Thursday’s Tale: The Goat-Faced Girl retold by Leah Marinsky Sharpe

by Carol4 Comments
"The Goat-Faced Girl" is a classic Italian fairytale, although Leah Marinsky Sharpe takes many liberties in the re-telling of it. That's not a complaint though. The Goat-Faced Girl is a delightful book, a wonderful fairy tale to share with little girls in preschool or early elementary. It's magical, but has a message, too. A baby is abandoned in the forest. Sounds like a fairytale so far, doesn't it? "But this foundling was an infant girl who was far too young for quests, unable to understand talking animals, and even too young to interest the witch in the gingerbread house." Eventually the baby is taken home by a giant lizard, a sorceress in disguise. The lizard-lady raises the girl, Isabella, who becomes a beautiful, polite, intelligent young woman. Her only fault is that she is incredibly lazy. One day, Prince Rupert arrives at the lizrd-lady's home, where he meets  Isabella and after finding out how much they have in common, both being...
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Review: The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

by Carol13 Comments
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz lived up to its promise. It felt like a true Sherlock Holmes story told by his ever faithful Watson. The narrative starts at Baker Street when an art dealer arrives unannounced. His name is Edmund Carstairs and he is being menaced by a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. Holmes agrees to investigate, with the help of his Baker Street Irregulars. It's not long, though, until Holmes and Watson hear of The House of Silk and are drawn into a deeper, deadlier mystery, a conspiracy protected by some of the most powerful men in England. Sherlock and Watson were the characters I've known and loved for years. Watson’s narrative voice is true to the originals, but how much he cared for Holmes really shines through here. He can be a little dull, but he's loyal and trustworthy. Holmes is his usual brilliant self, complete with his idiosyncrasies, vices,...
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Venice in February: A Venetian Night’s Entertainment by Edith Wharton

by Carol7 Comments
"A Venetian Night's Entertainment" by Edith Wharton tells of Tony, who has dreamed of visiting Venice since he was a child. To him, Venice is a magical city, "midway between reality and illusion." Finally, as a young man, he gets his chance to visit as part of his grand tour of Europe aboard his father's merchant ship. Upon arriving, Tony has to immediately explore the city, on his own since his chaperone insists on staying on the boat until morning. Here was the very world of the old print, only suffused with sunlight and colour, and bubbling with merry noises. What a scene it was! A square enclosed in fantastic painted buildings, and peopled with a throng as fantastic: a bawling, laughing, jostling, sweating mob, parti-coloured, parti-speeched, crackling and sputtering under the hot sun like a dish of fritters over a kitchen fire. Tony, agape, shouldered his way through the press, aware at once that, spite of the tumult, the shrillness,...
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Venice in February: The Titian Committee by Iain Pears

by Carol10 Comments
Mysteries I love tend to have one thing in common- great characters. Flavia di Stefano of Rome's Art Theft Squad and Jonathon Argyll, art dealer/historian fit the bill. I have a fondness for couples in mysteries, and even though these two are not actually together yet, you know they will be. She's beautiful, smart, decisive, blunt. He's bumbling and endearing. While she sticks with the case, he tends to get lost in the art. I like how they interact with each other, how their differences fit together so well. The Titian Committee is actually a reread for me. I read all of Pears' Art History Mysteries years ago, but when I decided to join the Venice in February challenge, I though it would be a great excuse to revisit the series. I didn't remember the plot at all. I just remembered that I enjoyed it, and I did this time too. In The Titian Committee, Flavia is sent to Venice to investigate...
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Venice in February: Don’t Look Now by Daphne DuMaurier

by Carol14 Comments
"Don't look now," John said to his wife, "but there are a couple of old girls two tables away who are trying to hypnotise me." (pg 1) In DuMaurier's novella, Don't Look Now, Venice is an eerie place, a bewildering maze, a place of confusing bridges and canals. John and his wife Laura are on vacation in the city trying to recover from the death of their young daughter, when they meet elderly twin sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to be psychic. Most of the story centers on John, who is dismissive of the psychic's claim to see their daughter with them. But then mysterious events start to occur and I at least was wondering if John was going nuts or really saw what he thought he did - his wife alone in the town with the sisters, a child in need of help. To top it off, there's a killer loose in Venice. In all honesty, I started...
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