Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon
Protagonist: 15-year-old Christopher Boone
Setting: present-day Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Rating: A+
First Line: It was 7 minutes after midnight.
Christopher John Francis Boone is autistic. He goes to a special school in Swindon, and measures how his day will be by how many red (good) or yellow (bad) cars he sees while sitting on the bus. He eats red-- but not brown or yellow-- food, and relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head. He also doesn't sleep very well, and when he finds his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, dead and impaled on a garden fork, he decides to find the killer. Siobhan, his social worker at school, encourages him to write a book about his investigation, and he does-- a book filled with illustrations, math problems and chapters headed with prime numbers.
This is a marvelous book and in no way feels like a first novel. Christopher is one of the best characterizations I've read in a long, long time. Unable to deal with emotion or nuance, he takes everything he sees at face value and that allows us not only to get a razor-sharp picture of him, but all the people he deals with as well. We see how he copes with the world and can anticipate how he'll react to the various situations in which he finds himself. That anticipation also guides us to the people who have to deal with Christopher: his parents who oftentimes seem barely able to hang on, the neighbor whose dog was killed, a little old lady across the street-- they all come to life through Christopher's unemotional eyes. I was completely caught up in the story, alternately wincing and cheering. Unlike him, I can't stand math problems, so whenever he segued into passages of math, I had a very Christopher-like reaction: I wanted to hold my head and groan.
Without a doubt, this is going to be one of my Top Ten books of the year.
Title: Blood Money
Author: Thomas Perry
Protagonist: Jane Whitefield, a one-woman Witness Protection Program
Setting: present-day road trip of the USA
Series: #5
Rating: A
First Line: There were still moments when the old life seemed to be on the verge of returning-- there would be something out of place near the vanishing point of her sight or in the periphery.
For several years, Jane Whitefield was the person to go to if you were in danger and no law enforcement agency could help you. She voluntarily retired to be the wife of a doctor in upper New York State...until teenager Rita Shelford came knocking at Jane's door. Rita is being hunted, having witnessed the mob shakedown of a house in Florida she was employed to clean. Little did Rita realize that she was cleaning house for Bernie "the Elephant" Lupus-- a man the Mafia had used for years as their "financial planner". Bernie had been a virtual prisoner for years, as his photographic memory meant that none of his financial planning was written down. Seems that good old Bernie staged his own death, and agreeing to protect Rita throws Jane in with the old man too. With Jane's help, Bernie devises a plan to steal billions from the Mafia. None too happy, the mob does everything in its power to catch Jane and Rita and get their money back.
This is one book where, if I'd been able to, I would've stayed up all night to finish it. I suppose I'm always delighted when someone tries to beat the bad guys at their own game. Three things kept this book from being an A+ for me: sometimes Jane is just too good to be true and I almost find myself wanting her to get caught in a situation she can't get out of. The second sticking point was the sections concerning the Mafia. Too many of them were rehashing things I already knew from following Jane and Company, and these sections bogged the story and its pacing down a bit. The third was that the final four chapters were anticlimactic and could easily have been done away with. Still, it was a fun ride and I enjoyed almost every single minute!
Title: Soft Money
Author: K.J.A. Wishnia
Protagonist: Filomena Buscarsela
Setting: New York City
Series: #2
Rating: A-
First Line: Lázaro Pérez had a woman's heart.
A lot has happened in Filomena's life since she was last seen in 23 Shades of Black. She left the NYPD, had a brief fling with no-good stud Raul, began having drug and alcohol problems, and now finds herself working a series of low-paying jobs in order to take care of her 18-month-old daughter, Antonia. At the moment, she's working for a non-profit environmental agency learning how to stamp envelopes and get the least amount of bang for each of those non-profit dollars. Then a neighborhood grocer is killed who's always been kind to Filomena. His sister asks for her help, and Filomena can't say no. Now she's stamping envelopes, looking for a couple of low-life Dominican gang banger killers, and trying to track down polluters for the EPA. Super Woman she's not. She's exhausted, frustrated and guilty at every minute she has to leave her tiny daughter with a babysitter, but she's also driven to do the right thing.
Wishnia has quite a talent. His books are rich--funny, exciting, multicultural, pro-environment and pro-feminist. I almost got dizzy from the speed with which Filomena tossed out her sharp-edged opinions, and I found myself slowing down a bit so I wouldn't miss anything. I enjoy the time I spend with Filomena. She's not an easy character. In fact, she can be very abrasive. But with all our differences in culture and background. the two of us see eye-to-eye most of the time.
Title: A Fugitive Truth
Author: Dana Cameron
Protagonist: Archaeologist Emma Fielding
Setting: western Massachusetts
Series: #4
Rating: A-
First Line: I stared, uncomprehendingly, at the blood as it welled up into a perfect sphere, balanced precariously on the ball of my thumb.
Emma has just finished some fieldwork on the 18th-century home of Margaret Chandler. Now she has the chance of a lifetime: to spend a month in a prestigious research library with Margaret's diary. Before she can even crack it open, she meets her three roommates who are certainly an odd bunch, but Emma has Margaret on the brain and she knows she can put up with the other three for a month. Margaret's diary is indeed fascinating and parts of it are written in a code that Emma is itching to decipher, but before she can start on that, one of her roommates is murdered. Being the Type A person that she is, Emma finds herself drawn away from her research and into the investigation.
I think Cameron, in this fourth book, finally hits her stride. Her characterizations are vivid, and the two plot lines involving the old diary and the murder of roommate are both strong. Michael Glasscock, a fellow researcher, is particularly appealing, and I'm wondering if he'll make repeat appearances in future books. Since he made me laugh more than once, I hope the answer is yes.
This series is proof positive that sometimes you have to be patient with an author, that not all series start out with a bang. This one has developed slowly and gotten stronger with each book. I'm glad my interest in Emma and her occupation made me stick with it.
Title: Who Killed Blanche DuBois?
Author: Carole Buggé
Protagonist: Editor Claire Rawlings
Setting: New York
Series: #1
Rating: DNF
First Line: The wheels of the train sang like birds.
I was looking forward to starting this series about mystery book editor Claire Rawlings, but when her 13-year-old sidekick, Meredith Lawrence, showed up and began speaking, I just wasn't in the mood for that much precociousness modeled on Sherlock Holmes. I decided to give this one a miss.
Title: Every Crooked Nanny
Author: Kathy Hogan Trocheck
Protagonist: J. Callahan Garrity--ex-cop, failed P.I. and owner of the House Mouse cleaning service
Setting: present-day Atlanta
Series: #1
Rating: B-
First Line: I knew it was going to be a bad day when Neva Jean called that early in the morning.
While cleaning the home of snooty Lilah Rose Beemish, Callahan is hired to trace Kristee, the family's Mormon nanny who has absconded with furs, jewels and business secrets stolen from Lilah's husband Bo during their affair. Callahan's investigation leads her to Kristee's boyfriend, to a lesbian who loved the missing woman and then to Kristee's body, stored in a fur vault with Lilah's black sable. Bo and Lilah seem the most likely suspects as Callahan digs up dirt about Bo's multimillion-dollar real estate deal.
Trocheck has a marvelous cast of characters in this first book of the series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with them in following books. The only real problem I found with Every Crooked Nanny was that it really didn't pick up steam until the last third of the book.
Title: Mourn Not Your Dead
Author: Deborah Crombie
Protagonist(s): Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James
Setting: a small village south of London, present day
Series: #4
Rating: B+
First Line: His office seemed to shrink as he paced.
Alastair Gilbert, a high-ranking police officer, has been bludgeoned to death in his home in Holmbury St. Mary, and Scotland Yard's James and Kincaid are called in to aid the local authorities. Suspicion immediately falls upon the widow, Claire Gilbert, who along with her daughter Lucy, discovered the body. Interviews with some of the town's citizens show that Claire and Lucy are held in high regard and suggest that more pertinent information might be found in London, where Claire's first husband had been killed in a hit-and-run accident some years earlier-a case in which Alastair had been an investigating officer.
What may astonish anyone who reads this series is that Crombie is a native Texan and lives in a small town outside Dallas. Only those well-versed in mysteries written by British authors would be able to tell that they were written by a non-British person. Crombie is very wise with her
language--using common terms for things in England without going off the deep end and confusing the reader. Not everyone is as lucky as I to have a British husband handy to decipher dodgy bits.
Her characterizations shine in these books--not only the new cast of the usual suspects but the ones of Kincaid and James. It's fascinating to see how their relationship changes and grows in very realistic ways. About the only nitpicking thing I have to say about Mourn Not Your Dead is that it was very easy for me to see whodunit, but this minor detail pales in comparison to reading the series!
Title: The Dream Kingdom
Author: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Historical Fiction
Setting: England 1908-1910
Series: #26
Rating: A
First Line: In a taxi-cab rattling through London in the small hours, Jessie Compton sat up, wide awake, astonished that her two companions could be half asleep (in the case of her friend Lady Violet Winchmore) or frankly dozing (as was their chaperone Miss Miller, Violet's former governess).
Beginning this series is an investment in time and pleasure. Currently numbered at thirty volumes, it is Harrod-Eagles' ambitious task to take a fictional family in Yorkshire from the time of Richard III all the way to the present day. If you like architecture, several volumes have floor plans of the house as it changes over the years. If you like genealogy, there's an ancestral chart included in each. Although there are a lot of characters, these books attest to the author's skill as a writer because each is different, each is fully drawn, and each is memorable.
I began reading this series in the 1980s when the first five volumes were published in this country. When I could no longer find them, I assumed that there were no more. It wasn't until 2000 that I discovered that she'd been writing all along, and it's been my pleasure to get caught up. I hoard them though, and parcel them out sparingly so I don't run out before the next book is in print!
The Dream Kingdom takes place during the years 1908-1910 when England was in a period of golden summer. All things were bright and beautiful, and it seemed that everything would go on like this forever. Two girls in the family have their London Season. One of the young men realizes a dream to get into the brand-new field of aviation. One of the women is an ardent Suffragette. The current owner of Morland Place finds his business doing quite well with a new contract from the White Star Line for the soft furnishings for the Olympic and Titanic. He also brings home a new wife which throws his sister into a tailspin because she knows there can't be two mistresses of the same house.
This series has it all for me: history, wonderful characters, a vivid setting...I can't get enough!
Review Policy
Authors and Publishers:
Thank you so much for considering me to review your books; however, I think it only fair to let you know that I've reached the point where I'm getting more offers than I can comfortably handle. This means that I am turning down 99.9% of the books I'm offered. If you contact me about a book and do not hear back from me within a week, this means "No thank you." Please don't take it personally. It all boils down to three things: (1) Time. (2) This is a hobby, not a job for which I'm being paid. (3) My insistence that I have a life outside the printed page that I can spend with my husband whom I love dearly. Now back to the books!
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My favorite genres include mystery/thrillers, historical fiction, time travel and women's history. I do not read romance, fantasy, horror or self-help books.
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Disclosure
I review books as a passion and a hobby, not as a way to earn money. It is my greatest wish to get everyone on the planet to pick up books and read.
I do accept Advanced Reading Copies (hereafter referred to as ARCs) to review. The publicists and publishers have read my review policy and know that my acceptance of their ARCs does not guarantee a favorable review.
When I review an ARC or any other edition of a book that was given to me by a publicist or publisher, that fact is clearly stated in each review.
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Thank you!
Title: Leave the Grave Green
Author: Deborah Crombie
Protagonist(s): Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James
Setting: present-day area around London, England
Series: #3
Rating: B
First Line: "Watch you don't slip."
The comfortable, predictable lives of well-known conductor Sir Gerald Asherton and his wife, famed operatic soprano Dame Caroline Stowe, are thrown for a loop when the body of their son-in-law is pulled from a nearby lock on the Thames. A year ago, the Asherton's daughter Julia had separated from the incorrigible Lothario, but the deceased had been living in Julia's apartment and having lunch weekly with his in-laws. Scotland Yard's Kincaid and James find more facts than these interesting as they begin to investigate the case.
There are times that the characters' lives take precedence over the plot, but the storyline is involving and the characters well-developed. Normally I would give a book like this an A, but it was a case where I didn't like any of the suspects and wish they all could've been thrown in the slammer. Ah well. I can't win 'em all.
Title: The Man Who Folded Himself
Author: David Gerrold
Protagonist: Daniel Eakins
Science Fiction/Time Travel
Setting: Los Angeles in various time periods
Rating: D
First Line: In the box was a belt.
I am a fan of well-written time travel, and when I discovered that I'd missed this 1972 classic, I couldn't wait to read the revised edition that was printed in 2003. The first thing that put me off was the introduction that told me just how great it is. I'm in the camp that believes if a book is great, let there be no fanfare--let the book speak for itself.
Daniel Eakins inherits a belt from his beloved Uncle Jim and is a tad disappointed until he finds out that it's a "time belt" that will allow him to travel through time. Daniel spends the next few decades gathering money and alternative time lines for himself. If he does something he doesn't like, he just goes back and tells himself not to do it, but all the travels and revisions create hundreds of Daniels. I was told that Daniel kept up with the news and that missing children were found, terrorists were blown up by their own bombs and serial killers didn't have a chance to rack up body counts, but these were merely comments in passing. The main action revolved around Daniel and all his self-created selves. He was a loner and rather than getting out and meeting new people, he tapped the keys on the time belt and played exclusively with himself. (The double entendre is intentional.) By the time this (thankfully) short novel wound to a close, the real identity of one of the characters was anything but earth-shattering, and I just wanted to wring Daniel's neck. This is one "classic" I wish I hadn't found.
- Numerical -
- A -
Carved in Bone
Case of Hometown Blues, A
Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken, The
Case of the Dotty Dowager, The
Case of the Love Commandos, The
Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, The
Case of the Middle-Aged Wife, The
Case of the Missing Servant, The
Case of the Reincarnated Client, The
Cast of Vultures, A
Casualty of War, A
Catherine Howard Conspiracy, The
Cat of the Baskervilles, The
Cattle Kate
Caught Read-Handed
Century of Sea Travel: Personal Accounts from the Steamship Era, A Cliff's Edge, The
Clincher, The
Cloche and Dagger
Clockmaker's Daughter, The
Cloud Collector's Handbook, The
Clouds of Witness
Clue for the Puzzle Lady, A
Cluttered Corpse, The
Cobwebs and Cream Teas
Coin for the Hangman, A
Cold Day for Murder, A
Cold Day in Paradise, A
Cold Earth
Cold Light of Mourning, The
Cold Pursuit
Cold Storage, Alaska
Cold Tuscan Stone
-D-
-E-
-F-
Final Fabergé, The
Final Jeopardy
Finder's Fee, A
Finders, The
Finders Keepers
Finding Nouf
Findings
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Firebird, The
Fire Dance, The
Fire in the Stars
Fire Knife Dancing
Firewatching
First Degree
First Grave on the Right
First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen
Fitzgerald Ruse, The
Five
Fixer, The
Flamingo Road
Flatey Enigma, The
Flaw in the Blood, A
Flesh Tailor, The
Flipping Out
Flowers for Algernon
Flowers Over the Inferno
Flying by the Seat of Your Pants: Surprising Origins of Everyday Expressions
Fogland Point
Fools' River
Force of Nature
Forgotten Girls, The
Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific, The
-G-
-H-
-I-
-J-
-K-
-L-
Lamplighters, The
Land More Kind Than Home, A
Land of Shadows
Land of Wolves
Language of Secrets, The
Lantern Men, The
Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, The
Last Goodbye, A
Last Hours, The
Last Nightingale, The
Last Policeman, The
Last Queen, The
Last Queen of England, The
Last Refuge, The
-M-
