Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

I originally heard about this book from one of Nancy Pearl's Book Lust books. I had an upcoming 4 hour trip so when I saw this audiobook at the library I picked it up. (Not that I didn't have a ton of books on my phone already...)

The star of this book is the setting of post-Katrina New Orleans. It's absolutely fabulous. I don't know if I've ever been more enamored of a book's setting. Claire goes to New Orleans for a missing person case. The book is set about a year and a half after Katrina in the slowly recovering city while Claire tries to find a prosecutor who vanished in the chaos of the hurricane. 

In addition to the main plot line, we learn about Claire's childhood and friends. This mystery is also very intriguing. 

I was expecting something humorous, so this book's darkness was a surprise. It's very gritty. 

I also read Gran's follow-up in the Claire DeWitt series: Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway. Sadly, I didn't think it measured up to the first book. But, how can you outdo a book with a premise of a person missing after a hurricane? The plot of Claire's childhood friends continues, but isn't resolved in the series' second book. The goodreads summary of the City of the Dead says that it is the first in a series. Since the Bohemian Highway didn't tie up Claire's personal issues, I hope there will be another book that does just that. The author's website sadly doesn't offer much hope for it anytime soon though. 

The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins is a mystery writer from the mid 1800s. The Moonstone is on the 1001 Book You Must Read list. (Link goes to my progress on the list.)The Moonstone is on the longer side, but I read it in just a couple days. I couldn't put it down. I didn't figure out the answer to the mystery ahead of time. It had great twists and turns.

The Moonstone is about the theft of a diamond known as the Moonstone. The novel is set up as personal reflections and remembrances of many characters in the book. Each person's story adds a bit to the mystery. It was a fun way of getting different characters' impressions and views.

Since The Moonstone was published prior to 1923, it's in the public domain and the ebook is free. If you are fan of mysteries, I highly recommend it. Collins has many other books, one of which, The Woman in White, is already on my kindle.

The Liar Society

When The Liar Society was published a few months ago, there was a big blitz on book blogs about it. I was really excited to read it. I thought the murder mystery set in an elite private school would be right up my league. However, I was a little disappointed.

I read Shine right after it so I think comparing the two stories of high schoolers trying to solve crimes ran together too much and I thought Shine was a better book.

As a private school graduate I found this line oh so true and so funny:

"It was a source of endless fascination to see how incestuous the school really was. I mean, it couldn't be normal to have hundreds of couples graduate from the same prep school and eventually marry, right? I think they put something in water."

The Liar Society is the first in a series. It's a good book for those looking for a strong female main character. I will probably read the next in the series.

Shine

I loved Shine. Loved.

I think Lauren Myracle is a very cool person, so I was prepared to love it and was thankfully not disappointed.

Shine is the story of a teenager trying to solve the mystery of who severely beat her gay friend. The sheriff and town don't seem too concerned about the crime so Cat, the main character, sets out to find out who did it.

Shine is set in a rural southern town, a place that is struggling with drugs, a lack of jobs, and the belief from outsiders that they are just a bunch of "mountain niggers." The book is set in Transylvania County, NC, which is a real place. The specific town in the novel doesn't exist. My parents have a house in the mountains in Transylvania County, so I was really interested in reading this book.

Photo taken down the hill from my parents' place:
Complete with trailer, confederate flag, ex-con owner, and mean ass dog.

E and I visited my parents' place earlier this summer and I read Shine while I was there. My parents don't stay at the house full-time and right before we got there someone kicked in the front door and stole all the alcohol. The person they were pretty sure did it was an alcoholic with no job and a criminal history (not the guy who lives down the hill.) So the real side of this small town with lax law enforcement was very much what we were experiencing. I could picture the story in the exact setting.

I loved Shine. I am sure my biased view helped, but I thought it was a wonderful book. I thought it was a great mystery with lots of insight to many social issues.

30 Days of Books: Childhood Favorite

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I read this book in 5th grade for a book report. I've read it several times over the years. I still love this book as an adult, which I think says a lot about the book's quality. I've read it countless times. It's a funny smart book with enjoyable characters.

Russian Winter

Russian Winter is a book with both a past and present story line. It is the story of a Russian ballerina. She defected to the US and decided to sell her jewelry. The novel is the story of what happened to the woman in Russia and what her connection is to a professor in modern day America.

I love historical fiction mysteries that have both past and present day story lines, but I couldn't really get into this book. It took me awhile to read, so it wasn't a can't-put-down book. However, I can't articulate why I wasn't thrilled. I enjoyed it, and when I was finished felt that it shouldn't have taken me nearly as long. The crapiness of this review reflects my lack of ability to say much about Russian Winter.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

A Red Herring Without Mustard is the third book in the Flavia de Luce series. Flavia is an 11 year old living at her family's derelict mansion in post WW2 England. The first two books are The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and the Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.

The books are mysteries, and the mysteries themselves are ok. I really read the books for Flavia. She's one of my favorite book characters of all time. She's smart and funny. Flavia loves chemistry and has her own lab compliments of an ancestor. She loves poisons. Her bicycle, Gladys, is her constant companion and friend. She antagonizes her older sisters and steps in to help the police.

I think it's really interesting that Bradley, a male, has created such a great 11 year old girl character.

The books in the series are quick reads. Meeting Flavia definitely makes these books worth the read.

The House at Riverton

I finished this book and said, "Wow." Then I put the book down. Then I picked up and reread the last couple pages and again said, "Wow."

The House at Riverton is the story of Grace, once a maid at Riverton, now an old woman, remembering her life at the manor. She tells her story, but she also tells the story of the Hartford sisters, the young women of the house, and what happened the night a poet committed suicide at a party.

I've mentioned before how I like historical fiction mysteries that bounce back and forth between the present and the past. This book had that structure and it was written by Kate Morton, whose The Forgotten Garden I really enjoyed. The past was the more important part of the book, but the story set in the present also offered some interest.

Obviously you can tell I enjoyed The House at Riverton. There was so much to like: the setting of Edwardian and post WWI England, the old woman telling her life story, the mystery of the poet's death. It's a gothic book along the lines of Rebecca or The Thirteenth Tale.

Whose Body?

I found Whose Body? for free for my kindle. I read Sayers's Murder Must Advertise a couple years ago and wasn't that thrilled. Murder Must Advertise is on the 1001 Books You Must Read list so when I didn't like it I didn't think I'd pick up any other books by Sayers.

But as I mentioned I found this for free, so I figured I'd give it a chance.

I really enjoyed it! Lord Peter Wimsey is the second son in a British aristocratic family. This book was written in 1923. Lord Peter is a veteran of WWI and solves mysteries as a hobby. My favorite part was Bunter, Lord Peter's butler. He made me laugh out loud several times.

In this book, a wealth financier is missing while a body resembling the man turns up naked in soemone's bath tub. Lord Peter hears about the case from his mother, who at times lends him a hand. He sets out to solve the mystery at the annoyance of Police Inspector Sugg. I found the mystery to be somewhat predictable, but the characters more than made up for that.

If you like Agatha Christie, I think you'd like the Lord Peter books. I already ordered the second book in the series, Clouds of Witness, for my Kindle. At 99 cents, why not?

Phryne Fisher

Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries are a whole bunch of fun. Phryne is an ass-kicking woman who is years ahead of society.

Phryne lives in Australia in the 1920s. Her stories are a bit far-fetched, but you don't mind since the stories are so entertaining.

Selpulcre

Sepulcre by Kate Mosse was suggested to me because I enjoyed The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, The Devlin Diary, and The Forgotten Garden. All three of those books had a historical fiction mystery that was also part of a present day story. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy historical fiction and mysteries so I really liked the mix of the past and the present colliding with a mystery in the middle.

Sepulcre also had this format. However, I was pretty disappointed in it. I couldn't get interested in the story line from the 1890s until I was rather far into the book. The characters in this section did some rather stupid things. It was one of those instances where you wanted to yell at these fictional people. I enjoyed the present day characters and their stories. However compared to the historical sections of the book, the present day plot was much shorter. I also found sections of the book irrelevant to the story. My copy was approximately 550 pages. The book could have been edited down quite a bit without losing important aspects of the story. Finally, the whole tarot thing made some but not a lot of sense to me.

There were things I did enjoy, such as Meredith's relationship with her adoptive mom and Meredith's research about her family. In fact, I think I would have really enjoyed a culled down story more geared towards Meredith and the present with small bits of the historical part thrown in.

Oh well. They aren't all winners.

The Spellman Files

My mom and I are big fans of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, so when someone suggested this series to her based on the love of Stephanie, she picked it up. She enjoyed it and I did too.

There are some definitely similarities between the two series, including female main characters involved in mysteries and funny secondary characters.

Isabel Spellman works for her parents' private investigation firm. The book is centered around her wacky family and their adventures.

If you are fan of Evanovich, you should pick this up. I've felt like the Stephanie Plum series is getting close to jumping the shark (Ranger or Morelli, Morelli or Ranger), so finding a similar series that felt fresh was good.

The Spellman Files was a fun mix of humor and mystery, with a teeny bit of romance. There are four books in this series. I'm definitely going to read them all.

The Secret Adversary

Since I have so many paper books to read, I am trying to hold off on buying books for my Kindle. There are hundreds of free pre-1923 books available. (These books' copyrights have expired.)

Agatha Christie's first two novels are pre-1923. I consider myself an Agatha Christie fan and hadn't read The Secret Adversary, so what a deal. The Secret Adversary is the first Tommy and Tuppence book. Christie wrote several Tommy and Tuppence books, but there aren't near as many as Poirot or Miss Marple stories.

I'm glad it wasn't the first Agatha Christie I'd read. I don't know that it was good enough to make me keep reading her novels if it had been the first. Give me a Poirot book instead!

Shutter Island

Holy moly.

Many of the girls in my book club read this several months ago and raved. I am a huge wimp, though, and thought it sounded scary so I wasn't interested. A few months later I was looking for a new audio book and figured I'd give Shutter Island a try.

Then I waited several more months after downloading it, still thinking it was too scary. (It isn't scary.)

I finally started listening and was immediately caught up in the story. Teddy Daniels, a US Marshall, is sent to Shutter Island, site of a mental hospital for the criminally insane because a patient had gone missing. I don't want to say any more about the plot because I don't want to spoil anything and because you just need to read it.

I'm not sure if it'll make my top 10 list for the year, but it's definitely in the running. The movie is also really good and a great adaptation of the book.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I'd read this book of Sherlock Holmes stories when I was 12 or 13. I recently reread it and remembered many of the stories. How could you forget The Speckled Band?

My family and I visited London when I was in middle school. We visited 221B Baker Street. I picked up a cool illustrated copy while we were there. I also remember listening to the audio versions of the stories while we'd lay out on our deck and look at the stars.

Sherlock Holmes stories give me warm fuzzies from these memories.

I enjoyed the reread. The mysteries were really fun. I remembered a couple of the outcomes, but not all of them. I like how they are told from the view point of Dr. Watson, who despite seeing Holmes solve mystery after mystery, is constantly in awe of his methods.

If you haven't read them and like mysteries, I highly suggest any of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

The Bobbsey Twins

In addition to Nancy Drew, I really enjoyed another children's mystery series: The Bobbsey Twins. I didn't have as many Bobbsey Twins books growing up as I did Nancy Drew, but I still had many. The Bobbsey Twin series was created and published by the same people that sold Nancy Drew books. The Bobbsey Twins first came out in 1904, more than 25 years before Nancy.

The Bobbsey twins are two sets of twins: Nan and Bert who are 12 and Flossie and Freddie who are 6. I love the name "Nan." I might have had a crush on Bert. They live in the rather generic sounding town of Lakeport, and as expected, find mysteries where ever they go.

As the characters are young, so too is the target audience. The book indicates the suggested reading level is second grade. The Secret of Jungle Park is in the new series and is 87 pages of big print with several drawings throughout.

The story was a bit unrealistic; what parents are going to let their 12 and 6 year olds run around at an amusement park by themsleves? I've got to learn to suspend my disbelief when I'm reading these children's books.

All in all, it was a fun reread of a book that I'm sure I read when I was little. I've also got some of the old Bobbsey Twin books. I'll have to pick one of those up to see how they are.

Check out Lovely Little Shelf for more Friday Flashbacks.

Crocodile on the Sandbank

Hmmmm. I expected to like this one.

I read it for the challenge category of read the first book in a series and decide if you'll keep reading it.

I'd had it a few years. I thought I'd like it since it is a mix of two of my favorite genres: historical fiction and mystery.

But, it wasn't anything special to me. I probably would have put it down if it weren't for the challenge.

It's probably a good thing I didn't love it. I don't need to find a brand new series to read. And it's another book knocked off my personal 2010 challenge and the seasonal club one!

Historical Fiction Mysteries

I like historical fiction and I like mysteries, so it's no surprise I like historical fiction mysteries.


I finished The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane while in New York. It's the story of Connie, a Harvard grad student, who stumbles in to the mystery of who Deliverance Dane (d. 1692) was. The book follows the stories of the two women.

I really enjoyed the setting of early colonial America. While one doesn't usually think of New York as a colonial center, instead thinking of Philadelphia or Boston, there's still stuff in NYC and I enjoyed the connection of the book and some of the sites on my trip.

In their goodreads reviews, a couple friends mentioned that they foresaw the ending. I agree that the book lead to that conclusion prior to the end of the story, but for me it was about how it all played out.

I listened to the audio book. Frequently, I get impatient while listening to books because I could read them much faster. However, the reader on this was great and kept me entertained.



After finishing Deliverance Dane right before my flight home, I was very much in the mood for another book in the same genre. Luckily, my terminal had a well stocked Borders. The Devlin Diary was on one of the tables and fit the bill. It is very similar to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane in a number of ways: 2 plot lines--one in present day, one in the past, an academic backdrop, and an old book with answers.

The Devlin Diary's historical section is in 1670s with intrigue in Charles II's court. I don't think I've read anything in that time period before, so I enjoyed reading about it.

The current day plot was not as well developed. It was enjoyable, but didn't flow as easily. The main characters in it were Andrew Kent and Claire Donovan, who were in Phillips' earlier The Rosetti Stone. (Haven't read it.)

Overall, both were good reads. I did like The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane better, but still finished The Devlin Diary in one sitting.

Friday Flashback: My Gal Nancy

Happy Birthday Nancy Drew! The first Nancy Drew book was publish April 28, 1930. Do you think her creators would be stunned to know that for generations of girls, Nancy has been an idol? That her stories have been translated into an estimated 25 languages?

I read many series when I was a kid, but the one I remember most vividly is Nancy Drew.

My godparents bought me a set of the first 5 or 6 books and it was all over. I was hooked. I had to have been 9 or 10, but I still remember where I was when I read them. I even remember being at school reading one of the books during reading time and being upset that it was over and time for math because Nancy was about to solve the mystery!

As a kid growing up in the South, I thought that skiing was the ski jump. Clearly I thought the world was a Nancy Drew novel. Sadly, I found this was not the case and I don't have a blue roadster, nor do I have a father footing the bill on all my adventures. (He's pretty awesome at helping with house projects though.)

I've collected many old Nancy Drew books. Several of them are the first versions written in the 30s and 40s. They were revised in 1959 to be more PC. (The old ones use some very dated language, especially when talking about race.) Some of the stories are the same with minor revisions of language. Some are completely different stories. (Weird.) I've mainly found these old copies online. I look around at used bookstores, but there's not a big selection and they are usually priced much higher than the ones online.

In addition to the books in the series, I've also read several books about the series, including The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys by Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman and Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak. The history behind Nancy is quite complex. Carolyn Keene, of course, is a pen name and the original series had two main writers that were Carolyn. She was created by the same people that introduced the Bobbsey Twins and the Hardy Boys. With the '59 rewrites, critics think that Nancy lost a bit of her spunk. I still think Nancy is awesome: brave, independent, and smart. I'm not the only one that thinks so either!

The Maisie Dobbs Series

Goodreads has drawings for advanced readers copies of books. I won The Mapping of Love and Death in March. It's the 7th and latest in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I love this series so getting a free copy of the most recent book was great and saved me the money of buying it!

If you are on goodreads and didn't know about the giveaways, definitely check them out. They are under the explore tab. If you aren't on goodreads, why not?!

The Maisie Dobbs series is set in post WWI England. They need to be read in order, so if you haven't started the series, pick up Maisie Dobbs first. Birds of a Feather is second, followed by Pardonable Lies, Messenger of Truth, An Incomplete Revenge, and Among the Mad in that order. One of the things that originally attracted me to the series was the cool covers. They are so retro-y beautiful.

I loved this latest episode in the series. It and the first book are probably my favorites in the series. The books are set in the late 20s and early 30s. It has always seemed surprising to me how much the Great War lingers in the characters' lives even 10-15 years after it ended. It will be really interesting to see how the coming WWII plays a role. There are already brief mentions of events and people you as the reader, looking back in time, know are important.

I highly recommend this series if you enjoy historical fiction. The period detail is fabulous, from the shell shock the veterans face as well as the real-life people like Oswald (Tom) Mosley who pop up in the stories. Winspear also does a good job touching on socio-economic and gender issues of the day. The mysteries are entertaining, but it's really the historical fiction aspect that makes it one of my favorite series. These books make me feel smarter for having read them.