A Reading Update and New Books

I finished an excellent mystery this morning. I'll provide my review and also the synopsis of the book next in line. I also received some new books yesterday, including one that my wife bought me. I'll provide a synopsis for each of those as well. In my next post, I'll continue with my look at my favorite authors.

New Books

1. The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Department Q #6).

"In the middle of his usual hard-won morning nap in the basement of police headquarters, Carl Mørck, head of Department Q, receives a call from a colleague working on the Danish island of Bornholm. Carl is dismissive when he realizes that a new case is being foisted on him, but a few hours later, he receives some shocking news that leaves his headstrong assistant Rose more furious than usual. Carl has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious seventeen-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from the remote island of Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult, where Carl, Assad, Rose, and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything—or anyone—get in the way."

2. Trophy Hunt by C.J. Box (Joe Pickett #4).

"It's an idyllic late-summer day in Saddlestring, Wyoming, and game warden Joe Pickett is fly-fishing with his two daughters when he stumbles upon the mutilated body of a moose. Whatever - or whoever - attacked the animal was ruthless: half the animal's face has been sliced away, the skin peeled back from the flesh. Shaken by the sight, Joe starts to investigate what he hopes in an isolated incident.

Days later, after the discovery of a small herd of mutilated cattle, Joe realizes this something much more terrifying than he could have imagined. Local authorities are quick to label the attacks the work of a grizzly bear, but Joe knows otherwise. The cuts on the moose and the cattle were too clean, too precise, to have been made by jagged teeth. Are the animals only practice for a killer about to move on to another, more challenging prey? Soon afterward, Joe's worst fears are confirmed. The bodies of two men are found within hours of each other, in separate locations, their wounds eerily similar to those found on the moose and cattle.

There's a vicious killer, a modern-day Jack the Ripper, on the loose in Saddlestring - and it appears his rampage is just beginning."

3. The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who.. #7).

"There's something rotten in the small town of Pickax--at least to the sensitive noses of newspaperman Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese cats Koko and Yum Yum. An accident has claimed the life of the local paper's eccentric publisher, but to Qwilleran and his feline friends it smells like murder. They soon sniff out a shocking secret, but Koko's snooping into an unusual edition of Shakespeare may prove CATastrophic...because somewhere in Pickax a lady loves not wisely but too well, a widow is scandalously merry, and a stranger has a lean and hungry look. The stage is set for Qwilleran, Koko, Yum Yum, and the second act of murder most meow..."

4. Wycliffe and the Cycle of Death by W.J. Burley (Wycliffe #16).

"The bookshop owned by the Glynn family—New, Secondhand, and Rare Books: Established 1886—was old, charming, and we’ll-run. So when Matthew Glynn was discovered bludgeoned and strangled in his bookshop office, it was doubly shocking, for who could have done such a thing to one of Penzance’s most respected families?

But Superintendent Wycliffe found that the Glynns, like many families, were not what they appeared to be. Between the three brothers, Alfred, Maurice, and Matthew, were feelings of bitterness and resentment rooted in old quarrels—and now Matthew was dead, and before very long yet another Glynn was to die.

Wycliffe, trying to unravel the murky secrets of the past, began to suspect that Sara Glynn, the reserved sister of the warring brothers, knew more than she pretended—and he had to persuade her to tell all she knew before another murder took place."

5. Death Masks by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #5).

"Harry Dresden, Chicago's only practicing professional wizard, should be happy that business is pretty good for a change. But now he's getting more than he bargained for:

A duel with the Red Court of Vampires' champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards...

Professional hit men using Harry for target practice...

The missing Shroud of Turin...

A handless and headless corpse the Chicago police need identified...

Not to mention the return of Harry's ex-girlfriend Susan, who's still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man in her life.

Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you're charging."

6. The Answer Is...: Reflections On My Life by Alex Trebek.

"Since debuting as the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewers, bringing entertainment and education into their homes five nights a week. Last year, he made the stunning announcement that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What followed was an incredible outpouring of love and kindness. Social media was flooded with messages of support, and the Jeopardy! studio received boxes of cards and letters offering guidance, encouragement, and prayers.

For over three decades, Trebek had resisted countless appeals to write a book about his life. Yet he was moved so much by all the goodwill, he felt compelled to finally share his story. “I want people to know a little more about the person they have been cheering on for the past year,” he writes in The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life.

The book combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek’s thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality, and philanthropy. Trebek also addresses the questions he gets asked most often by Jeopardy! fans, such as what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Saturday Night Live impersonation. The book uses a novel structure inspired by Jeopardy!, with each chapter title in the form of a question, and features dozens of never-before-seen photos that candidly capture Trebek over the years."

Just Finished

1. Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood (Corinna Chapman #1).

"I've been enjoying reading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mystery series and watched the TV series as well. They were a joy to read and watch. Now I've finally tried her second mystery series featuring baker Corinna Chapman, who owns a bakery in Melbourne Australia. What can I say but I loved it!

Corinna runs a small bakery and lives in a fascinating apartment building attached to the bakery. The place is peopled by a group of the most interesting people; Meroe a wiccan who owns a witch store; Mistress Dread, a dominatrix; Kylie and Gossamer, 2 young ladies who take turns working in Corinna's shop and are budding actresses; the Lone Gunmen, 3 computer nerds who own a techie shop; Professor Monk, an aging... professor of course, etc.

Corinna is divorced, lives with her cat Horatio and Heckle and Jekyll, the Mouse Posse who keep her shop free from rodents. The story starts off with a bang; Corinna discovers a young girl, an addict dying of a heroin overdose on her doorstep when she opens her shop. Corinna manages to keep her alive until ambulance arrives. Daniel, a large, handsome man, who helps with a mobile soup kitchen, shows up and there is an immediate frisson between he and Corinna. Also another young addict, Jase, turns up and Corinna lets him work by cleaning and baking. Someone is trying to upset the women in the building; painting rude, derogatory sayings outside their shops, sending disgusting letters, etc.

So lots happening. Oh and Corinna's ex-husband has a proposal for her. Corinna is kept busy, trying to sort out who is sending the letters, helping Daniel solve the murders and developing a possible relationship with him. It all moves along smoothly and the characters are developed and presented to make you want to know more and to feel an attraction for them all; even the cats (and I'm a dog person.. lol)

It's a cozy mystery but it has such a lovely quality about it. A bit Tales of the City (the quirkiness), a bit #1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The locale is wonderful, the food makes you hungry and the characters make you want to meet them. I admit that I had figured out one portion of the mystery and it was all resolved very smoothly and quickly but I didn't care. I just enjoyed the whole experience. Book 2 is on my bookshelf. Can't wait to start it.. well, maybe after the next Phryne Fisher.. (5 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The Woman Who Married A Bear by John Straley (Cecil Younger #1).

"Sitka, Alaska, is a subarctic port surrounded by snow-dusted mountains. In addition to honest work, there is a lot of alcohol consumed and other people's money appropriated. Bars are loud, fights are mean. Rowdy youths party in the ancient Russian cemeteries, sitting on overturned gravestones. Sitka is hardly straight-laced, but murder is uncommon enough to be widely noted—like the Indian big-game guide killed by an ex-miner obeying voices from the earth's center. The victim's mother, a Tlingit Indian, summons to her nursing home a local investigator named Cecil Younger. The case is old and ostensibly solved. She wants him to investigate anyway. What he unearths is a virtual fairy-tale contrived to hide a primal conspiracy."

There you go folks.