Some book reviews and some more garden fairies

So, what are some of the fabulous books I read the past two months?

The Broken Shore - Peter Temple.  Winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger from the UK for foreign crime fiction, it is set in rural Australia, far from the lights of Sydney.  Peter Cashin has taken a post near the seaside where he grew up, on semi-permanent leave from the Homicide Squad after getting a colleague killed and almost dying himself in a stake-out that went horribly wrong.  The book opens in Port Munroe, the seaside town where nothing happens, except the background racism of 'accidental' beatings and deaths of the nearby Aborigine community.  Joe's broken heart haunts this book; he is unable to move comfortably, almost permanently disfigured by the accident in a back injury.  Then an old rich man, the richest man in town, is found unconscious in a robbery gone wrong, and the seedy side of Australian life is exposed.  Countering this are two new people entering Joe's life, and he comes to recognize that he can feel, and live again.  Wonderful characters, superb setting, solid mystery that is sad and haunting when the truth is finally revealed.  Worth every word of acclaim it has gotten. 5/5

The Ghosts of Belfast - Stuart Neville.  I finally ordered this book  a few weeks ago when I looked and looked and couldn't find it.  It was worth the effort.  Set in Northern Ireland for once, in Belfast, it is the story of an IRA killer who is seeing the ghosts of the people he killed.  Twelve ghosts haunt him day and night.  One day he can't bear it, and sets in motion the events of the book by telling the mother of one of his victims where the body is buried.  Gerry Fegan is a fascinating character.  As the story unfolds, we see how he has discovered in jail remorse, that he has always carried guilt for the victims of his crimes.  He sets out to kill the men who gave him the orders - this is what the ghosts request over and over - like Ireland is trying to wipe the slate clean by not talking about what happened during the Wars.  What happened then, happened then, is the attitude, though plenty of people in the novel are benefitting from the new peace in Stormont.  Neville shows how unstable the peace process always is between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and how the new 'war' is the money coming in to line the same pockets as those who got rich during the War years. All this is shown in counterpoint to Gerry's eliminating those who ordered him to kill.  It is another haunting mystery, one that presents the people of N Ireland as the real victims, always, of those in power.  I really enjoyed the ghosts also, as well as Gerry discovering that he can feel again, after all, although he doesn't feel like he deserves to.  Highly recommended mystery. 5/5
Read for the Ireland reading Challenge

Crime Machine - Giles Blunt.  The fifth John Cardinal mystery, it takes place a year after John's wife has died.  This is quite an interesting mystery, not the least of which is because part of the book is about the crime machine itself, a 'family' of criminals who are bizarre and scary and very very violent.  The book opens with things being quiet in Algonquin Bay, and the police team are given old cold cases to work on. ATM's start being robbed, then the beheading of two people in an empty house starts the real mystery in the book.  Who killed them?  There is one witness, and her story - she is aboriginal, young, and very foolish - gives the heart to this mystery.  Her freshness is counterpoint to the very different life led by the killers, the hardness, violence and manipulation masking as love - it's all very dark, very noir, and very very good.  John is in the grips of recovering from his wife's death, and I enjoyed seeing how he was coping with the changes in his life.  I really enjoy this mystery series, it's one of my favourites, and I'm glad to see John back after a two year wait. 4.7 /5
Read for the Canadian Book Challenge.

The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny.  This is the darkest mystery yet from Three Pines and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.  Louise Penny is beginning to develop a theme of exploring the darkness that lies in human hearts and what it drives people to do.  She is specializing in the darkness at the heart of families, and this mystery deepens this theme.  It is gripping, and very difficult to put down. An unknown man who is a hermit living in the woods behind Three Pines is found murdered in Olivier's Bistro, the wonderful bistro which is filled with Gabri's fabulous cooking.  Yum!  I always find myself drooling over the food that Penny describes so lovingly.  I want to eat there.  Despite all the murders, I want to live in Three Pines too.  Ok, back to the mystery:  I find it hard to write about because this mystery involves one of the central characters, and something is revealed that literally pulls the mask off to reveal what can lie hidden in a person.  I really enjoyed this mystery.  I liked what the Brutal Telling was about, the wood carvings, Gamache's search out to the Queen Charlotte Islands where the wood comes from that the victim carved, to meeting some more of the people who live in and around Three Pines. The Brutal Telling is the story that the murdered man told his killer, and carved in pieces of wood, which eventually reveals why he was killed.  This is another mystery that you really won't want to put down until you know it all.  we have more of Gamache and his wonderful idiosyncratic police team.  Inspector Beauvoir, the impeccably dressed fastidious man, is central to this story.  He is given lines of poetry, which when he finally puts them together, has an effect on him that shows what effect words can have on a person, whether in the form of a story or poem. I'm really happy I already have the next one already lined up to read.  This series is addictive, and I think it's the place of Three Pines that really pulls me in.  Wonderful mystery.  5/5 
Read for The Canadian book Challenge

The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths.  I couldn't wait to get to this one.  I'd been waiting for it to come out in paperback for almost a year.  The Crossing Places was evocative and gripping and I was hoping this one would be too.  It is.  The Janus Stone is about the discovery of a child's skeleton under the doorway of a Children's home that is being demolished to make way for new condos.  Two children disappeared many years ago, and one of the children was the same age as the skeleton.  Ruth Galloway is the forensic archaeologist called in to examine the bones.  The Janus Stone is the stone set in the archway over the doorway,  Janus the Roman God of looking forwards and backwards in time. This mystery is about that, discovering the history of the land beneath the Children's home, the story of the people who lived there before, and of madness.  While the mystery is quite good, the best part for me is Ruth herself, her lovely home by the saltmarshes in Norfolk, and her growing pregnancy, the result of a one-night stand with DCI Nelson during the previous book.  It's fun watching Nelson and Ruth dance around the truth, and to see how Ruth copes with it all.  The secondary characters are well-done, from Shona the friend who is gorgeous and irresistably drawn to married men, to the various weird characters Ruth gathers around herself, especially Cathbad the Druid. I really like this series - I want to live where Ruth is living!  Maybe I could divide my time between Three Pines and Norfolk England? - and am trying to talk myself into the buying the hardcover of the next book in the series, The House at Sea's End, since I'm not sure I can wait until it comes out in paperback.
Delightful series, 4.7/5.

The last book I am going to review tonight is not a mystery.  It is a horror book.  I have been reading more horror this spring, I'm not exactly certain why, although it has been a long-time interest of mine.  I'd been waiting for The Passage to come out in softcover ever since Stephen King mentioned it last year in his Entertainment Weekly column that it was a must-read for 2010.  So at last, it came out in paperback:

The Passage - Justin Cronin. Everything Uncle Stevie said it would be.  I read it in less than two days.  I could not literally put this book down.  It is the story of what happens when a bat is discovered that supposedly can cure illness.....only it's really wanted for secret experimentation that goes horribly, terribly wrong, and wipes out most of the world's population, turning the victims into vampires.  This is an incredibly cool book.  Not because of Stephanie Myers and Twilight, not even because of Buffy (I'm a Slayer girl from way back!), or even Dracula.  This is dystopian end of the world is here, and what happens to the enclaves that are left behind, the survivors who didn't turn.  What would the world look like 100 years after this devastation?  Who would be left?  How would history be transferred?  How would society evolve in these enclaves?  This is a terrifically imagined story.  It's also the story of the Girl Who lived - who survived the vaccine that turned the other victims of the experiment into monsters.  Who she is, and the people who try to help her, makes a fantastic ride.  This was fun, and enjoyable to read, and it was creepy and nightmarish in many places, and sad, too.  One of my favourite reads of the year, and really, most of these books might end up on that list, they are all so very, very good. 5/5

So that's some of what I read while I lost myself in books these past few months.  More reviews will be forthcoming, because there are some more excellent books that I read.  What have been some of your favourite reads of the year so far? Have you lost yourself in some books too?

Just for Chris, and Cath, and the other gardeners out there, here are some more of the fairies etc who fill odd corners and under leaves in my garden.  My new header is from my garden also. 

Carl's Once Upon a Time challenge - A Madness of Angels

 Yesterday I reviewed Charles de Lint's Moonheart, and today I'm going to review A Madness of Angels, both of which I read for Carl's Once Upon a Time Challenge.  They are both excellent fantasy books, different kinds of fantasy, though they share one thing:  an urban setting.  Moonheart is set in Ottawa, Canada, where I currently live.  A Madness of Angels is set in London England, where I'd like to live. I don't know if it is being classified as steampunk fantasy, but that is what came to mind as I was reading it. I had picked it up last year, but it was Geraniumcat's review here that convinced me I should read it soon. Then my current Locus magazine (unfortunately the review is not available online yet) arrived with a review of all three of the books in the series.  I am so glad that I picked it up to read last week. 

A Madness of Angels is an amazing look at the darker magical side of London - a London that is slightly seedy and noirish, but mostly magical.  As Geraniumcat says, it's like Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman; both books make you look at the London Underground and the train stations with different eyes.  Graffiti are messages, and you can see London through eyes other than humans', in A Madness of Angels.  The main character, Matthew Swift, is a sorcerer, and able to see through the eyes of creatures inhabiting the city, among his many and varied talents.

A Madness of Angels opens up with a change frequently in 'I' to 'We' point of view, which like Geraniumcat, put me off slightly at first, though this quickly resolves itself into who is telling the story.  Matthew has been dead, for 2 years, before his resurrection, and this is the story of why he is summoned back to the world of the living, and the new 'we' who are experiencing life for the first time. It's fascinating and I found compelling reading, the mix of Matthew's soul with the angels, and how they see London becomes our view through this mix of old and new eyes.  I loved it.  I enjoyed the mix of characters, and how they suspected one another, the various magical factions, and especially, the menacing evil and danger of "Hunger", the creature that is stalking Matthew.  This is dark fantasy with almost a gothic feel, with the dark areas of London, the hidden magical areas and arcane sources of knowledge creating a deeper space for the city to take on a layered personality also. There are varied groups of people - bikers, witches, magicians, other sorcerers, beggars, and most of all, the city of London itself, with its vitality and energy and millions upon millions of thoughts, feelings, and energy of the people inhabiting it creating a vibrant place that for people who are sensitive to it, becomes a form of magic also.  This is a fascinating way of looking at the energy of a city.  I wonder what New York City, or Paris, or Hong Kong would be like for mages, how their magics would work there.   It's also the story of  how technology becomes more than the sum of its electronic parts,  and this is what gives it it's steampunk feel. Matthew says often, life is magic, and this feeling lifts this book above much of modern urban fantasy, for me. It's a wonderful, fantastic read.

 For the story itself, Matthew is a likeable, intelligent, humourous (as in he has a sense of humour) character, as we see him search for who summoned him, and the discovery that becoming one with the angels in the telephones - with the electric blue fire - holds its own dangers for him.  "Be Free' has a whole new meaning after reading this fantasy book.  I enjoyed it tremendously and have already added the sequel, The Midnight Mayor, to my to-buy list. 

Please let me know if you have read this book, and  I will add your review below.

Other Reviews:
Geranium Cat's Book Shelf

Some book reviews! Really! - The Limits of Enchantment, and St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves - Karen Russell

I had been hearing about this book here and there, and finally picked it up over a year ago.  When Stephen King said that Swamplandia!, Russell's new book, was one of the anticipated books of the year, I thought I'd better go back and read her first book.  I also love the title.  I love wolves, and it's an irresistible title.
St Lucy's Home For Girls Raised by Wolves is a book of short stories, and they are fantasy in the way that is fabulous,  in the old original sense of fabulous being strange and wild and wonderful.  Almost all the stories are set in Florida, in and around the water or the forest or the swamp. The two that are not, From Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration, and Accident Brief, Occurrence # 00/422, are set in the prairies/desert (Children's Reminiscences) and the Arctic somewhere (Accident Brief).  All the stories feature young people, usually around 8 or 10 or 12, who are on the cusp of reaching for the adult world, not quite knowing what they are missing, but they are missing it, even as they explore childhood and the darkness around them.  Almost every story features loss, absent parents, mothers who abandon their children to make a living in the way that the very poor do.  These aren't pretty people, neither are they terrifically bad - they are children and the freaky adults they find themselves surrounded with.  If I had to describe the theme of this book, it would be what life would be like if it were a circus - that extraordinarily twilight zone feeling that we get going to the circus, where certainly I want to laugh at the clowns, but at the same time I'm aware there are people underneath and are they happy?  do they want to be laughed at?  (of course they do, but I always worry about what people are really feeling, and not what they are pretending to the world.)This collection of stories is like looking through a fun house mirror, where the carnival aspects of childhood get twisted in ways we know are, even though they shouldn't be.  They are gothic without any of the nonsense about death - surreal stories, almost.  And fascinating.  I really enjoyed this collection.

I love Russells' flights of fancy, her awareness of nature and the children being the ones taking the time to see the stars and trees and being intimately connected with life around them, before adulthood comes to sweep them away.  There are ghosts and convicts and dream camps (I wish I could go to that one!), a  minotaur as a father, and gator-wrestling Ava Wrestles the Alligator, which the new book Swamplandia! is set in the same swampland attraction as the short story is.  One of my favourite quotes is on my sidebar;   "Haunting Olivia" is one of my favourite stories in this collection.  It's told by the older brother who searches endlessly for her in the ocean, hoping to find her ghost among the ghosts of all the other creatures that died, but even when she seemingly contacts him, he still can't find her.  That sense of loss, of searching for something gone, permeates all the stories in this book.  Olivia was sliding down the sand on the back of a very huge crab sled and slid out into the waves, but the tide was going out and the boys didn't wait around to see her come back in.  Just like in real life, tragedy and loss, big changes and small.  "St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" is about werewolves who are taken by nuns to be raised to be like humans.  It's very good, especially as the girls learn how to not think like pack, and how they lose their sense of connectedness when they do that.  Who says being human is the highest realization?  Only humans do.  These stories are weird and wonderful, like the old time circuses and men calling, "Step right up!  See the Bearded woman! One night only!"  Like Ray Bradbury if he had grown up in Florida,  there is a sense of him in her writing.  I highly recommend this book. 4.5/5

The Limits of Enchantment - Graham Joyce

I love this novel.  It's the story of Fern Cullen, a young woman who lives with her mother in a small village in 1966 England.  Mammy Cullen is a midwife, but not of the new school of hospital approved midwives.  She is old-school.  She knows the herbs and small magics that midwives traditionally know since women began having babies and needed help giving birth.  She might be a witch, she might not.  And Fern is on the cusp of asking what she wants to do with her life.  Then Mammy is roughed up by some men - really, just knocked over roughly - and she gets weaker and ends up in the hospital.  Fern has to contend with a group of hippies who move into the neighborhood, the advances of Arthur, and deciding if she wants to carry on her mother's work.  She has the gift, but before she does more than take a few steps for the future, the local gentry who own the land decide she must move out because they are in arrears.  And The Limits of Enchantment is about how Fern discovers who are her friends, and who isn't, and how she learns to ask and to listen and to judge on her own.

The Limits of Enchantment is written from Fern's point of view.  She is engaging and frank, seeing through most people around her.  But she is young, and she has to learn that she can't practice her midwifery without the support of the community around her, and when they initially don't respond to her requests for help, she faces being forced to leave.  How she fights back and how the community rallies around her, is particularly funny and tender. 

This is a really enjoyable book. Fern is a strong character as is Mammy.  All the characters are interesting and idiosyncratic - they are really vividly drawn.  I liked the setting - 1966, a small village, and I especially liked the midwife and magical aspects of the story.  I highly recommend this book, especially to anyone interested in folklore and herbal lore, and changing society.  5/5

3 Canadian Mysteries - Canadian 3 Eh! Challenge reviews

I have been busy reading mysteries for the past few weeks. With Carl's Once Upon a Time IV Challenge about to begin, I wanted to catch up a little on my planned 'read 50 mysteries this year', before plunging into fantasy for the next several weeks.

I didn't plan on reading 3 mysteries for the Canadian Challenge, though as this is my third year with the challenge, I am finding that reading spontaneously works best for me with this challenge. So, when I found myself dropping by the tiny used bookstore in my neighborhood two weeks ago and coming home with three books, one of which was Prized Possessions by LR Wright, I thought, right, time for more spontaneity.


Prized Possessions - L.R. Wright (#5 in the Karl Albright mystery series)
I first read an LR Wright mystery two years ago for the first Canadian Challenge, A Touch of Panic . I didn't know that Prized Possessions follows in the series, until just now when I went hunting for my review! So, with two years between books, how does Prized Possessions hold up? Very very well. Now that I've read two books in the series, I can say that Wright does a wonderful job of getting in the head of her criminals. Eddy, the criminal in this mystery, falls into crime almost by accident, but the set-up and why he does, is chilling. He is every innocent person's nightmare. He can't let go of a slight, and it snowballs into terrible crimes. As with A Touch of Panic, there are two main storylines that intersect, and while it could seem forced, it doesn't. Everything about the other person, Emma, and how she crosses paths with them, makes for a breathtaking ending. Emma is my personal nightmare of what I call the 'empty woman', someone who exists only for her man. Ugh! LR Wright makes her believable, and how she finds herself on a country road late at night with a gun in her pocket, sad. This is a mystery about choices, and how even those with no idea of crime, can find themselves contemplating breaking the law.

The detective in this series, RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg is on leave for this mystery, bereavement leave because his father has just passed away. As a favour, he investigates the disappearance of Emma's husband, who drives away one Saturday morning and never returns. Alberg has a girlfriend, Cassandra, who is facing her own mid-life crisis, and how they work through and resolve changes in their relationship, makes a lovely counterpoint to Emma and Charlie's marriage.

This is a satisfying mystery on its own, enhanced by its setting in the lovely BC Sunshine Coast. The Sunshine Coast really exists, as does the towns of Sechelt and Gibson's Landing, the two principal towns in this mystery. I've only ever seen Gibson's Landing through the lens of tv, as one of Canada's longest running series, The Beachcombers, was set there in the 1970's and '80s. The way Wright describes these towns reminds me of small-town BC, where I have lived before, and I get homesick for the mountains and forests, and especially, the Pacific Ocean. There is definitely a cosy mystery feel to this series, which makes a change for me from the police procedurals that I normally read. 4.7/5

The Red Fox - Anthony Hyde.

This mystery thriller first came out in 1985. It was Hyde's first novel, and received widespread acclaim, althougth I had it on my shelf for over 20 years to read because a friend's husband loved it. So, last month, I finally read it. The good thing about books is that they will wait until we are ready to read them. The bad thing is, occasionally, they become dated, and that is what has happened to The Red Fox. Most of the tension in the book is because of the Iron Curtain, because of the tight grip that Communism had over much of Eastern Europe at that time. I'm old enough to remember how hard it was to get any news out of the East, how restricted getting in even to visit was, and how dear everything from the west was to those who lived behind the Iron Curtain. So reading The Red Fox brought this all back to me. Now of course, there is no Soviet bloc, there is no blackout on news, there is no Us and Them, as there was while I was growing up. I'm glad, but this book shows just how much has changed since the Wall came down in Berlin. As a historical book, funnily enough, it is very well done - for anyone who wants to know how the Soviet bloc looked to us, in the 1980's, this book is one of the best for capturing the fascination and fear we had towards the east. As a mystery, it is also satisfying. The ending has a twist that is very much about the fascination we had in the 1970's and 1980's about the change of power at the turn of the century, when Russia went from a royal family to Trotsky and then Lenin and Stalin and communism. As a thriller, this is unputdownable. I found the middle of the book a bit slow, mostly because I didn't care for the character of May's father Harry, so I didn't care if he was alive or dead. There is a reason for this distance from the character, however, and by the ending, we know why idealism and politics always lead to disillusionment, and now secrets from the past always catch up, sooner or later. It's a well-done mystery, and I certainly enjoyed and liked Robert Thorne, who is clever and resourceful while not being a spy. This was also refreshing in a thriller!

There are several layers of story here, from the ex-girlfriend, May Brightman, of the hero, Robert Thorne, as he searches for the disappeared father of the ex-girlfriend, to how he ends up learning why his own father committed suicide. World War II, and some history of Communism in Canada as well as in Paris as the Germans marched on the city, are all entwined with present day Canadian settings as Robert looks for clues as to why his girlfriend's father has disappeared. Who was Harry Brightman? When he learns that May was adopted, this leads him to a discovery that changes everything and leads him on a path of death and destruction as a hidden group search for something Brightman has hidden, and will do anything to remove their traces, while Thorne races to uncover what might be threatening May.

This is a well-written novel, very enjoyable, and it is extra-delightful that it is written by a Canadian author! This is an intelligent thriller, along the lines of Le Carre, and nothing at all like Dan Brown. 4/5


Bones to Ashes - Kathy Reichs

I read this last summer, when the Canadian Challenge 3 had just started, and then lent the book to a friend because it was so good. I haven't received it back, so I will have to write my review from memory.

I had read the first three in the Temperance Brennan mystery series when they first came out - Deja Dead was published in 1997, and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. But I found the series got too bloody and brutal for me, and I put the series aside for a while. I kept hearing good things about the latest books in the series, and finally my friend at work who also reads mysteries (we are always giving each other books to read and talking about authors) said Bones to Ashes was very good, as was the next in line, Devil Bones, which she couldn't put down. so I picked Bones to Ashes first - it was in paperback, and I loved the cover with the tree, which kept catching my eye. It wasn't as gory as I remembered! In fact, this one had a sad air to it, as Temperance is handed a girl's skull that she wants to uncover the forensic secrets to as well as historical. She discovers many sad things about the Indians of New Brunswick and how they were treated historically, and how her childhood friend who has long since disappeared from her life, possibly suffered from the same disease that the girl whose skull she holds died from. How she finds her childhood friend, and what has happened to her, make for a very satisfying mystery. We also see the appearance of Temperance's sister, who is a breathe of Texas fresh air and pure feminine delight in this series! I like Temperance very much as a character, but I find her moody and too self-contained sometimes - broody almost, and her sister is a nice counterpoint to Tempe's seriousness. There is a very satisfying shoot-out at the end of the book, and resolution to both Tempe's childhood mystery, at the same time. I'm definitely continuing with this series.

I did find that her affair with Detectifve Andrew Ryan is one I want to continue, and was depressed that Tempe let herself get dragged back into her ex-husbands life so easily. I found myself saying no more than once to all three of these characters as they walk into and out of each other's lives - they were well-written scenes and the understanding that Reichs shows of the human heart in this love affair that has its up and downs makes this series richer and satisfying for me. 4.7/5

I am even more delighted that this series is doing so well. Though I do have a question: Kathy Reichs is not a native Canadian, she was born in Chicago, and works and lives in both Charlotte North Carolina and Montreal. Since the books are set in Montreal, where Temperance works out of the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec, just as Kathy herself does, my question is, does this make this a Canadian book? I think it does, so I'm counting it towards Canadian books read for the Canadian Book Challenge 3. What do you think? Does it count as a Canadian mystery?

I also admit that I don't watch Bones, the Fox tv series based on these mysteries. Even though Reichs is now listed as one of the producers of the show, and this year has Booth and Bones drawing closer together, I like the books better. I have difficulty separating the tv characters from the books, which is why I'm picky about what I see. I loved Roy White as Dalgliesh, the portrayals of DCI Frost, Morse, Dalziel and Pascoe, to which I find the tv casting is perfect and enhances my reading of the mysteries. Who could forget Hamish McBeth as portrayed by the wonderful Robert Carlyle? I haven't seen enough of the Elizabeth George series on tv (they came over in a jumble, out of sequence, and so I like my mysteries shown properly!) to know how the actor did with the portrayals, although I like the lead actor very much anyway. So I'm not against mystery series being translated to the screen. I've just had a problem with David Boreanz replacing Andrew Ryan in my mind, because Andrew Ryan in my mind is slightly dangerous and intensely loyal, and no matter how I know Boreanz is a good actor, I always find him just a little boring. But that's just me, apparently 10 million plus people in the US disagree!! I'll stick to reading the series, though.

This brings my total to 8 books read for the Canadian Book Challenge 3. I'm delighted. Only 5 left to go, and I still have 3 months and some very good books on my list: Three Day Road, Monkey Beach, Moonheart, The Rez Sisters, The Murder Stone, Bluenose Ghosts, Late Nights on Air.......

Happy last day before Spring arrives!!

I've been busy reading......

I can't believe almost two weeks has gone by since I last posted! I really thought it was only last week since I posted.....I've been under the weather, and very happily reading. I've read 4 books so far this month! You already have the review for The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke. So I thought for this very late Sunday night, I'd give a short review for the other three books.

Blood on the Strand - Susanna Gregory - Book 2 in the Thomas Chaloner series. Set in 1663 London, this book sees Chaloner asked by Lord Clarendon, for whom he works, to investigate the murder of wealthy merchant and a vagrant who tried to attack the king outside Whitehall. I don't know if it was the aftereffects of Christmas, but I kept falling asleep through the first half of the book. I didn't matter when I tried to read it, I'd start dozing within a few lines. I finally made myself sit and read it for over an hour one day this new year, and the longer period of reading helped. There is a long period of set-up, and lots of double-dealing with the agents, lots of potential murderers. This is all made more complex by the Castle Plot failed set in Ireland before this book opens but many of the same spies are back and are named in a conspirator letter that sees some sentenced to death, which the vagrant turns out to be one of, and so the mystery deepens. Why was Chaloner left off the list? Why are some freed on a King's pardon and others not? Who killed Matthew Webb, and why? There are all sorts of subplots here, which I am glad to say finally in the last quarter of the book satisfyingly pull together. I do enjoy Thomas Chaloner as a character, and there is a serious twist to the ending that caught me unprepared - it's quite good. So while it starts off slowly, there is really good characterization, dialogue, and Restoration London comes to life. It's a 3.5/5 read. I will continue on with this series.

Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indridason. This is so good! I can see why it made so many lists over at Kerrie's Top Ten Mysteries Poll she was running at the beginning of this year. You, my dear readers, know that I have been talking about Indridason for over a year now, ever since I read Silence of the Grave and Tainted Blood. I can't recommend this series enough. It is well-thought out police-procedural with a main character who is very quiet and a very astute observer of people, although not of himself. It's only in this book that he really begins to wonder how his disappearance from his children's lives has affected them, even as he continues to reveal slowly the deeper aspects of his childhood before and after his brother died, and how that has affected him. It's interesting that he doesn't talk about how burying himself in the snow to survive has affected him, but that's part of the charm of this series. There is time to learn, time to puzzle it out, even as he throws himself into murders to solve them. It is the ones who die alone who get to him,which he admits in Arctic Chill is because of his brother, the ones whose mysteries he has to solve while he waits to solve what happened to his brother all those years ago. This haunting sense envelopes this particular book, as it did the previous one (The Draining Lake, which I have sadly yet to review from last year!). A boy dies alone, and the book is about the investigation into his death.

I found this a moving book to read because the victim's death reminded me a real-life case, of Damilolo Taylor, who was murdered in London in 2000. I don't want to say much more about Damilolo's case because this book has many similarities to the outcome of the real case as well, so I don't want to give anything away to my readers who aren't familiar with the Taylor case. I, as well as most of Britain, was horrified during the investigation, and it is one that I find still affects me now - I expect it always will. So Arctic Chill could have been too similar to a real case, and I am relieved to say it wasn't. It's different enough, that I think it is more a comment on youths and crime today, and modern society. This is a gripping read. I cried at the ending, for both the book and the real life case, again. Even if Arctic Chill is entirely a creation out of the author, it so eerily recreates what happens all over the world that it becomes about a crime we have all heard about, somewhere. This is a mystery, and a series, that really is among the very best currently being written. And all the way through it is a haunting sense of loss that almost feels like music. A slow elegy, a mournful awareness of loss and change, and that some things can't really be recovered from. Excellent. 5/5

The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe. A new Canadian author! A new mystery series! I'm excited! And how is it, you ask? Very good. It has its flaws (this is good to see in a first novel, because otherwise I'd be completely jealous that a first novel could be perfect!), mostly regarding how the acting chief of police for the tiny town of Port Dundas, Ontario, could lead a country wide investigation for a serial killer. To Wolfe's credit much of it is credible; I only wonder at Inspector Hazel Micallef not getting into major trouble as she would in real life, for not calling in the RCMP, although this is kind of talked about in the book, it's not what would happen in real life. That aside, this is really well-written. Hazel Micallef is believable as the acting Inspector of her station - acting because her superior officer actually wants to amalgamate the station with others in the region, thus cutting costs, so he won't hire a permanent Inspector. The killer is believable and surprisingly sympathetic at times. The premise is an elderly woman dying of cancer is found murdered in her home. When links are discovered to another murder later that weekend, suspicions begin to amount even though the murders are over 300 km apart.

The supporting cast of detectives is very well-drawn, the dialogue is excellent, the descriptions of Ontario in the fall makes me wish it was fall again! and the pace is fast and this is a very enjoyable mystery. I highly recommend it, and very much look forward to reading her new one later this year when it comes out in paperback. 4.7/5

****Hmm. Just discovered while downloading the pictures of the books, that Inger Ash Wolfe is a pseudonym for a "well-known Canadian literary figure". So not a first novel!!!***** Well, at least I don't have to worry at it's being soooo good for a first novel.

Only The Calling and Arctic Chill count for my 100 Books read challenge; Blood on the Strand was started in December. But, I count that as four books read this month, so I'm pleased.

I hope you have been happily reading this new Year too, dear Reader.

Sunday Salon - Finally, some book reviews!!

Good morning! It's the third day of May, and the leaves are springing out on branches, the geese are flying north, and it's calm here. After last weekend, this is a good way to begin the day! Oh, and it's now officially less than a week until the new Star Trek movie opens!!!!

On top of that, I have been busy reading. I didn't plan on taking a break, it just turned in to one. It has been so stressful at work for me that I would come home and read, and then read some more. This is good for getting to my 100 books read this year goal, bad for socializing in any way with anyone!

So I thought I would give a quick review of some of the books I have read, with my new rating system - 5/5 being the best read, 1/5 being don't bother, etc.

Riddle of St Leonard's - Candace Robb - Book 5 in the series
4/5 - very good historical recreation, characters, setting (York England in 1369), interesting mystery. I think i had the most fun though envisioning my York with the recreated one, and it was so much fun to know I'd been on Stonegate and worked there, and it was a main thoroughfare back then too. It was most interesting to realize that St Leonard's stretched from the Museum Gardens almost to the Minster in 1369 when in 2000 there is only a partial block of some of the hospital - really a partial stone chamber - left to visit. This was the first of her mysteries I read, which are sadly out of print now, so I will now have reason # 430 to haunt used bookstores in the future! Anyone interested in medieval England, enjoyed The Name of the Rose (for the blending of religion and politics), or has been to York, will enjoy this mystery.
****I forgot to mention the plot: Riddle of St Leonard's is set is 1369, during an outbreak of the plague. There is a series of deaths that may or may not be innocent, involving St Leonard's, which has had thefts and debt, and the victims who died were recently at the hospital. Owen Archer is the series main character, a spy for the Archbishop, and also for the King and Queen of England. He does not want to take the job on, as it is not clear there is a link or anything suspicous, and he is trying to protect his family from the plague. There is of course, a link, and the guilty party is as devious and clever as any modern killer. Very well done, very enjoyable mystery.*****

The Reaper - Peter Lovesey
4/5 - I have to thank the lovely Cath at Read-Warbler for this book. She'd finished it and rather than give it to a charity shop, she asked if I'd like to read it, since I enjoy mysteries so much also. So she sent it over the ocean to me! (Here thanks Cath most gratefully)
I'm not sure I could get this book over here, so this was a double pleasure for me. And it is a very good read. There are plenty of murders, an Anglican priest who is gorgeous, and the feel of a very small village where nothing goes unnoticed......except the unwillingness to and inability to recognize something could be wrong. There is an unexpected twist at the end that is chilling, and in a very fun way, a twisted happy ending. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will be passing it along to my mother who also enjoys mysteries. I am going to look for more of his books also. Second-hand bookstores, here I come!!

Dead Cold and The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny - series catch-up
4/5 for both. Set in the fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, these mysteries take place a year apart. Dead Cold takes place right after one snowy and very cold Christmas. The victim is so cold (pun intended with her body that is cold, and the weather outside that is so terribly cold) that no one is unhappy she's dead, not even her family. Death at an outdoor curling event - and no one noticed. I love how this series juxtaposes the quiet calm and beauty of the village and the fondness the villagers have with eachother; part of the charm of these books are the main village characters we meet , Gabri and Olivier B&B and bistro owners, Peter and Clara Morrow the artists, Myrna the bookstore owner, Ruth the famous poet. They provide delightful repartee and solid grounding against which the murder in each book is set. Other characters are introduced in each book, among whom are most of the suspects. There is old history of Three Pines in this book, and characters who leave and come again, as in The Cruellest Month. The author refers to past experiences in the previous books, so reading in sequence is recommended. I find this adds to the warmth and realistic setting of the books, that the characters don't suddenly forget previous actions and history. No one in a village ever does!

The Cruellest Month is set in April and features a delightful description of an easter egg hunt, and how Ruth adopts a duck. Of course, there is most hideous murder, and a thrilling seance in a creepy haunted house on top of the hill. Both mysteries have super atmosphere. The weather is also featured - sudden snowstorms in both books, very cold temperatures, spring blossoms and flowers. This is a delightful mystery series with a very strong Canadian atmosphere and setting. Oh - and Inspector Gamache? Picks the detectives who don't fit anywhere else in the Surete of Quebec (provincial police force) and guides them to becoming the best detectives. Throughout both books he is also being betrayed by someone he trusts in the force, and the reason why, and who is involved, make Dead Cold particularly riveting. I felt that The Cruellest Month didn't resolve in quite the dramatic fashion the author envisioned - in fact the whole setting of the denouement didn't fit and the inspector was entirely too calm throughout for my liking - but overall, it was a very good read again. I am a real fan of this series now, and am hoping my mother will pick up book 4, which is in trade paperback, for my upcoming birthday......I'd also like to move to Three Pines. Right Away. If it existed!!

Blood-Bound and Iron-Kissed - Patricia Briggs. Books 2 and 3 of Mercy Thompson series.
*Sigh*. Those wolves, Samuel and Adam. That vampire, Stefan. How can the author make a vampire seem sexy? when he's cold and dead? and charming and intelligent? and slightly heroic? And Samuel and Adam, who could choose? They are gorgeous and protective and masculine and thrilling and love her. What is even better is that it does get resolved, this tension between Adam and Samuel and Mercy, in Iron-Kissed, and that is done in a way that Mercy learns something about wolves and packs, and in a way that the wolf not chosen doesn't hate her.

Oh yes, the mystery. There was one. Two, one in each book. Right. You mean I have to discuss the mystery? I can't think about - ? Never mind.

Blood-Bound: The second book is chilling. The vampire with a demon controlling it is truly scary. I had no idea how Mercy would get out of it. And how she does makes for truly heart-pounding reading. I know that I couldn't put this down, that I was totally involved in the story, and very interested in the creativity Briggs has put into thinking about vampires and how they could function in their own society, or even if they had one. I definitely would only want to meet Stefan the Vampire, no others, but then I shudder at their victims, what an awful way to go. There is no glossing over that vampires to prey on people to eat - but yet Stefan is a very interesting character and I want to know more about him. He's definitely intriguing and those words he mutters to Mercy......I think book 4 features him more......*fans herself* It seems that even being undead doesn't save one from power politics, something I will remember when I go into work tomorrow. I also like how Mercy chooses her own course of action, refusing to abide by most rules others try to impose upon her.

In Iron-Kissed, the third book of the series, this is finally discussed, for as the fae creature (I don't want to name who, but suffice to say a major Goddess of war makes a surprising appearance) comments, Coyote is the unexpected. Iron-Kissed is about fairy tales and myths, the dangerous kind: we have to go into the woods, but I'm not sure I would want to meet any of the fae that feature in Iron-Kissed. Oh, yes, the mystery: Mercy's former boss (who is a fae) is being framed for a murder he didn't commit, Mercy sets out to clear his name, despite being warned by everyone to stay away, except for one key character, mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph. Mercy is a Coyote - finally a little something about what her nature is, is revealed - but only in cryptic remarks such as the fae drop from time to time. I thought this enriched the books immensely. I really like how the author has created the supernatural world co-existing with 'people world'. The coyote remarks are about Mercy, but also points out about how the supernatural isn't something to play with - it is dangerous, as fairy tales keep trying to tell us. Mercy herself lives only because of her nature, because of who she is and how she can slide between the rules, as Coyote the Trickster does. This was a smart move on the author's part, to bring in her Coyote nature and the role she plays in these books. She also doesn't belong anywhere, and this is a thoughtful way of showing how Native American myths were displaced by the Europeans, and yet - they survive. This gives Mercy an element of natural power that makes it possible for her to survive all the attacks she does survive. Just as Coyote has survived the near-wipeout of His culture, and yet he's still there, surprising us with tornadoes out of nowhere, the clown who brings the truth, the unexpected - there has to be room for surprise, or things get too rigid, as the Goddess of war murmurs thoughtfully to Mercy.

These are very well-written supernatural books, ones I highly reccommend. They both come in at 5/5. My only problem? I want more!!! More!! I went from reading Book Two straight to Book Three because I just couldn't wait to see what happened with Mercy, Adam and Samuel. The mysteries are well-written and very good, it's the werewolf clan structure, the fae world, the vampire sett, that sets this supernatural series well above any others for me. As well, Mercy herself - she is extremely likeable, independent, and bakes brownies and cookies when she's stressed. She's like one of us! (except she doesn't read as much). Though a book does feature in Book Three....


Briar Rose - Jane Yolen (read for Carl's OUaT3 Challenge) - part of the Fairy Tales Series by Terri Windling.
5/5 Lovely. Despite the horror at the heart of the book, this book is about how fairy tales can be used to transmit the truth in a way that the teller can tell it, and the listener hear it, without having to relive the full horror every time. In Rebecca's family, her grandmother Gemma has a personal recreation of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty that Rebecca, of all the girls, loves to hear. Gemma repeats it over and over. After she dies, Rebecca discovers among her papers that Gemma was in Europe during WW2, and she sets out to find what happened to her grandmother, and who her grandfather could have been. This was a very moving story about survival, love, and courage, and the people who died in Poland in the awful concentration camps, and other small villages where everyone was killed. Who awakened Sleeping Beauty? How did she escape? Why did her Grandmother tell only this story? Rebecca has to go into the heart of Poland to find out. It is as moving and horrific as any story, as every story, about World War Two. As with any story of the Holocaust, be ready to cry.

This is also a story about the power of telling a story, and how a story can give meaning to a life. If you had survived what Gemma had survived, what story would you choose to survive with, to pass on what you had been through in a way that didn't hurt the ones who heard it? It is a story in the end of hope, of survival - just as Sleeping Beauty awakes and goes on to fall in love and have children, so Gemma's life continued on. There is even love for Rebecca, who opens up to possibilities around her as she realizes the real gift- that the story does go on with love and children. "Sometimes living takes more courage than dying," she says to the man she discovers in Poland. And that's what Briar Rose is about, in the end. Both the fairy tale and this superb fairy tale retelling.

The Blue Girl - Charles de Lint (read for Carl's OUaT3 Challenge)
3.5/5 - I wish I could give this a higher rating. I am still surprised that I am disappointed with this one. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't find the two main characters, Imogene and Maxine, entirely believable. Imogene especially bothered me - not her tough nature, but her sudden recreation as she enters a new high school. I know that a teenage girl cannot hide her true character in high school. High school is brutal for the most part, and that's where what a person is made of is revealed. It's like a slice of life. And The Blue Girl fails not in the setting, but because no one guesses that Imogene was ever a tough girl who ran with a gang, despite her attitude and her skipping classes. I do like her for her imagination, her cleverness, and because she faces things head-on. I do like her friendship with Maxine. I know from Charles' afterword that he wanted to explore the friendship between two unlikely girls, and how this would affect both of them. So for trying it, and for telling a really good story, because it is, he gets the 3 stars.

The good points: the dialogue, the other characters, the story - there's ghosts, the dead, fairies, and very scary dark things with teeth in shadows. There's a lot to like in this book. It is a good read. And I like this quote, from Thomas (one of those very interesting secondary characters that Charles does so well that I really want to know more about!): "Oh, sure. It's fairy this and fairy that. We've even got CDs that 'inspired' by the fairies, for god's sake. But it wasn't always like that. The way my grandparents told it, the one thing you didn't ever want was to get their attention. If you did, you made sure you treated them with great respect. And you never show your fear." Now that, I like!

I think I wanted more - less Imogene being saucy, and more explanation of why she is special. Why can she see the dead, when she is not dead herself? where did all her tough manners go when she decided to drop that image? It's not easy to not let attitudes slip. And why isn't she unsure of herself? Most teenagers go back and forth from being secure to being completely insecure, often within the same day. And she's actually mean to Adrian, the dead teenager haunting the school. And I wanted to know more about Pelly, Imogene's imaginary friend who turns out to not be so imaginary, and I wanted to know more about the shadows with fangs. Oh yes, they were very interesting. I think it was the teasing both undergo in the school - the popular crowd and the toughies pick on them both, and other kids, and it is unlike Imogene's character to put up with it. That, and she physically hurts someone, and suffers no emotional repercussions. She says she will have to live with it, but we don't see her suffering from it. That is when the book stopped being realistic for me. Any act of violence scars both the victim and offender, for the offender at the least the first few times, and yet Imogene blithely passes it off and ignores it for the most part. This really upset me, and I thought it was wrong - wrongly handled, and didn't really belong in the book. It ruined her character for me, especially when she says she doesn't want to go to juvenile center if she tells the truth, so she lies. And she has all the answers - for Valerie, the girl she saves, for Brent who she attacks. What 17 year old knows the right thing to say all the time? Still, I liked her, but with reservations by the end.

So this is a solid book, with de Lint's trademark highlights, and wonderful Newford feel and fairies galore of the dangerous kind - they all are.

Well, that's my Sunday round-up. I am reading Possession, and surprisingly, really enjoying it. I tried many years ago when it first came out, and couldn't get past the opening pages. This time, I thought, well, Nymeth likes it, let me try it again, and voilà! So when I get it finished, she will get two points - because she convinced me to try a book I thought I hated!!

I hope you have a delightful day reading and with your family. It's spring, finally!