Review - Peril in Paperback

I reviewed the third book in the series, The Lies that Bind (click here), and the fourth, One Book in the Grave (click here.)  This is the sixth book in the series, let's see how this addition to the series stacks up.

Author: Kate Carlisle

Copyright: August 2012 (Signet) 304 pgs

Series: 6th in Bibliophile Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Cozy, Amateur Sleuth

Main Characters: Brooklyn Wainwright, book binder and restorer

Setting: modern day, San Francisco and countryside

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Brooklyn is invited to the fiftieth birthday party of her neighbor Suzie’s aunt Grace for a week of festivities. Grace, now retired, was the founder of a major video game corporation.  The party is at Grace's Lake Tahoe Mansion that she has enhanced with everything from pinball machines and giant props to secret passageways and trap doors. Brooklyn is excited to discover Grace’s extensive collection of rare paperback pulp fiction.

Early on Grace, who doesn't have a psychic bone in her body, leads a séance that turns deadly.  A cocktail intended for Grace was poisoned and took the life of another guest. Immediatly suspicion turns to the auto-biography that Grace had finished and was about to publish. This sets up a classic manor mystery with a cast of strange guests to investigate.

Brooklyn is not her usual loving and enlightened self in this edition.  There are two guests that she can not stand, really can't stand.  It doesn't help that Derek has been in France...or is it Belgium, working a case and when Brooklyn called, a women made it clear Derek was unavailable. So she is under a little stress with her imagination running wild.  Derek doesn't make an appearance until later in the book so not much to add there.  Gabriel pops up at the Lake Tahoe mansion, somehow personally knowing Grace (I suspect auntie helped Gabriel with some high tech gadgetry in the past.)  Gabriel has really grown on me and in this book he lets slip a few words that make it seem he cares more for Brooklyn than anyone thought possible.  Grace may be turning fifty, but she is a hoot. She springs the biggest surprise on everyone that provides a great twist in the plot.  I enjoyed her character and look forward to reading more about her.  We get to know Susie and Vinnie, neighbors in San Francisco, a little better.  The pair gets quite a surprise during the week with Aunt Grace. Their lives are forever changed, in a good way. 

The mansion is primarily the setting and not so much Lake Tahoe.  The mansion sounds fascinating and provides a great setting for this mystery to play out.  The plot is solid cozy mystery fare with being stranded by snow until the murderer can be caught.  The pace kept up well with sub plots developing and several twists and excitement.

The climax was a good romp complete with revelations and a few surprises.  The wrap-up had some heartwarming moments and leaves the reader feeling good, looking forward to another outing with Brooklyn. 

This addition to the series is a solid cozy mystery with plenty of interesting characters and excitement. If you aren't a fan already, this could make one.

Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list 

Review - Dying on the Vine

The first forensic science mystery series, Gideon Oliver's debut was in 1982.  This series began before forensics or anthropology were cool in mysteries.  Aaron Elkins has won an Edgar for "Old Bones", as well as a subsequent Agatha (with wife Charlotte), and a Nero Wolfe Award.  Check out his recent novel in this weeks review.   Incidentally, this is the final book in the Gideon Oliver mysteries.

Author: Aaron Elkins

Copyright: December 2012 (Berkley) 294 pgs

Series: 18th in Gideon Oliver Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Police Procedural, traditional

Main Characters: Forensics professor Gideon Oliver, know as the Skeleton Detective

Setting: Modern day, Florence and Tuscany Italy

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany for an international symposium on science and detection.  Gideon is a featured speaker, but Gideon, his wife and their family friends, FBI agent John Lau and wife Marti, and making a vacation out of the trip.  During the symposium a recent case is used for Gideon to utilize in a demonstration for the class.  The body of Nola Cubbiddu, who the Italian police had determined was killed by her husband who then killed himself.  But Gideon blows all their findings apart and says it could not possibly have happened that way, it was a double homicide.  When Gideon finds out this is the case of Pietro and Nola, the head of Tuscany’s Villa Antica wine empire - and personal friends they were to stay with after the symposium at their vineyard, Gideon is in the middle of a hornet's nest.  The Olivers and friends stay at the vineyard at the hospitality of the heirs to Villa Antica while the case if reopened. 

This is my first Gideon Oliver mystery.  I don't feel I got a very good picture of him other than his skill.  I did like his enjoying the culture and food.  His friend and FBI agent JOhn has quite a sense of humor and makes an excellent side kick to balance Gideon.  Although the wives are on the trip, they are not as involved and have less "page time" than Gideon and John.  Rocco, of the Italian carabinieri, is an interesting character that you actually miss since he will not likely be in another novel.

Tuscany Italy is solidly described and provides a colorful backdrop along with the politics of the Italian police.

The premise is good and the story took me on a nice ride, but there wasn't as much mystery for me.  The science was there giving tidbits, and in the end there were only two factors that mattered, neither of them resulting from Gideon's findings.  The pacing was maintained as the investigation develops.  But this is not a suspenseful mystery with any sense of imminent danger.  It seems more like a traditional puzzle mystery when all is done, rather than a forensic police procedural. 

The reader has been following Gideon pick through the skeletal evidence, making it through types of bone fractures etc. only to have the police solve the murder without the use of Gideon's science.  Essentially Gideon's expertise only gets the case reopened and the bodies re-examined, Gideon is mostly along for the drama for the rest of the book.  That was a bit of a let down.  There is no confrontation with the killer, the police just arrive and take somebody away.  Very anti-climatic.


If you like more traditional puzzle mysteries, this will be up your alley.  Don't think Kathy Reichs or CSI with this story, because it is unique in its own right.  The science is only one aspect, ultimately Elkins brings it back to the basics of any good mystery.  Although Professor Gideon Oliver is retiring, I look forward to discovering Aaron Elkins other writings now.

Rating:  Good - A fun read with minor flaws. I like mine with a bit more sense of urgency.  Maybe read an excerpt before buying. 

Review - Fatal Winter

The debut novel in this new series by G. M. Malliet was reviewed (click here), and now it is time for the second book.  The first book was received well so let's see how well this one does in meeting reader's expectations.   This book was chosen by Library Journal as a Best Mystery of 2012.  Find out what I thought of it below.  I must apologize for getting behind in my reading.  I am trying to catch up and get back on track.

Author: G. M. Malliet

Copyright: October 2012 (Minotaur Books) 384 pgs

Series: 2nd in Max Tudor Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Traditional Mystery

Main Characters: Max Tudor, Anglican priest and former MI5 agent

Setting: Modern day, Nether Monkslip England and Chedrow Castle

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Seventy-five-year-old Oscar, Lord Footrustle, has invited all of his dysfunctional family to spend the holiday season at Chedrow Castle with him, his twin sister Lady Baynard, and her adopted grand-daughter Lamorna.  Greed and entitlement abound as the relatives are each trying to get into Lord Footrustle's good graces, and thus his will.  But when both Lord Footrustle is found stabbed to death and his sister dead in the flower hot-house, the local law enforcement heading up the investigation asks for Father Max to assist.  Father Max, in an improbable move, becomes a guest staying at the castle, chatting up the suspects, and sitting in during official questioning sessions.  All the family members are forced to stay at the castle while the investigation proceeds, creating tensions and tempers.

This is the classic English country house mystery in the Miss Marple tradition.  There are no car chases or explosives, no nail biting suspense, just a puzzle to be worked among a specific number of people - who committed the murder and how did they pull it off.  A large part of the book is the piecing together who was where, and the timing of the deaths.  Most everybody has a motive, so the focus is on opportunity and means. 

Father Max Tudor has a lot of potential and only some of it was displayed in this second book.  His MI-5 background that drove him to a "paying-it-back" life as an Anglican (non-celibate) priest allows for a more enlightened and progressive view of the pagan love interest Awena.  Unfortunately, his background did not seem to provide much insight into murder until the very end.  His only benefit is that people will talk more openly to a priest, theoretically.  I expected a modern version of Brother Cadfael, but I was wrong.  I would like to see his MI-5 training to be more instrumental, like Cotton Malone or Oliver Stone of the Camel Club, even if more along a cozy plot-line rather than suspense.  I am looking for Max Tudor to reach his potential as a character, then he will be compelling, but currently he is an okay character.  I felt the character Awena was displayed to better advantage than Father Max.  The unlikely and improbable relationship between them is a nice side story that adds to the storyline.

The setting of Chedrow Castle and the small country town of Nether Monkslip are well done backdrops.  The traditional English country house style provided a good puzzle, but lacked a sense of immediacy to engage the reader through the slightly slow middle.  That somewhat dragging middle is a common trap in traditional mystery plots.  Typically the characters will keep the reader's interest and pick-up the pace through these investigative slow parts.  The suspects are all too dysfunctional and unlikable, and the regular cast of townspeople are removed from the castle, so the characters did not carry the slower investigation parts.

The killer confrontation was done during a gathering of all the suspects where Father Max presents his theory of events and who the killer is.  This is how the first book revealed the killer, so this seems to be the signature confrontation method, a la "Ellery Queen."  This falls within the traditional mystery concept easily, but I still prefer a blood pumping confrontation.  The wrap-up is tender and heartwarming, while giving some complications for future books.

This is a traditional British country house mystery with a few twists in the plot.  The main focus being the investigation among a dysfunctional family all cloistered in a castle.  Some humor and romance are sprinkled throughout and the main character has yet to reach his full potential, so readers can watch him come into his own as the series develops.

Rating: Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying - particularly if you aren't a fan of traditional British country house mysteries.

Review - What the Cat Saw

My first Carolyn Hart mystery novel. Some may wonder just how I have gotten by so long without a Carolyn Hart in my TBR pile.  I don't quite understand it myself, but this title broke the cycle.  Find out about this new book (series, I hope) from this prolific writer.

Author: Carolyn Hart

Copyright: October 2012 (Berkley) 304 pgs

Series: 1st in Nela Farley Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Traditional - Cozy

Main Characters: Nela Farley, unemployed investigative reporter

Setting: Modern day, Craddock Oklahoma

Obtained Through: Publisher for honest review

Nela Farley is a newly unemployed investigative reporter - and she is greiving the loss of her fiance.  So she helps her free-spirited sister Chloe by temporarily doing her job at the Haklo Foundation while Chloe goes on a free trip to Tahiti. Nela thinks she is expressing her grief by imaginging that she can hear cats lately. 

Nela arrives and finds that she is staying in the apartment over a garage on the grounds of a mansion.  Within minutes of arriving, the resident cat, Jugs, that she is also to care for, seems to be talking to her.  That is disturbing enough, and then Jugs shares that his former owner died when the "board on the second stair moved" and Nela thinks a suspicious skateboard was placed on the stair.  Her first night is disturbed by an intruder searching and smashing possesions.

Monday morning rolls around and Nela plunges into the political hotbed at the Foundation. Then there is the matter of the newspaperman with the troubling blue eyes who is investigating a long string of vandalism over the last few months at the foundation.  Unfortunately, the killer is watching and does strike again.

Nela is a great amateur sleuth, reasonable, calm, and thoughtful.  Her grieving is not too much, but makes her real.  The Reporter Steve is a great addition as he deals with his distrust of women since his divorce, yet he finds himself drawn to Nela.  The various employees at the Foundation are all detailed portrayals, and all are suspects.  It makes for a large field of possibilities.  Jugs, the cat, is such a dear.  But don't think that Nela hears Jugs often.  You can count the instances on one hand.  It is not a lynchpin to the story.

Craddock makes a good smallish town where you grow up knowing all your neighbors. This makes the reporter and the police really stretch to understand the events.  Unfortunately, it is easy to blame the new people, like Nela and her sister Chloe.

The story grabs you in the first few paragraphs and the pacing keeps the reader engaged.  I found it hard to put down.  The plot felt very natural and the believability held strongly.

The climax was wonderfully tense and exciting.  The reveal of the killer was not necessarily surprising, simply because I had seriously considered all the suspects by that time.  The wrap-up leaves the the possiblity of another Nela Farley mystery and I am looking forward to it.

This is a suspenseful cozy reminiscent of a traditional mystery.  It may not be set in England, but I see it as very close to a modern American Christie in the style of mystery.

Rating: Truly Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend. 

If you crochet, here is a cute hat you can whip up for a party to wear or for decoration.  Does your cat enjoy hats?  The pattern comes in several sizes.

http://www.crochetspot.com/store/?pattern=131

Some spooky cupcakes!
And a fun coffin themed bookcase