Is there a witch? Where is the ghost? Who is a fake? Who is the murderer?

Last Wool and Testament 

by Molly MacRae

While I did like this book, it is not going to be a priority for me to read further in this series just now. Why?

Simply due to the fact that there are many other books/series that I am more interested in reading.

This won the 

2013 Lovey Award for Best Paranormal/Sci-fi Novel 

and was listed in the Suspense Magazine's Best of 2012.

None too shabby!

I admit that initially I was a bit concerned that this might be too "romancy" for me. But after 40 pages or so I was grateful to discover that was not true! The mystery was well-planned and the book held a good pace for me after that first section. I just can't say MacRae's writing style is a favorite for me. I didn't feel the characterization was as in-depth or detailed for me as I prefer. However, I think many readers would enjoy it! It has a Goodreads rating of 3.65! 

In the wake of Kath's grandmother's death, a letter is delivered to Kath that Ivy had left for her to read after her death. In it she indicates there are some secret talents Kath may inherit. This prompts Kath to remember just how cryptic Ivy had been with her in the past few months, not wanting her to visit, etc. There are several "mysteries" in this one book and each of them is depicted rather believably. Kath appears to have developed a 'sixth sense' about certain things as she experiences life in Blue Plum, Tennessee, once again. There are the two obnoxious, gossipy, manipulative Spivey Twins, Shirley and Mercy, whom no one seems to want around...ever! There is the Deputy whom Kath has privately nicknamed Clod. And Joe the Pantry Guy who seems capable of getting in anywhere at any time to any place. There are many unique characters, but there isn't much time spent developing them, which I realize many people prefer! Just not me...

And exactly who would encourage you to stay in an unoccupied house and neglect to tell you the former occupant died a violent death in the the same bed where you are about to sleep? Yikes!! I'm surprised Kath didn't immediately leave again, never to return! 

I loved Ernestine, and the whole TGIF crew! I admit I doubted several different people, but the murderer's identity still rather surprised me. 

Have you read any of Molly MacRae's books?

This one was enjoyable, but not a favorite. 

It says something when I don't have even one quote to pass along...

The Alphabet series continues...with X!

X by Sue Grafton

I admit that I was curious as to how Grafton would entitle the 24th installment of her Kinsey Millhone series. I first discovered this series about 20 years ago and read them all once I had read A is for Alibi, which, as you might expect was the first in this series... ;) I loved them all and ever since then have read the newest release in the series as soon as I can once it is released! (I read this one a bit later, since I have over-committed myself with a large list of books to read and review per a self-imposed schedule...as happens with some bloggers!) But no matter how long I waited to read it, it was still one of the best mysteries ever! And not just the 'mystery' portion, but Grafton is, in my opinion, one of the best writers I have ever read. Her characterization is thorough and well-defined, and that is the one thing I most appreciate and hope for with each book I read! Now...as to the title, Ms. Grafton wisely allows X to stand on it's own...
X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss. (Book jacket/summary blurb) 
X truly is a symbolic letter. As with R.I.P. X, for which this is my third book! (Appropriate, huh? X...and...X!) 

And, as we learn, 
The boat itself...was known as a xebec, a small three-masted ship having an overhanging bow and stern and both square and lateen sails. (5) 
I was thrilled with this bit of information since I had just learned a great new word to use in scrabble and scrabble-like games! Which I play quite often! A new word with 'X' as the first letter! Yes! This ship was the main subject in a painting that Hallie was trying to have declared an original by a famous artist so it's true value could be determined. Her initial motivation was to determine whether it was worth stealing from her ex-husband! 

Grafton inserts philosophy every once in awhile in her books, and yet not intrusively, simply as a matter of daily life. I believe this is one of my favorite aspects of her writing. Her characters 'think,' they don't just 'do'! As Kinsey is remembering about a former co-worker:
While I disliked him, I was then twenty-seven years old and newly employed and didn't feel it was my place to make my thoughts known. Besides which, no one asked and I doubt they'd have listened if I'd volunteered my views. (10)
How many times have I felt the same way about a job or work place? Many...trust me...many! :)
  Pete's name was never mentioned, and neither of us made reference to our little chat the night before. This is not a bad strategy. The practice of baring all, analyzing every nuance embedded in a quarrel, is a surefire way to keep an argument alive. Better to establish a temporary peace and revisit the conflict later. Often, by then, both parties have decided the issue isn't worth the relationship. (139)
I would definitely agree with Kinsey on this! Better to let it rest a bit, if at all possible...
As Kinsey considers her former co-worker:
I did take note that even as I was exonerating him, I continued to condemn him in equal measure, proof positive that our prejudices are nearly impossible to scotch. 
  The best I could manage for the moment was to concede he could be guilty of bad deeds and still retain a basic goodness at the core. (208)
Isn't it true? Once we have formed an opinion it is extremely difficult to alter it much. As a person said to me at the Storytelling Festival about 10 days ago, "Well, I guess none of us is totally good or totally bad, we're all a mixture of both." Well stated and oh, so very true. 

After meeting with a client, Kinsey is home, eating soup and a sandwich and reading, 
In hindsight, I marvel at how clueless I was at the shit storm to come. What I ask myself even now is whether I should have picked up the truth any faster than I did, which was not nearly fast enough. (15)
But Kinsey was not the only one who was unsuspecting. Poor Ruthie...she was so very naÏve! While I would like to think that I might have put two and two together much more quickly than she did, I'm sure there is a good chance I might have been just as easily fooled as she was! I could appreciate the fact that she did not enter her house when she arrived home and the door was standing wide open. Again, I'm not sure I would be that smart, especially given the fact that I have five kitties in residence! I would be concerned about them first of all and that would probably motivate me to enter the house immediately. I can't imagine how creepy it would be to discover that someone had purposefully misplaced virtually all items in your home or office (any of your personal spaces), just to freak you out, like leaving a note stating "I was here and obviously, I can return at any time!" Now that is just mean and so scary! And yet, changing locks and installing security systems doesn't necessarily guarantee your safety either, as Kinsey learns.  

Humor is always included in a Kinsey tale--not too much, but just enough. Henry, Kinsey's landlord and an octagenarian "hunk," has acquired Ed, a cat. Ed keeps escaping from the house and Henry has been frustrated in his search for the escape route:
  "I made a discovery today. You know how Ed's been getting out?"
  "No clue." 
  "Dryer vent. The tubing came loose and I spotted the hole when I was crawling through the bushes checking water lines."
  "You close it up?" 
  "I did. He'll probably find another way out, but for now, he's housebound." 
  Apparently, Henry hadn't noticed the cat at his feet, and I made no mention of him. (56-57)
Ha! This made me laugh out loud! Poor Henry! Fooled by a feline! But we all know kitties can be tricky! :)
Of the receptionist Kinsey thinks...
...I was so irritated with the way she'd treated me, I might have bitten her on the arm. I'd been a biter as a kid, and I can still remember the feel of flesh between my teeth. It's like biting a rubber bathing cap, in case you're curious. (106)
All-righty then! My oldest son went through about 6 months of biting, then suddenly stopped...thank goodness! :) Though he seemed to only do this in public, selecting strangers as victims! <shakin' my head>

While on a stakeout, Kinsey ponders...
...I knew my bladder would be right there living in the moment with me and clamoring for relief. To distract myself, I thought about all the cusswords I knew and arranged them in alphabetical order. (178) 
Maybe that's why I love Kinsey; at times I'm sure she and I are twins! I can easily imagine creating that same task for myself as a distraction! 
I drove back to the hotel motor plaza, where I left my car for the night. My clean underwear was still damp, so I set up the ironing board and iron and sizzled them dry. (191)
Now that, I have never done, nor do I believe I would have ever been smart enough to think of it. Besides...I'm not sure I know how to wield an iron any more! :) Nor do I think I want to find out! 
As one of his former high school classmates describes the perp:
"I'm not sure anybody knew him well. He was one of those guys you see on the street and you can't remember his name to save your soul. There's only so much room at the top of the heap. The rest of us are fill dirt." (246)
That definitely had me laughing aloud, right along with Kinsey! 

I love the fact that Henry could contribute by using his puzzle-solving skills to create the main piece of evidence for Kinsey to follow. He may not be great at keeping Ed in the house, but he is a master puzzler! :) After all, he has even been known to create crossword puzzles! Using this list of women's names, and some personal artifacts, Kinsey tries to piece it all together to identify not only a villain, but also determine just what crimes he has committed! At the same time she becomes more and more leery about her newly installed next-door neighbors. They appear to be well-practiced 'users,' sucking well-meaning Henry into 'helping' them all the time. Kinsey was determined not to get involved, though quite naturally, she does, if only in the guise of helping Henry initially! In doing so, she discovers some valuable information that motivates her to initiate her own 'pro bono' investigation, with some interesting and rather scary results! 

And finally, when April is discussing her father and stepmother:
  "[They're] very compatible. He's a bully and she's a mouse.They act like everything's fine, but it's not." (296) 
When Kinsey asks if April thinks the birth of their grandchild will change anything...
  "Like we'd see them more often? I'm sure he's hoping so, but I don't."
  "I never know what to make of conversations like this,...I sometimes have this fantasy that life would be wonderful if only my mother and my father were alive. Then I hear stories like yours and I want to get down on my hands and knees and rejoice." (297)
Even as this conversation transpired, neither April nor Kinsey had an inkling of the truth--what kind of person her father truly was... And I could so relate to Kinsey. Having never met my own father and then learning that he died 17 years ago, I believe I have such fantasies myself every once in awhile...

If you've never read Grafton and you enjoy mysteries with more than just "action," I can highly recommend this series! I always advise starting at the beginning, because I don't think any of the later books introduce Kinsey to the reader nearly as well as the first one does...so go read A is for Alibi and give Kinsey and Grafton a try! 

If you've read this one, how would you feel about Ned if you were April? Yikes!! I doubt there will be a way to track him, since he abandoned his own easily-identifiable vehicle. 

China Bayles, former Criminal Lawyer, now herbalist/amateur sleuth!

Thyme of Death by Susan Wittig Albert

This was the February 2015 read for our Borders Book Club!

And it was unanimous among the four members participating--
we all really liked it or loved it!

This book was nominated for both an Agatha and an Anthony Award for Best First Mystery!

Honestly, I think it should have won, for so many reasons!

Each of our book club members was really impressed with China's skill at analyzing and evaluating the evidence as she investigated...well, really, she was the first upon the various scenes of death except one! So whether she wanted to know the murderer's identity or not, it was probably the smart thing to do since she was somewhat implicated as the murderer...When asked why she left the practice of law to become an herbalist, China's stock answer is "plants don't argue"! (Very true!) She continues, 

     "They also don't lie, cheat, connive, or hit below the belt. ... I left 
     the law because I stopped believing in the partnership between 
     justice and the legal system. I also left because the practice of law 
     was changing me into somebody I didn't like very much, somebody more arrogant, 
     more competitive, more cutthroat than I knew myself to be. If I stayed in much longer, I 
     knew what I'd become--a carbon copy of the senior partners in our firm, four men who 
     lived for their work, whose lives were empty of anything else." (page 8)

I can certainly understand her need to switch career paths! Why herbs?

     "...because when I was a kid I was crazy about growing things. It was a trait I inherited 
     from my father's mother, who had what was probably the finest herb garden in New 
     Orleans parish. I inherited Gran's name, too. China Bayles." (page 8)

And in comparing these two jobs:

        It gives me a lift to see cellophane packages of Thyme and Seasons basil and rosemary and marjoram displayed in [the] produce section, along with some little ceramic pots of chives I'd sold them a couple of weeks ago. I feel every bit as proud of those chives as I ever felt about a well-done legal brief. I haven't figured out whether that judgment represents an overvaluation of my chives or an undervaluation of my briefs. (page 186)

Albert's sense of humor comes through in this book and makes it an even more enjoyable read. 

How nice that China and Ruby were able to "cover" for each other's business since they were next door to each other, so neither one 

     "is irrevocably tied to her shop. Even if you love what you're doing, some days a one-
     person business feels like a one-ton albatross." (page 10)

Yes, it can... I think too often people go into business for themselves thinking they'll never again NOT want to go into work. But it does happen, hopefully not as often or as intensely as when you're working for "the man"!

Jo, one of China's very closest friends in Pecan Springs is dealing with cancer,  

        "My connection to my own mother is strained, to put it mildly, and Jo filled an empty 
     place in my life." (page 19)

Jo truly took China under her wing when she first moved to Pecan Springs. In so many ways she was the motherly figure in China's life that she'd not had before. I could relate to the thoughts China had immediately after Jo's death about how she thought she'd have so much longer to say her goodbyes, etc. So many times that is how it seems.

China and I share similar relationships with our mothers, although mine was not an alcoholic as hers was. In reviewing Jo's lack of a close relationship with her own daughter, China muses, 

        I wonder whether any of us really knew our mothers, yet whether we could ever be 
     successful in knowing ourselves apart from them. (page 27)

As I become older than "middle-aged" I often feel a bit sad to think none of my three sons really understand who I am in so many ways. Though I wonder if it is possible for our children to know us as our closest friends do... However, it is so sad to realize the true reason Jo shut Meredith (her daughter) our of her life--I believe she may well have underestimated Meredith's ability to accept and appreciate her regardless... Though as China comments to Jo,

        "Maybe she thought you wouldn't approve. Maybe she wanted to protect you. Maybe 
     she wanted you to keep loving her." I stopped, struck by a disconcerting thought. Until I 
     was fifteen or sixteen, Leatha tried to cover up her drinking, keep it a secret from me. I'd 
     thought she hid it because she was ashamed of seeming weak beside my father's 
     towering strength. But maybe my mother, like Jo, had wanted to protect her daughter, 
     wanted her to keep loving her. I slid uneasily away from the thought. I'd built up a 
     reserve of energizing, sustaining anger against Leatha. It was useful. I wanted to hold 
     on to it. (page 148)

I could have written that paragraph, my own feelings toward my mother were so aptly described in those last three sentences! In the aftermath of her death, it is taking years for me to release the negativity and judgement those statements describe. 

Although China and Ruby are best friends, they are very different people in many ways. China is pragmatic and practical and Ruby tends to be a "free thinker" into "New Age alternative therapies"--she had Jo on the "Healing Path"! (In my opinion Ruby is simply a "hippie"!) They complement each other to create an effective team, particularly for investigations. We were all rather surprised at how Jo actually died in the end...It was certainly not what we expected!

In the course of the story, I'm certain I suspected each character of being the murderer at least two different times! (Except for China and Ruby, of course!) Albert masterfully weaves many false leads into the story, while retaining the cohesiveness and flow of the prose. There is a car chase, and a greedy murderer is caught! We all agreed that Albert deserved many kudos for making a lesbian relationship so prominent in this book which was published as long ago as 1992; it added more depth and resonance overall. 

A solid not-so-easily-solved mystery, concise storytelling, and this first book introduces the main (and I assume recurring-throughout-the-series) characters in a way that makes me want to know more about them. There are currently 22 books in this series, and yes...I do intend to read them all. Albert is one of my favorite writers! Pick one up!

Laugh out loud funny every single time!

I keep realizing that I have yet to blog about some of my absolute favorite books of all time! I blame that on the fact that I am so anxious to read more books, it is a task to pull myself away...to do anything else! :)

   

I adore the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich! There is no reading experience that compares to this for me! Each installment makes me laugh out loud...not just once or twice, but many many times. The characters and situations are so crazy and "unbelievable" as to be, well, almost believable! 

There are 21 books in this series at present. They are perhaps easily recognizable by the fact that their titles are sequentially numbered: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly,...all the way to Top Secret Twenty-One. I own each and every one of these books as well as the "between" novels: Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, and Plum Spooky. These latter novels tend to be much shorter. 

Although you most certainly do not have to read these in order, I really like to reread them in order every few years. I just feel it gives me much more appreciation for Stephanie's development (or lack thereof) through all her bizarre experiences. Perhaps the most entertaining part of reading this series is getting to know the "supporting cast" of characters. I find it difficult to believe that one person can create and develop such specifically oddball and unique characters! Evanovich has more than a fertile imagination--it qualifies as out of this world! 

Perhaps the two most scintillating characters are Ranger and Morelli; one the man who took Stephanie's virginity and the other sometimes rescues her and/or employs her. I'm going on record--I never want Stephanie to choose only one of these men! I think one of the most enjoyable aspects of this series is the fact that she has both of them in her life and they both (in their own way) do love her, and she them...

Then there is Stephanie's family: her mother who 'tipples' and irons when she gets extremely upset; her father who rarely speaks, communicating mainly using grunts; her Grandma Mazur who much prefers open casket funerals and will do her darnedest to attend every single funeral held in the Burg and make sure the casket IS open; and her perhaps-not-so-perfect sister, Valerie and her two children and new attorney husband... Morelli's Grandma Bella and "the eye." Don't forget the ex-husband, Dickie Orr, and new arch-nemesis fellow bounty hunter Joyce Barnhardt, the woman Stephanie caught with Dickie about 15 minutes before filing for divorce...

Who could ever forget Lula, the neon-colored 3-sizes-too-small spandex wearing "big-boned" but vertically-challenged ex-hooker, Vinny's file clerk and sometimes Stephanie's personal apprehension assistant! Transvestite rocker Sally Sweet, an obnoxious short person Randy Briggs, the I'll-eat-anything gigantic dog Bob, stoners Mooner and Dougie, office manager Connie, Mr. Jingles the alligator, Salvatore Sunucchi, to name just a few!

Interestingly, I notice readers post disgruntled reviews on Goodreads about this series, complaining that things never seem to change--each book is the same--yada yada yada. However, they keep reading and posting with each new release! Their complaints are exactly what I love about this series...so very predictable, especially the fact that I will laugh as I do at no other writing! 

I can't really pinpoint in detail what makes these books so darned appealing to me--I just know they are! How 'bout you? Have you tried one yet? If not, I suggest you do! Fun, fun, fun...