The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Review by McGuffyAnn M. (nightprose)

This is a beautiful story, reminiscent of a fairy tale. Set in the 1920s, an older Alaskan couple is childless. Jack and Mabel are trying to make a life in the harsh environment. Hard work and isolation is their daily way of life; love and loyalty keeps them going.

During a snowfall, Jack and Mabel playfully create a “snow child”. The next morning, a tiny set of footprints are found in the snow. The snow child is gone.

Thereafter, Jack and Mabel, at different times, each sees a little girl in the woods. A fox seems to always be nearby the girl.  They don’t speak of these unusual and unexplained sightings. They fear that speaking of the girl may make her disappear.

When the girl comes to the cabin, she calls herself Faina. Jack and Mabel are entranced by her seemingly surreal existence. They struggle to understand how she can survive in such harsh conditions, the tiny little thing that she is. They also don’t know how she fits into their own lives

This magical story is beautiful and enchanting. I was captivated. The depiction of homesteading the Alaskan frontier is realistic. The story of Jack, Mabel and Faina is a heartfelt one of love, resilience, hope, and possibilities.

Eowyn Ivey has written a novel that is sure to be a classic. It will remain with you, to be read again and shared with others.

Reviews by Carole (craftnut)

Prepare to fall in love with Chet, a 100-pound canine private investigator  (who flunked out of K-9 police school) in business with his human, Bernie.  Chet narrates the books, but this isn’t a fantasy book, he acts like a normal dog.  He doesn’t speak to Bernie, but he does think, narrating the books in first-dog (like first-person, but with four paws).  He is intensely loyal to Bernie, in ways only dogs can be.  He seems to find out things that take Bernie a while longer.  Chet gets distracted by smells and sounds, loves a good nap and a good stretch, gets confused about things he hears, hates cats, loves to ride shotgun and frequently lets his dog impulses take over when finding the occasional forgotten tidbit, unattended meal or something to chase.  He is full of life, and at times full of himself, helping Bernie solve the case with a lot of humor.  Chet isn’t too clear on things like cash flow, a wild goose chase, and the meaning of a red herring, but he does try.

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

In the first novel in the series, Chet and Bernie are hired to find a missing girl named Madison, a sullen teenager with divorced parents who are not getting along.  Her father is a real estate developer whose finances are a bit dicey.  Bernie is going through his own troubled divorce.  Chet finds out the truth about Madison’s disappearance when he takes off on high adventure in a moment of impulse.  He then has to figure out how to let Bernie in on what he knows but is quickly forgetting in light of stray burgers, random thoughts, nap times and gourmet dog treats.  A reporter, Susie, wins Chet over quickly and she comes in very handy at just the right time.

The story is told as seen through Chet’s eyes with all the distractions one might expect in a dog like unattended burgers, errant golf balls, his buddy Iggy, and a strange she-bark. The tale has intrigue, bad guys, chase scenes, and all the elements of a great mystery novel, with a fresh unique point of view.

Thereby Hangs A Tail by Spencer Quinn

In the second book in the series, Chet and Bernie get involved in the dog show arena as they are hired and fired as bodyguards for champion Princess and her owner.   When Princess is dog-knapped, they are on the case again.  They investigate a ghost town, and find corruption in local law enforcement.  Separated from Bernie, Chet makes a startling discovery, but then has to find his way back, picking up more clues along the way.  Once again, loyal Chet finds out more facts sooner than Bernie, and helps the investigation.  His distractions are charming.  The reader will really believe that this is the mind of a very smart dog who envisions himself as a crackerjack investigator while he barks in response to the neighbor dog, gets heavy eyelids before a nap, rides shotgun, identifies the bad guys by smell, loves treats and those that give them, and whose tail has a mind of its own.

There are three more books in the series, listed below with the publisher’s synopsis.  If you are a true fan of Chet, he has a blog at http://www.chetthedog.com/.  This series is charming, at times hilarious, at times thrilling, with mysteries to solve.  I highly recommend!!

To Fetch A Thief

Chet has smelled a lot of unusual things in his years as trusted companion and partner to P.I. Bernie Little, but nothing has prepared him for the exotic scents he encounters when an old-fashioned traveling circus comes to town. Bernie scores tickets to this less-than-greatest- show-on-earth because his son Charlie is crazy about elephants. The only problem is that Peanut, the headlining pachyderm of this particular one-ring circus, has gone missing—along with her trainer, Uri DeLeath. Stranger still, no one saw them leave. How does an elephant vanish without a trace?

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

Bernie is invited to give the keynote speech at the Great Western Private Eye Convention, but it’s Chet that the bigshot P.I. in charge has secret plans for. Meanwhile Chet and Bernie are hired to find a kid who has gone missing from a wilderness camp in the high country. The boy’s mother thinks the boy’s father—her ex—has snatched the boy, but Chet makes a find that sends the case in a new and dangerous direction. As if that weren’t enough, matters get complicated at home when a stray puppy that looks suspiciously like Chet shows up. Affairs of the heart collide with a job that’s never been tougher, requiring our two intrepid sleuths to depend on each other as never before.

A Fistful of Collars – due out in September 2012

Hoping to bring some Hollywood money to the Valley, the mayor lures a movie studio to town to shoot their next major production starring Chad Perry. Known for his bad behavior, Chad needs a babysitter and the mayor hires Chet and Bernie for the job. The money is good, but something smells fishy. When they dig into the details of an old crime, they discover that Chad has links to the Valley that go way back. To complicate matters, for some odd reason, Chad’s cat, Brando, seems hellbent on making trouble for Chet.

Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d’Art by Christopher Moore

Review by Gail (TinkerPirate)

Let me be perfectly clear. I am a HUGE Christopher Moore fan. But, I have to say that I would have enjoyed this book even if I wasn’t a HUGE fan!

In books past, Mr. Moore has taken us on adventures set on exotic islands, in small coastal California villages, and roaming the dark streets of San Francisco. The adventures have take us back to biblical times or reminded us that adventures lurk in the present day or allowed us to find ourselves something in between like the court of King Lear. This time Moore takes us to a magical time and place…if you love art…late 19^th century Paris!

There are 4 main characters to the story – a mysterious person known only as The Colorman, who provides artists with the most rare of colors – sacre bleu (the sacred blue…the color of Virgin Mary’s robe); an equally mysterious woman, who is known by many names to many people; Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, commonly known as Toulouse-Lautrec; and Lucien Lessard, known as…well…Lucien Lessard, who is a baker with the soul of a painter from a long line of bakers with the souls of painters. His father always wanted to paint, but felt he didn’t have the skills to pull it off. Instead, he befriended many of the local struggling artists ensuring they always had bread to eat, a sou or two for paints, and a place to hide when needed. As a result, Mssr. Lessard grew up surrounded by some of my favorite artists – Manet, Monet, Pisarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc. These fostered his love for art and desire to paint…if he could just find another muse.

The story starts with the murder…yes, murder not suicide…of Vincent Van Gogh. When word reaches the Parisian art community, there is shock and disbelief. Mssrs. Lessard and Toulouse-Lautrec feel compelled to find out what really happened. The more they look the more they find it to be suspicious, instead of coincidental, that The Colorman seems to be close by at the death of artists or the creation of a master piece. Who is The Colorman? Where does he get his sacre bleu? And, why does this mysterious woman seem to be involved in all of this? Why can’t they keep a maid?

While answering these questions, Mr. Moore takes us to the main streets and back alleys of Paris, the French countryside and country estates, and into the galleries and contests that pit one struggling artist against another. Along the way we are introduced to the sights, sounds, and smells of Paris. We learn about life in the brothels that Mssr. Toulouse-Lautrec frequents…alright, pretty much lives in; life in a French bakery where the doneness of a baguette is tested with a smack to the head; and the absurdities of life when reality and fiction collide.

I will provide 2 caveats about the book –

1. You don’t need to be an art historian to get caught up in the story, but it does help “get” some of the finer pokes at history. I’ll admit there were moments when I wished I’d paid better attention in my freshman year Art Appreciation class, but – as the French say – c’est la vie.
2. If you are looking for the typical SNORT-laugh of a Moore book, you won’t find it here. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of LOL moments and lovably absurd phrases that will stay with you after you put the book down.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book is reproduction of many of the finest works of this period with quotes from the storyline. Some of them were pretty funny and apropos. And, for those of you who ARE Moore fans, I think you will find Mssr. Toulouse-Lautrec very Biff-like.

If you would like to try on a Moore for size, here are some of his books that are actually NOT Wish Listed!

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

You Suck: A Love Story

Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

Ladies of Lantern Street – book 1

Evangeline has taken a sabbatical from her day job and retired to the country to write her first novel.  Of course, that’s not the only reason – there was that little matter of a violent altercation involving her last case.  And then there is the inspiration to be found for a supernatural novel in the local Roman ruins and the country house known as Crystal Gardens which locals prefer to avoid.  Sadly, after completing four chapters of the novel she is extremely uninspired, suffering both boredom and writer’s block.

Additional inspiration strikes when our heroine flees her cottage for Crystal Gardens pursued by a murderer with a knife and falls almost literally into the arms of Lucas, the new owner of Crystal Gardens.  The carnivorous plants in the Night Garden get the attempted murderer, so Lucas attempts to get to the bottom of the attack by interviewing Evangeline.  Not much is resolved so he returns her to her cottage before anyone sees them together.  [The setting is Victorian so seeing the heroine, dressed only in her wrapper, in the company of the hero would be far more shocking than a contemporary heroine who moonlights as Miss Kitty Galore at the local strip club.  Evangeline now has the cure for her writer’s block and her boredom, she will make the villain of her piece into the hero and model him after the fascinating Lucas!

Lucas sends for an aunt to provide propriety to the situation and has Evangeline move into Crystal Gardens so he can protect her while trying to solve the crime.  To Lucas dismay, more and more family members appear throughout the story adding further complexities to the story line.  Besides solving murders, attempted murders, thefts, and the mystery of the out-of-control gardens; Evangeline deals with Lucas’ stepmother who has dark secrets and a taste for melodrama, the matchmaking aunt and the much-younger and scientifically, but not psychically, inclined siblings.

This is a paranormal romance.  The hero, the heroine, the heroine’s friends, the plants, AND the pool in the garden all possess some sort of psychic power.  Despite the psychic stuff, this is NOT an Arcane Society novel – so don’t spend your time looking around virtual corners expecting them to show up.  They don’t.

This is romantic suspense – it has sexual tension but not a whole lot of sex – and what occurs is not detailed. Krentz is great writer – whether she is in her Amanda Quick, Jayne Ann Krentz, or Jayne Castle mode.  Her characters are fascinating, the dialogue is witty, and the plots are page turning.  Probably because it is a Victorian setting, this book is ‘cooler’ in tone than some of her others.  If you are new to the author you might want to start with one of her earlier novels – Scandal perhaps, or Ravished.  Of course that might be because the Victorian era never was a personal interest of mine but she does make it breathe…

Good read? Yes.  Will there be more in this series?  Undoubtedly.  Will I buy them?  Definitely.  And the ultimate accolade?  My husband liked it also…

Death and the Pleasant Voices by Mary Fitt

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Mary Fitt was the pen-name of Kathleen Freeman (1897 – 1959), a British scholar. She will bring to mind another British professor – J.I.M. Stewart who wrote as Michael Innes – because, though she employs less jocosely recondite vocabulary, she expects readers to keep up with Latin tags, French idioms, and allusions from Euripides to Lewis Carroll. Like Cecil Day-Lewis, who wrote mysteries as Nicholas Blake, she was a professor of classics, so her concepts and themes are accordingly Greek:  character really is destiny and fate is implacable.

In Death and the Pleasant Voices (1946), she focuses not on plot or puzzle, but, as she said in an interview, on “people, their pleasant or queer or sinister possibilities.” This is apparently the tenth book with her series hero Inspector Mallet, but he does nothing beyond questioning people in preparation for the inquest.  We readers walk along with the main character Jake Seaborne as he haltingly makes his way among members of a family driven by greed and animosity. They are wrangling over the inheritance of a large country house. They are none of them admirable and deceptive as carnies that run crooked games.

Fitt sets up the characters of a pair of twins, who expected to inherit but did not; a poor relation who attended the dying days of the twins’ father ; the cranky  and mean Aunt and Uncle; and finally the family doctor who has a thing for one of the twins and alcohol. The murder does not come until half-way through the book, but this balanced by the detailing for the interplay among the characters for the remainder.

Because of the focus on character instead of the puzzle and lack of detection, I can’t regard this mystery as a typical story from the golden age of mysteries.  The interest lies in the surprising characters. I had to finish it to see where they ended up. In fact, the climax seemed inevitable, like a good Greek tragedy should. I’m pretty sure that I won’t rush out and read a stack of Mary Fitt’s novel right away, but surely one day I will pick another one or two.

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

Review by Vicky T. (VickyJo)

I have a tee shirt that says “So Many Books, So Little Time”….and it’s true.  I enjoy all types of genres, and all types of subjects and so keeping up with my reading is difficult.  I seldom have the inclination to go back and re-read books, and if I ever do…you can be sure they are books I LOVED the first time around!

I recently ran across an old paperback copy of “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax” by Dorothy Gilman and on the spur of the moment, I decided a light, cozy mystery was exactly what I needed.  I read “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax,” which was published in 1966, when I was in high school in the early 70’s, so it was time to revisit this endearing character.

Mrs. Pollifax is in her 60’s.  Her children are grown, married with children of their own, and live far from her neat apartment in New Jersey.  She has her Garden Club, of course, and volunteers to push the book cart at the hospital every Wednesday, but for the most part she feels…well, she feels that no one needs her.  It’s a very depressing situation.  Her doctor, young, busy and unable to truly relate to her feelings of worthlessness, suggests that she look at this phase of her life as her time to do what she has always dreamed of doing.  She tells him she has always wanted to be a spy, which amuses him very much.  But Mrs. Pollifax is sincere…and the more she thinks about it, the more she likes the idea, until she decides to take action.

She makes a trip to Langley, Virginia to visit CIA headquarters in order to ask for a job.  The nice young man who receives her there is taken aback.  He politely and gently turns down her offer of becoming a spy.  However, while she is there, she runs into William Carstairs, the head of one of many departments in the CIA.  Carstairs is looking for an “innocent tourist” type to act as a courier, and Mrs. Pollifax is perfect!  With her prim hat covered in roses, her gray hair and open, smiling face…who would suspect that she is an agent?

And so Mrs. Pollifax’s first adventure begins!  She is sent to Mexico City.  All she needs to do is visit a bookshop, ask the man behind the counter a pre-arranged question, and he will give her a package which she must bring home with her after her week-long stay.  Simple, right?

Well, of course, nothing about this assignment goes according to plan.  What’s worse, Mrs. Pollifax finds herself in a great deal of danger and she must use her wits to try and complete her assignment.

Dorothy Gilman wrote 14 Mrs. Pollifax mysteries, and I’ve worked my way through each one.  The premise is usually the same: what should be a simple assignment in a foreign country turns into a complex mission, filled with danger and fascinating people, some friendly and some out to kill her.  As the series progresses, Mrs. Pollifax takes karate lessons (she’s a brown belt) and meets a charming man that she eventually marries.  (He fully supports her spy career, of course).

But the real attraction is Mrs. Pollifax herself.  She is warm, kind, very open and curious about other people and other cultures.  She can also get cranky, have a sharp tongue, and be incredibly stubborn.  She is thrilled that she feels useful again, and is delighted that Carstairs doesn’t find her too old to help out.  She is simply charming and this series is a perfect example of the cozy mystery genre.  If you enjoy intrigue without lots of violence and bad language, then Mrs. Pollifax is definitely for you!   In fact, I’ve decided that I’d like to be Mrs. Pollifax when I grow up!