the war, but also the dusty details of a bookshop and a bookseller who changes lives. It’s the kind of book I suggest for my mom and my best friend.
What about you? What are you reading this week?
Hi, Lesa. Will get back to you later, but wanted to check in to let you know that we are both off to get our first shot of the vaccine (not sure which one, Moderna or Pfizer) this morning at 8:20! We got a notice yesterday from out health care provider and Jackie was able to call them and get up appointments today. Now she can stop being so paranoid about things,
At least there are some benefits of being old.
I’m as paranoid as Jackie, Jeff. Maybe they should have let seniors and paranoid people get the vaccines. Good luck! Talk later.
Just finishing Caz Frear’s latest “Shed No Tears”. Third in her Kat Kinsella series.
It snowed here (Eastern Sierra) most of last week. But at the 4500′ level, most has melted away.
I haven’t read that series, M.M. Tell me a little about it, please.
Caz Frear series is loosely a police series, revolving around the characters and their interactions. Crimes occur, but not offensive violence.
Kat Kinsella is a Detective Constable in London’s Metropolitan Police Force who grew up in a family with ties to organized crime.
I enjoy the solving-the-puzzle aspects and the setting. And kudos for a believable female lead.
Thank you! I’m going to have to look for these books. They look like they’re right up my alley.
They are, Lesa. I just read the third one too. Her father, who she tries to avoid, runs a pub and works for “Uncle Frank,” a local gangster of sorts. I like them. Definitely start with book one, though.
Thanks, Jeff. Although I don’t know why this comment is above yours rather than below. (sigh)
Good morning, Lesa. I am in a part of the country that is getting snow today. The drizzle started before daybreak and now it is snowing. We are expected to get 2-4″ by this afternoon. Then it will turn cold. My husband is working out in it today, but I am fortunate to be able to stay home.
This week I read Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino – a man is found dead in his locked home. His wife had left town to visit her parents. She left a key with her apprentice. When the apprentice couldn’t reach the man, she went to the home and found him collapsed on the living room floor. Is is suicide or homicide? The police are called in to investigate and we get to come along! I really like this author’s writing style.
Now I am reading The House Girl by Tara Conklin – a dual timeline story. The current timeline involves a lawyer who is given a case to bring reparations to slaves. She is looking for a relative of a slave that can become the face of the case. The second timeline involves a slave, a house girl, on a Virginia plantation in 1852. The story is beautifully written.
The Last Bookshop in London sounds good, I will look for it.
Have a great day!
Thank you, Gretchen! I hope your husband makes it home safely. I’m glad you’re tucked in with your books. It sounds as if you had two books with writing styles you appreciated. That’s great! Stay safe!
Good morning! It’s 35 degrees here in Northern California right now, but a high of 53 is in the forecast, That’s not too bad for wintertime, I guess. Here’s what I’ve been reading.
Maybe my timing was off, but I didn’t enjoy THE SOLACE OF BAY LEAVES by Leslie Budewitz as much as I expected. I’m typically not crazy about plots that revolve around business issues, so it fell flat for me. However, I do like the author’s writing style and the fact that the protagonist is an interesting, well-developed character. Budewitz’s books are a cut above many cozy series. I’ll try again in the future.
In THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE by Marie Benedict, the author uses some known factors to imagine the real story around Agatha Christie’s 11-day disappearance, which has never been fully explained–not even in Christie’s autobiography. The story is told in alternating chapters featuring Agatha and husband Archie before they met, after they were married, and during and after her disappearance. It’s obvious their marriage was not what either expected, but was Archie responsible for his wife’s disappearance (and possible death)? I found it a very quick read, with short chapters, but I found it to be lackluster and underwhelming, with mostly uninteresting characters.
I read James McBride’s DEACON KING KONG for a Black History Month theme at one of my book clubs. The story begins when a 19-year-old drug dealer is shot in public by an elderly black man nicknamed Sportcoat, who used to be the young man’s baseball coach and Sunday school teacher, and who can’t explain–or even remember–the incident because he was dead drunk. Set in a housing project in Brooklyn in 1969, it’s a neighborhood where the Baptist church and a smuggling operation are in close proximity. Richly detailed are the black, white, Hispanic, Irish, and Italian communities, the poor and those with ill-gotten gains, gangsters and police, drug dealers and church deacons. The author skillfully alternates between poetic description, insight into the workings of each part of the neighborhood, a bit of unexpected romantic longing, and dialogue that can break your heart or make you laugh out loud–in just the right combination. It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the narrative, but then everything fell into place neatly, though never predictably. There’s even a bit of mystery, which the reader easily solves before the characters do–making for a delightful scene. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
THE DEFENSE, the first in the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Cavanagh, features a con man-turned-defense attorney and is a spectacular thriller–maybe too spectacular. A New York kingpin of the Russian mafia kidnaps Eddie and forces him to take over his case from Eddie’s previous law firm partner, who has been disposed of in a gruesome manner. The mobster is counting on Eddie’s familiarity with courthouse employees to enable him to smuggle a bomb into the courtroom–hidden on his person–, in order to knock off the key witness against the defendant. In return, the mobster and his colleagues may release Eddie’s 10-year-old daughter. All of this has to be accomplished in a 48-hour period, to allow the defendant to flee from the country before his bail is revoked. There’s a lot more to it, and it’s an utterly impossible situation, but we know Eddie will triumph because it’s the beginning of a series. I loved later entries in this series–The Plea and Thirteen–even though they were also high-energy, sometimes unlikely stories. This one, though, strained credulity way past the breaking point for me. Disappointing.
I’m afraid, Margie, that except for The Solace of Bay Leaves, which I already read, that none of the books speak to me this week. I’m wishing you good reading, though, in the next week!
Thanks for the heads up about the Agatha Christie book, Margie. I took it off my reserve list. We recently watched the PBS special on Agatha Christie as well as the one about Agatha Christie’s England. We enjoyed both.
Sharon, I hope I haven’t turned you off to a book you might have enjoyed. I know we have similar tastes, but you never know!
We topped out at 8 inches of snow after two snow falls. It is 25 degrees so far but the really cold weather (and more snow) is supposed to arrive this weekend.
This week I read ONE IN A MILLION by Lindsey Kelk. She said she got the inspiration from watching My Fair Lady. Annie Higgins and her best friend are running a fledging PR company for social media infuencers. She places a bet that she can get 15,000 Instagram followers in 30 days for the next person walking into their co-op office building in exchange for a month’s free rent. In walks Dr. Samuel Page, anti social self published historical author on obscure Irish lieutenants. Annie discovers he is also living in his office because his girlfriend broke up with him. So she offers to help him win her back with a “boyfriend boot camp” while getting followers for her bet. Predictability ensues. I found this a fun and delightful read.
Today I will be finishing A ROYAL AFFAIR by Allison Montclair. Margie, you were correct last week when you said I would not be disappointed. And thanks for the heads up there is another one coming in the series, Lesa.
Happy Reading!
You’re welcome, Sharon. I have the first in Montclair’s series sitting beside the couch. Now, just to find time for it. One in a Million sounds fun, too.
One in a Million sounds great! Another for my never-ending TBR list.
Good morning. We got about 22 inches but fortunately we started digging out on Sunday while it was still snowing. We finally got my car dug out yesterday. I’m looking forward to my online yoga class tonight to stretch out my sore muscles. This week I read:
NIGHT TRAIN by David Quantick. A woman wakes up in a pitch black car on a moving train with no idea of who she is or where she is. This is going on my short list of worst reads of the year.
18 1/2 Disguises by Larissa Reinhart an ex actress is now a somewhat inept P.I. Trainee trying to solve her first solo case. I like the humor in this series.
Marcus Samuelsson’s memoir YES, CHEF. I don’t agree with a lot of the choices he’s made in his life but the book was certainly an interesting look at what it takes to be a professional chef. No way I could ever do it.
Marcus Samuelsson’s book is on our summer reading list this year, Sandy. (Yes, libraries are already getting summer reading lists ready.) I’m happy to hear you found it interesting. Even without reading the book, I know I couldn’t ever do it. I watched a fascinating 2 hour special on the Food Network that covered 4 chefs/restaurant owners and how they dealt with the first year of the pandemic. Marcus Samuelsson was one of them.
I’m back. It was very easy and efficient. They turned the grungy rehab place across from the hospital (where Jackie stayed two weeks after her knee replacement seven years ago) into a clean, nice vaccination center. You check in and wait for them to call your name, answer a few questions and get jabbed. Honestly, I didn’t even feel the needle. It was the Pfizer vaccine, and we were able to schedule our second shots online immediately afterwards, for three weeks from today. Let’s hope there is no snow then. I got help digging the car out last night and had no trouble parking by the hospital. Plus, it is going to be 42 and sunny today, so a lot of the 17 inches we had should melt. Tomorrow’s rain should help too.
Books. I finished January with 101 short stories read and 7 collections, four single author and three anthologies. Currently reading Fritz Leiber (horror and fantasy and a little science fiction) and Richard Bausch stories. Actually, it was like the old days as I finished six books in six days this week. After the Goulart and Phil Klay collections mentioned previously, and the Lawrence Ritter sport book, I read P. J. Tracy’s new one (start of a new series?), Deep Into the Dark. Instead of Minneapolis, this is set in Los Angeles and includes yet another scarred war veteran with PTSD, an interesting cop, and a young woman who…well, read it yourself. I wouldn’t rank it as highly as the Monkeewrench series, but I would read another.
I discovered that I had missed the last couple of books in a favorite regional mystery series, the Claire Watkins books by Mary Logue. Claire is a deputy (and the only investigator) for the Sheriff of the smallest county in Wisconsin, on the Mississippi across from Minnesota. Her fellow cop husband was killed in a hit & run in the first book of the series, and she has a long-time relationship with Rich, a nice guy who raises pheasants (really!), and a teenage daughter, Meg. In book 8 (which I had to buy as the library didn’t have it), Frozen Stiff, an obnoxious rich guy is locked out of his sauna, naked, on one of the coldest nights of the year. Who tried to kill him? The final book, Lake of Tears, takes place the next summer, with Meg ready to go off to college. I’d recommend you start at the beginning, with Blood Country, and go from there. Logue has also written YA and other books, some with her live-in boyfriend Pete Hautman. I read the two books in less than a day each, as they are short (220 pages or so) and fast.
Current reading: Walter (THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, THE HUSTLER) Tevis’s science fiction/dystopia answer to BRAVE NEW WORLD, Mockingbird.
So good to hear the shots went well, Jeff! I understand they’re going smoothly here as well. I hope the successful roll-out continues.
Have you read Patricia Skalka’s Door County mysteries? I just read the forthcoming sixth one featuring the sheriff in Door County, Wisconsin. I haven’t read the others, but I really liked this one. The first is Death Stalks Door County. They’re published by Univ. of Wisconsin Press, and I don’t know how easy it is to find them. I was reminded of these books by your comment about Mary Logue’s Claire Watkins series.
I agree with you about Deep into the Dark. I’ll read the next, but they’re not Monkeewrench.
Sorry about the excessive bolding. Have not read the Door County books but you’re the second person to mention them. OK, checked and the library doesn’t have any of them, so I went on ABE and was able to get a paperback of the first one (DEATH STALKS DOOR COUNTY) for $4.59 with shipping.
Just what I need, more books, right?
😉
Of course! We always need new books, and a new series.
Lesa, that book is on my wishlist. Jeff, I got the Pfizer vaccine yesterday about 12:15 at football stadium, not until 9 pm. did my arm starting hurting. Quite a delayed reaction. If there is laundry to do, do it now!
Only 1/2 through Do No Harm, at least is getting better, I still want to talk to the main character but her life has nowhere to go except down the drain,
Carolee, I like that everyone is getting the vaccine, with few reactions, other than aching arms. Good to hear!
I know. I shouldn’t be talking about it 2 months before most of you can read it, but it’s what I finished and loved.
Sunny here, although we are supposed to have some wind this afternoon. I won’t discuss the weather they are predicting for the weekend. (Lower 70’s) It’s why I live in Southern CA.
I’m currently reading Smothered, the second Whipped and Sipped Mystery from GP Gottlieb. It took a little bit to get into, but I’m enjoying it now.
Oh, go ahead and talk about the weather, Mark. I miss those kind of temperatures in February!
Hi Lesa and everyone,
We were forecast masses of snow from yesterday afternoon onwards but si far not much has materialised. Yesterday there were hail showers, and today it’s been sleet turning to rain, Very cold but must be warmer than the BBC anticipated. This afternoon was very dreich – rain, thick cloud and increasing winds. I was glad I managed to fit in a walk this morning.
Jeff, I am glad you got your vaccines. My mother had the first of hers a few weeks ago and didn’t report any side effects, though I read that they can be a little more noticeable after the second dose. Apparently it can make you very tired for a few days, but I think so long as you know what it is, and that you are not actually ill, I could deal with that. My son has had the first dose, as have two medical friends. Now that most of the elderly people have been done, they are moving from GPs’ surgeries to huge vaccination centres, on the basis that the rest of us can get ourselves there more easily. Ours will probably be the exhibition centre in town, which does at least have plenty of parking. Infection numbers are already well down in Aberdeenshire, I’m glad to say, though i suppose that is the result of the new lockdown, which has been in force since just after christmas. However, I also wonder if the surge in cases arose largely from everyone merrily mixing during the holidays.
On to books!
I am reading The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. It has a beautiful cover and I thought it sounded interesting, but so far I’m not too impressed. It’s about a child whose mother retreats into books (and why not?!) when her husband abandons them. The child learns how to cook from various schoolfriends’ mothers and the lady in the Mexican deli, and reawakens her mother’s interest in life by making her delicious things along the lines of Proust’s madeleines. I found this unconvincing. The book jumps forward and backward between that time and the present day, when the child, Lilian, now grown up, has her own restaurant and runs cookery classes. To one of these classes come an assortment of lost souls. Lilian dishes out ‘profound’ sayings to them in such quantities that all you (I) want to do is slap her.
I’ve only got up to the first class and i can already see what’s coning. But it’s not the predictability that irritates me, it’s the overwritten style. Every single overblown description (of food of course) has to be illustrated by a metaphor, and many of these are just ridiculous. I deduced from the first fifty pages that the writer must be a novice who had just completed a creative writing course – one of those classes where they go on and on about ‘using all of the senses’, etc. I was surprised, therefore, to discover that Bauermeister actually used to teach literature and writing at the University of Washington. Maybe I’m just too cynical 🙂
I’m also reading the Alice B Toklas Cookbook. I found a Folio Society copy of this in a most eccentric bookshop and cafe in a remote part of Skye two years ago, and paid £8 for it. As well as the food, there’s lots about Toklas and Gertrude Stein’s life in Paris, where they held ‘salons’ and mixed with artists and writers, from Matisse to Ernest Hemingway. I did hear part of this book adapted for radio a while ago, but sadly the BBC seems to have deleted it. I love the casual way Toklas throws in things like:
‘One day when Picasso was to lunch with us I decorated a fish in a way that I thought would amuse him.’
Or on being in France as the Germans advanced in 1940:
‘We would take the car into Belley and make provisions for any eventuality, as I had done that April morning of 1906 when the fire in San Francisco had broken out after the earthquake. Then I had been able to secure two hams and my father had brought back four hundred cigarettes. With these one might, he said, not only exist but be able to be hospitable.’
Apparently Toklas wrote the book in the space of just four months when she was already 75. While she was writing it she developed jaundice and her doctor put her on a very restricted diet, so, as she said, she was obliged to write about food but not to eat it. She complained to friends of ‘bending over an imaginary stove.’
I also wondered if you Lesa, or anyone else, had seen Martin Edwards’ The Golden Age of Murder, which I have now acquired from our library. I may have mentioned this already, and if so, ignore me! A friend recommended it – i haven’t really started it yet but she says she picked up so many more authors to add to her ‘want to read’ lists, and also learned a lot about writers she already knew. It looks interesting.
On TV I am watching a new series called Traces, which was part written by Val McDermid and focuses on a crime forensics lab in a fictitious university in Dundee. Val McD is of course good friends with the former professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology at Dundee University, Sue Black – I think she may even have endowed a building there. The series is about the drug culture in Dundee (it’s notorious for this), and begins when Molly, a new graduate, returns to her hometown to work for the professors in the department. Molly’s mother disappeared in mysterious circumstances when she was a young child, and now she is looking for answers. Meanwhile the two professors have just launched an online open access course about forensic science. The case study they present is meant to be fictitious, but Molly realises that it is actually about her own mother. Has one of the professors done this deliberately? And why is Molly’s old schoolfriend trying to put her off the scent? Meanwhile a nightclub is set on fire and three people die. Martin Compston (Line of Duty) plays the builder who had recently renovated the building, so he too wants to find out if this was his fault. He and Molly join forces.
Val McDermid made a cameo appearance in the first episode as a TV news reporter – this seems to be a trend among crime writers, as Colin Dexter always used to appear in Morse, Ian Rankin has occasionally popped up in the background in Rebus, and even John Le Carre appeared briefly in the excellent TV adaptation of The Night Manager.
Keep warm everyone!
Thanks. My brother (who works for a health care company) had his second shot and said it bothered him a lot the first nioht, but he took ibuprofen and it was better by the next day.
Anyone desperate for a vaccine might want to try Florida. My cousins went down last week (they own an apartment there) and were able to just walk into the South County Civic Center in Delray Beach on Tuesday and get vaccinated without an appointment! She said there were “hundreds of twenty year olds” there but they were taken immediately “because we’re old.” I don’t know what is going on there.
I have read that Martin Edwards book and all his other non fiction mystery genre books. Great stuff. We are watching one episode of Morse every Saturday night (on Acorn), and I always look out for Colin Dexter’s appearances.
Actually, Jeff. That’s a good line to define Florida. “I don’t know what is going on there.”
Good heavens, how is that being allowed to happen n Florida, when older people in other parts of the country are struggling to get vaccines? (I don’t suppose it could have anything to do with it being the new residence of the Forgotten One?!)
I expect you are, like us, spoilt for choice with the number of repeats of detective series on TV? We could if we wished have a constant diet of Morse, Lewis, Vera, Inspector Lynley, Agatha C, Wycliffe, George Gently, Judge John Deed and Foyle’s War. There are worse things, however – I’m not complaining! In fact there are so many good things on TV and catch-up these days that I feel spoilt for choice.
I have Martin Edwards’ book, Rosemary, and I’ll get back to it, but I bogged down early on. Sometimes, those Golden Age discussions do that for me, although I have a friend who belongs to a Golden Age mystery discussion group, and gets a lot out of it.
Your weather sounds awful, but I’m always glad you tell us about it. It makes me feel more aware of the rest of the world.
I remember liking Erica Bauermeister’s book when I read it, but being bored by the second one, and not finishing it.
I just can’t imagine being one of those people who knew “EVERYBODY”, and just put their names in casual conversation.
Stay safe, Rosemary!
No snow here today (for a change!), but we’re expecting a wintry mix overnight. Ugh. Love the snow, but hate the icy stuff!
I’m tapping my toe with impatience while I wait for the new JD Robb to pop up on my Kindle in a few days.
In the meantime, I’ve read:
Murder in the Rue Dumas by M. L. Longworth
Death at the Chateau Bremont by M. L. Longworth
Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells (ARC)
All fine, but nothing to make me quite as happy as The Last Bookshop in London which I too loved, Lesa.
Stay warm, everyone!
Oh, it’s going to be a while before I find something to make me as happy as The Last Bookshop in London, Kaye.
I know. I hate the ice, but I hate the snow, too. Then, it’s probably because I have to be out in it.
Starting to dry out from the last storm here, but hoping we have some more rain coming.
I read:
Dead Body Language by Penny Warner; First in the Conor Westphal series sets the stage, as she leaves Frisco for Gold Rush Country, and starts solving murders. Warner doesn’t seem to be writing much anymore, which is a shame.
Tombstone by Tom Clavin; History of the most famous shootout of all time, and its immediate aftermath. I kept thinking Doc Holliday should wear a mask. He’d probably shoot me if I suggested it.
e-books:
Shucked Apart: Sandy G talked about this last week, and I have to agree with her. The sleuth should kick her troubled boyfriend to the curb. What an ass. There are two supercop characters she could take up with like all the rest of the cozy sleuths, and be much better off.
Penned In; A restaurant crew goes to spend a night in a haunted jail as a “team building” exercise. Doesn’t everybody hate those? Anyway, there’s a murder, a real ghost, and bunch of walking around in a jail that seems to be a tesseract.
The Treadstone Exile; A book continuing the TV series based on the movies, based on the novels by Robert Ludlum. It seems like everybody’s forgotten that Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith made a Bourne Identity TV Movie.
Cat’s Meow; Two women of a certain age theoretically run a dog walking business, but never actually work. When a ruthless journalist, better known for her plastic surgery than anything else is murdered, they get on the case. Can we stop with the peanut allergy MO? It’s already been run into the ground.
Glen, you are such a breath of fresh air! I love to read your down-to-earth reviews.
I agree with you about Penny Warner, Glen. And, I agree with Margie about your reviews.
Thank both!
I meant to say – I’d not heard of The Last Bookshop in London, it sounds good. However, I really did not rate The Readers of Brokenwheel Recommend – is it anything like that? (I know these are two completely different authors.)
No, Rosemary. It’s not really like The Readers of Brokenwheel Recommend. There’s a focus on the people in London living through the war – sending children out of the city, heading to shelters, and what happened to houses, along with the importance of reading as an escape during this time. Sort of like we all use books and our friendship here as an escape from the pandemic and politics.
Thanks Lesa, that sounds more like my kind of thing!
I seem to have read quite a few books set in or around WWII lately. I enjoyed The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir and Dear Mrs Bird, and even quite enjoyed Spam Tomorrow (in the end!), but I really loved The Village by Marghanita Laski – it was one of my favourite reads of 2020, though of course it was written many years ago.
For my mother and her friends, who were aged 12 when war broke out, the escape was more the cinema, which they were at all the time. It must have been strange at first to find themselves evacuated to deepest rural Wales, when all they had ever known before that was London.
From the other titles you listed, Rosemary, I think you’ll like this one.
I would love to read this book. I love bookshop reads.
I do, too, Bonnie. I’m going to review it close to release date, so that will come as a reminder.
Finished two good ones so far this week – the R V Raman book Will to Kill should be on everyone’s list of books to read, you touted it and I will as well. Looking forward to the second one if there is to be a second one. A review that I copied from, Sarah Lyall.
Here at the possibly haunted Greybrooke Manor in Nilgiris, a dozen guests have gathered at the invitation of Bhaskar Fernandez, an eccentric patriarch whose squabbling extended family is tediously dependent on his largesse. Bhaskar is convinced that someone is trying to kill him and has included on his guest list Harith Athreya, a canny private detective charged with looking into a series of suspicious incidents. To disincentivize any would-be killer, Bhaskar has drawn up two wills allowing for two different possibilities: one if he dies of natural causes, the other in the case of his murder. (Bhaskar is a lover of mysteries and enjoys his little games.)
The roads are rendered impassable by a landslide. The lights go out. Greedy relatives and hangers-on circle like so many piranhas. And before we know it, there is indeed a murder — but instead of Bhaskar, the victim is a guest, an artist with a murky past whose body is found, improbably, slumped in his host’s motorized wheelchair. Who did it? And who killed the second victim, not long after?
There seem to be several crimes going on at once, and a lot to pay attention to: an art scam, a drug ring, the falsification of identities, not to mention a spot of adultery. But Athreya is a fine detective with a curious mind, a cool eye for the chance detail, a skill in synthesizing disparate threads and a talent for resisting the insults of the requisite police officer assigned to the case.
The second good one was the newest Lindsay Norris book by Jenn McKinlay One for the Books – one needs to suspend belief that just days and hours before the wedding that Lindsay is playing detective. These are fun books to read; info from her site.
Wedding bells are ringing in the latest page-turning Library Lover’s Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Word to the Wise.
Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully’s plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year.
When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can’t help but wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it’s even begun….
And the third book I just started is a Robert Parker Spenser from1981 Early Autumn – had never read it previously and if you are familiar with the Spenser this is the book where he meets and provides a home for his ward Paul.
Three good books, Jeannette. I’m really happy, though, that you liked Will to Kill. I thought it was terrific, too.
Last Bookshop sounds good! I just finished The Mystery of Agatha Christie by Marie Benedict. We watched a PBS program of the same name so I was well-aware of the time that Agatha “went missing in plain sight.” Benedict’s imagined retelling is a parallel tale — Agatha telling about her early life, how she met and fell in love with Archie Christie, and the subsequent breakdown of their marriage. The other side is the “present day”–December, 1926, from Archie’s point of view as the police investigate the disappearance and Archie is a suspect. He is also an unreliable narrator, that literary device that Agatha used in several of her books. It works here, too. A good tale!
I love to see the contrast in reviews, Nann. Now, readers can decide if they want to read the book based on your comments or not read it based on Margie’s.
I read The Mystery of Mrs. Christie also and predictably fall in between the two reviews. I found the story an interesting supposition on what happened in the missing days, but Archie was a one dimensional rat. The author hinted at war trauma, but it wasn’t explored, leaving him just an unlikable, self-centered character.
I love that, M.M., that you fall in between! I’ve never been able to get into Marie Benedict’s books, so I didn’t even try this one, despite the subject matter. I am looking forward to her June release, though, but it’s written with Victoria Christopher Murray, so I’ll try it. It’s called The Personal Librarian. “The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian–who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true.”