Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

Queen of the Tiles by Hanna Alkaf

by Carol4 Comments
I don't read a lot of YA, but Queen of the Tiles combines murder and Scrabble and how could I pass that up? The Queen of the Tiles, Trina Low, is dead. She died a year ago during a championship Scrabble game, but someone has resurrected her Instagram account and is implying that she was murdered. This was just such an entertaining book. It was well-thought-out and just full of wonderful words. The characters were diverse and, while they had the typical teenage jealousies and overreactions, they weren't annoying. I was surprised by who the "bad guy" was and happy with the solution, especially because it wasn't the typical direction a murder mystery heads. I listened to the audio, which was a good choice. The narrator did a good job with the voices and the teenage emotions. I'm also not sure I could have pronounced some of the Scrabble words without help. Those kids had a massive vocabulary. Complicated female friendshipsScrabble and wordplayExploration...
Read More
May Cloak and Dagger Link-up

May Cloak and Dagger Link-up

by CarolNo Comments
Happy May! Any reads you're looking forward to this month? I'm a big fan of audiobooks, but in the spring and summer, I listen to even more. They're perfect for walks and working outside. Any favorite Cloak and Dagger audiobooks to recommend? Link your May Cloak and Dagger reads below or in the comments. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter ...
Read More
24 Hour Readathon

24 Hour Readathon

by CarolNo Comments
It's Readathon Day! And the only thing on my schedule aside from reading is a work meeting, which should only last about 1 1/2 hours, and lunch with my mom. I'll be posting updates here but probably more on Twitter and Instagram. I am in eastern Ohio and am actually starting the readathon on time this year, for maybe the first time ever. I've got several books I'm looking forward to. On Audio, I've got A Master of Djinn or The Dogs of Riga. On my Kindle, I've got The Woman in the Library and Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries. And physical books, I've got Songs of the Dead and The Holdout. Of course, I'll probably end up reading something entirely different. Snack-wise, I'm covered. I've got pizza rolls, cheese and crackers, and peanut butter-filled pretzels. Or I may take a break and go get ice cream and visit a bookstore. It is Independent Bookstore Day and I love Prime in Weirton, which has...
Read More
Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino

Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino

by Carol2 Comments
SIlent Parade is the eighth in the Detective Galileo series, not all of which have been translated into English. It's the fourth that I've read, but it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone. The story begins shortly after the third anniversary of Saori Namiki's disappearance when she was nineteen. A decrepit house has burned down in Tokyo and her remains were identified in the rubble. Chief Inspector Kusanagi and his team are assigned the case because of a curious connection they have to the chief suspect. But it's not Saori's murder that's the focus. When her presumed killer is let free, he ends up dead and it's that murder the police are trying to solve. There are tons of characters, which can get a little confusing in the audio occasionally, but they each have their roles and are important to the plot. The plot itself is twisty and turny and some things are obvious and some are not what you expect....
Read More
On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes by Stephen Browning

On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes by Stephen Browning

by CarolNo Comments
I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan which is why On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes caught my eye. The author sets out a series of walks around London, incorporating locations that feature in stories from the canon and incidents in Conan Doyle's life. There are even tidbits about family, friends, and literary contemporaries to Doyle along with the mention of real life individuals and their stories that likely influenced his writing of Sherlock Holmes. It made me want to go to London and follow the walks and suggested side excursions. It also made me want to go back and read some of the stories again and maybe watch some of the adaptations I haven't seen. The appendices were fun too, giving a chronological timeline of the Conan Doyle stories, notable actors to have played Holmes over the years, and an alphabetical Holmes miscellany. My one complaint is that I wish there were more and better photos. I'd love full...
Read More
The Verifiers by Jane Pek

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

by Carol4 Comments
The Verifiers is a fun book, part mystery, part family drama, and part exploration of the data we provide online to corporations and how they might use that. Claudia Lin, our amateur detective, is the youngest, and at least according to her mom the least successful, of three siblings. She has left her low-level corporate job to work at Veracity, but she hasn't told her family. Claudia is a mystery lover and Veracity is a bit like a detective agency, allowing wealthy clients to investigate people they meet on dating sites. Veracity takes on a new client, a woman who wants them to investigate two men she met online, but whom she is no longer in contact with. At first, it's just interesting, but then the client is found dead in her apartment, an apparent suicide. Claudia is a likable character. She's smart and funny. She loves books and bicycling through New York. She's a lesbian and a romantic by...
Read More