Carol Dickinson
2018-06-18 18:21:12 UTC
Are we still our there or have the trolls taken us over?
Haven't read too many lately.
Finished "The Wizard's Daughter" by Barbara Michaels (Elizabeth Peters) It was weird. Not really any mystery at all. It read like a gothic romance from the 60's. Orphaned young daughter of a "gentleman" who drank and gambled away his fortune and his property. Godmother sends her off the London to a rooming house for "young ladies of good family in financial distress" where they are directed to positions of companions or governesses. But she dreams of being a singing star in the theater and runs away, only to naturally run into big trouble since the theater she is accepted at expects their entertainers to become mistresses or even prostitutes for the clients. Escaping a horrid man with the help of a friend, she is directed to a man who whisks her off to the home of wealthy old lady who believes the orphan is psychic, the daughter of her old lover who had died many years before.
The only mystery is why the woman believes it, why she insists the girl hold seances in which (yes she really goes into trances) and why there is an urgent deadline. There are no clues for the reader to decipher. I kept expecting, since it was written by Michaels, that the mystery would develop. Nope. At the end, there is about a 2 sentence explanation of the minor mystery point. The old lady dies, and the man who brought the orphan to her, says he's in love with her. Typical gothic romance. Ick. Not worth you time as a mystery. Maybe it is if you are into gothic romance.
I also finished "The Perennial Killer" by Ann Ripley, the last of hers I had not read. It was darn good. I liked that is was not set in D.C. but in Colorado. I like the western characters much more than those of her D.C. home.
I got a little confused by the "long" drive to the ranches involved in the story only to find it was 6 miles. I mean "around here" my neighbors drive that just to get downtown. I don't go there.
This time Louise and her TV crew are doing a series on wilderness plants and filming in Colorado. Two ranches set in an area which is in controversy, developers against people trying to preserve open habitat for animals. Both these are owned by old time families. Besides the murder discovered early on there are a series of mysterious deaths indicated by the family graveyard. In the end they do end up all tied together along with other side mysteries having to do with land developers, a mysterious side story as Louise's CIA husband is nearby but cannot participate in their romantic escape as planned, and yet another mystery as her daughter Janie, also nearby doing some time as a camp counselor seems to have a new boyfriend there and who is he. So many different mysteries that don't necessarily link together.
The characters in this one are the best of any of her books. Loved them. And also the way she wrote about the area. I didn't realize until the notes at the end that was partly because she was writing about the place she actually lived. This would be my second favorite book of hers, only because I loved the whole weird plot of "Mulch" a bit more. But its a great read.
Before that I read Katherine Hall Page's "The Body in the Cast" in which Faith is hired as the caterer for a movie company filming a 20th century version of "The Scarlet Letter". Naturally somebody dies after eating Faith's bean soup, so she's got a business problem. And many of the townspeople are cast as extras, so when a 2nd body ends up dead in a way that indicates someone from her husband's congregation may be involved it gets more complicated. She managed a great number of characters interacting together very well. One of her better ones. And I didn't figure out "whodunnit". I love when the author baffles me. Page has been around long enough she does not fit in the cookie cutter cooking genre. Still this one is only for people who appreciate cozies and tolerate the cooking theme.
After that I read Evonovich's "Motor Mouth". I don't care for Stephanie Plum and don't read those, but this is a Barnaby. The 2nd one I read. It seems to be the 2nd in the series. I am not into NASCAR at all, which is the whole theme of this book, but it was a fun read. Alexandra has taken a position as a spotter for a NASCAR team. The mystery centers around suspected cheating on the track through some sort of technical means. Alex and Hooker end up pretty much alone and on the lam avoiding killers, but they have with them a Saint Bernard so not exactly easy to disappear what with Hooker also having a zillion fans. Wonderful cast of characters. Many twists and turns. Very funny.
And working through my huge backlog of Michael Jecks books, I read "Tolls of Death" which was out of sequence. Somehow I missed that it belonged between the pilgrimage and their arrival back home, so I knew the one that came after it already. Didn't interfere with the mystery, just with the personal life of Baldwin and Simon. In this one, on the way from the ship which brought them back to Britain and their homes, they end up in a cornish village overnight and of course a death occurs.
The coroner for this area is a new young appointee who really has no interest in the job which was foisted on him and so naturally Baldwin and Simon take an interest in getting the job done right, training the fellow and then there occurs more deaths. A very twisty turny plot as always. I love the way he writes. I missed in this one the wonderful passages on the countryside because they remained in the village, but that was offset by a much larger cast of characters than normal involving a lot of villagers, and a great many people up at the Castle. It also gave a new angle of understanding of how women, especially single women survived in that period of time.
Also just picked up "The Painted Queen" at the store. It on the cover "Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess". I thought that was odd and flipped to the inside back cover only to read that Peters had died (I missed that) and Hess finished it and that Hess has died too. And I'd missed that. Darn. I read both of them faithfully.
So who is till out there besides the trolls?
Carol
Haven't read too many lately.
Finished "The Wizard's Daughter" by Barbara Michaels (Elizabeth Peters) It was weird. Not really any mystery at all. It read like a gothic romance from the 60's. Orphaned young daughter of a "gentleman" who drank and gambled away his fortune and his property. Godmother sends her off the London to a rooming house for "young ladies of good family in financial distress" where they are directed to positions of companions or governesses. But she dreams of being a singing star in the theater and runs away, only to naturally run into big trouble since the theater she is accepted at expects their entertainers to become mistresses or even prostitutes for the clients. Escaping a horrid man with the help of a friend, she is directed to a man who whisks her off to the home of wealthy old lady who believes the orphan is psychic, the daughter of her old lover who had died many years before.
The only mystery is why the woman believes it, why she insists the girl hold seances in which (yes she really goes into trances) and why there is an urgent deadline. There are no clues for the reader to decipher. I kept expecting, since it was written by Michaels, that the mystery would develop. Nope. At the end, there is about a 2 sentence explanation of the minor mystery point. The old lady dies, and the man who brought the orphan to her, says he's in love with her. Typical gothic romance. Ick. Not worth you time as a mystery. Maybe it is if you are into gothic romance.
I also finished "The Perennial Killer" by Ann Ripley, the last of hers I had not read. It was darn good. I liked that is was not set in D.C. but in Colorado. I like the western characters much more than those of her D.C. home.
I got a little confused by the "long" drive to the ranches involved in the story only to find it was 6 miles. I mean "around here" my neighbors drive that just to get downtown. I don't go there.
This time Louise and her TV crew are doing a series on wilderness plants and filming in Colorado. Two ranches set in an area which is in controversy, developers against people trying to preserve open habitat for animals. Both these are owned by old time families. Besides the murder discovered early on there are a series of mysterious deaths indicated by the family graveyard. In the end they do end up all tied together along with other side mysteries having to do with land developers, a mysterious side story as Louise's CIA husband is nearby but cannot participate in their romantic escape as planned, and yet another mystery as her daughter Janie, also nearby doing some time as a camp counselor seems to have a new boyfriend there and who is he. So many different mysteries that don't necessarily link together.
The characters in this one are the best of any of her books. Loved them. And also the way she wrote about the area. I didn't realize until the notes at the end that was partly because she was writing about the place she actually lived. This would be my second favorite book of hers, only because I loved the whole weird plot of "Mulch" a bit more. But its a great read.
Before that I read Katherine Hall Page's "The Body in the Cast" in which Faith is hired as the caterer for a movie company filming a 20th century version of "The Scarlet Letter". Naturally somebody dies after eating Faith's bean soup, so she's got a business problem. And many of the townspeople are cast as extras, so when a 2nd body ends up dead in a way that indicates someone from her husband's congregation may be involved it gets more complicated. She managed a great number of characters interacting together very well. One of her better ones. And I didn't figure out "whodunnit". I love when the author baffles me. Page has been around long enough she does not fit in the cookie cutter cooking genre. Still this one is only for people who appreciate cozies and tolerate the cooking theme.
After that I read Evonovich's "Motor Mouth". I don't care for Stephanie Plum and don't read those, but this is a Barnaby. The 2nd one I read. It seems to be the 2nd in the series. I am not into NASCAR at all, which is the whole theme of this book, but it was a fun read. Alexandra has taken a position as a spotter for a NASCAR team. The mystery centers around suspected cheating on the track through some sort of technical means. Alex and Hooker end up pretty much alone and on the lam avoiding killers, but they have with them a Saint Bernard so not exactly easy to disappear what with Hooker also having a zillion fans. Wonderful cast of characters. Many twists and turns. Very funny.
And working through my huge backlog of Michael Jecks books, I read "Tolls of Death" which was out of sequence. Somehow I missed that it belonged between the pilgrimage and their arrival back home, so I knew the one that came after it already. Didn't interfere with the mystery, just with the personal life of Baldwin and Simon. In this one, on the way from the ship which brought them back to Britain and their homes, they end up in a cornish village overnight and of course a death occurs.
The coroner for this area is a new young appointee who really has no interest in the job which was foisted on him and so naturally Baldwin and Simon take an interest in getting the job done right, training the fellow and then there occurs more deaths. A very twisty turny plot as always. I love the way he writes. I missed in this one the wonderful passages on the countryside because they remained in the village, but that was offset by a much larger cast of characters than normal involving a lot of villagers, and a great many people up at the Castle. It also gave a new angle of understanding of how women, especially single women survived in that period of time.
Also just picked up "The Painted Queen" at the store. It on the cover "Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess". I thought that was odd and flipped to the inside back cover only to read that Peters had died (I missed that) and Hess finished it and that Hess has died too. And I'd missed that. Darn. I read both of them faithfully.
So who is till out there besides the trolls?
Carol