Clea's Moon by Edward Wright

A John Ray Horn Thriller

John Ray Horn is a former rodeo bronc-rider turned B-Western star who tanked his career when he decked the son of the head of his studio, putting the guy in the hospital with a broken jaw. He did two years in prison for that, and when he returned, he discovered that his old boss had blacklisted him and his acting career was over. His faithful Indian sidekick, Joseph Mad Crow, had invested his earnings from the movies and bought a poker parlor/casino on the edge of L.A., so he offers Horn a job collecting bad debts from gamblers. Horn reluctantly takes it, though he hates the work.

When a friend, Scotty Bullard, approaches him with some intriguing information about Horn's former step-daughter (the wife divorced him while he was in jail), he decides to look into things. But when Bullard apparently committs suicide just before Horn goes to visit - he knows it can't be true so wants to find out the truth there too.

But most of all Horn wants to find Clea, his former step-daughter who has been missing for over a week.  She's barely 16 and he's worried by her sudden disappearance.  He knows it must be related to the photos Bullard showed him before he died.  When he looks more carefully at the photos he actually recognizes the location as a cabin he used to go to when he will worked for the studio.  Now Horn is on the hunt for the people behind the photos, death of Bullard and Clea's disappearance.  But will he be able to figure it out before they get him.

This felt very realistic look at the time of the western movies and when Hollywood was still a romantic place to come find your fame. But it shows the seedy side of the industry as well.  I enjoyed the complexity of John Ray Horn's character and his relationships with his former side-kick now boss Joseph Mad Crow and tries to reconsile with former friends.  An interesting look at time period that I don't know much about but since I've lived in LA it intrigues me.

On Parole by Akira Yoshimura

Shiro Kikutani, a man who has just been released to a lifetime of parole after spending 16 years in prison for murdering his adulterous wife. Kikutani's time in jail has stunted his ability to act independently, so that the first chapter finds him in a halfway house, suffering abdominal pains because he is unable to walk from his room to the bathroom down the hall.  He feels so weighed down by the weight of wearing clothes and leather shows.  For 16 years he wore a scrub type outfit with paper slips. 

But under the tutelage of his gentle parole officers, Kikutani gradually overcomes this fear and others, learning to walk out of lockstep and ride escalators, handle money, keep a job (once a teacher, he is demoted to working as a janitor in a chicken factory).  But having the time to think during his commute allows him to slowly adjust.

Some of these episodes are described in minute detail, weaving the story of man whose emotional life has been blighted by his imprisonment and whose hard-won equanimity unravels under the relentless demands of those around him. Through flashbacks we learn what happened to put him in prison, that upon finding the adulterous couple in bed, he violently stabs his wife to death and wounds her lover, follows the lover to his home, torches it, and accidentally kills the lover's mother in the fire.

This book covers 3 years of his life after he gets his parole.  In their final acts his permanent parole officers pressure him to get married to a widow, but when his new wife insists he must repent of his crime, which he always considered inevitable and not his fault, he is unable to explain his true emotions. Under increasing stress, he snaps.

This was an intriguing and almost edge of your seat as the author really portrays the isolation and fear Kikutani feels from the beginning to the end of the story.  But never will he admit to responsibility for his actions - rather he only seems to react to the situations given him.  And as events move inexorably toward the novel's violent climax, it gives an eye opening look at a man no longer able to express his own will.

This book was recommended to me by my friend Teresa after I couldn't stop talking about "Devotion of Suspect X" that I read several months ago.  Also set in Japan but more of  psychological mystery On Parole is a look at a the Psyche of a man who is broken.  This is not an easy book to read and it is deceiving as it is so short, barely 250 pages but so much is in it. 

First grave on the right by Darynda Jones

P.I. Charley Davidson sees dead people. Well, she not only sees them, they are drawn to her. Because she is shiny. You see, Charley Davidson is the grim reaper as well as the portal (the shining light) through which all souls must travel to gain entrance to Heaven.

The advantage to having these miraculous talents is that Charley Davidson not only helps the dead move on, she also helps her father and Uncle who work for the local police solve "unsolvable" cases. The only downside is that lately people are trying to kill her -  literally.  To even make things more complicated she's having these red hot steamy dreams that include a very hot studly man but she is starting to wonder if the man might be a dead guy or a ghost or something even worse.

This was a fun and sarcastic kind of look at the undead - Jones has an almost Janet Evanovich style of writing. All the characters are very entertaining.  The way this book leaves you hanging there is hopefuly a sequel.

English tea murder by Leslie Meier

Lucy Stone Mystery series

Ok, I will admit it.  I read this book for the cover.  I did a double take and had to read it.  Wouldn't you want to read it after this cover?

This is something like #17 in the series and I normally would never just jump into a series but I wasn't that interested in reading the rest until I had read this one.

Lucy Stone is the main character and joins her 3 girlfriends, Sue, Rachel & Pam to a trip to England sponsored by Winchester College. She soon finds that England may be old, but at times, not very jolly. They barely get off the ground when the tour guide, College Professor George Temple suffers an allergy attach that proves to be fatal as he dies on the way across the pond.  I had to laugh when they have to leave him in his seat as it is a full flight and no where to put the body. 

Others on the trip as the sad Smith family, Dr. Cope and his supposed anorexic granddaughter, Jennifer, tough and totally Goth Amber, and last but not least, fretful Laura Barfield and her "wild child" son, Will. To add some spice to all of the drama, Quentin Rea, a Professor for whom Lucy had a slight crush many years ago, is sent by the college to replace Professor Temple and escort the group to various sites of interest in London and beyond.

I think everyone knows that that Temple didn't just have an allergy attack but is really murdered.  Lucy starts to suspect everyone and then wonders if it isn't really an almost Agatha Christie style "Murder on the Orient Express" but who is really responsable and why?

Deadly Descent by Charlotte Hinger

In western Kansas, historical Lottie Albright marries Keith, whose adult children are older than his new wife. Her twin sister clinical psychologist Josie objects as she assumes her sibling married for money. To prove everyone wrong, Lottie works as director of the Carlton County Historical Society; a role she thought would be fun. She is also the district manager of the election campaign for senate by Zelda's nephew Brian Hadley.



It seems like the ideal job to get connected to the small town and close community. But suddenly one of the family's stories blow up in her face, Zelda St. John's contribution of a racist account of the history of her Rubidoux ancestors.  Her twin sister, Fiona Hadley demands the copy of the story as she feels it will destroy her son's political careeer. Though Lottie refuses to release it and Fiona seems to retreate but the next day Zelda found murdered.  Along with the story's disappearance valuable historical letters have gone missing as well.  Thankfully Lottie kept a copy of Zelda's story and had sent it to her own twin sister, Josie, to analyze, since Josie is a clinical psychologist.


When Zelda's daughter, Judy, insists her Aunt Fiona murdered her mother, Lottie tries to shut down those comments. As campaign manager for Fiona's son, who hopes to be a state senator, Lottie doesn't want the family's dirty laundry aired in the small community. But she wants to help Judy, so provides her with a job at the historical society. To get further insight Lottie volunteers as the town's deputy which gives her more ways to investigate the current case as well as a historical unsolved mystery.

I'm really not much of a fan of historical mysteries but the story was compelling and since I get up not far it was fun to read about a small town and see how an outsider tries to fit in.  Hinger does a fabulous job describing the tiedious job of hunting down historical data, it was fascinating.  I didn't find the mystery as compelling but the rest of the story was well written and interesting. I'll try one again someday.

Templar legacy by Steve Berry

Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she’s not alone. Competing for the historic prize–and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.

This book is a combination political intrigue and historical religious novel. Much of the book focuses on the history of the rise and fall of the Templars. The primary questions about the Templars that have yet to be answered are: 1) How did the organization manage to acquire the power that it did? and 2) What happened to its much-rumored treasure, which was seemingly lost forever when the Templars experienced a rough disbanding at the hands of an alliance of convenience between church and state?

Berry even devotes the epiloge to the books he read that helped him write this novel.  There were parts I enjoyed like the puzzles of trying to figure out the solution but I didn't care for the graphic torture scenes or the shoot-outs that reminded me of the DaVinci Code books.

A distant neighborhood Vol. 1 / Graphics, Jiro Taniguchi ; graphic adaptation by Frédéric Boilet ; [translation, Kumar Sivasubramanian].

One morning, 48-year-old business traveler Hiroshi Nakahara boards the wrong train—a recently built express to his old hometown. Upon arriving, he visits his mother's grave, where he is mysteriously transported back in time. Hiroshi finds himself 14 years old, with full adult foreknowledge of all that is to come.  Hiroshi slowly embraces his ability to relive his youth differently and prepares to address the great mystery of his childhood: the disappearance of his father.

This is a very quiet yet intense graphic novel so many layers to this very subtle book.  I've linked up the online version on the title listed above.  Now I don't have to try to find the next volume at the library as I can read it online at my leisure.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

First in the Leviathan series.

This is World War I as never seen before. The story begins the same: on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated, triggering a sequence of alliances that plunges the world into war. But that is where the similarity ends. This war, however, won't be waged with mustard gas or in trenches; Aleksander's Great War is one split down the middle of two factions: the Clankers and the Darwinists. The Clankers depend on mechanics and steam power, man-made machines with legs that mimic animals and firepower that rivals the creative weaponry and biotechnology of their rivals. The Darwinists are inspired by Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution. In Leviathan, the mystery of DNA --brought forward a few decades for the sake of plot--has been discovered and manipulated to create crossbreeds of animals and huge, living dirigibles as part of their military power.

Deryn Sharp--disguised as a boy so she can fly the floating airships and Alek Ferdinand--heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, are both 15-year old but very new to the ways of the worlds they've been thrust into. Most of the story is from both their separate points of view until Deryn's ship crashes near Alek's hide-away in the mountains. 

Once their stories intertwine the story gets more interesting as Deryn teases Alek about his irrational fears and disgusts over the conglomeration of living bodies that make up the Leviathan; Alek makes sure Deryn sees the advantage of machines. In between their banter is the truth of the situation: the survival of everything dear to them depends on teamwork; biotechnology is as necessary as gears, metalwork, and engines. Cooperation is the key to success.

Many interesting characters and since this is so obviously first in the series it will be interesting to see how everyone develops.  It is an intriguing concept written in some historical truth but goes much further with a cyberpunk aspects.  Looks like this will be a trilogy so looking forward to the rest of the books - maybe look for on CD.

Binky the space cat  & Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires

This simple graphic novel for young readers is an absolute delight.

Binky is a space cat since he has never left the family "space station" he thinks anything outside the house is outer space.  So Binky has a mission: to blast off into outer space (outside), explore unknown places (the backyard) and battle aliens (bugs). Binky must undergo rigorous training so he can repel the alien attacks that threaten his humans. As he builds his spaceship, he must be extremely careful with his blueprints - the enemy is always watching.

But the enemy are bugs and they are everywhere, so Binky spends a lot of time chasing and eating the bugs to save his humans from life under alien control.

Soon Binky is ready to voyage into outer space. His humans go out there every day and he's sure they need a certified space cat to protect them. But just as he's about to blast off with his co-pilot, Ted (stuffed mousie), Binky realizes that he's left something very important behind and it's not the zero-gravity kitty litter.

In the 2nd book Binky the space cat and Ted, his stuffed mouse, fall out of the window and find themselves adrift in outer space (the backyard), the cat has to rely on his training to combat the aliens (bees and spiders) and to get himself home again. Although the feline returns safely, his trusty cohort has been left behind and Binky must save his best friend as one never leaves a mouse behind!

These are so utterly delightful.  I love the cat elements while still making this kid friendly.  It's hysterical when Binky toots after eating too many bugs "aka aliens".  Can't wait to read more Binky adventures.

Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters

For 20 years Mrs. Ranelagh has quietly collected evidence about the suspicious death of her neighbor, a black woman known as "Mad Annie," whose body was found in the gutter one evening. London police concluded that Annie was hit by a passing truck. But Ranelagh now armed with letters, statements and testimonials from both official and nonofficial sources is convinced she was beaten to death in a fury of racial hatred. Moreover, she suspects that one of her neighbors, or even her husband, Sam, may have been the killer.

From such an intriguingly simple setup springs another searingly narrated psychological drama by Edgar-winner Walters in which manners and other forms of propriety slowly give way to raw, ugly emotion. Ranelagh, the story's narrator, is a middle-aged woman whose restrained public persona masks a bitter, unsparing nature driven by a life of disappointment and futility. She herself was scarred by Annie's death, terrorized in the months following for being a "nigger lover" and publicly doubting the police version. Not only does she want to find out who killed Annie, she wants personal revenge. One by one, she confronts her old neighbors a disparate cast of losers and social climbers now spread across the London area. Ranelagh's search, however, turns into not only a quest for justice but an agonizing odyssey that forces to the surface painful truths about herself and her family.

This was an extremely painful book to read.  There is much about torture of cats and just terrible people in general. I found it almost too much.  But obviously Walters did a lot of research about this and felt it was an important element of the story. I had to skim those parts.  I just can only read one of her books every couple of years as though they are really well done are extremely disturbing.

The cat, the quilt and the corpse : a cats in trouble mystery by Leann Sweeney

Jillian Hart's cat is allergic to people. When she returns home from a quilt show, the sneezing of her cat Chablis raises a red flag. Jillian uses a special shampoo and takes precautions so Chablis has no reactions to her. The sneezing can mean only one thing. Someone has been in her home while she was away. A further examination of the premises reveals that her Abyssinian cat Syrah is nowhere to be found. Convinced that Syrah has been kidnapped, Jillian Hart starts her own investigation, an investigation which leads her to stories of more missing cats and a murder.

Living in a small town South Carolina Jillian hasn't really bonded with anyone as her husband died just after they moved their earlier that year. So everyone knows her business but she is oblivious to what has been going on around her. Her world centers around cats, not only her beautiful rescue cats but she imparts her knowledge and love of cats in everything she does. She makes little cat quilts as a business and for the local shelter. When her cat quilts show up at the murder scene, the clues become even more mysterious and the stakes more personal. As she narrows down the possible suspects, Jillian suspects more cats are in trouble and she might just need to save herself as well.

The ending was unexpected as I really didn't have the killer figured out and enjoyed Jillian try to figure out the small town politics and find connections when she has been isolated for so long.

This was a fun cat mystery that has the flavor of the Cat Who books which used to be one of my favorite series from my high school days.  It makes a nice change from traditional cozy mysteries.  I'm looking forward to more by this author.

Size 12 is not fat! by Meg Cabot

Heather Wells mystery

Twenty-eight-year-old Heather Wells rocked out when she was a teen, as a pop star that toured local malls with the boy band Easy Street. But once she stopped being a teenager, started packing on the pounds, and decided she wanted to write her own songs, Heather lost it all. Her recording contract was promptly taken away, her mother took off with her manager and all of her money to Argentina, and her boyfriend, Easy Street member, Jordan Cartwright, dumped her for the newest hot pop star, Tania Trace. But Heather is finally getting her life back on track. She's the Assistant Residence Hall Director at New York College, and she's even shacking up with one of the hottest guys on earth - okay, just as friends - Cooper Cartwright, Jordan's estranged, private eye brother. But when the body of a female co-ed from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft, and everyone claims it's just an accident, Heather knows better, because she knows girls, and girls don't elevator surf. Then another body appears, and Heather knows that two accidents in two weeks is utterly impossible. So she begins investigating. The only problem, by the time she finds out who the killer is, it may be too late...for her.



I haven't read a Meg Cabot book in several years - enjoyed several of the Princess Diaries books.  So I was intrigued to read this book, not realizing she was starting a mystery series.  It is pretty light on the mystery but it was a fun look at college life from someone who really isn't in college but living in the environment.  I'm not sure I liked it enough to read more of the series as I got a bit tired of the drama that was interjected on practically every page.  But after reading the prolog by Cabot I have a whole new appreciation for her and this series.  So I'll try again.

Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie

Eccentric Daisy Flattery collects thrift-store furniture, stray cats, and wishes her life were as interesting as the stories she tells.

When her upstairs, uptight, but incredibly gorgeous neighbor Linc Blaise needs a fiancee to clench a position as a history professor in a small-town college, he, against his better judgment, can't think of anyone who could lie better than Daisy Flattery, professional storyteller (and starving artist).

Linc, a workaholic, with his chrome-and-glass furniture and black Porshe has his life just the way he wants it. He finds himself maddened but attracted-against-his-will to Daisy, with her stray cats, cracked Tiffany lamps, and compulsion to embellish her life at faculty gatherings.

When Linc and Daisy conveniently break up after Linc is hired for the position at the college, the chair of Linc's department makes it clear that a fiancee/wife was part of the bargain. Linc is sufficiently compelled to make a temporary "Cinderella Deal" with Daisy that will change them both.

I listened to this on CD and it was highly entertaining.  I've enjoyed other books by Jennifer Crusie but found this more like her older books so wasn't surprised to find it was a Loveswept book.  She makes a nice change of pace from the seriously intense mysteries I sometimes read.  I find her right up there with Janet Evanovich.

Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

Blink and Caution are two teenage runaways in Toronto. The story is told in alternating viewpoints, with Blink's segments in a strange second-person present tense.

Blink is getting by day to day by stealing breakfast leftovers from room-service trays in a fancy hotel when he accidentally observes a faked kidnapping of a wealthy CEO. Blink becomes obsessed with the kidnapping he witnessed, and the finds himself drawn the daughter who keeps calling the cell phone he lifted from the hotel room.

Caution is on the run from an abusive and possessive drug-dealer boyfriend when she meets Blink. She sees him purchasing a train ticket and thinks he will be an easy mark, but finds herself strangely drawn to him and to helping him.

To solve the mystery, the teens travel to a remote cabin, where they find that they are in over their heads, and it will take all of their cunning and street smarts to make it out alive.

Very intense teen/adult thriller.  I had read reviews and it looked really interesting and I was not disappointed.  Plus who can not want to read a book jacket with bullet holes.

Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard

While rounding up newborn calves during a 1987 blizzard, Nathan Shellenberger, sheriff of Small Plains, and his teenage sons, Rex and Patrick, discover the naked frozen body of a beautiful teenage girl. Later, Nathan and Dr. Quentin "Doc" Reynolds bash the girl's face to an unrecognizable pulp, since they know who she is and fear that either Patrick or Rex's best friend, 17-year-old Mitch Newquist, is her killer.

Witnessing this terrible scene is Mitch, hidden in Doc's home office supply closet where he's gone for a condom to use with Abby, Doc's 16-year-old daughter. When Mitch goes home and reports what he found Mitch's father, a judge, forces Mitch to leave town after the boy admits what he saw.  He never says goodbye to anyone include Abby who is told it is her fault that he has left.

It's 17 years later, 1994 and it is still a cold case.  During another blizzard 33-year-old Abby Reynolds is reminded of the mystery and decides to find out who the Virgin really is. The secret begins to peel away when Abby realizes that the stories told about that night don't quite ring true. As she asks the people she loves to return to that time in 1987, Abby fears the murderer might be staring her in the face.


Meanwhile Mitch is back in town and no one knows if they can trust him or not least of all Abby. There are many complicated subplots that almost overshadow the real mystery of who is the virgin and who killed her? But overall an excellent thriller.

Speed of dark by Elizabeth Moon

Lou Arrendale, at first seems kind of a quirky introvert but you quickly realize he is a very functioning autistic 35 year old male. Lou is a bioinformatics specialist who has a gift for pattern analysis and an ability to function well in both "normal" and "autistic" worlds. When the pharmaceutical company he works for recommends that all the autistic employees on staff undergo an experimental procedure that will basically alter their brains, his neatly ordered world shatters.

His man group of friends are the autistics from the company but he also has his Wednesday fencing group and the 2 are starting to overflow together.  All his life he has been taught "act normal, and you will be normal enough"-something that has enabled him to survive, but as he struggles to decide what to do, the violent behavior of a "normal friend" puts him in danger and rocks his faith in the normal world. He struggles to decide whether the treatment will help or destroy his sense of self. Is autism a disease or just another way of being?


This book is very thought provoking as what would you do if you could be normal and how would you deal with the consequences.  This topic is obviously very personal to Moon and it's been interesting as while this book was written over 10 years ago I've been reading new research that discusses this very thing.

I've been a huge fan of Elizabeth Moon since she wrote Sassinak and Generation Warriors with Anne McCaffrey and her Deed of Paksenarrion series.   It's probably been 15 years since I've ready anything by her and I just loved this book.  She does such a wonderful job combining the personal stories with a sci fi twist.

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

TV writer Meena Harper creates fabulous plots for Insatiable, the second-highest-rated soap opera, thanks to her burdensome if lucrative psychic ability to see into the future and determine how people are going to die. And just as Insatiable is switching to a vampire theme to attract a younger demographic, a spate of chilling murders-by-exsanguination grips New York City.

Enter Lucien Antonescu, a sexy, melancholic Romanian history professor/vampire who recognizes that the murders are the work of rogue vampires who have broken away from his order. (Lucien happens to be the son of Vlad the Impaler, whom Bram Stoker gave such a bad rep.) Lucien's opposition: Alaric Wulf, a sympathetic detective from the Palatine Guard, who hopes to use Meena and her prophetic gift to stop the murders and track down Lucien.

It was fun to read a Meg Cabot book that didn't focus on the Princess Diaries but it really wan't much a vampire book either.   But while it was a long pagewise book I was able to read it very easily and quickly.

Seeking who he may devour by Fred Vargas

Chief Inspector Adamsberg mystery

A small mountain community in the French Alps is roused to terror when they awaken each morning to find yet another of their sheep with its throat torn out. One of the villagers thinks it might be a werewolf, and when she's found killed in the same manner, people begin to wonder if she might have been right. Suspicion falls on Massart, a loner living on the edge of town.

The murdered woman's adopted son, one of her shepherds, and her new friend Camille decide to pursue Massart, who has conveniently disappeared. Their ineptness for the task soon becomes painfully obvious, and they summon Commissaire Adamsberg from the city to bring his exceptional powers of intuition to bear on layer upon layer of buried hatred and secrets.

This is my 2nd book from Vargas and it is as different as a series can be.  Yes many of the same characters are in this book but how Adamsberg responds and interacts is very different.  But then the settings are so different and I appreciated that.  I like how Vargas hints at the darkness yet brings a fresh lightness to it as well.  The covers are really creepy but done is a very simple way.  Excellent.

Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

A parody of old-fashioned children's book but also reminiscent of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" series by Lemony Snicket.  Timothy, the oldest of the Willoughby children, makes all the decisions and the youngest, Jane, just wants to be noticed and have a name with more than 1 syllable. Twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B, the middle children, are so alike that their parents can't tell them apart even if they bothered to try and have to share a sweater.  Life is not ideal for these children.

When the youngsters find a beastly baby on their doorstep, they leave it at a rich neighbor's house to get rid of it. The melancholy candy maker tycoon who lives there adopts the baby and his life becomes happy after years of grieving over the death of his wife and son in an avalanche in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the Willoughby children concoct a plot to get rid of their insufferable parents and turn themselves into orphans by sending them on a dangerous trip. At first the plan seems to have worked as their parents go off on the dangerous trip and do all kinds of dangerous activities but keep sending home postcards describing all the terrible things that happen to everyone but themselves.  To top it all off their parents have put the house on the market to be sold while they are gone.  Their instructions to their children are to pack up all their undies and leave everything else to be sold.  Happily the nanny who comes to take care of them turns out to be just what they need to bring out the best in their personalities.

At the end of the book the 2 storylines intertwine in a satisfying way that leaves everyone happy, except for the Willoughby parents who deserve what they get!

A wonderfully humorous glossary at the end defines old-fashioned words in the story with examples and hints for proper use.   An utter delight.  

Monsieur Pamplemouse by Michael Bond

Aristide Pamplemousse, formerly of the Suret, is now an undercover restaurant-reviewer for Le Guide, and his current assignment is the renowned Hotel-Restaurant La Lagoustine in St. Castille. Soon, however, Pamplemousse is distracted from the super cuisine by escalating mayhem. He's served a nasty plastic head instead of Poularde de Bresse en Vessie Royale. Someone peppers his leg with a shotgun-blast, tries to run him down with a car, etc. The Mafia? But why? Or are the attacks really aimed, perhaps, at another hotel guest? (There's a wealthy, unfortunate young man with two hooks instead of hands--who fears that he's the real victim.)

The mystery isn't really important as I read for the crazy escapades he gets himself into and love the perspective that Pommes Frites provides.  Pample-mousse foolishly pretends to be a man with two wooden legs; he is virtually raped by the hotelier's wife, who's into sandpaper; he escapes her clutches with help from an inflatable, wooden-legged male sex-doll, and he temporarily loses doggie-sidekick Pommes Frites.  We briefly meet Pamplemousse's wife as she is carted away by a crane that removes the gazebo she was lounging on, Pommes Frites on the pursuit.

I love Monsieur Pamplemouse and have read this book several times but every time I find something fresh and it always makes me laugh out loud.  I was so excited to see a new book in the series that came out in 2010!