Mystery

A Red Herring Without Mustard

The Flavia de Luce series just gets better and better, as we get a bigger and bigger look at Flavia and her family – and the folks in Bishop Lacey. A Red Herring Without Mustard gave us a better look at the soft spots Flavia hides behind chemistry and her sarcastic wit.  I like the direction we’re heading here. Less caricature, more real character – without sacrificing plot or boring us to tears. Nicely done. Very nicely done.

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Death of an Ambitious Woman

How could I resist, with a title like Death of an Ambitious Woman? Particularly when the sub-title points out this is a mystery with a female detective. I will admit that I thought this was just the most recent in a series I’d never heard of and was kind of surprised to realize it’s a debut novel. I hope there are more. I kind of like the people of New Derby – even the bad people.

I also liked that while I knew who did it, I didn’t know exactly how. And I also didn’t know EXACTLY what was going on with the other suspects who were all guilty of lots of stuff. Nothing super surprising occurred but there were enough twists that I read the book straight through last night and never once thought about putting it down.

If you like mysteries – give this one a try.

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Dream Queen

There were six books sitting on the library cart – all six needed to go back to the library on 12/13. I only had time to read three – maybe four – of those books. Which should I choose? I took my queues from TW and selected the ones that I remember her making comments about, asking questions about, rambling about… and that’s how I ended up reading Dream Queen.

Dream Queen appears to be a prequel, though that didn’t make sense to me sense there’s a whole lot of back-story given to us about James and Hal… if this is a prequel, I’m not sure I want to see any of the other books in the series. Heck, I’m not sure I want to read any of the other books in the series anyway. I’m not a big fan of Chloe. She’s a pretty wimpy detective… then again, maybe she’s wimpy because this is the prequel and she comes into her own later… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get another book and give it a try.

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Book of Shadows

TW said Book of Shadows was good (even if it did have the lamest sex scenes ever…) but when I picked it up to read, she said it wasn’t my kind of book. I have no idea why she thought it wasn’t my kind of book. I like lame sex scenes – and mysteries – and creepy paranormal stories. I really have no idea what her problem was. This isn’t a great book but it’s not a bad book either. Creepy, lame sex scenes, easy to stick with and a pretty good book to read when you’re sick and there’s no way you can focus on anything deep or serious. I might even reserve another of Sokoloff’s books from the library.

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A Novel Bookstore

I couldn’t resist picking up A Novel Bookstore from the shelf last week and with the dozens of books on my library cart, I felt really compelled to read this one sooner rather than later. Is there a book lover alive who hasn’t thought about owning a bookstore – the perfect bookstore – and what that perfect bookstore would sell? Exactly.

This book was originally written in French and I was a little worried about that. Not all translations really work, ya know. It’s also billed as a mystery, a love story, and a fairy tale which seemed a little overarching. And then the first few chapters left me a little lost and confused – and cold. But, that framework was important. Once we got past that, and into how The Novel Bookstore came to life – it was fascinating.

Picture a bookstore that ignores the latest releases – and the literary awards. Picture a bookstore that sells only novels – only great novels recommended by a committee of great writers. A secret committee of great writers. Is it any wonder bad things began to happen? How dare they?!

Wonderful book. Really.

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Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

Hahahahaha!

When you first walk into our new library, there are some shelves just to the left of the door. I usually walk right past them without looking because… they’re on the left and I don’t shelf surf on my left, for some reason. Also, they’re not really near other books so it seems counterproductive to stop there for some reason. I don’t know… it’s probably just a matter of getting used to the new library or something. 

But one day, I stopped to look and one of the sections was devoted to mysteries and front and center was a mystery with “Flamingos” in the title. Wrought-Iron Flamingos, to be precise. I couldn’t resist and into the bag went Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos. It sat on the shelf for a long time before TW picked it up to read. She was amused by it and right about the time I was ready to read it – it disappeared. I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I thought it had gone back to the library and had just been left unshelved, or was shelved but not checked in. About the time I was ready to file a “we don’t have this anymore, could you please look on the shelves” request, TW found it hiding in her dresser. Huh.

So, I got to read it after all. And as I started reading, I told TW that this author should write a book about Cockatiels… well hah, she did write a book about cockatiels and both TW and her mom read it a few months ago! TW had not remembered the main character as being the same one in the Flamingo book (which goes a long way toward you understanding how TW reads books, doesn’t it? And also goes a long way toward understanding how TW cannot recognize someone she sees every year at BlogHer Con and talks to almost daily on the internet, doesn’t it?)

Anyway – I loved this book. I loved that Meg was embarrassed at having made the flamingos but embraced the idea after she realized just how many people WANTED them. People love Flamingo yard art, even if they pretend otherwise. I obviously love that Meg is a blacksmith and that she has crazy relatives. It was a fun book and I’m guessing all of her bird related Meg Langslow mysteries are just as fun.

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Dexter is Delicious

And Dexter really was Delicious in this book. Thank goodness. I really didn’t love Dexter by Design so I was worried that Dexter is Delicious wouldn’t make me love Dexter (and friends) the way the first three books did. I was afraid I’d feel about it the way I feel about the Showtime series – which is cold, bored, and longing for the Dexter of the old days.  Thank goodness Lily Anne changed Lindsey’s writing as much as it changed Daddy Dexter.  It could be that I just don’t love Cody and Astor very much and I do love Brian. It could also be that I love Sgt Deborah and this book gave us another look at Debs. This book also brought back the funny Dexter which I think was really lacking in the last book. That’s probably the real problem – I need the sarcastic humor that IS Dexter.

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Death and the Lit Chick

How have I never read the other St Just books before? Death and the Lit Chick was fun! Particularly amusing, the crime/mystery writers arguing over how soon you must insert the dead body into the story before the reader gets bored… the dead body hadn’t been inserted by the point(s) being argued. I wasn’t bored! Also – I didn’t figure out the who did it, which was a bonus since I usually do.

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Two Nancy Drews

Yesterday was… a day… so I figured the easiest books to read would be some Nancy Drews for my challenge list. And I was right. The Clue in the Jewel Box and The Secret in the Old Attic are history. Well duh, of course they’re history – I’m reading my old books. I should probably stick to Nancy Drews for the rest of the week due to the crazy schedule I’m keeping but I’m going to give a YA fantasy a try today. If that doesn’t work, I’ll head back to Nancy.

One question – wasn’t Helen scheduled to get married in the first few books? Suddenly she’s back and there’s no mention of a fiancé. Or a husband. Or maybe it wasn’t Helen – it was someone else??? It’s bugging me, I need to go back and figure it out.

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Devil Bones

I was trying to backtrack through the Temperance Brennan series to figure out exactly how the Ryan/Tempe break-up happened. So, I grabbed Devil Bones on audio. Turns out TW had already read it in print – and she kept sharing spoilers all the way through it. She’s annoying. Really annoying. I enjoyed the book, though. I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d listened to it without TW – and her spoilers.

Oh, I still didn’t go back far enough. This one was early in the break up, when Tempe first hooks back up with Charlie. I think I need to go back one more…

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