U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

Latest Kinsey Millhone mystery

Happy New Year - I finished up 2009 with a great book!

Still in 1988, but with flashbacks to 1967. Kinsey's latest case involves Michael Sutton, who claims that he recently recalled an event that occurred when he was just six years old. In July of 1967, four-year-old Mary Claire Fitzhugh was abducted from her home in Horton Ravine, California. Although her parents agreed to pay the ransom demanded by Mary Claire's kidnappers, the money was not picked up and the child was never seen again. Sutton remembers playing in the woods when he saw two men digging a hole and burying a bundle in the ground, and he cannot help but wonder if the pair was burying the corpse of little Mary Claire. Michael hires Kinsey to reconstruct the past and find out if his memories are accurate.

While this seems like a straight forward case Kinsey quickly finds siblings of Michael coming forth to disspell his memories. In his teens he claimed he was molested by his father and siblings which caused a huge rift in the family and years later feelings are still running hot. After his parents death he recanted saying it was placed memories under hypnosis. So Kinsey starts to doubt him and wonders if it is worth her time. But she is having problems of her own as her newly discovered family is not pulling any punches in trying to get her to come to them.

It is an interesting match between the flashbacks that at first you wonder how are connected to the story and to the final chapter that left me gasping as I frantically turned the pages to see how it would end. I think this is one Grafton's best yet and I really love seeing her stories get stronger and more complicated. It's hard to believe that there are only a few letters left. I might have to re-read the entire series again.

My goal was to read more books this year than any other and I did it! My record was 76 books read in 2006 and in 2009 I hit 86! Maybe someday I'll hit a 100 but I have a ways to go.

Merry Christmas!

Cold Christmas by Charlene Weir


Set in Hampstead, Kansas, Police Chief Susan Wren has a lot on her plate as Christmas approaches. Half of the town's police force is out with the flu, and a series of burglaries is confounding those still standing. Meanwhile, Wren is nervous about her long-overdue trip home to San Francisco, where her cantankerous parents await, along with her old boss, determined to hire her back.


Christmas spirit is nowhere to be found at the home of Caley James. She had caught the flu, the house is falling apart, her ex was no help at all, her three kids were living in front of the television eating cold cereal, and then the furnace decided to die. Life had definitely hit rock bottom, and just when she figures things couldn't get worse, her four year old daughter finds the furnace repairman, Tim Holiday, dead and badly burned in the basement. Police Chief, Susan Wren, takes on this case herself, but immediately hits a brick wall. Nothing about this murder makes sense. Who was Tim Holiday, and why did he seem to be trying to keep his identity a secret? Though everyone claims theyv'e never seen him before, someone wanted him dead. Plus they quickly discover that Holiday isn't who they thought he was. Add to that, two more possibly related murders, and Chief Wren has her hands full with a whole town full of suspects and too many unanswered questions.


I picked this up as a Christmas holiday read and found myself really enjoying this book. Now that I know that it's a series I want to go back and read some of the previous books to get a better idea of the main characters.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Kind of cross between Harry Potter meets the Chronicals of Narnia. Or imagine if Harry Potter goes to college without the boarding school. Quentin believes in magic, he re-reads the Fillory books over and over and practices magic tricks in his spare time. But where will his hobby take him? It hasn't helped him get the girl or be popular. Quentin is on his way to a college interview when he discovers the interviewee deseased. After he calls 911 he is given a letter from the paramedic and finds himself pulled into a magical world and examination. After he passes he is informed he has been selected to attend a Brakebills a secret magician university that only accepts 20 students a year.

About half the book focuses on his 4 years at Brakebills and the friendships he developes. Quentin and his parents are distant and neither seems to miss the others so visits home become shorter and fewer. During one of his last visits home he meets up with his highschool crush who has radically changed into a crazy goth girl and somehow knows that Brakebill is a magic school. It just re-enforces his belief that he is no longer a part of the normal world. After a grueling semester in the South pole where Quentin transforms into the magician he hopes to become he settles in NYC with the gang from Brakebills and life just becomes one big party. Days seem to blend together with nothing ever changing and Quentin becomes to feel despair at his choices and wondering what purpose his life has. He then makes a choice, one that he will regret for the rest of his life that changes everything.

A former classmate from Brakebills, Penny, has hunted them down in NYC and brought a magic button that will take them to the neverworld and then to Fillory. So a quest has been thrown and they all go without thinking about the consequences or cost. The rest of the book is in Fillory and becomes a graphic battle of kill or be killed and Quentin must decide if the cost is worth it.

I enjoyed the majority of the book but did find myself wanting to shake the narrator, Quentin, as seems to whine and dwell on the negative. But I did find the story interesting and enjoyed remembering parts that reminded me of the Chronicles of Narnia. I listened to it on CD and did find that I had to skip some of the more graphic parts.

Gate at the Top of the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Set just after 9/11, Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown Iowa girl weathering a clumsy college year and finds a job as a nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past. Subsequent adventures in prospective motherhood involve a pregnant girl with scarcely a tooth in her head and a white birth mother abandoned by her African-American boyfriend—both encounters expose class and racial prejudice to an increasingly less naïve Tassie.

I tried to read this and about half-way through just didn't care about finishing it. It was due back to the library so just returned it. It just felt like it was going nowhere and while some of the observations were funny it wasn't enough to engage me.

Britten and Brulightly by Hannah Berry

A Mystery graphic novel set in gloomy 1940s London, PI Fernández Britten is known as the Heartbreaker. He's the one who follows cheating spouses and delivers news that ruins marriages. He's so tired of the life that he states dramatically that he won't get up for anything less than a murder. But when Charlotte Maughton, the daughter of children's publishing magnate Maurice Maughton, hires him to look into the alleged suicide of her fiancé, Berni Kudos, Britten glumly takes the case.

With his trusty sidekick and confident, Stewart Brulightly—who just happens to be a teabag (Brulightly provides the comedic layer needed to prevent the story from bogging down with the gloom) —Britten begins sniffing around Kudos's job at Maughton Publishing, keeping in mind Charlotte's suspicion that her fiancé's death could be tied to a blackmailing scheme aimed at her powerful father. The deeper Britten digs, the more mired he becomes in a pit of long-festering family secrets. For a man who's made his living telling the truth, Britten begins to realize that there are some instances when it's best to stay quiet.

On the surface this appears to be a gloomy graphic novel but then the subtle nuances come to light. It is illustrated with dark washes of sepia, blue and grey that give backdrop to the gloom and disappointment and sadness that sets the stage for the story. It's a bit refreshing to read a story that you just know is not going to end well but doesn't wallow in the muck plus the mystery is not apparent on who done it and was a surprise even to the end. Not a GN to read lightly.

Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment

The book features one long weekend in the life of Ruth and Alex Cohen, an elderly New York couple hoping to sell their East Village apartment of 45 years. Ruth is a retired teacher and Chekhov devotee, and Alex is an artist, currently adding colorful illuminations to the couples' old FBI files. As they ready for an open house, a gas tanker truck gets stuck in the Midtown tunnel, seizing the city with gridlock and fear of a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, the Cohens' beloved dachshund, Dorothy, falls ill and has to be taken to an uptown animal hospital. Since no cabs are running part of the story is them trying to get her to the vet and then trying to get back to visit her. As the real estate market swings in response to the news about the tanker, the Cohens wait for news about their dog and confront the reality of leaving their home.

I picked up this book because it caught my eye as it has an outline of a dachshund on the cover. It is short book, less than 200 pages, but I found myself slowing down to read it almost relishing the story. It isn't a complicated tale yet a lot is happening. We see the story from the couples point of view but some of the most interesting part of the story comes from Dorothy, the couples little dachshund who spends most of the story at the vet recovering from a back operation.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

First of a trilogy "The Millenium-series" introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multi pierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable super hacker.

A 24-year-old computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, sports an assortment of tattoos and body piercings but is oddly emotionally dissociated with others and maybe afflicted with Asperger Syndrome or something of the like. She has been under state guardianship in her native Sweden since she was thirteen. She supports herself by doing deep background investigations for Dragan Armansky, who, in turn, worries the anorexic-looking Lisbeth Salander is "the perfect victim for anyone who wished her ill." Salander may look fourteen and stubbornly shun social norms, but she possesses the inner strength of a determined survivor. She sees more than her word processor page in black and white and despises the users and abusers of this world. She won't hesitate to exact her own unique brand of retribution against small-potatoes bullies, sick predators, and corrupt magnates alike.

Financial journalist Carl Mikael Blomkvist has just been convicted of libeling a financier and is facing a fine and three months in jail. Blomkvist, after a Salander-completed background check, is summoned to a meeting with semi-retired industrialist Henrik Vanger whose far-flung but shrinking corporate empire is wholly family owned. Vanger has brooded for 36 years about the fate of his great niece, Harriet. Blomkvist is expected to live for a year on the island where many Vanger family members still reside and where Harriet was last seen. Under the cover story that he is writing a family history, Blomkvist is to investigate which family member might have done away with the teenager.

On the surface this seems to be a cold-case but quickly develops into layers of hatred and corruption against women and men. Each section has a kind of statistic about crimes against women in Sweden. But we learn so much more. I really found this book fascinating and can't wait to read the other 2. I'm wondering if the 2 other books will hold up to this one.

Interesting side-note. The author, Stieg Larsson died just after submitting all 3 manuscripts in 2004. Already book 1 has been made into a movie under the original title "Man who hated women", interestingly enough in Spanish. Considering the original book was in Swedish, I expected it to have been done in that language first.

Undertaking: life studies of a dismal trade by Thomas Lynch

This is a collection of Thomas Lynch's essays. Lynch is the sole funeral director in Milford, Michigan, a business he became a part of because his father was a funeral director as are several family members. Each essay discusses a topic linked to death. At times this becomes a bit mind numbing has he dwells on the same topics in much detail and likes lists. But at other times there is a flash of almost brilliance and you see the poet come out. I think the most moving were the essays where death is brought home to him personally but I cannot say I personally enjoyed this that much.

It was part of my bookclub so I gave it a try but it will not be on my best book list. I really felt that he liked to read his own work and wish that he had had a better editor to help him be more concise and not dupliate so much. You can tell that these essays were written separately and then just put together. I think I would have enjoyed it more as single essays in the New Yorker versus a whole book put together.

La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith

The story begins with two young men driving in the country side looking for a particular town. They finally find it and there begins the story of La "short for Lavender". This beginning is nicely tied up in the end as well.

La's life is pretty ordinary. She goes to college at Cambridge where she meets the man that will become her husband. He proposes just a month after they meet, she doesn't love him in a passionate sense but more in a settling for what life gives her. There marriage seems to be alright except that La cannot have children but her husband seems to accept it. Suddenly her life changes when her father-in-law comes to their home to tell her that he has left her for another woman in France. Not long after that he is injured and consequently dies.

La retreats to a small cottage in Suffolk given to her by her mortified in-laws. The isolation and peacefulness suit La, who joins the Women's Land Army soon after the outbreak of war. She is lonely but enjoys the isolation and feels determined to make something of her life. She takes care of hens who belong a local farmer who suffers from arthritis. Through a friend she meets Tim, who is a local military man, who mentions Feliks Dabrowski (Dab), an attractive Polish ex-pat soldier who lost the sight of one eye and needed a job. The farmer she helps needs a worker to do odd jobs on the farm so together they get Dab a job. La finds herself attracted to him, despite her suspicions that Feliks hasn't been fully truthful about his past.

When Tim finds out La used to perform in chamber orchestras in Cambridge he suggests she start an amateur local orchestra to boost morale for both soldiers and locals. This proves an unexpected success and helps give her purpose during the war's darkest days.

This is a quiet almost observant work of life in rural England during WWII. But we see it from La's point of view as she struggles to find herself up until the very end.

I so enjoyed this book. It was the perfect book to read over a weekend. It was a nice change of pace to see the author write outside his series. He has such a way of writing the female voice that one forgets the author is a male. There is no mystery in the true sense as it is more of La's living her life.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams

Arthur Dent's day is not starting well. He wakes up with a terrible hangover and the realization that his house is about to be torn down to make way for an expressway. Unfortunately it's going to get worse as his friend Ford Prefect convenciences him to go have a drink and then says the world is ending in 6 minutes. Wouldn't you know it, the Earth is going to be blown up for an intergalexic expressway.

Ford Prefect, is actually a researcher for the book "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, and has been stranded on earth for 15 years. Thankfully just moments before the Earth is destroyed Arthur and Ford hitch a ride on the Vogon space cruiser that has just destroyed the planet Earth. Poor Arthur wakes up confused and sick and not able to understand anything being said until he sticks a Babel fish into his ear. After Arthur and Ford are thrown out into space they are picked up by the Heart of Gold stolen by President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox and his shipmate Trillian, both of whom Arthur actually met months before at a party. Such impossible coincidences are explained by the fact that the Heart of Gold is powered by the new Infinite Improbability Drive. More considents abound as they zoom through space. The ending leaves it open to the next book "Restaurant at the end of Universe".

I've read this several times but this was my first time hearing it read on CD. The reader was Stephen Fry and it was so well done. I just laughed and laughed and now want to continue the adventures by hopefully another tale online.

Cold Light of Mourning by Elizabeth J. Duncan

More than two and a half decades ago, Penny Brannigan left Canada to relocate in Llanelen, Wales where she opened a reasonably successful manicure shop. She recently just lost her best friend, Emma the retired school teacher for the area. Emma had been her first friend and was one of the reasons that Penny decided to settle in Llanelen. But life must go on so she continues giving her manicures and silently observing what goes around her. But when she ends up being the last one to see bride-to-be Meg Wynne Thompson the morning of her wedding to the squire's son, she is thrust into the thick of it. During her friend, Emma's, funeral something just doesn't seem right to Penny. So she contacts the local police to report her suspicions.

Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Davies and his lieutenant Morgan are assigned to the missing persons case but after talking to Penny determine foul play may be afoot. Penny informs Gareth about the strange client whom she now believes was not Meg but someone pretending to be the missing woman. As the police arrest the fiancé whose father suddenly dies Meg and her new friend Victoria Hopkird begin asking questions that bring them to the a startling conclusion.

This starts out as a typical cozy mystery but as the mystery progresses it gets more complicated as Penny peels the layers of the various suspects. I enjoyed this story and found it to have more depth than I originally anticipated. I'm looking forward to other books by the author whether the same series or not.

Dresden Files - # 1 Storm Front (Graphic Novel 1-4)
by Jim Butcher, adapted by Mark Powers and illustrated by Ardian Syaf

This Graphic Novel covers the first part of the book "Storm Front" that introduced Harry Dresden, a modern wizard who's set up shop in downtown Chicago. Dresden is called upon to determine how a double homicide, a bloody murder in which two people's hearts exploded out of their chests! Murphy, a female Chicago police detective needs Dresden to help them figure out if this could have been done supernaturally. Along the way, he runs afoul of a Chicago mob boss, a brothel-owning vampiress, an acid-spewing demon, and ultimately a drug-selling practitioner of the dark arts.

Harry is in bad standing with the White Council that governs wizards because he survived an incident in which he killed someone in self-defense using magic. He is under the Doom of Damocles in which if he breaks any rules, he will be executed. This makes his present situation a bit touchy. He is working a case involving the use of deadly magic that requires Harry to reconstruct the original spell in order to identify the murderer. If his watchdog who loathes him catches him performing an inkling of dark magic, he will be obliterated. Feeling he has no choice, Harry soon finds himself on the abyss by the dark magic he encounters.

Because this is a partial collection of a comic book it will be awhile before we see the conclusion to the story. But it is a decent adaption of the book. I need to go back and re-read it to compare.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. All of her friends are married and having children, leaving Skeeter feeling like an old maid. Her friend Hilly sets her up with a senator's son with mixed results. Her circumstances make her tied to staying with her disapproving mother and feeling like there is no future.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken. Aibileen is suffering from a silent rage which makes her respond to Miss Skeeter and sets all their lives in motion.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own. But Minny has her own problems, a drunk of a husband who beats her, leaving her future uncertain. So she keeps herself pregnant as then her husband usually leaves her alone.

Skeeter wants to be a writer but all she can find is a column about writing household hints, since she knows nothing about running a household she relies on her friend Elizabeth's maid Aibileen to help her out. But until she finds something to really write about she will never become a writer. After a chance conversation with a book editor from NYC Skeeter decides to start writing about the help of the women she are friends with. Aibileen is her first interview and then Minny does too but 2 interviews are not enough and it isn't until Skeeter is herself austersied from her community do other maids decide to step up and tell their stories. Some are happy and some are terrible but all ring true. Skeeter changed the names and the locations but it doesn't take long for the people of Jackson to figure it out. When it finally the truth comes to light what will happen?

It is an interesting mix of historical fiction during a time of tremendous turmoil in the US. JFK had just been assassinated, MLK was stirring things up and you see the different sides of the story from the stories told. I really enjoyed this glimpse into a very exciting time of American history.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

It takes place in an unspecified future time in an anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control. This America is filled with lawlessness in the streets ranging from teenagers crashing cars to firemen who burn books instead of fight fires. Anyone caught reading or possessing books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned by the firemen. It is never really specified what constitutes an illegal book but anything from the bible to works of literature.

One rainy night returning from his job, fireman Guy Montag meets his new neighbor Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit force him to question his life, his ideals, and his own perceived happiness. Clarisse always asked why and never just accepted a pat answer. Later Montag finds out that Clarisse is hit by a car and killed, her family gone.

After the first meeting of Clarisse, Montag returns home to find his wife Mildred asleep with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her bed. He calls for medical help; two technicians respond by proceeding to suck out Mildred's blood with a machine and insert new blood into her. The technicians' utter disregard for Mildred forces Montag to question the state of society.

In the following days, while ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag accidentally reads a line in one of her books: "Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine". This prompts him to steal one of the books. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match she had concealed from the firemen's view, prematurely igniting the flammable kerosene the firemen had sprayed her house with and, in a bizarre act subsequently burns herself alive along with her beloved books. This severely disturbs Montag, who wonders why someone would die for books, which he considers to be without value.

Jarred by the woman's suicide, Montag calls in sick, but gets a visit from his fire chief Captain Beatty, who explains to him the political and social causes which underlie the work they perform. Captain Beatty claims that society, in its search for happiness and in an attempt to minimize cultural offenses through political correctness, brought about the suppression of literature as an act of self-censorship and that the government merely took advantage of the situation. Beatty adds that all firemen eventually steal a book out of curiosity, but all would be well if the book is turned in within 24 hours. Montag argues with his wife, Mildred, over the book he himself has stolen, showing his growing disgust for her and for his society.

After Beatty leaves it is revealed that Montag has, over the course of a year, hidden dozens of books in the ventilation shafts of his own house, and tries to memorize them to preserve their contents, but becomes frustrated that the words seem to simply fall away from his memory. He then remembers a man he had met at one time: Faber, a former English professor. Montag seeks Faber's help, where after Faber begins teaching Montag about the vagaries and ambiguities but overall importance of literature in its attempt to explain human existence. He also tells him what books really mean. He also gives Montag a green bullet-shaped ear-piece so that Faber can offer guidance throughout his daily activities.

After a disastrous encounter with Beatty in which he kills him and severely injures 2 other firefighters, Montag flees to Faber's house. Even though he killed the hound another has been sent after him with television network helicopters in hot pursuit. The newscasters hope to document his escape as a spectacle, and distract the people from the oncoming threat of war, a threat that has been foreshadowed throughout the book via the reader being repeatedly told of planes flying over the buildings that the characters are in, as well as a radio broadcast that says "this country stands ready to defend itself".

Faber tells Montag of vagabond book-lovers in the countryside. Montag then escapes to a local river, floats downstream and meets a group of older men who, to Montag's astonishment, have memorized entire books, preserving them orally until the law against books is overturned. They burn the books they read to prevent discovery, retaining the verbatim content (and possibly valid interpretations) in their minds. The group leader, Granger, discusses the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth, adding that the phoenix must have some relation to mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes.

Meanwhile, the television network helicopters surround and kill another man (who regularly walks about) instead of Montag, to maintain the illusion of a successful hunt for the watching audience. But in the end the war begins. Montag watches helplessly as jet bombers fly overhead and attack the city with nuclear weapons. Montag is sad to think that Mildred has died but he hopes that Faber has left the city. They assume that more cities across the country have been incinerated as well; a bitter irony in that the world that sought to burn thought is burned itself. While the initiation of modern society is clear Montag the survivors strive to create a new world in which literature and intellectual freedom will prevail.

I listened to this story on CD and it included a fascinating prologue that Bradbury wrote in 1979 where he talks about the play he wrote based on the book as well as told the progress he took to write the original story and the censorship he has gotten over the years. It is really incredible how a story from the 1950's could still be relevant in an even more profound way. I read this in college and really enjoyed it even more now.

What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie

Book 1 in the Ghost Hunter Mysteries

Introduces M.J. and her partner Gilley who run a business in which M.J. communicates with ghosts and sends them on their way. M.J. and Gilley have known each other since college and their friendship helped them develop a business together.

They get their first big client, the wealthy, de-lish Dr. Steven Sable, where are at his family's lodge is the ghost of his dead grandfather. His grandfather allegedly jumped to his death from the roof-although Sable says it was foul play. When they arrive at the lodge M.J. contacts three ghosts but none of them seem to want to talk to her. In the meantime they have a bigger problem. Steven's father, who had never acknowledged him, is also in town and it is obvious he wants something and will do anything to get it. Steven and Laurie intend to stop him but they need the help of the ghosts to do it.

Lots of sexual tension between M.J. and Sable but enjoyed the antics of Gilley, who is gay, loves computers and is seriously afraid of ghosts. This was a fun read and I will try another to see if I want to read others by the author, who is known for her supernatural fiction.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

After nearly two decades spent on British soil bestselling author, Bill Bryson, decided to return to the United States. But before departing, he set out one last grand farewell tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. Veering from the ludicrous to the endearing and back again, his venture is a delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation that has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie's Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. The result is an uproarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain, from the satiric pen of an unapologetic Anglophile.

Of course being a big fan of any British I had to read this book, well I listened to it on CD during my drive around town. What a great trip down memory lane as I listened to his travels to parts I had visited to parts I know what to venture to. What made this book interesting was his path around the island, most of which was to parts that most tourists never venture. He was intrigued by the names or by things he had read or heard about from friends.

I think that the only part that was annoying to me was the rants he would get on about say Oxford. But I can overlook that as Bryson has such an authentic voice and such a love for Britian. I had not heard of this writer before as I am not a big fan of non-fiction books but I think I'll look for others he has written.

Extra Large Medium by Helen Slavin

Annie Colville sees dead people, and the dead wear chocolate brown while inhabiting the "Waiting Room of Heaven World," which overlaps with the everyday "Living Room World" that the rest of us see. The ghosts reach out to Annie to enlist her in tidying up unfinished—and mundane as often as unconventional—business: which niece should get the Wedgwood teapot, which romantic path a lesbian daughter should follow.

But Annie also has problems of her own: her husband, Evan Bees, disappeared seven years ago, and though he's assumed dead, Annie hasn't seen him among the cocoa-clad (the countdown to when Annie can have him declared legally dead provides the book's time line); her quest to discover which of her mother's many lovers is her father is leaden with disappointment; and some ghosts prove to be more haunting than others.

This was kind of strange book, as I was expecting a bit more spookiness to it. It was very matter of fact in many ways. Annie finds ways to use her gift to help others find peace, both the living and the dead. But she is always cut short of finding peace for herself. There are several storylines told from others point of view. Some were more shocking because you discovered they were dead when you thought they were a part of the living. It was almost like watching a play of these different vignettes that I kept hoping would all tie up in the end. There was some closure but left me wanting more.

Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay

After a brief and mostly idyllic (except for some gruesome performance art) honeymoon in Paris, Dexter has returned to Miami as a devoted husband and family man. He's even getting involved with Rita's kids as he signs Cody up for cub scouts and takes him to his first meeting.

He returns to work just in time for a string of gruesome new murders: four people who are eviscerated, filled with weird stuff (fruit and sunscreen, among other things), and artfully arranged. When it causes a media storm, a reluctant Deb asks Dexter to please help her out with the investigation. His own experiences (and the Dark Passenger) tell Dexter that this isn't an ordinary serial killer, but someone who seems to have a strange grudge against the tourist trade of Miami. It just doesn't feel like a serial killer, but where did these bodies come from? Deborah looks into the Miami Tourist commission to see who might have a grudge and surprisingly there are several.

So Deborah and Dexter go investigating together, looking into the list given to them by the Miami Tourist commission. But then things get personal for Dexter when Deb is viciously stabbed, and while Dexter saves her and captures the attacker it looks like they can't prove it. After his relief Dexter decides to take things into his own hands and silently kills him in the night. He knows something is wrong when the man whispers "Smile" as his last word and his dark passenger is whispering to him. He quickly discovers that he because he got the wrong guy! An email shows up in his inbox with a link to Utube (we know that can't be good) and it isn't as there is a video of Dexter killing him!

The other man starts making it personal when Dexter takes Cody to his next cub scout meeting and there is the den master dead on display like the previous 4 bodies. Dexter ends up on a race against time to keep Rita and the kids from being the next round of victims. But Astrid and Cody can hold there own as they defend themselves and Rita from a kidnapping and are instrumental in helping Dexter in the end. There is a kind of surprise cliff-hanger at the end.

I eagerly awaited the latest addition of Dexter, hoping it wouldn't be like the 3rd in the series which was really a disappointment. So I was very happy to read and say "Dexter is back!". The author, Jeff Lindsay, has such a way of writing with dry humor and somehow makes you cheer for someone who would be labeled a sociopath and is a serial killer. But I really can't help it as this character is so conscious of this and still tries to live a normal life. When I read about or see on TV these horrible people who do horrible things I wish there was a Dexter in real life. If that makes me a terrible person, than so be it. I have seen a couple of episodes of the show on Showtime so maybe since this is in print it isn't a graphic to me. But I do appreciate how Lindsay, shows the struggle Dexter goes through to find his place. I think we all have that struggle with finding the appropriate way to show our emotions and react.

Ice House by Minette Walters

Ten years ago, Phoebe Maybury's hateful husband David disappeared from Streech Grange after his wife caught him in bed with their traumatized daughter Jane. After the body has never been found she still live under the umbrella of suspicion of the village. Now Phoebe lives with her two friends, Anne & Diane, and the three reclusive English women have become the subject of censure and speculation during a new murder investigation.

After a rotting corpse is found in the ice house of Streech Grange, Chief Inspector Walsh sets out at once to prove it is the body of David Maybury, whom wife Phoebe was suspected of murdering when he was reported missing years earlier. Since no body was ever found, Walsh deduces that Maybury returned and was killed by Phoebe or one of her friends, Anne and Diane, who live with her at the Grange. Detective Sgt. Alan McLoughlin, however, isn't so sure, especially after the coroner says the dead man was older than David and the local belief that the three women are a lesbian menage a trois turns out to be untrue. But McLoughlin can't understand why the Grange's residents make the investigation so difficult by refusing to answer questions and sometimes openly lying.

I have been meaning to read this book for at least 8 years and finally got around to it. It is Walters first book and while at first is a bit slow, once she gets rolling the book just sucks you in. It is a intelligent, emotionally suspenseful mystery and really not a traditional British murder mystery at all. Yes there is a murder (maybe 2) but there is this suspense in wondering what is the real motive behind all this. At once point Anne is struck and left for dead. She is saved by McLoughlin who while going through his own troubles and spends the first quarter of the book drunk is really the only person who is objective enough to find the truth. McLoughlin's wife has left him for his best friend and former police detective so he isn't the most objective when it comes to women right now. Plus the 3 women seem to relish throwing their "lesbian" relationship in his face. But is it real or just a ruse? Because McLoughlin is starting to have feelings for Anne which offers us some romantic intrigue.

You really have pay attention and there were many times I had to go back and re-read. I originally tried this on CD but found myself getting frustrated with it so went back to reading. I'm really glad that I did as it lived up to what I had read about it and left me wanting to read more of her books. Walters really has a way of writing about subjects that make you uncomfortable and she really delves deep into the souls of the characters she writes about. I'm looking forward to trying her other books soon.

Daddy Long Legs (Manga adapation) Manga Literary Classics series by YKids

Combines this classic novel by Jean Webster with the graphic of a modern manga style. This adaptation of Jean Webster's novel has been beloved by young girls ever since it was published in 1912.

Jerusha Abbott was brought up at the John Grier Home, an old-fashioned orphanage. The children were wholly dependent on charity and had to wear other people's cast-off clothes. Jerusha's unusual first name was selected by the matron off a grave stone, while her surname was selected out of the phone book. At the age of 18, she has finished her education and is at loose ends, still working in the dormitories at the institution where she was brought up.

One day, after the asylum's trustees have made their monthly visit, Jerusha is informed by the asylum's dour matron that one of the trustees has offered to pay her way through college. He has spoken to her former teachers and thinks she has potential to become an excellent writer. He will pay her tuition and also give her a generous monthly allowance. Jerusha must write him a monthly letter, because he believes that letter-writing is important to the development of a writer. However, she will never know his identity; she must address the letters to Mr. John Smith, and he will never reply.

Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of her benefactor from the back, and knows he is a tall long-legged man. Because of this, she jokingly calls him "Daddy Long-Legs." She attends a women's college, but the name and location are never identified; however, men from Princeton University are frequently mentioned as dates, so it is certainly on the East Coast.

The book chronicles Jerusha's educational, personal, and social growth. One of the first things she does at college is to change her name to "Judy." She designs a rigorous reading program for herself and struggles to gain the basic cultural knowledge to which she, growing up in the bleak environment of the orphan asylum, was never exposed. While she is at college, she becomes acquainted with Jervis Pendleton, the wealthy uncle of one of her classmates, and they become increasingly attached to each other, but her shame and embarrassment at her humble origins lead her to reject his marriage proposal despite her love for him. Unhappy and depressed, she turns to "Daddy Long-Legs" or John Smith, for advice. At the end of the book the true identity of "Daddy Long-Legs" is revealed.

It was interesting to read a graphic version of this classic story which was one of my personal favorites from my childhood. It is a much more flighty, silly kind of story where from my memory it had a much more serious feel to it. I do want to go back and re-read the original story to see if my memories are accurate. I did enjoy this modern adaptation but wish it had been to keep the feel of the original story.

There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin mystery

Now in her 20th mystery, Agatha Raisin is overrun with cases for her new detective agency. Overworked and needing a rest, Agatha takes a holiday visiting several of Europe's most famous battlefields. She goes to Istanbul to see the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War. However, Agatha is horrified to see her former husband, James Lacey, and his much younger fiancée Felicity Bross-Tilkingtonare. She jumps into a taxi hoping to escape notice but James sees her and assumes that she is stalking him as he also sees her again.

Back in England, Agatha ignores his accusations and but it's difficult since she and her entire detective agency and most of the village have been invited to his wedding. Per usual Agatha buries herself in her work until the wedding. After a disasterous pre-wedding party, James confides in Agatha that he is making a terrible mistake. But as a gentleman he is going throgh with the wedding. On the wedding day as James waits for his bride to walk down the aisle; his bride is found shot dead in her wedding dress. The police suspect Agatha in a crime of passion, but fortunately she has witnesses that place her elsewhere. Olivia Bross-Tilkingtonare, Felicity's stunned distraught mother, hires Agatha to find out who killed her daughter as she distrusts the cops to do an adequate job. However, this case is much more complicated as her investigations seem to stir up more trouble than actual find the murderer.

Agatha becomes enamoured with her new love interest, Sylvan Dubois, a friend of Felicity's father; as she suspects both of them in some dubious activities. But Agatha's confidence is shaken to its core when it seems every new person she meets wants to kill her. She even starts to doubt her own ability to be a detective.

Per usual, I await for the latest Agatha Raisin book to come out. But this one was much more complicated than any I've read so far. She travels more, falls in love with several different men, manages to retire from her own detective agency. Interestingly enough Charles shows himself to be more useful and in a much more positive light in this book than ever which shows promise. All the usual suspects are in the story and Agatha finally seems to finally have some closure with James as at one point describes their relationship as "old friends". So I enjoyed this new addition and appreciate the complexity that Beaton is now giving Agatha so hopefully we'll have many more mysteries to come.

Alone by Lisa Gardner

As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dakota saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning and then Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son. Facing awkward stares and a crippling wrongful death lawsuit, Bobby begins his own investigation into the fateful shooting-and a fight to reclaim the life he holds dear. As the trail takes him into a twisted minefield of sordid wealth and family secrets, he is learning that nothing - and no one - is what they seem.

I listened to this on CD and did find myself rolling my eyes during the scenes focusing on Catherine when she would work herself up into a frenzy. It was hard to feel sorry for her when so much of her problems were self made. Some of the best parts of the book were when Bobby was talking to his shrink - mandated by his forced time off. She really helped him delve into himself to find out what motivates him to helping Catherine. He is forced to explore his own painful childhood and his relationship with his parents.

It was interesting to me that this book was written by a woman as she really made the female characters either very weak or manipulative. It was a good story and honestly I'm still not sure after I finished it how much of this was arranged by Catherine or just happenstance.

Whiteout: Melt by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber

Sequel to the Graphic Novel Whiteout.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko is on much needed vacation in New Zealand, but still stuck in professional exile in McMurdo Station in the South Pole. When a Russian base blows up suspiciously, her bosses promise to bring her back to civilization if she'll cut her vacation short to go poke around the debris.

Although Article I of the Antarctic Treaty prohibits any military use of the continent, the Russians are suspected of using their base as a weapons cache and her bosses want her to see if she can find anything out. Soon, Stetko finds herself pursing a team of elite Spetznaz troops gone mercenary who are fleeing across the ice with stolen nukes. Upping the ante, Stetko teams up with a Russian GRU agent to track the rogue Spetznaz and recover the nukes.

There's even some sexual action about midway through the story that helps connect Carrie with the Russian agent and of course complicates the story. Carrie has to decide what is right for the overall good and what is just right for her. It's always a dilemma.

This story wasn't as complicated as most of it took place on the chase across the ice to catch the Spetznaz troops. But as always the black and white illustrations are haunting as we see the desolation of Antarctica and the people who live there.

Gallows View by Peter Robinson

Inspector Banks Mystery

Introduces Inspector Alan Banks, a police detective who left London to work in Eastvale, a town in Yorkshire, where he lives with his wife and two children. Women are being terrorized in the small English town of Eastvale by a peeping tom who likes to stare at women while they undress. There has also been a series of robberies affecting this small town but the police start taking notice when they find the body of Alice Matlock. The police cannot help themselves to wander if this was the work of outsiders or if the peeping tom passion has gotten to be deadly. Inspector Banks is in charge of the case and is working together with Dr. Jennifer Fuller to try to help him understand the mind of the voyeur and to see if there is possibility that he could be dangerous.

In case you wonder how all these various cases are tied together, it really is all down to Banks as he puzzles about these random cases. He has found a new passion of Opera and listens to his tapes in the car or on his Walkman. He admits that he finds new passions every 6 months and wonders if this new one will stick. He smokes too much and while tempted by a beautiful woman he remains faithful to his wife and family. But most of all he is a dedicated policeman who strives to do the right thing.

While this was a bit more graphic than I liked, it was still an intriguing police procedural. I'll definitely try more of these down the road.

Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn

Chet the "Jet" is a dog with one white ear and one black who failed K-9 school (cats in the open country played a role in his demise), but now he is a dedicated PI and works with Bernie, owner of the Little Detective Agency. The story is told entirely from Chet’s point of view, which gives us an interesting twist on the traditional PI mystery, and it is definitely fun to read.

Wealthy divorcée Cynthia Chambliss hires Bernie, a former cop, to find her missing 15-year-old daughter, Madison, whose father is a real estate developer who smells suspiciously of cat. (Chet's keen sense of smell comes in handy.) When Madison reappears and disappears again, her dad says she's just a runaway, though Bernie thinks otherwise.

Chet may not understand things like maps (he doesn’t need them, as he can sniff his way home), but he is a great sleuth who finds the girl and solves the case. The always upbeat Chet makes us cheer for him and realize that dogs can be detectives too. Bernie is a good detective too but sometimes you need a nose to sniff out the truth.

This was a fun read from start to finish. I now have a new favorite duo to look for next year as I'm sure there are more books to come. The only thing I wish the author would do is actually name where the characters live. It is a generic "Valley" in the desert with former ranches and open land that are now city. I guess since I live in a valley in the desert I'm curious to where this is.

Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Pendergast mystery series

Jeremy Grove, a notorious art critic, has been found dead. Burned from the inside out, with a demonic hoof print burned into the floor, and his crucifix melted. The work of the devil? Or a sign of the Second coming?

Enter in former NYPD cop Vincent D'Agosta and then FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, a wealthy, refined and ruthless. The relationship reminds me of Holmes and Watson. Obviously Pendergast is Holmes but D'Agosta while rough and tumble is no slouch in the brains department. When another burned corpse is discovered in NYC, New York Police Captain Laura Hayward, is introduced to the case and has connections to Pendergast & D'Agosta. D'Agosta who used to work for NYPD but after retiring from the police force to write novels he's back in New York state but now working for a suberb where the first murder is discovered.

But their investigation soon takes them from the luxury estates of Long Island and penthouses of New York City to the crumbling, legend-shrouded castles of the Italian countryside, where thirty years ago four men conjured up something unspeakable. There are several storylines as a homeless man from New Mexico reads about the burned coprse and decides he needs to go to NYC to spread the word of the 2nd coming.

This was quite the "sit on the edge of your seat" reading but I found the actual resolution a bit contrived. A lot of superficial characters are briefly in the story and then never really seen again. Maybe it's because I haven't read any of the previous books so need to go and try the first one that introduces the characters. But it was definitely a fun read so will look for the earlier books in the future.

City and the City by China Mieville

A modern crime/detective story set in a unique urban fantasy setting. Two cites that exist in the same space, and overlap at areas of "crosshatching". Citizens in Ul Qoma and Bes hold on to their identities as separate nations by unseeing and unsensing citizens from the other city. To notice in areas of crosshatching is to move over to that city and to breach. Breaching is a major crime and involves the mysterious oversight policing force known as Breach. They have more power than either city's police force but only deal with crime involving the illegal travel between cities. If you breach, you disappear. Trained from birth to ignore the other city, the citizens of either city can live their entire lives in one city without ever truly seeing anything from the other one.

A blend of near-future science fiction and police procedural. Told from the point of view of Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad roams through the intertwined but separate cultures as he investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, who believed that a third city, Orciny, hides in the blind spots between Beszel and Ul Qoma. As Mahalia's friends disappear and revolution brews, Tyador is forced to consider the idea that someone in unseen Orciny is manipulating the other cities.

I have read several reviews so when it came out on CD thought I would give it a try. Honestly it was hard to just listen to especially with the almost Eastern European sounding names and places. Also I had no idea how the cities or names were spelled until I saw the book. I did enjoy the mix of mystery with science fiction elements. Now that I've listened to it on CD I want to re-read it in print to see how it works for me.

Criminal Vol 1 - Coward by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Coward is the story of Leo, a professional pickpocket known as a legendary heist-planner and thief. But there's a catch with Leo, he won't work any job that he doesn't call all the shots on, he won't allow guns, and the minute things turn south, he's looking for any exit that won't land him in prison. We see one of his past heists in which everyone is killed except him as he knows when to leave a situation before the shooting starts. But is he just lucky or is he really a coward? He has to live with that guilt.

Cut to the present, he's lured into a risky heist by the widow of one of the guys killed in a the past heist. She brings on the guilt, saying he owes her for her husband's life. So he agrees to the heist even though his gut is telling him to run. He comes up with a plan but others keep changing the rules. After the heist goes wrong, all his rules go out the window, and he ends up on the run from the cops and the bad men who double-crossed him. Now Leo must come face-to-face with the violence he's kept bottled up inside for 20 years, and nothing will ever be the same for him again. Everyone seems to die around him but he can't even do that right. Is he really a coward or just a survivor?

Interesting GN. I had read about it in an online article about the Parker GN that just came out. So I thought I'd give it a try. It's gritty and shocking and definitely not happy but thought provoking. What would you do when everything seems against you and there seems like no way out but the wrong way? The illustrations are dark and sinister and the shadows show more than the light. I had to read this in small batches as the melancholy was hard to take, as I knew there wasn't going to be a happy ending. But now that I'm done I keep thinking about it.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Guitarist and singer Eddi McCandry has just left a floundering band and her boyfriend when a Phouka, a man who at times is a talking dog, becomes her guardian at the behest of the Faerie Folk. Eddi soon finds herself involved with warring Faerie groups, the Seelie Court and its noble queen versus the Unseelie Court, ruled by the evil Queen of Air and Darkness. The Seelie Court has chosen Eddi because there's "power in a mortal soul that all of Faerie cannot muster." The Faerie need a mortal to give them the mortality on the warring field as it is the only way to have casualties.

In between the battles and conflicts Eddi assembles a new band composed of her close friend Carla on drums, Dan Rochelle on keyboards, mumbling Hedge on bass and Willy Silver on lead guitar. Together they become part of the magic and form the base for Eddi's own powers, which she has acquired from her new place in Faerie. She decides to name the new band "Eddi and the Feys" as a kind of inside joke to her new life. But it will take all the band's power, all that the Seelie court has to offer, and a bit of pure luck besides to win the battle for Minneapolis. Especially when nothing is quite what it seems, for if the Fay never lie, they still can twist the truth to the quick.

The real strength of the story is pure knowledge of rock music and the field, the contribute to the climax, a struggle between Eddi and the dark queen at a concert.

I read this book several years ago and was really pleased to get to read it again for my bookclub. What fun, as it is still as fresh and innovative as the first time I read it. It reminds me why I enjoy urban fantasy and need to read more again.

Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron

Deborah Knott series

This book introduces attorney Deborah Knott, the daughter of an infamous North Carolina bootlegger, a local girl who is now running for a district court judgeship. 18-year-old Gayle Whitehead (whom Deb babysat) asks her to investigate the unsolved murder of her mother, Janie, which took place when Gayle was an infant. The girl wants Deb, who knows the locals of Cotton Grove, to ask around and see if she can find clues the police might have missed. Deb visits Michael Vickery, the gay son of Cotton Grove's retired doctor and owner of the property where Janie's body was found.

During the visit they are shot at by an unknown person who Deb suspects is Michael's partner Den. The next day Deb receives a call from an employee of Pot Shop who says neither man has shown up for work that day - she also says Den had called Deb and left her a message to meet him at the theater as he had something to give her. Realizing that she had missed his message Deb goes to the theater only to discover a dead boy - shot in the face- assumed to be Den, in the parking lot. After the initial autopsy it is found to be Michael instead.

Den comes to her asking for her legal advice. But is what he is telling her the truth or just a game he is playing? So while trying to win her judgeship she is doing her best to find the truth. Along the way she discovers long-kept secrets, learning that Janie had a roving eye and that her best friend had made overtures to Janie a week before the murder. But as is often the case, the answer is not obvious or easy.

I had read about this series so finally decided to try it out. I'm not a big fan of legal mysteries but do enjoy a good Southern story. I was happy to discover that the legal aspect was not the primary one so was able to enjoy it. I did find the main character's way of almost having conversations with herself to be somewhat distracting as it didn't really fit the rest of the story. But I enjoyed the characters and the politics you have to play to get the vote. I'll definitely read another one.

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer

Agnes Crandall is a feisty food writer and cookbook author on her third fiancé, Taylor Beaufort. Though their future looks bright, their romance is curdling, partly due to their deal with widowed mob wife Brenda Fortunato (who is selling them her old house) to hold a Fortunato family wedding at their house in exchange for three months of payments.

While making dinner an armed thug tries to kidnap Agnes's dog so after Agnes bonks him on the head a few times with a frying pan he falls to his death through a false door to the basement (that Agnes didn't even know was there). Agnes calls the police but her friend Joey, a Fortunato family friend (and mobster) asks hit man Shane to keep an eye on Agnes. Cue the romantic interest. After many more head bashings with the frying pan and shootouts that call for the clean up expertise of Mr. Carpenter, Shane starts to wonder who is behind all this.

Meanwhile the wedding must go on or Agnes will lose the house to Brenda. But now she is starting to wonder if maybe Brenda is trying to screw Agnes out of the house as she seems to be sabotaging the wedding right and left. Many more cast of characters from the very bridizilla, Maria, and the groom who might be getting cold feet.

It is an interesting mix of the South meets New York gangsters. There are laugh out loud moment but not as many as I had hoped as this became quite the complicated story - primarily because of all the characters.

Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow

The book opens with a funeral. Molly Marx is 35 when she dies in an unexplained bicycle accident, and she is watching her own funeral. She chooses to watch her loved ones after her death. Molly's life is cut short during a bicycle ride in Riverside Park on a rainy day, and she suddenly finds herself in a place called the Duration.

Molly was married to a successful plastic surgeon (who has cheated on her since their wedding day and comes equipped with a stereotypical over protective Jewish mother), has a four year-old daughter she loves with all her heart, close relationships with her family, good friends, a fulfilling and creative career, and a handsome, secret lover who might just be her soulmate.

After her death when she wakes up in the Duration, she discovers that she is equipped with a fully functioning bull*&$ meter, and Molly watches as life goes on without her. Each chapter starts with important events that occurred before Molly's death, so the reader is given clues to perspectives of Molly's life from her memories, current events, the thoughts of her loved ones, and even an NYC detective who is trying to discover how Molly died.

But in the end, how Molly died is less important than how she lived, and how pieces of Molly lived on in others, long after she was gone.

This book reminded me of Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold kind of merging with Sex and the City. But I did really enjoy it. The ending was a bit contrived and really tried to tie up everything. I think I enjoyed the chapters that dealt with her relationships as she realizes that she really didn't value herself until after she saw how it affected her family and friends and even her husband who seemed more focused on apperances rather than just being.

Flood by Andrew Vachss

The main character a private detective known as Burke, comes to the assistance of a young woman named Flood. She is searching for a psychotic freak known as the Cobra, a child molester who has murdered her closest friend's child. After much fighting and chasing her down Burke finally accepts the job. Not necessarily a hitman, Burke is more of an avenging angel for hire, if he can be convinced the cause is worthy, and his dog Pansy doesn't rip a prospective client to shreds. His existence consists of an odd assortment of hookers, restaurant owners, gambling, and Max the Silent, his spiritual brother, and possibly the most dangerous man on Earth.

This is not a quick or easy or clean read. It makes you stop and think really shudder a bit as the story revolves around an underworld of S&M, perversion, and snuff films. Unfortunately we know from watching the news these things really do exist. Vachss is a lawyer specializing in child abuse cases and bases his stories on many true life situations he had found himself involved in.

The characters are interesting and intriguing and I'll probably read more but it will be awhile before my brain can really take another one.

Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel Dalhousie Mystery

Edinburgh moral philosopher Isabel Dalhousie is living her life as best she can. She's recently assumed ownership of the obscure journal she's edited for many years, the Review of Applied Ethics. While this seems straightforward she has the dilemma of a former member of the board who submitted a paper for publication.

She is approached by a woman she meets at a dinner to investigate her husband, Marcus Moncrieff a doctor accused of scientific fraud. Did Dr. Moncrieff manipulate the data for a drug developed by the same company that funded his research? But as often is the case it is much more complicated than it first appears. It turns out that Dr. Moncrieff’s nephew, who is also his assistant, might have had good reason to exact revenge on his uncle. (At issue is the inheritance of a large farm on Scotland’s Black Isle.)

Meanwhile, Isabel’s much younger boyfriend, Jamie, continues to dote on Isabel and their infant son, Charlie. (Alas, Jamie’s extraordinary good looks have Isabel forever worrying that he will lose interest in her.) There are other moral dilemmas, too. Isabel suspects that Eddie, the vulnerable young man who works at Isabel’s niece’s deli, lied about the reason he needs to borrow money. And Grace, Isabel’s very assertive housekeeper, has been telling local residents that her adorable Charlie is her own.

Most of the story is Isabel contimplating how to best approach situations she is uncomfortable with. I enjoy her musings but find myself getting a bit tired of her fears about Jamie leaving her. Plus I really cannot stand her niece Cat who thankfully is not around much during this book. It is always like a quick vacation to Edinburgh and this is a much cheaper option.

Whiteout by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber

Graphic novel set in Antarctica on a station with nothing but ice and snow for miles and miles. It is cold and desolete and the black and white drawings illustrate the starkness and almost depressive state of it all. Carrie Stetko is a U.S. Marshal, and though she's been exiled there she's made The Ice her home. Because she is one of the few year round women who live there she has to be cold and mean and hard to survive it. But she has also found a place where she can forget her troubled past and feel at peace. Then someone commits a murder in her jurisdiction and that peace is shattered. The murderer is one of five men scattered across the continent, and he has more reason to hide than just the slaying. Several ice samples were taken from the area around the body, and the depth of the drilling signifies something particular was removed. Enter Lily Sharpe, a British intellegence agent or spook, who wants to know what was so important another man's life had to be taken for it.

Just saw a movie trailer for a movie Whiteout based on this GN. This was a gritty and intense GN, I had to go back and reread sections as there is a lot packed into what originally looks like a simple story. It will be interesting to see how this translates on the big screen. There is one amazing sequence as Stetko and Sharpe are tied to a line and go out during a Whiteout to hunt down the killer. You see why the book is called the name as both are blind in their quest for the truth and finding the killer. Because of the harsh conditions everyone looks the same as they all wear the same gear so while you assume you know who the killer is you cannot be exactly sure.

Star Trek Archives Volume 1: Best of Peter David
Includes 5 original comics in one collection
Star Trek Annual #3 - Retrospect
Star Trek #13-15 - Return of the Worthy series - co-written by Bill Mumy
Star Trek #19 - Once a Hero

Great fun. I am a big fan of Peter David - I've read most of his earlier work and was not aware he had written Star Trek comics. So when I saw this in my local comic book store on Thursday I had to buy it. All of these focus on the original Star Trek crew and seem to be after ST2. All of these have a definite nostalgic feel as the various ST crew deal with loss.

Retrospect focuses on Scotty, it beings as he receives a package from home we see him grieve for the woman whom he loved. The story is told in reverse and ends with the first time they meet as young children in Scotland. Very sweet and always nice to see a story revolve around Scotty.

Worthy is a trio of comics that focus on the legend of the Worthy that are discovered by the Enterprise when they are exploring the planet before they set up the Lamver Unit, which is an inter-planetary device which is scheduled to be tested on the planet. During their exploration they are attached by a flying robot and discover a small space vessel which houses several humanoids in suspended animation. As they wake up the humanoids they find out that they are the Worthy who are legendary beings who go from world to world saving them. The storyline goes from the crew of the Enterprise getting to know the Worthy to deciding not to use the planet as a test sight as it is now a burial ground for the fallen Worthy to taking them home and finding it destroyed. In the end the Worthy decide to take back up their mission and save planets from a fate their planet suffered.

Once a Hero - is mostly about Kirk trying to come to terms that a member of his crew, Ensign Lee died to save Kirk's life but no one including Kirk knows anything about Lee except his name and rank. The storyline focuses on Kirk interviewing various members of the crew who interacted with Lee to see what they know about him as well as re-living the mission that ends Lee's life. It ends with a eulogy in which Kirk challenges everyone to get to know their fellow crew members no matter how insignificant they might be.

Now unless you are a Star Trek fan these comics won't do much for you. But Peter David has written so many novels for Star Trek that it really shows in these comics plus he writes really excellent dialog. I so enjoyed it.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

When legendary German conductor Helmut Wellauer is found dead in his dressing room two acts into a performance of La Traviata , police commissario Guido Brunetti is called in. Among those who might have provided the cyanide poison that killed the maestro, immediate suspects include the much younger wife and many in the music industry who are offended by his homophobia. Methodically probing into the victim's past, Brunetti also uncovers Wellauer's Nazi sympathies and a lead to a trio of singing sisters from yesteryear--one now destitute, one dead and the other missing.

You truly feel like you are wondering around Venice in this book. But what I enjoyed even more than exploring Venice was observing Guido interact with his family; his moody teenage son, mathematically driven sure-footed pre-teen daughter, and his independent English Professor wife who he truly does love and desire even when his eye is drawn to other women. Plus he has an almost love/hate relationship with his very wealthy in-laws. I felt like I was there watching over his shoulder as he interviewed the various suspects and tried to unravel who killed the conductor and most of all why. They mystery is finally resolved at the end with a surprising twist but satisfactory conclusion. I am intrigued enough to read more.

How to Live with a Neurotic Cat by Stephen Baker

Full of little stories, one liners and cartoons about cats and what they do, all very tongue in cheek. Illustrations are all in black and white and remind me of cartoons from the New Yorker. A friend recommended that I read this book so I found it at my local PL. I laughed a lot and quickly finished and returned it. This is not a book where one can actually learn anything about cats but rather makes you nod you head in agreement. I loved the segments on teaching cats tricks - basically the cat sleeps while you move it around. Hilarious!

I believe there is a dog counterpart but have not read it. It would be fun to read though I am more of a cat fan than dog.

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

1st book in the Kurt Wallender mystery series

Set in Sweden these books are now being translated into English. Also some of the novels have been an adapted for Masterpiece Mystery series on PBS starring Kenneth Branagh

The story opens with a horrific murder scene on the Lovgren farm in rural Sweden. An elderly farmer discovers that his neighbors, also elderly, have been attacked. The husband, Johannes Lovgren, was gruesomely tortured and killed while his wife, Maria, left for dead with a noose around her neck. Rydberg, a police force old-timer, says the noose's unusual knot and the word foreigner, which old woman uttered before she died, are important. Wallender puts those clues on the back burner when he learns that Johannes, ostensibly a simple farmer, had a secret life involving wealth and connections unknown to his wife. However, a leak to the press complicates the investigation by arousing anti-immigrant feelings, some of which are expressed in anonymous threats.

There is a lot of immigration tension in Sweden and refugee camps are being targeted - making the small police force even more stretched to the breaking point. When a Somali refugee is shot, the clues point to a retired former policeman of another town Wallander and his fellow police detectives are torn how to deal with it.

Kurt Wallender, a middle-aged cop in the small town of Lenarp. His wife has recently left him and he is drowning his sorrows in opera and far too much liquor. He is also dealing with the guilt he feels with his father who's mental health is failing. He tries to visit but gets caught up in the drama of the new case. Only after a neighbor calls after finding his father wandering along the roadside carrying a suitcase of dirty underwear and paint supplies. Wallender's father is a famous painter who has only paints one scene with or without a grouse. Wallender often wonders what his father wanted him to be as he is constantly berating him for being a policeman. Wallender feels estranged from his wife, his daughter, Linda and most of all real life.

You really feel the hopelessness he feels, the despair he feels his life has become. But he also has this way of finding the truth. This is a true police procedural and the cases take months to solve versus a few days. Plus I have a whole new appreciation to cold weather! brrrr.... A good book to read in Phoenix when it is 115+ degrees.

Dead Boys Detectives by Ed Brubaker

Featured in Sandman Comics - this collected one storyline. Neil Gaiman created the characters and Ed Brubaker wrote this comic.

The Dead Boy Detectives are Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, two British schoolboys from different eras who are now ghosts. They take on a case of missing homeless teens who are later discovered shriveled and horribly dead. Since no one is taking this seriously one of the homeless teens find the detectives in their tree house and asks for their help. So in typical young boy fashion they both jump in feet first to the fray of witches, immortality and the occult. Not bad for a couple hours of reading.

So long and thanks for all the laughs....

Get Real by Donald E. Westlake

Final book in the Dortmunder series

It was with great trepidation that I started reading this book. Donald E. Westlake passed away on New Years Eve, and when I heard the news I burst into tears thinking, no more Dortmunder! Then I read about this book coming out and while I was happy to at least have one more Dortmunder novel to read, my heart is heavy.

During a taxi ride - Murch's mom talks to a fare about her son and his friends who steal for a living. The fare, Doug Fairkeep, is a producer for reality-show company, Get Real, and is always looking for a new concept. He tracks down Murch who recruits Dortmunder for a heist /aka reality TV show. Kelp, Tiny and the Kid are brought in too as you have to have 5 guys to make a crew. Doug throws his own people into the mix by adding actors to the crew - Roger, fulltime actor who also can climb walls like Spiderman and Darlene - who was brought in from another reality show as a possible love interest. There is Marcy who "writes what is going to happen" and Babe - Doug's boss, who every time he comes on set says "I'm shutting this down!".

Naturally, the gang has to make this gig pay more than what's offered, as much for the fun of it as for the extra cash. While Get Real helps them map out a robbery, the boys are mapping out the real robbery—of some of the company's hidden assets. See Get Real is owned by Monopole that is owned by TUI and so on and so on. So the building that Get Real uses has other purposes that make Dortmunder nad the gang real curious. There is money somewhere in the building and they are going to get it. The thinking is that Get Real can hardly come after them to retrieve cash that it can't admit that it has. The game plan changes nearly hourly, and the outcome is anything but certain.

I laughed, I cried as I said "goodbye' to one of my favorite mystery writers and realy one of greatest writers of the 20th Century. There is no one like him.

White Hot by Sandra Brown

Sayre Lynch returns to Destiny, La., for her brother Danny's funeral. Estranged from her family for the past 10 years, Sayre arrives in town believing Danny committed suicide, but after a surprise encounter at the cemetery and a disquieting interview with the sheriff's deputy determines that someone murdered her brother. She seaks to find out who would have killed her well liked little brother, the answer may be her own family!

Sayre is the middle child of Huff Hoyle, powerful owner of the local foundary. 10 years ago she left Destiny determined never to return and now lives in San Francisco as a interior decorator. Ater meeting Danny's fiance she decides to stay to investigate her brother's last days, as well as confront her father and big brother, Chris. This dynamic duo run the foundry that provides most of the town's jobs and all its corruption. Everywhere she goes, Sayre crosses paths with Huff's handsome lawyer henchman, Beck Merchant, whom she finds irresistible although he represents everything she despises.

We see several storylines as we learn more about Huff, her father and other people who live in Destiny. This is a romance and it is Sandra Brown so lots of sexual tension between her and Beck. I know that Sandra Brown is a big name in the romance fiction world but this was my first experience actually reading one of her books and it was ok. Nothing earth shattering but I can see why she has a big fan base. She has a way of mixing the family saga up.

Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas

Commissaire Adamsberg Mystery

Newly transferred from his home in the Pyrenees to Paris, 45-year-old Adamsberg arrives with a reputation for solving big cases, though his diffident manner doesn't impress his colleague and foil, Adrien Danglard. A solitary man drawing blue chalk circles at night around stray objects in Paris streets manages to create a media sensation, but Adamsberg senses evil behind the act. When the corpse of a woman is found encircled in chalk, he's proven right. Adamsberg's indirect approach, his ability to sense cruelty and to let solutions percolate to the surface make him one of the more intriguing police detectives in a long time.

I really enjoyed this book and am so glad that they finally translated it into English. The rest of the series have been translated except for this one. Go figure!?! This book reminds me of Hercule Poirot in some ways as it is much more cerebral feel than the police procedural it is portrayed. The outside characters are interesting and I found myself thinking about them after I finished the book. Danglard - a single father raising two sets of twins! You get a little bit of his home life and it really intrigued me and made wish there was more info about his life.

Funny story about how I got this book. I read about this series and it mentioned that this was the first book but it was the 6th one translated and came out June 30, 2009. So of course my local library does not own it. Since I was attending the American Library Association in Chicago in July I hunted down the Penguin publisher's book and they had one copy left and let me buy it for $5. Since it is an oversized paperback worth $14, I scored a deal! Then while I was waiting in line to win something at the Demco book they covered the cover with that stiff plastic so it is almost like a hardback now.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

Book 15 in the Stephanie Plum series

It's hot and summertime in Trenton, NJ. Stephanie has recently broken up again with Morelli and is done with men. She's ready to throw herself back into being a bounty hunter. But then Lula inadvertently witnesses the beheading of culinary TV star Stanley Chipotle in a Trenton, N.J., alley. Stephanie convensinces Lula to call Morelli, who reluctantly takes the case. When the Chipotle bar-b-q sauce company offers a reward of 1 million dollors, Lula, with the help of Grandma Mazur, enters the same barbequing competition Chipotle was in town to promote, hoping to lure the murderers out of hiding. Ranger has recruited Stephanie to help solve a series of break-ins at properties under the protection of Rangeman Security.

There are 3 car fires and one house bombing so the stakes are rising. Most of this story focuses on Stephanie and her men. I miss some of the other characters but enjoyed that there were fewer characters this book.

This is a book to read over a weekend of during a plane ride and it still makes me laugh outloud. I'll keep reading a Stephanie Plum book as often as Evanovich keeps writing them.

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The story is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s. The story revolves around Ignatius J. Reilly, an odd, educated but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in the city's Uptown neighborhood. During an outing with is mother is almost arrested and during their escape they hide out in a bar/strip club. After a few drinks his mother runs her car into a building. When they get the bill for $20,000 Mrs. Irene Reilly insists Ignatius get a job to help pay for damages. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. He nemesis is Mryna Minkoff, who through correspondence both try to impress one another by starting riots and various other altercations with various religious, ethnic and sexual orientation groups.

We see other sides of the story by various characters Ignatius encounters during his quest.

Lana Lee owns the strip club/bar in French Quarter, where Ignatius and his mother hide out in. She hires Burma Jones for under minimum wage and he plans his revenge by enticing Ignatius back into the bar. We meet Jones in the first few chapters when Claude Robichaux meets him in the local jail.

The first job that Ignatius gets is at Levy Pants own by Gus Levy and his wife Mrs. Levy. Gus and his wife live a life in which they absolutely hate each other but love their wealth and status more. Their life is at a totally different level of living, yet are they any better than Ignatius? I love how we get these detail descriptions of the luxury of Levy and his wife. Mrs. Levy has also made it her pet project to protect Miss Trixie, a very elderly senial woman who only wants to retire from Levy Pants.

Some of the funniest scenes are when Ignatius is at the movies and screams out his displeasure of how the acting or storyline is going. It is absolutely hilarious. He also has this habit of screaming "Oh, my God!" when he can't believe what he is hearing and/or seeing.

During the first part of the book, Irene Riley seems like a flat, screechy drunk of a mother. But as she evolves and makes relationships with other she becomes a person who wants her own identity and is tired of living her life for her son who will never leave. She finds herself a boyfriend, Claude Robichaux, a much older Jewish man who is constantly on the look out for communists. Claude is introduced in the first few pages of the book when he is arrested instead of Ignatius by a local policemen, Angelo Mancuso. Poor Angelo, after making several wrong arrests, the sergeant in charge gets fed up with him, and in punishment Angelo is reduced to wearing ridiculous disguises, and spending time in the bus station toilets in order to arrest "suspicious characters". He ends up saving the day by busting a pornography ring.

Sad but interesting side note:
The author, John Kennedy Toole, was born in New Orleans in 1937. He received a master's degree in English from Columbia University and taught at Hunter College and at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He wrote A Confederacy of Dunces in the early sixties and tried unsuccessfully to get the novel published; depressed, at least in part by his failure to place the book, he committed suicide in 1969. It was only through the tenacity of his mother that her son's book was eventually published and found the audience it deserved. His long-suppressed novel The Neon Bible, written when he was only sixteen, was eventually published as well. A Confederacy of Dunces won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

I actually listened to this on CD while driving around and found myself laughing outloud. I did have to be in the mood for it so it took me awhile to get into it. I did enjoy the reader as he did a good job with all the accents.

A Trouble of Fools by Linda Barnes

Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries

This book introduces us to Carlotta Carlyle, a red-haired, 6 foot-1 inch tall and size 11 shoe wearing ex-cabbie, ex-policewoman, now private investigator in Boston. She has inherited her Aunt's house and rents out the upper floor but hasn't changed much so it still looks like an old lady lives there. Her companions are TC (Thomas C. as in Cat), an inherited parrot named Emma Goldman and her best friend is Paolina, her 10-year-old "Little Sister", who lives in the projects. It is her weekly visits with her and her local volleyball games that help pass the time as she hasn't had much luck as a PI yet.

So she isn't too chosey when an elderly Irish woman hires her to find her brother, Eugene, who has vanished from their home. He left his taxi standing empty weeks before but no one except his sister seem concerned. His cabbie cronies and the police think he has flown the coop to live in the old country aka Ireland. But Carlotta's interest is peaked when she finds the battered body of the sister along with a trashed house. After taking her to the hospital she finds a mysterious cache of $13,000 hidden in the attic. Eugene's cronies, who, like himself, are drivers for a taxi fleet are secret sympathizers with the Irish cause, and seem to be involved with a scheme in support of the IRA. Having once worked for the cab company herself, Carlotta hires on again to monitor their activities, an action that eventually sets her at odds with a major drug ring, the FBI and a certain Mafia-connected former lover.

There are some other subplots that all tie up at the end to make this a very satisfying vacation read. You get this great flavor of Boston as she drives around the city plus she loves to play the blues and read poetry. I'm looking forward to see how this series develops.

Gardens of Covington by Joan A. Medlicott

2nd in the Ladies of Covington series

Amelia, Grace and Hannah are happily living in their beautiful old farmhouse in the foothills of North Carolina, but when developers threaten to turn Cove Road into a condo haven, all 3 worry what will their future will be. Grace and her lover, Bob, are busy preparing to open a tearoom. Both have to deal with Bob's son, Russell, who has fallen in love but not thought about how his young son would react. Amelia's photography talent continues to bloom and in a fender-bender she meets the man of her dreams, but the new romance isn't all sweetness and light. Her housemates quickly determine his mean side while Amelia senses it but allows his smooth ways and glitzy gifts to blind her to his true nature. She starts to neglect her friend Mike and her photography. Hannah has troubles of her own as she trys to rally the community to save the valley, and at first she has their support but when she tries to stop a local from selling his farm to developers "it's Yankee go home!". But during this she befriends an ill and lonely woman at the farm next door. Sadly Mrs. Maxwell dies before all three ladies can meet her. Grace continues her friendship with one of the very elderly local old maids who decides to marry one of the local old men nicknamed "old Man". National News gets involved as they come to cover the wedding, it's never dull ds

Times goes by, Grace loves the tearoom and her relationship with Bob, but worries about what to tell him regarding his request to build a cabin on the women's property. Russell and his son Tyler finally come to terms with his new love and finally decide it's ok for Dad to get married or "hitched" as the locals say. Grace's son Roger and his partner offer to decorate for the wedding and come out a few weeks before the wedding to get everything ready. Grace has to deal with all this plus the bride's mother. Throw in some flooding and you have a grand old read. Entertaining and not terribly taxing to read I enjoy catching up with the Ladies of Covington.

More in the series
From the Heart of Covington
Spirit of Covington
At Home in Covington
Christmas in Covington
Two Days after the Wedding
An Unexpected Family
Promises of Change