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By Jenny, June 10, 2010

Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear

My favorite mysteries feature women detectives who rely on pure intellect to solve their cases. Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Dorothy L. Sayers Harriet Vane come to mind. Add to this list Maisie Dobbs, nurse, veteran of the First World War, Cambridge educated, psychologist and private detective. This series by Jacqueline Winspear begins with Maisie Dobbs and continues with the seventh volume, Mapping of Love and Death, due out in March 2010.

Begin with this first volume, for background on how a bright working class girl developed into the remarkable Maisie. Starting out as a servant after the death of her mother, she is taken under the wing of Lady Rowan, the vivacious and progressive aristocrat who recognizes Maisie’s talent and sees she receives a first rate education after intense tutoring by her friend psychologist Maurice Blanche. During WW I Maisie finds herself a nurse in a field hospital in France where she treats victims of mustard gas and other horrific injuries before she and her fiancé, surgeon Simon Lynch are both injured themselves.

This war experience provides the foundation for all of Maisie’s work as a private detective, giving her compassion and understanding as she navigates the harsh realities of post war England when the tremendous death toll of the war left many damaged souls as well as social and economic devastation. Somehow, the conclusions she reaches while solving her cases move Maisie and her clients a little closer to healing the wounds of war. For mystery lovers who relish plowing through multiple volumes at once, this character driven series is a prize.

- Phyllis

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By Amanda, May 29, 2010

The Spellmans Strike Again
By Lisa Lutz

Ok, let me ask you something.  When was the last time you started to read a book on the same day you checked it out from the library?  Maybe you’re a better library patron than I am, starting each book responsibly, as soon as you get it home.  But me?  I have what some would call a massive To-Be-Read (from here on known as TBR) pile, and what usually happens is that the books I get from the library go on top (because they have to go back before the ones I bought, which I own in perpetuity) and hopefully I get to them before my third renewal runs out (yes, you get three!  Woohoo!). 

Except with this book.

On the Friday I checked this out (I remember it was a Friday because I had to watch Friday Night Lights before I could read), I went home, had supper, watched TV, and then started it.  Being the fourth book and final (gasp) book in this series, I couldn’t wait to see what happened to my beloved Spellmans. 

If you’ve never met the Spellmans, let me bring you up to speed.  A family of PIs, the five members (Dad, Mom, David, Izzy, Rae - in birth order) seem to spend more time investigating each other than solving local mysteries.  Lutz has a charmingly eccentric writing style that includes the use of humorous footnotes.  Here are the books you need to read sooner than later:

Without giving too much away, this last entry finds Izzy struggling to deal with her family while at the same time trying to maintain the family business.  Her friend Len is pretending to be a butler, Henry is pretending he likes her again, and good old Morty is pretending to like the great state of Florida.

Lutz hasn’t said definitively that she’ll never write another Spellman book, but if she does, I’m going to have to wait a VERY VERY long time for it (sigh).  And that makes me sad. 

What am I gonna do without my annual Spellman fix? Oh yeah, my massive TBR pile. That’ll work.

Amanda

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By Bryan, May 17, 2010

Can’t get enough of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy? Can’t wait for the third book to come out in the U.S.? Check out these Stieg Larsson read-a-likes…

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By Pam, April 16, 2010

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag
by Alan Bradley

I wish I were finding this book (and its predecessor, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) twelve years from now. I love discovering a worthy series and then greedily reading all the titles one after the other, in order, of course! More’s the pity when you begin a series early on and have to wait a year between titles.

This second in the Flavia de Luce series is every bit as enticing as the first (read the staff review by Phyllis). We’ve come to adore our heroine Flavia, an 11-year-old chemistry savant with a penchant for poison and an encyclopedic memory for English literature and history. I’ve read criticism that the character is unbelievable in that regard, but my friend Ariel, a retired librarian with legendary recall, could easily have been Flavia in another life. And hey, it’s just a story, so lighten up!

This time around, Flavia unravels two mysterious deaths in her village of Bishop’s Lacey–one in the present (well, in the 1950s present) and one in the past. Along the way, we meet Rupert the creepy but talented puppeteer, the aged singing and piano playing Puddock sisters, overbearing Aunt Felicity from London, and Dieter, an Anglophile POW from Hitler’s Luftwaffe.  And there are roles for our favorites from Sweetness, as well: Dogger the shellshocked gardener/butler; Mad Meg the town nutter; and, of course, Flavia’s mean sisters Feely and Daffy. By the end of the book, every human being in Bishop’s Lacey is suspect, including the sainted vicar, and it’s great fun to ponder along with Flavia even if you can’t do the chemistry.

My sole criticism is that the publisher cheaped out on the book’s manufacture. The cover illustration and title of Sweetness is charmingly printed directly on the book’s cover board, with no dust jacket, giving it an old-fashioned look and feel. Random House didn’t do a thing in the world with Weed’s binding, opting instead for a dust jacket design. So they’ve already spoiled the design of what deserves to be a very a collectible set. –Pam

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By Pam, April 9, 2010

City of Silver
by Annamaria Alfieri

I bumped into this book browsing the new books at the main library and loved the cover so much I had to check it out. Well, let me tell you, it was fascinating. So who knew anything about the silver mines in Peru in the 17th century? Certainly not I—I must have been asleep when we went over Peruvian history in high school.

This is a very nice little mystery featuring Mother Maria Santa Hilda, abbess of a convent in the booming town of Potosi (upper Peru, part of Bolivia now). Mother Maria must prove that a wealthy townsman’s daughter did not commit suicide under her care at the convent in order to save herself from the fires of the Inquisition, brought all the way from Spain to the New World. The mystery is pleasant enough, but it’s almost a side story to the class and color wars, the horror of the silver mines, and the stories of the Spaniards who found themselves trying to recreate their former social system in the thin air of the Andes. The sidelines about the Church and Inquisition are worthy, as well. For those who love clerical mysteries (here’s a huge list of literary priests, pastors, rabbis, monks & nuns), this fits the bill.

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By Jenny, June 15, 2009

The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield

The author is obviously well-read in Victorian literature. This may first seem to be a booklover’s book but its gothic feel would also appeal to adventure readers.

Margaret Lea, the daughter of a book dealer, is invited to visit the well-known elderly author Vida Winter in order to write Miss Winter’s final “true” biography. This is odd that Margaret was chosen over existing authors or journalists, as Margaret has never read any of her books. Prior to her interview, Margaret decides to read The Thirteenth Tale which her father has in the safe with other rare books. The original book only had twelve tales when first published resulting in a corrected reissue as The Twelfth Tale.

The unfolding story of Margaret’s stay with Miss Winters has a taste of the writing of Bronte, Eyre, The Arabian Nights with a little DuMaurier as well. There is a continuing puzzle that is always missing a piece and this reader just knew what the missing piece was and yet… it is the twist at the end that gives this tale its mastery.

- Cheryl

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By Jenny,

Slipknot
By Greenlaw, Linda

Greenlaw, one of my favorite “nautical authors” – writer of the excellent nonfiction The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles, turns to the mystery novel genre here. But don’t fret – she sets it in Maine with many familiar trappings and terms.

This is a breezy, funny book filled with colorful characters and her trademark witty and droll observations. You’ll get to work alongside Jane Bunker, the frugal transplanted Miami detective now employed as a marine inspector in the usually quiet town of Green Haven. Her clashes and encounters spiral into a real convoluted mystery. Go Jane!

Promising debut fiction work which may become a series of sorts. I enjoyed it.

- Phil

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By Jenny,

L.A. Outlaws
By Parker, T. Jefferson

I first discovered T. Jefferson Parker because he had won more than one Edgar Award for his mysteries. So far, all I’ve read have been utterly satisfying. He creates a strong sense of place, usually somewhere in California, and he delves into his characters’ psyches and emotions, which naturally enriches the storyline. L.A. Outlaws (2008) features a female masked bandit who adores stealing cars and robbing fast food joints, and whose alter-ego is a public school history teacher and mother, Suzanne Jones. Her bandit persona (she also donates generously to charities) intrigues the public, the media, and also a young L.A.P.D. cop who gets more involved with her than he should while trying to simultaneously unmask her and protect her. If you like well-written mysteries, try this author!

- Julie

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By Jenny,

Million Dollar Baby
by Amy Patricia Meade

Let’s welcome another mystery writer who takes us back to 1935, the time of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. You can visualize the movie version of this book with the dapper millionaire Creighton Ashcroft III coming to this small Connecticut village in his Rolls Royce impressing all the women except published mystery writer Miss Marjorie McClelland. Add one suicide of the past owner of Kensington House, the bones of the gardener, Park Avenue society plus a drop-dead gorgeous detective (pardon the term) and you have a rollicking tale that keeps you enthralled wondering who “done them in” and who gets the girl. You will be eagerly awaiting the next Marjorie McClelland mystery.

The Mayor of Lexington Avenue
by James Sheehan

This is a first novel for the author but you would never guess it. Sheehan offers a legal thriller with nostalgia, values, and the spice of a little romance. The mayor of Lexington Ave. is attorney Jack Tobin who, years later, repays his childhood best friend Mikey for protecting him when they were young. Mikey’s son is on death row, framed for murdering a woman 10 years before. While there is some predictability in the outcome of this novel, there are still a few surprises. It will keep you reading and guessing.

- Cheryl

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By Jenny, June 5, 2009

The Spellman Files
by Lisa Lutz

Lisa Lutz obviously has loved mysteries since childhood. This debut novel from a screenwriter has glimpses of Chandler’s noir, Nancy Drew’s female intuition, Janet Evanovich’s family dynamics and boyfriend woes, and last but not least, TV’s Get Smart.

Isabel Spellman’s family runs a detective agency out of their home. The oldest child, David, is the perfect child so he is the only one who is not in the family business. He is a lawyer. However, the rest of the family does not know how to socialize without interrogating.There is the boozing and gambling Uncle Ray who saw the light once he earlier survived cancer after having lived a pure life. There is the youngest preteen, Rae (yes, named after Uncle Ray) who started snooping almost as soon as she could walk. Izzy was not an ace student in high school, can’t keep a boyfriend even though her mother keeps trying with lawyer first dates supplied by David, the perfect brother, and is not very athletic. Yet, she is a natural for the family business with her investigative skills. When she meets Mr. Right, a dentist, she can’t tell him what her family does. (It’s not the Mafia!) However, the family spies on her and soon her scam (ruse) is revealed. Izzy realizes that she must give up the business to keep the man.

Couldn’t help but be a PI = environment & genetics.

- Cheryl