Better Off Without Him by Dee Ernst

Mona Berman is an expert at Happily Ever After – after all, she’s a best-selling Romance writer and happy endings are what she does best. So when her husband of twenty years leaves her for somebody 15 years younger, 20 pounds lighter, and French, she’s got a lot of adjusting to do, both personally and professionally. Lucky for her she’s got three savvy teen daughters, a few good friends, and Ben, the world’s sexiest plumber, to help her along the way.

First she decides that her next book will be the anti-romance – her heroine finds the best part of her life AFTER getting dumped. Next her daughters tell her she needs to start practice dating, and summer at the Jersey shore is the perfect place for that. She’s also juggling her soon-to-be-ex, a loony aunt, and a match-making neighbor, while Ben is sending her romance-driven imagination into overdrive. Can Mona’s life imitate art? Can she write her own happy ending?

I was intrigued by the concept of an book within a book.  While this wasn't exactly the case I did enjoy the story of Mona and adjusting to life without a husband.  I did find the ending a bit too romance pat for my taste but enjoyed the relationships Mona has with her family and friends.  This is a modern romance for a modern woman.

Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith

An Isabel Dalhousie book

Now established as a new mother Isabel is adjusting to life with Jaime.  But this wouldn't be an Isabel story without a moral delimma to investigate. A doctor's career has been ruined by allegations of medical fraud and Isabel cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Besides, Isabel's insatiable interest is piqued and she finds herself asking questions. Would a respected doctor make such a grave mistake? If not, what explains the death of the patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order.

Meanwhile, there is her baby Charlie, who needs looking after; her niece Cat who needs someone to mind her deli; and a mysterious composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel decidedly uncomfortable. Whatever the problem, whatever the case, we know we can count on Isabel's instincts to help her find the right solution.

Reading one of these novels is like curling up on a rainy day and this installment didn't disappoint.

Off the Grid by P. J. Tracy

Latest Monkeewrench book

On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith. A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen-year-old girl is discovered in a vacant lot, her throat slashed. Later that day, two young men are found in their home a few blocks away, killed execution-style. The next morning, the dead bodies of three more men turn up, savagely murdered in the same neighborhood.

As Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the three crimes, they learn that there have been similar murders in other cities around the United States. Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing to a suspect that shocks them to the core, uncovering a motive that puts the entire Midwest on high alert and Monkeewrench in the direct line of fire. Before it's all over, Grace and her partners, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, find themselves in the middle of a shocking collision of violence on a remote northern Minnesota reservation, fighting for their lives.

This is one of the better books in the series, back to the spiderweb of storylines that all intertwin into a jaw-dropping conclusion.  I really enjoyed this book as it focused more on Leo and Gino plus we are getting to know a bit more about Harley and Roadrunner as so many of the previous books focus on Grace. 

Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel is now a mother, Charlies, her newborn son, presents her with a myriad wonders of a new life. Her lover, Jamie presents her with an intriguing proposal: marriage. In the midst of all this, she receives a disturbing letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove. None of these things, however, in any way diminishes Isabel's curiosity. And when she attends an art auction, she finds an irresistible puzzle: two paintings attributed to a now-deceased artist appear on the market at the same time, and both of them exhibit some unusual characteristics. Are these paintings forgeries? This proves to be sufficient fodder for Isabel's inquisitiveness. So she begins an investigation... and soon finds herself diverging from her philosophical musings about fatherhood onto a path that leads her into the mysteries of the art world and the soul of an artist.

I quite enjoy this unusual philosopher.  Alexander McCall Smith is one of my favorite writers and I find all his series so different from each other. He really makes the city of Edinburgh come to life.   this series is not for everyone as it is not a traditional mystery but more of a philosophical look at life and relationships.

Hangman by Louise Penny

Novella featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and doesn't really seem to be a part of the 3 Pines Mystery series.

Gamache is brought into a suspected suicide but his gut tells him something differently.  the body is discovered by a runner who does call the police but makes no effort to see if the person is really dead or not.  Plus after examination there is no way that the dead man could have climbed the tree to kill himself.  But most curious is when they go to the Bed and Breakfast where both the dead man and the runner are staying the dead man is using a name of a famous Canadian hangman.  In his room they find a suicide letter and while it was proven that it was written by the man Gamache just knows he didn't hang himself but was helped.

When they discover the actual identity of the dead man it gets even more interested as he had survived having his car hit by a car of drunk teens.  Both his wife and child were killed but the teens were unhurt and it could never be proven who was actually driving the car so no charges were pressed against them.  More than 20 years later 2 of the teens have been killed by hanging so Gamache supspects that the dead man has been hunting the surviving teens to serve his justice but maybe they got him first.

Interesting side-note, the author wrote this novella for a programme called GoodReads Canada, which was created by national literacy organizations to publish books aimed at emerging adult readers. It is written at a grade 3 level, but for adults. Very clear, very simple. Not really the most complex plot or style, for obvious reasons.

I really enjoy Louise Penny as she has such a lovely way of describing people and situations and really finds the psychological part of the mystery.  I wish more of these were available via Kindle through the library but this one is the only one so far.  So I'll have to read the rest in traditional book form. 

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich

Lizzy Tucker’s once normal life as a pastry chef in Salem, Massachusetts, turns upside down as she battles both sinister forces and an inconvenient attraction to her unnaturally talented but off-limits partner, Diesel.

When Harvard University English Professor and dyed-in-the wool romantic Gilbert Reedy is mysteriously murdered and thrown off his fourth-floor balcony, Lizzy and Diesel take up his twenty-year quest for the Luxuria Stone, an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust. Following clues contained in a cryptic nineteenth-century book of sonnets, Lizzy and Diesel tear through Boston catacombs, government buildings, and multimillion-dollar residences. On their way they’ll leave behind a trail of robbed graves, public disturbances, and general mayhem.

Diesel’s black sheep cousin, Gerwulf Grimoire also wants the Stone. His motives are far from pure, and what he plans on doing with the treasure, no one knows… but Lizzy Tucker fears she’s in his crosshairs. Never far and always watching, Grimoire has a growing, vested interest in the cupcake-baker-turned-finder-of-lost-things. As does another dangerous and dark opponent in the hunt – a devotee of lawlessness and chaos, known only as Anarchy.

Treasures will be sought, and the power of lust will be unmistakable as Lizzy and Diesel attempt to stay ahead of Anarchy, Grimoire, and his medieval minion, Hatchet, in this ancient game of twisted riddles and high-stakes hide-and-seek.

This is a fun offshoot of the Stephanie Plum books - Diesel was part of the "Between the Numbers" books.  So it is fun to see him get his own series, I enjoy Lizzy but wish we saw more from Diesel's point of view as Lizzy is very much like Stephanie except instead of having a hamster she has Diesel's pet monkey and instead of being a bounty-hunter she hunts for missing artifacts (namly the 7 deadly sins) - this one is Lust.

Pompeii by Robert Harris

This fictionalized account of Pompeii is told from the eyes of Marcus Attilius Primus, an upstanding Roman engineer rushes to repair an aqueduct in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, which, in A.D. 79, is getting ready to blow its top. Young Marcus Attilius Primus becomes the aquarius of the great Aqua Augusta when its former chief engineer disappears after 20 years on the job. When water flow to the coastal town of Misenum is interrupted, Attilius convinces the admiral of the Roman fleet-the scholar Pliny the Elder-to give him a fast ship to Pompeii, where he finds the source of the problem in a burst sluiceway.

Attilius meets Corelia, the defiant daughter of a vile real estate speculator, who supplies him with documents implicating her father and Attilius's predecessor in a water embezzlement scheme. Attilius has bigger worries, though: a climb up Vesuvius reveals that an eruption is imminent. Before he can warn anyone, he's ambushed by the double-crossing foreman of his team, Corvax, and a furious chase ensues. As the volcano spews hot ash, Attilius fights his way back to Pompeii in an attempt to rescue Corelia.

It took me awhile to really get into this book as I found the politics a bit mundain.  But I didn't expect to find such suspense as the novel literally tells the story 48 hours before the demise of Pompeii.  It has been on a my reading list for several years now and I'm glad that I finally got to it.  This is not for the faint of heart as there are some very graphic violence and torture scenes that I had to skim through.

Ice princess by Camilla Läckberg; translated from Swedish

Returning to the Swedish coastal town of Fjallbacka, biographer Erica Falck to sort through her deceased parents' belongings and work on her next book. But this is not the same hometown she grew up in. Summer tourists are turning the former fishing village into a thriving resort, and Erica's controlling brother-in-law is pressuring her to cash in by selling the family home. Erica is struggling with her childhood memories as she tries to come to term with her abupt parents death.

The apparent suicide of childhood friend Alexandra Wijkner contributes to Erica's grief. Once inseparable, they drifted apart before Alex's family abruptly moved away, and Erica feels compelled to write a novel about why the beautiful Alex would kill herself.  During the investigation she meets police detective Patrick who she knew growing up.  The initial meeting quicky developes into a passionate affair. 

The story is somewhat complicated as we see many different points of view that provide some red heerings.  A very compleling mystery series set in cold country of Sweden, which during Phoenix hot summers is refreshing.

Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Picard

One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons—her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.

The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.

What she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.

This stand alone novel by Picard immediately drew me in and I wanted to know what really happened that fateful day.  I've enjoyed her Jenny Cain mystery series and especially her Eugenia Potter series that she finished for Virginia Rich.  I need to read more books by her.

Plugged by Eoin Colfer

Daniel McEvoy is an Irish ex-pat and now a bouncer at seedy Slotz, a New Jersey casino. McEvoy's friend, Zeb Kronski, has medical aspirations but no degree. That doesn't stop him from injecting fake Botox or performing liposuction. It's where Zeb injects the unwanted fat that magnifies the sassy, irreverent tone of this novel. Always a step ahead of the law, Zeb now transplants hair plugs for McEvoy and others.
Connie DeLyne is a hostess in the casino Dan works in and he has always had a soft spot for Connie.  But when he finds her dead with a dime-sized hole in her head, he becomes the prime suspect.  Detective Ronnie Deacon, investigates the homicide but McEvoy finds himself in an epic battle with her and her partner.

Now, Zeb has gone missing, but McEvoy finds himself having conversations with him and wonders if he is now a ghost or if they have some psychic connection.  Complicating matters is Irish Mike Madden, a fake Irishman as he has never been to Ireland, but controls rostitution, protection and a burgeoning crystal meth business" personify the Irish mafia.

If this story sounds complicated it is!  But I did find myself getting into the story and enjoying this crazy ride.

Kill time by T.J. MacGregor

Nora's mother disappeared when she was a child. Now, as she prepares to tell her husband that she wants a divorce, her childhood fears come back to haunt her as her husband is taken away from her right in front of her in a restaurant by FREEZE (Freedom and Security). Labeled as a terrorist, there is no recourse and her attempts to find out the charge become much too similar to a Kafka novel. As she traces a trail of clues left by her husband, she uncovers medical research gone awry, disappearing dissidents, political corruption and power brokering, greed run rampant and an eerie connection to a television show from the past.

With some interesting references to Rod Sterling of the Twilight Zone and Jerry Garcia as the story travels between 1998 and 1968.  Not the best time travel book I've read but it was fun.  I did a get fed up with all the sex swapping that seemed to be going on.  It is obvious from the ending this will become a series, but I don't think I'll look for others in the series.  Connie Willis is much better writer of time travel.

Redbreast by Jo Nesbo

Featuring Harry Hole

Shifting effortlessly between the last days of WWII on the Eastern front and modern day Oslo, Norwegian this is a complex tale of murder, revenge and betrayal. A recovering alcoholic recently reassigned to the Norwegian Security Service, Insp. Harry Hole begins tracking Sverre Olsen, a vicious neo-Nazi who escaped prosecution on a technicality.

But what starts as a quest to put Olsen behind bars soon explodes into a race to prevent an assassination. As Hole struggles to stay one step ahead of Olsen and his gang of skinheads, Nesbø takes the reader back to WWII, as Norwegians fighting for Hitler wage a losing battle on the Eastern front. When the two story lines finally collide, it's up to Hole to stop a man hell-bent on carrying out the deadly plan he hatched half a century ago in the trenches.

I really enjoy these books from another land but I get frustrated when the books are not translated in order.   This is book 3 in the series but the first 2 are not yet available in English.

Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith

Book 13 in No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series

In the latest collection there are several storylines to keep track of.  Mma Potokwane, the matron of the orphans farm, is facing dismissal from her job. Add to this Phuti Radiphuti and his new bride, Grace Maskutsi are having a house built by a contractor who isn't quite following the rules. I raced through the book, hoping that all would come out well in the end.


But the most interesting addition is the arrival of Clovis Andersen, whose book The Principle of Private Detection has been the guide for the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency since day one. Plus Fanwell (one of the apprentices at the garage) finds himself in legal trouble, by helping a friend fix a vehicle that ends up being a stolen vehicle.  So Mma Ramotswe has her hands full dealing with all these issues.

Happily in the end all the issues are resolved in a satisfying manner.  I really enjoyed the addition of Clovis to the story as both Mma Ramotswe and Mma Maskutsi try to impress him with their knowledge and use of his book.

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear


Maisie Dobbs Mystery - book 2

Maisie gets hired by a wealthy industrialist to find his only daughter, Charlotte Waite, who has gone missing. With the help of her cockney assistant, Billy Beale, Maisie sets out to learn all she can of Charlotte's habits, character and friends.

No sooner has Maisie discovered the identities of three of these friends than they start turning up dead—poisoned, then bayoneted for good measure. At each crime scene is left a white feather. Increasingly preoccupied with these tragedies, Maisie almost loses sight of her original mission, until it becomes apparent that the murders and Charlotte's disappearance are related.

What I enjoy about this series is the layers in the storyline.  Maisie's assistance, Billy Beale, has been struggling with chronic pain from a war wound.  But lately even Maisie has noticed an erratic change in behavior and discovers that he has been self-medicating using cocaine.  So she strives to find a way to help him that doesn't destroy their relationship.  I find her storytelling really compelling and am looking forward to reading the next book.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Story opens as Henry Lee is still mourning the death of his wife when he learns that the belongings of Japanese Americans hidden in the basement of Seattle's Panama Hotel for decades have been discovered. Henry is drawn to the basement, and what he's searching for there opens a door he thought he had closed forever.

Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers.

This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. A particularly appealing aspect of the story is young Henry's fascination with jazz and his friendship with Sheldon, an older black saxophonist just making a name for himself in the many jazz venues near Henry's home.

As we see Henry felt disconnected from his demanding and overbearing father who insisted that Henry stopped speaking Chinese at home even though he and his wife know little or no English.  As we see Henry in current time he and his son seem to  have the same disconnection.  What brings them together is a woman, this time the fiance of his son.  She is not Chinese but embraces the culture and goes out of her way to impress Henry.  It enables Henry to open his heart and go ofter his past. 

This was a beautiful story and I enjoyed seeing how Henry's past helped develop the future. I don't know a lot about the Japanese camps and found that fascinating.  This book has been on my reading list for a long time and I'm glad that I finally got to it.

Nerve Damage by Peter Abrahams

When sculptor Paul Valois learns that he has only months to live, his thoughts turn more frequently to Delia, his late, beloved wife. While undergoing an experimental treatment for mesothelioma, he aska friend to read his unpublished obit.  It is then he discovers that Delia's death--and life--may have been different than he believed. Debilitated by disease and chemotherapy, he sets out to learn the truth.

This fast paced novel starts out quietly and slowly but quickly takes off as Paul strives to discover what really happened to his wife.  But towards the ends you almost wonder how much is really happening or just inside his psychie.

Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

A widower, Chris Lowndes, returns to his native England after a successful career in Hollywood as a composer of background music for movies. Upon his wife's death, he decided to return to Yorkshire to write a composition to honor his wife's memory. He buys Kilnsgate House, an old mansion deep in the isolated Yorkshire countryside, only viewing it online and relying on his real estate agent to preview the property for him.

Chris finds the house charming, but has a vague sense that the house has been waiting for him as he sees or feels ghostly presences as he tours his home. He conducts inquiries and finds that the house was the scene of a murder in the 1950's. The home's owner, a prominent doctor, was poisoned by his much-younger wife and she was hung for the crime.

More intriguing is that he grew up not far from this house and was about 3 years old when incident happened but finds himself having dreams and memories of the events. 

Chris begins to delve into the background of this tragic event to determine what really happened. His curiosity quickly becomes an obsession to determine if the death of Dr. Fox was really a murder committed by his wife, Grace, or a natural death. As Chris delves deeper into the mystery, he conducts inquiries with locals who knew the Fox family, and searches through archives to find out what really happened. The more he reads and researches this tragedy, the more convinced he is that Grace was innocent and only declared guilty because she was having an affair with a much-younger man.

I found this story fascinating as it was almost a ghost story but more of a historical mystery as the story goes between Chris's time and his imagining the story based on Grace's diary - he discovered while looking through a desk.  This is a quite story of one person's self discovery as well as trying to solve a mystery from his childhood.  From my reading this is a stand-alone and not part of the Inspector Banks series.

Ghost, Interrupted by Sonia Singh

An amateur ghost-hunting team takes on a professional-grade haunting in this pale paranormal novel by the author of Bollywood Confidential and Goddess for Hire. Former stockbroker Scott Wilder recruits Indian-American psychic Anjali Kumar for his San Francisco ghost-hunting firm, the Cold Spot. Soon, the pair picks up the telekinetic drifter Coulter Marshall, whose golden-boy looks get more ink than his talents. The trio lands jobs removing spirits from expensive homes, but Singh's ghosts aren't scary in the least; they're just a pretext for the heroes to zip around the Bay Area and for Scott's ex-girlfriend, parapsychologist Vivica Bates, to re-enter the picture with her own paranormal investigation team. By the time the teams go head-to-head at a military base to impress the Department of Defense by exorcising the spirit of a tortured soldier, the mission is less important than the goofy antics that ensue.

I've read many reviews about this book and her others and was intrigued to try it out.  I enjoy a good chick lit kind of supernatural book.  And this fit the bill.  I liked how the main character was from India and how they main characters interacted and had interesting storylines.  I'll be interested to see if she writes more in this style and try her other books out.  2nd Kindle book so far.  I have to say it makes reading fast for me!

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith

3rd book in this delightful series - Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries

Isabel, fortysomething and well to do (her mother left her a sizable inheritance, much of which she donates anonymously to charity), once again finds herself in several ethical dilemmas. Her cousin and her husband, are visiting from Dallas, TX (from her American Mother's side).   They introduce her to an affable and affluent fellow Texan, whose flighty fiancee seems less interested in his character than his cash.  But as we all know there is always 2 sides to every relationship and this one is even more complicated than most.  At the end Isabel just can't tell who is really right so has to let it go. 

During her cousin's visit she discovers that her Sainted American Mother had an affair while in Dallas and never told Isabel's father as she died from cancer not long after.  So the main theme of this book is dealing with relationships and impressions. 

Meanwhile, Isabel must come to terms with her feelings for Jamie, who is 14 years Isabel's junior, but should age really matter when it comes to matters of the heart.  But most of all she will need to deal with her niece Cat, who used to date Jamie.  As Cat does not deal with rejection well.  But the ending of the book is one that makes me want to read further. 

Oh, before I forget.  This was the first book I read on my new Kindle Fire that Jose gave me on 5/4/12.  I'll still be a traditional book reader but am becoming around to the digital age.  It did read really well on the Kindle. 

Finder - Sin Eater by Carla Speed McNeil

Finder - Sin Eater by Carla Speed McNeil

Jaeger is a half-aborigine and an ex-soldier, rouge, wanderer, and much more. He has an uncanny healing ability even to the point he has to keep re-inking his tattoos. But most of all he is a finder, member of some sort of secret order of detectives and trackers; plus he's a sin-eater, thus a pariah but respected for his work of taking blame and punishment for someone else. Jaeger is also a borderline personality, incapable of settling, always restless, a twitching although basically good-natured mass of contradictions, a jack-of-all-trades, a master fighter.

Most of this storytime focuses on his relationship with his old mate and his ex-commanding officer Brigham Grosvenor who seems to be losing his mind.  Brigham was Jaeger’s commanding officer during his brief stint in the army. A Medawar from a police family, Brigham ended up in the military after he bucked family and clan tradition by marrying a Llaverac. After being assigned to a small, predominantly Medawar outpost, Brigham became increasingly unbalanced, holding Emma and their three children prisoner—first subtly, then directly—for several years.  So now Jaegar has to decide who he is loyal too.

I had read some reviews of the complete collection and just found it to be very overwhelming so tried this collection of issues 1-14 & 22. Reading the commentary the author has at the end is interesting as it gives one a window of why she wrote that section. The hardest part of this collection is that time seems fluid and flows back and forth that I kept getting characters confused. But I found myself enjoying it the 2nd time around once my brain had time to process it all.