“Death of Yesterday,” by M. C. Beaton

FM's ratings:

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

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

As much as I enjoyed this book, it’s hard for me to pinpoint any outstanding qualities. It’s a “Hamish Macbeth Mystery,” apparently very popular in the U. K., Scotland in particular, and written by a mystery writer of wide acclaim, though this is the first one I have read. The series has even been made into a television series, though I don’t know if it gets much play outside the U. K. The prose style reminds me of Alexander McCall Smith, another very popular Scottish writer with huge sales in the U. S. But the story is considerably darker than Smith’s stories – Smith being notably “anti-Noir” – and almost as dark as Ian Rankin’s wonderful Edinburgh novels. The descriptions of Scottish society, the Scottish Highlands countryside/weather, and Scottish personalities and colloquialisms are a real treat. Hamish Macbeth himself is fun to watch in action, though not as fleshed out a character as most “heroes” are – almost like a lead character in a sit-com, though the humor here is often low-key. I have immediately continued with “Death of a Witch” by the same author, something I don’t often do; but this series, light as it is, I find compelling.



Here’s the February line-up!


"The Right Attitude to Rain," by Alexander McCall Smith [2-3-18]
"The Ape Who Guards the Balance," by Elizabeth Peters [2-10-18]
"The Three Musketeers," by Alexandre Dumas [2-17-18]
"The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum," by Kirsten Weiss [2-24-18]

“Imajica,” by Clive Barker

FM's ratings:

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

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

A massively overdeveloped plot – that’s why it had to be 824 pages of small print; the equivalent of about 1500 pages in a normal-size type. It’s not that it contains plot points that don’t add anything, or that it has too much back story (almost none!) or too much side story (very little). It just feels like, once the plot line was fully realized, it was stretched out to triple its length, albeit with meaningful additions that makes sense. It’s hard to argue against that … unless the flow of the story gets bogged down to tediousness. Almost everything else about this book is superb. The prose is mostly quite good, but there were far too many examples of ending sentences with prepositions. I think I normally don’t notice how often this happens in the writings of other authors, but for some reason what really stuck out in this story was the frequency it occurred with. I mean the frequency with which it occurred. Barker writes with real literary flair, seemingly careful not to get too flowery. Perhaps he simply doesn’t like how “stuffy” it sounds to use the “with which” phrase most commonly used to avoid that particular error. The main characters deserve a “10” but many of the secondary characters were rather underdeveloped. The contrasts between our reality and the other realities (dominions) described in the story were excellent; second to none. This novel deserves its stellar reputation among “horror/fantasy” enthusiasts. I just wish it hadn’t been marred by its tediousness.



Here’s the February line-up!

"The Right Attitude to Rain," by Alexander McCall Smith [2-3-18]
"The Ape Who Guards the Balance," by Elizabeth Peters [2-10-18]
"The Three Musketeers," by Alexandre Dumas [2-17-18]
"The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum," by Kirsten Weiss [2-24-18]

“Tripwire,” by Lee Child

FM's ratings:

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

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

Another marvelous Jack Reacher novel. This is only the third one I’ve read, but it didn’t seem quite as strong as the others. The prose is often oddly terse, but that’s a stylistic aspect that enhances the flow of the story. At 559 pages, this one is almost too long, the plot points seemingly further apart than usual, despite the “page-turner” quality of the writing. Reacher’s character comes across as not quite so sterling in this novel, killing the bad guys at will without waiting for them to make the first move. The basic premise is hero-against-villain, with the villain – almost a “super-villain” being the classic facially scarred psycho complete with a hook in place of one of his hands. Hokey on its face, I know, but good writing makes it work. Reacher doesn’t “ride off into the sunset” on this one, apparently having finally met his dream girl. I probably won’t try to read them all, but many more Reacher novels will definitely find a place on my bookshelf in the future.

“Dead Ever After,” by Charlaine Harris

FM’s ratings:

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

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

I have a low tolerance for writing that drags, that get bogged down in details or side issues to the point where I want to take a break. That’s the main reason I love Charlaine Harris’s books so much; it’s always interesting enough to keep you turning pages. A book is either a “page-turner” or it isn’t. And there are plenty of authors out there that have that touch, but none better than Harris. This book is the 13^th in a 13-book series and as such, it wraps things up rather well. By itself, the plot is kind of patchy, only making complete sense in the context of the rest of the books in the series. The constantly high level of tension and exposure to danger in Sookie Stackhouse’s life finally seems to be resolved by the end of this book. Yes, for the romance-oriented readership, Sookie finally seems to have found her “true love.” That’s nice. But for the rest of us, she’s no longer in the thick of things regarding the “sup [supernatural] community” especially the vampires and fairies. All the baddies have been “taken care of” and life can return to a more manageable small town Louisiana pace. A good time for the reader to depart. There are still about a dozen or so Charlaine Harris books I have yet to read, fortunately, and she’s still cranking them out. But this series is fittingly put to rest, as wonderful as it is.