Quietly Dead
by Laura Belgrave

An old woman is dead and Detective Claudia Hershey suspects this is not just an accidental death. The problem is she can't really explain to Chief Suggs why an investigation is needed. On top of that, she's been saddled with the chief's nephew, a bouncy, aggravating teen with the outlandish name of Booey who wants to try police work for a couple of weeks. As if that weren't enough, her love life leaves a lot to be desired and her ex-husband has showed up and wants to take their daughter off to DC for the summer. Then there's a second death and now Chief Suggs is really on her back for causing trouble.

Claudia Hershey, who relocated from Cleveland to the backwoods of Florida and can't figure out why on earth she did such a thing, returns to delight fans of the detective who's too tall, dresses badly, can't control her personal life and sticks out like a sore thumb in the good-old-boy police department. Author Laura Belgrave has delivered another well-crafted mystery with marvelous character and plot development and a quality of writing that makes "Quietly Dead" a real pleasure to read.

"Quietly Dead" is a winner and a welcome addition to any mystery reader's bookshelf.

--Review by Lelia

No Time to Die
by Grace F. Edwards

I was holding out on this book since this is the last one of her series I had to read -- don't know when the new one is coming out. I love this author and her stories about Harlem and Striver's Row, her relationship with her dad and her nephew and her cop boyfriend. Her character is an African-American former police officer who got suspended from the force for decking a white male cop who was racially and sexually harassing her. She's suing, not to get her job back, but to help support herself while she goes for her doctorate in social work. You know the drill -- she gets involved in cases along the way. Good characters, good stories, good writing. Edwards is on my "special order paperback" list, and probably would be on my "buy hardcover" list (but I think her books are paperback only).

--review by Beth the Webgoddess*
(* webmistress note: not my phrase)

Strawberry Shortcake Murder
by Joanne Fluke

Hannah Swensen, cookie baker extraordinaire, is once again on the snoop. This time, she's after the murderer of the husband of a friend, struck down right after his judging duty at a dessert bake-off -- and he's literally facedown in Hannah's own strawberry shortcake. Only Hannah and a few others know just how nasty-tempered this man was and she's determined to track down the killer before the police decide the wife is the culprit. In the meantime, a most annoying reporter is behaving strangely and the list of suspects is growing.

In Hannah's second adventure, Joanne Fluke brings us another winner, a cozy in the truest sense, complete with the wonderful cat, Moishe. This time, Hannah and her sister, Andrea, have resolved their long-standing rivalry and Andrea joins in the sleuthing with enthusiasm. The two of them make quite a team and the reader has the pleasure of watching the sisters discover surprising things about each other. And the men in Hannah's life? Well, suffice it to say that batty Moishe is the only one not causing problems of one sort or another.

Strawberry Shortcake Murder is every bit as enjoyable as Hannah's first story, Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, and Ms. Fluke shows us once again that she is very adept at creating a traditional mystery, replete with small-town characters, multiple bodies and suspects, a little romance and a cat with personality, not to mention some wonderful recipes. If the author keeps this up, I'll collapse from overeating but at least I'll be reading a good book while I stuff myself!

--review by Lelia

Treasure Box
by Orson Scott Card

This book didn't disappoint me nor did it slow me down in reading it. This dark fantasy is about a computer programmer turned millionaire named Quentin Fears, his dead sister, Lizzy (who had died as a result of a car accident when he was age ten), and Madeleine, the woman he meets at a party.

Madeleine is witty, beautiful, and as naive as he is with the ways of the world (including sex!), and within weeks of meeting, they marry. Their marriage seems idyllic except for one thing, her multigenerational, cantankerous, peculiar family. All of this family lives in a riverside mansion in upstate New York.

But Quentin soon learns that the strangeness and poor family dynamics isn't all that's wrong with them. There's also a deep, dirty secret that Madeleine holds the key to, a secret that can bring the end of the world as Quentin knows it. And only he can stop her from unleashing the ageless malevolence on the world.

This is a good book with heroes, villains and witches, and kept me reading it until I finished it in three days. The characters are interesting, especially the no-nonsense nurse who heads a sanitarium, a ten-year-old girl named Roz, whose malign powers are only rivaled by her smart mouth, and Quentin, and his sister, whom we see as a ghost in the novel.

I recommend trying Treasure Box, a good book for curling up, comfy and warm, a cup of coffee or hot tea to sip while reading it and I promise you won't be sorry you did.

--review by Pamela

The Birth of Blue Satan
by Patricia Wynn

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 Brontės, 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 has left this reader eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. Although it's early in the year, "The Birth of Blue Satan" will be on my list of the Best of 2001.

---review by Lelia

Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury is a classic science fiction writer who appears to have a peculiar grasp on what could be the future of today.

In this novel, he enlightens us with visions of mass bookburnings, brain washing individuals through a dictatorial government, and a state of the nation that is so repressed that the suicide rate has run rampant. All of this is occurring under the blanket of a war brewing with mass destruction of epic proportions.

Mr. Bradbury has spun a tale that is disturbing in the sense that, considering that it was written in 1950, it has an eerie plausability of becoming a reality in our modern day society.

I highly recommend this book as a classic read, and most definitely look forward to when I can again allow Ray Bradbury to build a futuristic world in my mind and set the stage of probability.

---review by Jason

Murder of a Sweet Old Lady
by Denise Swanson

Poor Skye Denison. Her life just keeps getting more and more entangled in the little hometown she'd like to escape for a second time and now she's involved in another murder, this one of someone very dear to her. Some of Skye's family resents her snooping and the rest of her family can't keep their noses out of her business. Her job as school psychologist has all kinds of students, parents and school officials riled up at her and her love life is, well, unsettling to say the least. She's even managed to miff the local survivalists. Oh, yes, and now Bingo the cat has moved in.

Will the local cops ever take Skye seriously? Will her mom get over her snit? Is the killer after Skye or is it a low-life parent with a grudge? Where is the missing caregiver? Why do some of her relatives look at Skye as if they just smelled something peculiar? And will she still have a boyfriend when all is said and done?

Denise Swanson has followed up "Murder of a Small-Town Honey" with a story that is every bit as delightful as the first in the series, a true cozy that is charmingly entertaining while having a well-developed mystery plot and plenty of red herrings. Ms. Swanson's characters are nicely defined---I could visualize every one of them, good and bad---and Skye herself is so likable because her life is just as messed up as yours and mine. "Murder of a Sweet Old Lady" firmly entrenches Denise Swanson my list of favorite mystery authors.

---review by Lelia

The Good Die Twice
Full Moon Bloody Moon
by Lee Driver

Lee Driver maneuvers off the mainstream of traditional mystery writing by blending a unique quality of supernatural essence with modern day sluething, which should appeal to a broadened genre of readers.

I found myself on a non-stop accelerated roller coaster ride through shady mysteries embedded with unnatural circumstances, dark plots, and witty humor.

Character development is very colorful, yet a bit on the gray side, only giving you enough on the main characters in each book to keep you surmising about their history. Chase Dagger -- strong, savvy P.I., with a dark past, Einstein -- Chase's witty pet macaw, and Sarah -- his innocently naļve silent partner (who happens to be a Native American that can shapeshift at will) and a cast of wonderful backup characters deal with cases above and beyond the call of normality.

The whole of it all meshes together beautifully to keep the reader laughing with glee, suspended in horror, and intrigued with mystery.

-- review by Jason

Meg, by Steve Alten
The Trench, by Steve Alten

Steve Alten has taken an old story, the terrors of the deep, and turned it into a chilling tale that will make you want to continually look over your shoulder every time you step into the ocean. This is "Jaws" with a vengeance. Picture it -- a shark that's longer than many houses with a mouth wider than the tallest human. And she's hungry.

In "MEG," Dr. Jonas Taylor has been ridiculed for seven years for his belief that he once saw this prehistoric fish and has been working tirelessly to prove its existence and how it could have survived the cataclysmic events that destroyed most large creatures 65 million years ago. The Meg herself proves his point, to the fascination, and horror, of the entire world. Four years later, in "THE TRENCH," the story continues with the devastation created by her offspring, Angel, and by a sinister character named Benedict Singer, a man whose personality and intentions are downright frightening.

This is not classic literature, folks, and there are flaws---the most obvious is the ending of "MEG," which calls for just too much suspension of disbelief. Still, it's a hugely entertaining story and we also get a healthy dose of education about the possibilities that exist in our unexplored oceans and the science that's needed to study them. Perhaps the most frightening, yet enticing, character is the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on earth. Not only could I see what the author was showing me; I could feel the fear of the people in the trench. I'm really looking forward to the next book about Angel and the other denizens of the deep.

-- review by Lelia

The Hollow, by Todd Hayes

Hayes' novel has an intriguing premise. It is a story that explores an individual's fears and the collective fears of people as a group, fears that are deeply rooted in childhood and in the history of humans.

Dr. Sid Thorn, a biochemist studying criminals and the chemical influences he believes instigate their actions, and the mysterious Vicky are parallel characters tied by their delusions of the power their school-learned knowledge gives them. The centerpiece of their research is William Brandy, noted murderer.

The novel shows the four cyclical stages of fear in separate examples but, while the reader believes a character seems to be in one stage, there are hints that he is slipping back to childhood, regressing to paranoia. The stages fall into two main categories, the concrete type caused by external sources such as the frightening new virus discovered by Thorn and the psychological type inherent within the person's psyche. This latter type provokes perhaps the strongest fears because they can change from mere thought to manifestation in the physical world.

The title relates to "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", a classic tale of fear and how it can evolve from self-contained dread to full-blown horror. In "The Hollow", Todd Hayes has led us to the next level, that of wondering what are our greatest personal fears---and what they could become.

-- review by Megan

Harm None, by M.R. Sellars

Harm None is a mystery novel, but in a lot of ways it will have to be read as fantasy by the majority of readers. Why? Simply because of the hugely prominent role of the pagan religion known as Wicca. Basically, the entire premise of the book revolves around this guy named Rowan Gant, who is a practicing Witch, and who helps out a friend of his on the local police force by solving a serial murder case, in which all evidence points to the killer also being a pagan. Of course, I won't deny the fact that a good 75% of the book proceeds along in a relatively ordinary fashion, and is no different really than any other detective story in which a killer fascinated by "black arts" is tracked by a detective who has done his or her homework in the field. But then again, the mystery wouldn't get solved if it weren't for the Wiccan trances that the amateur sleuth engages in. The real question for the reader is this: can you handle reading matter of fact descriptions of something you don't believe (assuming you aren't a Wiccan)?

Truthfully, you are in for a pretty good read if you can. I actually managed to read this entire 380-page book in less than 24 hours, and the times when I had to put it down were definitely not without a tinge of regret. Plotwise, the story is full of twists and therefore keeps one's interest, but on the other hand is not so complex that you get confused. And of course, if you like mysteries involving weird scary serial killers you will dig the one herein. He truly is a total creep.

Problems do surface in cases where the writer attempts to involve the characters in more personal situations. I don't want to ruin the book for you, so I won't explain exactly what the situations are, but I will say that when the characters are attempting to interact as emotional human beings, the writing becomes less self-assured and kind of stiffens up. It is as if the author thinks overt descriptiveness can make up for what is at the heart an inability to write honest emotions and interactions. Overall though, the problems that come up are minor and don't really impede the reader's ability to enjoy the book.

I enjoyed the plot of the story and would definitely recommend it to anyone who can handle somewhat cluttered writing whenever the author gets a bit sidetracked. And things really do move along quickly enough so that you barely notice it. Overall, I'd recommend Harm None to anyone who likes a good mystery-provided you can handle a decent amount of mysticism.

-- Review by Andrew

The Giggler Treatment, by Roddy Doyle

Laugh Alert!! Seldom do I actually laugh out loud when I'm reading but, not only did I do that with this book, I also had to keep interrupting myself to read a passage to someone else. Have you ever wished something yucky would happen to a grownup who is mean to a child? You know the type, the guy who tells a kid something tastes like chicken when it doesn't. Well, here's where you can find out all about the secret revenge of the Gigglers, small little furry critters who change colors like chameleons.

This is one of those books that are meant for children but appeal to all ages. Silliness runs rampant throughout the story -- even the chapter headings are comical -- and the illustrations by Brian Ajhar are wonderful. Please, run to your favorite bookstore and buy this book. Buy two so you can give one away!

-- Review by Lelia