Erin's Book #27: Autobiography of a Wardrobe by Elizabeth Kendall

A friend of mine told me about this book after taking a class taught by Elizabeth Kendall. I immediately fell in love with the concept - a memoir told from the perspective of her wardrobe. I was kind of sad I hadn't thought of it.

It took me a little while to get into it -it sounded a little cuter than it read - but it's such a great idea and it's fascinating how telling our clothing choices are. The book begins with the wardrobe in its infancy, when its owner B. is just a child. As she grows, she discovers the appeal of clothes, which she later rejects.

It's broken into teeny tiny little chapters - 2 - 5 pages mostly, each centering around a specific clothing item - a pair of shoes or a flowy dress. Each piece has a story and it tells a story about its wearer. It's a delightfully charming and revealing spin on the memoir. I wasn't in love with the book, but I'm intrigued enough by Kendall to add one of her other books to my list.

Pam's Book 40: My Best Friend's Girl

First of all, you may have noticed that my posts skipped from 38 to 40. That's because I looked through my old posts last night and realized I had two #20 posts, so this is really 40. Anyway.
As I stated in my last post, I asked my friend Laurie for some light, well written reads. My Best Friend's Girl is the heaviest light read I've ever read, but I couldn't put it down. I picked it up this morning after I woke up and finished it about two minutes ago.
Kamryn receives a letter from her estranged best friend Adele saying that she's dying and asking Kamryn to come see her. It turns out that she wants Kamryn to adopt her little girl Tegan after her death. This is the story of Kamryn and Tegan's new life together, with a soupcon of love and reconciliation thrown in. It is also the story of Kamryn and Adele's friendship and what went wrong.
I kept thinking about my best friend Adina as I read this book, and our own story. I'm pretty sure that any woman who reads this book won't be able to help but draw parallels in her own life and her own friendships. Because, while this book is about Kamryn learning how to be a parent and about Kamryn learning to fall in love again and learning to love herself through loving Tegan, at its core it is about the friendship between two women.
This was a beautiful story and an easy read--everything Laurie promised.

Pam's Book 38: The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam

I asked my friend Laurie to recommend some good books that were light reading but well written. Life's pretty busy these days, and I'm not sure how many brain cells I have to spare for recreational literary analysis, but I can't imagine not indulging in a daily chapter or two. She came up with this series as well as another book that will be showing up on here shortly.

Charlie--the title character--is a writer by day, thief by night. Well, actually, he says that it's actually safer, for the most part, to break into places by day. So make that a thief by day, writer by night. Charlie is currently hanging out in Amsterdam, trying to fill in some plot holes in his the mystery novel he is currently writing. A stranger approaches him with a strange commission that Charlie can't bring himself not to explore, despite his initial inclination to turn the job down. He winds up getting himself into trouble when he does take on the job, sort of, and the stranger winds up dead (these events are obvious from the beginning, so don't think I'm going to ruin anything here). The Good Thief deals with Charlie's escapades in Amsterdam as he attempts to extricate himself from this predicament and come out ahead.

Charlie is a likable, entertaining character with a great sense of humor and decent turn of phrase. The solution surprised me, and the ending, while predictable, was exactly what it should have been. I just reserved the next book in the series from the library.

Pam's Book 37: The Vintage Caper

Reading Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence at a young age affected me deeply: it ingrained in me a deep desire to visit the South of France (a desire yet unfulfilled) and a deep appreciation for Mayle's writing. I have faithfully read every book of his since then: those chronicling his time in Provence as well as his fictional capers. When he's not writing about life in France, Mayle writes about absurd and lovable thieves and good guys who get in over their head (not that his thieves aren't good guys, too). The books are witty and entertaining, and I always find myself giggling out loud when I read them. Last weekend I found myself waiting for a plane to land, a plane that was running an hour late, stuck with nothing to read. I ventured into the only open store and found The Vintage Caper, Mayle's latest, which had somehow slipped my attention.
Once I read the book, I discovered why it had slipped my attention: it wasn't really worthy of anybody's attention. Don't get me wrong; reading it was certainly better than reading nothing (not a sentiment I've wasted on some other noteworthy bores of books), but only slightly. Since my only other option was to watch the plane's progress on my phone (about as entertaining and fruitful as watching paint dry), I slogged ahead.
Sprinkled throughout are a few gems that remind me why I enjoy Peter Mayle's writing:
"And then, clearly suspecting the poor German of trying to smuggle a potentially dangerous sense of humor onto the aircraft, ordered him to step aside and wait for the supervisor."
"'Monsieur is an old client of ours, and the girl is his daughter. He is teaching her how to have dinner with a man.' Only in France, Sam thought. Only in France."
Sam is a fairly typical Mayle hero: a morally ambiguous character you have to kind of like. Except, this time, I don't like him as much as I should. He is not as three dimensional as he should be. And the girl he ends up with, the girl you know from the very beginning he's going to end up with, is not as interesting as she should be.
Maybe there's a reason Mayle doesn't write books as often as he used to.

Blythe's Book 35: Catching Fire

After reading The Hunger Games, I was expecting to be blown away by Catching Fire, the second book in the series. Unfortunately, I wasn't. However, the more I've thought about the book, the more I've come to the conclusion that this is a bit inevitable. The first book, or even movie, in a series is always good (if it's going to get published, that is). There are new characters, a lot of plot, things to discover... and The Hunger Games delivers on all fronts. However, Collins' second book, Catching Fire, is a bit slower and at times feels unnecessary-- much like most middle movies or books in a series. Katniss and Peeta seemed to be almost reliving the plot of the first book at some points. At first this annoyed me, but then I realized that their interactions are different this time around because of the experiences they've shared, and that Collins is trying to build relationships, and to allow Katniss to grow in this novel, so that she is a suitable heroine for the third installment. Maybe there isn't as much going on, or it doesn't seem quite as original, but the subtle evolution of the characters is necessary. While Catching Fire didn't meet my expectations, it certainly didn't turn me off to the series, and the ending was very satisfying because it suggested that the third book, Mockingjay, will be very exciting plot-wise.

Blythe's Book 34: The Hunger Games

I wanted to post this last night, as a celebration of the third and final book in the series being released, but was just too lazy to write about it. And besides, I'd alread rushed out to get the third book, so I was busy reading it. In case you can't tell, I LOVE this series. If you haven't heard of it, that's probably because Suzanne Collins is an author of young adult fiction-- and, by the way, if you aren't reading any YA fiction, you're missing out on some of the best books on the market. The Hunger Games is about a young woman who lives in a kind of post-apocalyptic America called Panem. Panem is comprised of twelve impoverished districts and The Capitol-- a place of decadence and frivolity. At one point, the twelve districts rose against the Capitol, only to be beaten soundly. Ever since, the rulers of the Capitol have laid down the law so to speak... and as a reminder of who has the power, they devise a gladiator-like game that is held each year: The Hunger Game. Each district must send two tributes, one male and one female, who are between the ages (I think?) of 8 and 16. These tributes are then put into a high-tech arena where they must fight for their lives against man-made disasters, mutant animals, and one another. The last tribute standing wins. And the whole thing is televised, interviews are given beforehand, parades are held, etc. It's quite fun for the residents of the Capitol, and absolutely terrifying for the residents of the districts, who never know who will be chosen next. Wow. Way too much backstory, but it was necessary. Sorry. Anyway, this novel tells the story of Katniss, a young woman who is chosen as Distirct 12's tribute and who turns the Hunger Games on their head. Katniss is this great combination of gutsy, practical, and emotionally clueless. Katniss has been hunting and gathering to support her family since she was a child, and has more street sense than any other female heroine I know of. She's balanced out by her fellow tribute, Peeta who is caring and brave, but not nearly as equipped for survival. This series is immensely popular with teenagers, and at first I was surprised how many teenage boys are into it; typically they don't read novels where the main character is a [shudder] girl. However, Holly pointed out to me that Katniss' gender really isn't even obvious until well into the book (unless you read the jacket cover), and I think that may have a lot to do with its popularity with males. Now on to book 2...

Blythe's Book 33: The Flying Troutmans

The Flying Troutmans was August's pick for book club, and I got around to reading it two days after our meeting, which is a bummer, because I would have liked to discuss it with the other gals. I wasn't in love with the novel, per se, but I really liked the characters; they seemed so real. Hattie is 28 years old when she flies back to Canada from Paris to take care of her mentally ill older sister's two children, Logan (15) and Thebe (12). While her sister, Min, is in the mental hospital indefinitely, Hattie decides to take the kids to meet their long-absent father in hopes that he will be able to care for them. I really like that the road trip they embark on-- one that takes them through South Dakota all the way to Mexico-- is odd, but not unbelievable. What ensues is a trip that, in many ways, seems to happen exactly as it might in real life. There are a couple odd people they meet, a few sad experiences, but ultimately, this is a family who is going through the typical turmoil that any family in transition might face. Although the one-liners are just too damn good to be anything but fiction, of course. Anyway, the ending leaves a few questions, but they seem reasonable ones: what will happen to Min? Who will ultimately care for the kids? Will Hattie be able to keep everyone together and find happiness for herself as well? I can only hope so.

Blythe's Book 32: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

The third, and quite possibly last, of Stieg Larsen's series left nothing to be desired. Well, there was a little to be desired, in that I would have been happy to read more about Mikael and Lisbeth. However, I think this book was my favorite out of the three, primarily because the whole focus was on Mikael and Lisbeth and the cast of characters surrounding them, rather than on a really detailed plot of corporate deceit and intrigue. I really delayed reading the last 50 pages or so, because I was SO worried that this book would be a cliff-hanger like the last one... and how frustrating would that be, since there isn't a fourth! Stupid Stieg, going and dying on his readers. So inconsiderate. However, the ending was perfect (and that's all I'll say about that). If you haven't yet picked up this series, I urge you to do so. Like I said before, I'm typically not one for mysteries or like, business-based plots, but the characters really won me over... and I'll miss them :(

Blythe's Book 31: The Help

I think I'll refrain from posting a picture, since there's already one of the cover in a previous post. I'll also refrain from giving a recap of the novel, since that too has been done. However, I do want to comment on how much I liked The Help. As someone who was raised in the technical South, the Deep South is still something of a mystery to me; especially the Deep South of the 1940s and '50s. This novel brought to light the many contradictions of the peculiar relationships between white women and their black hired help. How do you allow someone to raise your children from birth to adulthood, but still maintain that they are too ignorant, coarse and different to be considered your equal? How do you trust someone with your family and your secrets, but not with your silver? How do you live side by side with someone for twelve hours a day, but refuse to share a bathroom? Even stranger is the relationship between black hired women and the white children they've raised: children who go from one day adoring this woman as a second mother, to the next treating them with condescension and blatant discrimination. It was a weird, weird world, but one that was definitely interesting to read about and consider.

V's Pick #45: Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog or The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman by Lisa Scottoline

LOL. I don't use that phrase...ever...but there's just no way around it with this book. In fact, I'll go as far as LMFAO! Yes, I did it. I went there.

Read this and tell me you didn't LYFAO and you've got some serious issues. Here's the deal - Lisa has been writing a column called "Chick Whit" for The Philadelphia Inquirer for a handful of years. Much like Candace Bushnell, she decided that people loving her column might just mean people loving a book if she wrote one. Bingo! Next thing you know, people like me are picking this book up in their tiny Florida library, having never heard of Lisa or her column and laughing before they've even made it out of the bookstacks.

After a solid month of Potter, I wanted something super light-hearted and possibly true. I started two other books before finding this one (both of which are still only half read)...but they were both pretty serious and I wanted something light, female, non-wizarding...you get the idea. Luckily, the day before getting on the plane to Wisconsin, I found this and it was finished before we touched down in Milwaukee. You will not regret a moment of this book...even if the people sitting around you look at you kind of scared because you're laughing like a maniac. Lisa would tell you to screw 'em...and after reading her, so would I.

Each column-adaptation is about 3-6 pages long, which makes this also a very easy to read book - all the non-commitment of a magazine with all the zest of a feisty novel. Can you tell how much I loved this book? Really. LOVED.

Some of my favorite Lisa moments include her ruminations on the following things: Spanx, The Flying Scottolines, Betty and Veronica (of the comic), disasters, being braless, the messes dogs make, her mother, her gay brother, Thing 1 and Thing 2 (her ex-husbands), did I mention her mother, chickens, her mother's cell phone and her daughter's college graduation.

V's Pick #44: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I finished this book almost two months ago but have been so aimless this latter part of summer it's kind of embarrassing. So, I'm finally blogging about it to prove it really happened - I read all of Harry Potter the summer of my 28th year of life.

About The Deathly Hallows - I didn't think she'd end with an epilogue, although I not-so-secretley wanted to rest assured that Harry and Ginny ended up together. Rowling handled everything nicely - I didn't feel cheated or saddened by the saga coming to an end. She took me on a magical journey into a world that despite it's lack of reality, was very real in ways of the human condition, not to mention, quite hilarious. The 7th book wasn't my favorite and there were moments, especially after having read all 7 in a month's span, where I was just DONE with Potter. But, all in all, I am very, very glad I stuck it out and made it through what I think will for a long time be, a landmark series of juvi fiction.

That said, the best thing about the HP series for me was that it was just so much FUN to read. My imagination doesn't play as much as it used to and these books brought some of that back for me.  At moments, I could almost see why so many adults would wait for the books, all dressed up and then devour them that same night. Reading HP is the best kind of escape...not just in to someone else's world, but into a far more complicated and scary world than our own...yet never fully terrible because at the worst moments, know it's not real. Anyway, I'm a fan. So weird. Still to come for me this year: the theme park and the 1st part of the 7th movie!!

Erin's Book #26: Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

Knowing that I was going to be spending several hours on planes and in airports, I packed a few books. I grabbed Goodnight Nobody because I figured it would be light and easy airplane fare. It was.

Kate Klein is a suburban mother of three, married to a man who's more involved with his job than his family. Having left New York after being stroller-jacked, she hates her tiny Connecticut town with its perfect mommies and longs for a little excitement. (If you're familiar with Jennifer Weiner novels, she's a pretty typical character, and in some ways, the same character as many of her books.) So when another mommy turns up dead with a knife in her back, Kate, a former "reporter" is on the case.

It's a pretty funny conceit - she investigates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 8:45 and 11:30 while her kids are in nursery school. But I thought it fell a little flat. I definitely felt like I was a few years too young and a few kids too short to really appreciate it. It does deal with some interesting issues, as Kate turns up the reality behind the masks of her Stepford wife neighbors. It leaves a few loose ends, but I didn't feel involved enough to really care. An entertaining quick read, but nothing more.

Erin's Book #25: The Bright Forever by Lee Martin

A library near me has a terrific sale twice a year in which new books sell for $1 - $2. I knew nothing about this book, but the cover attracted me and I figured for $1, I didn't have much to lose. I read the entire thing in half a day of traveling, but that was more a testament to how easy a read it is than how good it is.

Reminiscent of The Lovely Bones in both cover art and subject matter, Bright Forever is about the disappearance of a 7-year-old girl. Each chapter is written by a different character involved and slowly the pieces begin to come together. The technique works and is an interesting way to paint the whole picture, but my problem with it is it just seems sort of pointless. I enjoyed reading it, but it's just a really devastating story. I'm not sure what the value of such a story is. It doesn't really have a message or a moral. It's just a creative way of writing about something really horrible that happened.

Erin's Book #24: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I'd heard about this book and how great it was for years, so when I found it at a book sale for $5, I finally picked it up. Middlesex follows the incestuous Stephanides family. It begins in Smyrna, where brother and sister Lefty and Desdemona watch their city burn to the ground and flee to the U.S., specifically Detroit. Both secretly harboring feelings for their sibling back in Smyrna, they decide on the boat to reinvent themselves as a married couple. Desdemona carries around a tremendous amount of guilt over their union and fears for her offspring. But nothing happens until their son Milton marries his second cousin and the resulting child, Calliope turned Cal, is a hermaphrodite.

Cal narrates the entire novel, which is an interesting perspective, as he often presents his view of things that happened decades before he was born. It's a fascinating look at the entire family, each generation engrossing in their own way. Sure, it's a little dark and creepy, but it's a truly original, beautifully-written book.

Pam's Book 36: The Likeness

My favorite mystery reading buddy Trish gave this to me in between trips this summer, along with the latest Elizabeth George. I read it on the plane trip to Atlanta. I read it in Atlanta. I read it on the plane to New York. I read it the six hours we were stuck on the tarmac in New York. I finished it midway over the Atlantic. Maybe read isn't such a good term; devoured would be better. Tana French wrote another book before this one, something about the woods. I'd heard it was a good book but had an unsatisfying ending; this one, apparently, had a better ending.

Cassie Maddox, police detective, former undercover detective, has been left somewhat of a mess as the result of a former case (I'm assuming it's the case I missed in the first book). She no longer investigates murder, instead dedicating her time and energy to domestic violence. Until she receives a panicked call from her boyfriend, a homicide detective. A dead body has been found; a dead body who could be Cassie's twin. Not only does she look exactly like Cassie, but she carries an ID bearing Cassie's former undercover name, Lexie Madison. They make the radical decision to claim the girl hadn't died and instead send Cassie back home as Lexie to further investigate her death.

There is no point at which this book is not suspenseful, since we know Cassie is not really Lexie, but we don't know if anybody else knows that, and then there's the fact that somebody was trying to kill Lexie, so now somebody's probably after Cassie, thinking it's Lexie... Lexie lives an insular life with four other students, three boys and a girl. They're a bunch of oddballs, but they're a tight bunch of oddballs, and it's miraculous Cassie can insert herself in at all. We know from the very beginning that some sort of disaster ensues, but we're not sure what. The reader is constantly second guessing everyone's moves and motives, working to discover what goes wrong and how. Somehow the ending manages to be surprising even though you can kind of see it coming, once the downward spiral begins. I just might have to read the first book, unsatisfying ending notwithstanding.

Pam's Book 35: The Messenger of Athens

I bought this book for 99p at a little independent bookstore in Warwick, England. I bought it because it was 99p and it was a mystery and I thought maybe it would be good. It was okay. I can't say it made me want to read anything else she's written. A woman is dead. A mysterious figure turns up on her backwoods Greek isle to investigate her death. He wants to know not only who killed her, but who is responsible for her death, which could be something different altogether. He looks at the woman's husband, her lover, the corrupt chief of police. He finds out both who killed her and who is responsible for her death. He metes out his own kind of justice. The whole thing is kind of weird. Zouroudi keeps herself at a kind of distance from her characters, never getting too involved. She doesn't seem to identify with her characters any more than I do. I'm glad I only paid 99p for this book.

Pam's Book 34: One Day

This book is about Dex and Em, Em and Dex. Dexter and Emma meet on the night of their college graduation. They spend the night and the next day together, developing a life-long friendship. One Day follows Dexter and Emma through the years, only revisiting them on the anniversary of the day they met, St. Swithin's day. On that one day each year we discover what Dexter and Emma have been up to the past 364 days, where they are in their lives, where they are in their relationships (to each other and to others).

At first I fell in love with this book because I identified not only with Emma, but with the relationship between Emma and Dexter. It reminded me of my relationship with Colin, my best guy friend. The further I delved into the book, though, the farther removed Emma's life and relationship with Dexter were from my own life and relationship with Colin. By then, though, I was hooked.

One Day is moving and funny and once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down again until I finished it. I have passed it onto my book buddy Trish. I'm sure she'll like it as much as I did. Goooood book!

Pam's Book 33: The End of Mr. Y

Ariel is a PhD student at an unnamed university in England, studying the works of metaphysical novelist Thomas Lumas. Weird things begin happening when her adviser disappears and she discovers Lumas's exceedingly rare novel: The End of Mr. Y. Mr. Y of the book-within-a-book is at a carnival and runs into a "doctor" who mixes up a potion that allows Mr. Y to enter the mind of a carnival illusionist. The doctor disappears overnight and Mr. Y chases after him in search of this potion. Over the years Mr. Y beggars himself trying to find the doctor. He finally succeeds and it ends up ruining his life. The page of the book that contains the recipe to the potion is missing. (SPOILER ALERT: If you plan on reading the book, you might not want to read the rest of this.) Ariel stumbles across the missing page and decides to concoct the potion and try it herself. In the meantime, Ariel is being chased by men purporting to be CIA. Ariel undergoes all sorts of adventure, both inside and outside the minds of others, all the time trying to avoid the men who are chasing her. She meets a man at some point and develops what is possibly the first healthy romantic relationship of her life. She meets a mouse-god. She finds her adviser.

This book was fascinating and kept me gripped from beginning to end. I ran across it at the airport bookstore in Stockholm; it came highly recommended by the clerk, as did the next book I'm going to blog about.

Pam's Book 32: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

I had high expectations for this book. It came highly recommended by NPR and other trusted literary sources. I hated it. A lot. A whole lot. The whole time I was reading it, I kept waiting to like it, to like something about it, but it never happened. It was like when I went to see that horror movie, The Ring, that was supposed to be so scary; I kept waiting to get scared, and then the credits rolled, with me still waiting.

If this book had been written by a South American author, it would be called magical realism. Young Rose suddenly develops an ability to taste the emotions of whoever makes her food. It begins, as the title suggests, with a lemon cake made by Rose's mother. The mother seems happy and bubbly but is secretly depressed. It gets to the point where Rose mostly eats highly processed foods made in big factories by machine. She also has a weird genius older brother who I think is supposed to be gay. Rose has a crush on her brother's best and only friend. Rose, because of her weird food thing and other hang-ups, never really makes a life for herself. Rose's older brother falls apart and begins disappearing.

There's never really much of a plot. Rose is annoying and pathetic. Her brother is also annoying and pathetic, both in their own special ways. I'm not really sure what the big hype about this book is.

Pam's Book 31: Gods in Alabama

"There are gods in Alabama. Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in Possett. I kicked it under the kudzu and left it to the roaches."

So opens the novel. Arlene has made a deal with God in return for the mishap with the Alabama god: she will never lie, have sex outside of marriage, or return to her hometown. Like other Joshilyn Jackson heroines, Arlene has a messed up mother who has been replaced, or at least supplemented, by other strong women in her life. She works hard to keep her promises, so hard that it's destroying her from the inside out. In order to set things right in her life and the lives of others, Arlene ends up breaking all of her promises, which ends up being for the best. The book has all sorts of twists and turns that keeps it interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pam's Book 30: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

I blogged earlier in the year about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first Flavia de Luce mystery. This book finds the resiliant young Flavia recovered from her earlier adventures and misadventures, raring for another mystery to solve. Puppeteer Rupert Porson obliges her by getting himself murdered at one of his shows. Once again Flavia, amateur chemist and sleuth extraordinaire, sees it as her duty to outwit the police and find the murderer on her own. Which, of course, she does.

Flavia comes across a number of dubious characters, including her older sisters who mercilessly bully her, her sisters' swains, a former prisoner of war, the other woman, the pastor, and the pastor's wife. There's also, of course, the token madwoman. Actually, two of them. Flavia is wise beyond her years, occasionally annoyingly so, but endearing all the same. This is definitely a book worth reading.

Pam's Book 29: Bite Me: A Love Story

I blogged several months ago about the first book in this series, a tongue-in-cheek book in which Jody is turned into a vampire. In the second book her minion-turned-boyfriend Tommy is also turned into a vampire. Bite Me focuses on the adventures of Abby Normal, Tommy's minion. The book is hilarious. Teenager Abby's real name is Alison, but her Gothic nesferatu (vampire) obsession has led her to a darker moniker. The story, while funny, is secondary to the character study of Abby. There's nothing about her that is not laugh out loud hilarious. She won't let her boyfriend kiss her without slapping him afterward (so he doesn't think she's a slut). Her diction is affected in the manner of a Gothic novelist. I'm not doing justice to how funny she is, so you're going to have to trust me on this.

Abby, Jody, Tommy, Abby's boyfriend Steve, the Emperor, and the Animals (Tommy's onetime co-workers, the night shift at the Safeway) have to save the cities from vampire cats and various other dangers, while at the same time Abby is doing her best to get herself turned into a vampire. It's refreshing to read a book about vampires that doesn't take itself seriously.

Pam's Book 28: Death of a Cozy Writer

I enjoy reading "cozy" mysteries, so when I came across this, I figured it looked like a book for me. It's about a guy, Sir Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk, whose main talents are being a real jerk and churning out mystery stories that are basically plagiarized from golden age classics (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, etc). He glories in tormenting his adult children, changing his will with each new whim. Sir Adrian is, of course, murdered, as are other characters. DCI St. Just is called to the scene to investigate. He uncovers secrets and skeletons in closets all over the place.

When I read this book nearly two months ago, I found it entertaining. However, this is the first chance I've had since then to sit down and post a blog about it, and I have to say it didn't make a big enough impression on me to say much about it after all this time has passed. I have another book by the same author, and I plan on reading it. Malliet writes a solid mystery, good escapist stuff, but nothing truly memorable.