Purchased – Page 21 – Carol's Notebook

The Sandman: Act II by Neil Gaiman, adapted by Dirk Maggs

October 2, 2021October 1, 2021 by Carol2 Comments

A reminder - I have never read the original Sandman comics. I rarely read comics or graphic novels, mostly because I'm not good at it and so don't enjoy them as much as I could. I tend to read the dialogue and miss the pictures. I can't tell how faithful the audio is to the original, but others say it's very close. I enjoyed this second act, which consists of two main arcs and several smaller stories. The Season of Mists was excellent. Dream travels back to hell to save Nada whom he had condemned for 10,000 years of torment… because she rejected him. Surprising twists and turns make it impossible to see where this one is going until it actually gets there. A Game of You was kind of blah for me. Barbie and some friends have to go on a quest to save a land but still manage to stay alive in our world. It was skippable. Fables & Reflections...

Strange Frequencies by Peter Bebergal

September 24, 2021September 24, 2021 by Carol3 Comments

I picked up Strange Frequencies for RIP's Peril of the Real. When it comes to fiction, I stay in the mystery aisles most of the time. Nonfiction, however, can be about anything. I can't say that I was really interested in the intersection of technology and the supernatural, but I can find most topics interesting and learn fascinating bits and pieces, especially when the writer/speaker presents it well. Bebergal covers a wide variety of topics, from golems to seances to electronic voice phenomena and he does it from the view of maybe a hopeful skeptic. He researches, but he also experiments. He talks about the history around certain devices or myths and contacts, when possible, experts. He also goes to the seance, tags along with the photographer, builds a Tesla radio, uses his dad's old tape recorder. My one complaint is that it jumps from topic to topic. I would have liked there to be more to it, not just...

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny

September 17, 2021December 3, 2021 by Carol6 Comments

My mom and I both read Penny's Gamache series. She loves all of them; I like the "smaller" mysteries, the ones that don't involve institutional corruption or cross-country drug trafficking. The Madness of Crowds is one of those smaller, more personal mysteries. We're back in Three Pines, which is always nice, and Gamache and his whole family are there for the holidays. Gamache is asked to provide security for a professor's lecture, but, of course, it's not quite as simple as it sounds. The professor's visit and talk lead to moral dilemmas, violence, and ultimately a death. The mystery itself was fine. We have several suspects, even if I question why a couple of them would make the list- the motives seem rather weak. The clues are revealed slowly, allowing us to discover them along with Gamache as he and his team pull back the layers of people's lives, discovering their secrets and past choices. Penny does touch on COVID, or the...

The Family Plot by Megan Collins

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 by Carol6 Comments

Dahlia Lighthouse and her siblings had an unconventional childhood, to say the least. They were homeschooled and along with geography, they were taught about famous serial killers and their victims by their obsessed parents. The way they grew up, sheltered, surrounded by historical murders, has obviously affected how they live in the world off the island and how they relate to other people. And now three of the siblings, now adults, are back home. Dad's dead, but someone else's body is found in his grave - Andy, who they all thought ran away years ago. So the mystery is who killed Andy. Dahlia is desperate to find out what happened to her twin. I don't know if mystery is really the right word. Yes, we have some clues and an investigation, but the book is more about the oppressive atmosphere of the Lighthouse home, of the suspicion of the other islanders, of secrets and obsession and coping. The tone is dark and...

Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021 by Carol4 Comments

I loved the setting in Death at High Tide. We have a 1920s hotel that was updated a bit too much in the 70s on a remote island in the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall. The island can only be reached at low tide and it's off season, so very few people are staying there. Like any good isolated setting, we have a limited number of people. Evie and her sister, Margot, are our main characters. Evie's husband has recently died, leaving Evie on pretty shaky financial ground. But, there were papers that suggested she may be the owner of the hotel, so Evie and Margot head off, to see the hotel and to get away for a weekend. The sisters are a good pair, opposites who nevertheless support each other when push comes to shove. We've got the husband and wife who own the hotel, a couple of staff, and an older, nosy woman who lives there...

Deadly Cargo by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

September 3, 2021September 2, 2021 by Carol2 Comments

American Kat Reilly and Brit Sir Harry Mortimer are settling into married life together in Mydworth. Kat no longer works in interesting ways for the American government, but Harry still works and has connections in Whitehall. Together, they have investigated some interesting cases, which they love doing. This time around, a local companies delivery trucks are being stopped and their contents, radios, stolen with some regularity. Kat and Harry use their training and intelligence to get to the bottom of the mystery. We've got some twists, turns, red herrings, and a glimpse at how technology was changing at the time. The story moves quickly, without any dull moments, and I was surprised by the whodunnit. It's always fun to spend time with Kat and Harry. ...