Book Reviews – Page 94 – Carol's Notebook

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi

July 31, 2020March 31, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

If you read the blurb above for The Eighth Detective, you can see why I was drawn to the book. I adore murder mysteries and the set up here, an editor wanting to re-publish a reclusive authors detective story collection, but discovering that there's a larger mystery to solve, sounds right up my alley. Overall, though, I was disappointed. Granted, The Eighth Detective is unique. We all know that there are rules to murder mysteries, but here the author plays around with them and shows the variations well. For me though, it was just trying to be too clever. I like a good puzzle, I like twists, but here the author clearly planned his revelations, but by the time he let us in on what was really going on, I didn't care. The ideas behind what makes a murder mystery a murder mystery were interesting enough, but not ground-breaking. The book annoyed me more than anything else. It starts off with...

Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

Aristocratic, but down on her luck, Olive Belgrave is searching for employment in 1920’s London, which is a fun time period if you're reading about society. Not as fun for servants or other lower classes, I'm sure, but they were not the main characters here. This is about people with money or standing or both. However, even Olive's connections aren’t getting her anywhere when she receives a telegram to return to her family estate. Olive’s cousin, Violet, has become engaged to Alfred Eton, a young man whose life in the India and his family are a bit of a mystery. He may not be a suitable match at all. Aunt Caroline employs Olive to use her skills and social connections to find out more about him, offering her a generous fee. Olive heads off to an extravagant house party hosted by photographer Sebastian Blakely, Alfred’s wealthy godfather and friend. Her plan is to mingle with the partygoers and find out more...

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

July 23, 2020August 5, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

I really wish blurbs would stop comparing book to Agatha Christie's. Lucy Foley is not Agatha Christie and her book really has little similarities to Christie's except a dead body. We don't have a detective, amateur or otherwise. This isn't even a traditional mystery, more of a psychological thriller. I think the comparison is misleading and not fair to Foley. The Guest List alternates between many points of view, with a different narrator for each. Usually, I'm not a fan of multiple narrators but it works well here. We have the bride, the groom, the best man, the plus one, the wedding planner, and the bridesmaid. We know something bad has happened but we don't know exactly what or who got hurt. The timeline also jumps back and forth between the past, two days before the wedding, to the chaotic wedding day in the present. Details are revealed slowly. The tension just keeps building as we learn the characters' fears, secrets,...

Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe

July 20, 2020June 11, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I have mixed feelings about Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe. I didn't know it was the second in the series until I started to get this post ready. I did feel like this worked fine as a stand-alone and given the beginning and end of this one, I do wonder how the first fit in, but don't think I'll bother going back to read it. On the one hand, I enjoyed reading Bishop to Queen. I flew through it and maybe put off doing some work to read it instead. It was a fun book that moved along at a good pace. The characters were interesting and amusing if slightly one-dimensional. The idea of what makes a being human and what makes someone "good," while not a new topic in sci-fi, was explored well here. There were a couple of things I didn't like about the book too. First, as I mentioned, the characters were not a multi-dimensional as I could...

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

July 16, 2020January 23, 2024 by Carol2 Comments

Eight Perfect Murders is clever. Mal posted a list of eight "perfect" murders on a blog years ago and now someone is using the list to conduct their own murder spree. Maybe. I love all the references to other mysteries, but if they're on your to-read list, be aware that this book contains lots and lots of spoilers, and not just for books on the list. I've read several Mal references, but need to pick up Malice Aforethought and A Secret History and maybe watch the movie version of Death Trap. I found The Drowner to be the most uninteresting on the list and will just skip it. It's probably not a good sign that my favorite parts of the book were the bits about mysteries by other authors. The mystery in Eight Perfect Murders is actually well done. Mal, who is telling us the story, is a well-rounded, flawed character. He owns a mystery bookstore but doesn't read mysteries anymore. He's...

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

The Fifth Season is an amazing book. It's set on a post-apocalyptic earth that's plagued by constant seismic activity. This leads to frequent near-extinction events called "Fifth Seasons" that keep people always on alert. The evidence of past civilizations litters the planet -- ruined cities, incomplete 'stonelore' handed down from earlier generations, and strange obelisks that float through the atmosphere. The Sanze Empire has survived for centuries by harnessing the power of orogenes -- people born the ability to control their environment. The orogenes can stop earthquakes or start them. They can save cities, or draw power from living creatures and "ice" them. Their powers are terrifying but essential such a volatile world, so the empire develops a caste of Guardians who have the power to neutralize the orogenes when necessary. The orogenes are held in contempt and called "roggas" by ordinary humans. Despite all their power, they cannot control their own lives. They are either hunted down and destroyed...