Tag Archives: review

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The Last Original Wife by Dorothea Benton Frank

Finished this tonight.  I loved this book.  The character of Les was so believable and I could relate to her so well.  The other people in her world, Wes, Harlan, her children, all seemed like real people. They have flaws, hopes and dreams.  They exhibited change over time as they came to terms with their situations. Excellent characterizations.

The plot is that Les has been married for 30 years and has finally decided that she has had enough and needs to do something  for herself.  The story is told from her perspective and her husband’s.  There are current time visits to the marriage therapists and then reminiscences from Les and Wes’s life.

Wonderful story with themes of family, change, friendship, and love.  I will definitely read more by this author.

 

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The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

 

I have read and enjoyed other books by Liane Moriarty.  This one was good, but not as good as the others.  The premise is a woman, Sophie, inheriting a house from a family member of her ex-fiance.  The family lives on a small island and so Sophie becomes embroiled in this complicated and somewhat secretive group of people.  The characters are well developed and I especially was drawn into the Grace/Callum/Jake story line.

The plot deals with secrets in families, the work of maintaining a marriage, postpartum depression, same sex relationships, and how we define a family.  The focus is on Sophie as the main character but I really didn’t find her the most interesting.  I felt as though she was a catalyst for events that occur but her own personal story was not as engaging as some of the others.  I would have loved to delve more into Laura and Grace’s dynamic.

Overall, this was  a good read, just not her best offering.

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Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Cooperman

I have had this cozy on my TBR list for a long time now, so I was really happy when it was selected as one of this month’s read over at Goodreads in the Cozy Mystery Corner Group.

First, let me admit that I live in New Jersey and this book is set at the Jersey Shore.  Now, I will admit something that will probably get me chased out of New Jersey by an angry mob, so I will just say it once and then pretend it didn’t happen…I don’t like the Jersey shore.    Anyway, I am familiar with some of the locales discussed in the book, let’s just leave it at that.

I think because I had been waiting to read this one for so long, I was really expecting a great cozy and then I had a hard time getting into this book.  I will say that it picked up in the second half.  The red herrings in the form of Ned and Tony’s behaviors are really heavy handed.  The villain was sort of an unbelievable character.  In fact, most of the characterizations felt flat or like stereotypes (the overachieving PTSO mom) or odd to me, not odd in the cozy quirky character kind of way , just odd as in not right.  A couple of the plot twists made no sense to me.

I did love one scene at the end involving Paul and the guest house, just because of a personal connection.  My daughter’s grandfather, who has since passed, was an ornamental plasterer and there is a reference to a crew of old school plasterers coming and working on the guesthouse and that made me smile.

I am glad that I read it because it was on my TBR list, but if I want to read a ghost related cozy, I’ll stick with The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Alice Kimberly.

 

 

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The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben Winters

This is a book that has been in contention in my house since it has been stolen from me mid-read, see post here.  I finally had it returned to me and finished it in one sitting.

Excellent pre-apocalyptic, Sci-fi, thriller, mystery read.  There is so much good about this book, I almost don’t know where to start. I don’t like repeating the blurb but a brief overview is that the world is going to end.  There is a giant comet headed to earth and we now have  a landing date in about six months.  There are a variety of actions from people all over the world.  Some people go “bucket list”, which is they take off and try to do all those things they always meant to do. Others commit suicide.  One woman shaves her head so she doesn’t have to spend time doing her hair for the final six months.  In this setting, Detective Hank Palace continues to do his job, solve crime.

Detective Palace is whose eyes we observe the story through and being a detective his observations are keen and clear.  The characters are well drawn and realistic with a full range of human emotion amid this setting of soon-to-be mass destruction.  The author creates characters that as a reader I cared about.  I wanted to know what was going to happen to them.

There are some funny moments or black humor,  such as when Palace is convinced the latest body is murder made to look like another suicide and no one else really is:

“I’ll tell you what,” says Dotseth genially.  “We’ll call it an attempted murder.”

“Sorry, sir?”

“It’s a suicide, but you’re attempting to make it a murder.  Have a great day, Detective.”

The plot is thrilling and drives you to keep going until you finish. There are moments of misdirection and false clues that Palace follows doggedly trying to solve the case,  Elements of a police procedural here, but one in which the “procedures” are all being turned on their head by the “end of the world”.  The mystery is well crafted and comes to a believable conclusion.  A great murder mystery even if you are not someone who would normally read this apocalyptic type fiction.

This book is first in a trilogy.  The second book is Countdown City and I am going to get that ASAP.  This really was that good.

 

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Sundays in Bed: The Siren by Tiffany Reisz (minor spoiler/warning?)

This is a meme hosted by Midnight Book Girl to be found HERE

Yesterday, I received in the mail a book I had read about on someone else’s blog and thought it sounded interesting.  The book is The Siren by Tiffany Reisz.

A beautiful cover is what drew me in, I’ll admit that I’m that shallow :).  The book is erotica, but definitely better written and attempts more depth than most.  There is funnily enough not  an overabundance of actual penetrative sex, but there is scads of talking about sex and agonizing about sex, and reminiscing about sex.  There are the obligatory BDSM club scenes.  The main character, Nora, is a switch, so while she is Dominant and the aggressor with some characters, she is then the submissive with others.

Ironically, there is some discussion of the movement of BDSM away from being defined as a pathology towards being an acceptable “lifestyle” choice.  I say ironically because in Nora’s case you are left wondering if this would have been a choice.  I don’t say this as a spoiler but more as a warning for other readers who might be turned off, not interested, upset by, etc. the idea that Nora was “introduced” to the “lifestyle” by an authority figure while she was still a minor (under 16).  She and her Dom attempt to excuse this by saying that they did not have “penetrative” sex until she was 20.  Doesn’t really fly with me, but maybe that is because I am mother of teens and an authority figure to other people’s teens and know the responsibility to be above reproach with them.   And then there is another minor child sex incident, for which no excuse is offered, and in fact the sex is held up as “therapeutic”.  I had a real problem with that.  Finally, there is a third character with the appearance of a teen who is the object of 33 year old Nora’s love/lust based on his looks, he is an adult but looks like a teen.  Problematic for me.

In all, the book is better written than many of the erotica offerings out there, but I did not find it erotic, if that makes any sense.  It seems like all the pseudo-psycho babble was a turn-off for me and many of the main characters came across as severely damaged, which is exactly the image BDSM practitioners are trying to shed.

 

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The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill ***slight spoiler***

Laying in the backyard, watching the grass grow long past the point where it needs to be mowed,   and drinking a bottle of Jersey Peach wine, I finished this book.  If you would have asked me, up to around Chapter 40 I would have have said, “Great mystery, good read, 4 stars.”  Unfortunately I continued reading for another 14 chapters and the book dropped down to a 3 star.

The main character Simon Serrailler is almost incidental in some ways, he is not the main investigator for the crime, but this is the first in the series so that might account for that.  He is a good character, isolated somewhat from his family due to his life choices, divided into policman and artist, and afraid of commitment or maybe just unaware of the possibility.  He comes across as an good police officer, a fair boss, an all round decent human being.  Other characters are equally appealing, Freya, Nathan, and Cat to name a few.

The issue for me is that the reveal (to the reader anyway) occurs in a separate piece just prior to Chapter 39, but then the book goes on and on, until chapter 54 and in the end we still really don’t know why.  It most definitely was the author’s purpose to leave it that way, making the statement that we never really know another human being and often we are in the dark about people’s motivations, but it just didn’t work for me.   Certain segments in the book are told in a form of a final confession letter/journal written by the villain and so hints of his motivations, mad though he may be, are peppered throughout them.  It just was frustrating to me that they were not followed up on or resolved.  On the last page Simon is thinking about the murderer and has this one thought that made it clear that this was all very purposeful of the author:

“Cat had said that his kind could only be left to the understanding of God.  Simon wondered.”

Interesting characters and a page turner, but frustrating to me as a reader.

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Library Read-a-thon Wrap Up & Posted to Death by Dean James

I have quite enjoyed this Library Read-a-thon and I finished quite a bit of reading of library books as well.

In total I read:

  1. File M for Murder by Miranda James 
  2. Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason,
  3. The Blackhouse by Peter May
  4. In Sickness and in Death by Lisa Bork
  5. For Richer, For Danger by Lisa Bork
  6. Without Trace by Katherine John

and finally this morning:

7. Posted to Death by Dean James

Hope everyone else enjoyed the read-a-thon!

Now just a quick note about Posted to Death.

 

This is a series new to me…however, I have read books by the author under another name, Miranda James.  I found this series because I enjoyed the Miranda James’ A Cat in the Stacks Mysteries so much that I was looking for other books by “her”.  I then found out Dean James writes under the names of Miranda James, Honor Hartman, and Jimmie Ruth Evans.  So, there is lots to read by him.

Anyway, Posted to Death was great!  Funny, well written, full of quirky characters and a very interesting take on the traditional English village mystery.  I wouldn’t call it a parody, just a humorous take on the paranormal cozy genre.  The big twist is that the Dr. Simon Kirby-Jones, our sleuth is a man, just like in the Cat in the Stacks mysteries and he is also gay and a vampire.  The character is done so well; I really enjoyed it.  It could have been over the top bordering on ridiculous but it doesn’t go there.

The other village characters are traditional examples of village life with secrets to hide and reputations to protect. Very much centered around village committee life and the small political battles that entails.  That aspect reminded me of the BBC series Clatterford (US title) or Jam and Jerusalem (UK title).

I will definitely read more in the series and more by Dean James in all his incarnations.

 

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Library Read-a-thon Day 6 & File M for Murder

Today’s prompt for the Library Read-a-thon was to think of library words.  Here are mine:

  • data
  • information
  • Page
  • classes
  • community
  • service
  • meetings
  • magazines
  • newspapers
  • clubs

I actually went back to my library today to drop off File M for Murder and to pick up some of my holds that came in:

 

I finished File M for Murder by Miranda James this morning.  This is the 3rd book in the series.

I love the characters in this series, particularly Charlie Harris, his son Sean, and Diesel, his Maine Coon cat.  Characters are definitely the main strength of  the  “A Cat in the Stacks” mysteries.  The setting and all the auxiliary characters are becoming more fleshed out as the series has progressed.  Charlie’s daughter has arrived in this book and we get to know her as well.  I love that the main protagonist, Charlie is a man and that gives this cozy a little bit different feel.  I also like that he is not involved in a love triangle that occurs in so many mysteries.

I did figure out the mystery prior to the reveal, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.  I don’t know exactly why this one was easier to solve than the others but I just had a hunch right away upon meeting the culprit that something was off about them.  There is a major misdirection in the form of a new character but that seemed a little to obvious to be anything but a red herring.

An enjoyable, quick read and I will continue to read more in this series.

 

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Library Read-a-thon Day 4 & The Blackhouse by Peter May

The prompt today from Rachel Turns Pages for the Library Read-a-thon is:
Interesting timing because I just came back from dropping off books at the library.  My new reads aren’t in yet.  Generally, I check out  6 or 7 books, a mixture of genres, lighter and heavier reads.  Usually though I have 1 or 2 still at home so on average I have about 8 books out at any one time.
My library is awesome technology wise.  I generally order books all from home and then just go in and pick them up.  Days that I have time, I do like to peruse the shelves and see if anything just catches my eye.
If a book is due and there is a waiting list (like Under the Dome), can’t renew it and haven’t read it, I usually return it and put it back on hold, that is if I haven’t started it at all.  If I still have a day, I push through it and finish it so I can return it.  I’ve been known to set my alarm clock extra early, so I could finish a book.  This is usually not an issue for me unless I am struggling with a book (see Under the Dome), because generally I am a  fast reader, my kids are pretty much grown – a senior and a college sophomore, and I don’t have a significant other so my time is my own – except for that pesky job I have to go to:).
This morning I finished Peter May’s The Blackhouse
I loved this book.  The mystery kept me turning the pages.  The setting was almost a character in its own right.  The descriptions were so well wrought that I could easily picture the action in my head.  There were really clever episodes of misdirection that were intriguing and kept me guessing.
Really masterfully written and very suspenseful.  One of the biggest  strengths of this book is the characters.  All of the significant characters are multi-dimensional and not through an overabundance of words.  Peter Mays made every word count.  I love that style of writing, especially in a thriller or mystery  when the setting is so stark and isolated that  it very fitting to the mood of the book.
The characters  all seemed like real people and even when I couldn’t understand how they could behave in such a way, they still seemed realistic.  A great example of this is when Fin Macleod goes to visit a paraplegic weaver in the village, he learns of an entirely different side to the victim.  I  won’t say anything more but I felt that was an example of excellent character development.
So, having said that,  I returned The Blackhouse to the library and put books 2 & 3 on hold.

 

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For Richer, For Danger & In Sickness and in Death by Lisa Bork

 

Insomnia strikes again so I put it to good use.  Here are two more titles for the library read-a-thon.  These two are books 2 & 3 in  Lisa Bork’s Broken Vows Mystery series.

I finished For Richer, For Danger and it left off the story of the characters Jolene and Ray at such a place that I just picked up the next one and kept going.  Both of these books have good mysteries and the character’s stories are so interesting that I just wanted to know more.  Not a typical cozy in that their are some pretty devastating personal things going on that don’t necessarily end all nice and neatly (or happily).  I don’t want to give anything else away.

Besides the main characters there are some other recurring characters that we see more  of, especially Erica and Cory.  Both of them are now well developed characters with lives and stories of their own that weave with Jolene and Ray’s. The mystery is engaging and well crafted, however it is almost overshadowed by the personal crisis stuff.  In other words, rather than being a mystery with a chick lit feel, it is more of a chick lit with a mystery plot line.  I thought that it really worked well.  The only criticism that I would have to say would be Jolene’s business.  The fact that it manages to stay afloat just seem highly improbable to me, but I find that in many cozy mysteries.

The author also manages to sensitively deal with some social concerns without beating you over the head with her message.  One of the main characters is gay and openly dating, there is another character in book 3 with gender issues, and the issue of adoption/foster care is a focal point in both books.   the great thing is the normality with which the author addresses all these points.  Some books seem so self conscious and almost make a parody of social issues with their treatment.  On the whole, a well written mystery series with good character development.