The People From the Sea by Velda Johnston

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Diana Garson had liked the shabby old farmhouse from the moment she crossed its threshold.  The atmosphere seemed friendly and homelike, almost as if it were welcoming her.  David Conway, her friend and neighbor in Manhattan, had heard about the house and persuaded her to rent it for the summer.  Here, in this quiet place on the Long Island shore, she hoped to recover from the emotional blows that had brought her to the brink of a breakdown.   And for a while she did find a soothing peace.  But she also encountered the people from the sea.

Whether they were real in any sense of "real," Diana did not know.  Only one thing we certain:  the evil in which she became enmeshed because of them was very real, as real as the hands that wrapped themselves around her throat one fog-shrouded afternoon on the beach.

There are the moments when you need a certain type of book to get you out of a mood or reading pattern that developed without you knowing it.  Somehow, and I don't really mind it, I've found myself reading a lot of nonfiction lately.  After about the 4th one in a row, I needed something to refresh my palate.  Like most of you, I have hugs stacks of unread books just sitting around waiting for me to pick one of them up.  On a whim, I picked up The People Form the Sea, and a little over 4 hours later, I was turning the last page.

When Diana is talked into renting the seaside cottage, she thinks she's finally in a space she can heal in.  Newly divorced, Diana has been floundering a bit, not sure of what she wanted or where she was heading.  She thinks she is starting to fall for David, but is a little unsure of his intentions.  She is at a turning point in her life, she just has no clue which road to take.

From the moment she is left alone in the cottage, she feels at home and safe, a feeling she hasn't had in a long time.  As she settles in, she finds an old photo album, and quickly gets enmeshed in the lives of the family that used to own the cottage.  A mother and her two grown children, were brutally murdered on board their yacht.  The scars of that tragedy lay deep on the small coastal town, scars that Diana feels she needs to start poling at.

She has seen all three of them in the cottage.  She has danced with the son, and listened as the daughter played the piano late into the night.  She isn't sure if what she is seeing is real, but it's changing her, and not always for the better.  What starts off as a question here and there around town, quickly turns into a full blown investigation into what happened on the boat.  It's a search that will threaten Diana's life, her future with David, and the tranquility of a town she has grown to love.

Following Atticus by Tom Ryan

Part Of The Synopsis From Back Cover:

After a close friend died of cancer, middle-aged, overweight, acrophobic newspaperman Tom Ryan decided to pay tribute to her in a most unorthodox manner.  Ryan and his friend, Atticus M. Finch, would attempt to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire's four-thousand-foot peaks twice in one winter while raising money for charity.  It was an adventure of a lifetime, leading them across hundreds of miles and deep into an enchanting but dangerous winter wonderland.  At the heart of the amazing journey was the extraordinary relationship they shared, one that blurred the line between man and dog.

I'm the kind of guy who still cries when I watch Old Yeller.  For that matter, Nestor, The Long Eared Christmas Donkey has me in tears every time I watch it.  I even cried when they went deer hunting on Silver Spoons.  Let's just say I'm a sucker for animals.  So stick a cute dog on a cover, and I'm going to agree to anything you say, just so I can read the book.

Because of the adorable Atticus M. Finch on the cover, it was almost a sure bet that I was going to enjoy the book.  What wasn't a given, was whether or not I was going to enjoy the voice used to tell the story.  As much as I love dogs, I tend to not enjoy books written by journalists that feature their own lives as the subject material. I understand that you have to have a bit of an ego to write a book about yourself, but for some reason, journalists seem to revel in their own self importance.  In the case of one book I reviewed earlier this year, the journalist in question was so self involved, I actually lost respect for him after reading the book.  So when I finally found the time to crack the book open and dive in, it was with a bit of trepidation.

At the very beginning, I was almost convinced that I wasn't going to be pleasantly surprised.  When the author talks about his paper and the roll he played in town, I was reading some of the same words as I did in the book I read earlier this year.  It was a little too self congratulatory for my taste.  So I hunkered down to delve into the world of Tom Ryan, hoping that I would get something out of what I was reading.

As I kept on reading though, I started to enjoy the time I was spending with Tom as he meandered his way across town.  The man I quickly judged, just a quickly started to surprise me.  As Tom started to talk more about himself, my brain started to change what I read as ego, into pride.  Pride for what he had built with his paper, and pride and gratitude for the story he was about to relate to his reader.  He opened himself up in ways that few of us would be willing to do.

It's when, first Max then Atticus come into his life, that Tom truly comes across on the page as a humble man who feels blessed to have had these two wonderful dogs in his life.  To my fellow dog lovers out there, you know what a wonderful blessing it is to have a canine friend share your life, both the triumphs and the setbacks.  What Tom shares with his readers as he recounts the time spent with Atticus up in the mountains isn't a travelogue or a manifesto on the joys of mountain hiking.  What I found in the pages of Following Atticus, was a story of two friends who come together and help each other heal in ways that neither could have expected in the beginning.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review the book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

The Unconquered by Scott Wallace (Giveaway Included)

Part Of The Synopsis From Back Cover:

Even today there remain tribes in the far reaches of the Amazon rainforest that have avoided contact with modern civilization.  In this gripping first-person account of adventure and survival, Scott Wallace chronicles an expedition into the Amazon's uncharted depths, discovering the rainforest's secrets while moving ever closer to a possible encounter with one such tribe - the mysterious flecheiros, or "People of the Arrow," seldom-glimpsed warriors know to repulse all intruders with showers of deadly arrows.  Danger lurks at every step as the expedition seeks out the Arrow People even while trying to avoid them.

As a kid, the idea of the Amazon River fascinated me.  I would fantasize about swimming in the water, trekking through the jungle, and playing with the jaguars and monkeys.  Let's just say I had an overly romanticized notion of what the Amazon River was all about.  As a recently turned 36 year old, part of me still has an unrealistic idea of what the Amazon River is and what it means to those who call it's many tributaries home.  So when I have the opportunity to read a book, fiction or nonfiction, that takes place on or around the river, I jump at the chance.  At my age, I want to know how my childhood dreams stacks up against the reality.

Come to find out, after all these years, my dreams have been dashed by the reality of the situation on the ground.  I'm pretty sure the point of this book was not to dissuade people from wanting to visit the river, but it's had that affect on me.  I don't want to contribute to the desecration of progressively fragile ecosystem, that seems to be under assault from all sides.  If it's not corrupt government officials, illegal loggers, gold prospectors, poachers, drug runners, or other nefarious individuals raping the land for their own uses, it's the wanton subjugation of the indigenous tribes that have called the Amazon basin home for centuries.  Sitting in my air conditioned apartment in the middle of the United States, I had no idea of the dire situation facing the Amazon and it's denizens.

Now I don't want you to get the idea that this book is a treatise on the ravages of modernization, while it may speak to that, it's really the story of a lifetime, a story that the author simply could not pass up.  When he is asked by National Geographic to accompany a mapping trip, deep in the Amazon rainforest, Scott Wallace is torn in two directions.  Part of him wants to decline in order to rebuild the personal relationships he has neglected through the years as a traveling journalist.  But it's the side of him who simply can't pass up the opportunity of a lifetime to fulfill a dream of going deep into the Amazon.

It's through the travels that he truly begins to the understand what's going on, and how important it is to protect the last few tribes who have decided they want nothing to do with the modern world.  The mission he is accompanying is one that is designed to specify the boundaries of a section of rainforest that will be set aside for the "People of the Arrow" a tribe(s) that has thus far kept itself as far from white men as they can get.  The only way the government agency and it's headstrong leader can do that is by finding out where they live and the extent of their travels.  It's a mission made even harder by the fact that they need to do all this, without making direct contact with the Indians.

This is the story of a gruelling trip that took it's toll on all those involved.  It's a history of the region and the horrors of what has been perpetuated on the tribes that have been contacted by the outside world.  It's the story of a region and it's people that seem to be stuck in this middle area of trying to protect the environment and move a country, Brazil, into the modern world.  But most of all, it's a story of the people involved.  We meet, through Mr. Wallace's eyes, the egomaniac leader of the expedition, a man I grew to dislike and admire all at the same time.  We meet the various Indian and white men who make up the traveling party, and how the changes in the region have radically altered their lifestyle and culture.  It was a story that engrossed and repelled me at the same time.  I'm not sure that's a reaction many will have, but it's the only way I can really describe my feelings after I closed the last page.  It's a story that must be told, but it's also a story that I don't see ending well for anyone involved.  Hopefully I'm wrong, only time will tell.

Now for the giveaway.  I have one copy, generously offered by the publisher, up for grabs.  If you are interested in entering, please leave a comment with your email address.  The giveaway is, I believe, only open to residents of the US.  You will have until 11:59 pm CST, on September 1st to enter.  I will use random.org to pick the winner.

A Puzzle for Fools by Patrick Quentin

When his wife dies a horrific death, Broadway producer Peter Duluth, hits the sauce and puts his once promising career on tenterhooks.  It's only when he's about to hit rock bottom that he checks into an asylum for a little rest and salvation.  When staff and patients start dying in ghastly ways, Peter is looped in by the asylum director and asked to keep his eyes and ears about him.  Someone is tyring to drive him off the case.  He is hearing voices when no one is around, objects are appearing where they shouldn't, and suspicion is starting to fall on the shoulders of a lovely young lady.  Whether is the prospect of death, or the promise of love, Peter is starting to come alive again.  Now he just has to make sure he doesn't end up dead in the process.

If you don't know that I love vintage mysteries by now, I'm afraid you haven't really paid all that much attention to me over the years.  If you are a recent newcomer to the blog, I may let you slide for now.  Despite my love affair of all things Golden Age, I've tended to focus on the female writers of the time.  I've dabbled with the men here and there, but never given them my full attention.  I wish I  could explain the reasons behind it, because when I do explore the more masculine side, I find myself loving it just as much.  I guess it's doomed to be one of the great mysteries of life.

I know I drone on and on about atmosphere and how important it is in a mystery tale, but it really is.  I'm almost to the point of saying that it's the most important aspect of a well written mystery.  A Puzzle for Fools hits the nail on the head and gives one of the creepiest setting I've had the pleasure of reading in a very long time.  I'm almost convinced that an insane asylum is the perfect setting for murder, especially one that is populated by this particular cast of characters.  Of course a sunny feeling is hard to maintain when people are being bound and slaughtered like cattle.  I'm already a huge fan of mysteries set in spooky country houses, on speeding trains or small yachts, now I'm going to have to add insane asylums to that list.  

If you couldn't figure it out by now, I really enjoyed A Puzzle for Fools.  It was one of those tales that grabbed and kept my attention from the get go.  Peter Duluth is the type of guy that I could easily fall for in the right circumstances.  He has taken a lot of hits in a short period of time, and even though he starts a slow descent to the bottom, he has the strength of will to not only admit it, but to do something about it.  Through it all he manages to keep a sense of humor that serves him well on more than one occasion.  Once things start to get a little wonky, he wakes up and realizes more is at stake than his career.  Luckily for me, this is only the first book in a series, so I'm going to get to spend more time with Peter.  I have to share him with that lovely young woman he met in the synopsis, but I'm not an overly jealous man.

Challenges:  A-Z, VM (Cherez le Homme)

The Gospel According to the Fix by Chris Cillizza (Plus Giveaway)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The political world is full of acronyms, verbal shortcuts, and lingoes that stand as a barrier to entry for anyone not in the business.  The onset of social media has only mad that barrier higher, as insiders tweet furiously to one another in a language most of us can't even understand.  Everyday Americans and even political junkies nee a hot-to manual for understanding what words matter in this arena and why.

Enter Brother Chris Cillizza and The Gospel According to the Fix - an essential guide to the wonderfully odd religion of politics.  Based on a highly popular blog, The Gospel According to the Fix will teach you something new about politics, including parables the likes of:

• Why Ron Paul's candidacy is a lot like the TV show Friday Night Lights
• What it takes to be Richard Ben Cramer and write the political classic What it Takes
• The top ten negative campaign ads of all time
• The top ten issues candidates should be discussing but aren't because of the economy
• the dos and don'ts of surviving a political sex scandal

This was one of those books that I couldn't pass up.  I'm not sure anyone who is addicted to politics in the way that I am could.  Now I'm not going to sit and pretend that I know everything or that I even given an ounce of my time to learning all there is to know on the subject.  I wish I had the time, or made a different career choice in college, but since I don't and didn't, I have to rely on pundits that I respect.  I'm a big fan of The Fix, the blog written by Chris Cillizza for The Washington Post.  Sow when I saw a book version being discussed on an MSNBC show, I knew I needed to have it.  In an act of serendipity, I had an email waiting in my inbox the next day offering it for review.  I felt like the luckiest lad on Earth.  No joke, I almost squealed like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert.

So needless to say that as soon as the book was in my possession, I dug in and rarely came up for air.  I'm one of those individuals who takes politics seriously but still sees the fun to be had by observing the whole process from a distance.  It's one of the reasons I enjoy Chris Cillizza as much as I do, his humor comes across on his blog and on TV, but it shines in this book.  I laughed out loud several times, nodded my head when I read something I agreed with, and couldn't wait to share certain sections with my other politically nerdy friends.  As a matter of fact, I now know what a lot of them are getting for Christmas.

I'm just hoping that he writes a second book sometime soon, so I have next Christmas covered as well.

Now for the giveaway.  I have one copy, generously offered by the publisher, up for grabs.  If you are interested in entering, please leave a comment with your email address.  The giveaway is, I believe, only open to residents of the US.  You will have until 11:59 pm CST, on August 27th to enter.  I will use random.org to pick the winner.

Eat the City by Robin Shulman (Giveaway Included)

Part Of The Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

New York is not a city for growing and manufacturing food.  It's a money and real estate city, with less naked earth and industry than high-rise glass and concrete.  Yet in this intimate, visceral, and beautifully written book, Robin Shulman introduces people of New York City - both paste and present - who do grow vegetables, butcher meat, fish local waters, cut and refine sugar, keep bees for honey, brew beer, and make win.  In the most heavily built urban environment in the country, she show an organic city full of intrepid and eccentric people who want to make things grow.  What's more, Shulman artfully places today's urban food production in the context of hundreds of years of history, and traces how we got to where we are.

In these pages meet Willie Morgan, a Harlem man who first grew his own vegetables in a vacant lot as a front for his gambling racket.  And David Selig, a beekeeper in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn who found his bees making a mysteriously red honey.  Get to know Yolene Joseph, who fishes crabs out of the waters off Coney Island to make curried stews for her family.  Meet the creators of the sickly sweet Manischewitz wine, whose brand grew out of Prohibition; and Jacob Ruppert, who owned a beer empire on the Upper East Side and the New York Yankees.

Eat the City is about how the ability of cities to feed peoples has changed over time.  Yet is is also, in a sens, the story of the things we long for in cities today:  closer human connections, a tangible link to more basic processes, a way to shape more rounded lives, a sense of something pure.

Naturally, most food and drink consumed by New Yorkers hundreds of years ago was grown and produced within what are now the five boroughs.  Yet people rarely realize that long after New York became a dense urban agglomeration, innovators, traditionalists, migrants, and immigrants continued to insist on producing their own food.  This book shows the perils and benefits - and the ironies and humor - when city people involve themselves in making what they eat.

There are times I like to pretend that I have not been living in the Midwest since about 1990.  Before that I moved around a lot and lived just about everywhere.  I was born on the shore of Lake Superior but have lived in Houston, the Los Angeles area, and gone to school in New Orleans.  I've lived in the country and have lived in a city for over 14 years now, of course comparing Wichita, KS to New York, NY is like comparing a dik-dik to a giraffe.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I pretend to be more worldly than I am, I like to think I know everything there is to know about living in a "big" city, but books like Eat the City prove me wrong time and again.  They show me what it means to really understand city living, and that most of us have no clue about what's going on in their streets we walk everyday.

How many of us would be comfortable with having several bee hives on the roof or our apartment building?  Would we begrudge our neighbor growing a grape vine up the back of his house?  Would we complain if the vacant lot down the street was taken over by our neighbors who want to grow their own vegetables?  Or would be celebrate the fact that even amongst the miles of pavement and high rises, some of our fellow city dwellers are working with their own hands to produce the food for their kitchen table.  That they are rethinking how our food is produced and deciding that maybe the old days were better for us.  Maybe it's a great idea for those of us who live in urban setting to rethink what we've been doing and allow ourselves to fully appreciate what food means to our culture and our heritage.

Now I'm not saying I'm going to start keeping bees or growing my own tomatoes out on the balcony.  I don't have the space or the time.  That and the was summers have been going, I'm not sure how long those plants would even stay alive.  But I am curious to find out what, if any, local food is being produced in the city of Wichita.  Robin Shulman in her examination of New York and it's history of food production has made me want to know about what took place in and around Wichita over the last 100 years.  I want to know about our past cattle and dairy industry, signs of which can still be found today in and around downtown.  I'm curious to know how many bootleggers roamed the city of Wichita during Prohibition.  I want to know the fishing history of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers as they flow through the city of Wichita, waters of which I would not being eating out of today.  Robin Shulman has not only given me a glimpse of New York, it's history and it's present, but she has given me the desire to know more about my own city and how food has and continues to impact the people of Wichita.

The wonderful people at Crown have allowed me to give one copy of this book away to one lucky winner.  The giveaway is only open to the US and will run until 11:59 pm CST, on August 21st, 2012.  To enter, please leave comment about food.  Is there a local speciality that you love.  Or do you have a memory of your childhood centered around a garden?  Whatever it is, I would love to hear about it.  You also need to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.  I will use random.org to pick the winner.

The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

A corpse - somewhat charred around the edges - has been discovered in the linen closet of the Spencers' fabulous Maine retreat.  No one has a clue as to who she is or how she got there.  Certainly not Carol Spencer; who has arrived to open her isolated family house for the summer.

Unfortunately, Carol seems to be the prime suspect judging from the questions the police are asking.  She has one advantage over the police:  she knows she didn't do it.  But now the servants have disappeared, all the telephones have been removed, and, as night rapidly falls, a dangerous killer is closer than she thinks....

So this makes my eighth Mary Roberts Rinehart review for the year, with two more books finished and waiting their turn.  Add in the eight from last year, and this will be the sixteenth review.  So that makes eighteen of her books I've read in a very short period of time.  This is the first time I've stopped to think about how many of her books I've read.  I guess the obvious point is that I really like her writing.

Nothing changes with The Yellow Room, actually I think my fondness for her has only grown by leaps and bounds with this one.  This was one of the most enjoyable books of hers yet, and considering how much fun I've been having, that says something.  Everything was perfect; from the setting, to the characters, to the crime itself.  Carol is the quintessential Rinehart heroine.  She is wealthy, pretty, but above all else, intelligent.  She uses her brains, and in this case her own investigative skills, to her advantage.  Now that's not to say that she does all the work on her own, far from it.  Like most of Rinehart's heroines, Carol is more of an asset for the male protagonist, the love interest if you will.  This time around she gets out and helps in the field, but it's the male hero that saves the day.  I don't want to sell Carol, or her contemporaries short, though.  It's often their eyes and memories that make all the difference.  Without her, the male hero wouldn't have a chance of solving the case.

But what I love the most about this book, and every Rinehart book I've ever read, is the setting.  She is able to create a world, that no matter how big, always feels small and claustrophobic.  It's the one skill of hers that I admire more than any other.  For me, the setting is almost more important than anything else.  If the story being told doesn't fit within the world the author created, I can never buy into.  If I can't imagine myself there, in the locale, I can't enjoy what I'm reading.  If the atmosphere, especially in a mystery, surrounding the characters doesn't raise goosebumps on my arm, I feel let down.  Luckily, Rinehart has not yet failed to do just that.

Challenges:  VM (Occupational Hazards)

The Twilight War by David Crist

Part Of The Synopsis From The Dust Jacket:

For three decades, the United States and Iran have engaged in a secret war.  It is a conflict that has never been acknowledged and a story that has never been told.

This surreptitious war began with the Iranian Revolution and simmers today inside Iraq and in the Persian Gulf.  Fights rage in the shadows between the CIA and it's network of spies and Iran's intelligence agency.  Battles are fought at sea with Iranians in small speedboats attacking Western oil tankers.  This conflict has frustrated five American presidents, divided administrations, and repeatedly threatened to bring the two nations into open warfare.  It is a story of shocking miscalculations, bitter debates, hidden casualties, boldness, and betrayal.

I dare anyone to walk into a mall, stop 10 people, and ask them the capital of Iran.  You may even ask them to point to Iran on a map.   I would be surprised if more than two people were able to do either thing.  Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if none of them could.  Think it's just a problem with Iran.  Do the same thing for Syria, Egypt, or for that matter Germany.  You will more than likely get the same results.  The idea of most Americans not being able to answer those questions, scares the hell out of me.

I'm not going to sit here and say that the present day is any more dangerous than those that have came before them.  I think human civilization has always lived on the brink of self annihilation, but we are living in a world that makes that outcome a lot easier to accomplish, and in less time.  I think at a minimum, we should at least know the players in the game and the history behind the present circumstances.  Wanting to grow my base of understanding is the whole reason I chose to read/review this book.  Our history with Iran is one that I know very little about, and I wanted a resource that could put our relationship into context.

Now I'm not going to say that The Twilight War is for the casual reader, because it's not.  At times, I felt as if I was back in school reading a well written text book.  It's a dense tome, full of dates, names, and events.  Granted, those dates, names, and events are the meat of the book and could not be left out.  With them, Crist paints a broad and concise picture of our relationship with Iran since the Carter administration.  He chronicles our failures and our successes with a country that most Americans don't understand, but should know more about.  It's one of those books that everyone, who is wanting to get a better understanding on the Middle East, should read.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review the book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino (Giveaway Too!)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

When the nanny to the young Darrow boys is found mysteriously murdered on the outskirts of the village of Blackfield, Charlotte Markham, the recently hired governess, steps in to take over their care.  During an outing in the forest, they find themselves crossing over into The Ending, "the place for the Things Above Death," where Lily Darrow, the late mother of the children, has been waiting.  She invites them into the House of Darkling, a wondrous place filled with enchantment, mystery, and strange creatures that appear to be, but are not quite, human.

However, everything comes with a price, and as Charlotte begins to understand the unspeakable bargain Mrs. Darrow has made for a second chance at motherhood, she uncovers a connection to the sinister occurrences in Blackfield and enters into a deadly game with the  master of Darkling - one whose outcome will determine the fate of not just the Darrows but the world itself.

I have never thought about reading a slightly lighter Lovecraftian tale told within the confines of a Victorian  Gothic novel.  It's not something that I even considered before, but now that I've read it, I'm slightly confused as to the reason why nobody thought of doing this before.  Now when I say Victorian and Gothic, I'm still speaking of terms of being slightly lighter.  None of the thematic elements really dominate the structure of the novel.  Instead it's like the author used them as the basic outline of the structure, then filled those lines in with something else.  What that something else is, I'm still not sure I have a word for it.

Now despite my apparent confusion, I'm here to tell you that I actually really enjoyed this one.  Sadly, I can't really tell you the reason though.  There are sometimes, no matter how much you think about or analyze something, you can't really explain your reaction to it.  I know I liked it.  I know I enjoyed getting to know The Ending and those that dwelled inside.  I know I loved the way those denizens were structured after some of Lovecraft's well know Elder Beings.  I even liked the civil war the author forced them to fight.  I never thought of the Elder Beings as being political or of having schisms amongst themselves.  I also thought of them as monstrous beings bent on ending the world as we know it.  The author took the world of Lovecraft and made it more human, something I didn't think I would like until I read it.

I think the only thing that would have made this book stronger, at least for me, is that I would have liked to see the "romantic" elements be a bit stronger.  I guess I can't really enjoy a good Gothic novel without there being a strong romantic element.  The main "romance" was between Charlotte and Mr. Darrow.  It was never a relationship I ever bought into or liked, and it always felt as if it existed in her head more than anything else.  It was a bit too forced for my taste, and because of the direction the book took, it was doomed before it left the ground.  Similarly the minor romantic liaisons never felt all that explored and the one I liked the most was barely touched upon.  One one of their trips to Darkling, the oldest Darrow boy is introduced to a young man who belongs to a race of creatures that inhabit the world.  The particular family takes a human visage, and the two hit it off.  It's obvious from the get go that there is something between them from the start.  Of all the relationships, it was the only one that developed a real sense of affection, though it was only shown a few times towards the end.

I was going to ramble on about the causes behind the civil war, the landscape that Mr. Darrow and Charlotte traveled through on their last foray into the world, and the way Death is introduced; but I won't.  All these elements are interconnected and I think it best that a reader discover them on their own.  I was even going to touch upon the idea of a parent striking the deal that Lily Darrow made in order to see her children once again.  But her character and her motivations are, once again, best left to the reader to explore themselves.  What I will say is that whether you end up enjoying the book or not, Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling will be more than worth the time.

Now onto the giveaway.  One lucky reader will win the book for themselves, though that reader must reside in the United States or Canada.  All you need to do is leave a comment letting me in on a secret.  I want to know about a book that you liked, but can't really explain why.  You also need to leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.  The giveaway will run until 11:59 pm CST on Monday, August 13th.

The Seance by John Harwood

Part Of The Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance's sister,  the child she lost.  Constance takes her to a seance:  perhaps she will find comfort form beyond the grave.  But the meeting has tragic consequences.  Constance is left alone, her only legacy a bequest that will blight her life.

For Constance's bequest comes in two parts:  a house and a mystery.  Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation.  Now the Hall belongs to Constance.  And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life.

I can't remember who's review I first saw that made me want to read this book.  All I know is that after reading that review, I knew I had to give it a go.  Of course I think it helped that I was on a Gothic fix at the time, so it sounded even better.  So to whomever you are, I thank you for reviewing this book and convincing me that I needed to read it.

It's going to be rather hard for me to say anything about the book without giving away plot points that need to be discovered on your own, but I do want to say how much I appreciated the author's ability to craft a tightly woven story, saturated in fear.  Every single character lives in a constant state of fear.  They are scared to live, scared to die, scared of what's around the corner, scared of being discovered; it's a wonder any of the characters are able to function.  What I loved though was that fear never overwhelmed me as a reader, it didn't bog down the book.  It allowed just the right amount of emotion to seep off the page and get me emotionally involved with what was going on.

Now I'm not saying this was a perfect book, because I did have a few issues with characterization, but nothing that detracted from the overall story.  It was a nice Gothic break form all the vintage mysteries I've been reading.

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Barcelona, 1957.  It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate.  They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermin Romero de Torres is about to wed.  But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city's dark past.  His appearance plunges Fermin and Daniel into dangerous adventures that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco's dictatorship.  The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

There are certain authors I always hear about.  Everyone I know seems to love their writing, rave about the characters they create, and worship the creative mind behind it all.  For whatever reason, those are the authors I tend to stay away from, at least for a little bit.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's that part of me that insists I can't like something, if everyone else does.  Everyone who knows me, personally, teases me about it.  I don't see it that way.  I see it as having different tastes than everyone else.  So when I kept on hearing how great Carlos Ruiz Zafon is, I found myself not paying a ton of attention.

His first book, The Shadow of the Wind, sounded like something I might like.  But I wasn't in a big hurry to find out.  I figured I would let the dust settle for a while, then find out for myself if this was something worth reading.  Then when the second book, The Angel's Game, I put both of them out of contention for my attention.  Now if I had been offered a chance to review either one of those books, I may have been more inclined to find out what everyone else was talking about.  That's how I ended up reading his third book, The Prisoner of Heaven.  I was willing to give it a go, if I didn't have to put much effort into getting my hands on it.
     
I'm going to admit that even after I got the book in the mail, I wasn't feeling that burning desire to open it.  I actually had to force myself to sit down and start reading.  And while I'm being honest here, I have something else I need to admit.  For most of the book, I really didn't get what everyone else was talking about.  I wasn't seeing the second coming of (insert your favorite author).  That doesn't mean I wasn't liking what I was reading, I just wasn't getting the hype.  It was okay, but it wasn't rising to the level I was expecting after all the glowing reviews I read after the first two books came out.  I really enjoyed getting to know Daniel and Fermin, who by the way is a great character.  I was drawn into the story and even found myself wanting to know what happened next.  Even after all that, I wasn't in a huge hurry to read the two previous books.  While I may have liked Daniel and Fermin, I wasn't chomping at the bit to read any more.
   
Then right around the last 30 pages, my internal attitude started to change.  I found myself buying into the Kool-Aid a bit more.  I was starting to understand what everyone else was talking about.  I began to appreciate the subtleties of the author's style and world building.  I'm not at the same level everyone else I know is at, but I'm now at the point where I want to read the first two books.  I want to, for myself, discover what everyone else is raving about.  After reading Prisoner of Heaven, I'm now convinced that I have some great reading ahead of me.
   
I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

The Absolutist by John Boyne

Synopsis From Book Flap:

It is September 1919:  twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the Great War.

But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's  visit.  He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it.  As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France.  The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery but also confusion and unbearable pain.

There aren't a lot of books that can break my heart.  No matter how much I'm able to connect with the characters or find myself lost in the action, I don't make a habit of emotionally investing myself on such a visceral level.  It's not something I make a conscience decision on, I just read so much that if I allowed myself to put my emotions into every book I read, I would be a basket case.  But every once in a while, I can't help myself.  I allow myself to fully invest in what I'm reading.  I get so involved in the character's lives that I'm not able to keep those walls up.  The Absolutist, is one of those cases.

I've been trying to figure out what I can say about this book, without giving way too much away, but get everyone who reads this to read the book for themselves.  I know one of the central themes of this book is how war can change and solidify personal beliefs and what those beliefs can lead too.  This book, in stark terms, examines what can happen when certain beliefs run in the face of what is expected of a soldier in battle.  I may not be wording this right, but I think it's a pretty important idea to explore in the face of what's been going on over the last 11 years.

It's the more personal face of the story that moved me the most though.  More than anything else, this is a story about Tristan and Will.  Granted it's told through the eyes of Tristan, but I think he gives a pretty accurate account of the events that lead up to that unbearable pain mentioned in the synopsis.  I don't think he pulls any punches or makes any excuses for his actions, though it may have been nice to have had Will's reasoning for his own behavior towards Tristan and for his final act that sets the course for the rest of the book.

I can pretty much tell you in one word the motivating factor for most of what happens, fear.  Fear of the unknown, but more importantly, fear of self.  It's the fear of allowing yourself to be who and what you are, that sets everything else into motion.  Neither one of these men can fully accept or deal with what they are feeling or what they did as a result.  It's the waste of life, both physical and emotional, that moved me in a way few books can manage.  It's what happens to both these men as a result of fear that broke my heart and forced me to think of the what might have beens in my own life.  It's not a reaction I want to have from every book I read, but when it does happen, I'm grateful for it.

Let The Devil Sleep by John Verdon (Giveaway Included)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The most decorated detective in NYPD history, Dave Gurney is still trying to adjust to life of quasi-retirement in upstate New York when a young woman who is producing a documentary on a notorious murder spree seeks his counsel.  Soon after, Gurney begins feeling threatened; a razor-sharp hunting arrow lands in his yard, and he narrowly escaped serious injury in a booby-trapped basement.  As things grow more bizarre, he finds himself reexamining the Case of the Good Shepherd, which ten years before involved a series of roadside shootings and a rage-against-the-rich manifesto.  The killings ceased, and a cult of analysis grew up around the case with a consensus opinion that no one would dream of challenging - no one, that is, but Dave Gurney.

Mocked even by some who have been allies in previous investigations, Gurney realizes that the killer is too clever to ever be found.  The only gambit that may make sense is also the most dangerous - to make himself a target and get the killer to come to him.

To be perfectly honest with everyone, while I love mysteries, I'm not normally a huge fan of thrillers.  There have been a few over the last few years that grabbed and held my attention, but none refused to let me go once I got started on them.  Let the Devil Sleep is the first thriller that I didn't want to put down, and if it weren't for that fact I'm getting old and tire easily, I would have stayed up all night reading.

I was sucked in from the very beginning, and I'm not even sure I can truly say the whys of it.  I wish I could tell you what made this book so much better than the other thrillers I've read in the past.  If I had to make a guess, and a weak one at that, I would have to pick the fact that I loved the characters.  For me, there wasn't a weak one in the bunch.  Dave Gurney has to be one of the most interesting male protagonists that I've read in a thriller, since most of what I've read stars female leads, I'm not sure that really means anything though.  I found him to be compelling and someone I couldn't take my attention away from.  I haven't read the other books in the series, but he seems to be a character that has a lot of history and depth to him.  All of which has shaped who he is and how he reacts to situations.  He is joining a group of strong male leads that I'm discovering this year.  Now I just need to get caught up on the series.

I would like to thank Lisa of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

To enter the giveaway please leave a comment letting me know of another strong male lead you have come across lately.  You will also need to include your email in order to contact you if you are the winner.  The giveaway is open to residents of US/Canada only.  The giveaway will run until 11:59 pm CST on Tues. Aug. 7th.  Winner will be chosen by random.org.  I will contact the winner will have 48 hours to get back to me or another winner will be chosen.

The Album by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

For years the five families on exclusive Crescent Place had lived in peaceful seclusion.  The Halls, the Lancasters, the Talbots, the Wellingtons, and the Daltons thought they knew each other as well as they knew their own families.  But they were wrong - dead wrong -  as they were about to discover when old Mrs. Lancaster was found in her bed, brutally killed with an axe.

It could have been any one of them.  In fact, as the array of suspects and motives multiplied, it began to seem to young Louisa Hall that the only person she could be sure of was herself - especially when the killer struck again... and again.  Louisa wasn't much on detective work, but she did happen to pick up on a few things that the police had missed.  It was all a matter of knowing where to look, and developing a picture of murder....

I'm trying really hard not to giggle to myself while I'm writing this review.  For some strange reason I enjoy listening to Christmas music when it's extremely hot outside.  It seems to take my mind of the fact that if I step outside, I'll melt into a puddle.  Not something I would really look forward too.  So juxtapose the idea of writing a review for a book where not one murder, but 4 murders take place; all the while Dean Martin and Perry Como are singing some of my favorite Christmas songs.  Not sure if any of you guys care about that, but it was making me chuckle to myself, so I felt I needed to share.

Now back to the manner at hand.  Can I just say how much I love a good murder done with an axe.  There is just something so physical about taking an axe to somebody and having a go at it.  I really think if I ever go off the deep end, that's the way I'm taking somebody out.  It also seems to be a weapon that Mary Roberts Rinehart liked as well.  I think this is now the second, maybe third, book that I've read where the killer takes up an axe and chops the victims up like firewood.

Like most of her books, Rinehart gives us a sympathetic character in Louisa Hall.  It's Louisa who is giving us the narration, after the fact of course.  Louisa is the typical Rinehart heroine.  From a good family, who financial situation isn't what it used to be.  She has a sense of her place in the world, even if she doesn't quite like what it is.  She's fearless and doesn't shirk from danger or from the inevitable love interest that shows up, in this case blown out by a stove.  Now the typical Rinehart heroine doesn't really solve the crime, but she does give the clues that allows the "detective" to do the solving.

Once again, I loved the atmosphere that Rinehart builds around her characters.  Though the story takes place on a block with five large homes and a huge back lot, she is able to create an air of oppression that hangs heavy in the air.  If I can feel the heaviness of it as a reader, I can only imagine the smothering the characters would have felt.  They would have been living in fear and desperation, but their gentle manners would never allow them to admit it.  Even if I hated Rinehart's characterizations and plot developments, which I don't, her ability to develop the right environment for her characters would keep me coming back for more.

Challenges: VM (Golden Age Girls)

Murder In Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Something has terrified Louis Leidner.  In fact, she is so frightened and acting so delusional that her husband, archaeologist Dr. Eric Leidner, hires Amy Leatheran, a young nurse and the book's narrator, to look after his wife while they're on a dig in the Persian desert.  Soon Louise tells Amy that she' been receiving threatening letters from her ex-husband - who died years earlier.  The nurse assumes this is just an example of the woman's paranoia - until Louise is murdered.  Clues are few and far between, but suspects and motives abound.  It is up to Hercule Poirot to put together the pieces of this seemingly unsolvable puzzle.

I'm a sucker for mysteries that take place in locales that I'll never be able to visit.  I have serious doubts that I'll, at least anytime soon, have a chance to visit archaeological digs in the deserts of the Middle East.  So the next best thing is to delve into a juicy mystery, especially if it's from the pen of Agatha Christie.

Once again I was able to enjoy Hercule Poirot because of the narration of an intermediary, Amy Leatheran.  Amy is one of those characters that Agatha Christie was superb at creating.  She is a strong, independent woman who isn't afraid to experience something new.  I would have to admire anyone who is willing to leave their family, the only home they know, and go work half way around the world.  When she is asked to nurse a woman at a dig site, she jumps at the chance.  Where I learned to worship the ground she walked on, is the idea of seeing Poirot through her eyes.  It softens the egotism and eccentricities that Hercule is so good at displaying.  It allowed the genius he displays to seem a little more human, because she doesn't seem to take him all that seriously.  I think by the end, she respected him, but she still couldn't quite buy into the whole package of who he is.

I'm not going to go into the motives or details of the mystery itself, because that would spoil it for you, but I must say jealousy never reared it's ugly head more than in this book.  What made this book a little different from the normal Christie book though, was the setting.  Most of her books take place on a grand scale.  The books are normally set in various locations, not a single spot.  Murder in Mesopotamia for the most part takes place within a single building, which allows the tension to simmer a bit more than usual.  It allows the atmosphere to take a more prominent role, something I relish in a good mystery.

Challenges: VM (Golden Age Girls)

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

Part Of The Synopsis From Back Cover:

What's the point in solving murders if we're all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view.  There's no chance left.  No hope.  Just six precious months until impact.

The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields.  Churches and synagogues are packed.  People all over the world are walking off the job - but not Hank Palace.  He's investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week - except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

I'm not normally a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction, though I guess this could be called pre-apocalyptic.  Most of what I've read in the genre is too heavy and depressing or so far fetched that I can't take it seriously.  I think the only two I've ever really enjoyed are The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, both of which were preblogging days.  And while the premise of this book was interesting, I'm not sure that would have been enough to sell me on the idea.

I guess you could say the biggest reason I decided that this was a book I wanted, or needed, to read was the author.  After reading Bedbugs last year, I think it's safe to say I'm a huge fan of Ben H. Winters.  Now that may be a little hard to believe after reading only one book, but for those of you who have read Bedbugs, I think you will understand.  After reading The Last Policeman, I know I was right in my initial judgement and I can't wait to devour everything else this author puts out for general consumption.

I'm going to have to admit upfront that I have a slight crush on Detective Hank Palace.  He is the kind of man I would hope I could be in such circumstances.  I'm still not sure how I would react if I was told the Earth only has 6 months to live, but I would be proud to act in the way Hank does.  He, despite the fear and despair anyone would feel in such situations, understands that falling apart isn't going to do anyone a bit of good.  He realizes that people, whether they are willing to admit it or not, want those in positions of power to still do their jobs.  A police officers first duty is to protect the public, and that's what Hank is holding onto within everything in him.

When anyone else just would have assumed the unassuming accountant hanging from a rail in a McDonald's bathroom did it to himself, Detective Palace is willing to admit that things just don't look right.  There are too many signs that somethings amiss, signs that would have been obvious to everyone else if a big hunk of rock wasn't six months away from annihilating the human race.  Through careful investigation, including some genius manipulation of what he can get away with, Hank takes it upon himself to figure out why someone wanted this man dead.

This is the beginning of a trilogy, so I'm rather excited to see what happens next.  It will be interesting to see Hank as the asteroid gets closer to ending everything he knows.  There was some action centered around his sister and a possible plot she is involved with, so that will be something to look forward to in the next book.  Of course, and I'm rather hoping for it, the next book could take place after the asteroid hits and the human race has been thrown into it's final death spasms.

Darkness All Around by Doug Magee (Plus Giveaway)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Within the span of one harrowing week, Risa's alcoholic husband, Sean, disappears, and her best friend, Carol, is brutally murdered.  Eleven years later, Risa has seemingly put her life back together again, comforted by the love of her new husband, who is a local politician, and the knowledge that Carol's killer has been convicted.  But then just as suddenly as he had disappeared, Sean resurfaces - sober, plagued by horrific recollections of Carol's murder, and convinced he was the real killer.

Sean's startling claim buzzes through their small Pennsylvania community, and Risa is left to wonder if the man she still loves actually committed the grisly murder.  Her growing belief in his innocence sends her on a treacherous search for the truth:  a search that reveals ugly secrets that her hew husband and the town's law enforcement community are hiding.

When I was offered this book for review, I almost passed on it.  I had read and reviewed the author's last book, Never Wave Goodbye, and I wasn't in love with it.  I enjoyed it, but wasn't sure I liked it enough to give the author another look.  To make the decision even harder was the fact that I had just given up on a book from an author I had given a second chance too.  I wasn't really open to the idea of doing it again.  For whatever reason, I ignored my doubts and jumped right in.

Every issue I had with Never Wave Goodbye, seemed to disappear in Darkness All Around.  The narrative was tighter and more cohesive.  The characters, because there were fewer of them, seemed to be solider this time around.  I was able to emotionally invest in Sean and Risa.  I wanted and was able to root for them.  I wanted them to be able to put the past behind them and carry on with their lives.  I wanted them to work out why Sean thought he was the one who killed Carol.  I went along for the ride, and I loved every moment of it.

Now I can't say that I was on pins and needles the entire book, but I do think that the author was able to build a tension that ebbed and flowed naturally.  None of the action felt forced or driven too hard.  It was a ride that would make me short of breath for a bit, then allow me to relax and get comfortable before giving me another adrenaline high.  It was a solid addition to the suspense genre, and I'm looking forward to the author's next contribution.

I would like to thank Lisa of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

The giveaway will run until 11:59 pm CST on July 24th.  The giveaway is open to US residents only.  Entering is easy, just leave a comment with your email address.  I will us random.org to select the winner who will have 48 hours to respond to my email.

Twilight of the Elites by Christopher Hayes (Giveaway Included)

Part Of The Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another - from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball - imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence.  In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and the elites lie in tatters.

How did we get here?  With Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer.  Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top.  Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite - one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.

I'm a humble book blogger who happens to be addicted to politics and public policy almost as much as I am to reading.  I will never claim to be a policy wonk or to know everything there is to know about the way our government works, but I think I stay abreast more than most.  I wish I had the time or made a different career choice when I was in college, but I learn what I can, pay attention to what is being debated, and really try to analyze the way I think about a given topic or situation.  Now being a life long reader, you would think that I would be reading a ton of books on public policy, political history, and maybe a civics text book or two.  That would make sense, but it really doesn't reflect the reality of my reading habits.

Since I was a kid, reading has been an escape from the everyday world, something that politics and policy are a huge part of.  It's only been within the last few years that I've become interested in combining my two interests.  It's a combination that has allowed me to further develop my personal beliefs and has shaped the way I analyze the information that seems to be pouring in 24/7.  But when I add in blogging/reviewing into that mix, I fell myself doubting my choices.  After reading Twilight of the Elites, I'm left with some serious qualms.

There are times I like to think I'm smarter than I am, that I know more than those around me.  When I read a book like Twilight of the Elites, I realize that my grasp on reality may not be as strong as I would like to think.  I forces me to acknowledge the fact that maybe I don't follow the inner workings of government and policy makers as much as I thought I did.  It makes me rethink the amount of time I actually put into the endeavor of learning all there is to know in order to make better decisions.  It makes me grateful that there are people like Chris Hayes who do take the time to learn, analyze, and share the information that I simply don't have the time to gather myself.  

I can not, nor want to, delve into the arguments that Mr. Hayes makes for why our upward mobility through meritocracy has created the very fissures that seem to be dotting the political landscape.  I don't have the vocabulary nor the knowledge to make any sort of analysis credible to anyone who happens to read this.  What I do want to touch on is the obvious intellect that Mr. Hayes shows throughout the book and on TV, yes I do watch MSNBC for my news.  At no point in time does the narrative that he is relating feel illogical or reaching in it's conclusions.  While there are some vocabulary choices that some my not know without having to look them up, he doesn't talk over the heads of his readers.  It's all pretty straightforward, most of which can be credited to the way Mr. Hayes broke his argument down, allowing the reader to follow along at their own pace.


Thanks to Danielle at Crown Publishing, I have an extra copy to giveaway.  The giveaway will be open to US/Canadian residents only.  The giveaway will run until 11:59 pm CST on July 20th, CST.  To enter the giveaway please leave a comment, maybe with a reading suggestion of your own, including your email address.  I will use random.org to draw the winner, who will have 48 hours to respond to my email.

The Girl Below by Bianca Zander

Synopsis From Back Cover: 

Suki Piper is a stranger to her hometown.  After ten years in New Zealand, she has returned to London only to find herself more alone than ever before.  But a chance visit with Peggy, an old family friend who still lives in the building in which Suki grew up, leads Suki to believe she has discovered a way to reconnect with the life she left ten years before.  As she becomes more and more involved with Peggy's family, Suki finds that she is mysteriously slipping back in time to one night, a party her parents threw in their garden, and an incident that took place in a long-unused air raid shelter there.  

I'm feeling a bit like Typhoid Mary right about now.  Not the historical version, more like the Marvel supervillain.  My mind has fragmented into a few different reactions regarding this book, and I'm not sure what I'm actually going to be able to say about it.  I need to find a way to separate the way I felt about the writing and the way I felt about the story itself.  Really not sure if that's even possible, but I'm going to try.

I think I'm going to start off with the writing, or the Mary side of my conflict.  For the most part, I enjoyed the way the author used language in the crafting of her story.  There are not a lot of authors who are able to manipulate language in such a way that I can find myself falling in love with a book, despite myself.  She created, through her words, a world that held me captivated and confused.  I can't say that style got in the way of substance, I actually think the style is the only thing that saved the substance, but I'm not sure it allowed the story to really go anywhere either.

Which takes us into the Typhoid territory of my conflicted brain.  I don't normally mind jumbled narratives that have a reader trying to figure out what's what and why things are happening.  I actually tend to enjoy books that allow me to fill in the gaps and do some critical thinking on my own.  What I don't like are jumbled narratives that uses so much misdirection and blind alleys that even the basic information needed to fill in those gaps, may not be there.  I'm pretty sure I know where the author was wanting the reader to go, but I'm also pretty sure that's not where I went.

And that leaves the Bloody Mary side to explore a bit.  If any of you don't already know, I'm a huge mystery fan.  What that means regarding this book, who the freak knows.  I'm still trying to figure out where the mystery aspect comes in.  I know that while it wasn't a strict mystery, there were so many elements that were picked up, examined, and then tossed away that I'm still a bit confused by the whole thing.  The many hints and clues given to explain Suki's behavior as an adult, just never panned out for me.  She is floundering in her life, and supposedly the answers can be found in a troubled childhood.  If that's the case, she needs to get the hell over it.

From the impression I'm left with, she refuses to grow up because her father left and her mother died from cancer.  You know what, a lot of us lose one or both parents and a young age and we don't act like a 12 year old when we are almost 30.  Now if what was hinted at in the book actually happened to her, then I may be able to give her the benefit of the doubt.  I can't even count the many glaring hints of sexual abuse, whether at the hands of her father, two male friends that where at the party that night, a creepy neighbor, or some stranger that never showed his face; were just thrown out there.  Disembodied hands that would undo dress bows being the most obvious.  The problem, it never went anywhere.  I can't tell you what happened in that bunker, other than a girl losing her balance and knocking out some teeth.  But from what I can tell, the sexual abuse didn't happen.  So what I really don't get, is why all the hints.  What was the point of building it up, then never going in that direction.

To be honest with you, I don't know what happened to her as a kid, and I don't care.  I don't even care if she was actually time traveling, or if it was all some sort of walking memory.  I don't care about any of it.  This is one case where the author's adapt use of language, which she obviously has, could not save the book.  For all I care, Suki can move into that bunker and mope for the rest of her life.  I don't think she will, because from what I can tell she finally got over the "trauma".  I just wish I knew what the trauma was.  On second thought, no I don't.  I just don't care enough.

For those of you who are interested, the author visited the Mystery forum at the Barnes & Noble website, the conversation can be found here.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review the book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

Challenges: A-Z

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Alice Ascher, a shopkeeper in Andover, is bludgeoned to death in her shop.  Next to die is Betty Bernard in Bexhill - strangled with her own belt.  Then, Sir Carmichael Clarke's skull is crushed in Churston.  Clearly a serial killer with an alphabetical bent is on the loose - and an urgent hunt is launched for the fiend dubbed the A.B.C. murderer.  The taunting notes inspector Hercule Poirot receives just before a murder is to take place are even more disturbing than the A.B.C. railway guide that the methodical killer leaves at the scene of each crime.  Racing against the clock, Poirot tries to decipher each cryptic message and get one step ahead of thier exceedingly clever and ruthless killer.

Ever since I decided to read all of Agatha Christie's books in publishing order, I've been trying to remember what my first Agatha Christie book was.  Now I'm not going to swear on anything I hold dear, but I'm almost positive that this was it.  I can even remember my mom giving me this one for Christmas.  So I guess, if this is THE book, than I can credit The A.B.C. Murders for getting me hooked on Agatha Christie at a young age.

I'm always a bit curious, when I can remember, to see if my childhood fondness for a book holds over to adulthood.  When it comes to a mystery or a book written for adults, it's not always a fair comparison.  I know for a fact that I was not able to pick up everything Christie was dropping when I was in the 5th grade. I was smart, but I wasn't that smart.  It's also one of those comparisons that while I'm curious to see what the results will be, I'm just a bit hesitant too.  I don't want my childhood memories dashed by the cold, hard reality of today.  I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that as far as The A.B.C. Murders go, those memories are safe and secure.

Motive is always the driving force behind a murder mystery.  Without a well articulated motive, a book can fall apart and become a nightmare for the reader.  Mystery writers tend to fall back on revenge, money, or love as the basic building block.  Now the writer will always add in a whole bunch of window dressing trying to disguise the simplicity of the motive, but in the end, if you can figure out the motive, you can solve the case.  With The A.B.C. Murders, Agatha Christie takes one of those basic motives and weaves it within a complex series of events that highlights and masks at the same time.  It's a brilliant feint on her part, and one that I really haven't seen a lot of authors use.  I just finished reading Let the Devil Sleep by John Vernon, review later this month, and I think it's the only other book I've read that uses the same concept.

Now if you couldn't tell by now, it's a devise that I absolutely adore and one that I appreciate all the more as an adult.  In the 5th grade, I understood what was going on, but I couldn't appreciate the complex nature in which Agatha Christie crafted her story.  She manipulates the concept of motive in such a way that I think I'm more in awe of her now, than I ever was before.  If there is ever an argument to be made for why you should reread books as an adult, this book is it.

Challenges: VM (Golden Age Girls)