Category Archives: Book Reviews

Reviews of Books

by

Awakening by S.J. Bolton

I just finished Awakening by S.J. Bolton.  I will start off by saying that I love all the books I have read by this author.  Sacrifice, her debut novel, in particular sticks out in mind as excellent.  Awakening is a good mystery novel.  The snakes alone make it particularly scary, especially as someone who lives in an older house and knows how they could get in if they wanted to and hide in nooks and crannies. {{{insert shudder here}}}

The protagonist is Clara Benning, a physically and emotionally scarred veterinary surgeion, who does a great deal of wildlife rescue work.  She prefers her animal charges to people.  The other characters like Matt, Sean and Sally are well developed and fit seamlessly together.  The misdirection worked very well and I was surprised at the ending.  The novel seemed well researched in terms of the snakes, not that I am an expert by any means.

S.J. Bolton writes in an extraordinarily well paced style.  There are no dull moments or “filler, everything is purposeful.  The book is a mystery and yet it also explores a “monumental change” for Clara through the events in the book and the people she meets, in her perspective and outlook on life.  She is certainly a character that shows growth and change.

I would definitely recommend this book, although I did prefer Sacrifice over it.

by

Simon Kirby-Jones Mysteries by Dean James

 

 

I just finished reading the wonderful Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery series by Dean James.  Mr. James is also writes under the pen names of Miranda James, Honor Hartman, and Jimmie Ruth Evans.

I first read Posted to Death which I found at my local library.  I loved the humorous, almost campy take on the cozy mystery series.  Unfortunately, my library didn’t carry the others in the series so I ordered the other three  and just recently received them.

Books 2,3 and 4 do not disappoint.  The character of Simon Kirby-Jones continues to be a wonderful mix of off beat humor, genuinely nice person, and sly sleuth.  The other characters develop nicely along the way, Sir Giles as his sidekick-assistant-love interest, Robin  as the police officer who respects Simon’s intelligence and help,  and Lady Prunella, village Grand Dame who becomes much more human and likable as the series progressed through the reader seeing her vulnerability behind her persona.

In these three books, Simon faces a variety of villains, a Renaissance/Medieval Faire and a classic locked room murder.  Each mystery was well crafted with twists and turns that Simon navigates with his usual cool self assurance, although we do see Simon’s feathers ruffled a little on the personal level.  Simon as a sleuth is logical and smart.  He is not one to run around throwing out accusations at random.  There are many nods to Agatha Christie and John Dickinson-Carr.  I don’t know if the author intends to end the series at Book 4, but it does offer a satisfying conclusion to an ongoing story line.

An excellent, humorous cozy mystery series written by a talented writer.  Definitely worth the read for cozy fans.  I have now read two series by Mr. James and will seek out the others.

 

 

by

Final Sentence by Daryl Wood Gerber

I just picked up my copy of Final Sentence yesterday. I have been waiting for this for quite a while.  The author Daryl Wood Gerber also writes  the Cheese Shop mysteries under the name of Avery Aames.  I really enjoy the Cheese Shop series and believe  it is one of the better written cozy mystery series.

This new series, A Cookbook Nook Mystery, does not disappoint.  The character of Jenna Hart is well written and believable.  She is a widow still dealing with the grief of losing both her husband and her mother.  She returns home to run a new business with her Aunt Vera.  The other characters are interesting with a fair share of the quirky variety thrown into the mix, her Aunt Vera, Pepper and Rhett to name a few.

The mystery is well done.  I was not sure “whodunnit” until the reveal, many of the characters displayed suspicious behavior leaving the reader wondering.  Being the first in  a series, there was quite a bit of establishing the setting, the recurring characters, and some of the back story, but it did not interfere with the flow of the story.  Additionally, there was device used that I have seen recently in two other books, “dropping” the names of authors and books throughout the text.  For some reason, I found this very disruptive when I read  Death on Demand and A Killer Read, but I did not in this book.  Perhaps I am getting more used to it, being this is the third one I’ve read using this device ? Or maybe it is because it is so clearly incorporated into the plot here, Jenna is selling cookbooks and she is learning to cook?  It did not feel like just gratuitous name dropping; it felt as though it was a natural part of the dialogue and plot.  Maybe it is just that I collect cookbooks and so knew almost all the titles mentioned and didn’t feel the need to stop and look them up? Whatever the reason, I feel that it worked in Final Sentence.

The other point that I really liked was that there were some loose threads that I’m sure will be picked up in subsequent books. What is the real story behind Jenna’s husband?  Was he good guy or up to something?  What was the whole story between Aunt Vera and her fiance?  These open questions will be part of what keeps me going with the series.

Great series opener!  Can’t wait for the next one.

by

Good Grief by Lolly WInston

I’m sure a lot of us hear “Good Grief” and expect it to be followed by “Charlie Brown”, but that is not what this is about.  I picked it up from the library today and read it right away.

Wonderful book, but please read armed with a box of tissues.  Unexpectedly poignant.  The reader connects instantly with Sophie and follow her “one step forwards, two steps back” journey out of grief and into life after tragedy.  I haven’t cried so much while reading in a long time.  The different ways grief impacts people are shown quite realistically, through Sophie, her mother-in-law Marion, and her grief support group cohorts.  I loved how this was not a smooth journey for Sophie, there were major setbacks along the way, just like in the real world and that the rewards or progress often came from unexpected places.

My only teeny, tiny issue with the book was I wasn’t happy about the resolution of the Drew part of the story line, but ehhh, that might just be me.  Overall, a painfully accurate portrayal of the grieving process and a message that it is a process and therefore at some point, when it is right for you and only when it is right for you, you’ll come out the other side of it.

A excerpt from early in the book:

“Lately, life requires so much self-discipline.  While most people have a to-do list, I have a to-don’t list.  Don’t eat Oreos until your gums bleed.  Don’t sleep in your clothes.  Don’t grab the produce boy’s teenage wrists and sob.”

by

Death on Demand by Carolyn G. Hart

 

I have heard so much about this series, that I am really glad that I finally read it.  I like the setting and the theme of the book.  Having a bookshop is a dream of mine, so this really appealed to me.  The character of Max is outstanding.  He draws you in on his own, even though it seems as though he is intended to be the sidekick to Annie, our protagonist, he definitely overshadows her.  The mystery was well crafted.  Being a “locked room” type of mystery, you had a limited list of suspects from the start.  From that you could eliminate Max and Annie whittling down the list further.  The book was written in 1987 and so the discussion of the writer’s technology at it related to the mystery  was really quite funny to look back on now.

The issue I had, and I think this is just a personal problem for me ;p ,  was the name dropping of other authors and their books.  It is constant throughout the book, even when they drink coffee there are references to the mugs with authors and books on them.  I just found that this pulled me out of the story each time.  If  I didn’t remember a particular book or author, I needed to google it to find out about it.  I think this is just me and the fact that I can’t stand not remembering something and having the technology at my fingertips makes it easy to look it up. It really was disruptive for me and made the book take much longer than it should have.

I probably will try another in the series to see if this decreases in subsequent books because everything else was very good.  Interestingly, I just read another mystery that used the same device, A Killer Read, and it bothered me just as much in that book.

by

Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert

 

This is book 1 of the very well established, 21 books, China Bayles series.  It has often been recommended to me based on other books that I enjoy.

Very quick read, pacing of the mystery is not a problem.  I loved the theme, the idea of an Herbal Remedies shop owner as the sleuth.  I just kept getting pulled out of the story by the “feminist manifesto” type comments and asides.  I didn’t like many of the characters and the attitude towards mothers/motherhood was so negative; it was big turn off for me.  The male characters were stereotypes and you feel the animosity towards them and men in general.  China’s boyfriend, a college professor, is considered good for a “booty call” and not much else, because “horror of horrors”, he has a child he is taking responsibility for.  Despite the pro-feminist slant of the book, the irony is that the “feminist model” characters don’t seem particularly happy or content, with the possible exception of Ruby who just seems ….out in left field, following her “Path” (with a capitol P, no less).

I really didn’t like the fact that China colluded with her friends to destroy evidence, just to suit their own purposes.

This book didn’t work for me and I won’t be reading more in the series.

 

 

by

The Hanging by Lotte and Soren Hammer

 

I will admit that I basically gave up and skimmed to the end of this book.  I really do enjoy Nordic crime fiction but this just did not work for me on a number of levels.

The characters were not fully developed and seemed rather flat to me.  This, however, was not the main problem.  The writers are a Danish brother and sister and I’m assuming they are not native English speakers.  I do not know if they wrote the book in English or simply had a sub-par translator.  The dialogue was often stilted and not natural at all.  There was odd phrasing and strange idioms, all things a competent translator would have ironed out.  These oddities kept pulling me out of the story and  ultimately made it not work for me.

I will also say that this book was less a crime thriller and more of a political statement on the  child abuse laws, regulation of pedophiles and vigilantism, but it didn’t really do that either, at least not to the extent that I came away with a good grasp of what was happening with their laws or public policies.

To give a shortened version, the book opens with a harrowing scene of children finding men’s mutilated bodies hanging in the gym of their school.  Very early on we meet the “lead” culprit and then discover that the victims were all pedophiles and this was an organized effort by a group to punish them and draw attention to the issue of child abuse.  The book then meanders on from that point with the reader already knowing basically “who did it” and why and the rest of it was some issues with the press, concerns of a lack of public support for punishing the killers, and police procedural drills.

Disappointing read.

 

by

Sundays in Bed with…Paradise Fields by Katie Fforde

d0728-sundaysinbedwithsmall

This is a meme hosted by Midnightbookgirl.com found here.  I hope this is running this week, I just have gotten used to looking forward to doing it.

Feeling very decadent this morning as I actually did not get up and go run or the gym as scheduled, this compounded by the bad diet choices yesterday is not a good thing:(  But I did get much reading done 🙂

Yesterday I read two amazing thrillers by S.J. Bolton see posts here and here, that led me to change up the pace this morning by reading the very lovely Katie Fforde’s very lovely book Paradise Fields.

I have read several of Katie Fforde’s books and have enjoyed them all.  This one was no exception, the main character Nel is a widow kept busy by the needs of 3 children, 2 in university and one about to go and her dogs and her “good works” on behalf of a children’s hospice and organizing a farmer’s market, all in addition to keeping up with a nice group of friends and a rather unexciting boyfriend.  When the hospice’s future becomes uncertain, Nel rises to the challenge.

I love how the author draws her characters, they are so real, so ordinary, you can picture sitting at the kitchen table with them and having a chat.  Nel isn’t perfect, she doesn’t leave the house perfectly turned out to run errands, she doesn’t keep her pets off the furniture, she doesn’t turn out a 3 course meal for 10 and then immediately hop up and do all the dishes by hand, in short she lives an “every woman” life.  As a reader, I felt immersed in Nel’s life and her concerns.

Very good romance with enough tension about how things will turn out to keep me turning the pages.  I highly recommend this book to romance readers.

by

Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton

 

Could not put this book down!!  Fresh off of Dead Scared also by S.J. Bolton I started this and read it straight through.  Not part of the Lacey Flint series, this was the author’s debut stand alone novel.

Chilling thriller in which the sense of dread builds exponentially.  The twists and turns leave you scared to death for Tora Hamilton.  Red herrings are plentiful and DS Dana Tulloch even makes mention of the term, which was quite clever.  Tora, the protagonist a surgeon and Dana, a police officer are well crafted, likable characters, as are the others in the book.

The setting of the Shetland Islands adds so much to the story, that it is almost another character, in the style of Ann Cleeves or Elly Griffiths.  The sense of isolation on the islands is made  even more eerie by the hints and warnings of the danger that faces Tora.  The story is based on some particularly gruesome historic legends from the Shetland Islands and that historic piece is incorporated believably with the modern story.

Having read two other books by this author, I continue to be impressed.  I am especially impressed by the range exhibited by her.  All her books I have read so far have been thriller/mystery types, however the characters are very distinct, the settings are varied and the plots are very dissimilar.   A great read!  I have one more book out from the library by this author and I am tempted to start it right away.

by

Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton

I read this as a follow up to to S.J. Bolton’s Now You See Me.    I really, really liked this book.  Exciting and suspenseful, unputdownable (and yes I know that is not a word).  The character of Lacey Flint is engaging and a real underdog  hero that you root for all the way.  Her complicated non-relationship with DI Mark Joesbury is fresh and fraught with its own tension and suspense.  Although you can read this as a standalone, to really have an understanding of Lacey and Joesbury I would recommend reading the first book.

The mystery is creepy and down right scary at times.  The combination of old fashioned scares combined with stalking and modern technology works really well.  The twists and turns have you doubting the characters and their perceptions even as they doubt themselves.  Evi is a perfect rendition of a therapist dealing with her own physical and emotional issues torn by her concern for the victims and her professional code of ethics.   The Cambridge setting is fascinating and the fact that it should be such a “safe” place adds weight to the horrifying events.

Great thriller mystery.  I have already checked a couple more of S.J. Bolton’s books out from the library.  Highly recommended read.