Purchased – Page 4 – Carol's Notebook

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

March 4, 2024March 18, 2024 by CarolNo Comments

Motherless Brooklyn is at heart a take on the classic detective story, but with an unlikely hero in Lionel Essrog who has Tourette's syndrome. I listened to the audio on this one and I have to believe that hearing the verbal tics and outbursts worked better than reading them in print would have. Lionel was rescued as a teenager from the orphanage by a small-time crook, Frank Minna, who hired Lionel and three other boys to do odd jobs and staff a questionable car service/detective agency. When Minna is stabbed to death, Lionel decides it's up to him to find the murderer. The plot is put together well, with some of the usual suspects - two old time Mafia men, a hired goon, a potentially evil Japanese corporation, and the dead man's wife, but there are a few interesting twists too. The star, though, is really Lionel. He's funny, both intentionally and unintentionally, and trying to follow the clues the...

The Plaza by Julie Satow

February 22, 2024February 22, 2024 by Carol2 Comments

The Plaza was a fascinating look at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, its history, its owners, and some of the people who lived here over its history. The original hotel opened in 1890 and then reopened as the luxurious hotel we know in 1907. We follow its story from the Gilded Age, through the Jazz Age and Prohibition, two World Wars, to 2018. I loved the people's stories, from the construction workers to the rich and famous, even the fictional little girl, Eloise. It's a little bit like reading the society papers over the years. I didn't care quite as much about the real estate deals in more recent years. I listened to the audio though and the narrator, Jefferson Mays, kept me engaged throughout. The book is well-researched and I enjoyed it. I do think it might have been a bit tedious in print for me, but mostly because I cared more about the anecdotes and less about the...

Dream Town by Lee Goldberg

February 13, 2024February 22, 2024 by CarolNo Comments

Dream Town, the fifth in the Eve Ronin series, is largely set in Hidden Hills in Los Angeles County, and a gated community with wealthy residents and plenty of horse trails. When reality show star Kitty Winslow is killed in her home there and bones are found in the state park adjacent to the community, homicide detective Eve Ronin and her partner Duncan Pavone get both cases. At the same time, the television show about a fictional version of Eve is filming in the area which is creating a bit of havoc and conflict. I do think this is a series best read from the beginning. Eve is not well-liked around the department due to events covered in the earlier books and you'll have a better understanding of her family tensions. Duncan and Eve make a good team. Eve is focused and ambitious. She's hard-working and has good instincts that often drive the plot. Dunc, who has delayed his retirement, knows...

The Third Pole by Mark Synnott

January 25, 2024January 25, 2024 by CarolNo Comments

I came into The Third Pole not knowing much about Mt Everest and, to be honest, not caring much about it either. But, the book looked interesting and I needed an Everest book for a bingo square. I ended up enjoying it. The mountain, the climbers, the support staff, it's all fascinating. Synnott and his team set out specifically not to summit, but to locate the body of Sandy Irvine, one of two men widely believed to have summited Mt. Everest from the north in 1924, decades before the much better-documented success of the Chinese in 1960. While the body of Irvine's partner, George Mallory, was discovered in 1999, Irvine's had yet to be definitively located, although there was speculation about where it was likely to be found. Armed with a drone to scope out the area before they made the climb, the team set out on a journey that was bound to significantly bend quite a few rules, if...

The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson

December 30, 2023December 30, 2023 by Carol3 Comments

James Bennett, nephew of our semi-amateur sleuth Sir Henry Merrivale, has been invited to a house party in the White Priory, home to the brothers, John and Maurice Bohun. The star guest is Marcia Tait, a glamorous actress who has just walked out of a Hollywood contract so she can act in a play written by Maurice. Of course, Marcia ends up dead and everyone in the house is a suspect. It's almost a locked room mystery. With the building surrounded by snow, the killer's footprints should have been clear, but the only prints are those left by John Bohun, who discovered the body. I do love a good house party in the snow murder but the characters in this one are just not quite as interesting as the blurb promises. And we only see Sir Henry at the beginning and near the end. He does solve the puzzle but I didn't get much of a feel for him. It was maybe...

A Chapter on Murder by Sue Minix

December 21, 2023December 21, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

A Chapter on Murder is the third book featuring author/ bookstore owner/ amateur sleuth, Jennifer Dawson. This is the first I’ve read in the series and it worked fine as a stand-alone for me. Although maybe I would have liked Jen and her friends and family a bit better if I had started at the beginning. I can’t put my finger on why, but I never quite warmed up to our main character. Jen has a lot going on this Christmas. Her bookstore desperately needs more business if it’s going to stay open. She’s working on the third book in her series and is determined to have a rough draft ready before the release date of her second. She and her boyfriend’s relationship has been running into some rocks. To top it all off, she finds a dead man outside the door of her bookshop. When a good friend is arrested for the crime, Jen decides it’s up to her to...