A Whole Heap of New Books - Part 1

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I traveled back to Ontario two weeks ago to visit with family. Jo and the pups stayed here in the Valley. It was nice to see everybody but it was also great to get back to home. I've been to physio once since my return, on Thursday, and I have to say I've been very achy the past couple of days. Ah well, old age, I guess..

I was actually pretty good when I went back home. I usually visit Allison the Bookman in North Bay and then another used book store in Ottawa before I return home. I did visit Allison's but for a change only purchased 3 books. I didn't bother to even stop at the place in Ottawa. Now, on my return here, I have received one book in the mail and then today I went to the annual Rotary Club Book Sale. Today was the last day so you could buy a bag of books for $10.00. I admit that I took advantage of this opportunity and picked up a full bag of books. So for the next two entries, I'll list the books I've purchased in the past week. It will take me two days to complete this list. Yup, I got a few today, mostly fleshing out series I'm reading but also some new books too.

Just Purchased.

1. The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun (Cat Who #6)











"Inheriting unexpected millions has left reporter Jim Qwilleran looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. While his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, adjust to being fat cats in an enormous mansion, Qwilleran samples the lifestyles of the rich and famous by hiring a staff of eccentric servants. A missing housemaid and a shocking murder show Qwilleran the unsavory side of the upper crust. But soon it's Koko's purr-fect propensity for clues amid the caviar and champagne that gives Qwilleran pause to evaluate the most unlikely suspects...before his taste for the good life turns into his last meal."

2. A Reconstructed Corpse by Simon Brett (Charles Paris #15). 

"If playing a dead man could be called a role Charles Paris has sunk to new lows when he agrees to play missing Martin Earnshaw on the true crime TV series "Public Enemies".

The show has all the hallmarks of a hit: a vulnerable, tearful wife, a sexy female detective and, best of all, dismembered limbs probably belonging to Earnshaw, turning up each week just before airtime.

As viewers shudder gleefully and ratings soar, Paris discovers there's more to the whole production than meets the eye... and the climax is a killer."

3. Alias the Baron by John Creasey (The Baron #5).












"John Mannering (aka 'The Baron') bought the Dellamont Emeralds in Paris. They were beautiful, expensive - and sinister. But Mannering, connoisseur of precious gems, chose to ignore their history of misfortune. Then things began to happen - an attempted robbery of the famous jewels; and a quarrel with Lorna Fauntley. Seemingly separate incidents, yet all connected. The strangest thing of all was that someone was impersonating the Baron."

4. High Five by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum #5). I've read more than 5 of this series but this one seems to have slipped through the cracks.

"Out of bail skippers and rent money, Stephanie Plum throws caution to the wind and follows in the entrepreneurial boot steps of Super Bounty Hunter, Ranger, engaging in morally correct and marginally legal enterprises. So, a scumball blows himself to smithereens on her first day of policing a crack house and the sheik she was chauffeuring stole the limo. But hey, nobody's perfect! Anyway, Stephanie has other things on her mind. Her mother wants her to find Uncle Fred who's missing after arguing with his garbage company; homicidal rapist Benito Ramirez is back, quoting scripture and stalking Stephanie; vice cop Joe Morelli has a box of condoms with Stephanie's name on it; and Stephanie's afraid Ranger has his finger on her trigger."

5. The Lies of Fair Ladies by Jonathan Gash (Lovejoy #15).












"Accused of gutting a vacant old house and robbing it of its balustrades, moldings, and wallpaper in order to augment his inventory, antiques dealer Lovejoy investigates and discovers that his friend may be involved in an antiques scam. 20,000 first printing. $12,000 ad/promo."

6. Three Days of the Condor by James Grady. Oddly enough, this was first titled Six Days of the Condor but the name changed due to the movie.

"CIA operative Malcolm, code-named Condor, discovers his colleagues butchered in a blood-spattered office, he realizes that only an oversight by the assassins has saved his life. He contacts CIA headquarters for help but when an attempted rendezvous goes wrong, it quickly becomes clear that no one can be trusted. Malcolm disappears into the streets of Washington, hoping to evade the killers long enough to unravel the conspiracy— but will that be enough to save his life?"

7. Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham (Poldark #3).











"Cornwall, 1790. Ross Poldark faces the darkest hour of his life. He is to stand trial for the wrecking of two ships. Despite their stormy married life, Demelza has tried to rally support for her husband. But Ross Poldark has many powerful enemies."

8. Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman (Leaphorn and Chee #7).

"Navajo Tribal Police Officer Jim Chee and Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn investigate murders that lead them into spine-tingling and mystical world of Navajo witchcraft. Three unsolved homicides and an attempt on Chee's life have left the Navajo Tribal Police baffled. Are the murders somehow connected, although they occurred 120 miles apart? Or are they random acts of violence? Chee and Leaphorn's efforts to solve the seemingly unrelated individual crimes leave them with clues that point toward one suspect, in this suspenseful mystery."

9. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. I've read a couple of Levin's other horror / thrillers and enjoyed them. I've wanted to get a copy of this for awhile.











"For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret--a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same.

At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon."

10. Not Dead, Only Resting by Simon Brett (Charles Paris #10). Ah yes, this was one that I bought in North Bay, another Charles Paris mystery.

"Tristam Gowers and Yves Lafeu have the flamboyance of stage matinee idols, but currently they are running a very smart restaurant, Tryst, which is much patronized by top people in the theatrical profession. Which means it's not Charles Paris's usual ambience, but this small-part player, who's more successful as an amateur detective than as professional actor, is the guest tonight of another fascinating duo, William Bartlemas and Kevin O'Rourke, wealthy collectors of theatrical memorabilia. And he is in at the death: the gruesome murder of Yves.


Not Dead, Only Resting seems to be an open and shut case. Tristam caught the night boat to France within hours of a spectacular public quarrel with Yves over a pretty youth, and now he has disappeared. But of course there's much more to it than that: much more, as Charles discovers when he begins to investigate."

11. In the Wet by Nevil Shute. I keep searching for and finding 'new' Shute stories. He's been one of my favorite story tellers for such a long time.











"Drunk and delirious, an old man lies dying in the Queensland bush. In his opium-hazed last hours, a priest finds his deserted shack and listens to his last words. Half-awake and half-dreaming the old man tells the story of an adventure set decades in the future, in a very different world."

12. The Battling Prophet by Arthur W. Upfield (Inspector Bonaparte #20). 

"Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is on leave, staying with an old friend near Adelaide. Ben Wickham, a meteorologist whose uncannily accurate weather forecasts had helped farmers all over Australia, lived nearby.Ben died after a three-week drinking binge and a doctor certified death as due to delirium tremens - but Bony's host insists that whatever Ben died of it was alcohol..." 

OK, there you have the first half of this post. I'll finish it off tomorrow.. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!