So down to books. During our drive, I checked out the local Little Free Libraries. I found 2 books. This morning I finished one book. I've picked the replacement but I've also chosen one other to meet a reading challenge in one of my book groups. I'll update that and also continue with my look at the mystery genre with my 9th entry in the American PI sub-genre.
So let's get a move on, eh?
New Books
"It begins with a death and ends with one. For months, Lucas Davenport's men have been tracking a vicious woman bank robber named Candy, and when they finally catch up with her, she does not go quietly. In the ensuing shoot-out, she dies – and Davenport's nightmare starts. For her associates are even worse than she was, particularly her husband, a deeply violent man who swears an appropriate revenge: first he will find the names of those responsible; then he will kill those nearest and dearest to them, just the way they did Candy.
So it begins. The husband of one officer is shot and killed. The wife of another is ambushed at work. When a third attack is thwarted, the pattern becomes clear to Davenport, and with an urgency born of rage and terror, he presses the hunt, desperately trying to track down the killers before they can strike again, before they can reach out for Davenport's own loved ones. But in this effort, he may already be too late."
"Just a few islands in a planet-wide ocean, Thalassa was a veritable paradise - home to one of the small colonies founded centuries before by robot Mother Ships when the Sun had gone nova and mankind had fled Earth.
Mesmerized by the beauty of Thalassa and overwhelmed by its vast resources, the colonists lived an idyllic existence, unaware of the monumental evolutionary event slowly taking place beneath their seas...
Then the Magellan arrived in orbit carrying one million refugees from the last, mad days on Earth. And suddenly uncertainty and change had come to the placid paradise that was Thalassa."
Just Finished
"I've read a few of Georgette Heyer's mysteries now. She also wrote historical novels if I'm not mistaken. Behold, Here's Poison is the 2nd book in her Inspectors Hannasyde & Hemingway collection. I have enjoyed this series she does take a unique look at analyzing mysteries.
The story starts with the death of Gregory Matthews, head of a strange family. Although Doctor Hemingway wants to sign off the death as natural causes, one of Gregory's sisters, Mrs. Lupton demands that the death is suspicious and wants a coroner's examination. This brings in the intrepid Scotland Yard investigators and ultimately the death is determined to have been caused by nicotine poisoning. Now the investigation begins in earnest.
Hannasyde and Hemingway seem at times to peripheral to the overall story, which follows the members of the bickering family. Gregory Matthew lived with his other sister, spinster Harriet, sister in law, widow Mrs. Matthews and her two children, Guy and Stella. Everyone seems to have a motive for murdering Matthews, who appears to have been an unlikeable, malicious character. However, none of the other members of the family are much better, sniping at each other and just being irritating. Only Stella seems sympathetic. Add to the mix, Mrs. Lupton who breezes in at inconvenient times and also Randall Matthews, another nephew who inherits everything and makes himself totally unlikeable (Stella calls him an 'amiable snake', and you've got the makings of at the very least an entertaining mystery.
Everything is jumbled and frustrating for Hannasyde and Hemingway but the gather clues and even with the obstructions caused by the irritating family members, make some headway. The story moves along very nicely and the characters become clearer to the mind as you get into the story. The ending is startling but satisfying and there might even be some surprises in the character development. I enjoyed the story very much and will continue to explore Heyer's mysteries. (3.5 stars)"
Currently Reading
I've chosen the following books to read along with those I'm currently working through. I hope to finish at least two more before the end of March.
"Intrepid writer and amateur sleuth Josephine Tey returns in this sixth installment of Nicola Upson’s popular series—perfect for fans of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs—that unfolds in 1930s London as England prepares to crown a new king.
London, 1937. Following the gloomy days of the abdication of King Edward VIII, the entire city is elated to welcome King George. Just one of the many planned festivities for the historic coronation is a BBC radio adaptation of Queen of Scots, and the original playwright, Josephine Tey, has been invited to sit in on rehearsals.
Soon, however, Josephine gets wrapped up in another sort of drama. The lead actress has been sleeping with Britain’s most venerable newsman, Anthony Beresford—and his humiliated wife happens to work in the building. The sordid affair seems to reach its bloody climax when Beresford is shot to death in his broadcasting booth at the deafening height of the coronation ceremony.
Josephine’s dear friend, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose, has the case wrapped up before long. But when a second, seemingly related murder throws Penrose for a loop, it falls to Josephine to unravel a web of betrayal, jealousy, and long-held secrets… caught all the while in a love triangle of her own making."
"As the story opens, the initial viral strain has already attacked rice crops in East Asia causing massive famine and a mutation has appeared which infects the staple crops of West Asia and Europe such as wheat and barley, threatening a famine engulfing the whole of the Old World, while Australasia and the Americas attempt to impose rigorous quarantine to exclude the virus.
The novel follows the trials and struggles of the narrator's family as they attempt to make their way across England, which is already descending into anarchy, to the safety of his brother's potato farm in an isolated Westmorland valley.
The main characters sacrifice many of their morals in order to stay alive. At one point, when their food supply runs out, they kill an innocent family simply to take their bread. The protagonist justifies this with the belief that "it was them or us." Some critics have viewed this as an attempt by the author to distance the work from the cosy catastrophe pattern made popular by John Wyndham."
My Ongoing Look at the Mystery Genre - American PI's Part 9
In my last entry, I looked at Meg Gardiner, Sue Grafton and Anna Katherine Green. I will just look at one author today.
 |
| Jane Haddam |
"Former F.B.I. agent Gregor Demarkian makes another holiday date with death in his fifth mystery. Demarkian faces his most bizarre case when a young nun is murdered on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. Deadly hemlock and mysterious apparitions abound as Demarkian discovers that putting all the clues together will take nothing less than a miracle. (4 stars)"
"It's February on Cavanaugh Street, Philadelphia, and the longtime residents are beginning to act downright moonstruck. Valentine's Day is coming, and Cupid has aimed his arrows at the most unlikely targets. Bestselling fantasy author Bennis Hannaford spots the first direct hit of the season, and she can barely believe her eyes. Stout, comfortable, and long-widowed Hannah Krekorian is bringing home a man. And her tall, silver-haired swain is none other than the best-loved psychology guru of the decade, Paul Hazzard, who coincidentally was once suspected of murdering his wife. Bennis, of course, shares the gossip and the nagging worry taking shape in her fertile mind with her neighbor and best friend, former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian. And Gregor soon uncovers news of his own: The case of who stabbed Jacqueline Hazzard to death four years before is still open and about to hit the tabloids again.
Paul Hazzard's former mistress, the elegant Candida DeWitt, has decided to write her tell-all memoirs. The question is: Will she reveal whodunnit to her lover's wife? Or will the murderer decide to do a little book-editing first...in the form of another killing? While someone may be planning a murder, the yen for roses and romance is definitely blooming in a May-December affair between Bennis's brother and an older woman that has all Cavanaugh Street buzzing. But a corpse is in the offing, and the discovery of a body may spoil the mood at the soiree Hannah is giving to introduce her new sweetheart to all the old cronies, eccentric characters, and nosy ladies of the neighborhood. Especially when the body has been stabbed just like poor Mrs. Paul Hazzard's. In Hannah's bedroom. With the murder weapon in grandmotherly Hannah's hand. Nearly sure (at least 90 percent positive) that Hannah is innocent, Bennis and Gregor quickly list their other possible suspects, who include many of Paul's nearest and dearest. The trouble is that Eros is a classic motive for irrational acts of love. (4 stars)"
"Following Act of Darkness , this fourth adventure of former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian takes place in two tense days at Independence College, a small but prestigious school situated in rural Pennsylvania. It is nearly Halloween: the students are preparing a traditional bonfire by heaping wood around a scaffold where an effigy of King George sits; Dr. Katherine Branch, a witch, is conducting mystical rites with her coven; a sociable raven named Lenore circles the faculty apartments; and the lecherous, tenured and thoroughly despised Dr. Donegal Steele is missing, if not missed. Demarkian, on campus to lecture about FBI investigations of serial killers, is shocked when Miss Maryanne Veer , Steele's secretary, is poisoned with lye in the dining hall—he takes it as a given that Steele has been murdered and that Veer suspected foul play. With the help of his high-strung preppy sidekick Bennis Hannaford and longtime Philadelphia friend, Father Tibor Kasparian , he seeks a perpetrator among the costumed students and quirky faculty. (4 stars)."
The remaining books in the series are (rated if read, *is owned) -
- Not a Creature was Stirring (1990) (3 stars)
- Precious Blood (1991) (3 stars)
- Act of Darkness (1991)
- A Feast of Murder (1992) (3 stars)
- A Stillness in Bethlehem (1992) (3 stars)
- Murder Superior (1993) (3 stars)
- Dear Old Dead (1994) (3 stars)
- Festival of Deaths (1995) *
- Fountain of Death (1995) (4 stars)
- And One to Die On (1996) *
- Baptism in Blood (1996) *
- Deadly Beloved (1997) *
- Skeleton Key (2000) *
- True Believers (2001) (3 stars)
- Somebody Else's Music (2002)
- Conspiracy Theory (2003)
- The Headmaster's Wife (2004) *
- Hardscrabble Road (2006)
- Glass Houses (2007) *
- Cheating at Solitaire (2008)
- Living Witness (2009) *
- Wanting Sheila Dead (2010)
- Flowering Judas (2011)
- Blood in the Water (2012)
- Hearts of Sand (2013)
- Fighting Chance (2014)
It's definitely a series worth giving a try.
Now I'm going to settle down to watch the Blue Jays final spring training game. Enjoy the rest of your week.
No comments:
Post a Comment