Carol's Notebook – Page 194

Not a Creature Was Purring by Krista Davis

December 12, 2018December 14, 2018 by Carol10 Comments

This was my first visit to Wagtail, Virginia, but it is an awesome place, a perfect vacation spot to take your pets. My Secret Santa gave me Not a Creature Was Purring last year, but it took me until this December to get around to reading it. Wagtail is a perfect little pet-friendly tourist town. All the stores welcome cats and dogs, as does the inn. Dogs get to go sled-riding and pets can go to the nicest restaurant in town with their people. It really is a pet-centric town, my dog would love it. Holly Maple and her grandmother run the Sugar Maple Inn (and her grandmother is mayor of Wagtail). This year the inn is booked solid for Christmas - the only problem is that it's mostly the family of Holly's best friend/love interest's fiancee. Holly wants to be nice, but fiancee is a pretty terrible person. Thankfully, because clearly Holmes and Holly belong together. But of course, since this...

2018 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Wrapup

December 11, 2018December 10, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

One of my goals this year was to broaden my reading a bit. My goal for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge hosted at Doing Dewey was 6 nonfiction books, preferably in different categories. I ended up reading 12 and although some were similar to each other, overall I'm pleased with the variety. Thanks, Katie, so much for hosting! On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (Politics) I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yon (Science) Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmier (Politics) The Innocents Abroad: Or, The New Pilgrim’s Progress by Mark Twain (Classic; Travel) I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (True Crime) The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson (Self-help) A River in Darkness: One Man's...

Secret Santa by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

December 11, 2018December 10, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

I had to go to a Christmas luncheon out of town for work and was trying to pick something to start listening to for my ride back home. (Lunch, by the way was at The Twisted Olive in Green, OH - delicious!) Around town I've been listening to holiday music, but on trips over say 15 minutes when I'm by myself, I prefer listening to books. I always enjoy the Cherringham novellas, and Secret Santa has been on my to-read list since last Christmas. Santa is missing. Bill Vokes always plays Santa, but this year, after donning his costume, he steps outside for a cigarette and just disappears. Sarah's dad is worried, so she and Jack start looking around. Sarah and Jack make a formidable team. He's former NYPD and she's smart, curious, and good on a computer. And there are a lot of deaths/crimes in Cherringham for them to solve. For a small town in the Cotswalds, it's a dangerous place,...

Murder on a Winter Afternoon by Betty Rowlands

December 9, 2018December 5, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

Keeping with my wintery reading theme, next up is Murder on a Winter Afternoon by Betty Rowlands. It's also a Christmas read, kind of, since it takes place at that time of the year and two of the characters do help with the script and scenery for a Christmas show, even if it's only mentioned once or twice. This is the 5th (or 7th depending on how you count) in the series starring Melissa Craig, but the first I've read and I though it worked quite well on its own. Melissa is an author and she's been asked to finish the last novel of her neighbor, Leonora Jewell. Leonora usually wrote family dramas, but this last one is more of a crime novel, right up Melissa's ally. Leonora was killed, presumably by the burglars who had been making the rounds and not by the sex strangler who is making women in the area extra cautious. Of course it turns out to be...

2018 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge Wrap-up

December 8, 2018December 5, 2018 by Carol5 Comments

I complete my goal for the 2018 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. My goal was the Special Agent level, 36-55 books. I'll read a couple more before the end of the year, but not enough to push me into the next level. Thanks Stormi at Books, Movies, Review! Oh My! and Barb at Booker T’s Farm for hosting! The Matter of the Crown by Linda Ferreri The Bookworm by Mitch Silver Andorra Pett and the Oort Cloud Café by Richard Dee Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh Lost Books and Old Bones by Paige Shelton Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer...

Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith

December 7, 2018December 4, 2018 by Carol3 Comments

Adrian Gray and his six adult children, along with a few spouses, are gathered at his country home for Christmas. I want to say "to celebrate Christmas," but I don't think they were ever really going to celebrate. They are not a nice group of people. Adrian is not a nice man himself. Then we have Richard, a politician who desperately wants a title, and his wife who may in face hate him. Olivia is married to Eustace (cue the anti-Semitism of the 1930s), a shady financier, his whole reputation is on the line if he doesn't manage to raise a substantial sum of money urgently. Brand ran off when he was young to be an artist, but is he's now working as a low-paid clerk and wants money so he can take off back to Paris to try to revive his career as a painter. His wife isn't at the house party, but she is a crass woman whose children are...