AN UNTIMELY FROST (Lilly Long #1)
Penny Richards
Kensington Books
July 26, 2016
An Untimely Frost is the first volume of a new series set in 1880's middle America. Lilly Long is a young woman, orphaned at an early age and taken in by a traveling theatrical troupe. Lilly has developed into an accomplished actress but made a bad choice in her scoundrel of a new husband. After he attacks her and absconds with her life savings, Lilly decides that she needs to make a change. She is intrigued by an advertisement by the prestigious Pinkerton Detective Agency. The Pinkertons are looking for a female agent. Allan Pinkerton has hired women before with great success and Lilly thinks her acting experience would be a plus.The two Pinkerton sons, William and Robert, are not so enthusiastic however. Her first interview is a flop but Lilly manages by using her skills to get herself hired anyway. Her first assignment is a missing persons case in the small town of Vandalia, IL. One of the town's preachers and his family disappeared twenty years earlier, leaving a large property derelict. Lilly's client has hired the Pinkertons to find the family in order to purchase the property, Heaven's Gate. People in Vandalia don't want to talk to Lilly and she senses a deeper mystery than a missing persons case. And who is the handsome boxer who seems to turn up wherever she goes? Lilly's first assignment leads her into dark secrets and danger, but she refuses to give up.
Lilly Long is the very definition of "plucky" in her dogged pursuit of the truth. I am not as familiar with the constraints placed on women in 1880's America as I am with Britain's idea of propriety in the same period. It seemed to me that Lilly had a lot more freedom of movement and access that I would have expected. Perhaps the respect given to the Pinkerton badge accounts for her relative ease. She is a likable character who makes the sort of rookie mistakes that I would expect from a fledgling investigator; one who is more innocent than she appears. Penny Richards is obviously an author with a lot of experience in her craft, and one who has done her research. An Untimely Frost is a good read and I look forward to the next in the series.
Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.
RATING- 3.5 Stars
THE BLUEBONNET BETRAYAL
Potting Shed Mysteries # 5
Marty Wingate
Random House Alibi
August 2, 2016
Texas transplant Pru Parke is delighted to be asked to help out with an exhibit at the famous Chelsea Garden Show. The request comes from an old colleague from back in Texas; one who Pru vaguely remembers. The Austin Rock Garden Society (ARGS) is being allowed to construct an exhibit featuring the beloved Texas Bluebonnets. Even though it means leaving her brother, Simon, and new husband, Christopher, back in Hampshire, Pru is eager to get started. The couple has kept their flat in London, so at least she is back on home ground.
Upon her arrival in London, however, Pru finds herself in charge when Twyla Woodford, the president of ARGS is delayed. The other workers have landed, but seem to be more interested in sight-seeing than working, and the mason who is laying a stone wall for the exhibit is progressing at a snail's pace. Worried about the time constraints and the work left to be done, Pru makes an early evening visit to the site and discovers the elusive Twyla. The two women chat about the project and form an immediate bond with their common passion for gardening. Heartened by Twyla's arrival, Pru leaves her only to discover her dead body on the site the next morning, covered by a load of rocks. Who among the crew with their numerous tangled relationships, would want to destroy the show and kill Twyla? Christopher, a former Met Inspector, goes undercover as a worker to both help and protect Pru from the murderer. As Pru has landed herself in hot water before, protection is a very good idea.
The Potting Shed Mysteries is one of my favorite series, full of quirky characters, atmosphere, and garden lore. The relationship of Pru and Christopher is delightful; they may have found each other in mid-life but they are anything but stodgy. Thanks to Alibi and NetGalley for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review. As always, I look forward to the follow-up to The Bluebonnet Betrayal.
RATING-4.5 Stars
ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN
Wendy Walker
St. Martin's Press
July 12, 2016
The first chapter of All is Not Forgotten is a graphic description of the rape of teenage Jenny Kramer in the woods behind a house in upscale Fairview, CT. The rape itself is horrible but what follows is in some ways even more so. At the hospital, Jenny's parents, Tom and Charlotte, are offered "the treatment", a combination of drugs which will erase Jenny's memories. Tom and Charlotte jump at the chance with varying motivations; Charlotte to just "get past" it and Tom because he is rather passive. Several months later Jenny attempts suicide and it is clear that "the treatment" is not all it is cracked up to be.
All is Not Forgotten is narrated by the psychiatrist who is treating the Kramer family, a family whose marital fissures are exposed in the course of the novel. The doctor is also treating Sean Logan, a soldier who was also given "the treatment" after an incident in Iraq. For his own reasons, the doctor inserts himself into both the lives of the Kramers and the police investigation. The investigation itself is severely hampered by Jenny's lack of memory and the typical small town tendency to want to look outside the community. The collision of all the secrets and hidden motivations in the small, affluent town make for a number of twists leading to an explosive conclusion.
There are the inevitable comparisons to Gone Girl in all the descriptions of All is Not Forgotten. It seems that every psychological thriller these days is compared to it; not having read it, I can't address that. I was totally engrossed in the first third of All is Not Forgotten, but then I began to be bogged down in the neuroscience, the troubles in the Kramer family and above all, the very creepy narration of the doctor. I found his manipulations and motives deeply troubling, as well as the moral and ethical issues it raised. There are plenty of issues to be discussed, making All is Not Forgotten ideal book club fare. I won't go so far as to say that I enjoyed the book, but I found it exceptionally well-written and suspenseful throughout.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.
RATING- 3 Stars
TILL DEATH DO US TART (Oxford Tearoom #4)
H. Y. Hanna
Wisheart Press
July 2016
Gemma Rose's Oxford tearoom is doing so well that she feels it is time to move out of her parent's home into a place of her own. The problem is that flats in Oxford are ruinously expensive. Meanwhile, Gemma's overbearing and somewhat ditsy mother is still trying to match-make Gemma and a successful doctor. Never mind that Gemma and her former boyfriend, Oxford detective Devlin O'Connor, have rekindled their old romance.
Till Death Do Us Tart opens at a local cat show where Gemma's mother insists on entering Muesli, against Gemma's wishes. Muesli is a smart and adorable cat, but hardly a purebred. Her fears are not misplaced when she finds Muesli stationed between a prize-winning Persian and a Siamese. The two owners are an over-bearing academic and a paranoid woman who accuses Gemma of trying to poison her cat. When the obnoxious academic drops dead in the middle of the show the fun begins. The doctor on-site declares it a heart attack but the "Biddies" and Gemma's mom are sure it is MURDER. While Gemma is trying to keep the "sleuths" in order, she is also dealing with accidents in the tearoom kitchen and flat hunting.
Till Death Do Us Tart is the fourth of the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries. I love the setting, humor and the characters in the books. I highly recommend them as complete escape reading with lots of humor and mystery. I look forward to more in the series. Many thanks to the author for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.
RATING- 4 Stars
ODDS ON MISS SEETON
Heron Carvic
Farrago (Reissue)
June 30, 2016
Miss Emily Seeton is a retired drawing teacher with a gift and a whole new career. She has been enlisted by Scotland Yard to make drawings of the faces of possible criminals in places that cameras are not feasible. This time she has been sent into a London casino, quite garishly made up and dripping with jewels. She manages to capture the crime boss' face (and win quite a lot of money), unwittingly setting off a series of events including robbery, kidnapping, attempted murder, visits to the racetrack, car chases and the vicissitudes of young lovers. Miss Seeton wanders through all of this, the perfect innocent who sets off momentous events and solves crimes, all unaware.
Odds on Miss Seeton is the fifth and last book written by Heron Carvic in this long-running series which was resumed by several other authors. Even though I had not read any of the Miss Seeton books it was easy to pick this one up. The series was meant as a parody of the books of Agatha Christie, Miss Marple in particular. However, Miss Marple was extremely shrewd; Miss Seeton is decidedly not. Even though Odds on Miss Seeton was written in the mid-1970's, I saw more resemblance to the Keystone Kops and the Ealing Studio comedies of the 1940's and 1950's. Ealing could have done a lot with the material, with it's non-stop action and innocent protagonist.
The Miss Seeton series was written as pure entertainment and greatly succeeds This is pure escape reading. I did, however, find the extensive vernacular use a little difficult at first. I thought I had a decent command of British slang but when it comes to the criminal variety I was lost at times and decided to roll with it. Thanks to Farrago and NetGalley for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.
RATING- 3 Stars
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
(Flavia de Luce Mysteries #1)
Alan Bradley, Jayne Entwistle, Narr.
Random House Audio
April 2009
It's the summer of 1950 in England. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce is the youngest daughter of three in a motherless household headed by her ex-military father. Flavia's father might have been a martinet but instead, is emotionally distant. Flavia's two older sisters are cruel, obnoxious, and in constant warfare with her; going so far as to tell her that their mother was sorry that Flavia was born. Flavia can only believe them since she has no memory of her mother. The family finances are dire and their home, Buckshaw, is falling down. Flavia rackets about the countryside on her bicycle, almost entirely unsupervised. All this sounds depressing, but Flavia de Luce is unique; brilliant, obsessed with chemistry (especially the chemistry of poisons) and insatiably curious.
Flavia's curiosity becomes fully engaged by a series of events at Buckshaw. First, a dead bird with a postage stamp skewered on its' beak turns up on the doorstep; then Flavia overhears an argument between her father and a stranger; finally, a dead body is discovered in the garden. When Flavia's father is arrested for murder, she throws all caution to the wind in her attempt to clear him. She uncovers a story of broken friendship, a long-ago death and philately. In the process, Flavia lands herself in real danger. There are a wealth of characters in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, all sharply drawn and often quirky. The one supporting character that I find most intriguing is Dogger, man-of-all-work at Buckshaw. Dogger served with Flavia's father in WWII but spent years as a Japanese prisoner of war. The experience left him mentally fragile, but he is an unfailing support for Flavia when no one else is.
I have been aware of the Flavia de Luce series for a long time, but just never got around to it. Now I am well and truly hooked. Flavia has one of the most original voices I have ever encountered, at once funny and heartbreaking. Jayne Entwistle brings her, and all the other characters to vivid life. I highly recommend The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
5 Stars
ARSENIC WITH AUSTEN
Katherine Bolger Hyde
Minotaur Books
July 12, 2016
Widowed literature professor Emily Cavanaugh is stunned to be told that she has inherited a large estate on the Oregon coast from a great aunt. She had visited her aunt often as a teenager but had little contact with her since. Events during and after that last summer made her never wish to return to Stony Beach. Since there is a large Victorian estate, a large amount of money and the ownership of a lot of property to deal with she needs to return.
Emily discovers that there are some suspicions that her aunt's death was not the accident that the local doctor says it was. There are also people in town who want her to sell out so that development can take place. Her cousin, Brock, makes it very clear that he had expected to inherit. Not only that, there are people in the village who seem to have grudges against her aunt which Emily has inherited, along with the properties. Complicating matters further, her first love, Luke Richards, is now the local sheriff. Emily and Luke are thrown together when a murder occurs and it appears that Emily may be next.
Arsenic with Austen is the first book in a new series, Crimes with the Classics. Emily draws parallels with Persuasion by Jane Austen which help her and Luke solve the mystery, as well as rekindle their romance. Each chapter starts with a quotation from Austen's works. It's a very clever concept and well-executed throughout. Katherine Bolger Hyde certainly knows her Austen! Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.
RATING- 3.5 Stars
