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?