Reviews

Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and Patricia Wentworth: Anna, Where Are You? (also known as Death at Deep End)

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sweetnessatthebottomofpieSince I grew up in a place filled with rambling old houses that had decaying and mysterious corners, and this place (Mackinac Island) is also filled with the various kinds of enchanted, woodsy paths and clearings that are found in many an English detective novel, these books have never felt a bit foreign to me. Classic British detective stories, set in rambling old houses apart from the rest of the world, feel like reading about home. As Flavia, the heroine in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, thinks as she looks out into her family’s garden early one morning: “Sparkling dew lay upon everything, and I should not have been at all surprised if a unicorn had stepped from behind a rose bush and laid its head in my lap.” Of course into this heaven a dead body is usually discovered, but somehow the enchanted spell is still difficult to break. read more

Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Lady Audley’s Secret

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ladyaudleyssecretAll I can say is – delicious. Mary Elizabeth Braddon was disdained by her contemporaries as a sensationalist – but she was lapped up and read by the public. Today’s public should find her tale of the devious and complicated Lady Audley no less fascinating. In true Victorian fashion, this is a novel rife with coincidence and conspiracy, and with the fiendish but seemingly angelic Lady Audley at its center, the story is one you may not be able to put down. It opens with the proposal of Lord Audley to his neighbor’s governess – she agrees, telling him that it exceeds her wildest dreams – and thus the tale begins. read more

Margery Allingham: Sweet Danger

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sweetdangerMargery Allingham is one of the authors I think of as the “Big Five” – Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey being the other four – and of the five, she is easily the most original and eccentric, Sweet Danger being a case in point. Like contemporary writer Christopher Fowler, Allingham was hewing to a traditional detective storytelling mode while at the same time pushing and twisting all the boundaries as far as she could, and few of her books show this effort more beautifully than Sweet Danger. read more

Elizabeth George: Careless in Red and Agatha Christie: Hallowe’en Party

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carelessinredTwo of my favorite crime writers across the spectrum of time are Agatha Christie (we even named our store after her) and Elizabeth George. I feel my juvenile reading tastes were formed by Agatha – I had finished all of her available books half way through high school, and my adult tastes have been formed by George, an author I discovered after I opened the store. Business our first winter wasn’t so brisk and so many customers had told me how great George was that I began to read one after the other. I think like many readers of contemporary crime fiction, reading A Great Deliverance, George’s first novel, remains a signature experience. Now I await the publication of a new Lynley novel with great anticipation. It’s no secret that many of her fans found her last book (which I thought was spectacular) heavy going. Titled What Came Before He Shot Her, it’s the explication of the life of the boy that shot and killed Lynley’s beloved wife, Lady Helen Clyde. Many more readers have been eagerly awaiting Lynley’s return, an appearance he finally makes in Careless in Red. This is a late in the series book – a series George has kept fresh by various methods, one of them being her last daring novel. This one is more a return to form. read more

Agatha Christie: The Boomerang Clue (also known as Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?)

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Reviewing several contemporary cozies at the same time led me back to the original “cozy” writer, Agatha herself, whose novels and characters have proved an inspiration for generations of writers to follow.  This one, published in 1933, is an especially crisp and clever stand alone, a pleasure to read as well as delivering a memorable story. It opens with young Robert “Bobby” Jones coming across a man who has fallen over a cliff – (or has he?) – and he sits with the man while his companion goes for help.  He’s with the unknown man as he takes his last breath, and as he utters his final phrase, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?”  Bobby feels he’s done his duty after testifying at the inquest, though he’s unsettled by the sister and brother who turn up to identify the man’s body.  They feel “off” to him. read more

Sheila Connolly: Monument to the Dead

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Sheila Connelly is one of the Energizer bunnies of the cozy universe, writing three series as well as a couple stand alones.  She’s one of our best selling authors.  Each series ties to an actual passion or interest of hers – this one is centers on the head of an historical museum in Philadelphia, Nell Pratt, a former fundraiser who is now in charge of things.  Since many of our customers and many mystery readers are academics and/or librarians, this particular series should have serious appeal. read more

Denise Swanson: Murder of a Stacked Librarian

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This is the book Swanson fans have been waiting for – for fifteen books now, Swanson has resisted matching up her wonderful creation of Skye Dennison with a particular man.  In this one (spoiler alert) Skye and Wally are finally getting ready to walk down the aisle.  If you are a Facebook fan of Swanson or have read all the books, this won’t come as a surprise.  Swanson has always been an interactive author, arriving at her very first signing at our store with her mother in tow and giving the entire audience a personality test.  For this novel, she posted photos of possible wedding gown, shoe, cake and flower choices online. read more

G.M. Malliet: Pagan Spring

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I enjoyed the first two books in this series featuring vicar Max Tudor very much.  The first, Wicked Autumn, was a pitch perfect tongue in cheek send up of a British Village mystery; the second, Fatal Winter, adjusted the tone somewhat so that the book read slightly darker than the first.  In this third novel, just like Goldilocks on her third try, Malliet seems to have gotten things “just right.”

paganspringShe’s set her cast of characters in the village of Nether Monkslip, and much like the characters in Louise Penny’s beloved Three Pines novels, each character is distinct, though none are as interesting to the reader (and I think, to the author) as the central character of Max, the dishy vicar who resembles Hugh Grant and who used to be an agent for the MI5.  Max has lately taken up with the village’s resident pagan goddess, Awena, who if anything is even more secure in her belief system than Max himself.  In any case Awena is off canvas for much of this novel, though she’s never far from Max’s thoughts, as he goes through life in a newly happy daze. read more

Anna Lee Huber: The Anatomist’s Wife

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Like Tasha Alexander’s debut (And Only to Deceive), Anna Lee Huber’s novel has a unique and memorable premise.  Young, widowed Lady Darby is staying with her sister and her husband at their castle in Scotland.  She’s recovering not from the loss of her husband, but from the slings and arrows thrown her way by disapproving members of high society.  Lady Darby was married, as the title suggests, to an anatomist, and being a skilled painter it’s thought (but not proven) that she did the drawings for his anatomy guide.  In 1830 or thereabouts, that was a scandal of the highest order.  There’s more to the story but I don’t want to give away details that Huber has been at pains to tease out throughout the story. read more

D.E. Johnson: Detroit Shuffle

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D.E. Johnson’s fourth novel in his dark chronicle of 1912 Detroit and the frequently unlucky life of protagonist Will Anderson is also a look at the Women’s Suffrage movement.  These novels are tight and move quickly, with lots of action sequences – this has a notable section set in an actual salt mine – that keep the pages flying even if, as I do, you frequently feel squeamish about what’s happening to Will.

detroitshuffleIn the last novel, Detroit Breakdown, Will went undercover in the giant Eloise mental hospital where his girlfriend’s brother was a resident.  This has left him with some residual issues, and it’s left his girlfriend, Elizabeth, not only with a mother who has dementia at home but her brother Robert and his friend Francis, both of whom seem to suffer from, at the very least, some form of Asperger’s. read more