Category: Books

It was actually a little cooler around here this past week, pleasant, and even some rain. It was kind of nice to be back on my regular schedule for a week. I did receive a few books over the last couple of weeks. Mailbox Monday is taking a blog tour. This month’s host is Staci at Life in the Thumb. If Jack's in Love by Stephen Wetta (from Putnam) Hidden in Paris by Corine Gantz (a win from My Love Affair with Books. Thanks Misha!) Between the Thames and the Tiber by Ted Riccardi (from Open Road Media via NetGalley) Three Sisters by Helen Smith (a win from Her Book Self. Thanks Lisa!) I'm looking forward to reading them. I know I always say that, but I always mean it. Something about every book I receives attracts me, whether I end up actually liking the book or not. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. Here's what I wrote about last...

I've said it before: Mick and Casey are my favorite fictional couple I've met this year. They're a young married couple in the Old West, gunslingers who tend to caught up in mysteries that need solving. Mick and Casey are riding with the stage coach just for the day. I was lucky. I had a partner - my wife Casey - working with me and watching my back. She was females, and what some might term "just a slip of a girl," bu I wouldn't dare call her that. She was a sharpshooter and otherwise mean as a wet cat. Couldn't think of anybody I'd rather have watching my back and I sure enjoyed watching hers. Turns out though that the regular messenger is dead. Mick doesn't take the gob of going on with the stagecoach, but he and Casey hear about the curse of Scattershale Gulch in the saloon. There's a stretch of road where people have a tendency to have accidents...

The Hanging Wood is a good detective story, but wasn't outstanding for me. It's the 5th in the Lake District Mystery series and maybe I missed out by not having read any of the previous. Hannah Scarlett is the head of Cumbria's Cold Case Review Team. The case this time is that of a teenage boy who disappeared 20 years ago. His uncle was suspected of killing the boy and he hung himself, which everyone at the time assumed meant he was guilty. The case was brought up again by the boy's sister, Orla Payne, who makes a drunken call to the Cold Case team and soon after is found dead in a grain silo. Hannah takes up the investigation, revealing secrets about the local rich family. She's aided by Greg, a member of her team, and Daniel Kind a historian who I believe is also one of the recurring characters in the series. The book started slowly for me; it took...

The Butterfly Cabinet is engrossing. I was drawn into these two women's stories of being a woman, a mother, a wife. Inspired by a true story of the death of the daughter of an aristocratic Irish family at the end of the nineteenth century,the story of four year-old Charlotte's death is told by two narrators. The first is Maddie, an old woman living in a nursing home. She is telling the story of the history of the family to Anna, who would have been Charlotte's niece. Maddie doles out the secrets and misdeeds that happened 70 years before, when she was a young teenage servant at the big house. She also gives Anna a diary that belonged to Harriet, Charlotte's mother. Harriet was arrested and tried for killing the girl and spent a year in prison. Entries in her diary from that time alternate with Maddie's chapters. I was riveted by the story from the first chapter. Maddie remembers so clearly what...

First, I have a winner to announce. Congratulations to Irene of Author Exposure. You won a copy of The Blue Light Project. I've passed your address on to the publicist. I hope you enjoy the book! I had kind of an odd week last week. I was off work but spent every day driving Amber to and from day camp at the art museum and wasting time during the day. It was actually pretty tiring. Then we spent the weekend at the lake, so I haven't had much computer time this week. I did receive a few books over the last couple of weeks. Mailbox Monday is taking a blog tour. This month’s host is Staci at Life in the Thumb. The Stranger You Seek by Amanda Kyle Williams (ARC from Random House) The Silver Skull by Mark Chadbourn (from Paperbackswap) The Best American Short Stories 2011 edited by Geraldine Brooks and Heidi Pitlor (from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley) The Best American Mystery Stories 2011...