UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE

TITLE: UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE
AUTHOR: MARYJANICE DAVIDSON
Pages: 222
Date: 20/11/2007
Grade: 4
Details: nr. 4 Betsy Taylor, Undead book
Library

I suppose this book is best described as a fun bit of fluff; chick-lit featuring vampires, ghosts, the Devil and her daughter.
Betsy Taylor is the newly crowned queen of vampires, busy trying to plan her wedding to Eric Sinclair, king of vampires.
Meanwhile, her half sister, the up to now very well behaved daughter of the Devil, is starting to portray disturbing behaviour. And there are the ghosts who keep on seeking Betsy out so she can resolve the issues that keep them bound to Earth.
And the issue one of the ghosts dumps on Betsy just happens to be a serial killer still on the loose.
Nothing deep or complicated in the book, but for light entertainment it's the ideal read.

SHADOW MEN

TITLE: SHADOW MEN
AUTHOR: JONATHON KING
Pages: 258
Date: 18/11/2007
Grade: 5-
Details: nr. 3 Max Freeman Mystery
Library

Max Freeman, former police officer now P.I. gets the unusual request to investigate three 80 year old murders that were possibly committed and ended the lives of a father and his two sons while working on a road through the Florida Everglades.
From the very first, it is very clear that somebody doesn't want any digging into this history, but the opposition only makes Max more determined.
I really liked this book. The language used is beautiful and unemotional yet feelings and impressions are jumping off the page. There was a satisfying lack of obvious stereotypes. And although the story appeared to move along steadily the book was impossible to put down.

MEMORY OF WATER

TITLE: MEMORY OF WATER
AUTHOR: BRIAN EASTMAN
Pages: 298
Date: 18/11/2007
Grade: 4+
Details: nr. 3 Rosemary and Thyme Mystery
Library

Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme have accepted a commission to restore an Elizabethan garden. But shortly after arriving, Rosemary witnesses a man falling into the river. When a day later local man Jim Frazer is found death further down the river, it's assumed that Rosemary witnessed his suicide. But Jim was a local trouble maker, and Rosemary is convinced she's seem the man who fell into the river alive and well a day after he supposedly died.
And when somebody else dies, this time a murder without any doubt, the two sleuthing gardeners know they have to keep on digging until they find the answers, unaware of the kind of danger they're putting themselves in.
Fun and well plotted cozy mystery.

THE SHINING SKULL

TITLE: THE SHINING SKULL
AUTHOR: KATE ELLIS
Pages: 272
Date: 17/11/2007
Grade: 4.5
Details: nr. 11 Wesley Peterson Mystery
Library

30 years after being kidnapped never to be seen again, Marcus Fallbrook reappears to Devon and the place he considers his real home, now inhabited by his half brother. And soon a DNA test proves his claim.
At the same time, a fake taxi driver is abducting blond women only to release them after cutting of their blond hair.
And then, Leah Wakefield, young pop star, is abducted with all the evidence indicating that the kidnapper must be connected to the Markus Fallbrook abduction.
Wesley Peterson and his colleagues have their hands full and have no idea what's going on for the longest time.
Meanwhile, Neil Watson is doing and archaeological dig in a local church yard where he stumbles across an old coffin with one corpse too many and two mysteries of his own. Mysteries that turn out to be connected to at least one of the present day mysteries.
As per usual a good and well plotted mystery with a lot of angles.
And although I did pick the kidnapper, I never guessed at the reasons why.

THE SHIN

LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN

TITLE: LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN
AUTHOR: JANET EVANOVICH
Pages: 309
Grade: 4+
Details: nr. 13 Stephanie Plum Mystery
Library

When Ranger asks Stephanie to plant a bug on her ex-husband Dickie Orr, she has bad feelings about it, but does it anyway.
Her bad feelings are proven right, when Dickie subsequently disappears from his house, leaving signs of a struggle and blood. And because Stephanie fought with Dickie, in front of several witnesses, while planting the bug, she's the prime suspect in his disappearance.
Dickie appears to have been involved in very dodgy business dealings, and soon people are after Stephanie, with Ranger and Morelli taking turns minding her.
And of course her regular job still needs to be done, with the usual results.
I didn't find this book very funny, but the mystery wasn't badly put together.

JULIA'S CHOCOLATES

TITLE: JULIA'S CHOCOLATES
AUTHOR: CATHY LAMB
Pages: 383
Date: 10/11/2007
Grade: 5++
Library

"Grab the love. Hold on tight. Treasure it. Put that love you have for your husband first, arrange everything else around it, and all else will work out. Love must be cradled, and nurtured, and enjoyed, and danced with. Never, ever forget the love. It's why we want to live."

A wonderful quote from an equally wonderful, life enhancing, book. I'm so glad I read this book. The story had me smiling a lot, and on several occassions I had tears in my eyes or running down my cheeks.
A story filled with fear and terror, stress and illness, but more then any of those filled with love and friendship, courage and determination and how they will carry you through.

On her wedding day, Julia runs away from her abusive and very dangerous fiance, Robert, leaving her wedding dress hanging in a tree in the middle of nowhere.
The place she flees to is her aunt Lydia's farm near Golden, Oregon, the only place she's ever felt loved and safe in her whole life.
There she meets Lara, Katie, and Caroline, all three with their own issues to overcome.
The five women create strong bonds of friendship between them. Bonds that they'll need as each of them struggles with life changing problems and decisions.
In Golden, Julia learns to love and trust, and life would be perfect if it wasn't for the constant threat from Robert and the fear she's constantly living with.

THE GHOST AND THE DEATH MAN'S LIBRARY

TITLE: THE GHOST AND THE DEATH MAN'S LIBRARY
AUTHOR: ALICE KIMBERLY
Pages: 390
Date: 06/11/2007
Grade: 4.5
Details: nr. 3 Haunted Bookshop Mystery
Library

Penelope Thorton McClure and her aunt Sadie travel to the mansion of an old friend of Sadie's to receive a very rare collection of Edgar Allen Poe's complete works. After leaving they have to return almost immediately, and find the old man dead. And although Pen is sure this is a case of murder, the police rule it an accidental death.
Very lucrative offers almost immediately start coming in for the books, but when the first person to buy one dies unexpectedly, Penelope is even more convinced something sinister is going on.
Soon others connected to the books are attacked, even Pen herself, or involved in accidents.
Pen and her ghost, P.I. Jack Shepard, have their hands full trying to catch the murderer before more people die or he succeeds in framing Pen for it all.
These are fun books.
Jack is an obvious stereotype, but makes me laugh.
In this book, I had the murderer figured out from the moment he was introduced, but it didn't reduce my enjoyment.
And of course, I read this one out of order, so now I've got to go and get my hands on part 2.
"for a man who's well remembered
in mind, in thought, in tale,
for him, life is eternal,
and death shall finally fail."

PARDONABLE LIES

TITLE: PARDONABLE LIES
AUTHOR: JACQUELINE WINSPEAR
Pages: 326
Date: 04/11/2007
Grade: 5+
Details: nr. 3 Maisie Dobbs Mystery
Library

"Truly, to tell lies is not honourable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
to speak dishonourably is pardonable."
Sophocles

Boy, do I love these books.
In this one, Maisie is asked by a prominent barrister to prove that his son did die during the war.
And an old friend of Maisie's asks her to discover how and where one of her brothers died.
These cases are deeply unsettling for Maisie since they force her to face her own disturbing memories of the war, as well as travel back to France, where her happiness was shattered.
To complicate matters further, someone seems determined to kill her, and the investigations, which do come together, threaten to destroy her relationship with her mentor and friend, Maurice Blanche.
These are highly intelligent, moving and well researched mysteries, and I hope Mrs. Winspear will continue to write them for a long time.
Two quotes:

"My child, when a mountain appears on the journey, we try to go to the left, then to the right; we try to find the easy way to navigate our way to the easier path. But the mountain is there to be crossed. It is on that pilgrimage, as we climb higher, that we are forced to shed the layers upon layers we have carried for so long. Then we find that our load is lighter and we have come to know something of ourselves in the perilous climb.
Do not seek to avoid the mountain, my child, for it has been placed there at a perfect time. It will only become larger if you seek to delay or draw back from the ascent."

"Coincidence is a messenger sent by Truth."

NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS IN TIFFANY'S

TITLE: NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS IN TIFFANY'S
AUTHOR: MARIAN KEYES
Pages: 56
Date: 03/11/2007
Grade: 4+
Details: Non fiction
Own

This was not a novel, but a selection of reflections on the travelling Marian Keyes has done.
At times, recognizable, funny and insightful, this collection was fun to read and I wouldn't have minded if it had been longer.

THE WOODS

TITLE: THE WOODS
AUTHOR: HARLAN COBEN
Pages: 404
Date: 02/11/2007
Grade: 5-
Details: Stand-alone
Library

Twenty years ago, four teenagers walked from their summer camp dorms into the woods. The next day two of them were found murdered, while the other two were never found or seen again.
Paul Copeland has always felt terrible about that night. He was supposed to be watching the kids that night, but instead went off with Lucy, until terrible screams interrupted their night of passion. And one of the missing kids, was Paul's sister.
Now, twenty years later, Paul is a County Prosecutor involved in a case that could end his career, and a widower.
Then a murdered man is found, and Paul is convinced it's one of the two teenagers that went missing that night. And if this man was, up until recently, alive, then the same might be true for Paul's sister.
Meanwhile, Lucy is living a solitary life, trying to drown the past in Vodka, when that past trespasses into the present in a most unexpected way.
Thrown back together, Paul and Lucy set out to discover exactly what did happen that night, while at the same time discovering that their feelings for each other are still very close to the surface.
A very thrilling read. I read some people complaining about the ending of this book, but I didn't have any problems with it.

THE MEANING OF NIGHT

TITLE: THE MEANING OF NIGHT
AUTHOR: MICHAEL COX
Pages: 595
Date: 01/11/2007
Grade: 4.5
Library

This was a dark novel, set in Victorian times. A story about love, and how it makes people loose sight of their good sense; a story of revenge and how it takes over a person's life; and a story about obsession and how it destroys more than just the live of the obsessed one.
The story starts with Edward Glapthorn, formerly known as Edward Glyver killing a man he doesn't know and has never met before. The sole purpose of the murder being to find out if he's capable of killing a man.
The rest of the book is an explanation, by Edward Glyver, of how he came to commit this crime, and what happened afterwards.
It's the story of a baby being denied it's destiny and the impossible quest to reclaim what is rightfully his.
It's also the story of his opponent, willing to do anything to keep the rightful claimant from getting what is his, so that he may claim it himself.
A dark, but fascinating story, that could have done without the footnotes in my opinion.