Murder in the Air, by Ellen Hart

December 23, 2009December 23, 20092 Comments

Finished 12-23-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1997

Sophie Greenway Mystery series #4

Mother:

I haven’t got much time. By now, you’ve heard what happened. Don’t believe what the police tell you, please! Wait until you hear the story from me.

Opening Lines

Sophie Greenway and her radio talk show host husband, Bram, live at the fancy hotel she owns and runs in the Twin Cities. The hotel is the temporary home to actors who have come to St.Paul to work in a new live radio mystery theatre serial. The new owner of the radio station, Heda Bloom, has decided to use this series to change public opinion that her son murdered his lover 30 years before and is still on the loose. By bringing back the original actors from this series all the players from the time of the crime are back. She has hired a reclusive writer for the series, one she has never met but who seems very familiar with the all the players in the Justin Bloom story.

This is a mystery that is brimming with characters and plot. I was engrossed in the story and had to pay attention to keep up with everything that was happening, so that I was completely unprepared for the end. I mean I was floored, didn’t see it coming at all. I don’t usually start a series in the middle, because I want the story of the characters from the beginning, but I picked this up at a used bookstore because I needed one more holiday book for my quiz and I’m so glad I did. As much as I don’t want to start another series right now I may have to look for the first one.

The book isn’t perfect. Sophie’s son is preparing a commitment ceremony with his boyfriend and while not a major storyline, felt a little like a public service announcement for tolerance (a good theme, but seemed forced into the story). Although I guess she could have been following up on a major storyline from an earlier book. See the questions I have when I don’t read a series from the beginning?! And while I loved the big payoff at the end of this mystery I wanted a little more, maybe to see a little more of the fallout.

I would recommend this for mystery lovers.

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year. If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Go here to vote. (Right now there is a tie for the top vote getter between A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving and She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb)

The Girl on Legare Street, by Karen White

December 17, 2009December 18, 200910 Comments

Finished 12-16-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2009

Book 2 in the Tradd Street series

“And?” I prompted.

“They found human remains inside.”

I didn’t respond. I was on my knees following the trail of salt, realizing too late that the grainy spills resembled footprints. I held my breath as if preparing to dive into water, and stopped when I saw that the trail of salt led to the back stairway.

“Jack?” I whispered. ” I think we have a problem.” And then I dropped my phone and started to scream.

Chapter 5

Melanie is a successful and attractive Charleston realtor who also has the uncanny gift of being able to interact with ghosts. She has recently reconciled with her recovering alcoholic father and when her mother, who has been absent from her life for 30 years, waltzes back into town she has enough. Her mother pulls strings with Melanie’s boss and she s forced to help her mother buy her childhood home, just a short walk to her own home. Melanie is uptight and plans every detail of her life and her mother and friend with sparks, Jack, do not fit into her plans.

The historical home that her mother bought has been haunted since her mother was a child and the spirit is gaining strength and hatred. The two must come to terms with each other. And Jack has started dating a woman who rankles Melanie and much of the book is spent with the silent treatment being used by both of them. But the puzzle of the past and the details of who this evil spirit may be brings them together, if only to solve the riddle of Melanie’s heritage.

As with the first book, I really enjoyed the ghostly elements of the story. These evil ones can do real damage! I enjoyed Melanie more in this one, but Jack less. I really thought he behaving stupidly, but maybe that’s not too far from reality. Melanie and Jack keep dancing around each other and a little of that can go a long way. And I confess that I really didn’t like the very end. The plot all comes together in a satisfactory way, but the addition of the last page or two was unnecessary.

I would recommend this book and the first one, even if you are not into ghosts, I’m certainly not and I think these are fun mysteries.

Stop by the TLC website and see who else has reviewed this book. I received this book from the tour for review.

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year. If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Go here to vote. (Right now the top vote getter is A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving)

Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier

December 10, 200914 Comments

Finished audio 12-07-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 1999

Griet is a 16-year-old girl living in 1660’s Holland. Her father has been blinded by his work and it is up to Griet to live at the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer as a maid. Here she is accepted by Vermeer himself and his mother-in-law Maria Thins, but despised by the lady of the house, Catharina, and one of the daughters, Cornelia. Cornelia is out to do real damage to Griet, while Vermeer is her champion.

The relationship between Vermeer and Griet is a complicated one. Griet is being sought by the butcher’s son, but her sexual awakening is due to Vermeer. Vermeer allows Griet to become his assistant and the two spend their days together in the studio. When Griet is forced to sit for a painting she knows it will ruin her, but she appreciates the hours she and Vermeer spend staring at one another, the longing filling the small studio.

I saw the movie when it came out in 2003 and thought it was a bit slow, so I was in no hurry to read the book, but I was wrong not to have read it first. The book was wonderfully done. It is the story of Griet and what life was like for a girl in her time. She had so few options, if any, and she still managed to maintain her independence in small ways. It is also an imaginative tale of the story behind the girl in the painting. I love art museums, looking at a painting and trying to take myself back to when it was painted and this book did that for me.

I do admit that while I liked Griet she really did frustrate me at times. People in the house mentioned on many occasions how smart and cunning she was and yet I didn’t feel that. The author told me she was special, but I was never really convinced. She was a young girl caught up in a life out of her control and that is enough, no need to tell me I should think she is the most misunderstood maid ever.

I liked it and now I may have to watch the movie again even though I didn’t love it the first time.

This audio was from the library.

Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie

December 6, 200915 Comments

Finished audio 12-4-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1937

Belgian detective Hercule Poirot receives a letter from a dead woman and he and his friend Captain Hastings try to find out if this woman died of natural causes or was murdered. There is no shortage of suspects – nieces, a nephew, a companion, servants, and two doctors. Hercule must find a way to get answers without alerting anyone to his true purpose and his talent for skillful lying takes him far.

This was my first Agatha Christie novel (my husband too) and we really enjoyed it. Neither of us figured out what really happened til the end and our favorite character was Bob the dog. I usually hate when animals talk or we read their thoughts, but Bob was wonderfully charming and he made me laugh every time. This could have been due to the talented narrator, Hugh Fraser.

This was a great audio for a road trip because it appealed to both of us. Since we have more travels ahead this month (I’m leaving in 7 1/2 hours) I will have to stock up on more Agatha Christie.

I checked this out of the library.

The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler

December 2, 2009July 20, 20127 Comments

Finished 12-1-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2004

“It does bother me that Austen wouldn’t make up a good man who finds Charlotte worth having. The Brontes would have told her story very differently.”

“Charlotte on Charlotte,” Allegra said. “I will always love the Brontes best. But that’s just me – I like a book with storms in it.”

discussing Pride & Prejudice

Jocelyn is the heart of this small book group. She has personally asked five women and one man to meet monthly to discuss the six Jane Austen novels. Jocelyn, a 50 something spinster of sorts, Sylvia, her best friend who was recently left by her husband, Allegra, Sylvia’s lesbian daughter, Bernadette a talkative eccentric, Prudie a married French teacher, and Grigg, a man who loves science fiction, all experience their own Austen-like life changes in the course of their six month book club.

Each monthly meeting focused on one member of the group and what was going on in their lives in relation to the book they were reading. I’m not sure I loved any of the members, but I did like Grigg and maybe Allegra. I loved the individual stories, but the plot moving the book along and tying the chapters together was a little slow for me.

Beautifully written and less discussion of the Austen books than I expected. Actually, I thought I would have to be more familiar with the Austen books before reading this (I’ve only read two), but I think this would be good for someone thinking about trying a Jane Austen novel for the first time.

I should say that if I had stopped when the story was over I would have given this book a 3.5, but Fowler included additional information that I loved. My favorite part was the pages and pages of criticism and praise for Austen. There is the response from family and friends to each of the books and there are the comments on Austen from literary greats such as Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and Virginia Woolf, to name a few. There was also a recap and questions for each book. It was these additional parts that I loved best.

This was from my personal library.

The Year of Pleasures, by Elizabeth Berg

November 25, 2009November 25, 200910 Comments

Finished audio 11-23-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2005

Betta Nolan is recently widowed and feeling alone in the world. With no family, her husband had been the center of her universe and now in her mid-fifties she is set to embark on an adventure. She sells her home in Boston and buys a large Victorian home in a small town outside of Chicago. She chose the town at random and bought the house on a whim and she has her weak moments where she thinks she has made a big mistake. Betta is still grieving and by making a few new friends and finding old ones she is able to start healing.

Betta’s heartbreak was touching and I felt for her as she tried to let go of her old life and forge ahead with new dreams. It was easy to put myself in her place. I was proud of her for taking her friend’s advice to purposefully do something everyday that makes you happy. We should all take that advice.

I really liked this book. I’ve seen people compare Berg’s books to sitting down with an old friend and I agree. There is a familiarity in her writing that draws me in. I felt that way about this one, but it was not without faults. A few of the storylines were skipped over at the end and I felt a bit cheated out of knowing what happened. So, while this wasn’t my favorite Berg novel I did enjoy it.

This was a library copy.

Killing Floor, by Lee Child

November 22, 200915 Comments

Finished 11-21-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1997

Jack Reacher series, book 1

They had come prepared. They’d known there was going to be a lot of blood. They’d brought overshoes. They must have brought overalls. Like the nylon bodysuits they wear in the slaughterhouse. On the killing floor.

Chapter 12

Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop who is roaming the United States, seeing the country he barely knows after a lifetime (36 years) spent on military bases around the world. A random memory of a story that his brother told him makes him step off the Greyhound bus and walk 14 miles to the small, pristine town of Margrave, Georgia. As he is having breakfast at the diner he is arrested for the murder of two bodies found while he was on the road. And this is where the fun begins.

Jack has an alibi, but that will not save him from dangerous time in prison or from people trying to frame him. He does get some help from new friends, but he will have to rely on his own considerable skills to get him out of this mess. And Jack is more than able to take care of himself.

I love graphic, gritty, and grisly mysteries. I wouldn’t want to read a steady diet of them, but occasionally that’s all that will fit the bill. This one fits all of those descriptors and a few more. It is an amazing debut novel from Lee Child, it even won a few mystery awards when it was first published.

I really liked this book and it can be read as a stand-alone novel. There is nothing left hanging that will make you finish the series unless you need more of Jack Reacher. And for me, Jack is not a guy I fell in love with. He’s a hard man and while some of the book may have had too much detail, there was too little time spent addressing Jack’s sense of right and wrong. So, I was left feeling a little uneasy about him.

I liked this book and if you like the Jason Bourne type character then I think you will like this one. I will read the next in the series to see the growth of Child and Reacher from book one to book two.

This was a library book.

The House on Tradd Street, by Karen White

November 19, 200913 Comments

Finished 11-10-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2009

I recalled that when I was a child, before I’d learned to ignore such things, if I were paying very close attention, I could hear the murmur of very low voices all the time as if someone had left a radio on in a distant room. But tonight all I heard was silence, and the pressing thought inside my skull. The photo album.

I put on my robe and slippers and headed toward the guest bedroom, turning on every light as I went. Regardless of how many times I saw them, it was always easier to see dead people when the lights were on.

Chapter 11

Melanie Middleton is a very successful real estate agent in Charleston, an expert at selling historical homes while having no love for them at all. When she visits a new client one day and becomes the owner of his historical house a few days later due to his death, she is not happy. She is forced to live in the house for a year and is given an allowance to restore it. Only she is not the only one in the house. The spirits who stay there both fight her and push her into solving a generations old mystery.

Her best friend Sophie and estranged father are both on board to help, as well as a good-looking true crime author working on his next big story. Before long Melanie is forced to confront her past with her father and accept the help of a man she knows is silently grieving. And these ghosts are not the Casper kind. They can do real damage.

I really liked this book. Melanie is a feisty 39 year-old woman who has relied on no one to achieve success and I was rooting for her to comes to terms with her father and grow to love the house. The mystery of the missing diamonds was one that had me guessing til the end and the ghosts, while unnerving, added depth to the story.

White writes with great humor and attention to detail and I am looking forward to the next book with Melanie.

This was a library book.

Murder on Nob Hill, by Shirley Tallman

October 28, 2009October 28, 20098 Comments

Finished 1024-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 2004

Book 1 in the Sarah Woolson series

Despite claims to the contrary – some, I fear, voiced by members of my own family – I pride myself on being an honest woman. As a matter of principle, I hold dissimulation of any kind in contempt. That said, I probably should add that I also subscribe to the old adage “God helps those who help themselves,” even if this sometimes entails being economical with the truth.

First paragraph of the book

Sarah Woolson is a strong young woman living in a time when strong women were frowned upon. It’s 1880 and she has managed to get an interview with a leading law firm, but she is promptly shown the door because of her sex. Not willing to step aside she steals a client and the firm takes her in to save face. Now she must travel around San Francisco trying to prove her client innocent of murdering her rich husband and one of his powerful friends.

Sarah is take no prisoners kind of gal and this really irks the lawyer who is assigned to following/helping her with the case. And her brothers prove helpful as does her judge father. She is not afraid of getting her hands dirty, but her mind is her best asset. There is a lot to like about Sarah.

The mystery was good. I didn’t figure it out until right before Sarah did and it was a satisfying ending. The family was a warm and fun and accepting of Sarah, well except for one brother running for California Senator, and I look forward to learning more about them as Sarah continues her adventures in the next book.

This did remind me of the Deadly series by Brenda Joyce if you are a fan. Not any romance in this one, but I do see potential.

This was a library copy.

The Taking, by Dean Koontz

October 8, 20098 Comments

Finished 10-8-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2004

Nevertheless, though this cross-section of humanity had shared the same experiences and had drawn the same conclusions – that their species was no longer the most intelligent on the planet and their dominion of Earth had been usurped – they could not come together to devise a mutually agreeable response to the threat. Four philosophies divided the occupants of the tavern into four camps.

Chapter 19

Molly and Neil live in a small mountain town, secluded from the big cities and vacations spots. One night it starts raining, only the rain is not rain and it is raining everywhere in the world at once. Molly and Neil decide they need to join with others for safety and head to town, where they find four groups of people. At the meeting place in the tavern they are cut off from the world, no television, internet, phones and there are those who think the world is ending and they plan to meet their maker drunk and happy, those who say to wait to talk to the invaders, those who want to stock up on gun power and take the fight to the occupiers, and those on the fence, undecided between three bad choices.

Molly, with some prodding by a dog named Virgil, decides she and Neil need to round up all the children and get them to safety, although they have no idea where that may be. The world is being consumed by a fungus and ghostlike entities that can walk though walls. As Molly and Neil head around town there is peril at every turn and the Earth’s final days seem like a foregone conclusion.

This book is a spooky nightmare full of despair and surprising faith. It is an alien film come to life on the page and seen through the eyes of a young woman trying to do the right thing even if she doesn’t know what that is. This book will scare you and it may depress you, but it will also make you think. I wish I could tell you about the unexpected ending, because there is a lot to discuss, but I can’t without ruining the book.

I really enjoyed it and it is perfect if you are in the mood for some spooky Halloween reading.

This book was from my personal library.

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