07 of 2012: Caveat Emptor

Title: Caveat Emptor
Author: Ruth Downie
Dates Read: 1/17-1/23/2012
Date Published: January, 2012
Pages: 352 (but I prefer the audiobooks!)
Synopsis: Ah, Russo and Tilla, still being their wonderful selves, have returned to Brittania. With no work as a doctor in sight, Russo finds a job as an investigator.

Review: This is Downie's best mystery, but she doesn't lose her deft hand at presenting a fascinating Roman world, either. While I was disappointed that she once again separated Tilla and Russo for much of the book, they were nevertheless as charming as always. I bought this on my Kindle when it came out, but ended up listening to the audiobook, because Simon Vance's wry presentation is absolute perfection.

Stars: ****/5
Keywords: History, Mystery

01 of 2012: Think Twice (Lisa Scottoline)

My first book of 2012 was a bargain book at Books-a-Million, and store which is quickly working to lose my patronage. They make someone escort you to the bathroom now, which is annoying when you have an impatient bladder. The cost of their Millionaire cards is also up to $20 now. Considering they're not good for bargain books, I didn't bother.

But that's beside the point! My first book of 2012 was a...disappointment.

Title: Think Twice
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Dates Read: 1/2/12-1/4/12
Date Published: March, 2010
Pages: 384
Synopsis: Bennie Rosato and her twin sister, Alice Connelly, only met as adults. Though they look exactly alike, the darkness in Alice sets them apart - until the day Alice buries Bennie alive, and Bennie discovers the darkness within herself.

Review: You'd think with someone being buried alive, this would be an exciting book, but it just . . . isn't. The story doesn't gain momentum for hundreds of pages, despite quick-fire switches of p.o.v. among Bennie, Alice, and Bennie's fellow lawyer Mary. The characters are one-dimensional and strange attempts at family drama in the Mary storyline draw away from what there is of the cliched main story. I finished this book out of pure, unadulterated stubbornness. I paid for the darn thing when money is tight, and I was gonna read it!

Stars: */5
Keywords: Mystery, Drama

27: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Jeff Lindsey
Published: 2004

Why?: How can you not want to try a book that completely screws up your view of the world by making you root for the serial killer? (What’s that you say? You’re sane? Then probably most of what I have to say doesn’t make much sense to you! 0_~) If you’ve seen the Dexter series (viva la Netflix!), then you’ll be familiar with this storyline, much of which was borrowed for the first season. After that, the novels and the series split off, with relatively little in common beyond the concept and names (especially concerning Dexter’s sexuality; he remains more asexual in the books, which I prefer). The writing of Darkly Dreaming Dexter is sly and amusing in a twisted way, which is has to be, given that it’s written in the first person by a man who deals with his urge to kill by killing on Very Bad People, and not the good ones…all while working as a blood analyst for the Miami-Dade Police Department! Strangely enough, these novels have one of the best versions of a family formed by adoption I’ve ever read. It’s about time there was a happy adoptive family who know that blood doesn’t matter when there’s loads of love involved!

Gist: Dexter Morgan is a normal dude, going about his business: blood analyst for the police by day, and serial killer killer by night. He tells about one of his most difficult cases while introducing his readers to the rules he lives by, instilled in him by his father, Henry Morgan.

Quote: “Really, now: If you can’t get me my newspaper on time, how can you expect me to refrain from killing people?”

Bonus Trivia: Jeff Lindsey has a sense of humor about creating a character who’s much more famous than he is. He claims a taxi driver once asked him if he’s seen Dexter, and mentioned that “I heard there are some books, too”!


Darkly Dreaming is on my Kindle, and there's only so many pictures to take of that. So here is Gomez, helping me type this very entry. Also, sticking his tongue out at me.

Perfect For: I guess you’ve got to be a little nutty, and not too afraid of gruesome crime scenes, though they’re less detailed than the Dresden books.

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Mystery, Horror

22: Caves of Steel

Tomorrow is my first day of my new grad school program. It will be a Very. Long. Day. Indeed. @_@ This may prove once and for all that I'm utterly insane.

Caves of Steel
Isaac Asimov
Published: 1953


Yes, that's a Zune. An OLD Zune. I love my Zune, and she loves me, so don't be hatin'! :p

Why?: Only Asimov can so neatly combine his science fiction world with a decent mystery. Asimov claimed in his introduction to Asimov’s Mysteries (a fun short story collection, if you can get your hands on it out of print; my copy is on the dresser at the moment) that he wrote this book because his publisher said that two genres that could never intersect were mystery and science fiction. Asimov definitely proved him wrong, with style!

Caves of Steel is the first Asimov book I read – or listened to, actually. I was suffering with nonstop headaches, and unable to read, when I downloaded the audiobook of this novel. Audio books aren’t my favorite way to read a story, but the reader (William Dufris) did an excellent job with the voices of Baley and Daneel. The world of Caves of Steel is very real, and is an excellent introduction to Asimov’s many joined Robots novels and stories. The Three Laws of Robotics and the development of Earth’s history (or downfall, really) are well-outlined without turning into a textbook as some of Asimov’s later writing did (I’m looking at YOU, Robots of Dawn). The use of agoraphobia as the protagonist’s strongest weakness is logically introduced and well developed. Baley is also a likable dude, as is Daneel, so it’s just a fun and engaging read all around.


Photo sessions with Alfred are super special because he wants to be in my lap/face/stomach/hand/etc at all times. @_@

Gist: About three million years in the future, mankind has stretched across the universe – and left a crippled Earth behind. The billions who live crammed together in Earth’s underground cities are looked down on in disgust by the genetically superior and wealthy Spacers. When a Spacer is murdered on Earth soil, it could mean disaster for mankind’s home planet. An Earther detective named Elijah Baley is assigned to the case, assisted by an unusually tolerant Spacer named R. Daneel Olivaw.

Bonus Trivia: I would very much like to listen to the BBC radio adaptation by Bert Coules, as he was a genius at adapting the Sherlock Holmes stories for Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs. Anyone want to toss me a copy?!

Bonus Bonus Trivia: The next book in the series, The Naked Sun, was also quite good. It introduced an adulterous relationship, though, which is a total turn off for me.

Perfect For: Ages 13+ (though the story becomes more sensual in the third book in the series, I don’t really recommend reading it anyway, for other reasons), fans of the film I, Robot, since this is in the future of that Earth.


This picture = adogable!

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Science Fiction, Mystery

Zune 80 cover came from DecalGirl.Com! I also got my Kindle skin there. They're awesometastic.

18: The Red House Mystery

Tonight was parent night, and I was at work from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. I'm all worn out!!

The Red House Mystery
A.A. Milne
Published: 1922

Why?: This is Milne’s only mystery novel (he’s most famous, of course, for the Winnie the Pooh books), and it’s a shame that he didn’t revisit the genre. While the ending suffers from something of a cliché, the writing is a lot of fun, and he has wonderful descriptions that bring on the requisite chuckles. The mystery is well-developed, and I couldn’t figure out the entire solution until the very end, which is unusual. There are signs of this book in other writing, such as P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, and it doesn’t owe as much to the Holmes stories as many mysteries of the time do (despite the characters referencing them, Milne avoids the Watsonian narrator).

Gist: The story begins in the bachelor home of Mark Ablett, with the visit of his little known and black sheep of a brother, Robert. When Robert is abruptly murdered, an unfortunate passer-by named Antony Gillingham is drawn into the mystery.

Quote: “Directly I saw him and I said to myself--” Why, you could have knocked her over with a feather. Feathers, indeed, were a perpetual menace to Audrey.

~~~
“He is an important person to this story, so that it is as well we should know something about him before letting him loose in it. Let us stop him at the top of the hill on some excuse, and have a good look at him.”

Bonus Trivia: Milne was a huge fan of mystery fiction, and wrote that he preferred amateur detectives to the growing genre of professionals and P.I.s that were developing in American fiction. His affection for the Holmes stories is pretty obvious, as the two amateur sleuths refer to themselves as Holmes and Watson more than once!

Perfect For: Milne fans who want a surprise, and mystery fans. The language is very accessible to modern readers from ages 12 and up.

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Mystery, Classic

16: The Molly Murphy Books

I successfully leant this book to my mother using Kindle’s newish lending option! Of course, it was one of only a teenie number of my Kindle books available for lending, but such is life 0_~

Mom likes to get things a year or so after I do, when they’ve been improved. So she bought her Kindle at the beginning of December and now she’s in love with the thing. Can’t say as I blame her! If anyone out there has sight problems and it’s come between you and your reading, take it from my one-eyed mother than the Kindle is a blessing (or any e-reader). You have so much more control over the size of the text that I think it’s really excellent for those whose eyes might tire or strain reading standard text size in paper books.

Murphy’s Law
Rhys Bowen
Published: 2001

Why?: Bowen is an author would a good sense of humor, and she also writes engagingly spunky female characters who invariably get themselves into trouble! This is the first book in her Molly Murphy series, and she does an excellent job both in making a likable character and immersing the reader into the world of New York around 1910. It’s the details that make this book so real: prices, ways of living, and the Irish society of NYC in this time period are woven neatly into the narrative.

(On a purely biased level, it's a little disappointing that the romance of the series had to be introduced first thing, and it gets a bit annoying around book three, but it smooths out later).

Molly is also a lot of fun, polite and yet sassy, outgoing but uncertain. Her natural curiosity gets her into plenty of trouble, but she has the brains to get herself out of it most of the time. The mystery is deft enough for interest, written in the classic style that is more about snooping around than the gore and science of death and murder. The story is quite reminiscent of British mysteries along the lines of Agatha Christie, but the American location gives it its own flavor and feel.

Gist: Molly Murphy has made a mistake: defending herself from a nobleman. She finds herself on the run, and circumstances bring her to America. While at Ellis Island, she becomes the inadvertent witness to a murder that will change her life as much as immigrating did.

Perfect For: Ages 13+

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Mystery, Drama, History

06: The 19th Wife

The play opened last night, and even for a one-scene character, it's a long time and a lot of work! Hopefully I can get some pics...but we have a matinee and an evening performance, so who knows?! Hey hey hey, looks like I made a few!

The 19th Wife
Avid Eberschoff
Published: 2009

Why?: My friend Brenda (she’s like a friend-in-law, because she’s my mother’s best friend and I claim her too!) lent us a pile of books because she knows the way to our hearts. Out of the pile, this is the one that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The two stories meld together seamlessly, and the parallels between a modern gay man and a 19th century polygamist bride are drawn without preaching or shoving it down your throat. This is an engrossing novel both in the modern day murder mystery and the fictionalization of a real woman of the past.



Gist: The 19th Wife follows two storylines: the first is about a Lost Boy – a boy kicked out of polygamist sects, apparently to lower the competition for young brides. Now a young man on the streets, Jordan Scott finds out that his mother has been arrested for the murder of his father. Deftly intertwined with this modern-day narrative is the story of Anne Eliza Young, revealed through everything from Wikipedia entries to diary excerpts.

Bonus Trivia: This book was turned into a movie by Lifetime TV, but I haven’t seen it.

Perfect For: Ages 17+




Yes, Bob's tongue is sticking out. This could be because I interrupted his reading, or it COULD be that he wanders around like this all the time.

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Drama, History, Mystery

03: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Mark Haddon
Published: 2003

Personal Story: I read this novel more or less by accident. I was staying at my aunt’s house for a visit and, in classic fashion, everyone was asleep in the house while I was wide awake. I’d finished the book I’d brought along, and so I went surreptitiously poking around in the bedroom bookcase. Most of what is stored in that room is my uncle’s collection of religious texts, and I was in the mood for a novel. Propped unassumingly on top was a little orange book – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. As a well-established Sherlock Holmes nerd, the title caught my eye and I curled up in bed with it.


The title comes from the Holmes short story "Silver Blaze," though it's often incorrectly attributed to The Hound of the Baskervilles.


Actually, it turned out the book didn’t belong to my aunt and uncle – it belonged to a college student who sometimes stayed with them. Whoops!

This book dragged me in on the first page. Simply written, yet layered with meaning not clear to the narrator himself, it is a beautifully written “mystery” that I couldn’t put down until it was about time for everyone else to get up!

Gist: Christopher Boone knows all the prime numbers to 7,057. He likes dogs, but doesn’t understand the emotional ups and downs of people. He is autistic, a mathematical savant who can’t stand to be touched and sometimes has to escape into a world of white noise to escape the overwhelming information that comes at him in everyday life. When he finds that the neighbor’s dog has been brutally murdered, he determines to take on the case, unknowing that it will change his life forever.

While it’s extremely unlikely that any truly autistic child could sit down and write this novel, this is nevertheless a fascinating look into the special minds of autistic individuals. Told with empathy and understanding, as well as humor, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time helps us to understand that autism makes a person different, but not “stupid” or deserving only of pity. Haddon worked with autistic children in his youth, and his respect and affection for them shines through in this book.



Please forgive the blurry pictures. It's so blasted humid outside that I can't keep my lens from fogging over. -_- We'll pretend I purposefully went for the classic ST:TOS soft focus, yes?

A Bit of Trivia: There is a film adaptation in the works, but this is one of many books I adore but, because of the importance of the narration, I don’t think it could be nearly as effective as a movie.

Perfect For: Ages 15+, younger for more empathetic teens


Don't let Alfred fool you. He's generally much, MUCH too hyper to settle down and read a book. Sigh.

Genres: Fiction, Novel
Keywords: Drama, Mystery