Aunt Dimity & the King’s Ransom; Someone to Honor; Rome: A History in Seven Sackings

If you read my last blog, then you know I wrote about another Aunt Dimity book, Aunt Dimity & the Widow’s Curse by Nancy Atherton. I admit, I really enjoy these books. Aunt Dimity & the King’s Ransom however, was a bit different than I expected. Most mysteries I read revolve around a murder and who committed the crime. This one did not.

Bill needs to go see a client, who won’t come to his office, so he decides to combine business with pleasure by offering his wife, Lori a romantic weekend away. She drops him at the client’s house, then gets sidetracked by a cyclone. As she’s trying to drive to the hotel where they have a reservation, the rain gets so bad, her window wipers can’t keep up and she’s forced to take a detour to a closer town. The next problem she faces is that there’s no room at the inn. The hotel is full of French tourists who should have been on their way hours earlier, but one of them was missing when it was time to go. The owners have an attic space she can use, but she’ll have to help clean it up a bit and make her own bed.

The mystery in this book revolves around strange noises heard in the hotel at night and who or what are making those noises. Are the resident ghosts causing problems or are living people the problem? While I was initially disappointed by the lack of a crime to be solved, in hindsight, that makes the book a little more fun and relaxing. It’s not easy for an author to write a mystery with no murder, but still keep you wanting to know how it’s going to end.

Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh is a romance novel that starts with a good premise. When Gilbert Bennington and Abigail Westcott meet, they each make assumptions about the other and behave according to those assumptions till they learn they’re wrong. Then they’re both embarrassed and insofar as possible, avoid each other for a few days. That’s where the tension between the two slows down till it grinds to a halt. The author had lots of room for ramping up the will they/won’t they get together that we normally see in romance novels, but fails to do so. It was fairly obvious to me that the couple would wind up together.

There’s literally nothing keeping them apart. In fact, their decision to marry comes because of something her brother says in regards to a child custody case Gilbert is involved in. His child from a previous marriage was dropped off at his in-laws without his permission while his wife went traipsing around from party to party until she died. He was off fighting for his country and was unable to come home at that time. Then when the war’s over, he’s sent to guard Napoleon, so he’s gone from his child’s life for about two years total. When he finally gets home, the in-laws refused to turn his child over to him or even to allow him to see her. What actually causes him to ask her to marry him is a letter from his lawyer saying that it would help his case if could show the court that he’s remarried, so the child will have a new mother. I stuck it out because I wanted to see what would happen in the custody case, but I kept hoping for more tension or obstacles to Gilbert and Abigail’s relationship. I was severely disappointed in that regard.

In fact, I know this book is part of a series and after reading this one, I won’t be looking for the others or any other books by this author. I almost felt like I found more tension in some of the case law I read while training to be a Paralegal several years ago.

Rome: A History in Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale, seemed like a good read. I enjoy history. I like looking at how people lived in the past and reading about the way they dressed or their customs at the time.

My problem with this book, and I should have realized this before I brought it home, is that it was centered on combat. Fighting of any kind is really not my thing. I mean my favorite online games either don’t involve fighting or have skills that are not combat related, so why I thought reading a book about Rome being sacked more than once was a good idea is beyond me.

I will say this though, what little I did read seems to be fairly well written and thoroughly researched. He does mention that there is so much Roman history that he had to pick and choose what to write about as a complete history would take several volumes. I suspect years and years of research and work, too.

I realize that so far, I’ve written primarily about mysteries and romance, with one history book thrown in, but I am planning to read other books. I have a back log of books from the library right now, but as I work my way through them, I plan to start requesting books I have in my “To Be Read” list. I hope you’re enjoying my blog.

Next time: Duel to the Death by J.A. Jance and other titles to be determined.

Lion Down, Tiffany Blues, The Hidden Corpse, and Aunt Dimity & the Widow’s Curse

In “Lion Down” by Stuart Gibbs, a young man, Teddy is asked to solve the mystery of who or what killed a little bichon frise dog. The dog’s owner thinks it was a local mountain lion, but Teddy and a local activist along with a Fish and Wildlife employee aren’t convinced the lion did it. Too many things don’t make sense if it was the lion.

As he and his friend, Summer look into what happened, the owner of a theme park, FunJungle who is also Summer’s father asks them to try and figure out who’s poisoning the giraffes, which can be fed by the public. It’s only happening on Mondays, so whoever’s making them sick must be feeding them on Sunday.

While trying to solve both mysteries, they also have to try and protect the lion from bounty hunters and poachers as the dog’s owner has offered a large reward to anyone who kills it. The solutions to both mysteries turn out to be a surprise. Not because new characters were introduced out of the blue, but rather because you wouldn’t suspect the characters involved.

This book is written for middle school age children, but I found it to be an enjoyable read as an adult. If you like mysteries, this a good one.

“Tiffany Blues” by is a historical mystery set in 1924 New York. Jenny Bell is a young artist who receives an invitation to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s prestigious artist colony. She’ll get to spend six weeks focusing on her art at Mr. Tiffany’s mansion. At the end of the six weeks, there’s a competition among the artists with the best one being awarded a life changing prize. Trouble arises when her past seems to have followed her there, despite changing her last name.

While this book claims to be a mystery, it was obvious to me fairly early in the six week time period who the tormentor was and why they were doing what they did. They believed they deserved the prize more than anyone else there and thought that Jenny was the strongest competitor. The only real question I had was how Jenny’s tormentor knew about her past, but even then I had a fairly good idea and it turns out I was right.

It was an okay read, but I won’t got out of my way to read any more books by this author.

“The Hidden Corpse by Debra Sennefelder is a cozy mystery in which former reality TV star turned food blogger, Hope Early’s neighbor dies in a house fire. At first, people think the neighbor fell asleep while cooking, thereby setting her own house on fire. Then a second body is found in the basement of the house. Now it looks like premeditated murder.

I wish I could say that there were enough clues for the reader to solve the mystery before the big reveal, but there weren’t. Turns out that to know who did it, you had to know more about the character than the author showed before the main character, Hope, figured out who did it. There’s a fine line between revealing too much and not revealing enough. It seems this author errs on the side of caution in not revealing enough.

Of all the books I’ve read recently “Aunt Dimity and the Widow’s Curse” by Nancy Atherton was my favorite. Aunt Dimity is a ghost who “talks” to Lori Shepherd by writing in a blue leather bound journal when Lori opens it and calls her name. Ordinarily, I don’t read ghost stories, but I stumbled upon one of these a few years ago and enjoyed it so much that when I found this one, I couldn’t resist. This duo solve murders together.

Lori is a wife and mother of three children who lives in the English countryside, in a little town called Finch. In this book, Lori is at a quilting bee helping to finish a quilt, when its maker, Mrs. Craven, a widow who moved to Finch after her last husband died, tells her that she murdered her first husband because he was a verbally abusive drunk. The widow claims she pushed him down the stairs, then buried him under the rose bushes in the backyard garden.

Lori is so taken aback, that she’s not sure what to think or do at first. Her husband, bill is an attorney, so if she tells him, he has to report it as an officer of the court. In the end, she decides to travel to the nearby town of Old Cowerton to investigate further. Her friend, Bree Pym comes along to help. Their investigation raises more questions than it answers at first. Eventually they do learn the truth and it’s the most unique ending to a murder mystery I’ve ever read.

As you can tell from the books I reviewed just now, mysteries are a favorite. I do have other books to read that aren’t mysteries and will be writing about those as I read them. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed what I wrote.

I’d love to know if you have favorite books or authors. I’m always on the lookout for good books to read. Happy Reading!

Books I Read This Week 2 August 2019 to 9 August 2019

I thought about using the book titles I’ve read as a title for each blog, but when you read more than one or two books in a week, the titles aren’t likely to fit. I mean it’s not as if all book titles are only two words. Titles like The Stand or It are pretty uncommon. Most titles are a minimum of three words and in some cases more. For instance, Storm of the Century or 50 Years in the Church of Rome. This also means you won’t know till you at least look at my blog, which books I’ve read. Although, if you, my wonderful reader would rather know the titles at the start, leave me a comment in the comments section and let me know. I could certainly try it.

Okay, on to the reason for this blog: Books!!

Up first, a Stephen King book, which is about the length of a novella and probably the first pulp fiction book I’ve ever read. I’ve heard the term “pulp fiction,” but didn’t know what it meant till I finally got to read The Colorado Kid. I’ve wanted to read this ever since I learned that one of my favorite SyFy shows, Haven was based on it. I originally ordered the book from the library, but didn’t get it read in time and had to turn it back in as others were waiting for it. This time I found a copy on the “Choice Reads” or “Paperback Picks” shelf, which are books that librarians have read and enjoyed and they are not in the system by title, so I don’t have to worry about someone waiting for it. I find a lot of good books that way and every so often a book that I personally would not have published in the first place.

As it turns out, the show was loosely based on the book. To be real honest, they don’t have a lot in common beyond three of the main characters in the show, but it was a good show and it got me to read a book I might not have known about, much less read otherwise.

In any case, I read the introduction to this book, which explained not only why Stephen King wrote it, but what pulp fiction is/was. I hadn’t known of course, but at one time pulp fiction was a genre of its own. They were books with lurid pictures meant to draw you into a world of action and excitement among other things. They were also meant to be cheap. You could buy one book for about the price of a movie ticket. The publishers of The Colorado Kid are trying to revive that idea.

Anyway, The Colorado Kid is a mystery, but it’s not your typical mystery. You aren’t drawn into events as they unfold, but rather told about them through the memories of two of the main characters, Vincent Teague and Dave Bowie (yes, you read that right; I had to look twice, too) as they tell the story to a third character, Stephanie McCann. Vince and Dave are the owners/operators of a local newspaper on an island off the coast of Maine. Stephanie is a journalism student doing an internship with them for the summer. The story they tell involves a man found dead on the beach several years earlier with no ID on him or anyway to really identify him, except for a package of cigarettes.

Telling the story through the memories of the newspaper owners was different, but I liked it. It was more like you were sitting there listening in, rather than just reading it. There are also some terrific black and white drawings that illustrate different parts of the story. Interesting side note, some of them were done by an actress from the series, Kate Kelton who played “Jordan.” I will say, however, if you like mysteries that wrap everything up in a neat little package at the end, then this isn’t a good read for you, because it leaves you with most of the questions about the victim unanswered. The copy I got from the library was a reprint with a forward that not only gives you a history on how this story got written, but lets you know the mystery in this book wouldn’t be solved. It was nice to be warned.

The second book I read this week was Claws for Celebration. It’s a fun little cozy mystery in which Lara Caphart and her Aunt Fran run a shelter for cats. It’s set in Whisker Jog, New Hampshire, a town that celebrates all things Christmas. The have an annual holiday cookie competition, which Lara is trying to get them to add a pet cookie category.

During this year’s competition there’s a substitute judge as the regular judge is unable to be there. When the substitute judge is killed, Lara starts trying to figure out who did it as her best friend’s mother is the prime suspect.

Then to top things off, when Lara’s making cat treats to sell at the competition using a cookbook she got from her local library, she finds a note in which someone confesses to having witnessed a murder the day Lara was born, 30 years prior. In the note, the witness writes that she’s afraid to tell anyone for fear she’ll lose her job. Now Lara has two murders to solve.

In the end, one of the cats Lara and her Aunt Fran take in provides the clue that solves the murder at the cookie competition and a look in the microfiche newspaper archives provide clues for the old murder. In an interesting twist, there’s a slight, but subtle connection between the two crimes, even though they were committed by two different people; thirty years apart.

The third book I read this week was my favorite of them all. No Good Tea Goes Unpunished by Bree Baker is the second in a series, but the first one I’ve haven’t read. The author literally keeps you guessing until the last second when a new character comes on the scene and says something that reveals who the killer is. I know sometimes last minute characters are annoying, especially if they’re the killer, but in this case, the character is someone that even in real life we aren’t likely to see but once in a great while.

Everly Swan came home to Charm, North Carolina nursing a broken heart after following a cowboy around the country who then dumped her. She’s bought her dream home and turned part of it into a successful tea shop. While catering a friend’s wedding reception, the groom is murdered and of course, all eyes are on the bride as the prime suspect because her new husband was rich.

While Everly is trying to clear her friend’s name, her old boyfriend comes to town and wants to renew their relationship.

I really enjoyed this. The characters felt true to life and made me want to read the first book in the series, Live and Let Chai.

The Avid Bibliophile

In case you haven’t read my usual blog “Scattered Musings,” I’m an avid reader. Have been since I learned what letters are and how they make up the words that form stories.

I’ll never forget walking into my first grade classroom and seeing two symbols on a cork board that ran the length of the classroom at the front. There was a letter “Aa” and about halfway down was the letter “Mm.” I remember wondering why the second one wasn’t next to the first one. As I learned my letters and that they had a certain order, I understood.

My first books back then were the “Dick and Jane” series. If you’ve never seen them or read them, be glad. They’re awful, but back then I was fascinated. I thought they were wonderful. I realize now that I simply loved reading enough that even an awful book was better than nothing.

Since I learned to read, I’ve read anything that interested me. Including, but not limited to mysteries, romance, biographies, and even some science fiction/fantasy. I once attempted to read “The Canterbury Tales” simply out of curiosity, but it was too much with the footnotes for translating words that are no longer in use. In recent years, I’ve taken an interest in classic literature such as “Pride and Prejudice” or “Jane Eyre.”

Take me to the library or a used book store and I can be like a kid in the candy store. I have boxes of books I haven’t read yet simply because I don’t have space to have them out. I have at least four boxes of books next to my bed that I’m working my way through, in addition to the stack of library books I just brought home when I went to pick up a book I’d put on hold.

My two favorite genres are mysteries and historical fiction. I love trying to figure out who committed the crime in mysteries before the big reveal. I became interested in them after reading “Listen for the Whisperer” by Phyllis A. Whitney. In recent years her books are often found in the romance section, as every book has a romantic element, but I read them for the mystery. Because of her books I discovered other wonderful authors such as Agatha Christie, J.A. Jance, Sue Grafton, Lillian Jackson-Braun, and Diane Mott Davidson, just to name a few. I could probably write a whole blog about mystery authors I love, but you get the idea.

I got started in historical fiction when I read “A Rose in Winter” by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. I love immersing myself in a story that could have happened in the past. Miss Woodiwiss and Julie Garwood have become two of my favorite authors in that genre. I know there are others that I’ve read that are equally good, but unfortunately I didn’t think to make notes about them or their work, so I don’t remember their names. I’ve tried using Google to find the books, but have had no luck. I’ve been told that my local library has librarians who love doing that kind of research and could probably track them down for me, I just haven’t gotten around to emailing them about it, yet. One of these days. . .

Now that I’ve let you know why I feel qualified to write a blog about books, I’ll start off with one of my favorite series. “The Mrs. Pollifax” series by Dorothy Gilman. It starts with “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.”

Mrs. Pollifax is a widow with a comfortable life in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She has her weekly garden club and her children are grown and married, but she’s bored. She’s tired of her garden club and decides she wants to do something for the good of her country. So, she goes to the CIA and offers to become a spy.

She’s given a “job” in Mexico City and things proceed from there. She does her job a day early without realizing it, but when she goes back to do it on time, things are very different at the appointed place. By the time she realizes there’s a problem, it’s too late. She’s been drugged and kidnapped. What ensues from there is a series of adventures that only someone like Mrs. Pollifax would have.

In more modern reading, I finished “A Clockmaker’s Daughter” by Kate Morton a day or so ago. When I first started it, I was a little confused by the way the paragraphs are separated in the first chapter and the timeline that seemed to jump around. I was tired, so I decided to try reading it again the next night. It was still a bit confusing, but I figured things out.

The timeline in this book follows no chronological order, which can make for some confusion when you’re seeing things from one point of view at a particular time, then suddenly you’re seeing characters that haven’t been introduced yet in another timeline. I quickly realized that at the beginning of chapters in which the author has time jumped from one era to another, is the year. For instance, the first chapter is Summer 2017. Then Chapter Nine is Summer 2018, but Chapter Ten is set in Summer 1899.

To add to the confusion, some of the chapters are narrated by a ghost. Those chapters are numbered with Roman numerals. I.E. I, II, III, IV, etc. I did appreciate the fact that the publisher used the proper Roman numeral for “four.” Most modern clocks and watches with Roman numerals use “IIII” instead of “IV.”

I enjoyed the story overall, but the time travel back and forth made for some confusing moments when I expected to see one character, but were introduced to another character or even another set of characters altogether. In the end, the author ties them all together, so you know they all had a place in the story and a reason for being there, it just makes for some confusion to go from 2017/2018 to the 1940’s etc. “The Clockmaker’s Daughter” is worth reading, but it’s not one I think I’ll buy.