Friday, June 24, 2016

“Murder, with Peacocks,” by Donna Andrews

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 8
          2. Prose 8
          3. Plot 9
          4. Characters 9
          5. Overall 9

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This is a “Cozy” – “a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community,” according to Wikipedia.  I recently noticed that the Mystery sections at major book stores such as Barnes and Noble have set aside an entire, rather large area within the Mystery section for such novels.  One could get the idea that these are suitable for a very specific demographic – like Romance Novels – but that would be a mistake.  Many of them are not only very good mysteries, per se, but highly entertaining as well.  The humor can be low-key or riotous; this one is somewhere in between.  The title, like others in the series (“Some Like it Hawk,” “Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon,” “Cockatiels at Seven,” “Lord of the Wings,”) feature birds with a play on words spoofing a famous novel.  This one is possibly meant to evoke Agatha Christie’s “Murder with Mirrors.”  The love interest here is brilliantly executed with the heroine thinking the hero is gay until the last three(!) pages.  It’s no surprise to us; he’s tried to tell her how he feels about her half a dozen times but keeps getting interrupted by plot twists – screams, dead bodies, explosions, etc.  This is not as slapstick as it sounds – it’s really quite intelligently done.  And we realize at that moment how much we have come to really care about these characters.  (Sniff.)  The hero at one point even shares with his love something her father revealed about her: “He’s decided that the best thing for you would be to meet the right guy under circumstances that would allow you to get to know each other as friends before the possibility of anything else comes up.”  And isn’t that good advice for us all?  The final chapter is perfection itself, one of the best conclusions to a mystery I have ever read.  Bring on the next in the series!



Here’s the July line-up!

“Fantasy in Death,” by J. D. Robb [7-2]
“Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe [7-9]
“The Moonstone,” by Wilkie Collins [7-16]
“The Trouble with Magic,” by Madelyn Alt [7-23]
“Mystery,” by Jonathan Kellerman [7-30]


(As always, if there are any books you’d like to recommend for next month, please do so. Also, if you have already read one on our previous lists, you are invited to send your ratings and or comments for that book!)

Sunday, June 19, 2016

“The Blithedale Romance,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 8
          2. Prose 9
          3. Plot 8
          4. Characters 8
          5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This is Hawthorne’s fourth novel of the five that he finished.  To my mind, each was better than the one before; although I haven’t read the first one yet.  The last one, “The Marble Faun” was probably better than this one, but it was much longer and seemed to ramble a bit – not a feature I particularly like in a novel.  The third one, “The House of Seven Gables” was almost as good as this one, but I remember thinking the plot was rather weak.  The second one, “The Scarlet Letter” was a disappointment for me after all the hype from the “experts” on literature.  The prose, in particular, came off to me as pretentious.  Here, only two years later in the writing, it is vastly improved, in my humble opinion.  There were many of those passages that make one pause in appreciation, perhaps even re-read for the excellence of them.  The nature of Hawthorne’s writing doesn’t lend itself to strong character development, but this one manages to rise a little above the stereotypes more than his other works.  The main female character, Zenobia, can’t be called a heroine, but is captivatingly presented; an interesting study in conflicted feelings about the woman’s “place” in society.  The main premise, people dropping out to join a commune, was never really as well developed as it might have been.  Hawthorne used the word “socialism” to describe the grand experiment, and that was probably the term in vogue at the time.  But the commune was really an experiment in “communism” in the truest sense of the word.  Hawthorne does depict, very indirectly, the perhaps inevitable decay and collapse of such a community.  And the fact that he had had some experience with such an experiment in real life is evident.  But ultimately, the story is, after all, a “romance”; a tale of human relationships on the micro scale – unrequited love, dashed hopes and dreams, and finally, suicide.  I probably would not have gotten around to reading it if Hawthorne had written twenty novels instead of only five.  But yes, I will read the only one left someday soon so I can have all five under my belt!




Here’s the July line-up!

“Fantasy in Death,” by J. D. Robb [7-2]
“Robinson Crusoe,” by Daniel Defoe [7-9]
“The Moonstone,” by Wilkie Collins [7-16]
“The Trouble with Magic,” by Madelyn Alt [7-23]
“Mystery,” by Jonathan Kellerman [7-30]


(As always, if there are any books you’d like to recommend for next month, please do so. Also, if you have already read one on our previous lists, you are invited to send your ratings and or comments for that book!)

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

“Queen of the Night,” by J. A. Jance

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 7
          2. Prose 8
          3. Plot 6
          4. Characters 9
          5. Overall 7

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This novel would warrant a higher rating if not for the extremely slow start.  The first quarter of the book was a setting of the stage, the beginnings of several sub-plots that had seemingly nothing to do with each other.  Yes, the connections were eventually made, and were even satisfying, but in the meantime the feeling was like watching a soap opera, not yet familiar with the various characters.  Toward the end, there are quite a few very moving moments; even “tear-jerkers” if you will, now that we care about the characters.  Perhaps if the murder had happened near the beginning of the story rather than well into it, there would be more buy-in on the part of the reader.  The book does make me want to try another one by the author, in the hopes of a better plot and/or a more dynamic premise.

Friday, June 3, 2016

“Broken Skin,” by Stuart MacBride

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 8
          2. Prose 9
          3. Plot 9
          4. Characters 10
          5. Overall 9

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

MacBride has a distinctive plotting style that works beautifully for him, but perhaps for no one else.  Whereas many novels – mysteries in particular – skip back and forth between characters or set of characters while developing a central storyline, the books in this “Logan McRae” series turn that approach on its head.  These novels feature McRae and company working three or four plotlines simultaneously, skipping between them instead of characters.  Of course, this is probably a more realistic look at what real cops and inspectors do, and one might think it makes for a hectic read; but that is part of the story – how hectic the lives of these public servants really are.  And while one might guess that sticking with the same characters chapter after chapter would get tedious, MacBride solves that by making the characters endlessly fascinating.  The various plotlines focus on some of the more peculiar and controversial topics that law enforcement encounters.  Sexual abuse of children, sadomasochism gone off the rails, serial rapists; these are the ones featured in this, the third book of the series.  Weaving the personal life of our hero into the storylines is magnificently done.  And the writing style never flags, making for some of the most truly un-put-downable novels I have read.  This is enhanced, for me at least, by the fascinating Scottish phrasings and colloquialisms used throughout by this Aberdeen-dwelling author.  Example: “’guddling’ – fishing with the hands by groping under the stones or banks of a stream.”  This used in the context of searching a vehicle for clues to a crime.  I love the Scottish writers for this, and none more than MacBride!