Carol – Page 2 – Carol's Notebook

Fatality in F by Alexia Gordon

March 18, 2026March 18, 2026 by Carol1 Comment

I liked Fatality in F a little more than the previous one in the series. It's back to more solid ground, or at least as solid as it can be when a ghost is around. Gethsemane is one of those amateur sleuths who has a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and usually discovering a dead body in the process. This time around a rose show has come to Dunmullach and one of the competitors, who is also Gethsemane's friend Frankie's main rival, is found dead with a pair of garden shears sticking out of his back. In the meantime, Frankie is receiving bouquets reminiscent of the Flower Shop Killer of decades ago. The plot moves along at a nice pace. We had several suspects, clues, red herrings, and several secret agendas. We also learn a bit about the language of flowers and plant-based pharmaceuticals. I like Gethsemane. She a brilliant musician. She's strong and independent....

Alibi by Accident by Kayleigh Suggett

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

I enjoyed Alibi by Accident and Verona is quite a main character. Keep that in mind because the book itself had some issues for me. She's a private detective, or a private dick as she refers to herself in a kind of running joke, in Calgary. Her new client, Miami, knows her very rich husband is about to divorce her and wants Verona to get proof that he's cheating on her so she can cash in on her share of the billions. Then, the husband ends up dead, murdered in a hotel in Greece, and Miami becomes a chief suspect, even though she was thousands of miles away, so Verona is off to Greece to find another focus for the police's attention. I was not prepared for the language in this one. I should have been, just look at the first word of the blurb, but there were too many f-words when they just weren't needed. I was also not...

Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang

March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I found Separation of Church and Hate interesting, informative, and funny. But I'm an anti-death penalty, anti-gun, pro-LGBTQI rights Christian who believes we should provide food, health care and safety to people. I attends church every Sunday and work in the office every weekday afternoon. Mostly, I just agree with Fugelsang, who believes in a Christianity embodied by love, mercy, and service. If you don't, your mileage may vary. Fugelsang takes every hot-button issue- abortion, universal health care, gun control, etc., shows us the scriptures the extreme right tends to use to support them and teaches us why, in his opinion, they're being misinterpreted or are more Paul's opinion and hang-ups than Jesus' actual views. He then points to other scriptures that support a more loving, graceful, and inclusive understanding. I can't really judge how solid his theology is and I might question a couple of his suggestions, but overall I think he makes some really good points. I also appreciate...

The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson

March 10, 2026March 10, 2026 by Carol1 Comment

In a small, remote town in Sweden, two eighteen year-old boys leave a party only to discover the next day that one of their friends has been found murdered in the trunk of a car. Each of the boys is a suspect, but the case is never solved. Twenty years later, another man is killed and old secrets are uncovered. It took me a while to get into this one. A lot of the names are unfamiliar to me, which can make the characters and places more difficult to keep track of. We had several points of view with the detectives and boys which worked well in the long run, but made it harder to connect to the characters at first. The story also takes place over twenty years and it takes a while before some of the scenes tie in with the rest. At some point, though, the story had me hooked. The plot is multi-layered and so many...

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

March 5, 2026March 5, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

Yes, I've read Murder on the Orient Express several times. Yes, I've watched the movies, also multiple times. But somehow I always enjoy it. We all know the plot. Hercule Poirot is a last minute addition to the first class carriage on the Orient Express from Istanbul to Calais. All the other rooms are taken, unusual for winter, The following morning, the train is stuck in the snow and one of the passengers, an American named Ratchett, is found dead in his bunk, stabbed multiple times. Of course, I know the whodunnit and it's not one you can forget, but it's always fun watching Poirot collect all the clue, lies, and red herrings. His friend/ company director, Monsieur Bouc, sits in on the questioning and you have to admire how quickly he jumps to conclusions only to have them just as quickly upended by Poirot. He's a good character, light-hearted, but in the the end his position allows him to...

The 52 Book Club Mystery Genre Challenge

March 4, 2026April 8, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

The 52 Book Club just put out their first full-sized genre-specific challenge. All books read for this challenge must be mysteries, but there is not timeline for completing it. The mystery challenge contains fifty different “cases." Match one mystery to each case for a total of fifty different books. Cases are related to different mystery elements and tell you what to look for in a book. A classic mystery: An opening line that hooks you: An “impossible” crime: Murder disguised as an accident: A missing person: A cozy mystery: An unsettling read: Title includes the word “death” or “dead:” A Disorganised Death by Simon Brett A white-collar crime: A humorous mystery: The “brilliant detective” trope: An amateur sleuth: Antagonist toys with the detective: Includes a podcaster, writer, or journalist: A crime-solving duo: Detective has to confront their own past: An iconic detective: Police procedural: A detective on the cover: Title starts with first letter of author’s last name: A serial killer: An unreliable narrator: A victim with lots of enemies: Features small town secrets: Written from multiple suspects’ perspectives: A “new-to-you” author: A crime of passion: A character...