Carol Pouliot, author of the Blackwell and Watson time travel mysteries, spoke at the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society yesterday to an enthusiastic crowd. A book signing followed. She presented her newest book: Murder at the Moulin Rouge, which was just released a few weeks ago.
It was such a wonderful event that I hope to repeat it with other authors in the future.
The Dog who knew too much is the third in Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie series. I was hesitant to read it since I disliked The Right Side, also by Quinn, so much. But I was encouraged by a friend to try one of the Chet and Bernies and I loved it.
Bernie is hired by Anya for an odd body guarding job. Bernie reluctantly takes it, and the job quickly spirals into an old mine, that may or may not still have gold, a kidnapping, and yes, a murder. Anya’s son is away at camp and disappears from an overnight. When the search does not turn up the boy, Bernie is arrested for the kidnapping. Of course nothing is simple and, after several twists and turns, the case is solved. Highly recommended.
Murder takes a vacation, by Laura Lippman, is another fun book. Mrs. Blossom, formerly seen in a Tess Monaghan mystery from 2008, stars in this outing. Muriel Blossom finds a stray lottery ticket in a parking lot which turns out to be the winning ticket for 8 million dollars. She offers her best friend Elinor an all expenses paid vacation a Viking cruise.
From the beginning, the trip goes sideways. First, she meets a dapper man on the plane who is the first man to spark something since the death of her husband. When she misses her plane connection, Allan puts her on the train through the Chunnel to France where she will pick up her cruise. After a day spent in Paris, she returns to her hotel to find the French police waiting for her. Allan is dead, fallen from a balcony in Paris. But that is not what Allan told her his plans were. What is going on?
And who is this Danny who keep turning up and tells Mrs. Blossom one story after another and then turns up on her cruise?
Lots of fun. I especially enjoyed this book because I have taken the very cruise that forms the heart of the book. And, as someone who has struggled with weight since childhood, Mrs. Blossom’s own struggles resonated. Highly recommended, both for the characters and the mystery.
Hana Babic îs a quiet, unassuming woman who works in the library. (Not a librarian, actually. No degree.) One day a detective arrives with bad news. Hana’s best friend Amina is dead under mysterious circumstances. Amina has left her grandchild to Hana.
Hana knows she had to discover the identity of Amina’s murderer or the eight-year-old child will never be safe. Hana has the skills to do it for she is more than she appears. During the Serbian/Bosnian conflict, Hana survived when the rest of her family were murdered. She became a partisan, known as the Night Mora, a lethal mythological creature. Now Hana must become the Night Mora again to protect the child and finally find closure for the horrific experiences she endured during the war.
Absolutely gripping. Highly recommended.
Simon Brett is a long time mystery author, most famous for his Charles Paris series. Death in the Dressing Room is the 22nd Fethering mystery.
Carole, a very proper English woman, does not care for the theater. But her best friend, Jude, who counts actress among her many jobs, does. She attends a new play based on a classic television show, mainly because she knows one of the principal actors although Jude did watch the show.
But when Jude goes back stage to see Drake, she finds him dead on the floor, smacked in the head by a prop. There are many suspects, both those in the play as well as the stage manager. Together Carole and Jude investigate.
I’m not a big fan of the Fethering mysteries but I enjoyed this one. Carole particularly is a fun character although I think she would be annoying in real life. The mystery connects to an older mystery (originally declared an overdose)and as in all good mysteries, there are a lot of red herrings and the murderer is a surprise. Recommended.
The last month has been very busy and October looks to be the same. Below are some reviews, guest posts and the like.
I also had an interview. Here are the links to view.
We also live-streamed to the PICT Facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FJ2f8HGck/
Last week I was interviewed by FRAN LEWIS. I will post the link as soon as I receive it.
River of Fallen Angels is the latest in Rowland’s Victorian mystery series. It starts with a bang when Sarah, Hugh and Mick find human remains on the bank of the Thames. Not the whole body, mind, but a few pieces. The so-called Torso Killer is back.
Sarah and her posse jump into the investigation. But Sarah and her husband are almost immediately at odds in whom they suspect.And Inspector Reid, who believes the Torso killer and the Ripper are one and the same, takes another tack entirely.
While Barrett investigates suspects from the Ripper murders, Sarah’s sister Sally has the brilliant idea to search the personals. Doing so leads them to a woman who was once missing but now is in an insane asylum. Sarah begins to focus on a strange religion, the Haven of Love, and the charismatic leader who follows it.
Meanwhile, the bitter rivalry between Reid and Sarah intensifies, but results in a totally unimagined twist at the end. Highly Recommended.
Chilled to the dog bone is S.A. Kazlo’s fifth book.As in the previous offerings, the action takes place in Wings Falls, New York. All the familiar characters are in place.
Decorated outhouses (yes, really) with a prize going to the best one are a popular town winter event. The Loopy Ladies have an entry. Gladys, one of the best and funniest characters, will ride the outhouse across the ice. But the morning of the competition, a disliked man is found frozen to death in the outhouse. And both Gladys’s and Sam’s( that’s Samantha) fingerprints are all over the water bottles outside.
But the victim was so unpopular there are many suspects.
Worse, from Sam’s point of view, a new woman is working at town hall, an attractive blonde named Sunny Foxx. And Sam catches Hank, her significant other, with his arms around Sunny in his office!
Light, frothy, laugh-out loud funny in places. My only criticism is that Kazlo uses the same descriptions repeatedly. Hank is always described with crystal-blue eyes, for example, and Candie, Sam’s cousin, has violet eyes.
Still, lots of fun. Recommended.
When we first meet Will Rees in A Simple Murder, he is pursuing his son to a nearby Shaker community.
Through the series, we see Rees evolve from an indifferent father, at best, to an engaged and caring father. In Cradle to Grave, he and Lydia adopt several orphaned children, increasing the number of children to six.
By the Long Shadow of Murder, Rees and Lydia have a little girl of their own and she is pregnant with another child.
And Jerusha, the eldest of the adopted kids, is now in her late teens and hoping to attend The Litchfield Female Academy to become a teacher. Although Rees would never crush her dream, he hopes Jerusha will stay home. He wants to keep his children close.
In my head, I imagined Rees’s evolving – growing up if you will – from a fairly self-centered man to a husband and father whose core is his family.
Quite a journey.
Simon Rouge, Will Rees’s frenemy in the Will Rees mysteries, is the Constable in the village. Why a constable? We don’t use that system in the United States.
Oh, but we did, once upon a time.
In the beginning, when Boston, New York and Philadelphia were just colonial villages, night watchmen and constables were appointed to keep the peace and provide law enforcement. Constables were, at first, generally unpaid or paid very poorly. Few people were interested in taking on a hazardous job with little pay and low status so the quality of those that did apply was poor.I imagine that little crime was prevented and few crimes were solved.
As the northern cities grew thanks to an influx of immigrants, and dealt with increasing crime, the southern states established patrols to control the large enslaved population.
The spread of people to the frontier created new problems for crime control. In 1789, the US Marshals were created as the first federal law enforcement agency. In1823, the Texas Rangers was formed to protect American settlers from Indian attack in the Mexican territory of Texas.
In 1790, only two US cities had populations over 25,000. By 1820, both New York and Philadelphia had populations of over 100,000. The ability of night watchmen and constables could not keep up.
So, where did our current system of policing come from? Well, just like the system of night watchmen and constables (and sheriffs too), the US copies the ‘modern’ police force of London’s Metropolitan Police force, set up by law in 1829. New York City is the first American city to set up a unified, prevention-oriented police force in 1845. In 1853 they adopted uniforms.
So, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Rouge would still be a constable, poorly paid and with very little authority. This is also why he earns his living, not as a law enforcement officer, but as a tavern owner.
I thought I’d read all of the Holmes/Russell mysteries, only to discover this one; A Letter of Mary.
Mary Russell and her husband, retired detective Sherlock Holmes, receive an old friend and archaeologist at their Sussex estate. Dorothy Ruskin presents them with an old manuscript that she excavated in Palestine. It appears to be from Mary Magdalene and suggests she is one of Jesus’s apostles. The letter appears genuine but surely it couldn’t be. Could it?
Both Russell and Holmes are bored with their current lives and agree to look into the letter further. Then Dorothy Ruskin is murdered. Now the case suddenly achieves significant more importance. The game is afoot!
Although it is a bit of a stretch to imagine Sherlock Holmes married, these books work. I particularly enjoy the antiquated style Laurie King employs; it is so appropriate to the era. Besides, I love the archeological mysteries; Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody mysteries are still among my favorites.
This also has a clever mystery. Highly Recommended.