Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday Flashback
From July 2003:
The Old Fox Deceiv'd by Martha Grimes. Mystery.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
The Old Fox Deceiv'd by Martha Grimes. Mystery.
Originally written in 1982, this is a good introduction to Martha Grimes's Richard Jury mysteries.Originally posted here.
I must confess that while Martha Grimes is a familiar name to me in the mystery genre, I'd never read any of her books until now.
This story is filled with the atmosphere of British mysteries, and features a mystery within a mystery--not only whodunit, but who-was-it-done-to.
A clever mystery with an engaging cast of characters, The Old Fox Deceiv'd has ensured that the next time I'm in the mood for a British mystery, Martha Grimes will be on my list of authors to look for.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Labels: books, flashback, mystery
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
***** Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Mystery, action/adventure.
Directed by: Shane Black.
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
We got this from Netflix, and Carl and I started watching this Sunday night while Camden went to bed early (because he was sick--usually I'm the first one to crash), reasoning that since it was rated R, he wouldn't be watching it with us anyway. We only had time to watch half of it before I started drifting off, and I enjoyed it so much I knew I wanted to be awake to watch it. I also realized that there was nothing that I felt inappropriate for my 15-year-old. So Camden watched the first half while recuperating on the couch on Monday, and we watched the rest together that evening.
As you can tell from the five stars, I absolutely loved this movie. Robert Downey, Jr. is Harry Lockhart, our narrator. He's a thief, and not a very good one. While running from the cops, he stumbles into an audition for a crime movie and ends up in Hollywood teamed up with private detective "Gay Perry" (Val Kilmer) who's supposed to teach him how a real detective acts. He also ends up renewing his acquaintance with his childhood sweetheart, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan).
A simple surveillance leads Harry and Perry to a dead body and puts them in all kinds of danger. There are twists and turns and chase scenes and fight scenes all leavened with understated humor.
The relationship between Harry and Harmony has about as many twists and pitfalls as the mystery story.
Probably my favorite part of the movie is that Harry tells us he's the narrator, and there are several references throughout the movie to it being a movie, which I'm a huge sucker for (and why Season 1 of She Spies is one of my favorite TV shows ever). It's not as distancing as you might think, and it really adds to the noir feel of the film.
I also loved an early scene where Harmony is passed out at a party, and when Harry sees actor Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen) groping her, challenges him to a fight... a fight which he loses spectacularly. I was so expecting the street-wise thief to kick butt, but that wasn't Harry.
These are just such great characters. Harmony is a wannabe-actress, but all she has to show for her decade-plus in Hollywood is one commercial. Harry, of course, thinks that's wonderful. Their personalities show through so well in all their opinions and actions.
Anyway. We all loved it, and intend to buy the DVD--I'm going to want to watch this one again.
As for the rating... Netflix's parental guidelines are usually pretty good, but I have to strongly disagree with them here. Any nudity or sexual situations were more implied than shown. The "dismemberment"... Harry's finger gets slammed in a door and cut off. And not remotely graphically. Okay, yes, there was a lot of cursing. Harry apologizes for that at the end of the movie. But what really, really has steam coming out my ears is the notion that simply because "Gay Perry" is gay makes the movie inappropriate for teenagers. WHY? It's not like there's gay porn in the movie. Perry doesn't even have a love interest. Argh. Bottom line: I'm happy with my decision to let Camden watch this with us.
Categories: Movies, 5stars, ActionAdventure, Mystery
Labels: 5 stars, action, Movies, mystery
Monday, October 05, 2009
Cat in a Sapphire Slipper
***** Cat in a Sapphire Slipper by Carole Nelson Douglas. Mystery.
You know once I finished Cat in a Red Hot Rage, I couldn't make myself wait for the next book. And Cat in a Sapphire Slipper did not disappoint. I swear, I love this series more with each book. If you're unfamiliar with the Midnight Louie series, click on the link above--I put a mini-summary of the series in my review.
This time, the action moves slightly outside Las Vegas--to a brothel called the Sapphire Slipper. Temple's aunt Kit and eldest Fontana brother Aldo are getting married, and all the Fontana brothers plus their uncle and Matt Devine (Temple's fiance) are heading to Aldo's (planned-to-be fairly tame) bachelor party at a local strip club when their limo drops them off at the brothel way out of town. The limo driver had been replaced and they were abducted.
It soon becomes apparent that it's just a prank: now that Aldo's getting married, the other brothers' girlfriends decided to hold them all hostage for engagement rings of their own. Until a dead body shows up, murdered while Matt and Nicky Fontana (the only other married Fontana brother, and Temple's occasional employer--he owns the Crystal Phoenix) are hiding out upstairs, and Matt is actually in a hidden voyeur-room in the murder room. Only his ex-priestly scruples kept him from witnessing the murder.
Because the Fontanas are reputedly mob-connected, they're all hoping to get the murder solved before calling in the police... so they call Temple.
And of course Midnight Louie is on hand--or should that be paw?--to help untangle the mystery.
There are some very interesting developments in this book (and please don't read further unless you've either a. already read at least up to Cat in a Red Hot Rage or b. don't intend to read these at all, because while it's not a spoiler for this book, it is for previous books. Here--I'll give you a little spoiler space... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ...
... ... ... ... ... )--Midnight Louie finds an old flame, and the big news is that Max shows up, alive, injured, and amnesiac, in a clinic somewhere in Europe. Not that any of the cast of characters back in Nevada are aware of this. Nor will they be for some time, I'm guessing.
The brothel setting made a wonderful backdrop to showcase ex-priest Matt, particularly when he's interviewing the "girls" to discover who the victim was and who might have had the motive and/or opportunity to kill her. His innate kindness shows through, but it's also apparent that it's difficult for him. He also does a little soul-searching when he realizes that he might have witnessed--or even prevented--the murder if he hadn't closed the two-way mirror in an effort to give privacy to what he assumed would be one of the Fontana brothers and his girlfriend having a little make-up party.
One thing that really struck me while reading Cat in a Sapphire Slipper is how well the characters' personalities and emotions are conveyed in very short bits of dialogue. It's something I've noticed subconsciously before, that the dialogue in this series isn't very drawn-out, but I still feel as though I know these characters, and that they're real. Truly a nice job of wordsmithing, and one that's appreciated, albeit belatedly.
Fortunately, Cat in a Topaz Tango arrived in the mail on Friday, and with only a momentary qualm for all the books that have been waiting forever in TBR-pile-limbo, I started reading it right away. I haven't finished it yet, but I think it's safe to say that the streak (of loving the series more with each book) is still going strong.
Categories: Books, 5stars, Mystery
Labels: 5 stars, books, mystery
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Cat in a Red Hot Rage
***** Cat in a Red Hot Rage by Carole Nelson Douglas. Mystery.
I can't believe I waited to read this until the book after the book after this was out already. Particularly since this is one of my absolute favorite series. One good thing about it, though--I didn't have to wait to read the next book. I am a bit on pins and needles waiting for Barnes & Noble to deliver the most recent one, though. The series story is getting pretty darn suspenseful and I suspect the new one will go straight to the read-now pile.
If you haven't read any of this series yet, here's a thumbnail sketch: Temple Barr does PR for the Crystal Phoenix hotel in Las Vegas. She ends up solving a lot of murders with the help of Midnight Louie, a cat who writes some of the chapters in the books. She's also been involved in a romantic triangle with magician/secret agent Max and ex-priest/radio counselor Matt. Each book has a mystery, but there's also an ongoing story in the series, so I'd highly suggest reading them in order: Catnap, Pussyfoot, then colors in alphabetical order from Cat on a Blue Monday through Cat in a Topaz Tango.
It occurs to me that even though I'm avoiding spoilers for this book, even the beginning situation is spoilery for previous books. So if you want to avoid spoilers for previous books, stop here until you catch up.
The "Red Hot Rage" in the title refers to the Red Hat Sisterhood convention taking place at the Crystal Phoenix. Temple's landlady Electra discovers a murder, and the victim just happens to be "the other woman" who married one of Electra's ex-husbands. Molina's busy investigating Max's disappearance, so it's Su and Alch on the scene, and Su is ready to throw the book at Electra. So it's up to Temple to find out whodunit.
It's complicated, of course. There's a reporter running around with a hidden agenda, and Electra's ex-husband shows up with some other disgruntled men to protest the Red Hats. It's a PR nightmare, so Temple's up to her neck in trouble.
It's not quite enough to keep her mind off her personal life, though. She's deliriously happy with Matt, but it's hard to move on when she can't talk to the missing Max personally. Temple's aunt Kit is still in town, and getting serious with Aldo, the eldest Fontana brother.
And of course there's Midnight Louie and his (unacknowledged) daughter Midnight Louise. Louie is all for helping Temple solve the murder, but Louise thinks enough people are working on that problem, and she's trying to find out what happened to Max.
Even with all that's going on, the story doesn't feel cluttered or confusing, and plenty of page space is given to character development. Matt's emotions in particular are very clear. He's such a wonderful blend of confidence and insecurity, and it's lovely to see how that confidence has increased over the course of the series. Temple is even more complex, and I love the realistic hints that as much as she loves Matt, she's still a tiny bit concerned that she's his first.
I also love that we learn more about landlady Electra Lark. In this book, she becomes a lot more three-dimensional, once we find out a little of how she became the free spirit she is now.
Actually, I'm glad this was still languishing in my TBR pile, because I'd been in a reading slump for a while--I kept picking up books and finding them too easy to put down. Cat in a Red Hot Rage was just the opposite--nearly impossible to put down. I'm only glad I didn't end up dropping it while I was reading it in the tub!
Categories: Books, 5stars, Mystery
Labels: 5 stars, books, mystery
Monday, September 14, 2009
High Heels Are Murder
****½ High Heels Are Murder by Elaine Viets. Mystery.
This is the second Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper mystery, following Dying in Style (#2).
This time, Josie is hired to investigate Mel, a shoe salesman who's been getting complaints from customers. When Mel is found murdered, the prime suspect is Cheryl, who's been considered the standard of perfection in Josie's neighborhood since they were both children. Cheryl's mother begs Josie's help in clearing her daughter's name, which Josie provides in return for favors for her mother, and along the way Josie discovers that perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be.
I still prefer the Dead End Jobs series, but Josie Marcus is growing on me. I liked High Heels Are Murder more than Dying in Style. The characters seemed more fleshed-out and sympathetic, possibly because the plot sticks a little closer to home. As with Elaine Viets's other books, it's fast-paced and witty, and the mystery is both clever and logical.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery
Monday, September 07, 2009
Drop Shot
***** Drop Shot by Harlan Coben. Mystery.
Someone recommended Harlan Coben's books to me a while ago, but I don't remember who. If it was you: Thank-you! This is the first of his books I've read, but it won't be the last.
Myron Bolitar is a lawyer turned sports agent, and he's at the U.S. Open with a client when a young ex-prodigy trying to make a comeback is killed. The victim had left messages with Myron that he hadn't returned, and his client is one of the main suspects, so Myron gets involved.
I have to admit, I was a little leery of a sports agent as a hero in a mystery series, but it works in this book at least. I'm not remotely a sports fan, but the story wasn't too heavy on the sports details, though I have the impression that there's enough there to satisfy readers who are.
What set it apart for me was the humor and the witty dialogue. I'm a sucker for humor and banter, and Drop Shot didn't disappoint. And the twists in the mystery were just right. I'm pretty sure I have another of Coben's books in the TBR mountain somewhere. I'm looking forward to it.
Categories: Books, 5stars, Mystery
Labels: 5 stars, books, mystery
Friday, June 05, 2009
Friday Flashback
From June 2003:
Cold Slice by L. T. Fawkes. Mystery.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Cold Slice by L. T. Fawkes. Mystery.
Sara was right about this one. This mystery set in a pizza joint is a page-turning treat.Originally posted here.
The small community of employees at Carlo's pizza place are well-drawn individuals--three dimensional characters you'd expect to meet at your local pizza joint.
And if I were single, boy, would I like to meet some of these guys.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Labels: books, flashback, mystery
Friday, January 09, 2009
Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too
**** Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too by Nancy Martin. Mystery.
This is the 5th book in the Blackbird Sisters mystery series.
Ex-heiress and social reporter Nora Blackbird is pregnant, and is supposed to take it easy. But she's called it quits with her mobster boyfriend Mick Abruzzo, and is dating reporter Richard D'eath, who's talking marriage. Then she finds a dead body at the estate of childhood friends, and things get progressively worse.
Her friend Delilah is the prime suspect for the murder; Mick appears to be returning to the "family business;" Richard is pursuing a story exposing Mick; and her sister Libby is nagging Nora and their sister Emma to pose nude with her for a fund-raising calendar, and is scrutinizing Nora's diet to ensure she looks good for the photos. There's no end of suspects, either. The deceased was pretty universally disliked: Zell Orcutt was the quintessential dirty old man.
The cast of characters is zany and larger-than-life, and they provide some laughs as well as painting a vivid picture. Libby and Emma's ongoing efforts to create new niches for themselves after the loss of their financial status continues to be entertaining, and Nora's love life gets a few more twists.
In fact, the mystery seemed to take a back seat to Nora's private life this time, since she was preoccupied with the pregnancy--which would be understandable even if she weren't experiencing ruthless morning sickness. (Speaking of which, here's one of my favorite quotes of the book: "If the school nurse had simply told us the truth about morning sickness, she could have skipped the lectures on birth control." Hee. So true.)
Which is not to say that the solution to the mystery isn't logical and satisfying, simply that it's not the whole point of the book.
I have the 6th book in my TBR pile.
Categories: Books, 4stars, Mystery
Labels: 4 stars, books, mystery
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Third Twin
**** The Third Twin by Ken Follett. Suspense.
I got this book used to take advantage of lower shipping from Half.com. I admit, I wasn't sure what to expect--the other books I've read by Follett were spy novels. This wasn't.
Instead, it's about genetic researcher Jeannie Ferrami who's studying twins raised apart. She thinks she's found the perfect subjects: one nice guy and one criminal. Their DNA is identical, but the more she digs, the more things don't make sense, and she finds herself faced with secret government experiments and threatened by wealthy, powerful men.
The science was a little iffy, but the suspense was great.
I do have to mention the Amazon reviews--dozens of 1-star reviews, all complaining that Follett dared to make the bad guys conservatives. *sigh* And then there's the positive review that's praising the book because it's not about icky war stuff. *rolling my eyes* Apparently there are a lot of people out there who are incapable of enjoying a book that doesn't conform 100% to their own political views. And they all write reviews on Amazon.
I'm sure I don't have to mention this here, but this wasn't a political treatise, and I really didn't notice a preachy tone. If you can accept that in the world of this book, the particular bad guys in this one case happened to have a conservative political bent, it's a real page-turner.
Categories: Books, 4stars, Mystery
Labels: 4 stars, books, mystery
The Game
****½ The Game by Laurie R. King. Mystery.
This is the 7th book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. "The Game" of the title refers to the spy game, as Russell and Holmes set off to search for the missing secret agent Kimball O'Hara--Kipling's Kim.
It's an entertaining story; very atmospheric, with lots of details about India, and some fascinating intrigue dealing with the politics of the time. As you might expect from the subject, there are myriad characters, quite a few of whom aren't what they seem.
I'd read Kim decades ago and found I remembered very little of it. This has inspired me to put it on my e-reader, where I'll get to it eventually.
I do enjoy this series, but it's not a favorite--I don't anxiously await new books, and forget about it for years at a time. I think a lot of that is because Mary Russell remains a Mary Sue character, and the series is fanfic, albeit well-written fanfic. Russell is quite simply too good to be true. In this one, for example, she learns Hindi in record time, and charms pretty much everyone with her unconventional ways.
Still, it's an entertaining read, and I thoroughly enjoyed the espionage intrigue and suspense.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Twist and Shout Murder
**** Twist and Shout Murder by Rosemary Martin. Mystery.
This is the second book in the Murder-A-Go-Go series, following It's a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod Murder (#3).
Set in the 60s, perky Bebe Bennett is still secretary of modeling agency head Bradley Williams, and still dreaming of one day becoming Mrs. Williams. Even though he's currently dating the company's lead model, Suzie.
In fact, he's spending the night with Suzie when he steps out for some chocolate sauce, and returns to find Suzie's been murdered. Since he's the only one without an alibi, the police seem convinced of his guilt, and it's up to Bebe and her stewardess roommate Darlene to prove his innocence.
It remains a cute series, capturing the attitudes of the time (at least those of the population that's depicted) quite well. The brand-name-dropping doesn't seem as intrusive as it did in the first book, though it does suffer from the usual problem with amateur sleuth series: finding a good excuse for the sleuth to involve themselves in a crime. Bebe's naivete got a little hard to swallow in this story, but not so much that I can't excuse it away as willful ignorance.
Categories: Books, 4stars, Mystery
Labels: 4 stars, books, mystery
Monday, December 15, 2008
Shutter Island
****½ Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Mystery.
I was a little concerned about trying Lehane's non-Kenzie/Gennaro books. I shouldn't have been.
U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule are investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando from Shutter Island, an institution for the criminally insane, which is isolated on an island reachable only by boat.
Her disappearance is mysterious enough--she vanished from a locked room, and there's nowhere to hide on the small island--but it gets even more disquieting when the hospital staff and the warden are all either unconcernedly uncooperative or downright obstructive of their investigation.
In addition, Daniels is looking for the man responsible for his wife's death: Andrew Laeddis, who he believes is also housed on the island. Further investigation leads the Marshals to suspect psychological experiments, and as it becomes clearer that someone doesn't want them leaving the island, Daniels finds himself questioning his own sanity.
Shutter Island is a powerful psychological thriller, heavy with atmosphere; a story that takes you into the darkest recesses of the mind, and, perhaps most frighteningly, shows you how narrow the line is between sanity and madness.
Lehane's definitely on my list of must-buy authors.
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Sisterhood
***½ The Sisterhood by Michael Palmer. Medical thriller.
I'm not really sure how this got into my TBR pile. I suspect it was the time I ordered about a dozen books from the same seller on Half.com and they sent me several extras as a bonus.
Dr. David Palmer is just starting to get his life back together. After the death of his wife and daughter, he'd become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Now he's clean and sober, but it's an uphill battle to recover his former status as a surgeon. So he's overjoyed when a well-respected surgeon asks him to cover his patients for a long weekend.
Unfortunately, one of those patients is a terminally ill woman who's in a lot of pain, but the surgeon is determined to use every medical resource available to keep her alive. He and David have words about it, and when the woman dies and the autopsy determines it was murder, David is the prime suspect.
The woman was given a fatal dose of morphine by Christine Beall, a dedicated nurse who's part of the Sisterhood--nurses who practice euthanasia out of compassion.
But playing god tends to go to one's head, and the Sisterhood is ready to frame David for the murder, and to go even further if necessary to protect itself.
Is it just me, or is a conspiracy of doctors &/or nurses killing people the plot of every medical thriller out there? It's not my genre (you can tell, because I don't have a tag for it), possibly because I worked in a hospital for 2 1/2 years, although it tended to be the genre of choice for a lot of the nurses I knew. Maybe I hadn't worked there long enough to find the idea tempting. (Not in a serious way--sheesh.) But of the few I've read, it seems like they've mostly been about nurses killing people, and starting out with euthanasia.
Okay, enough of that. I'm probably wrong, because I haven't read enough to know. But this book doesn't convince me to check out more of the genre.
The plot wasn't my main objection anyway. Mostly, I felt it was overcomplicated. Which isn't a problem if all the threads come together, but that wasn't really the case here. In addition to the main plot outlined above, there was David's relationship to a reporter; an offshoot of the Sisterhood called the Garden, which are assassins for hire; and there's a romance between David and Christine.
Unfortunately, the Garden's murders never really go anywhere (though this might be the subject of a sequel--there is a cliffhanger at the end); the relationship with the reporter fizzles without real closure; and the romance between David and Christine feels forced. There are also secondary characters who are underutilized--for example, David's mobster friend and the police detective in charge of the case; and an overabundance of names that are referred to as if they'd been a larger part of the story than they had been. All of which makes me wonder if The Sisterhood had been the victim of a hatchet editing job.
On the positive side, it was suspenseful, and David was a sympathetic protagonist. He really got everything thrown at him, poor guy.
I hate to say this, since it took me three days to read this 342-page book, but I think I'd have enjoyed it more if it had been longer.
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, mystery
Sunday, November 16, 2008
TBR Challenge for May
The TBR Challenge for May is to read a book with something about a hobby in its title. Be as creative as you like.
Examples from my shelves: Hunter's Moon by C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp (#1) (hunting)
Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (#26) (pawn --> chess)
Double Feature by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly (#23) (movies)
I chose:
****½ Under Pressure by Kathy Brandt. Mystery.
It's stretching things a bit, I guess--while the subject of the book is a hobby (diving), it's not real clear from the title. I did give it a good try, but really couldn't find anything in my TBR pile with a hobby in the title.
This is the fourth book in the Underwater Investigation series, following Dangerous Depths (#26). And, unfortunately, as far as I can tell, anyway, the last. It came out in 2006, and there's no news of a 5th book, so...
This time, Detective Hannah Sampson is on the scene when a plane crashes into the water not far from her boat. She and her partner are able to rescue many of the passengers, but four apparently died on impact.
In the British Virgin Islands, it's the UK Department of Transport that's responsible for investigating airplane crashes, but Hannah gets caught up in the investigation anyway. It's complicated by a small-airline owner who insists her airline couldn't be at fault, an approaching hurricane, and a movie star who's decided that a romance with the detective who rescued him is just the kind of publicity he needs.
The mystery is full of intriguing twists and turns, and Hannah is an engaging character: smart and dedicated, a little burned-out (which is how she ended up in the Virgin Islands), a little wounded, but still sympathetic and engaging.
To participate in the challenge, let us know what you read, how it fit the challenge, how you liked it, and how long it had been in your TBR pile.
Categories: Books, TBRChallenge, 4.5stars, Mystery
Examples from my shelves: Hunter's Moon by C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp (#1) (hunting)
Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett (#26) (pawn --> chess)
Double Feature by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly (#23) (movies)
I chose:
****½ Under Pressure by Kathy Brandt. Mystery.
It's stretching things a bit, I guess--while the subject of the book is a hobby (diving), it's not real clear from the title. I did give it a good try, but really couldn't find anything in my TBR pile with a hobby in the title.
This is the fourth book in the Underwater Investigation series, following Dangerous Depths (#26). And, unfortunately, as far as I can tell, anyway, the last. It came out in 2006, and there's no news of a 5th book, so...
This time, Detective Hannah Sampson is on the scene when a plane crashes into the water not far from her boat. She and her partner are able to rescue many of the passengers, but four apparently died on impact.
In the British Virgin Islands, it's the UK Department of Transport that's responsible for investigating airplane crashes, but Hannah gets caught up in the investigation anyway. It's complicated by a small-airline owner who insists her airline couldn't be at fault, an approaching hurricane, and a movie star who's decided that a romance with the detective who rescued him is just the kind of publicity he needs.
The mystery is full of intriguing twists and turns, and Hannah is an engaging character: smart and dedicated, a little burned-out (which is how she ended up in the Virgin Islands), a little wounded, but still sympathetic and engaging.
To participate in the challenge, let us know what you read, how it fit the challenge, how you liked it, and how long it had been in your TBR pile.
Categories: Books, TBRChallenge, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery, tbr challenge
Sunday, October 19, 2008
What's a Ghoul to Do?
**** What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie. Mystery.
M. J. Holliday is a psychic who psychic who can speak to ghosts. She and her best friend Gilley are basically ghostbusters--Gilley handles the business end of things, and M. J. talks to the ghosts and helps them cross over.
They're hired by skeptical doctor Steven Sable, whose grandfather recently died--a suicide, the police say, but Dr. Sable doesn't believe that.
M. J. is reluctant to take the case because he insists on coming along, and M. J. always works alone. But she finally agrees, though she warns him that her priority will be to help his grandfather's ghost move on, rather than pressing for a reason for his death.
The case soon turns out to be more complex--and dangerous--than it first seemed. The ghost turns violent, there's family drama and financial intrigue, and M. J. and Steven end up in physical danger.
During all this, there's a bit of a romance between M. J. and Steven. She resists initially, but his charm wears her down.
Adding to the fun is M. J.'s parrot, Doc, who tends to get M. J. into trouble.
This is a fun and clever mystery. It reminded me somewhat of The Remains of the Dead by Wendy Roberts, in that both sleuths speak to ghosts and try to help them cross over. However, M. J. is comfortable and open with her abilities, while Sadie hides them, and probably as a consequence, M. J.'s abilities are a lot more detailed--such as how M. J. deals with a bad spirit.
I was a little distracted by Steven's linguistic tics--he was from Argentina and educated in Germany, so English is not his first language. He frequently either says the wrong word, prompting M. J. to correct him, or uses "how you say..." Now, I get the point, believe me. My mother-in-law, for example, speaks three languages, and though she's very fluent, and actually worked as a translator for a while, she occasionally forgets words. So I think it's realistic. It's like putting an accent in a book, though--do it sparingly, and the reader gets the idea. If you do it all the time, it gets hard to read, and boring. And that's what happened here. The English errors (and M. J.'s corrections, which added quite a lot to the word count) occurred at least a couple of times a page every time Steven was in the scene. It got old.
I also found the title a bit misleading, though that's not much to do with the story. When the titles of the books in this series all contain the word "ghoul," well, I'm expecting a ghoul. I've never heard of "ghoul" used to describe someone who merely talked to ghosts. Maybe I've just been reading too much fantasy.
All in all, though, it was a good mystery, and I'll be getting the next book in the series.
Categories: Books, 4stars, Mystery
Labels: 4 stars, books, mystery
Friday, October 17, 2008
Friday Flashback
from June 2003:
Murder, She Wrote: Majoring in Murder by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain. Mystery.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Murder, She Wrote: Majoring in Murder by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain. Mystery.
I hadn't realized this series was still out there. I remember watching the TV show years ago.Originally posted here.
Like Good Hope Road, one of the May books, this one starts with a tornado, adding a touch of realism after all the tornadoes in the midwest this spring.
In this case, the tornado covers up a murder, and Jessica has to not only find out whodunit, but also prove that there even was a murder in the first place.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Labels: books, flashback, mystery
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I'd Kill for That
*** I'd Kill for That, by Gayle Lynds, Rita Mae Brown, Marcia Talley (who also edited), Lisa Gardner, Linda Fairstein, Kay Hooper, Kathy Reichs, Julie Smith, Heather Graham, Jennifer Crusie, Tina Wainscott, Anne Perry, & Katherine Neville. Mystery.
This is another of those serial novels, like Naked Came the Phoenix.
It's a murder mystery set in a gated community that's in an uproar over a proposed condo development nearby. As with any tightly-knit community, it's a hotbed of intrigue: all those different characters, each with their own foibles, secrets, and agendas. And it's up to police captain Diane Robards to sort it all out and discover which secrets are criminal.
If you're looking for a well-crafted murder mystery, this isn't it. Like Naked Came the Phoenix, each of the authors has her own vision of where the story should go, so it changes with each chapter. And some of the authors carefully incorporate previous authors' developments into their chapters while others gleefully disregard any developments that don't gibe with their vision. And there are also a couple of twists that seem designed to make things more complicated for the subsequent authors.
Reading it on that level--noticing the various authors' styles and how each one changed the story--it's fun and entertaining. And I expect it was a heck of a lot of fun to write.
I'm not sorry I read it, and I won't hesitate to read another serial novel, but it's definitely a one-read book for me, and only a keeper to make my Crusie collection complete.
Categories: Books, 3stars, Mystery
Labels: 3 stars, books, mystery
Friday, September 12, 2008
Violets Are Blue
**½ Violets Are Blue by James Patterson. Mystery.
After reading Roses Are Red (#34), I hunted down this sequel because of the cliffhanger about the Mastermind. It's been in my TBR pile for a while.
We do find out who the Mastermind is, but.... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Alex Cross (who sounds like Morgan Freeman in my head) is a Washington DC police detective. A series of gruesome murders in which the victims have been bitten and their blood drained has him bouncing around the country--east coast, west coast, New Orleans, and working with the FBI and local cops in the other places.
Punctuating the investigation are phone calls from The Mastermind, who always seems to know what Cross is doing and where he is; and complaints from Nana that he's not spending enough time with his children.
About a third of the way through the book, we find out who's doing the killing, and from then on, it's just a matter of sitting back and watching Cross & co.'s mostly fruitless quest to find the killer. Or watching him dither on about whether or not he's interested in a female cop he meets on the quest. Or get all panicky about The Mastermind, then do pretty much nothing about it.
I don't remember the previous book feeling quite this aimless. Part of the problem, I think, is that the two cases: the vampire murders and The Mastermind have nothing to do with each other. In Roses Are Red, if I remember correctly, The Mastermind engineered quite a lot of the events. Here, he's relegated to the sidelines and annoying phone calls.
I also had trouble connecting with Alex Cross. He's touted throughout the story as a particularly insightful detective, but we don't see any evidence of that. And his love life is especially confusing. He has an ex-wife who divorced him because of his workaholic tendencies, but she left their infant son with him? He talks himself out of dating a fellow cop he's attracted to; instead he dates a woman who gets totally drunk, demands sex, then gets angry when he won't put out. I just couldn't sympathize. And part of that was because he didn't seem to care one way or the other anyway.
The vampire murder plot wasn't bad, though it was a little cluttered. And the climax of that plot was suspenseful and exciting. However, there was still the Mastermind plot to wind up, and that was anticlimactic, particularly since I'd already figured out who it was.
I liked Violets Are Blue the least of the three James Patterson books I've read, but it's not changing my mind about the author. Before reading it, I'd pick up his books if I found them used. I still will.
Categories: Books, 2.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 2.5 stars, books, mystery
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Summons
***½ The Summons by John Grisham. Mystery.
First, a caveat: despite the fact that The Summons is by John Grisham, and the protagonist is a law professor and the victim a judge, this is really not a legal thriller. I suspect that unmet expectation accounts for a good portion of the negative reviews on Amazon.
Judge Atlee is dying, and he summons his two sons to his side: the Good Son, Ray, who's a law professor, and the Bad Son, Forrest, who's a ne'er-do-well.
Ray arrives only to find his father's body... and 3 million dollars hidden in the house. Ray has no idea where it came from, or who knows about it. It's not mentioned in the will. If he includes it in the estate, he'll have to share it with Forrest. Or it might be illegal, in which case he'll get nothing, and destroy his father's reputation in the process. But if somebody knows about it, he could be in trouble if he doesn't tell.
And then it seems that finding the money has put his life in danger.
The Summons is definitely about the darker side of human nature, specifically greed.
In a story that's so much about character, it would be nice to get a little more deeply into these characters. Still, it was an entertaining read.
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, mystery
Friday, July 18, 2008
Friday Flashback
From June 2003:
Murder Can Ruin Your Looks by Selma Eichler. Mystery.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Murder Can Ruin Your Looks by Selma Eichler. Mystery.
Gotta love this detective--she's not skinny, and she's not apologetic about it. I'd like this book for that alone.Originally posted here.
But there's more to like about this one. The mystery is fascinating. Identical twin sisters are shot. One dies, and the other is in a coma. Desiree is hired to find out which one survived.
This one's full of twists, and engaging characters. I'm definitely going to look for more of this series.
Categories: Flashback, Books, Mystery
Labels: books, flashback, mystery
