Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto

In 2004, cartoonist Marchetto, a hyperstylish was busy capturing "fabulista" humor, in the New Yorker and Glamour. She was engaged to a fabulous guy, perennially cool restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, whose personal style perfectly matched her Manhattan-centric life. Just weeks before their "secret" wedding she found a lump in her breast shortly. Telling Silvano was bad enough but having to tell him that she didn't have health insurance was even worse. She was convinced he would leave her but his only concern was that she be ok, the rest would take care of themselves.

Cancer Vixen tells the story of what happens next, and how her inner circle— stylists, gossip columnists, shoe designers and assorted others you'd only find in New York City, rallies round to help her beat the disease and get married on time and in high style. Marchetto wears her best high heels to chemotherapy and remarks on the similarities between her hospital gown and Diane von Furstenberg designs.

I didn't expect to have such an emotional reaction as I did reading this story. It reminded me of Sex and the City but dealt with more serious issues. I really enjoyed it but found it informative as well. And learned never, never, never let your insurance lasp!

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley

11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, lives in the quiet English village in the 1950s. Flavia is the youngest of 3 girls who live with their widowed father. Their mother died just after Flavia was born. She spends much of time in her laboratory working with chemicals as well as is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters. She is sneaking around after hours when she overhears a rude, redheaded stranger arguing with her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee.

Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed brings for the mystery of who the man is and why he died there. She uses her local library and her connections with the other villagers, but when her father is arrested for murder she must prove who did it.

I really wanted to like it but just felt annoyed by how precocious and prickly Flavia is. It wasn't until the final chapters of the book that I even started to like her and enjoy the book. And that was because she got herself kidnapped and started to show she wasn't perfect.

There is a sequel and I may read it down the road but it will be awhile.

Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver

Features Lincoln Rhyme & Detective Amelia Sachs and introduces Kathryn Dance an investigator from the California Bureau of Investigation who is an expert interrogator and uses kinetics to spot lies witnesses and suspects present.

At first what seems to be 2 separate cases eventually intertwine in didn't see it coming moment. Sachs is investigating her first case solo in which a businessman supposedly commits suicide. But how does a man with a broken thumb tie a noose to hang himself? While Rhyme is investigating a serial killer who calls himself the watchmaker. But like an onion you keep pealing back the layers to find an even more complicated storyline.

I wanted to read this as I was curious about Kathryn Dance who is introduced in this book. But I wasn't disappointed either as it was a complicated yet intriguing story. I really liked how everything tied together in the end and it felt believable.

Body on the Beach by Simon Brett

Carole Seddon, a fiftyish divorcee late of the Home Office, has settled in a small town of Fethering, content to live a sensible, orderly retirement. But two events conspire to disrupt Carole's rigid routine: the arrival of an alarmingly casual new neighbor who insists on being called, merely, "Jude"; and the discovery of a dead middle-aged male on the Fethering beach.

When Carole informs the police about the body, they dismiss her as a menopausal hysteric; after all, their subsequent search of the area yielded no trace of evidence. But when a haggard, drug-deranged woman appears at Carole's door with a gun, demanding to know if Carole located a knife on the body, Carole realizes that the corpse had been moved just before the police search. The situation gets more dyre when a local teenage boy is found washed up on the beach, it's Jude who convinces Carole that the two deaths are somehow connected and deserving of the two neighbors' full attention.

We learn a lot about Carole's mundaine government working life but while hints of a more exotic life for Jude we really learn very little about her.  It's interesting as her character seems open but she won't even give out her last name.

I really enjoy Simon Brett and know that I read this many years ago but enjoyed it very much.  Yet more books to read now.

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
 Latest installment in the Stephanie Plum series
 The story starts out with the kidnapping of her cousin, Vinnie, who's being held for ransom in the high six figures. As Stephanie, sidekick Lula, and office manager Connie soon realize, Vincent Plum Bail Bonds is seriously in the red due to Vinnie's gambling. Vinnie's also gotten caught up with local mobster Bobby Sunflower in a complicated scheme. Even though her sleazy cousin isn't her favorite person and chasing oddball felons isn't her ideal career, Stephanie knows family loyalty counts for something, plus she owes him for giving her a job all those years ago. So with Lula and Connie in tow--and romantic interests Morelli and Ranger lurking in the background Stephanie is causing hauvic once again.

For me this book fizzled rather than sizzled.  I was disappointed.  There were some comedic moments but honestly I think she just needs to go with either Morelli or Ranger and just ride it out!  It seems that the last few books have her skipping back and forth.   I'll continue to read this series but I hope the next one has a bit more fun in it.  It just felt flat to me.