“The Alpine Christimas,” by Mary Daheim

FM's ratings:

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

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

This is the third in an alphabet series, beginning with "The Alpine Advocate" and "The Alpine Betrayal." For me, it falls a little short of the first two, possibly because I'm already getting jaded on the setting and the characters - although I really do like both - or possibly because it's a Christmas-themed mystery and that gets in the way somehow. Still, I rate it an "8" overall, which is pretty good. I'm just not as excited about returning the series as I was before. The discovering of who is committing the murders - chopping up prostitutes from far away Seattle and tossing them in the river near Alpine - is not made by slowly compiling clues until they form a picture, but by poking at the problem from all directions until something pops loose. I'm fine with either approach in a murder mystery, but there is more "false lead" action here than usual. The love interest in the relationships is just now starting to get a bit tedious. If this was a "for women" type of book, that would be understandable, but it's not, really. It's solid mystery-writing without any sense of pandering to a demographic. I will probably read more of the books in this series, but with all the superb authors I have been discovering the past year or so, it may be a while.

Here’s the January line-up!

"Dead Ever After," by Charlaine Harris [1-6-18]

"Tripwire," by Lee Child [1-13-18]

"Imajica," by Clive Barker [1-20-18]
"Death of Yesterday," by M. C. Beaton [1-27-18]

“When Elves Attack,” by Tim Dorsey

FM's ratings:

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

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

I will admit, I checked out this book because I like the title, it looked like a fast read, and I wanted to include it in a Christmas-themed group for December. It was a pleasant surprise to find a "lark" style novel with some interesting meat on its bones. The style hits me like a cross between Christopher Moore and Dave Berry. Not everyone's shot of scotch. But I liked it enough to immediately go to the library and check out another one in the series (which, if I'm not mistaken, is the only series he writes). The main protagonist (his sidekick is an important ingredient to the recipe) is essentially a criminally insane wild man who means well. Whenever he snuffs someone, it's because they had it coming in his view - he's just doing the rest of us a favor. The prose is simplistic - contributing to that "fast read" I wanted - but peppered with great lines such as the ones found in the "finest" sitcoms. The "situation" aspect of sitcoms is here also, with slightly complex setups that you don't see coming. This style may turn out to be a little thin for my tastes in the long run, but I want to explore it while it's fresh to me.

Here’s the January line-up!

"Dead Ever After," by Charlaine Harris [1-6-18]

"Tripwire," by Lee Child [1-13-18]

"Imajica," by Clive Barker [1-20-18]
"Death of Yesterday," by M. C. Beaton [1-27-18]

“Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed,” by Mignon F. Ballard

FM’s ratings:

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

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

At first, this novel was in danger of a much lower rating. The stereotype of a "Cozy Mystery" of being way too girly-chatty and filled with uninteresting details was in full swing for much of the first quarter to a third of the book. The descriptions of Christmas decorations and Christmas wardrobe and Christmas food [yes, with recipes at the end of the book] was rather over the top and bogged things down considerably. Okay, so it IS a Christmas-themed novel and we can presume that many would read it with the expectation of such detail. But the actual plot points could have been presented in a President's Day novel or a Grandparents Day novel just as well. The cast was virtually all grandmothers with the occasional grandfather thrown in. And maybe that was the target demographic for this book. The author seemed to snap out of it to some extent as the end approached, and gave us a fairly decent clue-oriented mystery; just much too late. I will presume that some of Ballard's other works would score a 7 or even an 8 on my personal scale. But - with apologies - I will probably never find out.

“Santa Clawed,” by Rita Mae Brown

FM's ratings:

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

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

This novel is a curious mix of fine attributes and unfortunate attributes. As a mystery, in the standard sense, it works quite well, although if you're one of those mystery readers who like to try and figure out the killer, the author doesn't really give you a fair chance. It's just not very clever, and too much critical information is saved until far too late. The worst thing about the prose is not the wording, phrasing, dialog or any of that. It's the "chit-chat" filler, the excessive attention to meaningless details like who wore what, how the room was decorated, and so on - all the "written-for-women" trivia that one hopes one won't have to deal with much in a Cozy Mystery. On the whole, I have seen very little of this from most Cozy Mystery writers. The only other one that comes to mind is Mignon F. Ballard. The trademark animal dialog by Brown is almost embarrassing in its attempt to depict how our pets might actually converse if they could. And the title? I can't recall a single reference to Santa Claus in the entire book. Maybe I missed one. The plot, too, is marred chiefly by the addition of throw-away scenes that add nothing to the story-line; entire chapters of "character-development" that fails to deliver. Someday I should read a book by this author that isn't a Christmas-themed book, to see if maybe that's the reason for these flaws. For now: NEXT!

“Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend” by Christopher Moore

FM's ratings:

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

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

With this novel, Christopher Moore has shot up to one of my top 5 favorite authors. Pretty much perfect, the “9” for Characters is possibly unfair; a fast-paced comedy of this type would become unwieldy with deeply wrought characters. The pacing is perfect, cramming a LOT of story into about 400 pages. Many authors would have taken twice this many pages for the number of plot points here – a huge mistake in my opinion. And yet, the pace never seems rushed. The amazing humor somehow eclipses the wonderful complexity, depth, and brilliant structures of this book. It just didn’t have to be this good. It’s my third book by Moore, each one better than the last. Next up: “Practical Demonkeeping.” What fun!