Happy New Year!  My Last book of 2010.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Vera Dietz's a little odd, but in a good way. She's dealing with the death of her ex-best friend, Charlie. She loved him. She hated him. She knows what happened the night he died, but can she find it in her to forgive him and clear his name? 

Vera  and Charlie have been best friends since childhood and they keep each other secrets - Vera's mother left when she was 12 and was a stripper when she was a baby.  Charlie's dad abuses his wife and Charlies.  But as they enter their Junior Year everything falls apart. 

Charlie finds new friends when he starts having after school detention buddies Evil Jenny Flick.  When Jenny decides that she wants Charlie and that Vera is in the way she broadcasts Charlie's secret about his father's domestic abuse to the whole school and blames Vera. In “retaliation,” Charlie reveals the fact that Vera's mother was a stripper before she deserted the family and then starts a perilous relationship with Jenny. 

But Vera is changing too as her goal has been to get hired by the local animal store/shelter that she has been volunteering in for the past several years.   But she is torn as her father tells her he can have her mother's car only if she gets a job delivering pizza.

Vera's story begins at Charlie's funeral where she hides the truth about Jenny's part in his death. It seesaws through her full-time job delivering pizzas while maintaining “A” grades, her upsetting relationship with Charlie, her conflicts with Jenny as well as her father, her romance with a 23-year-old coworker, and other complications.  Charlie's ghostly presence manifests itself through out the book making her feel like she is going crazy. The chapters alternate between perspectives of Vera's father, dead Charlie, and the pagoda atop the town (yes, the pagoda speaks). Vera's father's even include “flow charts” about dealing with life circumstances. All of these give us another view of Vera's life. 

Heartbreaking to read yet page turning as I wanted to know if Vera could find the strength to stand up and tell the truth and not just let things be.   It was refreshing to read a YA novel with real situations versus fantasy or teen angst.

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan Catholic, what some would call the city's worst hospital. He's cynical, critical, comical and one tough guy. He's big, not so good looking (in his own words) and he used to be a mafia hit man. He went into witness protection, got a new identity which explains why he's a half dozen years older than most of his contemporaries.

His hours are long, but drugs help, so does attitude. One day he has to tell someone about his cancer and it turns out to be Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, someone from his mafia days. At first LoBrutto thinks Doc Brown has come to kill him, because the good doctor has an AKA as well, he's AKA Pietro Brnwa and he is also known as "Bearclaw."

It doesn't take long for LoBrutto to start the squeeze on Peter. Either Peter saves him or he turns him over to the mob. As long as LoBrutto lives, Peter is safe. And thus begins the zaniest thriller I've read. A lot of the book has Brown flashbacking to how his life got to this point.  He came home to find his grandparents dead at age 14.  His grandparents raised him when his own hippi parents were too caught up in living  their own lives to raise a child.  After their death he befriends a guy named Skinflick who is known to be the son of a mafia lawyer.  At 18 he is given his first kill by Skinflicks father - the 2 brothers who killed his grandparents to get made by the mob.  So over the next several years his reputation grows as he kills with a vengence and a blood tenacity.


But when he is sent to help Skinflick kill a father and his sons that are running a sex trade worker farm - he gets fingered as the main killer and goes to court.  Here is where we find out how he got his nickname Bearclaw which is much more anticlimatic than I thought it would be.  After Brown is aquited he finds himself thrown into a shark tank at the local aquarium trying to keep his girlfriend alive.  When she gets knocked off he decides to flip on the mob and gets put into witness protection.

I won't give anything away but I have to say the final 2 chapters were brutal - I almost threw up during some of the descriptions of Brown performing surgery on himself!  Plus I'll never look at a aquarium in quite the same way again.  I listened to it on CD as I couldn't get past the first chapter when I was reading it.  The flashbacks are mixed in and it was hard for me to follow where as I could just listen and I could just follow along.

This book was kind of crazy and fascinating at the same time.  If you don't like violence, fowl language or sex then do not read this book as it has all of that plus much more.  One of the reviews describes this book as a cross between House and Sopranos and that pretty much sums it up.

Trio of Sorcery by Mercedes Lackey

Collection of 3 stories. 

The first new Diana Tregarde story in almost 20 years and the first Jenny Talldeer tale in over 15 years.  Each story has a bit of a preface by Lackey to explain the time and place of the story.

Arcanum 101, which takes place in the 1970s, a young Diana Tregarde finds time between her studies at Harvard and her budding writing career to stop a supposed psychic from interfering in the police investigation of a kidnapping case. This was also more of a novella as it was over half the book in length.

Other books featuring Diana Tregarde 

Burning Water (1989)
Children of the Night (1990)
Jinx High (1991)

Drums, set in the 1990s, sends PI and Native American shaman Jennie Talldeer on a quest to prevent an angry Osage ghost from coming between Navajo Nathan Begay and his Chickasaw fiancee. 

Ghost in the Machine, set in the high-tech world of modern times, computer programmer and techno-shaman Ellen McBridge investigates a series of mysterious deaths linked to a multiplayer online role-playing game.

I was a huge fan of the Diana Tregarde novels so was really excited to pick this collection up.  Now I want to go back and re-read the rest of the books as well as look for the Jenny Talldeer books which I have not read.  Interestingly enough these stories were written in order of how much I liked it.  While I did enjoy the last story found it to be my least favorite maybe because  I'm not into online gaming.  I always enjoy these kind of books that Lackey wrote so am glad to see her writing in this style again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas

The Nolan men all live on San Juan Island in Friday Harbor.  Their family was never really a family and while all 3 live on the same Island have very little to do with each other.  Christmas for them is just another day. But tragedy strikes when their only sister dies in a car accident and she gives legal guardianship to her brother Mark. A single guy in his prime Mark doesn't know what to do. He persuades his brother Sam to share responsibility and he and Holly move in with him. But their niece Holly has been traumatized and can't or won't speak since the accident.

That is until the owner of a new toy shop named Maggie Collins gives Holly a magical shell. This connects Maggie and Mark  and they both find themselves undeniably attracted.  But Mark already has a girlfriend named Shelby and Maggie is recovering from her husband's recent death from cancer. Mark is a decent guy and knows that his girlfriend Shelby would be the perfect mother for Holly. Maggie feels guilt over finding another man attractive. Both are in a transitional period but can't seem to stop thinking about each other. Will they overcome their obstacles? 

This has a feel of a series and after reading the author's website that is confirmed.  You can see each brother has issues with relationships and intimacy.  While this was a short Christmas novel - barely 200 pages, it was engaging and the perfect read for an airplane ride.  I hope a bit more depth goes into the future books but this is a intriguing introduction.

Dashing through the snow by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark

As Christmas approaches, the folks of Branscombe, N.H., are celebrating their first Festival of Joy. Visiting from New York City are novelist Nora Regan Reilly and her PI daughter, Regan Reilly, and their close friends Alvirah and Will Meehan, who won $40 million in the lottery a few years earlier. When four employees of Conklins Market win $160 million using numbers supplied by their associate Duncan Graham, they decide to share their winnings with Duncan even though he didn't put in a dollar that week. Duncan, alas, has vanished.  Eventually he shows up looking like he as been run over by a truck. 

Quickly we learn he has been scammed by con artists who have come to town teaching a money saving course.  He gave them $5000 - his entire savings - to invest in an oil well.  He naively gives them his lottery numbers and later discovers they took his numbers and were the 2nd winning ticket.  He goes to confront them and falls down the stairs but manages not to be caught.  He steels their ticket and goes to confess to his fellow lottery winners. 

Meanwhile his girlfriend Flower has flown into town from San Francisco to surprise him but when she learns he won the lottery and didn't call her immediately thinks he is no longer interested in her.  So she checks into a local B&B which conveniently is owned by friends of the con men who are thieves themselves and take Flower hostage.  The Reillys and Meehans are hot on the trail to discover where Flower is and who has the winning ticket.  Another twist is the flower ring that Duncan had put a deposit on to propose to Flower with.  Alvirah  recognizes it as a ring that was stolen 8 years ago from a woman who died under suspicious circumstances.

It all ends well with very little violence and with a romantic flavor.  Not the most difficult mystery but different.  I guess it is part of a series so might go and read some of the earlier books.  I was looking for a holiday mystery and this fit the bill.  One fact that bothered me is if Duncan had $5000 why didn't he just use it to buy the ring instead of just putting down a deposit.

Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

Seth Webster lost his wife in a car accident four years ago and he still is mourning her loss and trying to cope. After his wife's death, their young twin boys went to live with their grandparents but have recently returned to living with him and he is in way over his head. Trying to work full time, raise spunky 6-year-old twins and manage a house has left him feeling overwhelmed and multiple housekeepers have come and gone leaving him on his own.

Finally, Mrs. Emily Merkle arrives on his doorstep and sets the house to order, takes care of everything that is out of control and the boys absolutely adore her. The twins have trouble pronouncing her name and it comes out "Mrs. Miracle" which sticks and everyone around town begins calling her that. She seems to know everyone and everything and has her hand on what needs to be done in the Webster household as well as with other families in town.

The romantic love interest is Reba who is suffering from her own loss of a broken engagement and estrangement from her sister and family. Seth has seen her from afar but never gathered the courage to ask her out.  Events bring them together when Reba is suddenly in charge of the children's Christmas pageant, his twins are part of the pageant.  

Meanwhile Seth's in-laws, Jerry and Sharon, are having their own problems as their marriage is breaking apart as neither one can figure out how to get along or what they really want.   Sharon leaves Jerry when he forbids her from visiting the twins for Christmas.  Since she leaves all her medications behind he decides to bring it to her and hopefully resolve their issues.

Everybody's hanging on to old hurts and missing out on joys of Christmas because of it, but Mrs. Miracle will help them clean up the mess they've made of their lives.

Nice clean romantic Christmas story.  Mrs. Miracle is a modern day version of Mary Poppins.  There are some other subplots that bring the story along very nicely.  Even a few recipes included in the book and I did enjoy the quotes from Mrs. Miracle.  Good weekend on the plane reading.  This was made into a TV movie on Hallmark channel by the same name.

Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith

This new novel focuses on London in eccentric occupants of Corduroy Mansions in Pimlico. Residents run the gamut from the very likable to the much loathed. There's William, a well-meaning, widowed wine merchant determined to oust his lazy twentysomething son from his house. (He's enlisted the assistance of his neighbor, Marcia, who's taken his desire for collusion as a romantic advance.) Four young women share a flat below him. Among them is Dee, a health-food devotee who can't understand a male coworker's resistance to her offer of a high-colonic, and art history student Caroline, who has designs on a friend unsure whether he wants to date women or men.

Then there's the thoroughly despicable Oedipus Snark, a Parliament member devoid of scruples, conscience, and class. Even his own mother despises him; she's writing his biography, with the aim of exposing every one of his faults.

One of the ways William tries to get rid of Eddie is by becoming a co-owner of Freddie de la Hay, a canine who has many ideas of what he wants to do instead.  Eventually William (tipsy on too much champaign) agrees to letting Marcia move in and moving all of Eddie's belongings into the hallway.  They discover a small painting that they suspect Eddie stole as it seems to good to be true.  We see Eddie's true character when he kicks Freddie de la Hay and later kidnaps him for what appears to be a dog fight. 

The book is nicely tied up with a dinner William has for the entire building and even his son Eddie shows up.  I will read anything that Alexander McCall Smith but I have to say this is one of my least favorite novels that he has written though I did enjoy the London scene. 

Busy Body by M.C. Beaton

Featuring Agatha Raisin

Agatha Raisin has always been ambivalent about holiday cheer, but her cozy little village of Carsely has long prided itself on its Christmas festivities. But this year Mr. John Sunday, a self important officer with the Health and Safety Board, has ruled that the traditional tree on top of the church is a public menace; that lampposts are unsafe for hanging illuminations; that May Dimwoody’s homemade toys are dangerous for children… Things have reached such a desperate pass that the Carsely Ladies’ Society joins forces with the ladies in the neighboring village of Odley Cruesis to try to put a stop to Mr. Sunday’s meddling—only to find that someone has literally put a stop to him with a kitchen knife. Millionaire and prime suspect Miriam Courtney, who threatened to kill Sunday, hires Agatha to clear her name. Complications ensue after someone strikes Miriam a fatal blow to the head.

Agatha and her perky young protégé, Toni Gilmour work together on the case and along the way Toni's friend Sharon who also works for Agatha goes missing and is later discovered murdered.  This provides more insight into Toni's character and is a small detour in the story.  We continue the original storyline as Agatha now is trying to determine who murdered Sunday & Courtney.  She even ventures to Boston to meet up with Miriam's estranged children who didn't even come over for the funeral.  this part of the mystery gets very complicated as there are several cases of mistaken identity. As with most Agatha Christie novels nothing is quite as it seems and sometimes those small villages harbour violent people.

The last few Agatha Raisin mysteries take place over several months to a year in time and this one is one Christmas to another before the mystery is solved.  A new Agatha Raisin book is always a reason for me to celebrate and I enjoyed the holiday aspects of this story.  Many of the original characters are back and it's nice to see them evolve.