Nyssa
2018-03-07 21:23:52 UTC
Okay, time for another one of my book-dumps of recent finishes in
no particular order.
After running out of both Miss Henry and Butterscotch Jones cozies
by Melanie Jackson, I finally tried another one of her mystery
series, the Chloe Boston Mysteries, with the first one, "Moving
Violation."
Chloe is twenty-something and wants to be a police detective because
of her sharp skills in deduction and connecting dots. The problem
is, she's five-foot-nothing and weighs less than 100 pounds, making
it impossible to meet the physical requirements to join the local
police force. As a consolation prize, she's been allowed to be
a meter maid, but still holds out hope of one day becoming a detective.
As fate would have it, both a missing person case and murder case drop
into her lap when first another city traffic enforcement officer goes
missing and she discovers a body in the city's skateboard park.
Pushed aside by the "real" police officers, Chloe continues to question
witnesses and gather clues in spite of being told to back off.
The mystery was okay, but I had trouble warming up to the Chloe character.
Compared to my favorite Miss Henry, she's pretty much a polar opposite
both in age and experiences. Perhaps as I read more in the series, she'll
grow on me. Oh, cookies were baked in the book, but this isn't' a
cookie cutter cozy.
Unfortunately, another cozy I tried is just that. "Baking Is Murder"
by Kathy Cranston is the first in the Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries. The
main character in this one is an almost-forty year old woman, Jessie
Henderson, who decides to sell off everything after a divorce and
losing her job and head for the small town of Springdale where her
aunt owns a cafe and bakery. Without bothering to contact her aunt
beforehand, which was a big WTH moment for me at the beginning of
the book.
The mystery was okay, but the characters were rather bland with the
usual mix of quirky townsfolk and irritating customers and neighbors.
The mystery centers around a murdered dog breeder, but there are too
few clues and possible suspects to make it much of a challenge.
Mark this series off the list.
One of my dollar store finds was "The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln"
by Stephen L. Carter. The adjective that best describes this one is
"unsatisfying." It's a what-if based on what if Lincoln survived
the assassination attempt only to be impeached by Congress. There is
a double murder mystery in the story related to the president and
the impeachment effort.
The main character is a recent college graduate, Abigail Canner, who
wants to become a lawyer. Not only does she have her gender working
against her dream, she is also black. With a strong recommendation
from her college professor she manages to secure employment as a
clerk for a Washington, DC, law firm that just happens to be defending
the president during his impeachment fight.
Abigail's story takes up most of the sizable book, although there are
plenty of scenes of the House Managers presenting their evidence during
the trial of the president. Lots of build up to both the murder
whodunit and the impeachment, but the ending is a double fizzle, hence
the unsatisfying verdict from this reader.
Back to a cozy for "A Body on the Porch" by Steve Demaree, #10 in the
Lt. Dekker/Sgt. Murdock series. I find Demaree to be inconsistent,
with some winners and some losers in the series since he seems to like
getting off track from the flow of the mystery story with whatever
bright, shiny thing takes his fancy at the moment. An example of this
would be his "Murder in Gatlinburg" that was a long winded travelogue
about the wonders of tourist traps in and around the Gatlinburg, TN,
area that interrupted the descriptions of shopping and eating occasionally
with a clue in a murder case.
This one had a very good, challenging murder mystery, but was marred
by pages and pages of off-the-track drivel that wears on the reader's
patience. The drivel included two competitions for best movie and
best cheesecake flavor that Lt. Dekker and his girlfriend were ranking,
lists of authors and books the characters were reading, and details
about every meal that they ate. Mentioning something once, maybe twice,
within a story helps with character development, but going on about
it for pages multiple times within the book is nothing more than
page padding. The mystery is strong enough to stand on its own without
the padding and diversions. If the author can't come up with a long
enough book without the bloat, call it a novella and move on.
The set up for the story was silly, with Dekker and Murdock on vacation
in Gatlinburg (again), and promising a stranger they meet that if
he ever finds a dead body on his porch, Dekker will solve the case
for free. And of course, the stranger returns home to find just that,
calls Dekker, and the fun begins. Again, the mystery itself is a good,
solid old-fashioned one. It's just a matter of having the patience of
slogging through the drivel to get back to the clues and piecing the
logic together.
"The iCandidate" by Mikael Carlson isn't a mystery, but it was a very
nice political story with similar vibes to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
the classic movie of a good guy bucking the system.
Michael Bennit is an ex-Green Beret who teaches high school history.
When his advanced placement US History class challenges him to a bet
that if all of them ace the course's final, he has to run for Congress.
Knowing that his exams are not easy, he reluctantly agrees to the bet.
When the odds are beaten and the entire class makes As, he finds himself
bound by his word to honor the bet, then uses social media to make
his run and uses the members of the class to be his campaign staff.
A nice feel-good story, and first in a series of four books. I'm
currently halfway through #2, "The iCongressman" and am thoroughly
enjoying it as Bennit again pushes against business as usual in
the House of Representatives against powerful interests.
I hope someone out there is actually reading my missives and they
are helping someone to choose (or bypass) some reading material.
Nyssa, who can't seem to get around to writing these posts more
frequently, probably because she's too busy reading
no particular order.
After running out of both Miss Henry and Butterscotch Jones cozies
by Melanie Jackson, I finally tried another one of her mystery
series, the Chloe Boston Mysteries, with the first one, "Moving
Violation."
Chloe is twenty-something and wants to be a police detective because
of her sharp skills in deduction and connecting dots. The problem
is, she's five-foot-nothing and weighs less than 100 pounds, making
it impossible to meet the physical requirements to join the local
police force. As a consolation prize, she's been allowed to be
a meter maid, but still holds out hope of one day becoming a detective.
As fate would have it, both a missing person case and murder case drop
into her lap when first another city traffic enforcement officer goes
missing and she discovers a body in the city's skateboard park.
Pushed aside by the "real" police officers, Chloe continues to question
witnesses and gather clues in spite of being told to back off.
The mystery was okay, but I had trouble warming up to the Chloe character.
Compared to my favorite Miss Henry, she's pretty much a polar opposite
both in age and experiences. Perhaps as I read more in the series, she'll
grow on me. Oh, cookies were baked in the book, but this isn't' a
cookie cutter cozy.
Unfortunately, another cozy I tried is just that. "Baking Is Murder"
by Kathy Cranston is the first in the Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries. The
main character in this one is an almost-forty year old woman, Jessie
Henderson, who decides to sell off everything after a divorce and
losing her job and head for the small town of Springdale where her
aunt owns a cafe and bakery. Without bothering to contact her aunt
beforehand, which was a big WTH moment for me at the beginning of
the book.
The mystery was okay, but the characters were rather bland with the
usual mix of quirky townsfolk and irritating customers and neighbors.
The mystery centers around a murdered dog breeder, but there are too
few clues and possible suspects to make it much of a challenge.
Mark this series off the list.
One of my dollar store finds was "The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln"
by Stephen L. Carter. The adjective that best describes this one is
"unsatisfying." It's a what-if based on what if Lincoln survived
the assassination attempt only to be impeached by Congress. There is
a double murder mystery in the story related to the president and
the impeachment effort.
The main character is a recent college graduate, Abigail Canner, who
wants to become a lawyer. Not only does she have her gender working
against her dream, she is also black. With a strong recommendation
from her college professor she manages to secure employment as a
clerk for a Washington, DC, law firm that just happens to be defending
the president during his impeachment fight.
Abigail's story takes up most of the sizable book, although there are
plenty of scenes of the House Managers presenting their evidence during
the trial of the president. Lots of build up to both the murder
whodunit and the impeachment, but the ending is a double fizzle, hence
the unsatisfying verdict from this reader.
Back to a cozy for "A Body on the Porch" by Steve Demaree, #10 in the
Lt. Dekker/Sgt. Murdock series. I find Demaree to be inconsistent,
with some winners and some losers in the series since he seems to like
getting off track from the flow of the mystery story with whatever
bright, shiny thing takes his fancy at the moment. An example of this
would be his "Murder in Gatlinburg" that was a long winded travelogue
about the wonders of tourist traps in and around the Gatlinburg, TN,
area that interrupted the descriptions of shopping and eating occasionally
with a clue in a murder case.
This one had a very good, challenging murder mystery, but was marred
by pages and pages of off-the-track drivel that wears on the reader's
patience. The drivel included two competitions for best movie and
best cheesecake flavor that Lt. Dekker and his girlfriend were ranking,
lists of authors and books the characters were reading, and details
about every meal that they ate. Mentioning something once, maybe twice,
within a story helps with character development, but going on about
it for pages multiple times within the book is nothing more than
page padding. The mystery is strong enough to stand on its own without
the padding and diversions. If the author can't come up with a long
enough book without the bloat, call it a novella and move on.
The set up for the story was silly, with Dekker and Murdock on vacation
in Gatlinburg (again), and promising a stranger they meet that if
he ever finds a dead body on his porch, Dekker will solve the case
for free. And of course, the stranger returns home to find just that,
calls Dekker, and the fun begins. Again, the mystery itself is a good,
solid old-fashioned one. It's just a matter of having the patience of
slogging through the drivel to get back to the clues and piecing the
logic together.
"The iCandidate" by Mikael Carlson isn't a mystery, but it was a very
nice political story with similar vibes to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
the classic movie of a good guy bucking the system.
Michael Bennit is an ex-Green Beret who teaches high school history.
When his advanced placement US History class challenges him to a bet
that if all of them ace the course's final, he has to run for Congress.
Knowing that his exams are not easy, he reluctantly agrees to the bet.
When the odds are beaten and the entire class makes As, he finds himself
bound by his word to honor the bet, then uses social media to make
his run and uses the members of the class to be his campaign staff.
A nice feel-good story, and first in a series of four books. I'm
currently halfway through #2, "The iCongressman" and am thoroughly
enjoying it as Bennit again pushes against business as usual in
the House of Representatives against powerful interests.
I hope someone out there is actually reading my missives and they
are helping someone to choose (or bypass) some reading material.
Nyssa, who can't seem to get around to writing these posts more
frequently, probably because she's too busy reading