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Posts Tagged ‘Mystery’

Historical Fiction Review – The Lost Apothecary

Thursday, June 24th, 2021

The Lost Apothecary

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)

It was hard to determine a genre category for The Lost Apothecary.  Shifting from past to present, Penner weaves together the lives of 21st century historian Caroline and 18th century apothecary Nella.

Nella’s mother was a well-known apothecary with a little shop off Bear Alley in 18th century London.  After the death of her mother, Nella begins to run the shop herself. Later she is fueled by her own loss and heartache and becomes known for helping women who are the victims of oppressive men. By developing poisons that are easily-disguised, Nella gives strength, freedom, and hope to the women who request her services.

Caroline has arrived in England angry and confused after learning of a betrayal within her marriage.  During what is supposed to be a romantic getaway for her and her husband, Caroline is alone and trying to decide on how to move forward.  She crosses paths with Bachelor Alf and his mudlarking group and decides to see what historical objects the River Thames might provide to distract her from her real life.

Caroline finds a glass vial while mudlarking and she is taken on a journey of discovery into the mysterious apothecary and shop. The reader learns more about Caroline, Nella and Eliza, the young maid of a wealthy woman who demands Nella’s services.  Nella and Caroline’s stories of betrayal bythe men they love are paralleled in the story and their reactions to those betrayals change the course of their lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Lost Apothecary.  I thought it was a unique story (I’ve never even heard of mudlarking before, but I’ve learned it really is a thing and it seems so very interesting) with characters who were complex and relatable.  The sense of magic and mystery come together to provide an engrossing tale and I am not surprised this debut novel by Penner became a New York Times bestseller. I highly recommend this vivid and rich novel when you want to lose yourself in the pages of a good book.

 

 

 

 

Mystery Monday – The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom

Monday, May 4th, 2020

The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Mysteries in the Perry Mason series often start with a bang. In this 1949 outing, while working late in his office, Mason spies pair of shapely gams on the fire escape. When Mason queries her as to what she’s up to, the beauty says she works upstairs for a company in the extraction industry. Mason notes she’s carrying something that metallically glints, which she tosses away, saying it was a flashlight.

He wants to confirm her identity by checking out her car registration, but out on the street she smacks him, making onlookers think she’s a pretty baa-lamb fending off a wolf. In celeb-addled LA, this spectacle is noted and thus appears in the gossip column in the paper the next morning. His secretary Della Street rags Perry about the next morning.

But things get complicated mighty quick when Perry finds himself enmeshed in a case that involves two convoluted situations. One is bigamy involving a Mexican divorce that may or may not be legal. The other is a proxy fight looming at a stockholders meeting.

As usual, Gardner paints an unflattering portrait of the guardians of our criminal justice system. The cops arrest their person of interest by using trickery. At the trial two bumbling prosecutors are more intent on puffing themselves up by making Perry look bad than on building a strong case. They are helped out by Perry’s client, who lies to Perry about his movements on the night of the killing. The reliable lesson we regular folks can draw out of Mason mysteries is never lie to your lawyer.

A good, not great, Mason mystery redeemed by a rocker of an ending.

 

 

 

Mystery Monday – The Case of the Lucky Loser

Monday, April 27th, 2020

The Case of the Lucky Loser by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

 

This 1957 mystery starts with a troubled young woman hiring Perry to attend a court case and give her an informed opinion as to how a witness to a hit and run comes off on the stand. His lawyer’s intuition says the witness is lying.

Coincidentally enough, the next day the defendant’s aunt-in-law contacts Mason. The plus: the plot in this one becomes spectacularly tangled, as complex a puzzle as a Mason novel ever provides.

This novel provides an excellent example of Gardner’s uncanny ability to keep us turning the pages to see what happens next, even when we have given up trying to comprehend the twists.

 

 

 

Mystery Monday – Wolf in the Shadows

Monday, April 20th, 2020

 

Wolf in the Shadows by Marcia Muller

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

A reader with some pretentions to taste would expect, after 14 installments in a series, to hear the gears grinding. But not at all in this case because Sharon McCone, the baddest female PI in Early Nineties San Francisco, learns, grows, and changes from book to book.

This 1993 mystery deals with the issues of illegal immigration and dolphin-protecting environmentalists. With her bosses going all corporate on her and pressuring her to accept sitting at a desk and moving papers around, she proves herself to be the Coolest Toughest Girlfriend Ever and works on finding her missing soul mate Hy Ripinsky who has gone missing.

As usual, the characterizations, even of the secondary characters, are very finely drawn, as are the settings. Nothing mars the elaborate plot but a couple of melodramatic scenes.

Well worth reading.

Fiction Review – Searching for Sylvie Lee

Wednesday, July 10th, 2019

Searching for Sylvie Lee: A Novel

Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

Review by Mirah W (mwelday)

I am a big fan of Jean Kwok. I read Mambo in Chinatown in one day and thoroughly enjoyed Girl in Translation. Kwok creates characters who are strong yet vulnerable and makes them relatable to any culture. When I learned of Kwok’s newest release, Searching for Sylvie Lee, I knew I had to add it to my summer reading list. Kwok’s novel was also selected as the Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club selection for June and is a NY Times bestseller so there was a lot of buzz that encouraged me to read it!

Sylvie Lee is the oldest daughter of Chinese immigrants and, from the outside, it looks like she has everything together. She is college educated, leading an accomplished career, beautiful and married to a handsome husband. Her parents are extremely proud of what she has accomplished and her younger sister Amy adores her.  Sylvie spent her early years in the Netherlands with her grandmother and aunt’s family and when her grandmother is ailing, Sylvie returns to the Netherlands to see her grandmother one more time. When Sylvie’s family realizes she has gone missing in the Netherlands, Amy travels there to try to get answers and find Sylvie. In the process of her search, Amy learns a lot about herself and inner strength, but she also learns the secrets of Sylvie’s life and the truth of how she went missing.

Searching for Sylvie Lee is a intricate, poignant story about family secrets and family dynamics that impact every family member in a different way. I wasn’t expecting the range of emotions I experienced while reading this book. I had moments of anger, confusion, joy and sadness; it actually took me a few days to wrap my mind around all of the emotions and process them all. Kwok created a family that was damaged and loving at the same time. Some people hurt each other through their love and others wanted to support each other through love, and isn’t that such an accurate portrayal of real life? People do all kinds of things in the name of love, good and bad.

Kwok’s novel was emotionally deeper than I was expecting. I loved the complexity of the characters and how they were relatable in spite of that complexity. The way that Kwok reveals the story through the various characters’ voices is intelligent and engrossing, yet easy to read. I am giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed it and the themes were deep and emotional. Kwok navigates the waters of family drama with heart and soul. I would highly recommend adding Searching for Sylvie Lee to your summer reading list!

While you’re on PBS, check out my reviews of Kwok’s Mambo in Chinatown (review here) and Girl in Translation (review here) on the PaperBackSwap Blog!  I would love to know if you also enjoy Kwok’s novels and your thoughts on any of her books!

 

 

 

 

Fiction Review – The Double Bind

Tuesday, June 11th, 2019

The Double Bind

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)

The Double Bind begins with a very straight-forward account of a horrific attack on the main character Laurel Estabrook when she is out for a bike ride. Years later, having put the pieces of her life back together as best she can, Laurel now works at a homeless shelter and she has given up biking. She has removed herself from a lot of social activities and has insulated herself with limited relationships with family and close friend Talia. Laurel often dates older men, but she resists entering into a committed relationship with any of them.

Through Laurel’s position at the homeless shelter, she is tasked with sorting through photographs presumed to have been taken by a formerly homeless man, Bobbie Crocker, who Laurel had helped through the shelter. Katherine, Laurel’s supervisor at the shelter, hopes creating an exhibition with Bobbie’s photographs will help bring attention to the shelter and serve as a fundraiser for their efforts.

Laurel’s interest in Bobbie’s photographs soon take her down a path of mystery but is her interest turning into an obsession? Is Bobbie somehow connected to the horrific event that changed Laurel’s life forever? Did Bobbie’s alcoholism and mental illness cause him to confuse his own reality with fiction? Is Laurel losing her own grasp on reality in an effort to learn more about Bobbie?

Bohjalian weaves mysteries and secrets together in a way that the reader is never really clear on what is real and what is the result of mental illness. I thought the storyline was very interesting, but I did find myself getting distracted by the integration of the characters from The Great Gatsby. I know from the author’s acknowledgements that he is a fan of The Great Gatsby and has read the novel many times. I, however, did not like the Fitzgerald novel and could barely get through it once. The inclusion of those characters was frustrating and I had some difficulty putting that aside to stay focused on Bohjalian’s characters and story.

The Double Bind was well thought out and deftly delivered to not give away too much of the mystery too soon. The structure of the novel and development of the main character are my main reasons for giving this novel 4 out of 5 stars. I definitely recommend it for those who want a thought-provoking novel with emotional grit. I would also recommend Bohjalian’s novel Midwives.

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Review – Midnight Crossroad

Friday, May 24th, 2019

Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas, Bk 1)

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Review by Mirah W (mwelday)

I really didn’t need to start a new series. I am already reading numerous series and I sometimes forget when new books are released, and then I get behind in my reading! But here I am, writing a post on Midnight Crossroad, book one of the Midnight, Texas series by Charlaine Harris.

Midnight, Texas is what could be described as a ‘one horse town’.  Midnight has seen better days, but now businesses are boarded up and residents have to go to other towns to take care of basic errands.  When Manfred Bernardo moves to town he is welcomed by a few of the locals, but he quickly realizes things are ‘different’ in Midnight.  There is a diner, a convenience store/gas station, and a pawn shop; these three locations are where most of the action takes place in this small town.

Bobo owns the pawn shop and is heartbroken that his girlfriend Aubrey has left him.  But did she just leave Bobo or did something more sinister happen?  Manfred Bernardo is new to town and works as a psychic.  But does he truly have a gift or is he a fake?  Fiji has a New Age shop in her home and describes herself as a witch.  But does she really have any powers? These characters are just the tip of the iceberg of the quirky residents in Midnight.

Now strangers are coming into Midnight and they’re asking questions about Aubrey and attacking the residents.  Who are these strangers and what are they really after? And can the locals all be trusted?  It seems the residents of Midnight all have secrets, and none react well when they believe their secrets will be exposed.

This book had its downfalls, but overall, I enjoyed it. I found it to be fast-paced and a fun escape, but I don’t think the plot was as exciting or as well-developed as previous Harris books. I think the characters were rather two-dimensional, but I am hoping there is more character development in the next books of the series because the characters were likeable and had redeeming qualities. There are obviously more secrets and true identities to be revealed and I’m curious what else can happen in this sleepy town.  One of my favorite things about this book was the inclusion of Lily Bard from Harris’s Lily Bard mystery series.