Tag Archives: Currently Reading

Currently Reading

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Wishing everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving.

Upcoming event: Pane Discussion at the Poughkeepsie Public Library

This past week I read one book, Shutter, by Ramona Emerson.

This was very good, but also rather creepy.

Rita Todacheene is a Navaho but also a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque Police Force. She is unusual in that the Navaho are forbidden to interact with the dead in case they invite in witches.

But Rita sees ghosts. In some cases, the ghosts lead her to the person who murdered them. Rita does not dare tell people she sees ghosts; the usual response is that she is hallucinating. And for many years, she is able to ignore the ghosts.

But at a particularly grisly accident scene, the ghost of a young woman, Erma, will not allow Rita to turn away. Instead, the ghost pursues Rita, pestering her to investigate the so-called suicide when Erma knows she was murdered.

Creepy but unputdownable. For mystery readers who enjoy a touch of the supernatural.

Currently Reading

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This week I read two really good books.

The first is by Victoria Thompson. She previously wrote the Gaslight mysteries. City of Lies is roughly the same period but very different.

Elizabeth is a grifter, a con woman, now going by the name Betty Perkins. When the current con. goes badly, she has to run for her life. Chased by two heavies, she takes refuge in a protest by a band of suffragists. They are quickly arrested and Elizabeth finds herself in a workhouse in Virginia. All of the woman embark on a hunger strike, including Elizabeth. She is greatly changed by her experience and her growing connection to Mrs. Bates and another young woman.

But the mark is still waiting for her to appear so that he can wreak his vengeance.

Highly Recommended.

The second book is a collection of short stories by Elly Griffiths.

The stories include some with Ruth Galloway and Max Mephisto, but others are cozies and a few are barely mysteries at all. But they are all captivating and show Griffiths is a master of the short story as well as the novel. Highly recommended.

Currently Reading

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The book I read this week is a little unusual; it is a Western. I’ve read them, of course. I’ve read many Louis L’Amour. I met Terrance McCauley at the Rensselaer Library. He writes both mysteries and westerns.

I really enjoyed this tale of Sheriff Mackey. Forced to shoot a group of saloon rats and planting them in “Mackey’s garden”, the Sheriff raises the ire of both the local banker who is planning a deal with a railroad baron and also a psychopathic killer. He is determined to punish Mackey for killing his buddies. The bullets fly. Definitely escapist literature.

Lots of fun.

Currently Reading – Now for Something Completely Different

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On the advice of a friend, I read The End of Everything by Victor Davis Hanson.

This is quite different from the novels I usually read.

Hanson takes four societies – Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople and Tenochtitlan – to discuss war and obliteration. His central thesis is that, through naïveté and foolish confidence, some societies are utterly annihilated. Thebes, for example, was destroyed by Alexander the Great, Carthage by the Romans, Constantinople by the Ottomans and Tenochtitlan by Cortez.

Both Thebes and Constantinople believed (foolishly according to Hanson) their walls and fortifications would protect them. Carthage did not realize Rome still held a grudge for a previous war. And in Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs were more interested in capturing their enemies for sacrifice to their Gods than killing them. The Spanish, trained soldiers all, mowed the Aztecs down with their superior armor and weaponry despite their much smaller numbers. The winners then felt they had a right to totally destroy the society, apparently because the loser didn’t just give up.

Although he doesn’t pull this out of his central argument, my takeaway is that each of these societies were destroyed by an invader/conquorer. Although the Aztecs were vastly outmatched by the steel armor and the guns of the Spanish, in the other three cases the military technology was roughly even.

Then my question would be: Should the early American colonists have given up in the face of Great Britain’s might? True, there were factors that gave the early Americans an edge (the distance across the Atlantic, British military tactics that remained unchanged against the guerrilla warfare practiced by the Americans, and the entry of the French on the American side) but we were vastly outmatched. We withdrew from Vietnam, despite our superior military power. And should Ukraine fold and allow Putin and Russia to sweep over them?

Thought provoking.

Currently Reading

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This week I read Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth C. Bunce.

This was an Edgar Award winner in the Children’s category. It reminded me strongly of the Enola Holmes books and Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series. Here’s an interesting fact. Although all the protagonists are young girls (opinionated and very bright, it goes without saying), the Bradley mysteries are considered adult while the Enola Holmes and Myrtle Hardcastles are classed as children’s lit.

Myrtle is a bright twelve year-old with an obsession for criminal justice. In the interest of science, she Observes (she always capitalizes this word) her neighbors. When her next door neighbor, an eccentric older lady who breeds lilies, dies under Mysterious Circumstances, Myrtles sees her chance to investigate. Armed with her mother’s microscope, and accompanied by her governess, Miss Judson, Myrtle sets about proving that Miss Woodhouse was murdered. No one believes her, not even her father, but Myrtle perseveres, putting not only herself in danger but also her father.

I really enjoyed the mystery and Myrtle is a great character. However, a young reader would have to be a very good reader to enjoy Premeditated Myrtle.

Recommended with reservations.

Just a reminder: I will be at Rensselaer Public Library Saturday, 1 to 3. The event is free. I will be giving away a copy of Death in Salem to all who buy a book.

Currently Reading

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I read two books this past week. Neither were traditional mysteries. The first one was Her Past Can’t Wait by Jacqueline Boulden.

At a business function, Emily is groped by an important client. Instead of accepting it, she turns and slaps humans causes a big scene. Although her supervisor saves her job, she is suspended for two weeks. During that time, she goes for therapy and discovers a long ago trauma. Her investigation of that trauma leads to a serial predator and almost costs Emily her life.

The second book was Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney.

Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart which has made her alternately scorned and spoiled. When her estranged family arrives on a tiny island in Cornwall for Nana’s eightieth birthday, they all arrive with secrets. Because of the tide, the house will be cut off for eight hours. As a storm rages outside and on the stroke of midnight, Nana is found dead. One by one, each of the family dies. Who can be killing the family?

Creepy and captivating. Perfect for a Halloween Read. I admit, however, that I was not thrilled with the final twist.

WordPress has ‘upgraded’ which means it is more difficult to use and without some of the previous amenities. Bear with me, I am still figuring it out.

Currently Reading

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The third of Amy Myer’s cozies, Marsh and Daughter’s murder mysteries, Murder in Hell’s Corner, finds Georgia and her father investigating the murder of Patrick Fairfax, a revered WWII pilot.

As Georgia and Peter investigate, especially looking into a close knit group of pilots who knew Fairfax, they realize that he was not as universally admired as his family believed.

Was the murderer one of his many women? Or one of the other pilots? Or his business partner? The solution, and the twist at the end, is surprising.

What I found captivating, though, was the descriptions of WWII. The relentless bombing by the Germans, the loss of friends and comrades that occurred almost hourly, the sheer scale of a war pounding at this small country. Like Foyle’s War, it is a reminder that England was almost destroyed and was metaphorically hanging by its fingernails.

Highly Recommended.

Currently Reading

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On a Bookbub recommendation, I bought the set of Marsh and Daughter mysteries by Amy Marsh.

So far, I have read the first two and begun the third.

Georgia and her father, a retired police detective, research cold cases. Anything that piques their curiosity – a little bit of supernatural here – and then write books solving the mystery.

In the first one, The Wickenham Murders, a young gardener Davy Todd is accused of murdering Ada Proctor, the Doctor’s daughter. But so many parts of the story don’t make sense. The villagers don’t want the Marshs poking around but there is that strange music indicating someone doesn’t believe Davy was guilty. Then Georgia discovers Davy’s old sweetheart, still alive, and convinced of his innocence.

In the second book, Murder in Friday Street, a rock musician, Fanny Star, is murdered when she returns to the village to give a concert. Although her partner is accused of the crime, serves time and is murdered almost immediately upon his release, Georgia and her father don’t believe he was the guilty party. Suspects abound but the investigation into ‘the gang’, the friends of Fanny when they were kids, leads to the solution.

These are darker than Agatha Christie but, like her mysteries, show that murders happen even in cozy villages.

Terrific!

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Since I am watching the Summer Olympics, my usual reading has taken a hit. I am about half way through Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead.

The previous book in the series ended with a cliffhanger: Finlay sees a proposed hit on her husband with a bounty of $100,000. She is pretty sure Theresa is not behind it since she is in jail for her connections with the Russian mob.

Since Finlay is nothing if not impulsive, she not only looks at the hit, she responds to it. The coded response comes to both Finlay and ‘EasyClean”, saying whoever murders Steve first will get paid – and she wants it done by Christmas.

Finlay and her nanny/friend begin investigating and are in Steven’s trailer at his business when someone firebombs it. The discovery of a body in a storage unit rented under Theresa’s name further complicates the case.

Like the first in the series, it is funny. But also full of contrivances. Finlay does a lot of foolish things, impulsively and without thought. I would give the series a B to a B+. It’s funny and the story keeps moving but I find Finlay’s thoughtlessness and impulsivity annoying.

Currently Reading

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I wanted to read something very different and somewhat exotic. I picked up Auntie Lee’s Deadly Delights: a Singaporean mystery.

This was truly exotic, from the strange and unusual food to the Singapore setting. But, as I have said so often, people are always the same. (I frequently feel that the murder victims are so unpleasant it is no surprise when they’re murdered and, in fact, I wonder why it took so long.) If anyone deserved murdering, it is Mabel Sung and her son Leonard. There is no shortage of suspects but suspicion immediately falls on the caterer, Auntie Lee, who prepared traditional foods for the buffet, some of which require soaking to remove cyanide. (Really!)

Auntie Lee, who knows she is innocent, embarks on her own investigation. Fortunately, Inspector Salim has eaten at Auntie Lee’s cafe numerous times and he does not believe Auntie Lee is definitely guilty. The game is afoot!

This is a cozy police procedural with a lot of humor. The unusual setting is certainly a plus but the personality of Auntie Lee is the real charm here. Really fun.Recommended.