The Woman in the Library

 

 

 

By: Sulari Gentill
Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 06-09-22

 

 

Publisher's Summary
Ned Kelly award winning author Sulari Gentill sets this mystery-within-a-mystery in motion with a deceptively simple, Dear Hannah, What are you writing? pulling us into the ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library.

In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The  tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards  take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until  the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the  all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass  the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or  her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning―it just  happens that one is a murderer.

Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated  nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous  weapons of all.

 

I don't want to talk about this book

 I liked this book too much to spoil it for others by talking about what happens in the story or by talking about the characters or the plot twists; there is enough already in the publisher's summaries to figure out if it is your kind of story.  I liked the structure -- a novel within an epistolary novel (this much I am willing to spoil, just to get you hooked).  It is what makes this novel a stand-out. It is not your everyday cookie-cutter murder mystery.  

Lean Mean Thirteen

 

 

 

By: Janet Evanovich
Narrated by: Lorelei King
Series: Stephanie Plum, Book 13
Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 06-01-07

 

 

Summary

New secrets, old flames, and hidden agendas are about to send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most outrageous adventure yet!

MISTAKE #1 Dickie  Orr. Stephanie was married to him for about fifteen minutes before she  caught him cheating on her with her arch-nemesis Joyce Barnhardt.  Another fifteen minutes after that Stephanie filed for divorce, hoping  to never see either one of them again.

MISTAKE #2 Doing  favors for super bounty hunter Carlos Manoso (a.k.a. Ranger). Ranger  needs her to meet with Dickie and find out if he's doing something  shady. Turns out, he is. Turns out, he's also back to doing Joyce  Barnhardt. And it turns out Ranger's favors always come with a price...

MISTAKE #3 Going  completely nutso while doing the favor for Ranger, and trying to apply  bodily injury to Dickie in front of the entire office. Now Dickie  has disappeared and Stephanie is the natural suspect in his  disappearance. Is Dickie dead? Can he be found? And can she stay one  step ahead in this new, dangerous game? Joe Morelli, the hottest cop in  Trenton, NJ is also keeping Stephanie on her toes―and he may know more  than lets on about her…It's a cat-and-mouse game for Stephanie Plum,  where the ultimate prize might be her life.

 

 

A fun 7 hours

Evanovich is the antithesis to Sue Grafton (which I stopped reading somewhere around K; lost interest). Where Grafton is dark and edgy,  Evanovich is laugh out-loud funny, like reading a comic book. The "Stephanie Plum" series  is "cozy" without the heavy dose of saccharine I find in a lot of the hard-core cozies; too much sugar in the diet is not a good thing. The characters are a hoot, caricatures, really but good people when all is said and done (except for the bad guys, who are rotten to the core, of course). Fun to read every now and then but don't look for me to be binge-reading the entire series -- even if I do have two Stephanie Plum's scheduled for Halloween Bingo. File this one under "necessary roughage."

Three stars

 

The Appeal

 

 

 

By Janice Hallett
Narrated by Daniel Philpott, Aysha Kala, Rachel Adedeji, Sid Sagar
Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 01-25-22

 

 

The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.
 
But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—nor of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to an appeal, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.

 

JUST WHO IS THE BAD GUY IN THIS STORY? Glad I stuck with it
 
My daughter recommended this one. It the only reason why I didn't quit after the first 20 minutes because this book doesn't work well as an audiobook. I had to accept that fact and move on. It helped that in spite of the medium issues, the book was well written and caught my interest.

The Appeal is an interesting twist on the epistolary novel, told in e-mails rather than actually letters, there being a difference in the conventions between the two modes of communication, length being the most noteworthy. My immediate reaction was that the author chose the epistolary style out of laziness. That's what I thought when I was looking for excuses to downgrade the book. Still, listening to e-mails read out loud headers and all can be tedious. Where a reader would skim the headers, an audiobook has to read out all of the words on the page-- and it gets repetitive very quickly.

As I said, I quickly came to see just how wrong I was about the author being lazy. It's harder to do character development well, not easier, when you are limited to the words your characters would put down on paper and what other people have to say about those characters in their e-mails. There are multiple narrators, some of who are reliable and others of who are not. The reader has to work out who is reliable and who isn't, even as the characters in the book have to work out who is reliable and who isn't as they exchange e-mails.

All in all, it turned out to be a twisting, turning mare's nest of a well written mystery. It is halfway through the story before the name of the victim is revealed and even further into it until you learn whose conviction is being appealed. Janice Hallett, while a first time novelist, is a former magazine editor, a journalist, a playwright (NetherBard) and a screenwriter (Retreat). Her maturity and experience showed.

I'm giving this one just shy of four stars -- and can't wait until January for her second novel to be published.

Chief Inspector Gamache/Three Pines: The Whole Series

 

By Louise Penny
Read by Ralph Cosham (Books 1-10) and Robert Bathurst (Books 11-17)
First book in the series was published in 2005. Book 18 is due for publication at the end of 2022

 

Audible Summary

 

A man of deep intellect, quiet  courage, and integrity, Québec Inspector Armand Gamache defies the  stereotype of a macho cop - brilliantly!

 
Chief Inspector  of the Surêté du Québec, Armand Gamache leads a team of investigators  in the Three Pines, a rural village south of Montreal rich in natural  beauty and eccentric residents. In this idyllic setting, Gamache is  continually challenged with baffling murders that demand the full force  of his deductive erudition, and insight into the individuals involved.  Whether taking place in a monastery, an art gallery, or the forest, each  mystery reveals more layers to the people of Three Pines, as well as  Inspector Gamache, his deputy Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and other series  regulars.

 
Author Louise Penny chose two brilliant narrators  to match her thoughtful detective. Ralph Cosham offers a deep reading of  Inspector Gamache, opening the hero’s mind, heart, and soul for  listeners to experience on a visceral level. As one avid listener  declares: “I don’t think I would ever be able to read Louise Penny’s  books as long as I can listen to the wonder Ralph Cosham narrate, since  he IS Inspector Gamache!” Robert Bathurst, Cosham’s successor after his  death, captures the complex personality of the perceptive Chief  Inspector, emphasizing his humanity, compassion, and wit along with his  erudition. Both narrators excel at character studies of the various  players in each case, from an elderly Anglo librarian to a spirited  nine-year-old boy.

 

"I don't know." "I need help." "I'm sorry." "I was wrong."

When I started reading this series (April, 2020), I was not in a rush to finish the series or even to read the books in order. I did start with book #1 and I fell in love with the book, the writing, the characters and the village of Three Pines.  I slowly started acquiring other entries in the series. Audible has them all but I was hoping to get as many as possible on sale, so it would be a slow, slow process. It became a lot easier when I rejoined the Boston Public Library. But, I was not in a rush because I so enjoyed the books that I had already read.

 

Suddenly, this April, I decided that this was one series that really had to be read in order.  The series has an over-arching storyline that is some ways is more important than the individual murders. So I went back not quite to the beginning and I read them all in order, one after another -- like a bag of M&Ms. And it had to be a binge so that I could keep the storyline fresh in my mind. By the time I reached  Book 17,  The Madness of Crowds, I decided that  I was tired of the hell that the author was putting her MC through. She used the same "Mighty Mouse" plot intrigue over and over again -- you know, "Here I am to save the day" -- to the point where it just no longer was plausible.  Mighty Mouse should have exited the scene with book 10 and after that, she needed to take the Gamache arc in an entirely different direction (just don't ask what it should have been, because if I had that answer, I would spend my time writing books, not reading them). 

I kept reading right through to the end of the series, for a couple of reasons. I like the author's writing style. The whole idea of this Brigadoon-like  village and refuge for injured souls is intriguing.  But, mostly, I think it is the secondary characters that keep me coming back, especially the quirky villagers.  These are people I enjoy spending time with, even if we are in the middle of solving yet another murder that somehow or another involves one or more of these people.

 

All that said, book 18 is due out in November. Still no title and no hint as to who will be narrating but I will be on the library wait-list just as soon as I find out it is taking names.

Taking Out the Trash: March Edition

My thoughts in a sentence or two on a whole slew of books that I have read but not yet commented on. These are all audiobooks and none of them is really trash; it is just that I am a fan of The West Wing and taking out the trash was their office code word for dealing with the little things that keep getting pushed to the bottom of the priority list.

 

Queen Victoria's Matchmaking

by Debora Cadbury

Interesting. Victoria & Albert's plan to unite Europe through strategic marriage was an utter failure. It failed to account for the personalities involved. Three and a half stars

 

---

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

by Becky Chambers

I got lost somewhere a long the way. Three stars

 

 

---

Gaudy Night

by Dorothy L. Sayers

It was an interesting glimpse into university life, a world I know nothing about, but it dragged. Three and half stars

---

 

A Shilling for Candles

by Josephine Tey

Disappointing and I don't know why. Three stars

 

The Eighth Detective

also published as Eight Detectives
by Alex Pavesi (read by Emilia Fox)

Library loan

 

 

Publisher's Summary
 
There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective.

Grant McAllister, a professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked all the rules out - and wrote seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate. But that was 30 years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island, counting the rest of his days.

Until Julia Hart, a brilliant, ambitious editor knocks on his door. Julia wishes to republish his book, and together they must revisit those old stories: an author hiding from his past and an editor keen to understand it.

But there are things in the stories that don’t add up. Inconsistencies left by Grant that a sharp-eyed editor begins to suspect are more than mistakes. They may be clues, and Julia finds herself with a mystery of her own to solve.

Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective is a love letter to classic detective stories with a modern twist, where nothing is as it seems, and proof that the best mysteries break all the rules.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company 
©2020 Alex Pavesi (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

 

A solidly three-star read.

I grabbed this one after reading Elanterri's review. I wanted to see if I agreed with her assessment or if as a reader of mysteries I would have a different take on the book. I agreed with her but have my own take on the book.

McAllister's mathematical analysis of the 4 ingredients (as they were described in the book, not rules) were interesting but, in the final analysis, banal. It might make a fun paper to write for a college "math for poets" paper to show that you understand set theory. ("For poets" was a designation we used at my college to describe a series of somewhat watered-down classes that were aimed at fulfilling the requirement that we all had to take at least two classes in each of four areas of endeavor). For lovers of murder mysteries, this mathematical analysis is just one more way to look at the stories we love to read.

The structure of the book is just plain weird: stories within a story with some twists. Julia Hart reads the stories to McAllister and then they discuss them and when they get to the end of the 7th short story, all hell breaks lose. That same discussion 6 times over just got boring. Honestly, I would have been just as happy to read the unadulterated short stories because they were much more interesting that the rest of the tale.

The bottom-line is that something was missing from this book, something that makes this a "meh" rather a "wow."

 

 

I hopped on the way back machine looking for something new to read, something I didn't have to buy, because at this point my audio library is large enough.  Still, I was looking for something new. At the same time, I wanted to do some 'research' into American crime fiction before 1970 for the Agatha Christie read, which is focusing the side reads on American authors for the coming year. The result was the start of a hard-boiled noir marathon, with more to come in the next few months.

 

 

The Moving Target c.1949
by Ross Macdonald (read by Tom Parker aka Grover Gardner)
Audible Plus

 

Publisher's Summary
The first book in Ross Macdonald's acclaimed Lew Archer series introduces the detective who redefined the role of the American private eye and gave the crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity only hinted at before.

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There's the sun-worshiping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain, and the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now, one of Sampson's friends may have arranged his kidnapping.

As private eye Lew Archer follows  the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the mega-rich to jazz joints  where you can get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, misdirected love, and family hatred into an explosive crime novel.

Wait! There was S&M in this book? Really? Where? Well, maybe Tom Lehrer was right, "When correctly viewed, everything is lewd." I guess I didn't view it right.

I liked the book. It was a quick entertaining read Yes, it was full of the typical misogyny, objectification of women, racism, antisemitism, bigotry, violence, etc. that you find in this genre but I tend to ignore that baggage. I think of it as the macho version of the romantic fantasies that Harlequin peddles. It reminds me of how things used to be -- and will be again if things continue the way they are going.

Lew Archer is an interesting dude and I expect that I will be reading a few more before I give up completely on the series -- especially if I can find more read by Tom Parker, who is in reality Grover Gardner. When I first heard the narrator's voice, I recognized it immediately. I've heard it enough times. But it said 'narrated by Tom Parker" in the details and I said, "No, no, no! There cannot be two people with that same voice." A little research proved me right; that voice has multiple names.

 

---

 

The Big Bang
The Lost Mike Hammer Sixties Novel
By: Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins
Narrated by: Stacy Keach
Audible Plus

 

Publisher's Summary

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering  from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers  assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers  are not so lucky. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor  pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug  addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his  timeless brand of violent vengeance.

Originally begun and  outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his  longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage  Mike Hammer on acid—literally. Hammer and his beautiful, deadly partner  Velda take on the narcotics racket in New York, just as the streets have  dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any  day.

On the other hand, The Big Bang was a complete disaster. I wanted to read a Mickey Spillane but I made the mistake of choosing this one. This one was started by Spillane in the Sixties and finished by Max Allan Collins a few years ago. It was a stupid choice to begin with. How could I ever get the feel for Spillane if I didn't know what was Spillane and what was his not-quite-ghost writer. The more I read, the more it drove me crazy. How much of this is Spillane and how much of this is Collins? And how much of this is Collins get his jollies writing things that he would not get away with saying in one of his own novels?

Life's too short! DNF after a few chapters. I'm looking for one that is 100% Spillane; they are hard to come by on audio.

 

---

 

The High Window c. 1942
by Raymond Chandler (read by Scott Brick)

 

Publisher's Summary
 
A  wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law  with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune - the elements don't  quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape,  blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation. 

I like Chandler and this one has been in my wish list for a long time now. Before I was able to buy it, Audible lost the rights to it. It was only recently that a new version was recorded and ended up in a sale pile where I could see it (and buy it). Glad I finally got my hands on it.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

by Stuart Turton (read by James Cameron Stewart)

Audible sale pile

 

 

 

Publisher's Summary

The rules of Blackheath: Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. 

Understood? Then let's begin....

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others....  

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity that it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.

©2018 Stuart Turton (P)2018 Tantor

 

 

The 1920's country house mystery to end all 1920's country house mysteries

 

I have mixed emotions about this one. I loved the start of it: bang! You are off and running before you even have a chance to stick your toe in the water.  You are sucked in. You have no idea where you are or what is going on. You are completely disoriented -- just like the main character. I did not like the ending. I was disappointed.  It lacked verisimilitude. I didn't understand how the main character could make such an about-face, and because of spoilers, that is all I am going to say about the ending. I really don't want to give away one iota more of this story than I have already given.

While I was wishy-washy about his plot choices, I applaud his writing. He doesn't waste words and uses simile to his advantage. There is a lot of action in the book and that doesn't leave much room for florid description; he doesn't need it. Agatha Christie lovers may get a kick out of Turton's 2020 take on the 1920's country house mystery. Is he telling us that they are his version of Purgatory?

In the end, I think that Turton has a few pearls of wisdom for his audience, perhaps even a few words of advice. But again, we are getting to close to spoiler territory and I will leave you to decide for yourself.

Miss Silver Intervenes

 

by Patricia Wentworth ( read by Diana Bishop) c. 1943

Miss Silver, Book 6

 

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-06-14

Language: English

Publisher: Audible Studios

ASIN: B00J7XR02W

Publisher's Summary

When her fiancé, Giles Armitage, is lost at sea in the middle of the Second World War, Meade Underwood is left in the company of a middle-aged aunt with nothing but a monotonous round of bridge parties and war work to fill her days. A chance encounter restores Giles to Meade but he has lost his memory, and their rediscovered happiness is threatened by the machinations of the scheming Carola Roland, a figure from Giles' forgotten past. So when Carola is viciously murdered, Giles becomes the chief suspect and it takes all Miss Silver's ingenuity to unravel the real significance of the crime and its electrifying consequences.

Except for those damned clacking knitting needles, she is growing on me

I have to thank the Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration read (aka Appointment with Agatha) for introducing me to Patricia Wentworth. I read The Key back in April and enjoyed it (in spite of the knitting needles), so when I needed another title in a recent 2 for 1 sale and Miss Silver was on the list, I grabbed it.

I enjoyed this story. I like the way Wentworth unwinds the story -- no melodrama, no stupid characters doing stupid things when we already know what is going to happen when she meets the killer at midnight.  I like Miss Silver's  working relationship with the Inspector Abbott and the way he respects her and treat her as an almost equal -- not equal only because she is a civilian, not because she is a woman. Abbot actually looks forward to the collaboration. He respects her intellect and her ability to get information he hasn't, because she brings another point of view to the table. I like it very much.

Not quite four stars.

Last Ditch

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by Nadia May) c. 1976

Roderick Alleyn, Book 29

 

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-06-05

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

ASIN:  B0009W0496

Publisher's Summary 

Young Ricky Alleyn has come to the picturesque  fishing village of Deep Cove to write. Though the sleepy little town  offers few diversions, Ricky manages to find the most distracting one of  all: murder. For in a muddy ditch, he sees a dead equestrienne whose last leap was anything but an accident. And when Ricky himself  disappears, the case becomes a horse of a different color for his  father, Inspector Roderick Alleyn.          

And not a baby any more makes three

 

Father and son share the scene.  This one was a lot fun in a leisure suit and drug squad kind of way. I like the way that Ngaio Marsh has kept up with the times and used it to her advantage. Alleyn is at once timeless and dated.  Timeless because he is accepting of the world around him but dated because he seems just a bit out of step with the times and very much an elder statesman. All in all, Marsh balances the yin and the yang of Alleyn and of the story.

Four stars to an author who  has kept up with times and kept her writing fresh.

The Old Fox Deceiv'd

 

by Martha Grimes (read by Steve West) c. 1984

Richard Jury Novel, Book 2

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 04-30-13

Language: English

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

ASIN: B00CISWPVE

Publisher's Summary

It is a chill and foggy 12th Night, wild with  North Sea wind, when a bizarre murder disturbs the outward peace of  Rackmoor, a tiny Yorkshire fishing village with a past that proves a  tangled maze of unrequited loves, unrevenged wrongs, and even  undiscovered murders.

Inspector Jury finds no easy answers in  his investigation - not even the identity of the victim, a beautiful  young woman. Was she Gemma Temple, an impostor? Or was she really Dillys  March, Colonel Titus Crael’s long-lost ward, returning after eight  years to the Colonel’s country seat and to a share of his fortune? And  who was her murderer?

 

 

If first you don't succeed...

After DNFing my first attempt at this series, I thank my bookish buddies for urging me to try again. It was definitely a mistake to start so late in this series and I said so.  I started other series in the middle but it was just too hard to get into without the background of the earlier installments. The Old Fox Deceiv'd was delightful and I look forward to further adventures with Jury and Plant.

Seven Years

by Peter Robinson (read by Greg Patmore)

Bibliomysteries Series, Book 6

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 1 hr and 46 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 03-05-19

Language: English

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

ASIN: B07NZ21T3L

Publisher's Summary

A gripping novella from the New York Times best-selling author of the Inspector Banks Mysteries and a "master of the art" (Boston Globe)

Retired Cambridge professor Donald Aitcheson loves scouring antiquarian bookshops for secondhand treasures - as much as he loathes the scribbled marginalia from their previous owners. But when he comes upon an inscription in a volume of Robert Browning's poetry, he's less irritated than disturbed. This wasn't a gift to an unwitting woman. It was a threat - insidious, suggestively sick, and terribly intriguing.

Now Aitcheson's imagination is running wild. Was it a sordid teacher-pupil affair that ended in betrayal? A scorned lover's first salvo in a campaign of terror? The taunt of an obsessive psychopath? Then again, it could be nothing more than a tasteless joke between friends.

As his curiosity gets the better of him, Aitcheson can't resist playing detective. But when his investigation leads to a remote girls' boarding school in the Lincolnshire flatlands, and into the confidence of its headmistress, he soon discovers the consequences of reading between the lines.

Bibliomysteries=Serendipity

I stumbled across this series while browsing the Audible website. The first one I found was The Pretty Little Box by Charles Todd, an author I have been devouring of late. It was free and it was short, so I grabbed it. When I saw it was part of a series and that a couple were available on Audible, I got the only other one available through the Audible Plus Catalog. The series of short mysteries is published by MysteriousBooks.com and is available on through their website. Some are available through Amazon and Audible.

Seven Years is a delightful little story but a bit predictable at the end even though there are two possible endings; I wish the author had gone with the other ending.

It gets 3.5 stars.  

The Port of London Murders

by Josephine Bell (read by john Telfer) c. 1938

Agatha Christie Centenary Read November side read

 

 

 

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 05-06-21

Language: English

Publisher: Soundings

ASIN:  B0946ZXRRW

Publisher's Summary

When the San Angelo drifts into port  in the Thames Estuary, telephones begin to ring across the capital and  an intricate series of events is set in motion. Beset by dreadful storms  in the Bay of Biscay, the ship, along with the 'mixed cargo' it  carries, is late. Unaware of the machinations of avaricious importers,  wayward captains and unscrupulous traders, Harry Reed and June Harvey  are thrust together by a riverside accident, before being swept into the  current of a dark plot developing on the dockside. 

A moody  classic set around London's historic docks published in 1938, Josephine  Bell's unique and atmospheric writing shines in a mystery weaving  together blackmail, bootleg lingerie and, of course, murder.

Give me more Josephine Bell

Did she write anything else? I don't know, let alone if it is available on audio. I very much enjoyed this one, mostly, I think because of its setting on the docks of London and the complete lack of lords, ladies and the idle rich.

Not quite 4 stars.

 

Wild Fire

by Ann Cleeves (read by Kenny Blyth) c. 2018

Shetland Island Mysteries, Book 8 (and last)

Library Loan

 

 

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-04-18

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

ASIN: B07GVNV1FM

Publisher's Summary

The betrayal of those closest burns most of all...

 

Hoping  for a fresh start, an English family moves to the remote Shetland  islands, eager to give their autistic son a better life. 

 

But  when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn beside their  home, rumors of her affair with the husband spread like wildfire. As  suspicion and resentment of the family blazes in the community,  Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. He knows it  will mean his boss, Willow Reeves, returning to run the investigation,  and confronting their complex relationship. 

 

With families fracturing and long-hidden lies emerging, Jimmy faces the most disturbing case of his career.

I never saw it coming

Oh! My! Goodness!  What an ending! The clues were there; I just never picked up on them. 

 

Four stars.

The Long Way Home

by Louise Penny (read by Ralph Cosham) c. 2014

Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 10

Library Loan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 08-26-14

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publisher's Summary

Happily retired in the village of Three  Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the  Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he'd only imagined possible. On warm  summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in  Gilead, in his large hands. "There is a balm in Gilead," his neighbor  Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, "to make the wounded whole."

While  Gamache doesn't talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him  about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed  to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She  wants Gamache's help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary,  Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines.  "There’s power enough in Heaven," he finishes the quote as he  contemplates the quiet village, "to cure a sin-sick soul." And then he  gets up. And joins her.

Together with his former  second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey  deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of  Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he  would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and  further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence  river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it  "The land God gave to Cain." And there they discover the terrible damage  done by a sin-sick soul.

The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.

Margaret Thatcher

I like the Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series. I'm not reading it in order and I'm not rushing my way through. Three Pines is the ideal hometown populated with the most diverse group of kind-hearted over-achievers you have ever met. It is a town of contradictions -- small enough that it isn't even on the map (Brigadoon) but large enough to support a bistro, a bakery and a used book store (I can't figure out how). Mostly, it is such an ironic backdrop for stories that are themselves so dark.

In general, I like her writing. I like the way, in a novel where her characters are actually speaking French, she spends a couple of pages describing a stone circle of hares and ends, very convincingly, having it confused with hair, which could only happen in English because in French they are very different words. I like her stories -- dark and deep but not graphically gory. I like the complicated plots and I like the way she slowly peels back the layers on the characters, even the recurring characters. I love the depth of Armande Gamache, his complicated life on the police force and now in retirement. I like the bold steps she has taken in the arc of this series, pushing readers out of their comfort zone as she chooses the road less taken.

However, this is not the best book in the series. The premise stretches the bounds of credulity and while I enjoyed the journey, the destination was disappointing.

Three stars

 

The Seagull

 

by Ann Cleeves (read by Janine Birkett) c. 2017

A Vera Stanhope Mystery, Book 8

Library Loan

 

 

 

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 09-12-17

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

ASIN: B0756NSFXS

(September 5, 2017)

Publisher's Summary

A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera  Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent  and now inmate John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and  involvement in the death of a gamekeeper - and Vera played a key part in  his downfall.

Now Brace promises Vera information about the  disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who  disappeared in the mid-'90s, if she will look out for his daughter and  grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is  buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search  team investigates, officers find not one skeleton but two.

This  cold case takes Vera back in time and very close to home, as Brace and  Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as the Prof, were  close friends of Hector, her father. Together they were the Gang of  Four, regulars at a glamorous nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had  been one of the last people to see Marshall alive. As the past begins to  collide dangerously with the present, Vera confronts her prejudices and  unwanted memories to dig out the truth....

Family history comes back to haunt

I saw one episode of the TV series a number of years ago only because it starred Brenda Blethvyn, an actor I admire. It wasn't much of a leap when I saw books of the series available on both Audible Plus and the library to deciding to give them a whirl. I already knew that I like the the author, now it was just a matter of meeting her take of Vera Stanhope. She is now on my reading list. I like Vera and I'm very happy to spend time with her.

I really enjoyed The Seagull. It is all about cold cases that come back to haunt not just the perpetrators but their progeny, as well, including Vera. The story is complex in a clockworks kind of way -- lots of moving parts. No one is who they seem to be -- not even the corpse. The Northumbrian setting gives it atmosphere.

Most of all, I like Vera Stanhope. She got where she was through hard work. She doesn't trade on her looks or a university degree. She doesn't pretend to be what she isn't and doesn't give a damn what people thing of her.

Four stars for the complex plot and the simple, clear prose.

No Shred of Evidence

 by Charles Todd (read by Simon Prebble) c. 2016

Series: Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries, Book 18

 

 

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins    

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 02-16-16

Language: English

Publisher: HarperAudio

ASIN: B0195E0W5E

Publisher's Summary

On  the north coast of Cornwall, an apparent act of mercy is repaid by an  arrest for murder. Four young women have been accused of the crime. A  shocked father calls in a favor at the Home Office. Scotland Yard is  asked to review the case. #

However, Inspector Ian Rutledge is not  the first inspector to reach the village. Following in the shoes of a  dead man, he is told the case is all but closed. Even as it takes an  unexpected personal turn, Rutledge will require all his skill to deal  with the incensed families of the accused, the grieving parents of the  victim, and local police eager to see these four women sent to the  infamous Bodmin Gaol. Then why hasn't the killing stopped? #

With  no shred of evidence to clear the accused, Rutledge must plunge deep  into the darkest secrets of a wild, beautiful, and dangerous place if he  is to find a killer who may - or may not - hold the key to their fate. #

Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards everyone

Having now read not quite half of the series, I have yet to read a story in this series that I did not like, which makes these review particularly hard to write because how many times can you write, "I loved this book," and still make it sound fresh and inviting.  I love the fact that Rutledge is a flawed man; he carries a lot of baggage from the war, as did many men who fought in that war.  I love the way the authors get inside Rutledge's head. I love the way the readers are along for the ride as the detective slowly goes about solving the crime mostly by talking with people -- no cell phones, no fancy crime labs, just his "gray cells" and a lot of patience. I love the series so much that I am not rushing through it, so that it will last.

No Shred of Evidence is particularly well-done. It very cleverly weaves together two different stories that like, tangled skein of yarn, Rutledge must slowly pulled apart.  Narrator Simon Prebble is, as always, a superb narrator. He never missteps and he knows that "dour" does not rhyme with "sour."

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

 

by Michael Chabon (read by Michael York) c. 2006

 

 

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS

 

I'm sorry, I'm breaking my no-spoilers policy. I don't know how to insert spoiler tags but there are things that I want to say that will give away the whole story.

I'm all for authors who like to try new things --especially if they get it right. How curious, then, that in one week I have read two books by superb authors (Chabon and Mosley) where they are getting out of the groove. I haven't been this excited about a new title in a while and now it's two in one week.

Not that I have ready everything he has written but I am a long time fan of Michael Chabon -- The Wonder Boys, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and now The FInal Solution. I read the first because I loved the movie, The Wonder Boys (Frances McDormand, Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey, Jr., et al.). This was a really odd move on my part because I will see the movie or read the book but very, very rarely both. I don't like seeing my favorite books turned into movies; they never get it right. The other Chabon titles followed.

I was browsing the Audible Plus catalog when I found The Final Solution. Oh, my goodness! Who in their right mind calls their book The Final Solution? Michael Chabon, that's who! Those three words are in inexorably and forever linked to that madman and the Holocaust. They are forever tainted. Ah, but it is Chabon and right from the get-go he is giving us some mighty big hints and already I want to know what the questions is.

For a novella, Chabon sure packs a lot into it. Set toward the end of World War II, there are two stories very neatly intertwined. The overt story (which I completely missed because I wanted the answer to the covert story) is a detective story -- a murder and the kidnapping of a very special parrot. I completely missed that the old man was supposed to be the now retired Sherlock Holmes (never given a name and referred to as the old man); I learned that on the internet after I read the book. The covert story revolves around the boy, the owner of the parrot, who was part of the Kindertransport that rescued 10,000 children, mostly Jews, from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia just prior to the outbreak of World War II.

The boy is mute; does not say a word throughout the entire book. The parrot does all the talking. Among other litanies, he counts in German. What is the meaning of these numbers? Are they a secret code? Well, somebody thinks they are important enough to commit murder and kidnap the bird. The old man gets involved and solves the mystery. But the numbers are where the overt and the covert intersect. What do those numbers mean? I knew from the moment the parrot started reciting, from the the title, that the numbers had to do with the Holocaust and not some spy ring or anything else connect to the waging of war, I just wasn't sure exactly what.

Of course, Chabon saves the best for last --and it is magical. First, he takes us inside the mind of the parrot and reveals many secrets (least of which is that the bird is pissed off and wants to slash the face of the kidnapper). Inside the mind of the parrot!? What a stroke of genius. Then in the last paragraphs of the book, as the old man is bringing the parrot back to the boy, standing in the train station, we finally are shown what the numbers are. Only if you have been paying attention, only if you are clever enough and knowledgeable enough, will you know what the numbers meant because Chabon doesn't make a definitive statement of what they mean he just describes the scene. It is then up to the reader to understand the meaning...or not.

Four and a half stars. I am going to have to read this one again!

Death at the Dolphin

 

by Ngaio Marsh (read by James Saxon) c. 1967

Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration, October side read

I am beginning to think that I like Ngaio Marsh more than Agatha Christie

 

 I love that this is set in a theater around the production of a play. Marsh was not just an author but she was a playwright, producer and director as well. She knows all the moving parts and weaves them into the tale deftly.

One thing that I like about Marsh is that she is not always in a hurry to get to the foul deed. She takes her time with the set up, giving us time to get to know the cast of characters and the situation, maybe even dropping a few clues along the way. It's the anticipation -- waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering who the victim will be and when and where it will take place.

Four stars.

Trial Run

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1978

an annual re-read

Set in Moscow in the run up to the 1980 Olympics, former amateur jockey and full-time gentleman farmer Randall Drew is sent to make sure that it is safe for a royally-connected equestrian to participate as there are rumors about that he shouldn't. Drew finds a lot more than rumors as he sets about his investigation in paranoid Soviet Moscow.  What a wild ride!

Solidly four star Dick Francis.