We Solve Murders / Richard Osman

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this new offering from Richard Osman, seeing as it's not a Thursday Murder Club book. Would I like these new people? Would it be as much fun? I needn't have worried. They aren't quite as charming as the folks from Coopers Chase, but they have a brand new set of rather endearing quirks.

Steve is a retired policeman who is set in his habits and it's a chore to get him out of his comfortable rut. Rosie is a well known author who is willing to do all kinds of new things while spending lavishly to make them more to her taste and she has never met a drink she didn't like. Amy started out as Rosie's bodyguard, but has become an assassination target herself. When she needs help figuring out what's going on, she calls her father-in-law, Steve. Amy strongly believes that guns are the solution to all her problems (and maybe a bit of punching TBH). Between the three of them, they set out to investigate who is trying to frame Amy for murder and/or kill her.

I loved the way they relied on each other and just kept moving and investigating. Just like our team of good guys, there are equally quirky bad guys. Everyone is interesting and everyone has a story. Rosie can get people to talk, Steve can logic things out, and Amy can plan & act decisively. An excellent team.

The last chapter leaves little doubt that this will become a series. I'm sure I will read future volumes. But I don't feel the compulsion to own this novel, like I did with the Thursday Murder Club. Who knows? Perhaps my mind will change with the next volume.

I spent my Sleepy Hollow wild card to use this book to fulfill the In the Dark, Dark Woods square of my Halloween Bingo card.

Knight in Peril / Alice Bienia

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Mystery Book Club 2024

From the very first pages, this novel racheted up my anxiety level. Although I have loved travel, I am very definitely a tour traveller. I have zero desire to be all on my own in an unfamiliar place. So Jorja's arrival in Istanbul with no friend waiting to greet her would be a nightmare for me. Realizing that her travel companion and BFF has gone missing adds a whole new layer of angst. I immediately knew that I would need to take frequent breaks while reading this book to soothe my own anxieties.

This is my worst nightmare in fictional form. Searching for a missing woman in a country where I do not know the language and where women's status is definitely second class. A country where the police are not inclined to care about foreigners. Far from friends and family, feeling extreme fear about Gabriella's situation, Jorja demonstrates far more bravery than I think I would. Although I've experienced challenges while outside Canada, nothing this serious has ever happened to me, thank the Goddess! I'll not complain about lost luggage or flight delays ever again.

I am now ready for book club tomorrow night. The author will be attending, so I hope to have some questions formulated for the event. October is evaporating on me and I still have a number of Halloween books to get to. Too bad I couldn't figure out a way to wiggle this book into that game.

Gone With the Twins / Kylie Logan

 

3.7 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

I'm both glad and sad that I've reached the last Literary Ladies novel. I will miss learning of the future adventures of this funny foursome: Bea, Chandra, Kate and Luella. They have come a long way since the first book, where they were sentenced to a court-ordered book club where they could work out their differences. But I also think that this is a good stopping place.

Each mystery in this series centres around some classic novel that the book club is reading. This time it's Gone With the Wind, which I found a little odd for a series set on a little island on Lake Erie, deep in Yankee country. Obviously, Kylie Logan had come up with a way to use details from the classic to dress up her cozy mystery and was willing to live with that dissonance. There's a new B&B in town, run by twins who are famous for being kidnapped and mysteriously escaping. They've named their establishment Tara and are hosting a Civil War themed fund raising gala there. And they seem to be out to ruin Bea's business.

In the meantime, there's been a murder of a local real estate agent who has so many detractors that the police are spoiled for choice of suspects. Bea learns that the dead woman broke up Chandra's first marriage and Chandra has been acting erratically. It doesn't take Bea long to take up the hunt for the killer in order to clear her friend.

This was perfect for the Twilight on the Great Lakes square of my Bingo card, as it takes place on South Bass Island on Lake Erie.

How to Book a Murder / Cynthia Kuhn

 

3 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

As cozy mysteries go, this one is middle of the road for me. Emma Starrs isn't an idiot, although she does eavesdrop an awful lot. She doesn't seem to believe the police are bumblers, although she does question their priorities. I think I might feel similarly if I was accused of murder. However I always feel like the police don't behave realistically in this genre either.

What I did like was the family business aspect and her relationships with her sister and aunt. Those felt real and grounded the story. I found the “mean girls" from high school, now thinking that they run the town, a little over the top. I mean, do people really carry teenage grudges that long? I would expect Emma to have grown enough to stand up to them better. She has a PhD, for Pete's sake! She has brains and skills, which her nemesis Tabitha does not.

Thankfully the other cozy tropes were pretty mild: the family bookstore has a cat but it doesn't play a major role. Emma's sister finds a love interest, but Emma hasn't yet. There are hints at the end that a certain author might be interested, but they only have a coffee date. The author isn't hurrying to throw absolutely everything into the bucket right away and I appreciate that restraint.

I'm unsure that I'll pursue the series, but stranger things have happened.

I read this for the Cozy Mystery square on my Bingo Card.

Heavenly Pleasures / Kerry Greenwood

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

This novel really qualifies as the ultimate in cozy mystery. If you are looking for tons of action, you will be disappointed. This is a book which deals primarily with relationships: friendships, workmates, neighbours, and romantic relationships. Not to mention the cats and kittens! And the baking (the main character is a baker, after all). It takes quite a while to meander its way to the first mysterious happening at the neighboring chocolate shop (from which the book gets its title). The development of the characters is front and centre.

If I care about the main character, I have infinite patience for this kind of thing. I really appreciate Corrina Chapman, so I plunged into the pages and inhaled the book in one evening. The mystery was solved, but more significantly, Corrina and Daniel survived their first serious argument and Jason was rescued after his first drug relapse since coming to work with Corrina. There are two more important interventions, both masterminded by Corrinna.

Not for the adrenaline junkie, but excellent for the humanitarian. Also satisfying if you like to see the patriarchy given a kick to the curb.

I read this book to fill the Death Down Under square on my Bingo card.

Death at the Sign of the Rook / Kate Atkinson

 

4 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

I usually try not to start with the sixth volume of a series, but the rook on the cover of this novel overrode my good sense. As it turned out, I had no trouble figuring out what was going on. There were probably details that I didn't fully appreciate, but they weren't integral to this plot.

I do feel that reading the earlier books would have given me more perspective on Jackson Brodie, who seems to be rather a pain in the arse. Despite that, I couldn't help liking him. I also very much liked Reggie Chase and would like to know how Brodie made her acquaintance. Perhaps I will backtrack.

The book was complex enough to keep the little grey cells firing. It was like a Venn diagram, with three (four?) plots overlapping and interacting in interesting ways. Atkinson leads the reader on a merry chase, trying to keep up with her as she strews clues in her wake. The many characters are well realized, amusing, and varied. Two stolen paintings, two investigations, a soldier with PTSD, a vicar who has lost his faith, an upper-class family trying to hold their estate together, it all comes together. Really intricate, fast moving, and very well done.

I read this book to fill the Genre: Mystery square on my Bingo card.

Mother-Daughter Murder Night / Nina Simon

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

Halloween Bingo 2024

It's nice when your book club selection can also fill a square on your Bingo card. My fellow book clubbers don't always choose the same kind of mystery that I would, so liking this novel was another pleasant discovery. Lana, a shark of a real estate mogul, is fighting lung cancer and is reluctantly staying with her daughter Beth and granddaughter Jack while undergoing chemotherapy. Lana and Beth are both strong willed women, too alike in some ways to be able to get along easily. Both are single mothers and fiercely independent and have very different ideas of how to live. Jack is a quiet kid, who loves being out on the water of the slough near their home.

Lana is used to being very much in control. Chemo leaves her feeling weak and out of control. During a sleepless hour one night, she watches a man across the water dump a wheelbarrow load of something into the water. Shortly thereafter, Jack finds a body in the marsh while leading a regular kayak trip. They end up dealing with a detective who is willing to believe that Jack may be involved in the man's death, so Lana decides she must take control of the investigation.

It turns out that Lana's real estate expertise is very useful. The three women find they have various ties to the murdered man and a local land owner. When they can stop fighting with each other, they cooperate in assembling the clues. The family that they are observing are even more dysfunctional than they are.

The novel is a mystery, yes, but it is also very much about family relationships. For a first novel, it is admirable. I would be willing to read other books by this author if she produces them.

I read this book to fill the Amateur Sleuth square on my Bingo card.

A Daughter of Fair Verona / Christina Dadd

 

4.5 out of 5 stars 

Absolutely fricking delightful! I'm so glad I picked up this mystery, which features Rosaline Montague, daughter of Romeo and Juliet Montague. Yes, you're thinking of the right people. In the first few pages, Rosie regales us with the “real" ending of the story:

Mom grabbed Dad's knife out of the sheath and stabbed herself. There was a lot of blood, and she fainted, but essentially she stabbed that gold pendant necklace her family buried her with, the knife skidded sideways, and she slashed her own chest. She still has the scar, which, when I'm rolling my eyes, she insists on showing me. What with all that blood, she fainted. When she came to, still very much alive, she crawled back up on the tomb, sobbed again over Dad's body, and got wound up for a second self-stabbing. It was at this point Dad sat up, leaned over, and vomited all over the floor. It's a well-known fact you can never trust an unfamiliar apothecary to deliver a reliable dose of poison.

If a semi-modern voice in a historical mystery disturbs you, I would recommend that you give this a chapter or two. I was captured from the first pages (and that dissonance usually drives me nuts), so I encourage open-mindedness. Rosie is an “ancient” unmarried virgin woman (age 20) who has successfully distracted three fiancés with more suitable matches. She likes living at home with her family. Until Romeo reluctantly betroths her to Duke Stephano, who is suspected of poisoning three previous spouses.

Of course, it is the day of the betrothal party that Rosie falls madly in love with Lysander, a young man who has scaled the Montague garden wall to woo her. Her reputation is saved by Prince Escalus, ruler of Verona. She will need his support again when the Duke is discovered stabbed to death in the garden. Can Rosie clear her name, salvage her reputation, and claim her One True Love?

Dodd plays skillfully with the Romeo and Juliet story. What would they be like as older adults? How would they deal with a house full of children? How would their eldest child, Rosaline, react to the uber-romantic saga of her parents' love story? By becoming ultra rational and organized, that's how! Usually, a humorous conceit like this wears thin as the book progresses, but I never tired of Dodd's approach. Her humor was right on the money, especially as Rosie completely overlooks her own attractiveness and misinterprets the actions of the men around her.

So, although Rosie is surprised by the ending, the reader is not. It is charming! I note that this is first in a series and I can hardly wait to see what this Daughter of Montague gets up to next.

Knife Skills for Beginners / Orlando Murrin

 

3.5 out of 5 stars

I’ve no clue what inspired me to put a hold on this book at the library, but for a debut novel it was pretty darn good. The author knows a thing or two about the food biz (he's been on MasterChef and has written six cookbooks) and the magazine biz (he's edited several, founded one). As an instructor I heard recently said, we are all expert in something, and it's wise to use that expertise in your fiction. So the main character, Paul, is a depressed, unemployed chef who is inveigled by a frenemy to take over a cooking school class. The frenemy, Christian, has broken his arm and the students, who are very much his fans, are disappointed to be fobbed off on Paul. Paul is unhappy because he can't seem to get a straight answer about his remuneration for the gig.

So Paul's situation is frustrating but bearable until he discovers Christian's body with a bloody meat cleaver and faints, fortunately not in the pool of blood. Because of his personal history with the deceased, he is immediately very much a person of interest to the police. Paul is exhorted by his best friend Julie (who works for a lifestyle magazine) to investigate the crime himself to avoid being railroaded. It doesn't help that he has a vindictive stalker muddying the waters.

Of course each of the students and even the cooking school owner have possible motives for wanting Christian dead. Can Paul figure it out before he gets locked up for the crime? If you like this book, I think you might also enjoy The Golden Spoon (a mystery on the set of a cooking show) or The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder (this author has expertise in antiques which is used well in her novel).

Hickory Dickory Dock / Agatha Christie

 

3 out of 5 stars 

I found this Christie novel somewhat underwhelming. Usually when she used a nursery rhyme in the title, she also found a way to use it to play a significant role in the plot. Here, it isn't referenced until the 70% mark, when one of the students mutters it (with revisions).

The best part of the book, in my opinion, is getting to know Miss Felicity Lemon a bit better. Until now, we have only been told of her most satisfactory performance by Hercule Poirot, who appreciates his secretary very much. We also get to meet her widowed sister, who brings this mystery to her sister and the great detective. Mrs. Hubbard (I can only guess that this is another Mother Goose reference, she of the bare cupboard) has taken on the responsibility of running a student hostel: paying the bills, riding herd on the staff, counseling the young people who live there. She is apparently made of the same firm stuff as her sister, as she puts up with a rather hysterical building owner, Mrs. Nicoletis. Mrs. Nic, by the way, acts exactly like a Greek woman I used to work with—absolutely everything was treated as Greek tragedy with much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and declarations of woe.

Christie does her usual efficient introduction of the assortment of young people. How does she distinguish them so easily, using so few words? We get to know them rapidly and Christie gives us reasons to suspect every one of them when poor Celia is murdered. Who could want to bump off this girl who they all agree is rather dull and dim? The relationships reminded me of my time living in student residences during university. Everyone has their quirks. Some people can't even pretend to like all the others. Gossip, listening at doors, ferreting out guilty secrets, it all happens in these environs.

I found the criminal in this instance to be rather obvious, not Christie's usual standard. The other matters that muddy the waters a bit saved the book from being a complete snooze.