Through a Glass,Darkly by Donna Leon

by Carol2 Comments
It always seems like Leon has a topic she wants to discuss and works her mystery around that. This time around it's pollution and the environment. This was not my favorite in the series. The mystery doesn't really get started until maybe half way through. Up until them Brunetti is investigating even though the only "crime" was that a woman he barely knows is worried that her father will harm her husband. I'll grant you that does tie in to the eventual mystery, but a lot of Brunetti's investigating and thinking happens before the actual murder. And someone entirely different is killed. I enjoy the bits of daily life, Brunetti's conversations with his wife and kids, the delicious food. In this one, I found the glass making process interesting. It works better as a novel the a standard mystery I think. I hated the ending. I listened to the audio version, as I always do with this series and I felt like the...
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The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon

by Carol2 Comments
We've got two "mysteries" in The Girl of His Dreams, the death of the girl mentioned in the blurb and a potential scam being run by a man claiming to be a priest of some kind. Both are solved even if the resolutions aren't entirely satisfying, but I guess that's a bit like real life, not every mystery gets tied up in a neat little bow. Sometimes politics and money and being at the right place a bit too late all get in the way. I like Brunetti. He's happily married and actually enjoys spending time with his family. He and his wife love books and conversation. While his superior is not ideal, he's not a loner, he works well with the competent members of the force. He cares about his case, perhaps more than he should at times. While the mystery steers the book, the musings on life, death, religion, the mafia make it slower than the typical mystery. There is less...
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The Sculthorpe Murder by Karen Charlton

by Carol2 Comments
I enjoyed The Sculthorpe Murder so much more than #2 in the series. Lavender and Woods are sent out of London to Northamptonshire to investigate the killing of an elderly man, presumably by a gang that has been terrorizing the area. I like that the trip takes Lavender away from his love interest. I really can only stand them as a couple for short periods of time. The plot was well-done with a good array of suspects and clues. I like that Lavender doesn't take things for granted and as an outsider can be more suspicious of certain people than the locals are. Wood gets a lot of screen time in this one, which I appreciated. He's a good, kind man and I liked his interactions with                                           . (Don't want to give anything away.) He tends to put people, including children at ease. Lavender, on the other hand, tends to make people a bit uncomfortable. He's the thinker where Woods is the talker. Together...
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Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

by Carol2 Comments
I did not like Bangkok Tattoo as much as the first in the series, Bangkok 8. Sonchai is the same- a loner Buddhist cop who tends toward philosophical ruminations, but now he's also part owner of a brothel, along with his boss and his mom. The atmosphere's the same- the seedy side of an exotic city, but we do have the addition of Muslims and the mob. And Sonchai has a new partner, a transgender young man who wants to be a dancer of some kind. The plot was interesting, if a bit meandering. The killed man was CIA, and of course the case is not as clear-cut as it might first appear. There's also drugs involved. To be honest, I finished listening to this a week or so ago and don't remember how exactly the drugs and the serial killer tied together. I think they were two separate plot lines pulled together by the corrupt superior and the good-hearted prostitute. What I do...
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A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

by Carol3 Comments
I love Penny's Gamache series and this one was even better than the last couple. Gamache has taken the position of Commander of the Sûreté academy, the last bastion of the corruption that has plagues the Sûreté and a place to stop the corruption in its earliest stages, with the training of the cadets. And of course, there's a murder. One of the professors is killed, and no one at the academy is above suspicion, including Gamache  and the cadets. It's a very personal mystery for Gamache and a complicated situation. Is murder sometimes justifiable? Is anyone beyond redemption?\ As always, it's the characters the drive the mystery. With several trips to Three Pines and the homicide at the school, we meet most of the old familiar characters we know and love, but the new folks are well-drawn. The people here are real, even Gamache. They have strengths, but faults too, loyalties and habits. There's also the mystery of the old map, why it was...
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The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri

by CarolNo Comments
I've been reading the Commissario Montalbano out-of-order over the last few years. I enjoy them but not enough to go out of my way to read them. Most I've picked up on audio from the library when they've been available. I like Montalbano. He's amusing in a crass way. He's as interested in literature and food as he is catching criminals. He can be philosophical one moment and wise-cracking the next. He cynical, but also has a soft side. He can be tough as nails, but the idea of a promotion or talking in front of the media terrifies him. This time around we've got two things going. There's a Mafia gun situation and the mystery of the two people killed 50 years ago. I like that both get solved. The current mystery needs to be dealt with, but the older one captures Montalbano's imagination. The secondary characters are well-developed, even those that end up dead. The mysteries were well done. The present day situation had well-placed...
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