NetGalley – Page 31 – Carol's Notebook

The Pot Thief Who Studied Edward Abbey by J. Michael Orenduff

August 2, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

The Pot Thief Who Studied Edward Abbey is the second Pot Thief mystery that I've read. It's just a really good book. I read it during the readathon last weekend and I kept reading it past the end time to finish it. Hubie Schuze is fun, honest, and I would have enjoyed taking his pottery class. I didn't know who Edward Abbey was before I picked up the book. Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. A couple of his best known works are a novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire, both of which Hubie reads during the course of the book. He tends to think along similar lines as Abbey, it seems. One of Hubie's students is killed, not during his class,...

Picked Off by Linda Lovely

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I have mixed feelings about Picked Off by Linda Lovely. I love Brie and all of her friends, who I first met in Bones to Pick. Her aunt is awesome, feisty and honest and loving. She and her friends, Mollye, Paint and Andy make a great team, even if they're a bit bumbling, like any good amateur detectives. They are funny and truly care about each other. The mystery is good. We've got plenty of suspects and motives, which is not surprising considering the victim - who doesn't actually die by the way - is a professional football player and his mother is a politician. We've got rednecks and franchise owners and gamblers. Then the author goes and ruins it all with a love triangle, which was my problem with the first in the series too. I had hoped she would let that go by the wayside, but nope. Apparently Brie can not be "just friends" with either of them -...

Murder Has a Motive by Francis Duncan

July 26, 2018July 25, 2018 by Carol2 Comments

I admit it - I love vintage mysteries. In spite of the predictability, in spite of the stereotypes, I truly enjoy them. They're a little like stepping back in time. Murder Has a Motive was originally published in the late 1940s, a great time for mysteries. Mordecai Tremaine is a retired tobacconist with a penchant for mysteries. He had been planning on staying with friends in Dalmering, but as we all know, murder follows amateur detectives around. When Mordecai arrives, his friends tell him that one of their neighbors, a woman who was also starring in the play the community is putting on to raise money for charity, was found dead that morning - stabbed to death. His friends, of course, want him to find the killer. Mordecai is a quiet, sometimes pretentious man, but a romantic at heart. He's a quiet detective, watching, listening, having conversations. He's a little different from the other bachelor detectives of the era. He unabashedly reads...

The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

July 5, 2018May 5, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

I read a lot of crime fiction and mystery stories, both modern and classic, but somehow I've skipped over Philip Marlowe. In this introduction to Marlowe, a dying millionaire hires him to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in. As the annotations show, even though this is the first in the series, it's not really the first time we may have met Marlowe, although under other names. Chandler apparently often took earlier short stories he had written for pulp magazines like Black Mask, and combined and expanded them into the Marlowe novels. The Big Sleep is a complicated story, set in 1930s Los Angeles, involving blackmail and a bookstore that is a rental library for pornography. The annotations provide lots of information about the time period, about Chandler's writing, and about some of...

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

May 28, 2018May 25, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

I read Ware's In A Dark, Dark Wood a couple of years ago and was underwhelmed. At the time, however, I wrote "I think she's an author worth giving another chance, even if this book had problems." I'd been hearing a lot of positive things and The Death of Mrs. Westaway seemed like one of the to-read books of this summer. I just don't think I'm ever going to be a Ruth Ware fan. Hal is a bit desperate. She owns money to a loan shark and is barely (not quite) making end meet as a tarot card reader. Out of the blue comes a letter about an inheritance. Hal knows it must be a mistake, but she's out of options, so she takes the gamble and heads out to Trepassen House. I liked Hal for the most part. She's a survivor. And the atmosphere at Trepassen House was appropriately spooky and gothic. I guess, maybe Ware can be a bit heavy-handed and...

Old Misery by James Sage

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

I admit it. The drawings are what drew me to Old Misery, along with the title. The blurb above gives a good summary, but I will say I found it amusing who all managed to get stuck in her tree. The illustrations are perfect for the story, simple and amusing but grim too. But we all know that wishes can often be double-edged swords. The "surprise visitor" who really probably wasn't much of a surprise to the old woman, ends up stuck in the tree and Old Misery learns why you have to be so careful with your wished. It's a cute re-telling of the Auntie Misery folktale. It's dark and a reminder that there will always be Misery and Death in the world, but I'm pretty sure there are certain kids, some of whom may or may not be in my family, who will love it....