I came home from an absolutely wonderful week down in Bisbee, Arizona, to discover that two new friends have both awarded me the Let's Be Friends Award. Thank you, Dorte and Lou--I value your friendship with or without awards!
The award says:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
Now the trick is to choose eight bloggers with whom to share this award. I seldom follow through on these awards, not because I want to hog the honors all to myself, but because I can't stand picking and choosing amongst my friends. Ah well...how to choose eight from so many?
- Muse Book Reviews
- NoBS Book Reviews
- Kim Courteney Writes
- Books Ahoy!
- Wendi's Book Corner
- The Book Chook
- Bookworm's Dinner
- Find Your Next Book Here
Now I'm off to tell them what I've done!
Welcome to the Friday Feud! The rules are simple:
- Do not duplicate answers.
- Post all your answers here in the comment section of this post.
Now...let's play the Feud! This week's question:
Name a good gift for a pirate.
If the measure of the power of a book is the length of time it stays with you, then these two true crime books written by Vincent Bugilosi twenty-five years ago are indeed powerful and deserve never to be forgotten.
It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon.
So begins Bugliosi's mesmerizing book Helter Skelter about Charles Manson, his followers, and their southern California crime spree in the 1960s. I still remember reading this book shortly after it was published. I was enthralled throughout, oblivious to the world around me; in turns horrified, sickened, "creeped out"... but never once willing to stop reading. Bugliosi introduced me to the minds and the world of people I did not know existed, and he made me want the answer to that age-old question, "Why?" This book holds the same power over me today.
It had rained during the night, one of those warm tropical showers that leaves the air heavy and sweet.
And the Sea Will Tell begins in 1974 on the island of Maui. It is the true story of two couples, one wealthy and married, the other an ex-con and his hippie girlfriend, who separately set sail for a remote South Pacific island. Only two of the original four live through the experience, and by book's end, I felt rather weak and shaken myself. Bugliosi once again wrote a book that spellbinds and stands the test of time.
If you'd like more excellent reading suggestions, head on over to Patti's excellent weekly series Friday's Forgotten Books on her blog, Pattinase!
Title: When the Devil Holds the Candle
Author: Karin Fossum
Translated from the Norwegian by Felicity David
ISBN: 0151011885/ Harcourt Books, 2004
Mystery, #4 in the Inspector Konrad Sejer series
Rating: B+
First Line: The courthouse. September 4, 4 P.M.
Inspector Sejer seems to be coming out of his funk a bit. He has a new lady in his life to come home to when he's finished dealing with crime for the day. While his attention at work is focused on a mugging and a youth who shot his girlfriend in the face, his partner, Jacob Skarre, deals with a woman whose son has disappeared.
The missing boy, Andreas, is quite a piece of work. He and his best friend, "Zipp" prowl the streets by day and by night looking for purses to snatch so they have drinking money. Zipp is socially inept, and Andreas is his only friend. Andreas is handsome enough to have women falling at his feet, but he's a secretive sort and very content to hang out with Zipp. Everything changes for them one night when they follow a sixty-year-old woman home in order to rob her. Irma Funder turns out to be much more than they bargained for.
This third book in the series to be translated into English is more of a psychological thriller than a police procedural. The reader is privy to all as the pages turn and slowly reveal the characters of Andreas, Zipp and Irma. All three are victims. All three are trapped in some way. All are fascinatingly macabre. I often felt as though I were a victim myself, trapped in the hall of mirrors in a fun house with these people.
Fossum pens a chilling tale of how lives lacking supervision, employment and love can be twisted and forced over the edge into disaster. Although I didn't finish this book with an exclamation of "Wow!", the hairs on the back of my neck still prickle, and my heart still bleeds at the waste of lives the author portrays. Is it any wonder that Fossum, with her thoughtful, compassionate policeman, is one of my favorite authors?
Title: Murder Is Binding
Author: Lorna Barrett
ISBN: 9780425219584/ Berkley Prime Crime, 2008
Cozy Mystery, #1 Booktown mystery series
Rating: C
First Line: "I tell you, Trish, we're all victims."
Stoneham, New Hampshire, was a dying town until real estate entrepreneur Bob Kelly got the idea to turn it into a "Booktown" modeled after Hay-on-Wye in the UK. Divorcee Tricia Miles decided to folllow her dream and moved there six months ago, opening a mystery book shop called Haven't Got a Clue and living in a loft apartment on the third floor. She's made a friend or two, but her next-door neighbor, Doris Gleason, isn't one of them. Doris, owner of The Cookery, sells cookbooks but finds business is tough. (Probably because she never read How to Win Friends and Influence People.) When Tricia finds The Cookery on fire one night and stumbles over Doris's body, she immediately finds herself as the local sheriff's prime suspect, and it's up to her to clear her own name.
Murder Is Binding is a promising start to a new cozy mystery series. Having been able to wander around Hay-on-Wye on my own for almost an entire day, the idea of a "booktown" in a small New England village appealed to me. Tricia is a likable character, and it's interesting to see her slowly change from a big city dweller to someone who lives in a small town. Her employees, her cat (Miss Marple), and some of the townsfolk are well-drawn and interesting. And with the arrival of her hated older sister and their strained relationship, future books are set up to explore these sibling dynamics. However, the weakness in the book is the plot. At first Tricia seems to choose her suspects by whether or not she likes them, and she didn't really strike me as that naive. It was too easy to figure out whodunit, and the ham-handed small town sheriff is a convention so old that it creaks.
Although there are some problems with the plotting, the setting and the characters--the strongest draws for cozy mystery lovers--are there and are very good. I'm looking forward to seeing what Barrett does in the next book in the series.
[Note: I forgot to mention that recipes are included in the back of the book. If you love to cook, it certainly wouldn't hurt to take a look at them. On the other hand, I hate to cook, which is probably why I forgot to mention them in the first place!]
I listed just a few books at Paperback Swap last week, and it seems to have jumpstarted some folks. Not only did all the new ones get requested, members also requested some that have been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. Fourteen books were sent to new homes last week, and my TBR shelves became the new home to eight other tomes. Here's the scoop:
- A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves (PBS), the first in her Stephen Ramsey police procedurals set in Northumberland, England. I love Cleeves' Shetland Quartet series as well as her birdwatchers' series. Thought it wouldn't do any harm to see if I like this series, too!
- Sanctum by Denise Mina (BD), a standalone mystery from this excellent writer in Scotland. As luck would have it, I ordered this from Book Depository and forgot to take it off my wish list at Paperback Swap, so now I have the US edition (Deception) and the UK edition (Sanctum). I'm keeping the Uk edition and relisting the US one at PBS. This will be the first of Mina's non-series books that I've read, so I'm very interested in seeing how that turns out.
- Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott (PBS). Referred to as "sizzle history", I'm looking forward to this book about an era in Chicago's history.
- Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon (PBS) is the first of her mysteries using characters from her popular Outlander series, of which I'm a fan. I'm interested in seeing how well Gabaldon does with the mystery genre.
- The Death Chamber by Sarah Rayne (PBS), a mystery concerning an experiment performed in the execution chamber of Calvary Gaol, an old forbidding place in Cumbria, England.
- True Bluegrass Stories: History from the Heart of Kentucky by Tom Stephens (ARC). I requested this from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, little thinking that I'd actually get it because I've received nothing but mysteries to this point. It seems my luck has changed!
- Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum (ARC). I requested this ARC through Shelf Awareness. "Nine Lives tells the story of New Orleans through the lives of nine characters over forty years, bracketed by two epic hurricanes."
- Drood by Dan Simmons (ARC). Also received through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. I think the UPS delivery person almost got a hernia carrying this to the front door. It's massive! I opened it and began reading...and almost didn't stop. Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Victorian England, mysteries...yum!
If you'd like to see what other folks received in their mailboxes last week, just click on the graphic at the top of my post. Better yet--join us in this fun meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who voted in my first-ever poll. I didn't publicize this in any way, so the results are from all of you stopping by to check what's new on my blog. You're the best!
69 people chose one of four possible answers. Here's the breakdown of the votes:
- The leader of the pack with 30 votes was They're all on shelves, but double- and triple-stacked. These folks have their books up off the floor, but they don't necessarily know exactly what they have. (Eh...surprises can be a Good Thing!)
- Second with 22 votes was I'm somewhere amongst those other choices. In other words, most of the books are on shelves, but there may be a stack here and there on various flat surfaces. I have to be honest and admit that I almost didn't include this choice in the poll, but at the last second I remembered that it's a pet peeve of mine to vote in a poll or take a quiz when none of the possible choices fit my situation!
- Any flat surface will do came in at #3 with 15 votes. Been there, done that. It can be an adventure!
- A very very very distant fourth was I have an uber organized library with two measly votes. Actually the votes aren't all that measly because they represent my husband and me. (Denis voted because he has his own bookshelf above his desk.) The photo in this post shows some of our bookshelves. They're organized by genre. All my fiction, poetry and drama books are alphabetized. Biographies are shelved by the name of the person the book is about; history by country and time period. The librarian in me took over. I wanted to be able to see what I have at a glance, and if I have to track down a particular book, I want to know exactly where it is. I'm fortunate in that it's just Denis and me here in the house, and that I have the time and the space to organize my books just the way I want them. I haven't always been so lucky.
What's the topic of the next poll? Something tells me that you'll find out rather quickly. I want to get it up and running before Denis and I go on vacation. Yesterday was my birthday and our seventh wedding anniversary. We're celebrating by leaving town tomorrow and spending a week in a cottage up in the Mule Mountains outside Bisbee, Arizona--one of my very favorite old mining towns. There's the town of Bisbee itself to explore, plenty of off road trails, and huge flocks of migratory birds. Denis is thinking of taking a tour down in the mine. Since being underground like that is a phobia of mine, I'll be wandering Brewery Gulch in Bisbee while he's doing that. (Shudder!)
I've got my books, my camera, the extra battery and charger, and extra memory cards all packed and ready to go. I've got posts scheduled for every day that we're gone. Woo hoo! Turn us loose!
Author Ann Patchett is passionate about reading, and she is one person who's not surprised that, although the economy may be down, reading is on the rise. She also shows no surprise that the segment of the population with the largest surge in reading is the 18- to 24-year-olds. If you'd like a little good news and some inspiration, read her article in the Wall Street Journal in its entirety here.
Title: The Fault Tree
Author: Louise Ure
ISBN: 9780312375850/ St. Martin's Minotaur, 2007
Mystery
Rating: C
First Line: At the end, there was so much blame to spread around that we could all have taken a few shovelfuls home and rolled around in it like pigs in stink.
Having read Ure's first novel, Forcing Amaryllis, and really enjoyed it, I picked up The Fault Tree with a sense of anticipation. Her main character, Cadence Moran, is a blind auto mechanic in Tucson, Arizona. She has an uncanny ability to pinpoint engine problems by sound, and she likes to work later than everyone else in the shop, taking advantage of the quiet to do her best work. One night she finishes up, locks the shop, and begins her short journey home. She hears a strangled scream and the sounds of people running to a car. The next thing she knows, the car accelerates and almost runs her down. The next day she finds out that a woman was murdered, and she tells the police of the sounds she heard. The killers don't know that Cadence is blind, and they know that they have a witness to silence.
The first two-thirds of the book were good. The reason for Cadence's blindness is revealed in small snippets which don't interrupt the flow of the action, and trying to deduce the identity of the killers was engrossing. However, I had some problems with the book. Cadence is indeed a strong and interesting character, but I found her eagerness to accept blame for anything and everything tiresome--even though I knew the reason for it. I just wanted to tell her to suck it up and stop making such a big deal of herself. No one person is responsible for everything that goes wrong!
The other problem I had concerned the last third of the book. As long as I was trying to guess the identities of the killers, the book was very suspenseful, and the pages flew. But their identities are revealed too soon, and the suspense went up in smoke. In addition, many of the action scenes at the end felt "Hollywood" and cliched. This is really a case of the ending turning a very good book into an average one. Will I stop reading Louise Ure? Heavens no! Her next book, Liars Anonymous, is available in April. I've taken my place in line!
Welcome to the first in what I hope will be a weekly meme based on the television game show, Family Feud. The blogging community is, for all intents and purposes, a huge extended family with many different perspectives, so I'm sure we can have fun with this! In many other memes, you post something on your own blog and come back to the meme "home" to leave a link to that post. Since one of the aims of Family Feud is to avoid duplicating answers, the best way for this to work is to have everything all in one spot, so please leave your answer in the comments. That way everyone can take a look at what's already been said and come up with their own witty response.
Okay--one more time with the rules:
- Do not duplicate answers.
- Leave all your answers here in the comments.
All right! Now....let's play the Feud! Here's this week's question:
Name something you wish people wouldn't do in your car.
- Oh, I am so block-headed sometimes!
- Embrace changes, big and little.
- During the silence of the wee hours, I do my best writing.
- Bungee jump; are you kidding me???
- Right now I'd like to be on vacation, instead of waiting till next week.
- My brain is my favorite gadget.
To join in this fun meme, or to take a look at other folks' answers, click on the graphic at the top of this post!
Since “Inspiration” is (or should be) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by? When I first read this question, I came up a total blank. Reading has never been something I needed to be inspired to do. It's not a task. It's not something I write down on a to-do list. It's something that's a very basic part of me. If a geneticist went strolling through my DNA, I'm sure that person would find a big clump of genes with sewn (not glued) pages, a soft leather binding and 8-point Verdana.But as I gave the question more thought, I came to understand that inspiration can come quietly,
on little cat feet, in ways that one doesn't even remark upon when they happen. A very small girl sees the look of undeniable pleasure on her mother's face while she reads a book, and she wants to be able to experience that, too. A little girl sitting at a desk in school is bored with the slow progress of the class. Instead of whispering or doodling or passing notes, she learns to hide her library book inside her textbook. A gaudy-colored bird lands on a branch above a little girl's head. She wants to know what it is, so she heads to the library for a guide book.
Yes, I am that little girl. Every time I've seen something and asked, "Why?" or "How?" or "Where?", I've been inspired to find the answers within the pages of books. Each time I was snowed in during the winter, each time I was ridiculed because of my height, I was inspired to reach for the friends who never failed me: books. Each time a character in a book made me laugh or made me cry, each time the plot made my heart beat faster, each time I read the words aloud and heard how beautifully they fit together, I was inspired to reach for another book. And another. And yet another.
My entire life has been a series of little cat feet inspirations. From a desire to mimic my mother's pleasure of reading, to a desire to know why, to a desire for the beauty of words, I have been inspired. I can't imagine my life without these tiny, quiet, but oh-so-profound inspirations.
Many mystery lovers enjoy reading books centered on Native American cultures and landscapes. Tony Hillerman led the way with his superb Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series. But what can one do once all of Hillerman's novels have been savored? One series that has flown beneath the radar is definitely worth reading: Kirk Mitchell's mysteries featuring Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator Emmet Quanah Parker and his partner, FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed.
Mitchell, an ex-California SWAT cop formerly assigned to the reservations of Inyo County, writes books that are layered with authenticity and fascinating Native American lore. The five books in the series take the two main characters from coast to coast, and they cover topics such as Indian gaming, ancient relics and land disputes. Parker and Turnipseed are two strong, multi-faceted characters that are every bit as interesting as the plots and the locales.
If you'd like to learn more about books that have been forgotten and deserve more attention, head on over to Patti Abbott's weekly series Friday's Forgotten Books on her blog, Pattinase!
Title: Ghosts & Gravestones of Haworth
Author: Philip Lister
ISBN: 0752439588/ Tempus Publishing, 2006
History
Rating: B
First Line: For over 700 years folks have settled in Haworth, on the steepest of Yorkshire's hillsides.
Grandson of Haworth's former village bobby, author Philip Lister is a popular area tour guide, and his knowledge and humor shine through in this slim volume. I enjoyed my visit to Haworth so much that I was determined to buy a souvenir at the Bronte Parsonage gift shop. Being a rabid bookaholic, Ghosts & Gravestones of Haworth is what I chose to buy.
Haworth is world famous as being the home of literary giants Anne, Charlotte and Emily Bronte. It is quite an atmospheric place to visit.
Haworth
The first part of the book covers many of the interesting buildings in this village and their history: the pubs, the apothecary and its strange decoctions, the inns, and the homes of the more prominent families, as well as a family of area clockmakers and the home of the last hand loom weaver in Haworth. Lister packs lots of interesting bits of trivia in these pages along with all the photographs.
The book then turns to the Bronte Parsonage, St. Michael's Church, and the surrounding graveyard, which is estimated to hold 40,000 "inhabitants". As photogenic and fascinating as the village of Haworth is, I found St. Michael's and the graveyard to be the highlights of my visit.
St. Michael's, Haworth
The parliament of rooks with their endless melancholy cries circling above the trees at the parsonage, the bright splashes of yellow daffodils at St. Michael's, and the green-tinged gravestones crammed higgledy-piggledy all made me wonder what it would be like to be a Bronte growing up here. Lister brought all this back forcefully as I read about the stone masons and looked at the photographs of their art.
Haworth's Cemetery
Lister's humor made me laugh out loud more than once, particularly in two places. In the first he describes using his book during a do-it-yourself walking tour. He suggests taking along a rope and lantern. Why? In many cemeteries, people are buried up to three deep. In Haworth Cemetery, they're buried up to ten deep, and it's not unknown for tourists to step in the wrong place and fall in a hole that suddenly opens up beneath their feet. Lister advises that the rope be used to lower down the lantern so that the victim has light to read his book by until the Cave Rescue Team arrives.
At the back of the book, the author includes some humorous "local recipes" including A Parliament of Rooks Pie and Squirrel Burgers on Warm Toast Fingers. If you are planning a visit to Haworth, this book would be an excellent guide book as you walk the streets of the village. Even if you aren't anticipating a trip there, it's a wonderful example of armchair travel!
Title: Disco for the Departed
Author: Colin Cotterill
ISBN: 9781569474648/ Soho Press, 2006
Mystery, #3 in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series set in 1970s Laos
Rating: A+
First Line: Dr. Siri lay beneath the grimy mesh of the mosquito net, watching the lizard's third attempt.
I have to admit that, although I'm a character-driven reader, location can also play a large part in my reading enjoyment. I love books set in Arizona. The allure is not only because the book is placed on familiar ground, but also because I love this state and have a chance to see if the author "got it right". I was born under a wandering star, however. Often familiar places just don't cut the mustard, and it's times like this when I choose to read something off the beaten path. Due to Colin Cotterill's skill, Laos has become an exotic and favored locale to visit.
Cotterill's mystery series is set in Laos in the 1970s shortly after the Communists assume power. His unlikely hero is seventy-something Dr. Siri Paiboun, who's made the National Coroner of his country. Dr. Siri spent many years fighting for the Communists, but now that he's achieved his goal and has had a chance to see what the new government is doing, much of his ideology seems to have disappeared. He runs his morgue with a staff of two: a female assistant, Nurse Dtui, whose nickname means "Fatty", and a young male assistant, Geung, who has Down's Syndrome. Both are Dr. Siri's valued associates and friends, which tells us just as much about him as it does his two assistants.
In this third book in the series, Dr. Siri and Nurse Dtui are sent north at the behest of the Laotian president to investigate the discovery of a mummified body at the president's compound. While dealing with the endless red tape that now surrounds everything in Laos, they meet Dr. Santiago, a Cuban who uncovers crucial information about the victim's identity. Siri and Dtui have to work fast, since there's a big shindig scheduled in a week, and that's a good thing. Dr. Siri is sick of hearing the raucous disco music every night, although no one else complains of it.
Dtui was breathless with admiration for these people. Her own mother had been one of their kind. Dtui had been born in such a village but had no recollections of it. This was Laos. These were Lao people. Her people: kind, selfless, and honest. Ninety percent of Lao tilled the soil and cared for each other just like this. Dtui sat under an awning in the central square of this thirty-hut village, and saw what her country could so easily become if it was left to manage itself.
I love this series. It gives me a glimpse into a world totally foreign to me. There is a mystical element to each book, but it blends perfectly into the lives of the characters and their beliefs. And speaking of the characters--they are superb! The secondary story concerning Dr. Siri's assistant, Geung, was just as engrossing to me as the main plot. Dtui is a gem of no nonsense, and Dr. Siri is a delight-- especially when he's dealing with his obnoxious boss.
Luang Prabang, LaosPhotographed by Mat Honan
If you'd like your reading to take you further afield to a foreign land filled with amazing characters and intriguing plots, consider setting sail on Colin Cotterill's ship to Laos where you can meet Dr. Siri and his colleagues. You won't regret it! The only suggestion I would make is to start with the first book in the series, The Coroner's Lunch. Each book can be read on its own merit, but you won't want to miss a second of the character development.
Our second assignment for the year-long Blog Improvement Project is brainstorming to come up with a new, unique feature for our blogs. Kim gave us some excellent resources for how to brainstorm, and I did visit them all. If you'd like to take a look, click on the graphic to the left to be taken directly to the article on Kim's blog. Now, as I've said before, I tend to be a bit contrary. (I can see the expression on my husband's face when he reads that sentence!) I can read How To articles but don't necessarily follow them. What works for other people often doesn't work for me. What I have to do is to come up with a way that works for me.
How do I brainstorm? A lot of times, I'll just start making a list. I could probably medal if list-making were an Olympic event. But that doesn't always work. Sometimes I just have to walk away from what I'm trying to accomplish and not think about it. When I read about the new assignment yesterday, nothing immediately came to mind. What did I do? I did the laundry. I listed some more books on Paperback Swap. I spent the evening with my husband watching television. I finished reading one book and almost finished another. I went to bed. Blogging didn't feature much in my day yesterday, but that didn't matter. Somewhere in the lumber room of my mind, I knew what my assignment was, and I think that the little lumberjack who works there was busy all night long . Why? Because when I sat down at the computer this morning and began reading email, the ideas starting appearing.
What ideas for new, unique features are percolating for my blog? Some will be easy, requiring little or no help from others. A couple will be tougher, taking me out of my comfort zone and having me ask for contributions from others. Who knows which ones I'll go with, but here's the tentative list:
- A Family Feud-type meme. I've always liked the idea of that game show. Once a week I would ask a rather strange question and see how many witty folks respond with answers. This can be a lot of fun if enough people participate.
- I could do a weekly feature in which I spotlight various reader's tools-- different types of book lights, bookmarks, book software, etc.
- I'd really like to do something with an Arizona theme. (I have friends who call me an unofficial employee of the Arizona Department of Tourism.) This could feature books set in Arizona, movies filmed in Arizona...definitely something for me to think about!
- One that would take me out of my comfort zone is something I'm tentatively calling "The Writer's Room". I got the idea from an article in The Guardian which showed a photograph of the room where an author writes his books. Things like that fascinate me, and I would like to see more rooms where other authors write. This feature would mean that I have to contact authors to see if they're willing to share photos of their "sacred spaces".
- Another one that takes me out of my comfort zone is an extension of "The Writer's Room". What about a weekly feature that either shows fellow book bloggers' favorite reading spots...or their "offices" where they type up all the great content that fills my Google Reader?
That's my tentative list. All intrigue me. All enthuse me. I just don't know which ones I'll choose to actually do. What are your thoughts? Are there any in my list that you are more in favor of than others? Let me know what you think!
Title: One Good Turn
Author: Kate Atkinson
ISBN: 97803161548401/ Little, Brown & Co., 2006
Mystery, #2 in the Jackson Brodie series
Rating: A
First Line: He was lost.
Jackson Brodie, the Case Histories detective who reopened three cold cases and wound up a millionaire, follows his actress girlfriend to Edinburgh where she is performing in a play during the Fringe Festival. While his girlfriend is rehearsing, Brodie manages to get in all sorts of trouble. Paul Bradley gets rear-ended in the street, and when he gets out of his car, the other driver takes a baseball bat to him. Walter Mittyesque writer Martin Canning saves Bradley's bacon by swinging his laptop case at the man trying to hit a home run. Not only is Brodie a witness to all this, so is Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham Hatter, the crooked millionaire property developer. Brodie walks away, convinced that there are plenty of other witnesses to the road rage, but he's soon dragged back in by police detective Louise Monroe. There is your cast of characters, and they each have their own story to tell. Two things that must be remembered are: (1) nothing is coincidental, and (2) everyone is involved.
Kate Atkinson is a genius at putting together the most unlikely set of characters and hanging a plot off them. Bits and pieces of her design sometimes fall through the cracks because of the shifting points of view, but it all comes together brilliantly. Her talent for characterization is wonderful:
She hauled herself out of bed and padded along the hall, where she opened the door to Archie's bedroom-- she just needed to be completely sure that the nightmare had been a nightmare. Both boys were sprawled in sleep, Archie in his bed, Hamish in a sleeping bag on the floor. The room stank of boys. Louise imagined a girl's room would smell of nail varnish, pencils, cheap candy sweets. Archie's room was essence of testosterone and feet. In the gloom, she could just make out the rise and fall of Archie's breathing. She didn't bother examining Hamish for signs of life, boys like him should be culled as far as she was concerned.
Atkinson gets so far inside the heads of her characters that I think I would recognize each one if I met them on the street. This "inside the head" method of characterization is one of the best ways to get me hooked, and to get me to care about these people who only exist on the printed page. More than once I found myself talking to a character who began to do something I thought was rather ill-advised.
If you love mysteries with intricate plots and quirky, fully-fleshed characters, you won't go wrong by giving Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books a try!
It was a slow week for sending books to new homes via Paperback Swap: only three. I just added five books to my bookshelf, and I'll wander out to the library to find more soon. That should perk those Swappers up! In the meantime, I received a total of eight books last week, one from PBS and the rest from one of my favorite online resources, Book Depository. Book Depository is based in Gloucester, England, and ships books worldwide for free. Not only is their shipping free, it's fast and books arrive in pristine condition. I used to order books from Amazon UK, but I started having a problem with shipments being lost, taking forever to arrive, and the books being improperly packaged and damaged upon arrival. So many of my favorite authors are from the UK that I was thrilled to find a place like Book Depository! Here's the rundown of the eight books that arrived in my mailbox last week:
- Death in Disguise by Caroline Graham (BD), an Inspector Barnaby mystery set in the UK that I was having problems getting my hands on. (There's always one difficult one in a series!)
- Flesh House by Stuart MacBride (BD), #4 in the Detective Sergeant Logan McRae series set in Aberdeen, Scotland. MacBride is one of my very favorite mystery writers. The last time I read one of his books was in April 2007 when my husband and I were staying in a cottage on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It's been too long!
- The Hollow Core by Lesley Horton (BD), #4 in the Detective Inspector John Handford mystery series set in Bradford, England-- another favored series that's hard to come by on this side of the pond.
- Twisted Tracks by Lesley Horton (BD), #5 in the DI John Handford mystery series.
- Deception by Denise Mina (PBS), a standalone from another favorite mystery writer. I made the mistake of reading two of Mina's books back-to-back last year, which left me with only one on the TBR shelves. I've been hoarding it like gold until I had another in hand. (Anyone else do this besides me?)
- The Harper's Quine by Pat McIntosh (BD), #1 in the Gil Cunningham mystery series set in medieval Glasgow, Scotland.
- The Blood Pit by Kate Ellis (BD), #12 in the Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson mystery series set on the coast of southern England. This is the latest in another favorite series. Each book has two plots: one set in the here and now with Peterson, and another one from centuries past. Ellis, like me, loves archaeology.
- Seeking the Dead by Kate Ellis (BD), #1 in the Detective Inspector Joe Plantagenet mystery series set in north Yorkshire, England. I enjoy Ellis's other series so much, I thought I'd give her new one a try.
There you have it--the books I received in the mail last week. If you'd like to see what others have gotten in their mailboxes, click on the graphic at the top of this post to be taken to Marcia's The Printed Page. 
Title: And Justice There is None
Author: Deborah Crombie
ISBN: 0553579304/ Bantam Books, 2003
Mystery, #8 in the Kincaid & James series
Rating: A+
First Line: He ran, as so many others ran, the black anorak protecting him from the mist, the reflective patches on his trainers gleaming as he passed under the street lamps.
Big changes are in store for Gemma James. She's just been promoted to Detective Inspector, and her relationship with her former supervisor, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, is on the fast track. When the beautiful young wife of a Portobello Road antiques dealer is murdered and her body found on the driveway of their Notting Hill home, the case lands right in Gemma's lap. Most seem to think that the woman's lover, who disappeared right after the murder, is the killer, but Gemma doesn't. Instead she focuses on the woman's husband. When the husband is also murdered, Gemma is thrown for a loop, but the investigation Kincaid is in charge of throws up a connection to her case, and this gives Gemma new leads.
The books in this series keep getting better and better. Crombie's plots have become complex and totally satisfying, giving readers enough twists and turns to keep them guessing from first page to last. What sets this series apart from so many others is that the characters are so fully fleshed, and their personal lives are every bit as important as the mystery. I've come to care for Duncan and Gemma as though they are real people, and I sink into each of Crombie's mysteries with a sigh of pleasure. Not only am I hooked on this series, my husband is, too. I had to hand over And Justice There is None as soon as I was finished, and now Denis's nose is buried in it!
Title: Gold Rush Dogs
Author(s): Claire Rudolf Murphy and Jane G. Haigh
ISBN: 0882405349/ Alaska Northwest Books, 2004
History
Rating: B-
First Line: Legions of treasure seekers during the Alaska-Yukon gold rush era depended on the loyalty and hard work of their dogs.
Murphy and Haigh set out to tell us about the most famous dogs during the gold rush era, and they do an admirable job. This book is filled with photographs of the day: the dogs, their owners, and the places where they lived and worked. Those pictures do a lot to place the reader right in the thick of things.
Of the nine dogs written about in this book, I was familiar with three, having already read a book about the sled dogs responsible for getting vaccine to Nome, Alaska, in the winter of 1925. Dogs did more than pull sleds however. One accompanied naturalist John Muir in his treks over glaciers. Another met all incoming ships at the piers in Juneau. My favorite was Nero, the companion of the richest woman in the Klondike, Belinda Mulrooney. Mulrooney would load Nero with heavy sacks of gold dust to take on an 18-mile walk to the bank. On one such journey, Nero slipped while crossing a deep stream. The weight of the gold dust kept him from saving himself. I'd tell you what happened next, but why ruin the best chapter in a very good book?
This is a marvelous book for any dog lover. It is filled to the brim with interesting stories, history and photos. There is much to be learned in its pages. The only quibble I have with Gold Rush Dogs is its layout. Interspersed amongst the stories of the dogs are other snippets of history. Although related to the information of the chapter they're in, more than once these side stories interrupt the flow of the story of the dog. I found it more than a bit irritating and thought that there should have been a better way of including these extras. That one complaint aside, I enjoyed this book and found it to be a fitting companion to a previous book by the authors: Gold Rush Women.
- Enough with the Shrub. I'm very ready for a new life form in the White House!
- Very little causes me to be conflicted, unless it's when I'm trying to decide which thing to procrastinate on first!
- I've been craving adventure.
- Denis makes me laugh.
- I wish I could go to Bisbee next week instead of the week after so I could fill that craving in #3!
- Housework has been on my mind lately, with family and friends coming to stay one right after the other in the next few months.
To see more answers in this fun meme, just click on the graphic at the top of this post!
If you enjoy a good historical mystery and have yet to have the pleasure of meeting the Countess Ashby de la Zouche and her maid, Alpiew, you're in for a treat. I've never understood why Fidelis Morgan's series of four mysteries set in Restoration London aren't popular. Say what you will about people not enjoying history, I know there are historical mystery fans out there, and they should love these.
Fidelis Morgan has a keen interest and knowledge of Restoration England, and it shines through her Countess Ashby de la Zouche mysteries. This series is one of the best I've read for placing the reader in the life and times of a particular era. But setting is not all in these books. The characters are wonderful, the plots involving, and the humor laugh-out-loud funny throughout.
There are four books in the series. Click on the cover of each to read more information about that book.
Unnatural Fire introduces us to the Countess and her household staff. A former mistress of the deceased King Charles II, the Countess has fallen on hard times and is forced to earn her living by reporting for a scandal sheet. A woman hires her to follow her unfaithful husband, and the Countess soon finds herself implicated in a murder.
The Rival Queens finds the Countess still being pursued by bailiffs wanting to collect on her debts. With the law hot on their heels, they hide in a lecture hall where an actress is murdered. The Countess and Alpiew now not only have to avoid the debt collectors, they have to find a murderer.
The Ambitious Stepmother is a woman who'll stop at nothing to get rid of her stepdaughter--including hiring the rather unreliable Countess as chaperone when sending the young girl off to the exiled English court at St. Germain outside Paris. The Countess and Alpiew find themselves unraveling plots against kings, tasting strange culinary eccentricities, and meeting mysterious prisoners from the Bastille.
Fortune's Slave is the fourth (and so far, final) book in the series. (I'll never give up hope!) For once the Countess has money to spare and, caught up in the current craze for speculating in stocks and shares, she decides to invest her money. Of course her path to greater riches is destined to be anything but smooth.
Speaking of speculation, there have been rumors that at least one of these books is going to be filmed in the UK. Given the right screenplay and casting, they would be absolutely marvelous. It's impossible to read about the Countess without visualizing each and every scene.
How much do I like Morgan's series? I became a member of Paperback Swap a few months ago and have been busily sending books to new homes. However, I will never send away the Countess and Alpiew. They have a permanent home on my shelves.
If you're looking for good books to read that have unaccountably flown beneath the radar, check out Patti Abbott's excellent weekly Forgotten Books series on her blog, Pattinase.
