The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie – Book Review

Nov 212011

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Published by Harper Paperbacks

When the widely disliked Colonel Protheroe is found dead in the vicarage, there is almost nobody in the village who is not a suspect. The vicar himself had remarked earlier the same day that “Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world at large a favor!” Still, he knows he did not do it; as vicar he should be beyond suspicion – and of course he has an airtight alibi. The problem is, the most likely murderers also seem to have confirmed alibis, leading to a mystery which only the ever-watchful Miss Marple can solve.

You guys, EVERY SINGLE TIME I read Agatha Christie I think I know who the murderer is. EVERY TIME. I have yet to be right even once. There was this one time that I more or less pegged the motive, but chose the wrong person, but I have yet to catch a killer. The Murder at the Vicarage is no exception. Suspects crop up left and right from the very beginning, but the only thing obvious is who the victim will be (and where he will be killed – it is called The Murder at the Vicarage, after all).

This was my first Miss Marple mystery, and it was interesting to me how she could be such a secondary character, but still so influential. While the vicar is doing a great deal of investigation on his own, many of his most important discoveries are made with Miss Marple’s guidance, and she is the one who is ultimately able to solve the mystery. She does add an interesting twist, and it is nice to change it up a bit from my standard fare of Christie standalones.

A fun and engaging mystery, but really, most of Agatha Christie’s are.

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The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault – Book Review

Nov 172011

The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault
Published by Bantam, an imprint of Random House

Billy Webb is somewhat aimless after graduating from college, but at least he has a decent job as an editorial assistant at Samuelson Company, helping to create the next edition of the Samuelson dictionary. Honestly, it is a pretty boring job, even if it does seem to have a certain nerdy glamor. Or, at least it is boring until Billy begins to find a series of puzzling citations, citations that claim to be from a book or publication called The Broken Teaglass, a work which does not actually exist. It becomes clear that someone at Samuelson must have placed the citations in the cit files in order to tell some sort of story, but what? And why? Billy and his equally bored coworker Mina are determined to solve the mystery.

Perhaps I’m a huge dork, but my first reaction when I saw that this is a dictionary mystery was excitement. Of course, I worried that it might end up being incredibly boring, but the concept was intriguing enough that I went for it anyway, and I’m extremely glad that I did.

The Broken Teaglass is a very smart novel, there is a mystery, but that is simply part of the plot. Billy is a fascinating character, as he falters in his post-collegiate life. He doesn’t know where he wants to be, or how he wants to get there, all he knows is that Samuelson will pay his bills for now. He is searching for purpose, and for companionship, and he finds both when he discovers the mysterious citations. Suddenly, he has a reason to spend time with Mina, whom he likes both as a person, and as a potential girlfriend. More than that, though, he has something to do with his life beyond simply dragging himself to and from work.

That being said, Aresnault did not skimp on the mystery while making Billy an in-depth character. The citations come together in an extremely appealing way, creating a feeling of excitement and anticipation as Mona and Billy gather together the pieces to the puzzle. Still, the reader cares about the mystery largely because Billy and Mona do, and Arsenault gives us a stake in their lives.

A very smart and (literally) literary mystery. Highly recommended.

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Source: Publisher, via Netgalley.
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Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan – Audiobook Review

Oct 212011

Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan, narrated by Erik Davies
Published in audio by Penguin Audio, published in print by Amy Einhorn Books, both imprints of Penguin

This is the second book in the David Loogan series. I previously reviewed the first book, Bad Things Happen.

Synopsis:

Things have mostly settled down for David Loogan; Grey Streets is chugging along fairly well, and his relationship with Elizabeth Waishkey is quite good, with David all but living with Elizabeth and her daughter. Until one day David finds a manuscript outside his door detailing the murder of multiple individuals who have recently died and the threat of another man who is next. All of the victims have one thing in common, they were the perpetrators of the Great Lakes Bank Robbery years earlier. Now Loogan must discover who is killing them, and why.

Thoughts on the story:

I just love Harry Dolan’s David Loogan series – even if I do have a tendency to mix up the author and character name for some bizarre reason. These mysteries are super smart with a literary bent to both the writing and the plot. Loogan’s job as the editor of a small literary magazine devoted to mysteries is a fantastic hook that Dolan, who is an editor himself, plays perfectly. Very Bad Men succeeds because it manages to provide both a feeling of continuity with Bad Things Happen and a plot that is fresh and not merely a rehashing of the first book.

The plot of Very Bad Men kept me guessing to figure out what exactly was going on and who was behind it, while at the same time coming together in a very plausible way.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Erik Davies is so exactly David Loogan that it is almost eerie. He doesn’t excel at narrating women, though, and they took a more prominent role in Very Bad Men than they did in Bad Things Happen, so that detracted a bit from the audio experience. For a more details on the audio, please see my review in Audiofile Magazine.

soundbytes picture Overall:

Another smart, engaging thriller from Harry Dolan, complemented by more great narration from Erik Davies. Recommended.

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S is for Silence by Sue Grafton – Book Review (+ Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt!)

Oct 112011

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin
It has been 34 years since Daisy Sullivan last saw her mother. Violet walked out of the house on the 4th of July, and neither she nor her fancy new car were ever seen again. For her entire life, Daisy waited, sure her mother will either come back, or contact her. Now, able to stand it no longer, she is hiring Kinsey Millhone to track Violet down.

This was my first ever Sue Grafton book (feel free to gasp in surprise). I lucked out in getting S: Is for Silence, because in S Kinsey is a bit out of her geographic comfort zone. The majority of the action takes place in the small rural town where Daisy Sullivan grew up and still lives, and half of it even takes place in the past, the week or so before Violet’s disappearance. Since Kinsey lives in the 1980s, she isn’t exactly speaking to Cheney on her cell phone. In fact, Cheney’s role is almost nonexistent, he is mentioned only enough that I know there is something going on between them, and if I hadn’t read Nicole’s review of R is for Ricochet I wouldn’t even have known what that something is. This general lack of Kinsey’s personal life means that I, as a new reader, wasn’t confused about Kinsey’s past or relationships, but could just enjoy her story.

Why yes, I did mention a few sentences ago that the ‘present’ of S is for Silence is the 1980s. I must admit, that really, really threw me, considering the book was published in 2005. I get that Grafton began writing her series in the early 1980s, but it definitely threw me that time in Kinsey’s world moves so much slower than it does in ours. I think I was expecting it to be more like Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series which started around the same time, the most recent of which, Body Work, was set in the present. Although it pulled me out of the story a few times, though, the setting of the story in the 1980s was no hindrance, and there were several scenes that worked much better not having to explain why someone was unable to make a cell phone call (although Kinsey lugging her typewriter around still weirded me out).

As a heroine, Kinsey is smart, tough, and a lot of fun. I can definitely see why people enjoy Grafton’s ‘Alphabet Series.’

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Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt

Skating Over the Line by Joelle Charbonneau – Book Review

Sep 262011

Skating Over the Line by Joelle Charbonneau
Published by Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan

This is the second book in the Rebecca Robbins series. I have previously reviewed the first book, Skating Around the Law.

It seems like Rebecca’s dreams may finally have come true. Her real estate agent may finally have found a buyer for her mother’s roller rink. Of course, her boyfriend Lionel isn’t crazy about the idea of her selling the rink and heading back to Chicago, but as much as Rebecca enjoys their time together, getting back to her life in Chicago is all that Rebecca has wanted since she came home to Indian Falls. Still, the Lionel thing aside, things seem to be heading in the right direction – until Rebecca’s deadbeat father shows up in town and people’s cars start going missing.

As in Skating Around the Law, Rebecca is a very strong, entertaining character. She is flawed, but still confident in her own skin, even when she isn’t sure what on earth she is actually doing. The secondary cast of characters is equally good. Lionel gets relatively little face time, but is still very well developed, and Pop has to be the sweetest, funniest grandfather in literature. In addition, Skating Over the Line is well-plotted. It makes sense for Rebecca to get pulled into things when and how she does, and the conclusion makes perfect sense while still managing to be somewhat surprising.

Charbonneau is a fairly new voice in the mystery scene, but she is a talented one. Highly recommended.

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Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson – Audiobook Review

Aug 262011

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, narrated by Kristine Ryan and Gerianne Raphael
Published in audio by Harper Audio, published in print by Harper, both imprints of HarperCollins

Synopsis:

A whirlwind romance takes sensible Eve from her life in London doing French translations of boring, mundane things such as contracts to a lovely if somewhat decrepit old house in the South of France with a loving but secretive man named Dom. As summer fades, so too does the perfect live Eve imagined that the two of them were living together. She begins to question what happened in Dom’s first marriage that has made him the way he is today, and to feel a chill in the house around her that leads her to wonder if their lovely Genevriers is haunted.

As Eve’s story unfolds, so too does a story of her house’s recent past, centered around Benedicte, a young girl who once lived in Genevriers with her troubled family.

Thoughts on the story:

Initially the story of The Lantern unfolds slowly, it is well past the halfway mark before the reader has any idea what is meant by the title or how the stories of the two women will intersect. Luckily, the slower plot has Lawrenson’s lovely writing to fall back on. Aside from seducing the reader with beautiful language, Lawrenson is taking the first half of the book to fully develop Eve and Benedicte’s characters, as well as the secondary characters around them, giving the reader a stake in their lives when the tension begins to build in the second half the novel. And build it does. By the time I reached the halfway mark, I hesitated to leave the story, so drawn in was I; Lawrenson does a wonderful job building both investment and interest. And although I won’t spoil the ending, I will say that I found the wrap-up and explanations particularly satisfying.

Thoughts on the audio production:

As tends to be the case with books produced by Harper Audio, the audio production – and particularly the narration – was wonderfully done in The Lantern. Both Ryan and Raphael are talented narrators, but I was particularly impressed by Ryan. The character she was portraying, Eve, was a French-educated American women who at the beginning of the novel had been living in London for years, but who moved early in the book to the south of France. Certainly a narrator could have decided to work with only one or two of these linguistic heritages, but Ryan had me wondering if she had the exact same background as her character. At the base of her speech was a standard American accent, but there was a definite British inflection, with a French accent that rose and fell, depending on what exactly she was saying. It was absolutely perfectly done, more than just believable, she completely lived into her character.

soundbytes picture Overall:

Although there is somewhat of a slow start, sticking with The Lantern is a decision that pays off completely. I am confident that Lawrenson’s lovely book would stand up quite well in print, but Ryan and Raphael’s masterful narration adds an extra degree of wonder that is well-worth experiencing.

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The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson- Book Review

Jul 202011

The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson
Published by Other Press

When a young, pregnant woman, Lillie, is found floating dead in Richmond’s reservoir, the cause of death is originally thought to be suicide, but soon the evidence piles up so that murder is suspected. Before too long, the police pick up Lillie’s cousin Tommie, with whom she had been having a fling. As it becomes more and more obvious that Tommie was with Lillie the night she died, he is put on trial for her murder, his own life hanging in the balance.

The Reservoir has just a bit of a slow start. I read about 35 pages and put it down for a week, without ever particularly needing to pick it up again. Once I finally picked it up again, however, I finished the last 300 pages in just two sittings in under 24 hours. Thompson has brought 19th century Richmond to life.

The based-on-a-true-story events of The Reservoir are viewed at somewhat of a remove, with distant language, but it worked in this case. Tommie is removed from his own life, awaiting the outcome of his trial. The narrative distance also contributes to the questions about whether or not Tommie is a reliable narrator in his tales of what happened to Lille, of what really happened.

After a slow start, The Resvoir is a truly engrossing, beautifully-written literary historical mystery.

We will be discussing The Reservoir right here on Tuesday, July 26 as part of BOOK CLUB, all are welcome to attend.

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Source: Publisher for BOOK CLUB.
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Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay – Book Review

Jul 062011

Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin

This is the first book in the new Library Lover’s Mysteries series.

Lindsay always imagined that she would use her Library Science degree in a large and prestigious academic library, but things don’t always go as you plan, and she now finds herself as the new library director in the small town of Briar Creek. At least her best friend Beth is in Briar Creek as well, and even works at Lindsay’s library as the phenomenal children’s librarian. Lindsay may not have Beth around for long, however, because she has been accused first of plagiarizing the work of her boyfriend, a famous children’s author, but also of his murder after their public – and loud – breakup. Now Lindsay must fight to save her friend and find the real murderer, before it is too late.

A cozy mystery set anywhere around books is always something I am going to want to check out, and Books Can Be Deceiving sounded just perfect. What reader, after all, can resist crimes set in a library?

Books Can Be Deceiving, though, did not get off to the best start. Something about the opening couple of chapters was slightly awkward and not particularly engaging. I am used to Julie Hyzy’s cozies that suck the reader in from page one, and Books Can Be Deceiving did not accomplish that. One thing that kept pulling me out of the book was the fact that the Briar Creek Public Library book club was reading The Last Time I Saw Paris, a book also out from Berkley released only two months earlier. This would be unlikely to bother most readers, but I kept wondering about Jenn McKinlay and Lynne Sheene, wondering if they are friends, do they have the same agent, same editor, etc? It just distracted me and certainly did not help me with my already rocky immersion into the story.

Still, by the time the dead body was found, McKinlay had me. The writing gained confidence and became increasingly interesting as the story progressed, and by the end I was completely enthralled. Despite the less than stellar start, I can honestly say I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

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Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie – Book Thoughts

Jul 042011

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
Published by Harper Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins

I’m so excited about this Cool Down with Agatha Christie event this summer that Harper Collins is sponsoring and I am co-hosting that I am going to be reading a LOT of Agatha Christie this summer. I just don’t have it in me to review each and every one, so I’m just going to give my brief impressions.

The plot, in brief:

A priest is dead, bludgeoned after attending the death bed of a widow. There are no clues, other than a mysterious list of names found on the man’s body. Detective-Inspector Lejeune and Dr Corrigan the medical examiner have not much to go on, until Corrigan happens to meet up with an old classmate, Mark Easterbrook. Mark makes nothing much of it at first, other than knowing a recently deceased person with a surname that matches the list, but said person died of natural causes. Still, he begins to hear oblique references to The Pale Horse as a place where unwanted persons can be done away with and, subsequently, meets a gaggle of alleged witches at an inn by the same name, one of whom swears it is possible to induce a fatal illness in a person with psychic powers.

My thoughts:

Interestingly enough, this is the second Agatha Christie in a row I’ve read that uses a first person narrative. Surprising, because I didn’t really think she used them. I did not have the same disconcerted feeling while reading it this time, whether because I had just experienced something similar, or because Mark Easterbook is a far more stable and polished narrator than Michael Rogers. Also interesting is that the question of the supernatural was brought up again, also something I believed was relatively rare in Christie’s work. One thing does hold true to form, though, and that is the fact that I never can tell whodunnit.

Although it was a bit of a change from Christie’s best known works, I really enjoyed The Pale Horse, as seamlessly put together as any of them.

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tumblr ln4gn3MV6Z1qlfzspo1 250 picture PBS will be airing a version of The Pale Horse in which they have inserted Miss Marple on Sunday, July 10th at 9pm (check your local listings). Join in the Twitter viewing party with the hashtag #agathachristie or watch it online later and come discuss it with us at Linus’s Blanket on Monday, July 11th.

For the full schedule of Agatha Christie discussions, see the list at Book Club Girl. As a reminder, I will be hosting a discussion of one of Agatha Christie’s best known books, And Then There Were None (previously titled Ten Little Indians) on Monday, July 25th, so grab a copy and join in!

Buy this book from:
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Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

Jun 222011

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin

The first book in the Manor House Mystery series, please see my review of the first book in the series, Grace Under Pressure.

Things are finally settling down for Grace Wheaton and Marshfield Manor after the death of the head curator. The quiet only lasts until two women are caught trespassing near a group of Civil War re-enactors on the premises, wishing to do harm to one of the men, Zachary Kincade. Surprisingly, though, when Zachary turns up dead, these women aren’t the main suspects; Grace’s potential beau Jack Embers, previously accused of killing Zachary’s brother, is the one under suspicion.

Grace continues to be a compelling character. In Grace Interrupted she is dealing not only with another murder, but with accusations against the man she loves – okay, the man she has sort of a crush on and would like to finally get out on a date with.

As always, Hyzy does a great job crafting her mystery. Her murderer makes perfect sense and she does scatter clues, but the culprit is not so obvious that the reader isn’t kept guessing.

Grace Interrupted is just as lovely and fun as I expect of Hyzy. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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Devourer of Books

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie – Book Review

The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault – Book Review

Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan – Audiobook Review

S is for Silence by Sue Grafton – Book Review (+ Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt!)

Exclusive V is for Vengeance Excerpt

Skating Over the Line by Joelle Charbonneau – Book Review

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson – Audiobook Review

The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson- Book Review

Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay – Book Review

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie – Book Thoughts

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

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