Chinese Whispers by Peter May

At one point in my reading of this book I told my mother and my sister that I had to quit reading for awhile because I was getting too nervous about the characters. It's not the murders that get to me, it's the people I've come to know and love finding their world crumbling around them. Li Yan being fired from his position, Margaret being faced with doportation and not being able to take their son with her, funds being cut off - this was getting all too real for me. Bad enought that someone in Beijing is reproducing the killings done by Jack the Ripper but that friends are being killed and that can't stop him. I just wish Mr. May had written just a little more so that I know what happened after the last page - there's a baby with no parents! What about jobs, visas? Quickly, Please!

Books and Food

I've been on a roll with books about cooks that include recipes. Not a very good idea but the books were very good.
First up, "Trick or Treat" by Kerry Greenwood, about the bread baker, Corinna Chapman and the wonderful apartment building she lives in, Insula. The apartments sould lovely, quiet, big and the residents are pretty much OK. They have a lovely roof garden to enjoy, complete with a gardener. Into this loveliness comes a terrible ugliness. Someone has come up with a new drug that is causing people to have some incredibly awful reactions. There's a new cut-rate bread shop opened up just at the end of the street from Corinna's shop, her lovely Daniel has an old friend visiting who seems to think she has prior claims on him and at first he's too nice to notice how she's hurting Corinna. Add to this mix a Wicca gathering that seems out of control and we have an exciting mystery. With chocolate recipes at the end.
"The Christmas Cookie Club" by Ann Pearlman has lovely cookie recipes throughout the stories of each of the women who gather every year to share cookies, food and wine. I want more about these women. I was stunned when the author indicated at the end that her own cookie group of twelve has seven cancer survivors! The stories were good and I'm anxious to try at least one of the recipes.
Finally, "Plum Pudding Murder" by Joanne Fluke was fun and I'm already making a couple of the recipes. I wish she'd put out a cook book that's a compilation of the recipes in all of her books - with pictures, of course. This time someone has killed the "Christmas Elf" - not so nice Christmas tree salesman, who turned his lot into a carnival.

Then, I delved into my stash of paperbacks and found some goodies - and several that I quickly took back to the library. They look so good when I decide to bring them home but after a few pages I can't stand them!

"Matters of the Blood" by Maria Lima was very good. This is the first of a new series about a family of paranormals. Keira Kelly has decided to stay in the Texas Hill Country after the rest of her family moves "lock, stock, and grimoire" to Canada. Because she stays, she must do duty for the family by keeping an eye on her cousin Marty - the throw-back who's 100% human. Her new nightmares or visions show Marty dead - and then he is. While trying to figure out who did Marty in, Keira must put off her former lover and new sheriff, Carlton Larson. She also has to figure out what Adam Walker is doing in Texas, instead of England and why he's opened a dude ranch that's very private.

What have I been reading?

Seems like I've been reading a lot but right now I can only think of a few books that I've actually finished. "Murder at Longbourn" by Tracy Kiely - was just O.K., not great. I found the heroine whiny and a brat.This is another in the long list of books that have been fixated on Jane Austen's novels. Elizabeth Parker has dumped or been dumped by a two-timing boyfriend and one-upped by her sister and her best friend is getting engaged over the New Year's Eve vacation with her boyfriend, so she accepts her aunt's invitation to her new Bed and Breakfast inn on Cape Cod for a "How to host a murder party". Except that there is a real murder and Elizabeth decides she'll solve it.
"Ghost ala Mode" by Sue Ann Jaffarian is the start of a new series about a woman and the ghost of her ancestress, Granny Apples.Emma has just met Granny at a seance and doesn't really believe in her but she will, and she'll go to great lengths to prove that Granny wasn't guilty of murdering her husband and didn't deserve to hang. I liked this one better than the Jane Austen one.
Tried "Rosemary and Rue" - too grim and the end wasn't good - I read the ending if I'm not sure about books. Tried another one that went the same way - too grim and not a good ending. I'm finishing "Nine Gates" by Jane Lindskold. Like the one before it, it's a little too wordy and long on explanation of mythology.

It helps to be psychic

Doom with a View by Victoria Laurie was a nice quick read for a lazy Sunday. Abigail Cooper has been asked to work with a very skeptical FBI agent in the latest Psychic Eye book. I kept thinking that I'd read this before but it must have been the part of it that was printed in the last book in the series I'd read. College students are missing and since they are all politically connected the FBI is doing their thing to get to the bottom of it. Abby realizes that at least one student is dead and another will be abducted. Can she save them?

Not quite Maisie Dobbs

The new book by Charles Todd, "A Duty to the Dead", is good but doesn't quite strike the same chord as the Maisie Dobbs series. We meet Bess Crawford, an English army nurse as the ship she's on, headed towards Greece, hits a mine and everyone must abandon ship. Her arm is badly broken and she is eventually sent home to recuperate.
A former patient had asked her to deliver a message to his brother and Bess reluctantly does so. His message indicates that he had lied to save his mother pain but it (whatever "it" is) must be made right. This is a very disfunctional family that she's gotten involved with, including a son who was sent to an insane asylum at fourteen for murdering a servent girl. Bess will keep poking around until she finds the truth, does her duty to the dead and brings justice to the innocent.

And now for something completely different

Now I'm reading everything I can get my hands on - as long as it is light and doesn't make me have to think!

First up is "By Hook or By Crook" by Betty Hechtman about the Tarzana Hookers - the crocheting group that meets at a bookstore. Molly Pink, a widow, with two grown sons is the one the others elect to find out who left the bag with the filet crochet panels on their table at the craft fair. By figuring out what all of the panels mean and what they pertain to along with the diary page and letter that hints at wanting to right a wrong. Silly story but I stayed with it.

"The Stars Blue Yonder" by Sandra McDonald is the third novel about Jodenny Scott and Terry Myell, members of Team Space, wife and husband, separated by time and space. Terry is forced to jump back and forth in time by a device over which he has no control. He meets his wife when she's newly widowed, when she's very pregnant and when she's 70 years-old. While she recognizes him, she doesn't believe his story - until she is accidentally taken with him. Then she ends up in Australia of 1855, terribly pregnant and unprepared for life in that time period. While none of this made much sense to me, it made for good reading.

"Blood Atonement" by Dan Waddell is a page-turner that made me want to read the end to make sure it came out alright. A single mother has been found in her garden with her throat cut and her fourteen-year-old daughter missing. It's pretty obvious that the daughter is NOT the murderer so the police will be looking into the mother's background - only, there doesn't seem to be one. This is the second mystery involving DCI Grant Foster, DI Heather Jenkins and genealogist Nigel Barnes. The three of them will put their lives on the line to find this girl and try to avoid other deaths - but they won't entirely succeed. More blood is spilled by a person who seems to hate all members of a particular family. The link will lead to a branch of the Mormon Church in Utah. A bit of the present day problems linked to the past. But as Harriet Klausner says on Amazon "Leave your plausibilty meter parked elsewhere."

Sometimes it's dangerous for me to work on the books - in this case, changing new to old. I found two light reads that I thought would keep me occupied. "Summer Blowout" by Claire Cook had the cutest little dog in a beach bag on the cover - that sold me on this one. It's about a big family of hairdressers whose father is Irish but sells his salons as being Italian. Bella is going through a difficult patch since her sister took up with her husband. Bella meets a cute guy at a college fair and even though they bicker, he gives her a great business idea - or helps her come up with a great idea. When the whole Shaughnessy clan goes to Atlanta for a wedding, cute guy happens to be there as well. The dog comes in when Bella does a wedding party - hair and make-up and then gets stuck with two kids and when she hands them back, she's left with a dog!

"Like a Charm" by Candace Havens has a picture on the cover of a woman in four inch heels and a tight yellow suit on a ladder in front of library shelves - yeah, like that's going to happen. Magic town of Sweet, Texas is where corporate contract lawyer Kira Smythe has come home to recuperate after suffering from mono and a few other nasty things. She's fired from her job and left the town library in the will of the last librarian - it just gets sillier from there. Hippie, tofu loving parents who have managed to make quite a living for themselves - in fact it seems as if everyone in this town is wealthy.

Not in the mood

The library system is losing 55 people in September and I'm having a hard time finding anything I really want to read. I've got several books going but this is one of those times when I don't like anything I've got - and they are all books I've looked forward to reading. The last time this happened my dad and a couple of good friends died - that's what it feels like now. Everyone is in hospice.

OK, I did find an amusing section in the Fred Vargas book - "Have Mercy on Us All".
French though this may be, a woman still gets upset when she catches her man having sex with another woman, even recognizing the moves he makes. Their mutual friend tells her that God had had a bad night when he was making the boyfriend and hadn't recovered "from His night on the tiles" so he didn't get the mixture right. God gave him intuition, gentleness, beauty and ease. The Devil contributed indifference, gentleness, beauty and ease. This mystery was about someone attempting to spread the bubonic plague.

The other book I finished was "Civil Twilight" by Susan Dunlap. I really liked the first book dealing with Darcy Lott, the stunt woman at the Zen retreat. This third book was annoying because I felt like Darcy was solving an old crime - it just took her to figure it all out - everyone else was an idiot. But I stayed to the end.

I also read "Mr. and Miss Anonymous" by Fern Michaels - very far fetched, a lot name dropping of clothing labels and designers, everyone is rich and smart, yada, yada, yada. Oh, well.

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

My sister read this and urged me to read it, as well. I did, even though I wanted to smack the heroine, Lara, and her ghost great-aunt, Sadie. The first was whiny and second was shrill. I kept reading, however, and liked the last part. It seemed that it took Lara forever to catch on to the fact that her friend was using her in their business and her ex-boyfriend was more interested in himself than in her. She does meet a rather nice American man and they hit it off - even though Sadie thinks he's hers. As a ghost, Sadie helps Lara in her business which makes me wonder what she's going to do after Sadie leaves. Sorry, Kathy, I tried. But I didn't like "Gone With the Wind" either - hated Scarlett.

Let's Fight

David Gunn's new Death's Head, Day of the Damned is not my usual cup of tea but I love this series. Sven and his band of misfits have come to Farlight for some R & R - yeah, right. While visiting his friends,Debro and Anton, who he busted out of an ice prison planet, and their daughter, Aptitude, whose husband he assassinated, he discovers that some nasty beings have been smuggled onto the planet. Then he finds himself up against General Luc, known as the Wolf. Luc wants Aptitude, who wants Vijay Jaxx, who's just become a duke on the violent death of his father. I don't think that who ever wrote the blurb on this book, actually read the book. They say that Apt has a major crush on Sven, when it's Sven who has a crush on Apt. Lots of fighting, missed the sarcastic gun for a lot of the book but it made a good showing in the last third or so of the book. Lots of politicking, which I don't care for but was necessary. I was like Sven, I didn't know where all of it was going but it was sure worth the ride.

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff is a new fantasy series about a family who seem to have a lot of magical power. The Gale family live in Ontario. Their men get "horny" in a very literal sense. There are fewer men than women so they "share". The Aunties are a pretty bossy, powerful bunch - not sure if they are witches or just what. Alysha Catherine Gale or Allie has just lost her job so is available when news arrives that her gran has died and left her a junque shop in Calgary. It seems the perfect place to go and lick her wounds. But, when she gets there, she finds that the junque appeals to the fey and they are her customers. Soon she's involved with a leprechaun who's homeless - he becomes her shop assistant, then she finds out that there is a sorcerer in town who is not to be trusted. She meets him through a man who works for the sorcerer as a tabloid reporter - could he be the love of her life? Then there's the dragons! Lots of fun in this book. I'm ready for the next one.

From fun to say what?

The fun was "There's Something About St. Tropez" by Elizabeth Adler. I've never read one of her books before but this was a pleasant summer read. Mac Reilly, a private investigator with a reality television show has decided that he and his partner, Sunny Alvarez (she says he proposed so she's his fiancee) need a vacation so he books a month at a private villa in the South of France - St. Tropez to be exact. Only trouble is, so did several other people! They've been scammed and the villa is a dump. Luckily there are rooms available at a lovely Hotel of Dreams. Mac and Sunny take this group of "Misfits" under their wing and attempt to discover who ripped them off. There is the Texas widower and his eight-year-old daughter who wears tutus so her mother will know where to find her from heaven; a British woman on the run from her Russian mobster husband; a young woman from Kansas who went on a cruise with her boyfriend - that she paid for - only to find him in bed with another woman; a New York banker who needs to find a life and an eleven-year-old boy who's been dumped at the hotel by his mother for the last month. Luckily, all of these people with the exception of the gal from Kansas seems to have money to spare. There's a bit of mystery, a bit of romance and a lot of designer name-dropping but it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of summer afternoons.

The "Say What" label goes to Julie E. Czerneda's "Rift in the Sky". When the author has to have a character explain the series' title - Stratification and hurries the end up to the point that I don't know what's happening or why - I lose faith in the author. Then the complete departure from this people's way of dealing with others was going just too far. I'm not sure why the Om'ray became the M'hiray, why they lost their memories, why they used antiquities to pay their way or why I should read any further in this series.

Reading in bed

Usually when I'm sick I don't read a lot but this past few weeks I managed to read while using my nebulizer and in bed while I wasn't sleeping. I read my first thriller after a long time. I forget just how graphic the violence can be. The story wasn't bad but it was pretty distressing. "Sworn to Silence" by Linda Castillo was an interesting premise - an Amish community in Ohio is under siege from a serial killer. A formerly Amish woman is the sheriff with a secret from her past that is partially hampering her investigation. The killer is targeting young women and is very sadistic in his methods. I found this quite disturbing. I like the sheriff and the damaged agent sent to help her but could have done without the grisly details.

So I decided I needed a change of pace and read "Missing Ink" a new paperback series involving a tattoo parlor in Las Vegas by Karen E. Olson. It was kind of fun to read about a place I'm not planning on visiting - nor am I contemplating a tattoo!Brett Kavanaugh is the owner of Painted Lady Tattoo parlor. A young woman comes in for a devotion tattoo with her fiance's name and then doesn't show up for her appointment. Soon people are showing up looking for her - including the police - like Brett's brother, Tim. Next thing she knows,Brett is being pursued by thugs and good looking hotel managers.

Next I read "Skinwalker" by Faith Hunter, a new series about Jane Yellowrock, a Cheyenne who can change into various animals, a talent she uses to hunt rogue vampires. Jane is in New Orleans to take out a rogue vampire that's preying on humans and vampires alike. She's been hired by the Vampire Council of New Orleans.She shares her body with Beast - a mountain lion who has very definite opinions of her own. Jane is also missing some memories of her early years.

This weekend I read "Forget Me Knot" by Sue Margolis - a British chick lit novel about Abby Crompton and her florist shop, Fabulous Flowers. Abby's fiance turns out to be gay - but there's a nicer guy waiting in the wings - isn't there always? My complaint on this one was the rather graphic sexual scenes.

Then I read the sublime "Swan for the Money" by Donna Andrews. She doesn't disappoint. I seem to be the only person who didn't know about fainting goats - my co-workers and my sister knew, but not me. What gives? My education is lacking - but not any more. Now I know about them, Belties - black cows with white middles and the craziness of rose growers and their exhibitions. Who knew? Meg Langslow has been coerced by her mother into organizing the local rose competition. Her husband, Michael, is on his way to NYC to see a former student's play on Millard Filmore,so she's pretty much on her own - but not without family - and lordy, what a family. The lady who owns the estate hosting the show is a wealthy bitch who wants to color coordinate everything around her to black, white and gray. Someone has stolen her Maltese, Mimi, and Meg hopes that someone who loves the dog got her - woman after my own heart.

Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

This is such a delightful look at modern India that I really hope the author writes more books. Most reviewers on Amazon have noted that this is not "like Jane Austen" as the publisher has stated on the book jacket.
Mr. Ali is retired and starting to drive his wife crazy so he decides to open a marriage bureau. I found all of this fascinating since our American culture is about love matches rather than arranged marriages. I enjoyed the look at what seems to be important to modern Indians in their desire for the perfect mate - though it seemed to be the family who had the input into what was required in a partner.
When the business takes off Mrs. Ali is the one who finds Aruna, the quiet young woman, to be Mr. Ali's assistant. She is such a wonderful person and really deserves a match of her own but their family is poor and her father is a bit of a tyrant. All will turn out wonderfully well in the end. I was intrigued by the divorced woman whose family has cut her off. She had managed to get a flat out of her divorce and now owned a business but she was still interested in finding a mate. She's tired of be invisible.
Mr.and Mrs. Ali's son is a protester against the exploitation of farmers by multinational corporations. This gets him into trouble with the law, makes his mother unhappy and his father angry. Of course they are also concerned that he isn't married.
This was such a wonderful book, I'm sorry it's over and I want more.

Brewed, Crude and Tattooed by Sandra Balzo

Another annoying amateur detective. I should have known when three blurbs on the back cover used the word "breezy" to describe Maggy. I liked her big dog Frank better. She keeps mentioning her boyfriend's buttery leather jacket - she apparently likes it more than she does him. There are three murders before the end of the book and they all happen in a twelve hour period, in a small mall that's snowed in. This part made for some interest but the snarking from Maggy's supposed friend, Caron, didn't make much sense. It was something to read while I did my nebulizer treatments. Since so many places praised her books I might try another to figure out what I'm missing.

Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack

Sadie Hoffmiller is a woman "of a certain age" who lives in Colorado in a small cul-de-sac. One morning she is surprised to see the police pull up to her young neighbor's house and goes to find out what's what. The police aren't thrilled with her presence but she has a key to the house and knows the young single mother, Anne, who lives there with her two-year son, Trevor. Sadie discovers that Anne is baking a lemon tart from the recipe that she'd given her. It soon becomes apparent that Anne has been killed and Trevor is missing. This wasn't the greatest mystery I've ever read but it wasn't the worst. I thought Sadie was rather an idiot most of the time.

Hooray for long holiday weekends!!

The Fourth of July weekend gave me three days off and besides cleaning, I read a lot.
I finished "Fixer Upper" by Mary Kay Andrews. I wasn't sure that I like the heroine, Dempsey, at first. She seemed awfully stupid but once she got to Guthrie, Georgia and the old house that had been in her father's family, a new Dempsey seemed to appear. Of course, the townspeople were kind, decent people and that helped. It is not the quick fix that her father had convinced her it would be. It also has a tenant - a crabby old lady who's not about to move out, and her dog. But there's a great contractor and a cute lawyer to help her in her times of trial. Dempsey worked for a Washington lobbyist who's being investigated, along with a corrupt senator. These stellar males want to put all the blame on young Dempsey's head. It's just not right.
As long as I was on a roll, I read "A Little Learning" by Jane Tesh. Of course, part way through it I realized that I had read the first one some time ago and then missed the second book - ah well. Madeline Maclin is trying to find enough work in the little town of Celosia, North Carolina to keep her private invetigator office open. She's looking into the death of an unpopular teacher at the elementary school and trying to help a man solve a riddle left him by his uncle which will bring him lots of money if he can solve it within a week's time. All this is second to trying to make sure her new husband and best friend keeps on the straight and narrow - like keeping a job and not doing faux seances. Now I can try to read the second book!
Just finished a very odd book - or maybe it's the main character who's odd. "The Chalk Circle Man" by Fred Vargas - a female Fred!Commissaire Adamsberg is an odd duck. He seems to think differently from other people. He is new to Paris and is very disturbed by the blue chalk circles that some man is leaving around various items around Paris. He's quite sure that something evil is about to happen. Unfortunately, he doesn't have long to wait. A body is found in a circle one night. Before, Adamsberg can solve the case there will be two more bodies. He thinks about his "petite cherie" who leaves him frequently and then for good. A oceanographer who follows people around the city and records their actions in a notebook. She also has a very firm opinion about the week being divided into sections and that there is a rhythm to these sections. It's all quite complicated. She has a building with three apartments. She lives in one and a timid old lady lives in one - another oddball who keeps answering personal ads. Then there is the blind man she discovers at lunch one day and rents the bottom apartment to. Adamsberg's main detective, Danglard is a tall, awkward man who has two sets of twins at home plus the child his wife had with her lover and dumped on him. He's very intellegent and starts to drink white wine sometimes quite early in the day. I'm not sure if I like this one. I'll read another to find out.

Embrace the Grim Reaper by Judy Clemens

I picked this title up while I was checking in new books the other week. A young woman who's only companion is Death. He won't take her but he also won't leave her alone. It is slowly revealed that Casey has lost her husband and infant son in a terrible car wreck. The car company attempts to intimidate her and her family and friends would like her to go for more. So she packs up her backpack and leaves. She seems to have adequate money but she either walks or hitches rides with truckers. She is afraid of cars. When she lands in the small town of Clymer, Ohio she decides to stay for a time. She helps out at a local soup kitchen and discovers that the main employer in town, HomeMaker appliances is closing its door soon and moving its operations to Mexico. But one young, single mother believed that she knew that things would soon be changing. Now it seems that this woman has committed suicide - or was it murder? Casey will decide to find the truth behind all the lies and secrets in this small town and Death will continue to be an annoying, smart mouthed side kick. I'll look forward to the next title. I want to see how the author deals with certain items left from this novel.

Boy Howdy

Dark Horse by Craig Johnson was too short! I keep wanting more from this author and I can't believe that it took me so long to discover him. But, I'm spreading the joy and now my sister is hooked and in turn has gotten her friend in Wyoming hooked.
Walt Longmire is just such a laid back gentleman that I'd love to keep him company. His sense of right and wrong are strong, he and his dog are a great pair and his friend Henry Standing Bear is a gem. In "Dark Horse" Walt has acquired a female prisoner from a neighboring county. She has confessed to killing her husband, but Walt thinks that there is something off. Granted, her husband was a bastard who had set fire to the barn with her horses inside but Walt isn't convinced that she killed him. So he decides to go undercover in the tiny town of Absalom to try and figure out what really happened. This is very near the ranch his parents owned but nearly everybody he knew is gone from there. He makes new friends with a young illegal immigrant woman and her son, as well as the old cowboy who took care of the accused woman's horses. I'm never sure in one of Johnson's book just where things are going or what will be the outcome but it's a wonderful ride getting there.

Back to the Paranormal Realm

Faery Moon by P.R. Frost is the third of the Tess Noncoire books. I stumbled across the first one and it was such a wild premise that I had to keep reading. Tess is a science fiction author. She had lost her husband of three months in a terrible motel fire and in her grief seemed to have lost her way. Somehow she found herself at the Citadel and on her way to becoming a Celestial Blade Warrior, one of those trained to protect our world against demons from other dimensions - I said it was a wild premise! By the third book, she and her mother are at a writer's conference in Las Vegas. Her partner in demon fighting is the unexpected little imp named Scrap. He is a loud-mouthed, cigar chomping, gay little being who can only be seen and heard byTess,and a good thing it is,too. He has a pretty crude way about him, but he is loyal, cunning and can go between dimensions. Las Vegas is not all fun and games for these two - although, Tess's mother, comes into her own as a chantreuse in the hotel lounge. When they go to the most popular show in Vegas - Faery Moon - Tess quickly realizes that the dancers really are faeries and they need to get back to their home before there is a terrible imbalance in all dimensions.
Tess will finally chose between the two men who claim to love her and have her heart broken by a terrible loss. More Tess and Scrap, please.

Lord of Death by Eliot Pattison

The books by Eliot Pattison set in Tibet are some of my favorites. I love the characters and the depictions of the country - although I don't love what the author tells us about what is happening to the country of Tibet and its people.
Shan Tao Yun is Chinese, a former Beijing Investigator who was sent to the Tibetan gulag after he reported corruption in various areas of the government. He learned to love the Buddhist monk who were prisoners with him and now tries to aid the Tibetan people when he can. Right now, that means that he collects the dead from the mountain. His latest assignment brings him to a traffic accident and a double murder.Even though a Western woman dies in his arms, officals deny that there was such a person there. They arrest him for the death of a female Ministry official but then release him and arrest the man who is the prison official in charge of his son.
Soon finding the killer will mean that his son will not be killed or tortured in the "yeti factory" - the local torture hospital.
Shan's mind absorbs minute details and makes connections that others with the same information fail to make. The final outcome is a surprise coupled with a sense of joy.

Flinx Transcendent by Alan Dean Foster

I can't believe that this series started back 1972. I know I read the early ones and quite a few of the later ones but I have a feeling that I missed some. So many years of writing and now he's ending the stories. Or is he? Flinx is on a mission to stop the "Great Evil", something huge that is taking out entire star systems and seems to be moving ever closer to our galaxy. The first part of the book moved very slowly but really speed up during the last third. I, of course, had no clue what most of what was being discussed meant. Science is not my thing, I like the people and the strange beings that inhabit Flinx's world. All loose ends are tied up, all the beings he has encountered are present at some point in the story - including the love of his life, Clarity Held. A big book but I felt it worth my time to read. Now on to Tibet.

Good Weekend to Read

I seem to have been on a roll this weekend. First I finished "Paper Butterfly" by Diane Wei Liang. This Chinese mystery was as good if not better than her first novel,"Eye of Jade", although there was so much sadness in these peoples' lives that one wonders how they can go on. Mei Wang is still coming to grips with the fact that her mother betrayed her father in order to get Mei and her sister out of the prison camp the family was in that she can't decide how she feels about her mother and her selfish sister. Selfish siblings seems to be a common trait in Chinese novels these days. She takes on a case on the recommendation of her sister. A record producer has a rising new singer who has gone missing and wants her found with no fanfare in the press. There is a backstory also taking place in which a young man has been released from eight years of hard labor in a prison camp. He wants revenge for the life he's lost thanks to betrayal. Mei comes to identify with the singer and you just know that the ending won't be good - it isn't.
From this I needed something lighter. I turned to "Dead and Berried" by Karen MacInerney, a mystery set on Cranberry Island where Natalie Barnes owns a bed-and-breakfast inn. She's hearing noises in the attic at night and keeps hearing rumors of ghosts at the inn - a housemaid that was murdered. But when Natalie goes to check on the woman who helps her with the inn's laundry she finds her dead. The inept sheriff decides that it's suicide. When Natalie and her best friend, Charlene, have a falling out over the new minister - and Charlene's boyfriend - Natalie feels very lonely - especially with an annoying guest and an ex-fiance to stir the pot. Then the minister is killed and Charlene is the prime suspect. Lots of silly bits but the recipes are great!
Next I went onto an incredibly hokey book about Nephilim - beings who are the result of human women and rogue angels having sex. Apparently they are the only ones capable of reading the Voynich Manuscript which an arm of the Vatican has been guarding in the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University. It was all pretty silly but I kept right on reading until I finished.The book is "In Tongues of the Dead" by Brad Kelln.
The last book was an Advanced Reading Copy of "The Last Bridge" by Teri Coyne. It was a grim story of a woman returning home when her mother commits suicide. The whole family is dysfunctional as a result of childhood beatings and other abuse from their drunk father. Cat is an alcoholic who drinks herself into oblivion to forget - it takes nearly the entire book to discover what she's trying to forget. How people make it through these kinds of life is amazing.

New cozy mystery series

I just finished "The Cold Light of Morning" by Elizabeth Duncan. This is the start of a new series I'm thrilled to have discovered. It's heroine is a 50+ former Canadian living in Wales, Penny Brannigan. She has a manicure shop and lives in the apartment over the shop. She's doing well even though the village of Llanelen is not very big. The major event at the moment is the wedding of Emyr Gruffydd, son of wealthy local landowner and Meg Wynne Thompson, a very much self-made woman who tends to rub most people the wrong way. It is a shock to all then when Meg Wynne disappears after having her nails done by Penny the morning of the wedding. At the funeral of Penny's dear friend Emma, she notices something odd but it isn't until later that she realizes the implication of that small detail. Along the way, Penny will make a new friend in Victoria and acquire a beau - the investigation policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies. His sergeant, Bethan Morgan, becomes very fond of these two ladies and enjoys their company. A second series with older ladies - there is also the Thistle and Twigg series by Mary Saums - makes this older reader quite happy.

Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder

Set in the same universe as her previous "Study" trilogy this novel presents us with the young glassmaker who appeared in "Magic Study". Opal Cowan crafts glass animals that the magicians can use to send messages across distances. Opal has spent the last four years at the Keep learning to be a magician. The only place she's comfortable is at the glassmaker's kiln. Then she learns that the orbs of the Stormdancers are shattering and killing the Stormdancer as they do so. Opal is sent along with Master Magician Zitora to discover what the problem is with the orbs. The two women run into an ambush but are able to escape, although these same men will be a problem for them several times in the novel.Opal will need her father's help to discover the cause of the shattering glass but she wins the trust of the Stormdancers. She will discover her growing powers, romance and betrayal before the end of the book. I was glad to discover that this is book #1 - that means that more are on their way. This is an interesting and exciting world that Maria V. Snyder has created and I would very much enjoy more of it.

Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

Sherlock Holmes has a son! Apparently, he and Mary Russell found out about him five years before this book but he didn't want anything to do with his father at that time. His mother was Irene Adler and she didn't want Holmes to know about their child. Mycroft knew and provided a stipend for Irene and her son, Damian. Now that he needs Holmes to help him, Damian is being pleasant. He has become a well-known painter by this time, recently come to London from Shanghai - with a wife and child. Now his wife and child are missing and he wants Holmes to help him find them. Russell stays behind for awhile and explores the problems with a hive of bees that are leaving their hive empty. Soon the boredom gets to her and she heads off to find Holmes and Damian to help. The interest of the time in the mystic religious philosophies figures strongly in this mystery with trips to various old religious sites to explore. The ending was a kick in the stomach because it is a definate "to be continued". How long must we wait for the outcome?

Dark and Stormy Day

It was a very rainy Sunday and an ideal day for finishing my cozy mystery - "Killer Keepsakes" by Jane K. Cleland. I like the fact that the heroine really uses her education in antiques and appraisals to help solve the crime her employee and friend is suspected of committing.
Josie Prescott's receptionist, Gretchen, is due back from her vacation but when she doesn't show up and can't be reached by phone, Josie goes to her apartment and discovers a dead body! She quickly comes to realize that she doesn't know very much about Gretchen. She tells the police that she might be able to use the man's unusual belt buckle to help figure out who he is. This leads to other clues until finally the mystery is solved. Who is Gretchen? Did she do the dastarly deed? Read the book to find out.

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

Are the two skeletons found at Glastonbury Abbey really King Arthur and Queen Guinevere? King Henry II would very much like them to be to help his little tiff with Wales. The Welsh strongly believe in Arthur and if he can prove Arthur's dead, he knows some of the fight will go out of the Welsh. Of course, it won't be Henry proving this fact. It will be his Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia Aguilar. She and her household need to leave the fens because she's been questioning the deaths of infants found in the rivers. The abbot is sure that it is desperate fathers with too many mouths to feed. Henry sends her off to Glastonbury which has recently suffered a massive fire which burned the Abbey and the town. The Abbot and those of his monks and lay brothers who remain are living in what was once the abbey kitchen. Adelia and her companions are lodged in the Pilgrim Inn with a crabby landlady and her meek husband. The inspection of the remains is difficult since all they have are bones, and not complete bones. They haven't any kind of equipment to aid them in dating the bones so they must improvise. I was a little worried that the author was going to introduce some kind of "whoo whoo" element into this story of a very rational woman but my fears were unfounded. There is a hint of another story in the works so I have something to look forward to.

Adversary by Michael Walters

I read this author's "The Shadow Walker" last year and enjoyed the Mongolian location. I'm sorry to discover that everywhere is being so Westernized, even Ulan Baatar. I mean, I think Outer Mongolia and I think of yaks and round tents and people living wild - but apparently cell phones are everywhere, as are lattes and burgers.
The trial of a major crime lord has fallen apart when someone intimates that certain evidence has been forged - it had, but only police officers should have had any knowledge of what and where. Muunokhoi, the crime lord, seems to have connections in very high places. Nergui, the former head of the Serious Crime Team, has been assigned to look internally to discover who's in the crime lord's pay. The pace is slow for half of the book but really picks up at the end. Leaves me hoping for another book from this author.

Beginning of a new series

I've enjoyed Carola Dunn's Daisy Dalrymple mysteries and am happy to report that this new series is a lot of fun - "Manna from Hades". I like the fact that she tells us upfront that this is set in "a fictional village in a fictional world lurking somewhere in the 1960s and '70s". We needn't try to find the villages on any map. Eleanor Trewynn is a widow living in the small Cornish fishing village of Port Mabyn. When her husband was alive they spent their time traveling around the world as ambassadors for LonStar, a charitable organization like Oxfam. Now she lives above the shop and does the collecting for the charity. When a young man is found dead in the store room, her troubles begin. Her neice, Megan Pencarrow, is a Detective Sergeant with a grumpy boss, Detective Inspector Scumble, who doesn't approve of women in the police force and Eleanor quickly becomes a thorn in his side - it's his own fault since he won't let her finish a paragraph or statement without interrupting. Nick, the artist who has the shop next door and Jocelyn, the pastor's very competent wife, round out the characters we become most familar with - besides a smart Westie named Teazle! My only complaint was that I wished the author had let Eleanor use her martial art prowess to surprise the bad guys and the Detective Inspector - or "That Man" as Jocelyn referred to him.

More light reading

I enjoyed Rosemary Harris's Pushing up Daisies and her Big Dirt Nap wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I kind of wanted to smack Paula Holiday for being so stupid and her friend, Lucy, is an idiot who doesn't deserve to have anyone come to her rescue. Lucy has enticed Paula to join her at the Titans Hotel for some spa-like relaxation and to view the rare corpse flower blooming - the thing stinks like a long dead body! Apparently people are willing to view and smell these things! Instead of a relaxing weekend, Paula finds herself stood up by Lucy and hit on by a guy in the hotel bar. The fun really starts when she's hauled out of bed in the early hours to identify the body found by the dumpsters - the guy who she was talking to in the bar. Of course, she ends up trying to solve the murder and locate her goofy friend. I guess I was in the mood for silly women because I finished the book.
The second book was by Ann Aguirre Blue Diablo. I was disappointed that it wasn't a Jax novel but this one gripped me within the first few pages - a good thing, since my motel was hosting a sorority prom and the participants were awfully noisy about 2:00 am. This kept me awake and content for an hour.
Corine Solomon has a "gift" for holding objects and knowing the history of the person who last held the object. She has hidden herself in Mexico City after fleeing from her lover, Chance. She felt he only valued her for her gift. Now he's found her and asks for her help in finding his mother Min. This is something she is willing to do for him. Ann Aguirre has the ability to give her characters real lives and powerful emotions. I care about all of them - except the really bad guys. Look forward to the next book.

A week of reading

With a week off for my birthday I had time to bead and read. I managed to do plenty of both. I got an Easter egg beaded (I'll get pictures on here as soon as I can) and several books read.
First up "Cream Puff Murder" by Joanne Fluke, one of my favorite light cozy authors. She always makes me hungry and makes me laugh. I just wish that she'd finally choose between Norman and Mike, her two beaus. I'm for Norman because he "gets" her sense of humor, is very caring and considerate. Mike is stupid enough to let pretty girls take advantage of him and not realize that he's hurting Hannah. This time she catches him in a lie. The latest pretty girl is the newest murder victim. Found with the tray of cream puffs Mike had gotten from Hannah - what a jerk. Lots of good recipes, plenty of laughs and a mystery solved.
Next up was a book recommended by Teresa Shane, "Defending Angels" by Mary Stanton a new mystery paperback series with more than a touch of the paranormal. Brianna Winston-Beaufort has inherited her uncle's law practice but needs to find temporary quarters until his office has been remodeled. The temporary space she finds is in an all-murderers' cemetery, her first case involves a local businessman who manages to call her several hours after his death. It takes awhile to discover that she and her sister are the only ones who see the special people who help her - her landlady, her secretary, clerk and handsome PI - since they are all part of the Celestial Court.
I was on a paranormal kick it seems because both of the other books I read had that element to them. "Hounding the Pavement" by Judi McCoy is about a dog walker who can literally talk to her dogs. When she discovers the body of one of her customers and no dog, she becomes very worried about the dog. There's a cute police detective and her own dog is a real sassy mouth. Fun read, light.
"Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun" by Victoria Laurie wasn't one of her best but it passed the lunch hours for me. M.J.Holliday has been suckered into using her abilities for a new TV show about people's possessions that are supposedly haunted. Most of the aren't but someone sneaks a very nasty dagger into the show and all hell literally breaks loose. She meets a new medium, Heath (not Seth as the book jacket states)and together they have quite the adventures and make money doing so.

Lamentation by Ken Scholes

Reading through my past several posts I've discovered that I've been starting with the same line - "I really love/like these..." Time to get the brain out of storage and start anew.
I was leary of this book because of all the advance praise from well known science fiction authors. Sometimes these books just don't live up to the hype. This one did. And - it's the first of five! Let's hope they're all this good.
Set in a land with several nations held in peace by the Androfrancine Brotherhood, the world is badly tilted out of whack by the destruction of the Androfrancine city of Windwir by an ancient weapon of terrible destruction. Gone are the people, the city and the vast library the Order has accumulated. The story is told through several people - a device I was worried would be tiresome but flowed quite nicely.
Rudolfo is Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses and leader of the Gypsy Scouts and the Wandering Army. Petronus has hidden himself away as a simple fisherman and will return as Pope to bury his dead. Nebios is a young man about to take his first archeologicl journey with his father only to watch as everyone he knows dies in an instant. Sethber, the Overseer of the Entrolusian City States, is the fat cat gloating over the destruction and the start of his plan to rule all of the lands. Lady Jin Li Tam has been her father's pawn in the game of statecrat he plays but she will soon find her own way and worth.
The twisting plans within plans within plans got very confusing and in the end I just went with the flow and didn't try to anticipate an outcome. I was very taken with the metal man, Isaac, who was programed to destroy Windwir and then found his way with the beginning of a new library.

Of witches, vampires, pixies and weres

White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison

I really love these books but there is so much to keep track of and so many characters that I sometimes have to concentrate to remember who did what in the past to whom that makes it necessary for the current actions!
Rachel is still mourning the death of her love, Kisten, a vampire and still angry that she can't remember the incident because Jenks, her pixie friend and partner, spelled her thinking it would help her pain. Now there's a new threat in Cincinatti, a banshee has had a child and the child needs emotions to feed off - violent ones will do nicely. She needs to find the banshee before she kills. Of course, this is the first time in eight years that her brother has come back to visit her and her mother and he doesn't like the life she's living! Then the witch community decides to shun her - could life get any better?

Out of my comfort zone

The Samaritan's Secret by Matt Beynon Rees is set in Palestine. The protagonist is Omar Yussef, a school teacher from Bethlehem who has come to Nablus for the wedding of a friend, a police officer. First off, they go to investigate the theft of a scroll taken from the Samaritan temple. I had no idea that there were Samaritans left in the world - there are about 713 left. The scroll has been returned but now a murder comes to light. A young Samaritan man who had been Yassar Arafat's comptroller. He's dead and there are millions of dollars of government money missing. The World Bank wants to locate it or aid to Palestinians will be cut off.
I found all of the connections to be very convoluted. I wasn't sure who was beating up Omar's friend and who was a friend. I wasn't terribly convinced that an outsider could just ask people questions and they'd freely give me personal information. The people seemed to distrust strangers so I just didn't see this happening. An interesting mystery but I don't think I'll read another one.

Duplicate Effort by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

I love these Retrieval Artist books by Rusch. I'm always glad when a new one comes out. I had this to enjoy after a big snow storm and a wonderully lazy weekend. My laundry was done, it wasn't my turn to cook and the weather was just right for reading with a nice cup of coffee to hand. Heavenly!
Miles Flint wants to bring down the big law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xendor so he's working with Ki Bowles, a journalist who he hates. He's backing her investigation and feeding her information he's acquired on the firm. Then Ki is murdered in an area where she should have been safe and guarded. At the same time, Miles is having to deal with his thirteen-year-old daughter, Talia, who wants to search for her siblings - the other five clones that Miles' former wife had made of their daughter just before she was shaken to death at a daycare. Now Miles will realize how much his daughter is going to make him look at things with a regard for her safety. The enemy will know that she is his weak link.
Told from several points of view, this is a twisting path to follow, but worth it. Now where will our author take us next?

Snakehead by Peter May

I really enjoy Peter May's China Thrillers but can't get into his Enzo MacLeod books. I liked the first one but after that I just didn't care. Now the China ones - oh they can keep me up nights! They stay with me for weeks after reading them, thinking about all of the awful things governments and large companies do for money.Genetic manipulation of plants, viruses, body parts. The list seems to go on and on.
Snakehead is about human trafficking and what a dreadful business that is. How people can be so inured to the suffering of their fellow human beings seems to appear a lot in the books I've been reading and listening to this year. So far this is the second reference to a refrigerator truck that malfunctioned and caused multiple deaths.
This truck disaster brings medical examiner Margaret Campbell together with her former Chinese lover, Li Yan. The Beijing detective has been assigned to the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. They will be joined in their quest by INS agent Michael Hrycyk, a man who is definitely not PC. He hates the Chinese and doesn't hesitate to say he does.
When it is discovered that the bodies have all been injected and then discover that what they had been injected with is a manufactured form of the Spanish flu, the push is on to find the trigger and the madman behind this dreadful problem.
At one point I was reading so fast my eyes were popping. I think I stopped breathing at one point. Great book.

Werewolves, Vampires and Coyotes! Oh, My!!

Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

Mercy Thompson is a mechanic. Now that sets her apart from most women I know, but she also has the ability to shift into a coyote. She's the girlfriend/mate of the Alpha werewolf, lives with a lone werewolf, was fostered by the head of all North American werewolves and has a friend who is a vampire. She is also a walker of Native American legend. This was explained in past books - seems to mean that she is immune to some of the magic of others.Her father was Native American. This book takes place after the nasty man raped Mercy and she killed him, then Adam (the Alpha) tore him apart. She's coming to grips with what has happened and then her vampire friend is literally dropped on her. He's been tortured, starved and is in very bad condition. The mistress of the vampires has evidently decided that Mercy is responsible for killing one of her vampires and is after Mercy's friends and family. A lot of ugly stuff but Briggs is like Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison in that she can add a touch of humor to her novels. This one was a very fast read. More please.

New Roman Britain mystery!

Nox Dormienda (a long night for sleeping) by Kelli Stanley
This debut novel was a requested purchase by Sharon Larson - good choice, Sharon! I wasn't sure I would like this one as much as "Medicus" by Ruth Downie but I did. This one has a medical man who is half Roman and half British who falls in love with a native woman. Medicus is a Roman medical man who is falling in love with his native slave girl. A courier from the caesar, Domitian, has been killed and his body placed in the temple of Mithra - ruled by Agricola, the governor of Britain. Arcturus, the medic has been called out to view the body and figure out who killed the man. The fear is that Domitian will think that Agricola killed him because he was delivering a message telling Agricola that he was being replaced as governor. A nasty civil war could ensue. Convoluted but very, very good - read it in two days!

Now for a little fantasy!

Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold
This is a new fantasy series by the author of "Through Wolf's Eyes". I wanted to read it for its Oriental flavor. The story is good but I agree with the reviewer who said that there is "too much information" - especially about mah-jong. I didn't want to know quite so much about the game and it bogged down the narration. Brenda Morris is a 19-year-old college student who has come to California with her father to meet with a family friend but instead finds herself learning more about her heritage and that of her father and his friends. They are ancestors of those who came from the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice, the place formed from lost knowledge and lore from Imperial China. The Thirteen Orphans have concealed their magic in the game of mah-jong and they have taken the characteristics of the Chinese zodiac - for instance, Rat, Dog, Tiger, etc. Brenda learns that her father is the Rat and she is the one to inherit his abilities. In the process of warning other of a new danger, Brenda's father is attacked and loses his memories of his magical abilities. Brenda has some but not all. Fortunately, Pearl Bright, an older woman, who is the Tiger, is there to lead the remaining four in their quest to solve the problem of Brenda's father and the others whose memories are missing. The story is very good, except for the too long passages dealing with mah jong. It drags down the action but I suppose is necessary for the back story. Maybe the next book in the series will flow better.

Among the mad by Jacqueline Winspear

My friend, Sharon Larson, lent me the ARC of the newest Maisie Dobbs book and I am so glad that she did. Each book makes Maisie a little more real to me and I ache for Billy Beale, her assistant, and his family. The medical problems they are facing brings to mind the current medical reality of needing to have someone with medical knowledge and connections as a family member or friend in order to get the proper care you or your loved one needs.
Maisie and Billy are preparing to wrap up their work and get to their families on Christmas Eve day, when Maisie attempts to go to the aid of a former soldier sitting on the pavement. She doesn't make. He blows himself up as she's reaching out for him.
The next day, a letter is sent to the prime minister threatening more deaths if the writer's demands aren't met. He mentions Maisie by name. This leads to her being tossed into the thick of things with Detective Chief Superintenden Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's Special Branch as a consultant. She will come up against the nasty Gerald Urquhart of Military Intelligence and suffer with her friend, Pricilla, as she tries to re-adjust to life in England. This is when I started having trouble. It is 1932 and Pricilla has lost her brothers to the war and her parents to the flu. I know what is coming in several years time and I'm afraid for her boys and those of Billy's. Maisie successfully find the person behind the threat and get him to stop? We all know that she will - it's the getting there that is important.

Messenger by Jan Burke

I've never read one of Jan Burke's Irene Kelly mysteries but the review of this book was what made me put a hold on it before the library received it. It read like a best seller, which is not something I'm into, but, it kept my interest so I read it in a day. That speaks very well for this novel.
We are introduced to Tyler Hawthorne and Amanda Clarke when they meet at the bedside of their mutual friend, Ron. Amanda is immediately angry with Tyler because he had told Ron that his cancer was going into remission and she didn't want someone handing her friend false hope. As Tyler had just come from the bedside of a dying person he wasn't at his strongest or best. Tyler talks to dying people. He listens to their final thoughts and passes on information to the ones being left behind. Once they're dead, he doesn't hear them - but Amanda sees them! Well, actually, it's only her parents and aunt and uncle that she sees but doesn't hear. Eventually, Tyler will have to explain to her that he was given the gift of a momento mori ring in his bargain for his life. He also got a large black dog, a cemetary dog, to guard him and ease his fever and pain after he listens to the dead. Now the creep who gave him this gift, wants it all back. Trouble is Tyler discovered how evil the man was and remains in death. Now he has to protect Amanda and Ron. Lots more to this but you'll have to read it for yourself!