A Death in Door County / Annelise Ryan

 

3.5 out of 5 stars

This book was worth waiting for on hold at the library. I quite enjoyed it and it broke me out of a cycle of rereading old favourites instead of my library books. But it was missing some je ne sais quoi that would boost it to 4 stars.

It is highly unusual for a cozy mystery. I don't think I've ever run across a cryptozoologist main character before outside of fantasy fiction. I loved that Morgan was a skeptic and insisted on empirical evidence. I think I had the outline of what was going on figured out at the two thirds mark in the novel, but that's a good long time to keep the secret going.

Cozy mysteries seem to be obliged to have a romance subplot and Ryan provides an acceptable match for Morgan. Jon Flanders, the chief of police on the island, is a decent guy with concerns and history of his own. It's Morgan Carter, the main character, who has the least plausible background. She’s from wealth, but her family used it in quirky ways. Add to that a fiancé who hid his true identity and seems likely to have murdered Morgan's parents, leaving the police to suspect Morgan herself. That's a big burden when you are attracted to a law man.

Morgan's unusual store, Odds and Ends, combines a bookstore and a curiosity shop, two rather appealing settings rolled into one. Getting Morgan to also combine monster hunting and police investigation is another twofer. I may not be sure what's missing, but there's a lot of good stuff to be found here. I will be interested in book two when it's available to see where Ryan goes with this setup.

The Young Clementina / D.E. Stevenson

 

3.75 out of 5 stars

I find myself delighting in the writing of Ms. Stevenson. She is by turns amusing, gentle, and ruthless. This story reminded me of both Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The first because of the failed marriage, I think, and the second because Charlotte’s attempt to accept the upset of her future plans reminds me of Elinor in S&S. At any rate, Dorothy Stevenson proves that her relative Robert Louis Stevenson was not the only good writer in the family.

Now, if you're like me, you've got a pretty shrewd idea of where the problem lies between Charlotte and Garth. Charlotte chalks it up to Garth's WWI experience, not an unreasonable conclusion. She's pretty sure that Garth asked her to wait for him, which she did, only to watch, heartbroken, as he marries her shallow, pleasure-seeking younger sister, Kitty. Charlotte lives in a shabby flat in London, works at a dead end job in a bookstore, and tries to forget that she ever had any dreams of her own. She has mostly managed to tamp down her disappointment (she does, after all, really love books) until her manipulative sister arrives on her doorstep, demanding her assistance to fight a divorce from Garth. Char feels the responsibility to family of a Victorian heroine, despite the more modern setting.

Needless to say, things do not work out to Kitty's liking and she disappears from Char's life once again. But Garth needs a responsible adult to look out for his daughter, Clementine, while he adventures in Africa. He is bound and determined that Char, Clementine’s godmother, will be that adult. Char is uncertain that a childless spinster is a good choice for the self-possessed young woman or for running a country house ecosystem. She also wonders why her brother-in-law, who has been dismissive and cruel to her, has suddenly decided that she is his choice of guardian.

Love is the answer to most childrearing issues. Love and honesty bring aunt and niece together. They share horseback adventures and school lessons, plus they run the gauntlet of disapproving neighbours who feel the need to separate themselves from a home tainted by divorce. They lean on each other as they learn of the deaths of Clementine's parents.

I saw the book's conclusion coming from a mile away, but I found myself unable to hold that against the author. It was a good ending, despite its predictability. I will definitely read more titles by D.E. Stevenson.

Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye / Zac Unger

 

3 out of 5 stars

This was an interesting memoir to me because it dealt with two overlapping interests of mine: polar bears and the town of Churchill, Manitoba. Churchill is located on the shore of Hudson's Bay, the most southerly spot where one can “easily” go to see these giant predators. I use the quotes because it is not as easy as you think to get to this tundra town. You either fly on one of the limited number of flights or take a long, long train trip.

I went in 2014 on a one day trip, flying out of Calgary really early one Saturday morning, returning on the same plane and getting home after 10 p.m. School buses met us at the airport and trundled us out to the tourist facility where we were quickly herded onto tundra buggies. (Unger was right, the ramps to get into the buggies are reminiscent of cattle chutes.) The bliss of watching big white bears ensued.

I really enjoyed the history of the Churchill area and the town that Unger summarized here. On my trip, we never made it into town, so I got to see it through his eyes. When I was in high school, I had the thought that I'd like to spend time living in the north and now I'm kind of relieved that I never got to do that.

Unger himself wasn't really a guy that I'd want to have a coffee with. He comes across as pretty rigid and judgy. Maybe because I've been one of the tourists that he despises, I found his condescension hard to take. I can appreciate his grumpiness about the politics of polar bear research--it's complicated and it's not advisable to get too black and white in your thinking. You have to be able to multitask and believe several impossible things before breakfast. He seems very invested in right and wrong, picking sides, when I felt that an open mind would have served him much better.

I also hope that he spent more time than it sounded like with his wife and children during their couple of months sojourn in Churchill. His wife must truly love him to put up with his hare-brained schemes. Living in an unfurnished suite with three children, minimal possessions, and the limitations of northern living would be a strain on any relationship. It seemed like he got to do all the cool stuff that cost money and the family had to linger in the unfurnished suite, avoiding bears.

Despite Unger's disdain for people like me, I am seriously considering returning to the tundra as a tourist. No matter what he says, seeing polar bears is an awesome experience.

 

And Then There Were Nuns / Kylie Logan

 

4 out of 5 stars

Since I just did a re-read of Christie's And Then There Were None, I figured it was an excellent time to follow up with this cozy mystery. If a mystery can be called cozy when nuns are getting bumped off. I was glad to have the Christie original in mind, as Logan very skillfully works details from it into her novel.

I was a trifle disappointed that the group of librarians staying at Bea's bed and breakfast didn't play a larger part in the unraveling of the plot, as I worked in a library for most of my career and always felt that many library employees would make good detectives. They did notice some unusual behaviour that tipped me off about part of the answer. After the first reveal, however, the second was pretty obvious. Still, adjusting the details of And Then There Were None to suit a retreat for 10 nuns provided plenty of entertainment.

There are several revelations not related to the mystery. Bea confesses her true story of why and how she came to the island. We find out the real story of Levi too. Bea does not react well to that, despite her strong attraction to the guy. In addition to those details, Chandra starts acting more weird than usual, seemingly trying to pick fights with the other members of the League of Literary Ladies. We have to wonder what's up with that?

There is only one more volume to the series, which I suspect will wrap up all the loose ends and tie them in a bow. I must confess that I will be sad to finish, as I truly enjoy the Ladies, their friendship, their book club, and their crime fighting escapades. I think I will save that final book for when I need something special for some reason.

The Dangers of Dating Rebound Vampire / Molly Harper

 

3 out of 5 stars

The last Molly Harper book that I read (Better Homes and Hauntings) had a teaser chapter for this book in the final pages. That story was a ghost story and I felt that it came up short in the humour department for a Molly Harper novel. So I impulsively requested this book, hoping to recapture my love of Harper's fiction. Unfortunately that didn't quite work out as planned.

This isn't a bad book nor is it without humour. You can hear the “but" coming, can't you? Gigi is very young and has very little life experience. I didn't see what interest she would hold for a centuries old man. Another reservation: the obstacles to true love are awfully easily overcome. There's no real struggle here. The worst thing Gigi must deal with is an overprotective family. (That family includes, of course Jane Jameson and Dick Cheney [not that one] which is a check on the pro side of the chart.)

I also find myself rolling my eyes at the “together forever" assumptions. Just find “your" vampire and eternity is all wrapped up. This is the whole "happily ever after" notion taken to ridiculous lengths. If you've got forever, that's a lot of time to get on each other's nerves or get bored. So another tick on the con side.

So, will I read the next volume in the series? Well, Harper ends this book with a change in Dick and Jane's positions in the vampire hierarchy and I might just read on to see what happens with that. Will they finally make Dick go legit? Or wear something besides t-shirts with offensive captions on them? At least board meetings should be more entertaining. I guess the answer is yes, I'll be reading on.

A Foreboding of Petrels / Steve Burrows

 

4 out of 5 stars

Domenic Jejune is suspended. Not to be working on police investigations. Not to be getting information from his fellow officers. And yet, somehow he ends up looking into a suspicious death in Antarctica. The victim was a refugee with no family and no strong ties to any country. The Antarctic base is on land not claimed by any country. There is literally no jurisdiction. Lots of wiggle room to allow Jejune to insert himself.

At first, the schedule at the police station is so quiet that Colleen Shepherd starts a painting project to clean up the place. Then there are fires, some of the birding blinds in the saltmarsh and part of the Institute that the murder victim worked for. Coincidence? Nobody really thinks so—now Shepherd has to convince Jejune to drop his investigation or risk losing his job.

It's a small police department, so the politics are personal. Jejune may not be present, but all the others feel his influence in their work. They know they have to pick up their games. And yet, they manage to get tangled in a mess like kittens in a yarn basket.

Burrows really faked me out at the end. He did a real Agatha Christie move, playing with my emotions relentlessly. Well done, sir. Some things are resolved, but important questions remain, indicating, to me at least, that there is at least one more volume of the birder murder mysteries still to come.

And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie

 

4 out of 5 stars

This is one of the few mysteries where I went into a second reading very certain that I remembered the ending and the murderer. As it turns out, I was both right and wrong. I knew the perpetrator, but had forgotten details of the crimes. That's okay by me, as it made for an enjoyable re-reading experience.

It made me laugh when several of the men were fixated on homicidal spinsters as the most probable solution. Trust me, guys, spinsters such as myself probably have better mental health than women who are married to the wrong men. Plus, unlike the two unpleasant spinsters in this novel, we usually have circles of friends who keep us well socialized and happy. Far from being dismayed that we are single, many of us are relieved, having observed the relationships of our friends and relatives.

The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym / Paula Byrne

 

4.4 out of 5 stars

The whimsical and perilous charm of daily life

Many biographies are written in stiff, academic style, but that just would not be appropriate for the biography of Miss Barbara Pym. Pym, as many of her friends called her, was a highly intelligent woman with a lively imagination. She chose to dramatize her own life with love affair angst, sometimes even through made-up romances with men who weren't even aware of her. I am surprised that she didn't want to be an actress—she certainly threw herself into romantic roles.

I think I'm being mostly fair when I say that Barbara Pym was a boy-crazy young woman. However, her adventures gave her abundant fodder for her fiction. Pym was very observant and kept diaries which only sharpened her memory. And, as the author notes, “Barbara Pym's male characters are more often than not shifty, feckless, selfish and self-dramatising, relying on excellent women to solve their difficulties.” One of the reviewers of her first novel said it was “so gentle that the reader scarcely notices the claws.” As a woman who has occasionally weaponized “niceness,” I can fully appreciate and approve of this description.

I think Pym suffered from the same problem as Dorothy L. Sayers: she couldn't find a man as intelligent as herself who would take her seriously. They both enjoyed their time at university, although Sayers seems to have been more academically inclined. But Pym got her source material and her close friend Jock Liddell out of those years, both things worth having. Although she avidly pursued men and relationships, I suspect she would have found marriage dull as dishwater. As Pym found during WWII, housework is repetitive and boring. Laundry, cleaning, and cooking are all necessary, but are mostly noticed if you don't do them, rather than when you do keep up. Pym liked to be appreciated, not taken for granted. At some level, I think she was aware of this part of herself, as she had a talent for choosing unavailable men (been there, done that).

I now realize why I love Barbara Pym's writing as much as I do. Barbara Pym is my spirit animal. Independent, intelligent, wanting a relationship, but unwilling to give up her options, especially since she can't find a decent, compatible man. I identify with her far more closely than I would ever have believed if I hadn't run across this book.

As the author says in her afterword, “Pym is one of the great writers of the human heart.” She also states “Pym was a courageous writer and a brave woman. Women are at the heart of her stories. They are not all ‘excellent women’, but they are flesh and blood.” I wholeheartedly agree.

Final Heir / Faith Hunter

 

4+ out of 5 stars

An amazing conclusion to an entertaining series! Hunter has been regularly upping the stakes with each novel, making Jane Yellowrock wade through all kinds of tribulations that just get worse. She faces all kinds of bad guys, everything from Naturaleeza vampires, the Sons of Darkness, demons, hostility within the paranormal community, and politics.

I wasn't sure in the beginning why Hunter wrote Jane as a woman of religious convictions, but those ideals make her love all her people, human, vampire, witch, werewolf, am I forgetting anyone? Ah yes, the citizens of NOLA. Vampires have lived so many centuries without love, kindness and compassion and they are bowled over that their Dark Queen wants to protect them, is loyal to them, and cares about them. Koun, Jane's hulking Celtic vampire, reminds us regularly that Jane doesn't need blood bonds to keep vamps by her side. They want to be there, basking in her care.

The angel who has intervened in Jane's life in the past now needs her help. The final heir of the Sons of Darkness is trying to bind both the angel and a demon to cement incredible evil power for himself. But Jane is fighting with love of her people and an assortment of magical accessories. There's no doubt who's going to win, but it doesn't come easy.

I bet Faith Hunter is celebrating the end of this long, long series, freeing her to write other things. The ride has been very enjoyable, Ms. Hunter, thank you.

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead / Kim Harrison

 

4 out of 5 stars

I had a lot of pauses during the reading of this novel. Mostly, that's on me, because I'm struggling to maintain my focus on anything these days. But I found myself setting the book down whenever Rachel got in a snit, trying to use assumptions as proof. I couldn't yell at her, but I could go do something else and ignore her for a while. For someone with her skills, she is very impulsive and difficult to reason with.

Poor Ivy gets kicked around in this installment and Rachel is both brave and compassionate in her care of her friend. Ivy gets the best of her attention. Her putative boyfriend, Nick, gets unintentionally abused when Rachel performs a new spell with unexpected consequences and when she draws power through their link. Needless to say, their relationship is strained by this, as well as by their joint association with a demon (whom they refer to as Big Al). My prediction is that Nick won't remain her boyfriend for long. Rachel and her arch-enemy, Trent Kalamack, talk smack, admire each other, and flirt altogether too much for this to remain an adversarial situation. I'd say they are on their way to a torrid affair of some kind.

Meanwhile, Rachel is building her base. If Ivy isn't an even better friend after this, she's an ungrateful vampire. The pixie, Jenks, is still firmly on Rachel's team, along with his family. Nick is still linked to her by magic, but may be on his way out, if they can find a way to reverse the binding. Now, however, the FIB, in the persons of Edden and Glenn, are pleased to be associated with her. Even Trent seems to want to spend time with her.

The demon is a lingering problem, but we need a hook to encourage us to read the next book, don't we? Will Ivy recover? Can Nick and Rachel sever their binding? Will Trent supersede Nick in Rachel's affections? Once I punch through a bunch of library books, I'll grab volume three to find out. Wish me better luck with my attention span!

Book number 476 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project

How to Murder a Marriage / Gabrielle St. George

 

4 out of 5 stars

This book lived up to its awesome cover, at least for me. Although I must confess that I would not want Gina Malone for a friend, she was an entertaining companion for the duration of this mystery. I assume that St. George is planning to write more adventures of Gina, since it is billed as book one of the Ex-Whisperer Files.

Gina is impulsive, loud, brash—all those things that women are not encouraged to be. Just what women should appreciate, instead of knuckling under to “properness" as her two Italian aunties would have her do. Yes, she made a stupid choice with her husband (now ex-husband), but members of my own family have been fooled by narcissistic, manipulative men. They can hide the crazy long enough to reel in their fish.

Giving relationship advice is probably not what Gina should be doing, but she does have a lot of painful experience and acquired wisdom to share. Solving other people's problems is an excellent way to distract yourself from your own crap and avoid doing anything about it. A classic procrastination ploy.

I'm glad to have enjoyed this book, as I recommended that my library purchase it.