Mystery

The Sleeping Doll

3 Comments / 2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

It’s been ages since I read anything by Deaver. How long ago was The Bone Collector written? Years and years. I wasn’t sure The Sleeping Doll would be worth reading or anywhere near as good as The Bone Collector… it wasn’t as good but it was worth reading.

TW started it last night and said “boy it starts with a bang, doesn’t it?” – It does and there are bangs all of the way through it. I won’t go far as to say I couldn’t put it down but I will say that I enjoyed picking it up, every single time.

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Dragonwell Dead: A Tea Shop Mystery

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery, Women /

I’m a little surprised that Dragonwell Dead is the first Tea Shop Mystery that I’ve read. The series seems to be set in Charleston which means someone should have pointed it out to me – or I should have somehow stumbled upon the series. Weird. Extra weird because I think TW just plucked this off of the library shelves.

It wasn’t a great mystery. It wasn’t a great book. It was a nice easy read. And most important of all, it didn’t make me growl. I am very particular about books set in Charleston. I growl a lot about inaccurate descriptions of places and inaccurate portrayals of the city or Charlestonians. There were some fictional locations mentioned but that was fine, the “real” places mentioned were given accurate descriptions and that’s all I ask.

I’m not sure I’ll read another Tea Shop Mystery but I wouldn’t turn up my nose at one if it appeared on my bookshelf.

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Simple Genius

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

I didn’t really want to read Simple Genius. I don’t have any idea how it landed on our library shelf but I’m guessing TW picked it up off the shelf when we were down to no books from our reserve list waiting for pick up. TW swore I should read it. She swore it was really good. I didn’t really believe her but I didn’t see anything else on the shelf that I was just dying to read. So, I picked it up. And that first night I read half of it. I read long past the time that TW turned out her light and went to bed and I almost never do this because I tend to be just a little tired at the end of the day.

First I read late into the night and then today I finished it before I even read my blog feeds. This should tell you something. It should tell you that it was a good book and I’m glad I read it. I might even like to read more books about Sean and Michelle.

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The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights

2007, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights by Faye Kellerman is a book of short stories or short crime stories to be specific. TW reserved this on from the library on audio. Do you know why she reserved this one on audio? Because Nancy McKeon was listed as a narrator of the book. We were about half way through it and enjoying it very much when we realized we hadn’t yet heard Nancy narrate a story. We got all of the way to the end and still no Nancy. Weird. Apparently our library version is not the same version as the one you can order at Amazon. Ah well, we still enjoyed the stories very much. We would both recommend this one but agree that we probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much if we had read it rather than listened to it.

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Yankee Doodle Dead

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

I had a tough time getting interested in Yankee Doodle Dead – a Death on Demand mystery.  I think maybe I’m not a big enough mystery fan to really enjoy all of the mystery book references, which really slowed the story down for me.  About halfway through it – when the murder occurred, I was more interested and sat down and finished it right away.  But the first 100 pages, slow going.   Not a bad book for a vacation, though.  Light mystery.  Great female characters.  Nice lowcountry setting.

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Night Vision

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery, Queer /

Yes, another Jane Lawless mystery. I know, I haven’t left really stellar reviews of her books but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them in a mindless, fluff sort of way. What better type of book to read after Garbage Land than silly dyke drama with dumb gay boys tossed in for good measure?

Night Vision was surprisingly good. I had high hopes that Jane was going to grow just a wee bit more backbone in this one, and I suppose she has, but she’s still just a bit too wishy washy for a detective – particularly a dyke detective. Ellen Hart needs to toughen her up a little, make her just a bit more Cordelia like. You’d think after more than a dozen of these, she’d have improved the character a bit.

Speaking of Cordelia. Poor thing. I hated that ending, obviously. Do you think the next one will be set in the UK as they work on fixing Cordelia’s problem?

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Break No Bones

2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery, Women /

I had high hopes for Break No Bones. Lots of my friends watch that Bones tv show that is based on this series of books (loosely based as sassymonkey explained to me). I am guessing the tv show is better than the book(s).

Maybe it was the fact that this one was set in Charleston – my home town – that caused me some issues. I should be glad that the author got so much RIGHT about Charleston. Often books set in my hometown don’t give an accurate picture, they put streets where they don’t belong, screw up names of businesses or famous places – just weird stuff that isn’t “right”. But there was so much, well, name dropping that it felt like overkill to me.

By the time we got to the point where Tempe solved the mystery, I was done. And then the solution – sheesh. We try to debunk these sorts of myths everyday at work and here we have some silly author writing about _______. (I won’t blow the ending for those who want to read it.)

Anyway. It wasn’t horrid. But it wasn’t anywhere close to making it to my favorites list.

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The Thirteenth Tale

2 Comments / 2007, A to Z Challenge, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

There are some books that just should not end. The Thirteen Tale is that kind of book.


For some reason I had it in my head that this was a young adult book. When I picked it up to actually read it and saw that it wasn’t, I was surprised. While I think Michelle would like it, this is definitely not a young adult book. Sort of Flowers in the Attic meets Poppy Z Brite meets someone else who escapes me at the moment, lol.


Really terrific book. One I’d be happy to read again someday.

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The Problem with Kate Delafield

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, GLBT, Mystery /

I’ve finally figured out what the problem is with Katherine Forrest’s Kate Delafield mysteries, the problem is Kate herself. Her personality varies almost completely from one book to another so it doesn’t even seem like she’s the same person. Kate Delafield has a personality disorder and I wish Katherine Forrest would help her fix that – and fix it so we always see the Kate Delafield who was in Liberty Square (and Sleeping Bones) and not the Kate Delafield who was in Hancock Park.

The entire Vietnam veterans storyline often feels tired and over done but in Liberty Square I never found myself annoyed with the characters for rehashing the problems with Vietnam the way I have with other books. I liked every single one of the characters. I liked the way Forrest covered the problem with being gay in the military, now and then. Even the sappy ending with everyone visiting The Wall felt like it fit and wasn’t forced.

Finally, a reason to like Detective Delafield (and her g/f) again.

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