joycesmysteryandfictionbookreviews

Out Now! Anne Arrives

Anne Shirley is one of the most beloved characters in children’s fiction. She has helped to make Prince Edward Island a place that Anne lovers dream of visiting. Anne has spunk, imagination, honesty, deep feelings and a sense of adventure. Anne Arrives tells the story of Anne’s beginnings at Green Gables. In addition to Anne, of course there are Marilla, Matthew and Mrs. Lynde.
This is a book with short chapters for beginning readers. The essence of the plot is there and Anne’s character shines through. The illustrations are gorgeous and will add to the young reader’s enjoyment of the story. Hopefully, Anne Arrives is the first in a series! Thanks for this read NetGalley and the publisher.

Now available! Treacherous is the Night

Anna Lee Huber began a new series last year when This Side of Murder was published. In Treacherous is the Night, the second novel featuring Verity Kent, the author hits her stride.

The reader learns early on that Verity was an agent in La Dame Blanche, a resistance and intelligence group, during WWI. This story has to do with events that had their origin in that time.

At the beginning of the novel, Verity, although not a believer, attends a seance with a friend who hopes to contact her brother. For those who don’t know, attending seances was common after the war. The medium appears to channel an agent with whom Verity worked during the war. From this point on, the novel is a hunt for clues to find Emilie and to prevent a tragedy. While the reader assumes that, since this is a series, Verity will survive, the author should be credited for creating suspense in her narrative.

There is a reason to read the books in order. SPOILER: This has to do with what happened to Verity’s husband, something the reader learns in the first novel. However, if the reader is willing to move forward, there is no reason that this novel cannot be read first.

I gave This Side of Murder three *** and am happy to give the new novel four. I enjoyed spending time with the main characters in this book and look forward to meeting up with Verity, Sidney and the rest of the crew in the future.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher.

Would you like to learn How to Live Japanese? (by Yazawa)

What the author of this book has managed to do in just over 200 pages is amazing! This short volume is an excellent resource on Japanese life, culture, geography, history and customs. The author lived abroad for many years before returning to Japan. He openly acknowledges those areas where he has his own opinions, thereby engaging the reader.
In addition to the informative text, the photographs and illustrations are appealing and often beautiful. Highly recommended for those who want to visit Japan, have visited Japan or want to learn more about the country.

#HowToLiveJapanese #NetGalley

From today’s New York Times

https://nyti.ms/2Nmlcke A link to an article about Little Women.

https://nyti.ms/2NrrYX8 A column on romance novels

What an e-book bargain day for mystery lovers! Turow, King, Penny, Winspear, Finch and Cleeves

When I read Presumed Innocent many years ago, I found it to be suspenseful with a good twist at the end. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is the start of a long series which features Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell. Bury Your Dead is an entry in the long running Chief Inspector Gamache series which is set in Three Pines, Canada. Pardonable Lies is a novel in the Maisie Dobbs series; I have frequently mentioned and recommended Jacqueline Winspear’s books. A Stranger in Mayfair is part of an English historical mystery series, though the books are written by an American. Finally, Telling Tales is by Ann Cleeves, another author whom I highly recommend for both this, the Vera Stanhope series, along with her Jimmy Perez Shetland series. Wow!! What a day for mystery readers.

Louise Penny

The Glass Room (Ann Cleeves)

Almost good-bye to Jimmy Perez: Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves

E-book bargains: Vincenzi, Winspear and Lippman

Children’s Lit Class Updated: Classic Fairy Tales

The Classic Fairy Tales (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions) I am so enjoying this class!! Re-reading fairy tales has been such an interesting experience as the tales are often dark, reflect few choices for women and, in the tales of HC Anderson have a lot of religious undertones. I don’t think that I noticed any of that when I was a child.

Yesterday we spent a lot of time talking about Hansel and Gretel. They were described as tricksters; they used their wits in order to survive and trick the witch. An interesting note provided by the professor was that in the original folk tales many of the wicked parents were the children’s biological mothers. However, as time passed, tale tellers did not want to condemn mothers and so we began to read about the many wicked stepmothers. Also pointed out from H and G was the importance of food and how food was scarce for many at the time that the tale was first told. An additional take was that there was more danger for children who were without their mothers.

We also began a discussion of The Little Mermaid which is not very much like the Disney movie. It was noted that Anderson wrote his stories and that they did not come from folklore. Anderson had greater powers of description and gave more of the character’s inner thoughts than earlier writers. Religion was very present in the story.

Try rereading some fairy tales and let me know what you think. i have been fascinated. Next week we move to Alice in Wonderland. I am excited.

E-book bargains: Moyes and Mackintosh

Windfallen by [Moyes, Jojo] Jojo Moyes is best known for writing Me Before You, her breakout book. However, she wrote quite a few books before that one. Windfallen is one of them and it is an e-book bargain today at $1.99.

From Publishers Weekly

Moyes, a young Brit, again proves herself a worthy successor to Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher with her second novel (after Sheltering Rain), a warmhearted drama. A magnificent art deco house called Arcadia, built on a seaside cliff in the stuffy English village of Merham, stands at the center of her tale. Lottie Swift was born in London’s East End but evacuated during WWII to Merham as a child; she’s eventually taken in permanently by the Holden family and brought up in their bustling household just down the road from Arcadia. When Lottie is in her late teens, an exotic clan of bohemians move into Arcadia, and Lottie takes to visiting, sometimes with Celia Holden, her best friend, but more often on her own. Then Celia goes away to school in London and comes back with a fiance-a man Lottie believes is her destiny. Her love is doomed, but Arcadia provides unexpected solace. Half a century later, interior designer Daisy Parsons comes to Arcadia, hired by a successful but prickly London developer who has bought the house with plans for making it into a fashionable tourist destination. Daisy’s longtime lover and design partner has just departed after their baby is born, but she conquers self-pity and determines to honor the contract by herself. She’s befriended by Lottie, now an acerbic matron who scorns her village contemporaries but is charmed by the baby and volunteers to act as nanny. Moyes deftly handles her involved plot, skillfully exploring the different family dynamics; her thoughtful tone and light touch make this a delightful read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

I Let You Go $1.99 today. I enjoyed this moody thriller and you might too.

One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Crime Novels of 2016!

The next blockbuster thriller for those who loved The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl...“a finely crafted novel with a killer twist.”(#1 New York Times bestselling author Paula Hawkins)

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of British author Mackintosh’s accomplished debut, five-year-old Jacob Jordan lets go of his mother’s hand for an instant on a rainy evening in Bristol, England, and darts into the road, only to be struck and killed by a hit-and-run. The investigation lands on the desk of Det. Insp. Ray Stevens and his eager new detective constable, Kate Evans. Mackintosh alternates between the slow, but fruitless, police work and the movements of artist Jenna Gray, who’s haunted by Jacob’s death and relocates to an isolated Welsh village, where she keeps to herself, warming slightly to the local vet after finding an abandoned puppy, and even then keeping the details of her previous life a secret. Back in Bristol, Ray and Kate work the case to the ground, despite a lack of leads; predictable sparks fly, even though Ray is happily married with two children. Mackintosh easily shifts points of view and keeps readers on their toes, slowly upping the suspense, so that when she does reveal her twists they—mostly—work. (May)

Sarum by Rutherford

Sarum: The Novel of England by [Rutherfurd, Edward] $1.99 today. I bought, but have not as yet, read this. Edward Rutherford is an author who can most easily be described as a British James Michener. He writes long, detailed historical novels that follow families and places over many centuries. This one takes place on the Salisbury Plain, home of Stonehenge. At 1,059 pages, it is a commitment but I have been informed that it is worth the time.

From Library Journal

A first novel, Rutherfurd’s sweeping saga of the area surrounding Stonehenge and Salisbury, England, covers 10,000 years and includes many generations of five families. Each family has one or more characteristic types who appear in successive centuries: the round-headed balding man who is good with his hands; the blue-eyed blonde woman who insists on having her independence; the dark, narrow-faced fisher of river waters and secrets. Their fortunes rise and fall both economically and politically, but the land triumphs over the passage of time and the ravages of humans. Rutherfurd has told the story of the land he was born in and has told it well. The verbosity of a Michener is missing, but all the other elements are present, from geology and archaeology to a rich story of human life. Highly recommended. BOMC alternate. Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Poirot: Christie and Hannah

The Mysterious Affair At Styles: (Illustrated) by [Christie, Agatha]

$1.99 today. Many of you have probably already read this book but, if you have not, here is your chance. A summary from my local library:

“Who doesn’t love a good mystery novel? Curl up with The mysterious affair at Styles, a tale from the pen of Agatha Christie, a writer who is regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the masters of the form. This classic manor-house mystery introduces Christie’s much beloved character, the detective Hercule Poirot.”

Once you’ve read this first Poirot, you may just want to keep going. There are approximately 36 more. You will enjoy them all.

More recently, Sophie Hannah, was asked by the Christie estate to write additional novels in the series. She has written three books so far.

The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) by [Hannah, Sophie] On the first in the series: “We Agatha Christie fans read her stories–and particularly her Poirot novels–because the mysteries are invariably equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Sophie Hannah had a massive challenge in reviving the beloved Poirot, and she met it with heart and no small amount of little grey cells. I was thrilled to see the Belgian detective in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.”
— Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

The Mystery of Three Quarters, pictured above, is the latest release. The book is a fun cozy/traditional mystery. Clearly Hannah has read her Christie because her portrait of Poirot with his personality and idiosyncrasies, as well as his genius, comes through. There are death, multiple suspects, country house and school settings. Find out why church window cake can be important in a novel. Find out how the characters connect. Watch {oirot’s “little grey cells” do their job. All in all, a fun mystery to read.

Some praise:

“A puzzle worthy of the skills of legendary detective Hercule Poirot…. Hannah once again nails the style and substance of her beloved predecessor, producing another treat for Christie fans.” (Booklist (starred review))

“Another ingeniously deceptive puzzle…. The gratifying reveal is a neat variation on one of Christie’s own solutions and demonstrates Hannah’s facility at combining her own plotting gifts with another author’s creation.” (Publishers Weekly)

“[Hannah] supplies boundless ingenuity… adding a divinely inspired denouement.” (Kirkus Reviews)

ENJOY!

An adorable bedtime early reader: Good Night Kitty Kitty by Ponnay

I loved this book! It is an early reader with simple language and appealing illustrations. Adults and children who love cats will enjoy watching the unnamed child and Kitty Kitty as they settle down for the night. This is a very cute read!