Mailbox Monday-- Got the Mail Carrier Coming and Going

Sometimes I think that a few of the mail carriers on my route don't like me much. Occasionally they seem to like holding all my Paperback Swap books back until a day or two before they're going to be marked as "lost in the mail", and then they deliver them all at once. I feel sorry for the poor employee who is randomly selected to deliver them all. (Or do they not like that person either?) I sent 10 books to new Paperback Swap foster homes last week, and received 6 in return-- all six arrived on the same day. It definitely felt like Christmas in my mailbox! Here are the goodies I received:

--Deadly Safari by Karin McQuillan (PBS). "Jazz Jasper has her hands full leading her first safari as an independent guide. Two wealthy American businessmen, two hungry reps from an advertising agency, and a beautiful blond model give her more headaches than she'd ever imagined. But then two of them are killed mysteriously, and Jazz begins to suspect that her first safari may also be her last. But every animal -- even a desperate two-legged one -- leaves a trail, and Jazz, hardly certain whether she is hunter or game, sets about trapping a remorseless human predator."

--The Mournful Teddy by John J. Lamb (PBS). "This first title in a new mystery series introduces retired San Francisco cop Bradley Lyon and his wife, who have settled into life in the Shenandoah Valley, where they make and collect teddy bears. When a pricey teddy with historical significance goes missing from a collector's convention, and a murder seems tied to it, Brad starts an investigation."

--Curse of the Kissing Cousins by Toni L.P. Kelner (PBS). "Boston freelance reporter Tilda Harper writes articles about former stage and screen stars-and where they've crash-landed. But when someone starts murdering the cast from the TV show Kissing Cousins, and the actress who played Tilda's favorite character, Mercy, vanishes, Tilda must find her before a killer cancels her contract once and for all."

--The Mushroom Man by Stuart Pawson (PBS). "There’s nothing Detective Inspector Charlie Priest hates more than a case involving children. When Georgina, the eight-year-old daughter of local businessman Miles Dewhurst, goes missing, Charlie and his colleagues soon start to fear the worst. And Charlie’s suspicions are focused on Dewhurst--is his performance as a desolate parent a little too pat? Meanwhile, these are dangerous times for clergymen. Three have died suddenly, and a picture of a Destroying Angel mushroom has been left beside the body of the most recent victim. It seems that something more than coincidence links the deaths--but why would a serial killer focus on men of the cloth? As he races against time to find Georgina, and discovers the first clue in the hunt for the Mushroom Man, Charlie Priest has another preoccupation--his tentative pursuit of bishop’s widow Annabelle. And Charlie’s courtship is about to take a dramatic turn--for he is more deeply embroiled in one of the cases than he realizes…"

--A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson (PBS). "Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance. Bryson carries himself in an irresistibly bewildered manner, accepting each new calamity with wonder and hilarity. He reviews the characters of the AT (as the trail is called), from a pack of incompetent Boy Scouts to a perpetually lost geezer named Chicken John. Most amusing is his cranky, crude and inestimable companion, Katz, a reformed substance abuser who once had single-handedly 'become, in effect, Iowa's drug culture.'"

--The Ghosts of Lone Jack by Lance Lee Noel (from publicist). "Jared Millhouse and his dad plan to spend an uneventful summer on his grandfather's farm in Lone Jack, Missouri. Then Jared runs into the ghost of a Civil War innkeeper and wonders if he's lost his mind. With the help of his grandfather--and some local characters--Jared and the Crossroads Gang uncover the truth about the Civil War battle that trapped so many bloodthirsty ghosts in Lone Jack. They even recruit a pair of eccentric ghost hunters to help. When it comes to facing down the local bully, dodging the power-crazy sheriff, or escaping convicts, Jared can count on his friends. Together, they face haunted baseball diamonds, embattled cornfields and abandoned mines. But when Confederate and Union ghouls line up on the battlefield, the entire town relives the gruesome Battle of Lone Jack, as it was fought in 1862. Then only Jared can save the town from its ghosts."

A huge vote of thanks to Marcia of The Printed Page for hosting this fun meme. If you'd like to see what other folks found in their mailboxes last week, just click on the redhead at the top of this post!