eBook – Page 8 – Carol's Notebook

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

February 9, 2022February 8, 2022 by CarolNo Comments

Bluebird, Bluebird is not an easy read. It's packed with emotions, thick racial tensions, and family dramas. In Lark, Texas, the racial divisions go back decades, but so do the relationships and the secrets. There have been two recent murders: a black lawyer from Chicago who was found floating in a bayou after being beaten to death, and days later, a twenty-year-old married white woman who worked as a waitress at a roadhouse. Enter Darren Matthews, a black Texas Ranger, whose life is a bit of a mess. His suspension from the Rangers has been lifted, but only temporarily, pending a grand jury investigation for an unrelated, but not unconnected, event. His marriage is on the rocks and he's drinking too much. And of course, there's the independent streaks that so many fictional detectives have. The sheriff is not happy to have him around, does not want the Rangers or the Feds in his county. The characters on both sides of...

Diamond Geezer by Gillian Godden

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 by CarolNo Comments

It took me several chapters to become invested in Diamond Geezer. It's a gangland novel and there are no characters to really like, which makes sense, they're almost all up to their necks in drugs and the crime world. That being said, it turned out to be an engrossing story. Nick is living a double life. He's a successful lawyer with all the privileges and tokens of upper-class life. At the same time, he's deeply involved in the Glasgow crime world. The book is mostly set on an estate in Glasgow, where Nick's grandma lives. The estate is more or less ruled by a mysterious character known as “The Undertaker,” who provides drugs, food, jobs. The people of the estate, most of whom are living in poverty and addicted to one thing or another, rely on him, even if they don't know who he is. It's interesting, though. They have to look out for themselves, but there is also a...

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

January 26, 2022January 26, 2022 by Carol2 Comments

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is simple, lovely, and quirky. There's a cafe in Japan where you can travel in time if you sit in a certain chair. Of course, there are restrictions, as you can read in the blurb above. All of the book happens in the cafe, so we get to know the people who work there and the regulars. I don't know if we really get to know them or just get a peek into their lives. We see who they are at the cafe, how they interact with the others there, but not what they do, who they are otherwise, aside from what we're told. It's interesting that, unless someone is there specifically to go back in time, time travel is rarely talked about. It's just part of the cafe, unremarkable to those who are most familiar with it. In this book, we see four trips in time. Each individual knows that the present can't be...

The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022 by Carol4 Comments

Kwan Chun-dok is a Honk Kong detective who sees clues and puts them together in ways no one else can. He's intelligent, resourceful, kind, and not afraid to go around the rules in trying to do his job. We first meet Kwan at the end of his career, the end of his life, as he helps solve one last case. The Borrowed is essentially made up of six novellas, six mysteries all connected by the main character and Hong Kong itself. We start in 2013 and work our way back to 1967. The mysteries are each well-done, intricate, and interesting and Kwan, or Sonny Lok, his apprentice for lack of a better word, solves them through clues and intuition. It's like Holmes stories, in that each solution when presented makes sense, but no one aside from Kwan could have gotten there. A couple of the stories have major twists that I didn't see coming. The book is also about Hong...

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany

November 30, 2021December 2, 2021 by Carol4 Comments

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen is a fun cozy mystery set in the quirky town of Rudolph, New York. I love Rudolph, where it’s Christmas all year round. Rudolph is a tourist town and it's December, the time of year when they have the most visitors and make the most money. But then a poisoned cookie kills a journalist who was doing a feature on the town. Was the journalist the target or is someone trying to ruin Christmas? It’s up to shop owner Merry Wilkinson to figure it all out, to keep her best friend Vicky, the baker of the cookie, out of jail and save Rudolph's reputation. While Merry is smart and resourceful, she gets some help from the locals, who are all charming. And her family is fabulous, from her Santa Claus dad to her former opera singer mom. Everyone in town, except for the killer, pulls together to salvage what they can of Christmas and the tourist...

Christmas at Snowflake Lodge by C.P. Ward

November 29, 2021December 2, 2021 by Carol2 Comments

Can I please go to Snowflake Lodge for Christmas? It's a magical place with decorations and hot chocolate and the nicest staff. There's skiing and ice skating and sleigh rides pulled by real reindeer. Jessica is there to work - she's a plumber, and to keep an eye on her grandfather. She's also escaping from her terrible renter/roommate. Honestly, I wanted to escape from Doreen too. I didn't enjoy the scenes with Doreen and her friends. She was a really awful person and I don't understand why Jessica put up with any of it. Once Jessica decides to take the job at Snowflake Lodge, the book becomes a fun read. Grandpa is a great character, funny and adventurous, and maybe a bit of a skirt chaser. Jessica's love interest, James, is sexy and sweet. Christmas at Snowflake Lodge is part romance and part family reunion, and almost everyone gets a happy ending....