64.
Author(s): Sue Grafton
Title: [E is for Evidence]
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 13, 2011
Rating: ****

After a few cozy duds I decided to go with something tried-and-true to bring me out of my schlump: enter Kinsey Millhone.

I've been reading Grafton's series off and on since I was eleven, and my Gram loaned me L is for Lawless. I've never gotten any further in the series, although I own through S, largely because I keep going back to refresh with earlier books. And I keep forgetting where I left off, because I leave so much time and so many other books in-between.

This time I picked up with E is for Evidenc, because I couldn't remember the conclusion.

When Kinsey begins a routine check on a fire claim for CF, she finds herself caught up in a long-festering pool of lies, family tension, and illegal activities. Her investigation puts her under suspicion, and she finds herself working for her own cause. The case leaves a compelling line of dead bodies and old relationships, and the very human protagonist carefully sifts through the pieces- until the answer lands in her living room.

Consistent and engaging; Grafton doesn't disappoint.

P.S. Reviewing on the iPhone is tough.

65.
Author(s): Sue Grafton
Title: [F is for Fugitive]
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 14, 2011
Rating: ****

In F is for Fugitive, Kinsey finds herself (blissfully) out of town, and working for one of the most unpleasant families in contemporary fiction after she is hired by the patriarch to exonerate his son, who is convicted of murdering a seventeen-year-old girl more than a decade before. Grafton presents a fairly pedestrian depiction of small-town life, but somehow following the ornery community remains interesting throughout.

63.
Author(s): Laura Levine
Title: Death of a Trophy Wife
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 107, 2011
Rating: **1/2

Death of a Trophy Wife is downright silly. Although the book is supposed to be a cozy mystery, I found it to be more food porn for junk food junkies than anything else. The unraveling of the mystery happens in spite of the protagonist, who spends most of her time diving into a jar of peanut butter with a spoon, extolling the virtues of her elastic-waist jeans, and creating a cantankerous personality for her cat, Prozac. The book is likewise plagued by long asides in the form of emails from the protagonist's parents, which do little more than show that "ridiculous" did not fall far from the fictional tree. Add in several unhealthy relationships and sloppy narration, and you get Death of a Trophy Wife.

61. Bookmarked for Death
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 5, 2011
Rating: ***1/2

Nothing will put a damper on a book signing like the guest of honor dying in the bathroom, but it's just Tricia Miles' luck that that's what happens when famed mystery author Zoe Carter agrees to a book signing, despite her reclusive tendencies. With her shop closed as a crime scene, Tricia feels she has no choice but to do some investigating of her own. However, she soon finds that the instincts of an armchair detective aren't always up to snuff.

62.
Author(s): Laura Childs
Title: Death by Darjeeling
Publication: Kindle
Pages: 40% finished
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: abandoned August 7, 2011
Rating: *

Death by Darjeeling is completely without soul. Consisting almost entirely of exhausted adjectives, Laura childs continually and consistently violates the first rule of freshman creative writing: to show rather than tell. The prose is awkward and punchy, and the plot itself is tired by the time Childs even bothers coming back to it. This is a truly terrible piece of writing, and I can't force myself to soldier through another dull and laden paragraph.

60.
Author(s): Colin Cotterill
Title: Killed at the Whim of a Hat
Publication: Early Review
Pages: 384
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition: borrowed
Date Completed: July 31, 2011
Rating: ****

Set in Thailand and peppered with the brilliance of a former American President, Killed at the Whim of a Hat is a cozy mystery following Jimm Juree, a crime reporter who is transplanted to a rather rural community when her mother suddenly sells the family home and purchases a remote "resort." Constantly brooding over this twist of fate, Jimm Juree carefully catalogs all that is wrong with her new home, until she is (blissfully) distracted by the discovery of two hippie skeletons in a buried VW bus. Suddenly, this little community doesn't seem quite so dull.

However, it is a second mystery - the rather daring murder of an abbot - that really sweeps Jimm Juree off her feet, and into the community. By the conclusion of the novel it is the sense of satisfaction that Jimm finds, rather than the resolution of the crime, that is most compelling. Killed at the Whim of a Hat is more a novel of character development, with the "mysteries" functioning as a catalyst for discovery rather than major narrative motivation. Recommended.

59.
Author(s): Kelley Armstrong
Title: Spell Bound
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 325
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Acquisition: Preordered
Date Completed: July 26, 2011
Rating: ****

Spell Bound is the twelfth (of a planned thirteen) and latest of Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, and once again features a growing Savannah Levine. Fresh off a case with a less-than-satisfactory conclusion, Savannah makes a rash wish that, when granted, causes her to reconsider all that she knows about her current life. Throw into the mix an underground supernatural political movement, general chaos, and as many characters as Armstrong could possibly fit into a single novel, and the result is Spell Bound.

The novel itself is not as strong as many others in the series, primarily because there are too many stories - and too many loose ends - that Armstrong is trying to weave together. As a whole, the book feels like what it actually is - the build-up for the "big finish" that Thirteen is promising to be. This installment will hold the interest of fans - and does provide some emotional development - but probably isn't for anyone who has been waning.

58.
Author(s): Terri Garey
Title: [Dead Girls Are Easy]
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 23, 2011
Rating: **

Dead Girls are Easy is DOA. The characters are flat and unsympathetic, the protagonist is obnoxiously inconsistent, and the plot is poorly paced.

57.
Author(s): Juliet Blackwell
Title: Hexes and Hemlines
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 21, 2011
Rating: ***

56.
Author(s): Donna Andrews
Title: The Real Macaw
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 320
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition: Preordered
Date Completed: July 19, 2011
Rating: ****

The twins have arrived, and would be settling in nicely, if it weren't for Meg's assumptive family. During one of those glorious 2am feedings Meg is roused by what she thinks - what she hopes - is an inconsiderate family member watching animal planet, but what turns out to be an animal shelter heist instead. Things are far from peaceful in Caerphilly, and the tension and conflict has come straight to Meg and Michael's door. After the trademark dastardly deceased makes an appearance things start to get even uglier, and (between pumpings) Meg finds herself caught in the middle of weaselly political manipulations. The Real Macaw is more day-to-day than thrilling mystery, as both Meg and her readers try to figure out how to balance four-month-old twins, a fostered five-year-old, and the work of an accidentally-crime-solving blacksmith. Some of the most endearing of Andrews' characters are still in residence, and the story itself feels like curling up with a favorite battered quilt.

55.
Author(s): Dan Wells
Title: I Don't Want To Kill You
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 320
Genre: Horror
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 17, 2011
Rating: *****

*May contain SPOILERS for EARLIER BOOKS*

I Don't Want to Kill You is the third in Wells' planned trilogy featuring teenage sociopath John Cleaver. After defeating two demons who have littered his small town with bodies, John decides to move from the defensive to the offensive, and uses one demon's contacts to invite a third - Nobody - to face him. This is where Mr. Monster ends, and I Don't Want to Kill You picks up with a cautious John watching for the first signs that Nobody has arrived. Ultimately, John faces enemies he never expects, gains support from an unlikely source, and faces a kind of loss that shakes his understanding of himself.

As a whole, I Don't Want to Kill You is a gripping and compelling episode in the John Cleaver trilogy, and proves to be a satisfying conclusion (if indeed it is the end...). Wells finds a much more comfortable balance with supernatural elements, leaving the narrative much less jarring and allowing for a more comfortable suspension of disbelief.

However (and these books always seem to come with a "however" for me), the character shift in the end once again rings of cheap pandering. To have such a dramatic shift in character at the conclusion of a series feels incredibly disingenuous, and leaves me with a feeling of great disappointment at the end of what would otherwise be a near-perfect conclusion.

54.
Author(s): Jessica McCann
Title: All Different Kinds of Free
Publication: Kindle, free
Pages:
Genre: Fiction
Acquisition:
Date Completed: July 15, 2011
Rating: ****

There exists even today a cultural divide along the East coast of the United States; an imaginary line continues to mark people as being either "Northern" or "Southern," with special modifiers reserved for those from the "Deep South." As a Marylander, I never really felt like a "Southerner," although our state was once a slave-holding state, and we are in fact below the Mason-Dixon line. However, evidence of Maryland's slaveholding past is still visible; there remain plaques and memorials in downtown Annapolis, where slaves were once brought by boat to American soil, and signs along highways will remind travelers of the names of former plantations, and mark the birth places of important abolitionist figures.

Still, to read a novel of American slavery that is set (at least partially) in such an intimately familiar location is a bit surreal.

Jessica McCann's All Different Kinds of Free tells the story of Margaret Morgan, a former Maryland resident who is kidnapped from her home in Pennsylvania along with her children, and sold into slavery. The "bounty hunter" responsible for her bondage is brought to trial for his actions, and the subsequent Supreme Court trial is recognized as one of the motivating events for the Civil war. Unfortunately, little is known of the poor woman whose life is literally stolen by Prigg the bounty hunter, and her personal consequences are not marked as significant in history books. McCann embraces this shadowy figure and gives her not only a life but a voice, and it is her story that is the focus of this 2011 novel.

While All Different Kinds of Free contains many of the same elements of the endless slave narratives we now have access to (both fictional and nonfiction), McCann's story is intriguing for her protagonist - a woman who, the readers believe - is never a slave until someone accuses her of running. Her story is one of an adult woman forced into this hideous institution, and shows how someone who is well and truly free can adjust (temporarily) and fight for what she has lost. i found the narrative to be both intriguing and heartbreaking, and would certainly recommend it.

53.
Author(s): Natalie Hevener Kaufman and Carol McGinnis Kay
Title: "G" is for Grafton
Publication: Hardback
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition: purchased used
Date Completed: July 1, 2011
Rating: ***1/2

What do you get when you combine two college professors and a love of contemporary genre fiction? "G" is for Grafton. Kaufman, a political scientist, and Kay, a Shakespeare professor, are both faculty members at the University of South Carolina at the time of publication, and together they have endeavored to provide an examination of the Alphabet Mysteries by Sue Grafton.

The result of their conjoined efforts is a blend of careful explication, analysis, and personal response that has come from the obviously enthusiastic interest in the contemporary mystery series. Treating novels "A" through "M" (the extent of the series at the time), Kay and Kaufman present an almost encyclopedic categorizing of the world of Kinsey Millhone, with some psychoanalysis for good measure.

The content of the book itself is at times dry, but for a casual fan of the series (who has, admittedly, stepped aside for quite awhile), the book proved to be a wonderful reintroduction into Kinsey's world, and helped revamp interest in the series. At times it feels as if Kaufman and Kay are attempting to write Kinsey to be the character they want her to be, but the majority of the information is no less trustworthy for this analysis, and some of the information - such as Grafton speaking of Kinsey directly - can be a real treat.


52.
Author(s): Lara Adrian
Title: Deeper Than Midnight
Publication: Kindle
Pages:
Genre: Supernatural romance
Acquisition: preordered
Date Completed: July 1, 2011
Rating: ***1/2

The Order's fight against Dragos and his evil plans has been long and hard ... and there's no true end in sight. The evil mastermind remains one step ahead of the Breed warriors at every turn, and though they may strike out with some success, each success is met with retribution on the part of their enemy. In the latest installment it seems they are no closer to stopping the mad vampire than they were when they first discovered his existence.

The romantic focus of Deeper Than Midnight is Hunter, and his unexpected attachment to a breedmate saved from one of Dragos' labs. Together they represent two classes of victims produced by the labs - the women used for the "breeding program," and the offspring that are then raised as weapons instead of individuals. Hunter is an intriguing character largely for his past, which comes into focus in this text. While his humanizing developments happen a little too quickly and easily, this seems to be characteristic of most supernatural romances with "complicated" male counterparts.

While I enjoyed the romance aspects of the novel, I am at this point fairly frustrated with the "pending vampire Doomsday" that has been inching along, and that frustration will probably keep me from pursuing the series in the future.