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Without Mercy
Lisa Jackson
Kensington Publishing, 2010
ISBN 0758225644
Hardcover

It was a good book and kept me interested through the read.  The only negative I have is that one does need suspend disbelief about this school and its success.  Other than that, I took it with me everywhere until I finished it!  And I did not guess the final ending—but I’m not going to reveal it here for those who have not read it yet!  I recommend it for those of you who are Lisa Jackson’s fans and anyone who likes a good thriller where you have no idea what’s coming next!

Reviewed May 2010 by Sandi Lewis who won the book here in a contest.

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The winner of the autographed copy of
Thrilled to Death by L.J. Sellers is—ta da!—Janice!  Congratulations to Janice and thank you to everyone else who entered the drawing

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I watched “The Stand” this weekend for about the gazillionth time.  Yes, I know, it reeks of cheese and Molly Ringwald has to be one of the worst miscasts ever but you know what?  I DON”T CARE.  I love this miniseries and every time I watch it, I’m reminded that this is when I first developed a massive flickcrush on both Gary Sinise and Rob Lowe.  Adam Storke, too, but I haven’t seen him in anything worthwhile since the wonderful and badly mistreated science fiction TV show, “Prey”.  Miguel Ferrer and Ray Walston are pretty terrific, showing the talent that comes with years of perfecting the acting craft.

The miniseries also does a fairly decent job of adapting the book, my favorite of all of Stephen King’s work.  King is my favorite writer, even with his missteps, and I once again have a feeling of satisfaction after watching the show.

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Facts and Legends of The Hills of Richmond
Brooks Smith & Wayne Dementi
Dementi Milestone Publishing, 2008
ISBN 9780977315383
Hardcover

For anyone who, like me is a born-and-bred Richmonder or has ever lived or visited here or just has an interest in Virginia history, this little book is a gem.  With stories and photographs, the authors have devised an Adventure Map the reader can use to follow the journey and then to physically visit the sites.  Many of the essays cover subjects familiar to me as a native but there are also tales I hadn’t heard before.  That’s as it should be for anyone who loves history—the joy is in the familiar but also in discovering the unknown past.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, September 2010.

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]]> http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2010/09/06/a-contest-winner-teeny-reviews-and-more/feed/ 0 http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2010/09/04/book-review-homers-odyssey-by-gwen-cooper/ http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2010/09/04/book-review-homers-odyssey-by-gwen-cooper/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 12:00:35 +0000 Lelia http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/?p=3414 Homer’s Odyssey
Gwen Cooper
Read by Renee Raudman
Random House Audio, 2009
ISBN 0307704114
Unabridged Audio Book

A tiny homeless kitten is left with a veterinarian, a kitten with a terrible eye infection that could be successfully treated only be removing his eyes.  Being blind is one thing; being eyeless is quite another and the vet faces a difficult time finding a home for this little creature.  Then she introduces him to Gwen Cooper, a young woman with a love of animals, and a new life begins for the fluffball Cooper names Homer.

With Cooper‘s diligent help, Homer learns to maneuver in his sightless world, sharing space with two other cats and completely unaware that he has a disability.  His infection had taken hold before his newborn eyes opened and he had never had vision.  If you’ve never had sight, you don’t know what you’re missing and Homer sets out to conquer whatever hurdles he encounters.  Along the way, he teaches Cooper and every other person who meets him a thing or two about living beyond one’s limitations.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about one episode in Homer’s life, his survival of the horror of 9/11 when Cooper was prevented from returning home to her pets.  Cooper‘s telling of her experience during this terrible time and her fear for her cats struck a cord in me.

http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2010/08/01/a-911-story/

I enjoy animal tales and Homer’s Odyssey is a special example of how much an animal can affect our lives.   Listening to the audio edition, I felt almost a part of this tiny cat’s life and I thank Ms. Cooper for sharing his story with us.  He is a little guy I wish I could meet in person.  Homer is now 13 years old and you can check in on him and his feline “sisters”, Vashti and Scarlett, at the author’s blog here—

http://www.gwencooper.com/blog.php

(Note: click on the “Uncategorized” tag in any post to get to the older posts.)

A portion of the author’s royalties go to animal rescue organizations and the paperback will be available this Tuesday so you’ve got no excuse—buy the book and meet this wonderful cat!

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, September 2010.

Olivia Limoges is a wealthy resident of Oyster Bay, North Carolina, and is a bit of a loner with a mysterious past in this beach town where she lived as a child.  Her wealth gives her an air of entitlement, despite a very sad and troubled childhood that makes her the target of much gossip, but she would like to fit in better.   Unfortunately, her social graces are somewhat lacking or, at least, well hidden, and she spends most of her time with her standard poodle, Captain Haviland, and works on an unfinished novel.

Then Olivia meets Camden Ford, a gossip hound and would-be tell-all biographer who is in town digging up dirt on a celebrity staying nearby. Camden is a member of the Bayside Book Writers, a critique group, and invites Olivia to join.  His motives in doing so are not entirely altruistic—the group needs a better place to meet and Olivia has the space—but his charm wins her over with a little push from Dixie, a waitress with her own kind of eccentricity.

Olivia discovers that she actually does like these people and is settling in to the critiquing routine when one of her new friends turns up dead.   For a couple of reasons that actually make some sense, the local police chief welcomes a little sleuthing by the group and they do indeed come up with some useful information.  Along the way, a side story involves the town’s reaction to proposed development that could change the character of the town, causing a good deal of anguish.  Then another body is found.

Having been published early this summer, this mystery set in a coastal town is an obvious and worthy beach read.  Ms. Adams, who has written three other mystery series under two different pen names, has created a very likeable group of characters who have been given enough depth to make the reader engage with them and care what happens to them. This is true not only of the primary characters but also the secondary and that’s refreshing.   Olivia herself is NOT immediately appealing and learning what makes her who she is strengthened my enjoyment.   I found one of the book group members to be a bit irritating but it was in the sense of knowing she’d drive me crazy if I had to spend too much time with her in real life; in fiction, my annoyance level was moderate—and I wouldn’t particularly care for a cast of characters that are unrelentingly likeable.  That would be more than a little boring, I believe.

The mystery itself is well-plotted and I didn’t guess who the killer was.  The only difficulty I had was I thought the killer’s motive was a little far-fetched but not unreasonably so.   There is also a hint of romance that the author offers in a light-handed way.  This first in the Books by the Bay series is a very good start and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Note:  I have known this author for several years, having met her through my bookstore and hosted signings.  Having read all her other books, I can honestly say this is the most intriguing and my opinion is not influenced by the fact that I know Ms. Adams.  I would feel the same if it had been written by Jane Doe.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2010.

Two young women are missing in Eugene, Oregon, and there is no apparent connection between them, one a single mother of a baby and the other a wealthy local heiress.  Danette could have gone off on her own, suffering from postpartum depression, but Detective Wade Jackson isn’t so sure.  He begins to look into her disappearance before the usual waiting period for missing persons because he’s dating the baby’s grandmother and his gut tells him something isn’t right.

Soon after Danette’s vanishing, Courtney is reported missing, having failed to come home after going to a nightclub.  Courtney had run off for a couple of days some months earlier and the missing persons detective in charge thinks she has probably done so again.  Reflecting her family’s influence and position in the community, as is so often the case in today’s world, the media pays much more attention to Courtney’s case than to Danette’s.

Then the first body is found and it looks as if the death might be the result of a make-believe kidnapping arranged by an adventure company.  Seemingly serendipitous connections between the two women begin to come to light and yet one of them is still missing and Jackson is more and more sure that she did not run away.

Early on, a thought of one of the bad guys caught my attention:

This was only his second pickup of a live person, and he thought it would be easy.

Something about that struck me as chilling.

Not having read the first two Detective Jackson books,  I missed out on some backstory but Ms. Sellers is a very good writer and is adept at giving enough of that backstory without letting the newest book get bogged down in rehashing the past.  I enjoyed the secondary characters, especially Jackson’s colleagues, and want to get to know them better.

I thoroughly enjoyed Thrilled to Death and will go back to read the first two in the series.  My only quibble is with the physical product in that the gutter (the space between the print and the binding) is too shallow, making the book a little difficult to handle without breaking the spine.  Still, that did not prevent me from getting caught up in a very good story and I applaud the author and the publisher for high-quality editing.  Ms. Sellers is an author with talent and I’m happy to have “discovered ” her.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2010.

At seventeen, Katniss has survived the arena twice and has become the reluctant rallying point of rebellion.   Now living in District 13 since the Capitol destroyed her District 12 homeland, she acknowledges the refuge but can’t be entirely grateful.   Her best friend, Gale, and her sister and mother have also survived the destruction but she has no idea whether the captured Peeta is alive or dead and so many more have been lost.

The rebel side wants much more from her—they want her to be the actual face, the embodiment of the revolution, the Mockingjay.    All Katniss wants to do is to run away, to escape the terrible memories, but she is caught by the question of Peeta.  As long as he might still be alive, she doesn’t really have a choice.  And so it begins.

Her training for war does not go smoothly and, along the way, there are many reasons for Katniss to abandon her apparent destiny.  One goal keeps her focused—the chance to kill President Snow, the man she holds responsible for all the tragedy in her young life.  This will carry her, and her companions, through events no teenager should have to face.  That’s the point, though, isn’t it, that young people are the ones who lose the most in times of war and rebellion.

With the first two books of the trilogy, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins raised the bar incredibly high for young adult science fiction, and readers of adult science fiction have been just as captivated by Katniss and the horror of the Hunger Games.  This third and final book does not disappoint in any way and, for this reader, the long wait was well worth it.  There were any number of directions the author could have taken with the ending of Katniss’s story but she did not take an easy way.  Some of the events in Mockingjay are shattering and unexpected but, having read it, I have to say I think this is what had to happen.

Ms. Collins brings her secondary characters, even a cat, to life every bit as much as the central figures and  there is much sadness as well as joy in their stories.  Katniss, Gale and Peeta are heroic and tragic and, until the very end, the reader can not be sure how, or even whether, their feelings for each other will be resolved.  As a side note, I must also say that, while I normally detest first person present tense, it works for this trilogy, enhancing the excitement and intensity as no other point of view could do.

Mockingjay will be in my Top 5  for 2010; it’s the first time this year I have cut off the phone and TV and computer and stayed up all night to finish a book, and the entire trilogy is among my favorite series of all time.  I cannot recommend it highly enough for young adult and adult readers.  It is a shining example of how good science fiction can be but it also has strong elements of mystery and fantasy.  In a word, WOW.

P.S.  Now, I’m going to listen to the audio book—Carolyn McCormick has been an outstanding reader of the first two books and I expect no less in this one.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2010.

The Master of Jalna is the fourth by publication date, tenth by story chronology, of 16 novels spanning a hundred years from 1854 to 1954.  Known as the Whiteoak Chronicles or the Jalna series, they told the saga of a Canadian family and Jalna, the family manor.  The books are usually listed chronologically by story line rather than by date of publication but each can be read independently.  I first read the whole series in my 20′s and then picked up half of them on a book trip my daughter Annie and I took in 2005 to the world’s biggest collection of bookstores, Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

In this entry in the series, Renny Whiteoak, owner of Jalna, must take over where Grandmother Adeline left off, carrying on the family traditions.  His daughter, Adeline, has inherited her namesake’s red hair and strong-willed ways and raising her is a challenge for Renny and his wife, Alayne.  Along the way, Renny develops a love for Claire, his best friend’s widow, and must also deal with a financial crisis that threatens the family estate.

Mazo de la Roche published Jalna, the first book in the series, in 1927 and achieved instant fame and fortune at the age of 48.  Interestingly, the book first appeared in an American magazine, Atlantic Monthly, where it won a $10,000 award, rather than in a Canadian publication.  She went on to write 15 more books in the series and all were bestsellers.  A movie version of Jalna was released in the 1930′s and there was a later CBC television series.  The house in Ontario believed to be the inspiration for Jalna is maintained by a museum association.

Something about the Whiteoak Chronicles has stayed with me all these years and I was delighted to find so many of them on our trip.  Re-reading them has not been a disappointment and I’m just as invested in this family’s saga as I was back then.  I’m looking forward to tracking down the volumes I don’t have.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2010.

Gideon Viscount St. Mars, son of the Earl of Hawkhurst, is a somewhat reluctant part of the aristocratic social world of George I’s London.  Being members of the Tory party makes him and his father, the Earl of Hawkhurst, anathema to the king, who has been convinced by the Whigs that Tories are loyal to the Pretender. Gideon, though, is in love with the
daughter of a Whig and can be found at many of the social events where the business of arranging marriages takes place.

Suddenly, Gideon finds himself accused of a heinous murder and cast out of Society. No one but a few loyal servants will help him and he withdraws into the shady world of criminals, determined to find a way to clear his name and regain his position — and Isabella, the woman he loves.

There is, however, one other person from his past who believes in him. Mrs. Kean, an impoverished relation of Isabella, provides his only means of learning what is happening with the investigation of his alleged crime and with his inheritance and Isabella.

Patricia Wynn has brought 1715 England to life through exacting research and a command of the English language that makes this book a joy to read. The story, which evokes thoughts of Jane Austen and the Brontës, is uniquely Ms. Wynn’s, and she has created a lively plot and appealing characters. Even many of those characters who are not so likable are memorable and the reader can’t help caring a bit for them. The mystery of who really committed the crime and how Gideon will save himself is well-crafted and Ms. Wynn left this reader eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. Although it was early in the year when I read it, The Birth of Blue Satan was on my list of the Best of 2001.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, 2001.  Slightly revised 2010.
Review first published on murderexpress.net in 2001.

Set in a small college town in Ohio, this is a tale of the murder of the campus golden girl during the week before Homecoming.  Cy Sweetly seemed to have it all—beauty, charisma, brains, a future of wealth and fame, but there is little sorrow shown for her death.  As Chief of Security Brady Kincaid investigates, other truths about Cy Sweetly begin to emerge and the retired Cleveland police detective finds himself with a plethora of theories and suspects.

Aiding in his investigation are the Carroway cousins, Claudia and Joyce.  Both women grew up in the town and are alumnae of the college and Cy’s sorority; Claudia is now the Dean of Women while Joyce lives in Michigan and has returned for Homecoming.  The two women are a treasure trove of information and useful gossip, including speculation about an unsolved murder of another coed twenty years earlier.

Who was the real Cy Sweetly?  Who hated her enough to kill her and what had she done to cause such hate?  Was it a spurned lover, a jealous wife, an envious fellow student, someone from her past?  And just what was her past?

This is a very enjoyable, well-written story and is full of twists and turns.  Even the title, Every First Saturday plays a crucial role in solving the mystery.  I particularly enjoyed the way Joyce and Claudia are very important in Brady’s investigation but are not actively involved as sleuths.  This is a mystery that’s difficult to categorize—part cozy, part police procedural—but author Bobby Jaye Allen has created an engaging set of characters I hope to meet again.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, 2002.
Review first published on murderexpress.net in 2002.
Note: I read all four books by Bobby Jaye Allen and loved each of them.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a website for her or any information since the 2005 publication of the last book.  If anyone can share anything about Bobby Jaye, I’d appreciate it very much.

Callie Webber has a job she loves. Experienced as a private investigator and attorney, she is now employed by the J.O.S.H.U.A. Foundation to investigate the integrity, including financial activity, of nonprofit organizations in which her philanthropist boss is interested. He then decides whether to make donations, often very substantial, based on her
recommendations. Oddly enough, Callie and her boss, Tom, have never actually met but they have developed a strong rapport and a feeling of mutual trust over the phone.

Working for the foundation gives Callie a sense of making a real contribution to society and enhances her faith in Christ. It also keeps her so busy she has little time to dwell on the sudden and gruesome death of her husband although she treasures her quiet times in her home on the Chesapeake. Thus, she is looking forward to returning home when Tom asks her to make one more day trip first, to deliver a check to an old friend’s hunger relief organization.

What promises to be an easy errand soon turns into something a bit more involved. Tom’s friend dies, almost in front of Callie, and it becomes apparent that the cause is probably murder. Tom asks Callie to stay and investigate on behalf of his friend. Unfortunately, it’s not long before Callie realizes her own life may well be in danger and very few of the victim’s family and co-workers can be trusted. Solving this murder may carry a very high price.

A Penny for Your Thoughts is the first of the Million Dollar Mysteries by Mindy Starns Clark. Billed as an “inspirational” or “religious” mystery, the touch of faith is lightly done and comes across quite naturally and unobtrusively rather than being heavyhanded as some religious novels can be. Callie is a refreshingly intelligent and resourceful woman, eminently likable, while Tom is an enigma. Who is this man besides being very wealthy and undoubtedly generous? When will he and Callie meet? What, if anything, will happen when they do?

The author has really piqued my interest with this first entry and I’m looking forward to the next, as much for the puzzles surrounding Tom, as for Callie’s sleuthing adventures. It’s nice to have a new mystery series with a well-constructed plot in addition to good character development, a combination not every author can accomplish.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, 2002.
Review first published on murderexpress.net in 2002.

Kaye Berreano is the counselor on duty at Beginnings, a battered women’s shelter, when the fire alarm goes off. Kaye hurries to get all the women and their children out of the building but Mary Ellen, a woman apparently disliked by nearly everyone, doesn’t make it. Early investigations reveal that the fire was deliberately set and Farrell, the police arson investigator, believes Kaye is withholding information.

Since some of the women need to be placed elsewhere, Kaye’s job security is in doubt, at a time when she is going through an ugly divorce and her financial situation is very shaky. The police don’t seem to be getting anywhere useful, even thinking the victim may have set the fire to cover her own suicide, and Kaye begins her own investigation. Unfortunately, since this is a battered women’s shelter, there are quite a few potential suspects among the abusive husbands and boyfriends. In addition, more than one of the women may have had a motive. She’s sure, though, that Mary Ellen did not kill herself. Digging into the lives of these abused women, Kaye finds some surprises and even more questions, about Mary Ellen’s death. Ultimately, she must come to terms with her own life and future.

Most of us, thankfully, will never know what it’s like to live with abuse and what that can do to the soul. Author Christine Duncan has cracked the door to this world just a little bit, with empathy and understanding, through a woman with problems of her own. Kaye’s desire to protect these women and children while encouraging them to break the cycle of pain makes her a woman I’ll look forward to meeting again.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, 2002.
Review first published on murderexpress.net in 2002.