Despite appearances, I’ve actually had some time to read lately. Maybe “had some time to read” isn’t totally accurate – it’s been more like “squeezed some time to read” but regardless, it’s the end result that counts, right?

And I’ve been lucky, because everything I’ve picked up to read recently has turned out to be a good read. Eye of the Crow was a  really, really good read, in fact.

I picked up Eye of the Crow, by Shane Peacock, from the library one day; the “Silver Birch nominee” sticker on the spine caught my eye (as it turns out, it’s won a bunch of awards, including the Arthur Ellis Award for Juvenile Crime Fiction).

The book is about Sherlock Holmes’ first case, one undertaken when he’s a boy of just thirteen; I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan, and always on the lookout for good books about Holmes (Laurie King’s Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series is another favorite of mine).

But Eye of the Crow stayed sitting in the pile of books on my library shelf for most of the three weeks I had it out.

And then, luckily, one day I read Memory’s review of Death in the Air; it’s the sequel to Eye of the Crow. Memory mentioned that Death in the Air was a good read, but not as good as Eye of the Crow. I realized, “Hey! I have Eye of the Crow sitting in my library pile.”

So I dashed over to my library shelf, picked up the book, and started reading.

I didn’t stop until I’d finished the entire book. The day got darker, my to-do list stayed undone (which, when you think about it, is really not such a bad thing,  because it meant all I had to do was re-use the same list the next day, with a few more additions), but I finished the book, my heart racing because it was gloriously, gorgeously suspenseful.

I know this is a children’s book, but the fact is, once you start reading, you’ll find yourself drawn into the world of 1860s London – drawn so deeply in you can almost smell the grime and feel the grit. And you’re not going to be thinking to yourself, I’m reading a children’s book – you’re going to be too deep in the story to remember that you actually are reading a book.

And really, that’s the best kind of book to sink your teeth into.

Peacock has done an amazing job. His boy Sherlock Holmes gives the adult Sherlock Holmes exactly the right childhood background – all the pieces fall into place. The reasons behind why Holmes is the way he is are all there, in the childhood backstory that Peacock has created for the adult Holmes in Eye of the Crow.

Not to mention, the suspense builds and builds and builds. This one is a keeper, and for the Sherlock Holmes fan, a must read.

Want to buy Eye of the Crow? Support MsBookish by purchasing through one of these links:
Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Chapters Indigo | Amazon.co.uk

I’m just tickled to be hosting this 42nd Bookworms Carnival! Thank you to everyone who sent in their links on such short notice.

I chose the topic of Comfort Reads because there are always those times in life when a much-loved, well-read book is exactly what I need, and I’m hoping you all feel the same, too.

The desire for a spot of comfort reading hits me most often during the winter: usually at night, when it’s toasty warm inside and bitterly cold outside. I look at my special reading armchair and thoughts of a good, familiar book and a mug of hot tea come to mind.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the titles my fellow bloggers turn to when they’re up for some comfort reading; there are many old favorites of mine in the group, plus some new titles that of course I’ve now added to my list of books to get my hands on. All I can say is, it’s a good thing Christmas is just around the corner!

Classics

Ah, the classics! I have quite a few classics on my own list – especially Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, A Room with a View, by E. M. Forster, and The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford. Only one person submitted a classic, but it’s a lovely one for reading on a cold night, all warm and cozy in front of the fire.

Heather from Age 30+ … A Lifetime of Books submitted Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë. If you’re like me, whenever you think of Wuthering Heights you think of Heathcliff. I also tend to think of dark and glowering brows, too! Heather has included a great detailed list of the cast of characters that does a wonderful job of refreshing your memory about this classic if it’s been a while since you’ve read it.

Fantasy

There’s something about a good fantasy that gives that old favorite one an edge when it comes to being a comfort read. I think it’s because the world you dip into is so different and all-encompassing (with the best fantasies, anyway), that you literally are swept away for those few hours you’re re-reading.

Heather submitted as another comfort read, Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, one of my own favorite reads. I’ve always had a fondness for retellings of the King Arthur story, and I read this when I was a teen and just adored it. Heather says, “I guess I’d have to say that if you DO find it challenging, it is VERY worth the effort you put into it. For me, this is a “must read” for just about everyone.” And I agree totally!

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series is another series I turn to in my own comfort reading, so I was pleased to see it showing up in the submissions. Zee at Notes from the North recommends listening to the Dragonsinger series in audio, which sounds like a great idea. Jemi at Just Jemi has also included the Pern series in her list of comfort reads, and I am in complete agreement with her! I recently bought the first three books in the series in ebook format, so that I’ll always have them to dip into.

Zee also includes in her list a fantasy series by David Eddings, the Belgariad and Mallorean series; I’ve read a few books by Edding, and she’s reminded me it’s time for a revisit.

Jackie at Literary Escapism submitted three urban fantasy books that sound like fantastic reads; I haven’t read any of them, and have added them to my list. There’s Friday Night Bites, by Chloe Neill, a novel about the Chicagoland vampires, and Destined for an Early Grave, by Jeaniene Frost, another novel about vampires. And I’ve had the Riley Jensen series, by Keri Arthur, on my list for a while now; the latest installment, Bound to Shadows, sounds so good.

Sheila, from One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books, picks The Three Sisters Trilogy, by Nora Roberts as her comfort reads; I haven’t read very many books by Nora Roberts, but as soon as I read Sheila’s post, I immediately added these books to my list – I love the concept of three independent women who are all witches. In her email to me, Sheila wrote, “These three books are favorites of mine and are always a “go to” series if I need to just sink into characters that are like old friends to me. Even talking about them now makes me want to go visit them between the pages of these books.”

Mysteries

There’s nothing more perfect than curling up with a good mystery, and with the passage of time, I find that my memory of exactly whodunnit has dimmed enough for old favorites to be just as enjoyable as they were the first time I read them.

For Aarti, at Booklust, Footsteps in the Dark, by Georgette Heyer, is a favorite read. She says, “Footsteps in the Dark is a thriller mystery of the first order, complete with secret passageways, priest holes, skeletons and a cowled monk.” She definitely has me sold on this one! I’ve never read a Georgette Heyer, and one of her mysteries seems like a good place to start.

Candace, at Beth Fish Reads, submitted a book from one of my new personal favorites: the Hamish Macbeth series by M.C. Beaton. In her review of Death of a Travelling Man, she notes that she started this series in audio mainly because of the narrator, Davina Porter. Candace likes to read her series in order, but I tend to grab hold of whatever I can find; I seem to have started the series at the opposite end, and the majority of the ones I’ve listened to have been narrated by Graeme Malcolm. I like Porter’s narration a bit better, but Malcolm does some great accents.

Zee’s picks include J.D. Robb’s In Death series. This is a series I’ve been meaning to read for a while; Zee writes, “This series makes me laugh and the characters feel very real …”

And I’m very glad Jemi included Agatha Christie in her list. She says, “Agatha Christie’s mysteries are kind of like chocolate for me,” and that’s such a perfect description of how the Christie books feel to me, too. My memory isn’t as good as Jemi’s, though – I’ve been rereading Christie in audio, and I find that I’ve forgotten who the culprit is in most of the novels!

Children’s Books

The books I read as a child will always hold a special place in my heart; one of the first things I did as a “real grown-up” holding down a job (ie finally having a bit of money to spend) was to start buying copies of all the old favorites that I’d borrowed time and again from the library when I was little.

I grew up with Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, so I was so glad to see that Jessica, of The Bluestocking Society, and Jemi both chose Anne Shirley as one of their favorite comfort reads. I have read and reread the whole Anne of Green Gables series so many times, I can quote whole sections from the book. Jemi writes, “As a shy, serious girl, I wanted to be Anne’s friend.” I could have written that! I remember wishing I knew someone like Anne, too; the term “kindred spirits” will always hold a special place in my heart.

Jemi also includes The Hobbit in her list of comfort reads – another one of my favorites! I couldn’t decide whether to put this under Fantasy or children’s books, but since I’ll always associate The Hobbit with childhood, I decided this was the proper place for it. (I read The Hobbit long before any of other The Lord of the Rings books.)

Food Writing

There’s something just so comforting to me about reading about food; I go on occasional food-writing splurges, during which time I’ll read nothing but food writing. I also come out of these splurges with a few extra pounds, I think, because one thing about good food writing – it makes you hungry!

Margot, of Joyfully Retired, has submitted a book that’s one of my personal favorites: Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin. As Margot points out, “Her tone is strictly conversational – just as if you are sitting in her kitchen talking about food.” That’s what makes this book such a charming book for me; I loved Margot’s example of having a conversation with the author as she was reading it!

General Fiction

A lot of the books in my own comfort reading pile fall into a general, non-genre category. When I look at them, I see that a charming, cozy feel is a common element.

I loved Jessica’s review of 84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. This is a book that has long been on my “I really want to read that” list, and her review is a good reminder that I really do need to get to it.

Amy, from Amy Reads Good Books, submitted Trouble, by Kate Christensen. I’ve never read any novels by Christensen, but Amy’s caught my attention with this: “it was a thoughtful meditation on how we do or do not bounce back from trauma as we age.” Another interesting book!

Jackie at Farm Lane Books has chosen The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp as her comfort read – Sharp’s books are out of print, but she was lucky enough to find three of them! Ever since I read Jackie’s review of The Nutmeg Tree, I’ve been on the lookout for books by Sharp. They sound like the perfect comfort read.

Myrthe, at The Armenian Odar Reads, submitted The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. This is a lovely review; she writes, “It is the one book that still makes me cry all through the last chapter, a book that I immediately want to start again when I finish it.” I haven’t read The Chosen yet; it sounds like such a beautiful coming-of-age story.

I was also thrilled to see that Melanie, at The Indextrous Reader, submitted Alexander McCall Smith: “My version of comfort reading must always include Alexander McCall Smith,” she says in her post. Me too! She has great things to say about both the Mma Ramotswe series and the Scotland Street series. I haven’t yet fallen under the allure of the Mma Ramotswe series yet, but McCall Smith’s Scotland Street and Isabel Dalhousie series are both very near and dear to me.

Melanie also submitted The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, by Eva Rice. The title is so charming. Melanie writes, “Full of eccentric English characters, revealing social conditions, ancient houses, True Love, teatime and Selfridge’s, I greatly enjoyed this lovely and unusual novel.” I think it will be one I’ll enjoy too.

Finally, Meg’s review of The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen, at Write Meg is so enticing; this is another book I’m adding to my burgeoning list of books to get my hot little hands on. Meg calls The Sugar Queen a “seriously delightful, magical story”, and reading her review, it sounds absolutely charming and whimsical, with dashes of mystery and magic.

This ends the Comfort Reads edition of the Bookworms Carnival! I hope you’ve rediscovered some old favorites in this list, and perhaps added a few to your list that you haven’t read before.

Play along with us! What are some of your comfort reads?

In The Likeness, by Tana French, we meet up with Cassie Maddox again, this time without her former police partner Rob Ryan by her side.

The body of a murder victim has been discovered in the ruins of an old cottage in a village outside Dublin. Not only is the woman Cassie’s virtual twin but the police discover the victim has been going by the name of Lexie Madison, an identity which the police had created for its drug squad years ago, and an identity which Cassie had used during her stint as an undercover officer.

With some trepidation, Cassie agrees to assume this old identity again, and go undercover as Lexie Madison. As Lexie, Cassie steps into the world of a Trinity College graduate student rooming with four other students in an old house close by the cottage in which the victim’s body was discovered.

I had enjoyed Tana French’s first novel, In the Woods, despite not liking the ending very much, so I’d been looking forward to The Likeness.

But when I finally got a hold of a copy from my local library, I found it difficult to get into the book. I kept reading a bit, and then putting it down and not coming back to it for days. I ended up having to renew the book for the maximum number of renewals, and the main reason I finished it was because, going into the last third of the book, I’d run out of renewals and knew that if I didn’t finish it then, I probably wouldn’t be likely to finish it anytime in the near future.

Tana French writes beautifully and eloquently – her writing was one of the things I really enjoyed about In The Woods. But when I finally put down The Likeness for the last time, I found I hadn’t liked it nearly as much as I’d enjoyed In The Woods.

I finally realized why the other day, and, as it turns out, it has everything to do with me, the reader, and nothing to do with the book itself.

You see, I’d picked up The Likeness anticipating a mystery, but the mystery itself isn’t really the draw of the book. The book’s appeal lies in French’s writing, and in her depictions of the many flawed characters who populate The Likeness.

So what happened was this: I expected a mystery, and I kept expecting a mystery. The mystery itself is, of course, an important part of the book, as without it, Cassie wouldn’t be living the tense life of an undercover police officer, surrounded by murder suspects. But I’m not so certain that the mystery itself was the point of the book.

I also tend to favor more of a clear line between good and evil in the mysteries I read, so that, at some point during the narrative, there is a specific  intent to cause serious harm to someone else. The murderer in In The Woods, for example, is a chilling adversary. This isn’t something that happens, however, in The Likeness.

At some point during my reading of the book, I probably should have shifted my expectations – but for some reason, I didn’t. And so I didn’t find it a very satisfying read.

I should have read The Likeness as a work of general fiction that uses a mystery as a device to bring readers deep into the lives of the four unusual people who are Lexie Madison’s roommates. I think it would have worked out to be a far better read for me if I’d approached it with these expectations.

So there you go. The Likeness is a well-written book featuring a cast of flawed and compelling characters. But I went into it with the wrong expectations – the mystery in The Likeness isn’t the sharp, suspenseful mystery (or mysteries, some would say) that drove the plot in In The Woods. So I wasn’t nearly as enthralled with it as I was with In The Woods, even considering that book’s somewhat unsatisfactory ending.

If you go into this book with the right expectations, though, I suspect you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

Where to buy The Likeness:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Book details: published by Viking Adult, 2008, hardcover, 480 pages

It feels like a “lost” week around here in a way. Monday was a holiday here (not that it matters much to me work-wise since I work when I have a deadline and take time off when I don’t, but there’s the not-minor matter of not having to get up with the kids in the morning as they get ready for school!)

Add to that the head cold I had for three days, which unfortunately came back yesterday and really, it feels like all I’ve done this week is loll around in the grip of cold medication that makes me drowsy.

Reading …

I did manage to get through a nice chunk of The Likeness, by Tana French. I’ve mentioned before that, for some reason, this novel hasn’t hooked me the way In The Woods did. I finally felt really engrossed at around page 189. I’m now very near the end, but (and it might just be because I’ve been under the weather) I don’t find myself racing through to see what happens. In fact, the book has sat on the coffee table, open to the page where I last left it, for the past two days.

I did much better with the audio version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I’m getting close to the end, and I just started listening earlier this week. (It generally takes me longer to listen to an audiobook because I only listen when I’m exercising, cleaning the kitchen and for an hour before bed.)

While I’ve reread the first three Harry Potter books a few times, I realized as I was listening to this one that this is my first reread of it. There were several things I’d forgotten, and one thing I was pleased to rediscover was that (tiny spoiler here, for those of you who haven’t read this one or seen the movie), unlike the movie, it wasn’t Cho who ratted everyone out. I hadn’t realized that the movie had parted ways with the book there (which goes to show how much of the book I’d forgotten by the time I saw the movie!).

Writing …

I’d meant to spend this week doing up character sketch thingies for my NaNoWriMo novel, but never lifted even a finger in that direction. I did, however, find a very handy set of free Excel worksheets right before I came down with that head cold. I’ll only be using the character worksheet, but for those of you who like to plot first, The Novel Planning Excel Workbook might come in handy (you can see all the worksheets in the novel here, but you need to go here to download it).

When I was writing NANTUCKET, I ended up taking a file folder and writing down all my secondary characters in it, because I found myself wasting a lot of time trying to remember names, especially the names of the more minor characters. I think using the character worksheet will really be helpful.

Fitness Challenge

I haven’t done that well this week with the challenge, logging in only two miles, on the day when I was feeling better. I was supposed to do another 1.5 miles yesterday, but kept postponing it, and then that head cold came back again. I really should get on the treadmill today, but I’m still feeling tired.

Ah … discipline. Nope. I don’t have it, not for fitness, anyway!

The Food Blog

Earlier this week, I posted about our Thanksgiving dinner this past weekend; I also mentioned that I was hoping my husband would start blogging at our food blog, Muse in the Kitchen, because I have been doing a terrible job of keeping it up-to-date.

The thing is, while I do love to eat, it’s Ward who’s really passionate about the cooking and the recipes. He’ll be so thrilled about discovering a new technique that creates a much better result, while I’ll be like, “okay, that’s wonderful, is it okay if we dig in now?”

So guess what? He wrote his first post at Muse in the Kitchen the same day I wrote about our Thanksgiving dinner! You can check it out here: 30-Minute Homemade Pasta.

Since that first post, he’s also written several more posts. And today he told me he’s having a great time blogging! My job with the food blog now is very much like my job in the kitchen. During prep time, I play the role of sous chef; at the blog, I do a bit of reformatting.

Life feels pretty near perfect right now …

Okay, I’m having a real fangirl moment here. Seriously.

I just stumbled on Part 1 and Part 2 of an interview with author Chris Grabenstein at M.J. Rose’s Buzz, Balls & Hype, as part of Gregory Huffstutter’s The Ad Man Answers feature.

Thanks to Beth Fish Reads, my biggest reading “find” of the year so far has been the John Ceepak mystery series, authored by Chris Grabenstein – I was so hooked after listening to the first book in the series, Tilt-A-Whirl, I promptly bought the rest of the books in the series and indulged in a reading blitz (or reading listen, I guess, since I listened to all the books in audio, narrated by Jeff Woodman, one of my favorite audiobook narrators). I reviewed Tilt-a-Whirl here.

In the interview, Grabenstein talks about his 20 years of working in advertising before he started writing novels (James Patterson was his boss at one time), writing the Ceepak novels, and a little bit about marketing books. And I learned that the sixth Ceepak book, Rolling Thunder, is due out in May, 2010!

It’s a great interview for writers and readers alike. Here’s what Grabenstein says about book trailers (which he thinks are definitely worth the effort): ‘We do not watch TV or book trailers and think: “Isn’t that nice, they did the best they could with no money.”  We see a movie, we either like it or think it sucks.’

Chris Grabenstein Interview, Part 1

Chris Grabenstein Interview, Part 2

I hadn’t realized until reading the interview that Grabenstein also writes YA/MG novels. I’m adding The Crossroads, the first book in a middle-grade ghost story series, to my TBR.

I really hate when this happens.

I’ve had Tana French’s The Likeness out from the library for a while now. It’s on its last renewal legs, so to speak, so I’ve got to either finish it up in the next few weeks or it has to go back to the library until I can check it out again.

I really liked French’s In The Woods (my review is here) – despite the ending – and everyone I know who’s read In The Woods tells me that The Likeness is even better. But for some reason, I’ve been having trouble getting into it. It’s not that I’m not enjoying it when I do sit down with it, because I am. But for some reason, the book hasn’t hooked me in quite that way yet.

When I was reading In The Woods, I couldn’t put the book down, and if I had to, I could think of nothing else but picking it back up again. This hasn’t happened for me yet with The Likeness. But with only a couple more weeks left for me to finish it, I will need to buckle down and make sure that it’s the book I pick up to read whenever I’m in the mood for reading.

Which will really be difficult, because I’ve got some very interesting books that are calling to me right now. No, really, they are. They’re all making those funny squeaky noises, the ones that my booklover’s discerning ears can hear all too clearly. And those voices are saying, “Pick me up! I’m the one you should be reading right now. Pick me up! I’m so interesting. You won’t regret it …”

First, there’s French Milk, by Lucy Knisley, which I talked about in my last Incoming! new book arrivals post. Since this one is in graphic novel format, it would be so easy to pick it up, because I know it will be a quick and lovely read.

And then there’s Wait Until Twilight, which author Sang Pak sent to me in the summer. I read the first chapter online at Sang’s site before the book arrived, and if the book had only arrived shortly after, I would have finished it by now. The first chapter was really eerie and gothic and had me wanting more. So now I keep looking at the book and thinking, yes, I really should see what happens next.

But wait, there’s more (isn’t there always, though?). I also just picked up a whole slew of books from the library that I’d put in requests for.

Most of these books ended up on my library list because I saw it on a blog somewhere, by the way. So we know who’s to blame, don’t we?

There’s Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto; this is the product description from Amazon: “Mikage, the heroine, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father) Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.” Doesn’t it sound so interesting?

And then there’s Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, an eerie little book that looks like a wonderfully creepy read.

This one was a rather embarrassing find – I’d quickly skimmed through a review on a blog I frequent (I can’t remember which blog it was – I really need to start jotting down where I find my reads) and for some reason I thought it was “in the style of Shirley Jackson”.

Well, I loved The Haunting of Hill House, and “The Lottery” is one of my favorite short stories, so I quickly chirped in the comments something about being a Shirley Jackson lover, so if this was in her style, it definitely was my kind of book. Then I hopped over to my library’s website, typed in the title, and discovered that We Have Always Lived in the Castle wasn’t “in the style of Shirley Jackson” – it’s written by Shirley Jackson.

Sigh. Did I ever feel stupid for making that comment. (Do you ever make commenting blunders like this, by the way? Just asking. Would love some company on this one …)

And after reading so many really good reviews online, I also put in a request for The Summoning a while back; it’s the first book in Kelley Armstrong’s YA paranormal series.

There was a bit of a wait for this one, but at long last, it’s my turn – but it also means this is yet another book I’ll have to read within the next few weeks, because I’m pretty sure there’s still a wait list for this one.

See my growing reading dilemma?

And it doesn’t quite stop there. When I dashed into the library to pick up my holds, I saw Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, and couldn’t resist getting it after I read the synopsis:

Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

I know that I shouldn’t do things like this; I should be disciplined enough to be able to pop into the library to pick up an armload of holds without looking around at the shelves to see if something else will catch my eye.

But I’m not disciplined at all when it comes to books and reading.

So there you go. So many reading temptations. But yes, I’m going to finish The Likeness first. I know it’s going to be good – I’m at page 110 and those hooks are finally starting to sink into me.

At least I know it’s going to be a pretty good reading month this month, right?

What about you? Is there a book you absolutely must finish right now, for whatever reason? Are you oh, so tempted by other books like I am, or do you possess the iron will and discipline that I lack?

I haven’t done a Saturday “this is what’s going on with me” post for ages, so I figured it was about time. And after this week, I actually might be posting something like this regularly on Saturday – because starting next Saturday, I’ll have more time.

The Big List of Book Giveaways

Why will I have more time?

Tomorrow will be my last “Big List of Book Giveaways” post for The Sunday Salon. I will still be posting a giveaways list on Sundays, but after a lot of thought, I’ve decided to change the theme of the list and focus only on giveaways that are open worldwide. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, ever since I read this post at J. Kaye’s book blog, where she mentions that Bookworming in the 21st Century posts Link a Contest Thursday every Thursday, and it’s so easy – if you have a giveaway, you just enter it into her Mr. Linky.

The Big List of Book Giveaways post had gotten to the point where it took up a big chunk of my Saturdays, but I’d been reluctant to give it up because it seems to be so helpful to everyone. Reading through the comments I’ve gotten, I saw that a lot of people liked the fact that I state whether a giveaway is open worldwide or not. So it makes sense to me to narrow down the focus to just international book giveaways – hopefully the list will continue to be helpful for everyone (since everyone can enter), and I get to take back some of my Saturdays!

I’m A Cheerleader for the October Read-a-thon!

I never know what I’m going to be doing on any given day until that day comes (in addition to being a moody reader, I also like to adjust my life around whatever I happen to feel like doing at the moment). So, while the idea of participating in the October Read-a-thon is so tempting, I know myself well enough to know it’s probably not a good idea.

Cheerleading, on the other hand? I can do that! So I’ve signed up to be a cheerleader for the October Read-a-thon, and am in the process of dusting off my Twitter and commenting pom poms. I will try to follow the lead of that great Read-a-thon cheerleader, Beth Fish Reads, whose impressive cheering performance during the April Read-a-thon was really what inspired me to sign up to cheer this time around.

If you’d like to participate in the Read-a-thon, or want to give cheerleading a try, just head on over to Dewey’s Read-a-thon.

100-Mile (160.1 km) Fitness Challenge

I’ve been noticing that I seem to have gotten, um, a bit more rounded, shall we say, over the past six months. With both the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts approaching, now seems like a good time to start running again.

Synchronicity struck – I was over at Amanda’s The Zen Leaf and she mentioned she was signing up for the 100-Mile Fitness Challenge. Perfect! So I’ve signed up, too, and hope this is the motivation I need to get running again. I’ve been noticing that my thighs feel sore after I go upstairs – I truly feel like I’m climbing the stairs, like they were some big huge mountain. Not to mention that out-of-breath feeling. So it really is time to do something about it.

My treadmill gives me Canadian distances, so for me, the challenge will be, roughly, 160.1 km over the next three months It turns out my treadmill gives me miles, not kilometres!. And I’m probably going to start out by walking first. I’ve got a ton of audiobooks waiting to accompany me, so my challenge posts will actually be bookish!

So, What’s Up With NANTUCKET?

I haven’t written anything about my progress with NANTUCKET because I haven’t made any progress with it since the last time I posted about it. I know – it’s a very sorry state of affairs. I still have three scenes to write, after which I can say, “I did it! It’s finished!”

You’d think it would be easy to get motivated to write those final scenes, but I have a small confession to make. NANTUCKET has always been my “practice” novel. After not having written anything for so long, I needed to show myself that I could do it. Since I wanted to use that first book to get myself back into writing, I decided to use one of my good ideas, and not one of the ideas about which I am really passionate.

And it’s worked, too. I have been able to write regularly, consistently, even when inspiration seemed far off. I have sat at the keyboard and invited my muse, rather than waiting on the sidelines for my muse to show up first (she never does, I’ve noticed).

But I haven’t felt inspired to write the ending, and worse, I haven’t been sitting down, so the muse hasn’t appeared.

I’m going to finish this manuscript though. I have to, because I’m itching to start the prep work for my NaNoWriMo novel (code name WAVERLEY), and I’m using this itch as an incentive to finish NANTUCKET. And I’m looking forward to pulling that first draft out of a drawer six weeks later and seeing how it reads, too.

So this is my long-winded way of saying, yes, I’ll be writing that “I’m Finished!” post soon.

Currently Reading

I am about a quarter of the way into Tana French’s The Likeness, and while I’ve been enjoying it, I got tempted out of the book when I picked up a copy of The Lost Art of Gratitude, the latest Isabel Dalhousie novel by Alexander McCall Smith. I haven’t been able to resist dipping into it, and I’ve quite enjoyed the handful of pages I’ve read so far.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I like the Isabel Dalhousie series so much. It’s certainly not for the mystery, because it’s definitely not the mystery that drives each of these books. I think it’s because I like how Isabel Dalhousie’s mind works, how, as a philosopher, she is always going off on these strange thought tangents all the time. She’s just so interesting, intelligent and self-aware.

I also like the fact that she’s an older woman in a stable relationship with a younger man. Many of my friends are in similar relationships, but I’ve noticed that this kind of relationship never shows up much in fiction. McCall Smith does a good job with it, I think.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. What about you? What have you been up to this week?

In Louise Penny’s fifth Chief Inspector Gamache book, The Brutal Telling, the village of Three Pines is once again witness to murder. And perhaps “witness” is too light a word, because the body of the victim is found on the floor of the bistro owned by Olivier and Gabri, the bistro that is very much the heart and soul of the Three Pines community.

I’ve always thought that Louise Penny set a new standard for the traditional mystery when she came out with the first novel in the Armand Gamache series, Still Life, and as with the previous books in the series, The Brutal Telling explores the broader themes arising from the murder that lies at the heart of the mystery.

And there is more to the mystery in this book than the identity of the killer and the victim. This is a story about lies, myths and secrets, about greed and human nature, about what we treasure and what we learn to treasure. How do we know what is real, how do we discern the the truth?

“Who’s Vincent Gilbert, sir? You seemed to know him.”

“He’s a saint.”

Beauvoir laughed, but seeing Gamache’s serious face he stopped. “What do you mean?”

“There’re some people who believe that.”

“Seemed like an asshole to me.”

“The hardest part of the process. Telling them apart.”

I have grown to love and know all the recurring characters so well: Gamache, kind, just, with a quiet but powerful inner strength; Beauvoir and Lacoste, his investigative team, diligent and filled with the utmost respect and love for their superior officer; Clara, Peter, Myrna, Olivier, Gabri, all former outsiders who had stumbled onto the secret that was the village of Three Pines and made it their home; the mad, Governor-General award-winning poet, Ruth; and Three Pines itself, which is more of a character in my mind than simply a place.

And so I found The Brutal Telling to be a more intense read than any of the previous books, because in The Brutul Telling, we must watch as Three Pines is torn apart.

In addition to the mystery, I enjoyed the continuation of a number of smaller storylines, too: the progress of Clara’s artwork and Peter’s jealousy, Rosa, the duck who as a hatchling had impressed herself on Ruth, the transformation of the bleak, old and evil Hadley house.

I was not completely satisfied with the ending; the motivation didn’t feel as concrete to me as I would have liked. I don’t know, however, how much of this was due to my past relationship with the series; a reader who has read the series from the start is likely, I think, to find herself standing rather uncomfortably in Gamache’s shoes in the end.

For me, this wasn’t a book to race through; it was one I savored, taking the time to get re-acquainted with old friends once again. I closed The Brutal Telling with sadness, but I took away with me an end note of hope, too.

An aside: I also enjoyed a small side plot that found a bewildered Inspector Beauvoir showered with snippets of poetry by resident poet Ruth Zardo. Beauvoir has a bit of a macho flair to him, greatly dislikes poetry and is repulsed by Ruth; it was fun to watch him piece together the lines, and see Ruth’s poetic perception revealed as the poem emerges: “and lick you clean of fever,/and pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck/and caress you into darkness and paradise.”

I’m not very good at things like this, so I might be very wrong, but I think this is a reference to something that happened to Beauvoir in the previous book, A Rule Against Murder (I just can’t see “Maddening, passionate, full of life” referring to Beauvoir’s wife Enid). If so, it was a soft, sweet thing to remember. If you’ve read both A Rule Against Murder and The Brutal Telling, what do you think? Am I on the right track?

(Note: Ruth’s poetry is actually that of Margaret Atwood, Ralph Hodgson and Mike Freeman, used with permission of the authors; the lines in this instance are from Atwood’s “Sekhmet, the Lion-headed Goddess of War”).

Another note: While I’ve given my review of this book from the standpoint of someone who’s very familiar with the series, The Brutal Telling definitely does also work as a standalone. It doesn’t contain spoilers about the previous books and you won’t need to have read the previous four books in order to understand the mystery in this book.

Another update: I might have been wrong in my assessment that this book works as a standalone, as I’ve read some reviews now where people unfamiliar with the series and the characters were somewhat disappointed with The Brutal Telling. The good thing is that it doesn’t give any spoilers, so you’ll have no trouble going back to the earlier books in the series. But if you do get the chance, it’s a very good idea to read them in order, beginning with Still Life.

Where to buy The Brutal Telling:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Minotaur Books, 2009, ARC provided by publisher, 372 pages

In A Date You Can’t Refuse, by Harley Jane Kozak, greeting-card artist Wollie Shelley is made an offer she can’t refuse: the FBI wants her to be a cooperative witness and infiltrate the offices of MediaRex, as MediaRex’s newest “social coach”. In return, the FBI will ensure that Wollie’s brother, who suffers from schizophrenia, will continue to have a place at the federally-subsidized halfway house where he’s currently living. Everything’s going as well as can be expected for Wollie, until a coyote-chewed corpse turns up.

When I finished reading A Date You Can’t Refuse with a happy sigh, I was actually a little surprised that I enjoyed this book so much.

You see, a lot of things happen to Wollie from the moment she steps foot in the offices of MediaRex, a media-training company that teaches foreign celebrities how to handle living famously in America.

In novels where there’s a lot going on all the time, I tend to start feeling stressed and exhausted. Often, I get the feeling that the frenetic pace is forced, as if the author is worried that if there’s not enough “stuff” happening, readers will get bored and close the book. But it’s when things get too chaotic that I’m more likely to put the book down, never to return, or skim quickly past all the frenzy (and usually without really missing much when it comes to plot advancement).

Not so with A Date You Can’t Refuse. Wollie finds herself up to her eyeballs in stuff, but none of it ever feels forced. Yes, the pace is fast, but it all fits the story in such a natural way. And it was all really interesting, with lots of funny moments. Rather than feeling exhausted by all the action, I found I didn’t want to put the book down.

And here’s the main thing: I really liked Wollie Shelley. She’s smart, but vulnerable, too. And she doesn’t do anything dumb and out of character just to move the plot along (one of my pet peeves). She’s funny and endearing, the kind of woman you can see yourself becoming best friends with.

I also enjoyed Kozak’s secondary characters, and even found myself liking most of the suspects – Kozak has a knack for creating likeable and distinctive minor characters. The only characters I had problems with were Wollie’s two best friends, Joey and Fredreeq. Joey’s a sexy actor and Fredreeq’s a sexy soccer mom, and I kept getting the two of them mixed up. I liked them both, but they sometimes felt like they were the same person.

The plot has a lot of fun twists and turns and I didn’t figure out who-done-it before Wollie did. There are also some interesting side plots, such as Wollie’s wobbly relationship with her boyfriend, an FBI agent working undercover on another case.

All in all, I found A Date You Can’t Refuse to be a fun, fast and absorbing read with an endearing protagonist, a great cast of secondary characters and an interesting mystery. And because I stepped into this series with the most recent title, I’ve got a lot more to look forward to: not only Wollie’s next adventure but also the three previous titles in the series.

Where to buy A Date You Can’t Refuse:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Broadway Books, 2009, trade paperback, 338 pages

After looking forward to The Word on the Street all week, we all ended up missing the entire event. On Saturday, with the colder weather and the rain, allergies began hitting us – not the tiny-sniffle type of allergies, but full blown sinus-pressure, drippy nose (you wanted to hear that one, didn’t you?), cough and non-stop sneezing type of allergies.

My older son, who, ironically, seems to have constant low-grade hayfever during late summer and early fall, was the only one who remained unaffected.

By the time Sunday rolled around, all my husband and I wanted to do was lie on the sofa with hot lemon tea and a box of tissues each.

The good news, though (I do love that there’s always good news): I ended up finishing up three books over the weekend, all of which I really enjoyed. Add to these books the handful of books I read earlier in September that I also enjoyed, and I can definitely say September turned out to be quite a good month for me, reading-wise.

I’ll be writing up reviews for most of this week, so stay tuned.

There’s one book that I started a couple of weeks ago that I haven’t been feeling like picking up again to finish. It’s The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, by Susan Runholt. I thought it would be a did-not-finish for me, because I haven’t been able to really get back into it.

I can’t think of any reason why I’m not that interested in it, though, after reading about two-thirds of it already: it’s a well-written novel, with a fun and smart teenage protagonist and what looks to be quite a clever mystery. The author does have a tendency to overuse the gothic “if I’d only known” foreshadowing device (it’s a personal thing with me – I tend to think that even once is too often – and she doesn’t use those exact words, but there’s a lot of “as it turns out, this was a really bad decision, but we didn’t know it at the time”), but I’ve overlooked it in other books easily enough; I don’t like “if I’d only known”, but it’s not enough to make me stop reading a book.

I am so enamored of Blue Balliett’s middle grade art mystery series (I wrote a couple of reviews back when I first started MsBookish – I raved about The Calder Game here and enthused about The Wright 3 here); The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, another art mystery but with teen protagonists, is really a natural read for me.

Since I can’t put my finger on anything about the book that’s putting me off, I’ve decided to finish it tonight. I’ve already read so much of it, after all. Plus, it’s gotten so many good reviews, and I’m pretty sure I added it to my TBR because I’d seen a good review of it in one of the book blogs I follow.

On the theory that, for once, I’d hate to miss out because of my reading mood, I figure I might as well give it another go.

Have you ever done this – thought that a book was a DNF for you, but decided after a while to pick it up again and finish it anyway? It rarely happens to me, but then again, I don’t often read that far into a book before thinking, this one isn’t for me.

Thank you, Beth Fish Reads!

Back in early June, Beth Fish Reads wrote a post about the John Ceepak mysteries by Chris Grabenstein. I trust her implicitly, and at the time I was just in the beginning stages of my love affair with audiobooks, so I was very intrigued, because she’d listened to the series in audio:

I listened to the entire series, which is read by Jeff Woodman. I can’t imagine a better narrator for Ceepak and Danny. In fact, Woodman’s work is so amazing that the books are not to be missed in audio.

When Beth Fish Reads says something is not to be missed in audio, she means it – she listens to a lot of audiobooks, and her recommendations are always dead-on.

And that’s how I ended up listening to Tilt-a-Whirl, the first book in the series. And within the space of about six weeks, I listened my way through the entire series, including the latest book, Mind Scrambler, which was released near the end of June.

There are just so many things to like about the series: Danny Boyle, the boyish narrator who really feels like the kid brother I never had; John Ceepak, that Dudley Do-Right, as Beth Fish Reads describes him in her review, who turned out to be both very likeable and a true hero; the darkness and complexities of the mysteries, which work deliciously well in conjunction with the light-hearted style of narration; and Jeff Woodman, the audiobook narrator, who is most definitely a real gem in the audiobook world. He does such great voices, even for the female characters, and his Danny Boyle and John Ceepak are perfect.

The John Ceepak series is the only one I’ve listened to entirely in audio; I enjoyed each book as well as Woodman’s narration immensely, and I can’t see myself opting for the print version of future books in the series without first having listened to the audio version.

It’s all thanks to Beth Fish Reads.

And not only did she introduce me to one of the best books (and best series) I’ve read this year, she also cemented my new-born love of audiobooks. These days, I listen to an audiobook every night before bed; I also listen while I’m doing mundane chores around the house, and find that I actually look forward to cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

Actually, now that I think about it, my entire life has changed. Housework no longer stresses me out – I look forward to it. That’s not bad!

So thank you, Beth Fish Reads! If she’s not already in your list of daily reads, she definitely should be. You can read her review of the entire John Ceepak series here and my review of Tilt-a-Whirl here.

Update: I was just on Twitter talking with Beth Fish Reads and Nicole of Linus’s Blanket, and I remembered this article by Stephen King on audiobooks, where he points out that “the spoken word is the acid test. They don’t call it storytelling for nothing.” If you’re not convinced yet about the audiobook format, click on over and see what King has to say. He makes some very good points.

Another Update: Congratulations to Beth Fish Reads for winning BBAW’s Best New Blog award!

And don’t forget to check out the other book bloggers who are being appreciated today!

In the European city of Beszel, the body of a murdered woman is found; Inspector Tyador Borlú is assigned the case, but further investigation leads him to believe that the murder is not as routine as it looks at first glance: the woman appears to have connections with the city of Ul Qoma.

This complicates matters considerably. Beszel and Ul Qoma uneasily occupy the same physical location, a feat that is accomplished through both the willingness of the denizens of the two worlds to “unsee” each other and the powerful and mysterious force known as “Breach”; strict laws enforce the illusive boundaries between the two cities, and penalties for breaking these laws are severe.

I’m going to cut to the chase here: The City & The City is one of the best books I’ve read this year. It was a book that carried me deep into its pages and never cut me loose until the very end; it was a book I closed with a sigh, reluctantly detaching myself from immersion into its world and back into my own reality.

In The City & The City, China Miéville has created a world that is both incredible and realistic. He has placed his world of sister cities, nestled together on the same physical terrain but with very different cultures, into our current world, and the melding of the things we do know – cell phones, the United Nations, television, airplanes, Google, email – with the concept of a place physically occupied by two cities whose citizens accomplish the feat of maintaining the separateness of each by “unseeing” any signs of the other, produces a setting that feels so tangibly real, one is tempted to pull out an atlas and search for signs of Beszel and Ul Qoma.

The language Miéville uses gives credence to this illusion: the words read as if they have been translated into English from a rich and foreign tongue. There is a lushness to the writing that takes you straight into exotic streets:

Laced by the shadows of girdered towers that would loom over it if they were there, Ascension Church is at the end of VulkovStrász, its windows protected by wire grilles, but some of its stained panes broken. A fish market is there every few days. Regularly I would eat my breakfast to the shouts of vendors by their ice buckets and racks of live molluscs. Even the young women who worked there dressed like their grandmothers while behind their stalls, nostalgically photogenic, their hair tied up in dishcloth-coloured scarves, their filleting aprons in patterns of grey and red to minimise the stains of gutting. The men looked, misleadingly or not, straight off their boats, as if they had not put their catches down since they emerged from the sea, until they reached the cobbles below me. The punters in Beszel lingered and smelled and prodded the goods.

The mystery itself is a complex and intricate one, with the tension as we edge towards denouement building relentlessly until we discover the identity of the murderer, the motive, the how, the why.

Finishing the book, I was dazzled by Miéville’s skill in creating such a realistic world, impossible though it may be; it was a world that stayed with me, a world so credible even now it seems to me that perhaps the impossible is not really so improbable. Miéville also stays committed to the mystery, never letting that slide by the wayside, and wrapping it in the layers of the world of Beszel and Ul Qoma so that it merges seamlessly with his worldbuilding.

The City & The City vividly demonstrates, too, that separation and boundaries can, indeed, be fashioned from nothingness, and perhaps even more disturbing, the role we ourselves play in the maintenance of such illusions.

Whether you enjoy science fiction and fantasy, or are a mystery lover, or simply enjoy a well-written book with language that reaches out and grabs hold of you, I highly recommend The City & The City.

Where to buy The City & The City:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Ballantine Books, 2009, Hardcover, 312 pages

In 1984, three children walked into the woods surrounding the suburban estate they lived in; when they failed to come home, police and community came together to search for them. One of the children was found, standing paralyzed against a tree, wearing shoes that had been filled with blood. The boy is catatonic and when he finally wakes up in the hospital, he has no memory of what happened. Despite massive-scaled searches and an extensive police investigation, his two friends have never been found.

Twenty years later, that boy is now a detective on the Murder squad in Dublin; he finds himself involved in a murder case involving a 12-year-old girl whose body is found in those very same woods.

In In the Woods, Tana French entwines the story of the 20-year-old murder with this new murder; we meet both Rob Ryan, now a flawed adult, and his new partner Detective Cassie Maddox. I was pulled into the book immediately, and found it impossible to put down.

What did I love best about the book? In addition to French’s writing – and she writes very well – I enjoyed the relationship that Ryan and Maddox had with each other. There was an element of playfulness and fun that was a nice complement to the otherwise dark edges of the novel.

Which is why I enjoyed the first half of the book more than I liked the last half of the book. I don’t want to give anything away, but if/once you’ve read the book, I’m pretty sure you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I did spot “the big clue” right when it surfaced, long before the detectives themselves clued in and it became the beginning of the resolution. I also had a pretty good idea who the murderer to the main mystery was, and why, long before Ryan figured it out; I didn’t know how, though, which kept me racing to the end of this book.

I was definitely a little disappointed in the ending, but I can’t really say why without giving away too much. At the same time, though, it was a realistic ending in many ways. And oddly enough, the fact that I knew who the murderer was before it was spelled out actually meant that I wasn’t totally surprised at the way things ended.

Despite my disappointment, the writing is so well done, I find myself quite able to forgive the book its ending.

I enjoyed this book, and I’m looking forward to reading The Likeness.

Where to buy In the Woods:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Viking/Penguin Group, 2007, hardcover, 429 pages

The Mysterious Mr. Quin, by Agatha Christie

A conjurer of skill with an instinct for detection, Mr. Harley Quin has an almost magical flair for appearing at the scene of the most remarkable crimes. But is it just a trick of light that haunts his shadow with a ghostly apparition? Is it fate that invites him to a New Year’s Eve murder? And what forces are at work when his car breaks down outside Royston Hall, an isolated estate with a deadly history?

The Mysterious Mr. Quin is a collection of 12 short stories featuring little Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Harley Quin, a mysterious man that Mr. Satterthwaite meets for the first time in “The Coming of Mr. Quin”, the first story in the collection.

Unlike Christie’s other mysteries, the stories involving Mr. Quin and Mr. Satterthwaite are not always pure mysteries, although in most of them, a puzzle presents itself to Mr. Satterthwaite, who, with the help of Mr. Quin’s questions and general guidance, eventually hones in on the solution. Most assuredly, though, these stories are not at all like Hercule Poirot exercising his little gray cells, or Miss Marble using her knowledge of village life to unravel the mystery.

The Mr. Quin stories are among my favorite Christie stories. Mr. Quin represents a touch of otherworldliness, a gentle dip into the world of the paranormal. At the end of the collection, while we still cannot say with any certainty who Mr. Quin really is, we do have a pretty good idea that he is not like other men, that he is not really human.

I am also very fond of dapper little Mr. Satterthwaite, that keen observer of life who, under Mr. Quin’s guidance, begins to find in himself the ability to see beneath the surface and understand the true reality of a situation. There is a kindness and gentleness to him that’s very appealing, and there is something so charming in his delight when he encounters the mysterious Quin in each story.

As with most of Christie’s works, there’s often more than a hint of romance. The stories also have a more modern feel to them; for example, in one story, involving an illegitimate child, the child’s mother is depicted as an admirable woman, rather than one who’s wandered down a wayward path. In another tale, a character is encouraged to seek out the woman of his dreams, despite the fact that, unlike him, she is a member of the upper class.

My favorite story is probably “The Man From the Sea”, involving a mystery that’s not about crime as much as it is about life and love; it’s probably better described as a love story that’s wrapped in a cloak of mystery.

In this reread of The Mysterious Mr. Quin, I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Hugh Fraser, a superb reader who brings all the characters to life.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

Danny Boyle is a 24-year-old part-time cop in the summer resort town of Sea Haven. His partner is John Ceepak, a former military police officer just back from Iraq who is also new to the Sea Haven police department. This summer, though, things are heating up in the usually quiet tourist town: Reggie Hart, a multi-millionaire real estate developer, has been shot to death in front of his teenage daughter Ashley at the base of the tilt-a-whirl in Sea Haven’s run-down old amusement park.

Tilt-a-Whirl, by Chris Grabenstein, is the first in a series of mysteries set in Sea Haven and featuring Danny Boyle and John Ceepak. I first heard of the series at Beth Fish Reads back in June, and since then have gone on to read (or rather, listen to, in audio) all five books in the series, including the latest one, Mind Scrambler.

There were many reasons why I enjoyed Tilt-a-Whirl so much that I embarked on a reading blitz and polished off all the books in a two-month period. First, the town of Sea Haven is wonderfully depicted; it’s the summer resort town many of us have visited some time in our lives, so busy in the summer but as a tourist, you have your suspicions that it’s a relaxing place to be once all the vacationers are gone.

The story is narrated by Danny Boyle, and it’s lighthearted in nature; Boyle is a beach kid becoming an adult, and his narrative has a fresh, fun feel to it, along with a sincerity and honesty that’s very appealing.

And then there’s the mystery. Despite Boyle’s lighthearted narrative style, there’s far more to the mystery than meets the eye; ultimately, it’s a story that involves the dark side of human nature. It’s a combination that’s both unusual and very engrossing.

But most of all, I enjoyed Tilt-a-Whirl so much because I fell in love with the characters. Danny Boyle is just such a kid – he’s doing the part-time cop thing because he wants to earn extra money to have fun with his beach buddies. There’s something extremely endearing about his innocence; he’s like the kid brother I never had, and it was very enjoyable watching him grow into his position as a Sea Haven police officer, part-time or not.

And then there’s John Ceepak, fresh out of the military, with his stern code of honor – “I will not cheat, lie or steal, nor tolerate those who do”. When Boyle first introduced me to Ceepak, I wasn’t sure I’d like the guy. He seemed inflexible and rather humorless. But as the story developed, Boyle began to learn more about his new partner, and so did I – and I liked what I saw. John Ceepak is a Hero, with a capital “H” – in this day and age, he’s like a modern version of a knight of Camelot, living his life according to a code of chivalry.

In Tilt-a-Whirl, we come to learn there’s a lot more to John Ceepak than meets the eye. And we admire him because, despite all that he’s been through (and, as we discover, he’s been through a lot), he’s managed to still be who he is, someone honorable, likeable and, well, pure at heart.

Here’s a glimpse of how Danny Boyle feels about Ceepak at the beginning of the book:

Before the Army, Ceepak told me he studied criminology. Before that, he was an Eagle Scout. Before that? I’m not sure, but I’ll bet he was one helluva hall monitor in kindergarten. This is his first civilian cop job. He told the local newspaper, “he loves being on the job in Sea Haven” because he can “help visiting children safely enjoy wholesome family fun”.

Okay.  Fine.

Despite all of this, Boyle, and the reader, through Boyle’s eyes, gradually learns to really like and admire John Ceepak.

I listened to Tilt-a-Whirl in audio, and Jeff Woodman’s narration is excellent. He captures Danny Boyle’s youthful perspective perfectly, and his Ceepak never leaves you in doubt that it’s Ceepak talking. In his hands, the secondary characters also come to life; he does women’s voices so well you’re never thinking in the back of your mind, oh yes, that’s a man doing a woman’s voice.

If you’re interested in reading the John Ceepak mysteries, I highly recommend you start with Tilt-a-Whirl, and then read the books in sequence. It’s not that each book doesn’t work on its own, but earlier characters do show up in later books in a way that could ruin a bit of the mystery of the earlier books if you haven’t read them yet.

Where to buy Tilt-a-Whirl:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Audible Inc., 2007, audiobook, 8 hours and 18 minutes in length

In Janet Evanovich’s Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, Stephanie Plum’s good friend Lulu has just witnessed a murder – and the murderers have witnessed her witnessing the murder. The murder victim turns out to be a Food Channel celebrity chef, and despite Lulu’s eyewitness account, the murderers are still on the loose … and coming after Lulu, the only witness.

That’s not all Stephanie has on her hands. Someone’s been burglarizing Ranger’s clients, and he’s not very happy. Ranger asks Stephanie to help  – which she does, while trying to stay out of his bed. Since Ranger is, well, Ranger, this isn’t exactly easy for Stephanie.

The main thing I have to say about Finger Lickin’ Fifteen is this: do not read this as a mystery. If you read it because you’re eager to read a good mystery, you’ll just end up frustrated, gnashing your teeth and recalling the good ole days when a Stephanie Plum novel meant a nice mystery with bits of humor thrown in, dang it!

The mystery part’s just not going to happen with Finger Lickin’ Fifteen. Of the two storylines – the murder Lulu witnesses, and Ranger’s problems – Ranger’s problems offer up far more of a mystery than the murder, and that’s really not saying much, because even Ranger’s troubles are far less of a mystery than your typical, well, mystery.

So why read Finger Lickin’ Fifteen? Well, if you’re a Stephanie Plum fan, and you’ve taken heed of my advice above, you read it for the laughs. You’ll get a lot of Lulu, and a lot of Grandma Mazur, and if you’ve read previous Stephanie Plum books, you know what that means: madcap zany comedy, Evanovich-style.

There is, for example, the scene outside a funeral home, with Grandma Mazur packing her trusty little firearm. Or the scene where Lulu gets stuck in the window of one of Ranger’s cars; I admit, the humor in this scene was on the juvenile side, but it did have me laughing. There’s also a cross-dressing fireman, antics at a barbeque cookoff, and the reaction Stephanie faces when she finally nails one of her skips, a flasher with a fondness for exposing himself to older women.

Here’s the thing, though. I’m not sure how I would have felt if I had read Finger Lickin’ Fifteen in hardcover.

I listened to this book in audio, and can definitely recommend it in audio format, especially to Stephanie Plum fans. Lorelei King is a superb narrator; she is particularly good at bringing both Lulu and Grandma Mazur to life. In her hands, and with her more than capable voice talents, the listener never has a chance to get bored. As an audiobook, Finger Lickin’ Fifteen provides six hours and eighteen minutes of pure entertainment.

But if you don’t like audiobooks? I’d recommend waiting for Finger Lickin’ Fifteen to come out in paperback. With the right mindset, it can be a fun and quick read – but not at hardcover prices. Just remember – do not read it for the mystery. Because you’ll regret it if you do.

Where to buy Finger Lickin’ Fifteen:

U.S. (Amazon.com) | Indiebound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by St. Martin’s Press, 2009, Audiobook

Yesterday I accidentally indulged in another book-buying binge. Yes, in case you’re wondering, it was totally by accident. I had no intentions of splurging on anything when I entered Costco.

Unfortunately, since it’s summer, the book section at Costco is a dangerous place for a book lover to be. I think the marketing assumption is that in the summer, people buy books to read on the beach or on holidays.

I’m thinking now that those marketing people are geniuses. Either that, or I’m extraordinarily susceptible to marketing ploys. (Okay, so maybe it’s the latter.)

Here’s the stack I came home with:

And here are the covers:

I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to read these. I do, however, feel good knowing I now have them on hand, for whenever the right reading mood strikes.

Want to know something even sadder? Do you see the BrainMatics Logic Puzzles? My husband (who happens to be just as bad when it comes to cookbooks, by the way) happened to slip a copy of this one into the cart, too, thinking I’d enjoy it. So we came home with TWO copies. I’m promising myself I won’t give in to temptation again when we go back to Costco to return the duplicate copy.

Do you go on book-buying binges occasionally? Please say yes!

Incoming! is a feature at Ms. Bookish that chronicles new books that have arrived in the Ms. Bookish household. Here’s one of the latest new arrivals:

The City & The City, by China Miéville

About the Book:

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

First paragraph: I could not see the street or much of the estate. We were enclosed by dirt-coloured blocks, from windows out of which leaned vested men and women with morning hair and mugs of drink, eating breakfast and watching us. This open ground between the buildings had once been sculpted. It pitched like a golf course – a child’s mimicking of geography. Maybe they had been going to wood it and put in a pond. There was a copse but the saplings were dead.

Where I got this book: Library

Genre: Fantasy/mystery

Why this book:

I actually came across this title in a roundabout, “it happened because of Twitter” way. Someone, I can’t remember who, but I think it was a book publisher, tweeted about this article about top science fiction/fantasy writers picks for best real fantasy/sci-fi cities, I clicked on the link in the tweet, liked China Miéville’s take on things (he chose London, England), then decided to check out The City & The City. It’s a speculative mystery, a genre I enjoy, especially when done well. I know this was a big release for fantasy fans, but I hadn’t heard of it since I don’t follow the genre that closely. I’m very glad that Twitter lead me to it.

Related Links and Other Fun Stuff

China Miéville on crime novels

Interview with China Miéville (includes link to MP3 file)

The author talks about The City & The City:

Where to buy The City & The City:: U.S. (Amazon.com) | IndieBound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Other Blogs’ Reviews

SF Reviews

The Mad Hatter

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

Incoming! is a feature at Ms. Bookish that chronicles new books that have arrived in the Ms. Bookish household.

Angel’s Advocate, by Mary Stanton

About the Book:

Money’s been tight ever since Bree Winston Beaufort inherited Savannah’s haunted law firm Beaufort & Company along with its less-than-angelic staff. But she’s finally going to tackle a case that pays the bills representing a spoiled girl who stole someone’s Girl Scout cookie money. But soon enough she finds that her client’s departed millionaire father needs help too. Can she help an unsavory father/daughter duo and make a living off of the living?

First line: "This seventeen-year-old high school cheerleader stole one hundred sixty-five dollars and twenty-six cents from a Girl Scout?"

Where I got this book: ARC from the publicist Maryglenn McCombs.

My initial thoughts: I’m embarrassed to admit that this book got lost in the wilds of my new book arrival stacks. This is teaching me to be more organized with my incoming books, as Angel’s Advocates was actually on my i-want list! At any rate, I was very glad when I came across it the other day when I was re-organizing some of my stacks into tidier looking piles. I love the idea of Beaufort & Company, so I’m looking forward to reading Angel’s Advocate.

Related Links and other Fun Stuff

Mary Stanton’s Website

Bookish Ruth interviews author Mary Stanton

Angel’s Advocate video trailer:

Where to buy Angel’s Advocate:: U.S. (Amazon.com) | IndieBound | Canada (Chapters) | UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Read the Reviews:

Everything Distils Into Reading

Shhh I’m Reading

Reviewing the Evidence

Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Wendi’s Book Corner

CA Reviews

Not very original, I know, but I can’t believe how this week has just flown by. I seem to be caught up in a routine of eating, drinking, reading and relaxing, not necessarily in that order.

My husband is on his way back from the fish market right now, with fresh lobster and deep fried clams, and I finally managed to snatch my netbook out of the hands of my daughter, so the time feels perfect for blogging.

This Week’s Reads

After finishing The Strain, by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, on my first full day here in Nova Scotia, I decided the atmosphere was perfect for some L.M. Montgomery – we aren’t that far away from P.E,I., and the sand beach near us has red sand in it, which reminded me of the Island. I have almost all of Montgomery’s works on my netbook in ebook format, so I decided to re-read The Blue Castle, one of my favorite Montgomery works. Unlike Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon, The Blue Castle is the story of an adult heroine, Valancy Stirling. It’s a wonderful Cinderella tale, and I’ve read and re-read it many times. I’d forgotten that it’s set in the Muskokas in Ontario, rather than P.E.I., so I will probably read Emily of New Moon sometime this week just to get my Island fix.

After The Blue Castle, I started Jim Butcher’s Storm Front, Book 1 of the Dresden Files series. I’m about halfway through – I love the concept of a wizard detective in current-day Boston, and it’s a fun book, but it wasn’t quite fitting my mood, so I also started listening to Hell Hole, by Chris Grabenstein, the fourth book in the John Ceepak and Danny Boyle series. I am quite addicted to this series now, and finished Hell Hole yesterday while we were at Crescent Beach in Lockeport, N.S.. Jeff Woodman, who narrates the series, is a superb narrator, and if you’re wanting to get started with audiobooks and like mysteries, I’d definitely recommend the audio version of this series. Just make sure you start with the first book in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl, not because each book doesn’t stand on its own, but mainly because characters from previous books do show up again (or not, as the case may be), which can give clues to the mysteries in the previous books.

Rounding up my reading for the week, I also started Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone!. It’s a great read so far; I like in particular its emphasis not on our feelings or desires, but on our identity.

Movies, Movies, Movies

It’s turning out to be movie night for the family every night here at the beach cottage – there’s just something really nice about gathering together after a great seafood dinner to watch movies (especially since it’s pretty bug-heavy outside at night).

So far, we’ve watched Music & Lyrics, The Dark Knight, Dirty Dancing, Miss Congeniality, Disturbia, He’s Just Not That Into You, and Gone in 60 Seconds. My older son did excuse himself to play the Sims 3 on the nights we watched Dirty Dancing and He’s Just Not That Into You, but otherwise our movie nights have been perfect family time (the little one was in bed, of course).

Writing (Or Not)

I think I must have been dreaming when I last blogged that I was thinking about writing 6,000 words a day! The only writing I’ve done so far has been in my journal; not only has it been tough to lay my hands on my netbook, but the ergonometric keyboard I brought along in order to, well, write, isn’t working very well – the “o” and the “b” keys don’t work at all.

And really, the days have been so lazy and idyllic, I just haven’t felt like doing much except (have I mentioned?) eating, drinking and reading.

Pictures!

I finally started remembering to bring my camera with me when we went on our our outings, which have been mainly to beaches so far, although next week we plan on heading out for day trips to Yarmouth and Mahone Bay. A visit to Peggy’s Cove is also planned, although the days are slipping by so fast, I’m not sure we’ll have time to do everything on our list.

The beaches here in Nova Scotia are just gorgeous – many of them are white sand beaches, and if it weren’t for the weather, you’d think you were in the Caribbean. I don’t actually like to swim, and I love cool, windy weather, so it’s been perfect for me. While they’ve been calling for clouds and rain every day we’ve been here, the weather has been beautiful and sunny  so far (just not particularly hot).

Sandy Point Lighthouse Beach

Red Sands at Sandy Point

Dylan & Daddy at Crescent Beach, Lockeport

Oops! Forgot My Sand Bucket!

Beautiful White Sands

Bit of Sand Beach at Our Beach Cottage

View from the Side of the House

Introducing Flash Reviews here at MsBookish.com, in which I will occasionally group together shorter reviews in a courageous attempt to reduce the height of my to-be-reviewed pile (not to be confused with my to-be-read pile, which no amount of derring-do on my part will have any discernable effect on).

I’ve been listening to a LOT of Agatha Christie in audiobook format lately. There’s just something so incredibly comforting about listening to Poirot or Miss Marple demonstrate their brilliance and solve yet another case. It’s the kind of thing that makes you sigh and think, ah, yes, all’s right in the world …

In many ways, the audio version of a book is a great indication of the strength of the story the author is trying to tell. Stephen King has written:

There’s this, too: Audio is merciless. It exposes every bad sentence, half-baked metaphor, and lousy word choice. (Listen to a Tom Clancy novel on CD, and you will never, ever read another. You’ll never be able to look at another one without gibbering.) I can’t remember ever reading a piece of work and wondering how it would look up on the silver screen, but I always wonder how it will sound. Because, all apologies to Mr. Bloom, the spoken word is the acid test. They don’t call it storytelling for nothing.

As it turns out, Dame Christie wrote some very nice dialogue indeed, and she most definitely told a good story. Throw in a skilled narrator like Hugh Fraser, who narrates many of the Christie audiobooks, and what you’re likely to get is pure delight.

The following titles were all titles that qualify as “re-reads” for me (first listens, but re-reads nevertheless); in most cases, I remembered “whodunnit” a while before the actual unveiling of the culprit. I found that this didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all, which is perhaps as good a reason as any to give a Christie novel a re-read.

Murder is Easy, by Agatha Christie

It was just Luke Fitzwilliam’s luck to be stuck next to a dotty old woman like Miss Fullerton on the London-bound train-although he found himself quite entertained with her tall tales about a series of perfect murders in the quaint village of Wychwood. But when he reads the next day of the freak accident that killed her, too, Fitzwilliam’s amusement turns to grave concern. A visit to the isolated village confirms his worst fears. For Wychwood seems to be divided by an eccentric lot of locals: those who are in on a dark and dangerous secret-and those who don’t live long enough to share it. (Amazon.com)

My thoughts: This is one of Agatha Christie’s “standalone” mysteries, so don’t expect either Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple to show up (or Tommy & Tuppence or Mr. Quinn or even Superintendent Battle, for that matter). I think once a reader falls in love with a series detective like, say, Poirot, it’s difficult to beat back the flames of expectation that surely, those extravagant black mustaches must show up in the story some time?

Still, this is a nicely crafted story, featuring Christie’s version of a serial-type killer. As is usual with many of Christie’s books, there’s a romance thrown in for good measure and the denouement is quite quick-paced and thrilling (although I couldn’t help but feel that the good Poirot or Miss Marple would not have let things get quite so hairy before stepping in). I listened to the audio version narrated by Hugh Fraser, and he was very good, as always.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, by Agatha Christie

A dentist lies murdered at his Harley Street practice…The dentist was found with a blackened hole below his right temple. A pistol lay on the floor near his outflung right hand. Later, one of his patients was found dead from a lethal dose of local anaesthetic. A clear case of murder and suicide. But why would a dentist commit a crime in the middle of a busy day of appointments? A shoe buckle holds the key to the mystery. Now — in the words of the rhyme — can Poirot pick up the sticks and lay them straight? (Amazon.co.uk)

My thoughts: This was a marvelous re-read for me, as I continued to wonder “whodunnit” almost right up to the point of Poirot’s unveiling of the murderer. There were quite a few twists and turns, and a rather big red herring that threw me right off the track. Poirot is in on the action from the very beginning; this is something I like very much. Again, the version I listened to was narrated by Hugh Fraser; he really is perfect for the medley of characters encountered throughout the course of this mystery.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie

After wealthy financier Rex Fortescue’ s sudden death, grains of rye are inexplicably found in his pocket. The coroner’s verdict is death by poisoning, yet only one of the dead man’s relatives seems upset. The others all have motives to want the old man dead. When two more members of the Fortescue household are murdered, Miss Marple enters the case. But is one bizarre clue — the pocket full of rye — enough to solve the strangest case of her career? (Chapters.ca)

My thoughts: This Miss Marple mystery is actually reminiscent of a Hercule Poirot mystery that I had listened to earlier in the year, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (not the abridged regular audio version, but the wonderful BBC Radio dramatization). There are quite a few somewhat similar elements, and so perhaps because of my recent re-read/listen of the Hercule Poirot story, I was a little bit muddled. That’s probably just my excuse, of course; the point being, it took me quite a while to remember who the bad guy was.

As can happen with a Christie mystery, Miss Marple showed up later in the scene rather than earlier; I prefer her to show up earlier but still, it’s a great whodunnit for the cozy mystery lover. The audio I listened to was narrated by Rosalind Ayres, who gives Hugh Fraser a run for his money.

Where to buy: Amazon U.S. | IndieBound | Chapters (Canada) | Amazon UK

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce has a flair for chemistry and a love of poisons. When she’s not busy concocting weird and wonderful substances in her laboratory, she’s engaging in guerilla-style battles of the wit with her two older sisters. One day, shortly after she sees a stranger in an argument with her father, Colonel de Luce, she stumbles onto the same man, breathing his last breath, in the cucumber patch. Who is the killer? Is her father, or Dogger, their faithful gardener, involved? Flavia plunges into the mystery with single-minded devotion and gusto.

In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley, it’s definitely Flavia who is at the core of the book’s allure. Incredibly bright for her age, with, at times, a wisdom that’s well beyond her years, she nevertheless embodies a certain childishness that makes for a quirky, not always endearing but definitely interesting character.

Inspector Hewitt burst out laughing.

“There are times, Miss de Luce,” he said, “when you deserve a brass medal. And there are other times when you deserve to be sent to your room with bread and water.”

This sums up Flavia quite well. Inspector Hewitt, the officer in charge of the murder investigation, definitely has his wits about him.

And perhaps that’s another reason why I enjoyed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie so much. It’s not just that Flavia is such a perfect combination of genius, arrogance, wiliness and childishness; each of the supporting characters spring to life in their own individual ways, too.

Inspector Hewitt, though not the star of the show, is smart, not some dull-witted member of authority throwing his weight about. And I liked Flavia’s sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, both of whom played their roles as Flavia’s adversaries with considerable aplomb. They were exactly how the sisters of someone like Flavia should be, sharing the same deliciously malicious streak of ingenuity and making them quite worthy of being Flavia’s foes.

Even Flavia’s dead mother, Harriet, comes alive, so to speak. We catch glimpses of the woman she was, fiercely independent, flamboyant and fun; she’s very much the kind of person you would envision as the mother of children like Flavia, Ophelia and Daphne.

The mystery itself is complex and engrossing, reaching as it does into the past of Colonel de Luce’s boyhood, and involving rare stamps, and magic tricks. The end had me holding my breath.

This isn’t a fast-paced page turner action/thriller of a novel (although the reader is in for quite a thrilling ride near the end). Instead, it pulls you in right from the very start, and as the characters and the mystery are revealed, you find yourself not wanting to let go.

It was as dark in the closet as old blood. They had shoved me in and locked the door. I breathed heavily through my nose, fighting desperately to remain calm. I tried counting to ten on every intake of breath, and to eight as I released each one slowly into the darkness. Luckily for me, they had pulled the gag so tightly into my open mouth that my nostrils were left unobstructed, and I was able to draw in one slow lungful after another of the stale, musty air.

And that’s just the first paragraph.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was an enjoyable read; it’s the first in a series starring Flavia de Luce, and I am very much looking forward to Flavia’s next adventures.

Related Links and Fun Stuff

Flavia de Luce

Flavia Fan Club

Where to buy The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Doubleday Canada, 2009, Hardcover, 292 pages

The body of a very beautiful young woman has been found in an East London park. She looks peaceful, like she might be sleeping. But death has, indeed, come for her, and Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James set out to discover the woman’s identity, and who hated her enough to kill her. The case leads them to a famous London tea company, and also back to the days of the London Blitz during World War II.

I’m not very good at resisting temptation, so I’m reading all of Crombie’s Kincaid/James mysteries out of order. In Kissed a Sad Goodbye, Gemma and Duncan are lovers but haven’t committed to each other beyond that. Gemma finds herself very attracted to one of the suspects in the case; meanwhile, Duncan is trying to make room in his life for Kit, the son he has only just discovered.

First up, an admission: I cried a couple of times while reading Kissed a Sad Goodbye. It happened later in the book, when Crombie had taken me deep into the story; scenes from England during World War II are expertly woven into the narrative, and these were the scenes that really pulled me in. She captures so well the story of a boy whose family sends him to safety in the British countryside, his feelings about leaving his family in danger back in London, his interest in his new surroundings and the people with whom he’s staying.

A barge passed by, lit only stern and prow by small, shaded lanterns. In the darkness and silence it seemed ghostly, primitive, a Viking longboat returned from the dead. Lewis shivered. Suddenly he felt a stab of homesickness as intense as those of his first few days at the Hall – and yet it was more than that. He wanted to freeze time, to hold everyone and everything unchanged, and the weight of his desire made it difficult to breathe.

“Da,” he said, forcing the words out. “Let me stay here. The war’s all bollocks anyway, everyone knows that. Nothing’s going to happen – there’s no reason I can’t come home.”

I couldn’t fathom what the connection was between past and present, not until the very end when Crombie lays it all out for the reader; what happened in the past to set off this tragic chain of events was shocking, and caught me very much by surprise.

One of the things the book makes you think about is the consequence of possessing great beauty. By the end of the novel, I found that there was far more to the victim than her initial beauty and interactions with people had lead me to expect. Despite the things she had done, I felt such sorrow that her untimely death had prevented her from finally, for the first time in her life, taking off on wings of her own.

“I’ve always thought that exceptional beauty was as great an affliction as any physical handicap – perhaps more so. It is so difficult for the beautiful person, male or female, to develop a good character, isn’t it? The odds are stacked against them from the start.”

Gemma frowned. “How do you mean?”

“They are never required to earn the regard or affection of others through their behavior; rather, they come to expect it as their due. And they are forgiven almost anything, simply because of the way they look …”

The only flaw in the novel for me came in the denouement; the motive for the murder was not quite as strong as I would have liked. That didn’t take away from the ending, though; it was still very satisfying to learn who the murderer was, and the strength of Crombie’s depiction of all the characters was such that I eagerly read the end of the mystery, the parts past the unmasking of the murderer, because I wanted to know what happened to each of the characters.

If you’re a P.D. James or Elizabeth George fan, and you haven’t read any of Crombie’s novels before, you’re in for a real treat. Her style has evolved far beyond the first book in the series, A Share in Death, which read more to me like a cozy; subsequent books in the series feature complex characterizations and storylines filled with all sorts of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Related Links and Fun Stuff

As always in Crombie’s books, there’s a finely detailed map of the area in London that plays a large role in the mystery (click on image to view in large on author’s site):

Each chapter also begins with quotes from Dockland: An Illustrated Historical Survey of Life and Work in East London, and Memories of Childhood on the Isle of Dogs (the latter by Eve Hostettler).

Author’s website

Where to buy Kissed a Sad Goodbye:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Bantam Books, 2001, Mass market paperback, 369 pages

In Ruling Passion, by Reginald Hill, Pascoe and his girlfriend Ellie arrive in Thornton Lacey to spend a weekend with old friends from their student days. They find instead three of their friends dead of shotgun wounds, and a fourth friend at large, sought by the local police as a suspect in the killings. Meanwhile, back at home in Yorkshire, Dalziel wants Pascoe back to investigate a string of unsolved burglaries.

This is an earlier Pascoe and Dalziel mystery, and as with all of Hill’s novels in the series, both continuing characters and the ones brought in specifically for this mystery are finely detailed. Dalziel is Dalziel, bigger than life, insensitive, bigoted and politically incorrect as ever:

“I told you I belonged to the old school. There’s nowt wrong with a woman that can’t be cured by colour telly, wall-to-wall carpeting and a couple of rounds up the spout,” [Dalziel} said with exaggerated coarseness.

Ellie thought of kicking him in the crotch. Then she started laughing. She laughed so much that people turned and stared and the dogs in the nearby kennels started barking wildly as though in reply.

Pascoe, in the meantime, is hit with an emotional bomb – could his old university friend really be the killer? And was he getting more and more confused, or were the two investigations really starting to look linked in some way?

The mystery itself is complex, with lots of fun twists and potential suspects. The motive for the murders is perhaps not as credible as it could be, but Hill’s writing is as rich and intense as ever. The characters live and breathe, and the reader is drawn deep into Pascoe and Dalziel’s world. Even though this was a re-read for me, I was still caught by surprise – caught by each of the twists in the plot, in fact. Which is another reason I like to keep my Reginald Hill books, as I do re-read them, and do so with much pleasure.

Where to buy:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Grafton, 1992, Mass market paperback , 301 pages

In Louise Penny’s latest Inspector Armand Gamache mystery, The Murder Stone (A Rule Against Murder in the U.S.), Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are on holiday at Manoir Bellechasse, a luxury Québec chateau at which they stay annually. This year, though, they find themselves sharing the chateau with the wealthy Finney family, who have come to pay tribute to their father. All is not as it seems, however; tensions run high among family members and soon Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is knee deep in a murder inquiry.

I enjoyed this fourth book in the Gamache series immensely. Gone is the side plot that was explored in the first three books of the series; it was a side plot that actually took away a bit of my enjoyment of the novels (especially when it reached its crescendo in the third novel), so I was delighted with this fourth book, with its intricate mystery and a new side plot that develops Gamache’s character further.

Penny writes in the British mystery tradition of P.D. James and Elizabeth George; Gamache has been a strongly developed character from the moment he first saw life in Still Life. In The Murder Stone we see a more personal side of him in his relationship with his wife, Reine-Marie. In the following passage, Gamache is thinking about the first time he brought his wife to Manoir Bellechasse, over thirty years ago:

And so they’d lain together for the first time, the sweet scent of the forest and kitchen thyme and lilac drifting almost visible through the screened window. But the loveliest scent of all was her, fresh and warm in his strong arms. He’d written a love note to her that night. He’d covered her softly with their simple white sheet, then, sitting in the cramped rocking chair, not daring to actually rock in case he whacked the wall behind or barked his shins on the bed in front, disturbing Reine-Marie, he’d watched her breathe. Then on Manoir Bellechasse notepaper he’d written. My love knows no –

How can a man contain such –

My heart and soul have come alive –

My love for you –

All night he wrote, and next morning, taped to the bathroom mirror, Reine-Marie found the note.

I love you.

We also learn something about his past that gives us great insight into Gamache the man. Armand Gamache is a complex, intricate character: strong, kind, moral, just and like each of us, imperfect. The suspects themselves aren’t flat, hollow characters, either; Penny brings them to life as deftly as she does all the continuing characters. We come to know them, and understand more their goals, their motivations, the reasons why they are the way they are.

One of the wonderful features of the first three novels in this series is the setting of Three Pines; I’d wondered in the past how Penny would be able to continue to credibly set mysteries in Three Pines, which has been as much of a character in the series as any of the human characters. What I’ve discovered with The Murder Stone is that Gamache is strong enough to carry a storyline all on his own; the setting of Three Pines plays a minor role in the novel but this doesn’t hurt the book at all.

If you love character-driven mysteries with complex plots, you’ll find The Murder Stone a very satisfying read indeed. For those new to the series, it’s fully capable of standing on its own, although you’re likely to find yourself searching out the first three mysteries in the series once you’ve finished this one.

For fans of the series, The Murder Stone is pure delight. Gamache is a wonderful character – the author notes in the acknowledgments that she has discovered she’s modelled him after her husband. Armand Gamache is one of my favorite detectives, and I’m eagerly waiting the next book in the series, which is due out this fall.

Related Links and Fun Stuff

Louise Penny’s blog

The Murder Stone has been nominated in the category of best novel in this year’s Arthur Ellis Awards. The Arthur Ellis Awards are presented for excellence in crime writing. Winners will be announced on June 4, 2009.

Louise Penny talks about The Murder Stone:

Where to buy:

U.S. (Amazon.com)

Canada (Chapters)

UK (Amazon.co.uk)

Review copy details: published by Headline, 2008, Hardcover, 320 pages

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Complex plot with lots of twists, and great series characters.

First Line: It took no more than a match, nestled beneath the crumpled paper and foil crisp packets.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: An intricate mystery that’s difficult to put down, In a Dark House is well worth the read.

Read the Full Review of In a Dark House

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Commander Adam Dalgliesh and all the much-loved regulars are back; the suspects and victim are well-characterized as usual; the mystery is complex and intelligent.

First Line: On November the 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: Another Adam Dalgliesh novel from P.D. James is always cause for celebration, and this one definitely does not disappoint.

Read the Full Review of The Private Patient

From the back of the book:

Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn’t ready for God, others that God wasn’t ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a terrorist blast, the Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And while Death may be the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks’ care under a tender nurse.

Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood, a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves in league when trouble comes to town.

Sandytown’s principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort- none of which they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all …

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: I loved the epistolary method of story telling that is employed through the first part of the book, especially since it lets Dalziel narrate parts of the novel!

First Line: Hi Cass! Hows things in darkest Africa?

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: My admiration for Reginald Hill has increased – a rather remarkable feat since I already held him in high esteem. He handles the epistolary method well (I especially enjoyed the parts narrated by the lovable politically incorrect Dalziel) and as usual, there are lots of credible plot twists.

Read the Full Review of A Cure for All Diseases

From the jacket flap:

Heidi Bradshaw is wealthy, beautiful, and well connected – and she needs Spenser’s help. In a most unlikely request, Heidi, a notorious gold digger recently separated from her latest husband, recruits the Boston P.I. to accompany her to her private island, Tashtego, for her daughter’s wedding. Spenser is unsure of what his role as personal bodyguard will entail, but he consents when it’s decided that he can bring his beloved Susan Silverman along.

It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances, have some drinks, and spend some quality time with Susan. Yet when his old nemesis Rugar – the Gray Man – arrives on Tashtego, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. With a hurricane-level storm brewing outside, the Gray Man jumps into action, firing fatal shots into the crowd of wedding guests and kidnapping the bride – but Spenser knows that the sloppy guns-for-hire abduction is not Rugar’s style. Unable to prevent the attack, Spenser will stop at nothing to recover the kidnapped bride and figure out how the Gray Man is connected.

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Snappy dialogue, and that great camaraderie between Spenser and Hawk.

The But: Reactions to the murders are a bit unbelievable.

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: A good, fast read – Spenser fans should enjoy this one.

Read the Full Review of Rough Weather

Synopsis:

A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half a century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II, when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his irascible old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned … with a killing vengeance.

It was an investigation that plunged the fledgling detectives into a complex and lethal puzzle. It began when a dancer in a risqué new production of Orpheus in Hell was found without her feet. In a city shaken by war, a faceless killer was stalking London’s theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it would take Arthur Bryant’s most unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seemed almost supernatural – a murderer who decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them … and is determined to claim the other.

The Snapshot Review

What I Liked: Great quirky characters, and wonderfully adroit handling of shifts between the past and present.

First Line: “It really was a hell of a blast.”

Ms. Bookish’s Very Quick Take: This book, the debut novel in the Bryant and May series, is a wonderful look at a young Bryant and May.

Read the Full Review of Full Dark House