Book Reviews – Page 131 – Carol's Notebook

Picked Off by Linda Lovely

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I have mixed feelings about Picked Off by Linda Lovely. I love Brie and all of her friends, who I first met in Bones to Pick. Her aunt is awesome, feisty and honest and loving. She and her friends, Mollye, Paint and Andy make a great team, even if they're a bit bumbling, like any good amateur detectives. They are funny and truly care about each other. The mystery is good. We've got plenty of suspects and motives, which is not surprising considering the victim - who doesn't actually die by the way - is a professional football player and his mother is a politician. We've got rednecks and franchise owners and gamblers. Then the author goes and ruins it all with a love triangle, which was my problem with the first in the series too. I had hoped she would let that go by the wayside, but nope. Apparently Brie can not be "just friends" with either of them -...

Murder Has a Motive by Francis Duncan

July 26, 2018July 25, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I admit it - I love vintage mysteries. In spite of the predictability, in spite of the stereotypes, I truly enjoy them. They're a little like stepping back in time. Murder Has a Motive was originally published in the late 1940s, a great time for mysteries. Mordecai Tremaine is a retired tobacconist with a penchant for mysteries. He had been planning on staying with friends in Dalmering, but as we all know, murder follows amateur detectives around. When Mordecai arrives, his friends tell him that one of their neighbors, a woman who was also starring in the play the community is putting on to raise money for charity, was found dead that morning - stabbed to death. His friends, of course, want him to find the killer. Mordecai is a quiet, sometimes pretentious man, but a romantic at heart. He's a quiet detective, watching, listening, having conversations. He's a little different from the other bachelor detectives of the era. He unabashedly reads...

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

July 25, 2018July 24, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

I was actually at Lakeside Chautauqua on Lake Erie for a week earlier this summer. I've lived in Ohio most of my life and even if we don't go up to Lake Erie often, it's still part of our state identity, if that makes sense, which is why The Death and Life of the Great Lakes caught my attention. It's an interesting book and an easy read, even for a non-history, non-science girl like me. We all know that humans affect the environment, but found it really interesting how a lot of the problems the lakes experience now can really be traced back to the 1800s when the lakes were first opened to the Atlantic Ocean and the Chicago River and onto the Mississippi. Egan does a wonderful job of combining history and science in relating all the lakes have been through and why. He also includes individual's stories, about what the lake was like when they were young versus today,...

A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa

July 20, 2018July 19, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

A River in Darkness is a heart-breaking story. Ishikawa went form a childhood in Japan where he didn't fit in because he was half-Korean to North Korea where he was one of the lowest of the low. He tells his story frankly, without sentimentality, but it's full of misery, hunger, desperation. He tells of living conditions that I can't even imagine. I knew North Korea is not a good country, but we don't get to see this side of it often. We don't see how the people live, and die. We know that life in the totalitarian regime is tough, but Ishikawa let's us see the brainwashing, the untenable choices that have to be made. The corruption and domination affect every aspect of life. A River in Darkness was way out of my comfort zone, but I am definitely glad I picked it up. I got sucked into Ishikawa's story. I wish it had a happy ending, though. He does escape...

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

July 19, 2018July 18, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I read Artificial Condition right after I finished the first Murderbot story, All Systems Red. Now I'm anxiously waiting for #3, which comes out in August. They're short, so definitely read #1 before Artificial Condition. It'll give you the background you need on who Murderbot is, how it's free from its governor module, and how almost human it is. Once again, I like Murderbot. It's funny and snarky. This time around it's searching for the truth of what happened in its past and comes upon a helpful transport AI that likes entertainment feeds as much as Murderbot, so it helps out in many ways, including performing surgery on Murderbot to make it seem human. It's easier to maneuver through the universe if people think you're human, not a rogue killing machine. Murderbot needs to have a cover to get where it wants to go, so it signs up for employment as a bodyguard for researchers trying to recover some of their data from an...

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

July 18, 2018October 27, 2021 by Carol6 Comments

Horowitz is just a little too clever for me. In The Word is Murder, he's inserted a fictional version of himself as the detective's sidekick. It's all very meta and distracting for me. The mystery itself is good, a woman is killed the same day she plans her own funeral. There are several secrets in her past that may have to do with the murder. She also has a famous actor son, which makes the case more interesting to the media. Horowitz the character is drawn into the case by a detective who consults for the police. Hawthorne can be a bit grating. He's supposed to be the brilliant, idiosyncratic Holmes-ish character to Horowitz. The characters and mystery are actually well-done. I like the false leads and how to some extent the slightly bumbling Horowitz encourages them. The clues are all there, but the time line falls apart a little. I think I tend to want to like Horowitz's stories more...