A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen

December 29, 2019

A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bolen

Nick and Clay, two fledgling con men from New York, concoct a scheme to swindle a retired American expatriate in Venice.  Their plan is simple:  play on the expatriate gazillionaire's obsession with a famous New York family's antiques.  When their first swindle succeeds beautifully, they decide to gamble on an even bigger con.

While the plot was interesting, I found all three of the main characters to be unlikable - the most interesting character in the book was Freddy, who died before the book opens but fortunately appears in a later section.  When I found out that Richard, the expatriate, was one of those super-wealthy Americans who decide that they have to save Venice, I hoped that Nick and Clay would swindle him good (sorry, but if the Italian and Venetian governments don't want to save Venice, it shouldn't be up to a bunch of stupid mega-rich Americans to do it - there are too many causes in our own country that need their help desperately, like wildlife conservation and childhood poverty).  But the plot moves quickly, the writing is quite literary for a thriller, and it's a quick read that will keep the reader interested.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki

December 25, 2019

The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Pataki

I managed to hurt my back a couple of days before Christmas and spent most of Christmas Day in bed reading this highly entertaining historical novel.  There are worse ways to spend the day. 

Desiree Clary was the 16 year old daughter of a wealthy silk merchant when she met 24 year old Napoleon Bonaparte (or Napoleone Buonaparte, as he was known at that time), a Corsican soldier.  After a quick courtship, Napoleon asked Desiree to marry him; she agreed and Napoleon told her that he would send for her to join him in Paris to get married as soon as he established himself.  But once in Paris, Napoleon quickly fell for glamorous Viscountess Josephine de Beauharnais and abandoned Desiree to marry Josephine.  But Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte married Desiree’s sister Julie, so Napoleon and Desiree were destined to be connected for the rest of their lives.  Napoleon became the Emperor of France, but surprisingly Desiree went on to become the Queen of Sweden through her marriage.

Desiree Clary Bernadotte is a fascinating but little-known historical figure.  Pataki’s novel is well-researched and overall historically accurate.  Inaccuracies are mostly in the form of omitting certain details (such as how much time Desiree spent away from her husband, residing in France for most of her married life while he was living in Sweden) and the story is a little over-romanticized.  However, this is a great historical guilty pleasure read:  interesting characters, reasonable historical accuracy, royal gossip, lots of banquets, clothes, and palaces.  The writing is excellent and the story is fast-paced – it’s pretty hard to put down.  And the cover is gorgeous.  I had read about Desiree years ago in Annemarie Selinko’s novel Desiree.  I fell in love with her story then and enjoyed getting reacquainted with her.  Readers who enjoyed Philippa Gregory's Tudor queen series will enjoy The Queen's Fortune.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer

December 19, 2019

Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer

My last holiday book of the season.

Nathaniel Herriard owns a country manor in rural England.  His brother Joseph and Joseph’s wife Maud, both former actors, live off of Nathaniel’s generosity.  Nathaniel tolerates having them live with him until Joseph gets it into his head to organize a Christmas house party consisting of a variety of people who, general speaking, detest each other.  When Nathaniel is found murdered in a locked room, the guests realize that there is a killer in the house.

Envious Casca was written in 1941 and also published under the title A Christmas Party.  This is a perfectly acceptable holiday mystery that ticked a lot of boxes for me:  English country house, locked room murder, Christmas, a clever crime.  It has the usual suspects:  the old rich curmudgeon who hates Christmas and house parties, the meddling uncle, poor relations, the pushy niece, the heir apparent and his airhead fiancée, the put-upon detective.  If you are interested in a little light reading over the holidays, this is a good choice.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by

December 17, 2019

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The three Shergill sisters were all born in England, and only the oldest sister has ever visited India.  The sisters weren’t close growing up and have grown even further apart as adults.  They are shocked when their widowed mother makes a last request on her deathbed:  that her three daughters make a pilgrimage to India to visit the holy sites and spread her ashes.  Each of the sisters feels responsible for their mother’s lifelong unhappiness, and their stories unfold along their travels, bringing them closer together as their mother wished.

I was interested enough in the sisters to continue reading, but disappointed in the repetitiveness of their thoughts and the slow pacing made the story drag. 

(I’m sorry, but the India described in the book sounds like a horrible place:  very hot and humid, crowded, dirty, and dangerous for women.  There are 15% more men than women in India, due to the cultural preference for sons, and the Indian men in the story break into violence very quickly.)

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleischmann

December 13, 2019

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleischmann

Elisabeth Pfautz and her family live in a tiny town in Alaska.  Her husband works for the Office of Indian Affairs, and she spends most of her time home-schooling her daughter and waiting for the weekly mail delivery, until a stranger appears one day.  He seems to know a lot about Elisabeth’s sister Jacqueline who went missing 20 years earlier.  He offers information to Elisabeth but wants something in return.  Elisabeth is desperate to know what happened to her sister, but can she trust him?

This is a quick read and I was very interested in the time and place (rural Alaska, right before Pearl Harbor).  I also like books about cold cases and missing people.  However, the story lost its momentum and the ending just sort of fizzled out.  Did the author not know how to end the story or is he planning a sequel?  More character development would have helped, too.  It's unfair to compare this thriller to The Silence of the Lambs or The Dry, both of which are gripping thrillers, since this one isn't in the same league.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey

December 11, 2019

The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey

Seventy-eight year old Missy Carmichael is adrift:  she recently lost her husband, her son and his family live in Australia, and her relationship with her daughter is strained at best.  She decides to attend an event at the local park, just so she can tell her children that she is getting out of the house.  But her decision to go to the park unexpectedly opens up a whole new world for her, filled with friendship, new experiences, and dogs (that's Missy with her dog Bobby on the cover).

Quite a few novels have been compared to A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, but this is one of the few books that actually deserves that comparison.  Missy is a senior citizen version of what Eleanor would have become if her friends hadn’t held an intervention, and there is also a tragic and heartwarming story similar to Backman’s protagonist Ove.

This is another book to add to my favorites shelf.  I found myself reading slowly since I didn’t want the book to end.  The Love Story of Missy Carmichael will be published early in 2020 and I highly recommend it.

A Noel Killing by M. L. Longworth

December 8, 2019

A Noel Killing by M. L. Longworth

Judge Antoine Verlaque does not like Christmas – it brings too many visitors and shoppers to the town of Aix in the south of France.  His wife Marine convinces him to attend the Christmas carol concert at the local church.  To his surprise, Antoine enjoys the service and the dinner afterwards, until a local businessman collapses in the middle of the party.  The congregation is shocked and saddened by the man’s death from a suspected heart attack, until the coroner returns a verdict of death by poisoning.

An enjoyable holiday mystery.  This is the 8^th title in the cozy Provencal Mystery series featuring magistrate Antoine Verlaque and his wife Marine Bonnet, but it can be read as a stand-alone.  Longworth does a good job of filling in any necessary background details from previous titles.  Lots of conversations and settings that involve food and wine, gossip, local color.  Fans of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series will enjoy the Provencal Mystery series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

December 7, 2019

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

Boston, April 1946 – Dan McBride owns an antique shop in Boston, and one day, a pretty Austrian widow named Annelise Weber comes in to sell some of her jewelry.  They are attracted to each other and marry after a brief courtship.  Dan’s 17 year old daughter Jordan is initially happy that her lonely father has found love again since he has been a widower for ten years.  But there is something about her new stepmother that bothers Jordan, and she sets out to discover the new Mrs. McBride's past.

Vienna, April 1950 – former war correspondent Ian Graham has dedicated his life to hunting down Nazi war criminals who have escaped prosecution, but the Nazi he wants to capture the most is Die Jagerin (The Huntress).  He teams up with Nina Markova, a Russian pilot who was a member of the Night Witches, a famous squadron of female pilots.  Nina barely escaped from Die Jagerin with her life and will stop at nothing to hunt her down, even if the search takes her to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Kate Quinn writes about little-known historical events, especially about women.  I loved her previous book, The Alice Network, which covered another little-known World War II story about a network of female spies, but this one was disappointing. The Huntress is told from three points of view:  Jordan, Ian, and Nina.  Nina’s sections about being a Night Witch were fascinating.  This is a really long book that could have been considerably shorter – there is a lot of filler, conversations and love scenes that don’t help move the story forward, especially in Jordan’s sections (the plot almost didn’t need Jordan at all).  A good editor could have cut out 100-150 pages, making a better narrative.

(Why do so many authors feel that they have to write a love story or sexual relationship for every character?  Unless it has something to do with the plot, it's certainly not necessary in a work of historical fiction.  How does it improve the story to hear about Ian and Nina rolling around in bed all the way across the Atlantic?  I'm also sick of men tucking curls behind women's ears - does any guy do that in real life???  If I want romance, I'll read a romance.)

Historical note:  the Night Witches, as they were called by the Nazis, were the Russian 588^th Night Bomber Regiment made up entirely of women pilots in their late teens and early twenties.  Although the Russian military originally tried to recruit educated university women, they soon realized they needed tough peasant girls who were accustomed to hardship and bitterly cold weather.  Each airplane had a two-woman crew, a pilot and a navigator who was also the bombardier.  As they neared their targets, the pilot would cut the engines so that the German soldiers on the ground would not hear them approaching.  They would glide to the drop zone, and after dropping their payload, the plane would head back to their base, where the ground crew would quickly refuel the plane and reload it with bombs.  The same pilot and navigator would head out for another pass over the Germans, sometimes doing as many as ten bombing runs per night per plane.  The Night Witches were so feared that any German pilot who brought down one of their planes was immediately awarded the Iron Cross.  (Sources:  history.com and Wikipedia.)

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey

December 3, 2019

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey

It's time for some holiday reading.  This certainly isn't your average Christmas novel, but work with me here.

Florida-phile and loveable psychopath Serge A. Storms goes off his meds once again, just in time for the holidays.  Christmas will never be the same after Serge and his stoner buddy Coleman, the Robin Hood and Merry Man of Florida, decide to go all out with their celebration.  There will be unforgettable presents, a tree with handmade ornaments, outside lighting decorations, caroling through the neighborhood, and lots (and lots) of eggnog.  Serge and Coleman even dress as elves and visit the mall to bring joy to the shoppers. In the spirit of the season, they make sure that Florida's criminals get just the right presents, while ensuring peace on earth and justice for the good people of Tampa.  Old friends including Jim and Martha Davenport, Country and City, and the G-Unit gather together to make the season bright.

Not a lot of plot but entertaining nonetheless.  I enjoy Dorsey's zany sense of humor.  If you liked the movie Bad Santa (one of my favorite holiday movies - none of that Hallmark crap for me), this will be your kind of Christmas story.

November Road by Lou Berney

December 2, 2019

November Road by Lou Berney

Frank Guidry is a trusted mob lieutenant for organized crime boss Carlos Marcello in New Orleans.  After President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Guidry finds that he is unwittingly involved in the assassination since he drove a Cadillac Eldorado to Dallas a few days earlier and left it near Dealey Plaza for his boss's hired sniper to use as a getaway car if necessary.  When two of his associates turn up dead, Guidry realizes that Marcello is killing off anyone who knows about his (Marcello's) involvement with the assassination, and that he (Guidry) needs to disappear fast.  As he races west to get away from the hitman who is hot on his trail, he encounters a woman named Charlotte traveling with two her children and their dog, stranded when their car broke down.  Guidry quickly decides that that they are just the camouflage he needs to get to Las Vegas undetected, never expecting to fall in love with Charlotte and visualize a new life with her and her family.

Since the day the Warren Commission issued their findings that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper (Lee Harvey Oswald) who was working alone, a majority of Americans have doubted the commission’s report.  In 1979, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations issued their own report that the Kennedy assassination was most likely the result of a conspiracy.  Volumes have been written about who the real killer was, and conspiracy suspects include (but are not limited to) the CIA, the KGB, Fidel Castro’s Cuban government, and organized crime.

This is a work of literary fiction masquerading as a crime novel set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination, not an in-depth examination of the crime.  Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of books about the Mafia or organized crime, but Berney’s novel is based on the assumption that the assassination WAS a mob conspiracy.  In addition to an intriguing “what-if” plot, Berney’s characters are three-dimensional and fully-fleshed rather than being flat clichés.  Guidry isn’t a crude thug, but a thinking man who questions others’ and his own actions.  A heroic act is completely within his nature, and like any good noir character, Guidry is totally capable of unexpectedly falling for a good dame.  If you enjoy a complex historical thriller, I highly recommend November Road.

The Demon's Parchment by Jeri Westerson

November 28, 2019

The Demon’s Parchment by Jeri Westerson

Former knight Crispin Guest was convicted of treason and lucky to escape the king’s justice with his life.  Now living in the Shambles, one of the lowest sections of London, Crispin is known as the Tracker, a finder of lost items, lost people, and occasionally lost truths.  It’s not just the poor of London who seek out Crispin’s services, but also the wealthy and well-born, when they have problems that they prefer to keep confidential or away from the sheriff's notice.  Such is the case when Jacob of Provencal, a Jewish physician at the king’s court, approaches him about locating some stolen documents.  Crispin would prefer not to take the job, but clients are few and far between in the winter of 1384, so against his better judgment, he agrees to find the missing parchments.  But as he begins his inquiries, a suspicion grows that the stolen parchments are somehow connected to the murders of several young boys.

This is another solid entry in Westerson's Crispin Guest historical mystery series.  I enjoy how well-researched these books are, and the colorful descriptions that make the reader feel what it was like to live in London in the 14th century.  In this mystery, we learn more about accepted attitudes and misconceptions of the time, especially with regard to Jews.  We also learn that straight-laced Crispin has a friend who is a cross-dresser and works as a male prostitute!

It might sound strange to call Crispin a noir detective since we tend to think of noir as a 20th century concept, but he has all the characteristics of a Mike Hammer or Philip Marlowe:  he's always down on his luck, consistently short of money so he is forced to take cases that he knows he shouldn't, hooks up with the wrong kind of woman, drinks way too much, gets beaten up with regularity, and most importantly, lives by his own code of honor.  The third entry in the Crispin Guest series is based on a historical serial killer case from the 15th century (serial killers are another thing we tend to think of as modern rather than medieval).  As always, historical figures are skillfully and seamlessly interwoven with Westerson's creations.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

November 27, 2019

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

When she is offered a job as an apartment sitter in the prestigious Bartholomew building in Manhattan, Jules Larsen thinks it is the answer to her prayers, a giant “do-over” button to re-start her life.  She has been through a lot of misfortune recently, so it seems like she is going to finally have some good luck.  While the building rules are strict and even unreasonable, she is thrilled to have the opportunity to live at the Bartholomew.  But when another apartment sitter in the building inexplicably disappears, Jules begins to wonder if something more is going on in the building.

I did not hate this.  On the positive side, this is a quick-paced read – I read it in a day.  It’s got a strong gothic feel:  creepy old building, mysterious residents, sudden disappearances, even the wallpaper is ominous (there are similarities to Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby).  It had that “Hotel California” vibe:  “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”  All of the action takes place in less than a week, and since the setting is in an upscale neighborhood in a large city, it was easy for me to visualize the action (I live in Chicago and work in the downtown area).  There is a rather horrifying twist.  This is apartment sitting gone as wrong as it possibly can.

  

But the main character really irritated me.  Jules consistently jumped to conclusions based on very little evidence (Another house-sitter she has met twice not answering her phone?  She must have been kidnapped!  Two people wearing the same medical symbol?  They must be part of a cult!).  Her best friend Chloe keeps telling her that there’s something fishy about the whole deal, that the Bartholomew has a long history of tragedies, and if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, but Jules ignores all of the facts.  It’s fairly astounding that Jules is the one who puts the pieces together, since she is on the dim side.

The general format is similar to a number of other recent thrillers:  woman whose life has gone to hell gets an amazing job offer or a chance to turn her life around (Ruth Ware’s Turn of the Key, Jane Cockram’s House of Brides, Gilly Macmillan’s The Nanny).  If you are looking for a quick thriller, Lock Every Door is one of the better entries in this genre.

Severance by Ling Ma

November 26, 2019

Severance by Ling Ma

Candace Chen is an office worker at a publishing company in Manhattan when Shen Fever hits, an epidemic that turns people into non-violent zombies doomed to repeat the same mindless tasks over and over.  As the number of people dwindle, she begins recording photographs of Manhattan in a blog she calls NY Ghost.  When she finally is forced to leave Manhattan, she joins a group of eight other survivors, led by an ex-IT guy named Bob who claims to know of the perfect place for them to regroup and start civilization over.  The place turns out to be an abandoned shopping mall outside Chicago they refer to as The Facility (aka Deer Oaks Mall, probably based on Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg).  When her fellow survivors learn that Candace is pregnant, they elect to hold her prisoner until her baby is born.  Candace fears what their actions mean for her unborn baby and is determined to escape.

Based on the description I wrote above, this should have been a more exciting story than it turned out to be.  There are parallels between the infected zombies’ repetitive actions and Candace’s repetitive tasks at work, her mother’s early onset Alzheimer’s, and the factory workers’ jobs in China.  There is lots of filler about Candace’s life when she first came to New York, also about her jerk boyfriends and co-workers.  While it reminded me at times of Station Eleven, it’s basically the millennials’ search for meaning other than mindless consumerism.  Unfortunately Candace, her friends, and the other survivors are all pretty boring.  Maybe I would have connected more with the characters if I was a millennial.  I listened to the audio version and I found myself skipping ahead through some of the boring parts.

Marley by Jon Clinch

November 24, 2019

Marley by Jon Clinch

A re-telling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Jacob Marley.  Ebenezer Scrooge and Marley meet as boys at boarding school and become business partners for the rest of their lives.  While Scrooge is a penny-pinching number-cruncher, Marley is the schemer who comes up with all of the plots and plans.

While this is very creative and well-written (like Clinch’s novel Finn), I found it disappointing in a number of ways.  Marley comes on the scene as a young man at boarding school, already swindling his fellow students, and the reader learns nothing about his childhood or what made him the way he is.  I had the impression that he was at least a few years older than Scrooge.  Marley is portrayed as purely evil, while Scrooge is cast as Marley’s dupe and not very bright.  They are not friends, merely business associates, who eventually spend most of their time trying to ruin the other.

There are references to A Christmas Carol as well as several of Dickens' other works (David Copperfield, Hard Times, et al) which were fun to spot.  But the ending was depressing and hopeless, as Marley waits to be released from what appears to be hell by the soul of a very good man that he had murdered.  There is no hint of Marley desiring to return to earth to save Scrooge or anyone else, just himself, as usual.  Not recommended unless you're looking for a depressing book.

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

November 22, 2019

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

The second book in the Wayfarer trilogy begins 28 minutes after the first book (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet) ended.  Lovelace, the original AI from the Wayfarer, is in a new body, which she refers to as a kit, traveling in the company of Pepper, Jenks' friend, to her home on the moon of Coriol.  It's a hard adjustment, going from a virtual existence to the limitations of a physical being.

Overall, this is a great follow up to the first book.  My only disappointment is that, while the story features some of the characters from the first book, we don't meet up again with the crew from the Wayfarer.  We do get Pepper’s backstory and how she ended up as a tech pro on Coriol, and Chambers does a great job of imagining what it would be like for Lovelace (now called Sidra) waking up in an alien body.  One of the things I didn’t like:  the predator animal on Pepper’s original planet is a gene-tweaked dog – I would have preferred some other animal, like a beaver/bear hybrid.  Looking forward to the third book, Record of a Spaceborn Few.

Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

November 16, 2019

Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Becky Brandon nee Bloomwood loves everything about Christmas, but mostly the challenge of coming up with just the right Christmas gift for everyone.  Her mother always hosts the family Christmas dinner, but this year, Becky’s parents inform her that they are temporarily moving to a trendy London neighborhood, so Becky will be hosting Christmas in her new house.  Oh, and her vegan sister Jess and husband Tom will be visiting from South America, so Becky has to find a vegan turkey.  Then Becky’s college ex-boyfriend rock musician rents a cottage in the neighborhood which makes Becky question whether she is still cool and edgy. On the positive side, Becky has found the PERFECT present for her husband Luke (even if he insists he wants after shave lotion for Christmas), but to get it, she needs to find a way to join a billiards club that doesn’t accept women members.

The latest title in the Shopaholic series is just the thing for holiday reading and a wonderful antidote to holiday craziness.  Although Becky seems to complicate her life unnecessarily, she just wants to have perfect presents, and for everyone to be happy and enjoy the holiday.  She is so good-hearted that it’s impossible to dislike her.  Curl up with a plate of cookies and a cup or glass of something, and have a good laugh about Becky’s latest plans and schemes.

Vita Brevis by Ruth Downie

November 13, 2019

Vita Brevis by Ruth Downie

Gaius Ruso Petreius and his wife Tilla travel from Britannia to Rome with their baby daughter Mara, at the urging of ex-tribune Accius.  Accius is hoping to marry the daughter of a rich businessman, and when Kleitos, the businessman’s Greek doctor, leaves Rome hastily and unexpectedly, Accius arranges for Ruso to take over his abandoned medical practice.  Ruso is led to believe that there is a thriving practice with wealthy patrons waiting for him, but he soon learns that not only was Kleitos, the previous doctor, deeply in debt, but that his practice has its dodgy side.  Like the dead man in the barrel that has been left outside his door.  In addition, Ruso and Tilla need to procure a nursery slave to look after their daughter so that they can see their patients and have a little privacy, but somehow end up with three barbarian slaves.

But when the businessman collapses after taking a (harmless?) concoction that Ruso has mixed for him, Ruso needs to find out who or what actually killed the man.  And what was really in that bottle labelled “poppy flowers”?  Ruso needs to find some answers ASAP.

I enjoy the Ruso mystery series very much.  The interactions and philosophical differences between Ruso, a medicus with the Roman legion, and Tilla, his British-born wife, are always entertaining.  In addition, the descriptions of daily life in Rome and Britannia and the political maneuverings of Ruso’s former legion colleagues make for an entertaining story.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

November 12, 2019

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

The son of a New Orleans fortuneteller, Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student majoring in Emerging Media studies, specifically gaming.  Shortly before the new term begins, Zachary is browsing in the university library when he comes across an old book called Sweet Sorrows which appears to be a collection of short stories.  He begins to read and is shocked to find a story from his own life in the book.  He sets out to discover the origin and meaning of the book, a quest that will take him to an underground fantasy world centering on a magical library.

There is definitely a gaming theme and references to role playing games (RPG).  The player is on a quest or journey, seeking something or someone, or trying to get to a particular place or time.  I play hidden object games sometimes, and it's common for the player's progress to be barred by a locked or blocked door (or gate, window, staircase, etc.).  In order to move forward, the player needs to search the area to find the key or objects that will assist in opening the door, sometimes having to follow instructions on how to use an object.  The player often collects items that may be useful later; unlocks and explores multiple levels; encounters other players or beings who may or may not be helpful, and decide if they are friend or foe; and is forced to choose the right way to proceed.  Players sometimes change identities or assume disguises.

I loved Morgenstern’s first book The Night Circus, also a fantasy, from the first page.  I don’t like circuses, but this was one circus that I would gladly have sought out.  I liked The Starless Sea, her second book, but I didn’t love it.  It’s basically a book-within-a-book (or three books within a book), which usually really appeals to me, and the plot reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (the main character is an everyman thrust into an extraordinary and fantastical situation).  The cover art is beautiful and almost three dimensional.  The story is full of literary illusions, and beautiful and fantastic descriptions of magical places, and in order for the book to make any sense, you have to put it in the context of an elaborate video game.  The storyline is confusing because there are so many parts and so many things that are not fully explained.  For example, the reader is told repeatedly that the pirate, the first character introduced in the book, isn't really a pirate but is actually a metaphor, but the reader is never told what he is a metaphor for.  When you get to the end of the book, you almost need to go back to the beginning and start over.  When the audiobook is released, I may try listening to it.

Hell's Princess by Harold Schechter

November 10, 2019

Hell’s Princess:  the Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter

Belle Gunness of Laporte County, Indiana, was a notorious serial killer known as the Lady Bluebeard.  She would place classified advertisements in Norwegian language newspapers in the Midwest, seeking single men to come and help her run her large farm (oh, and bring all your money, too).  Once the men arrived at the Gunness farm, Belle would rob and murder them, dismembering the bodies and burying them in her pigsty.  Since she weighed around 300 pounds and wasn’t a pretty woman by any stretch of the imagination, it’s surprising how many men were taken in by Belle (the photo on the cover of the book actually bears a resemblance to Lizzie Borden - see the photos below).  While it is unknown exactly how many men Belle murdered, at least 14 of her victims were identified, and there may have been dozens more.

When one of her victim’s brothers notified her that he was coming to her farm to search for his brother, her farmhouse conveniently burned down.  Her children’s bodies were all found inside along with a headless woman’s body.  Even though he never found her head, the local sheriff decided that it was indeed Belle and pronounced her dead, but many people believed she had escaped.  For years afterward, there were sightings of Belle all over the country.

The first half of the book is fascinating, as it recounts Belle’s background and her history as a serial killer, but unfortunately, the last half of the book is mainly speculation about what happened to Belle, and whether or not she really died in the house fire (seems unlikely).  There are comparisons to other serial killers of the age such as the Bender family in Kansas who lured wealthy travelers to their deaths, or "what if" Belle had attracted a fellow serial killer with her ads and which one would have killed the other one first.  More text is spent on the mythology that grew up around Belle, and the industry that sprang from her story (pamphlets, stage dramas, ballads, etc.).  Well researched but I lost interest soon after Belle disappeared/died.

                                                              Lizzie Borden

What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell

November 7, 2019

What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell

Liam Dwyer goes out for an evening of drinking with his brother, has a blackout and can’t remember what he did, how he got home or why he was in the bathtub.  Or where his clothes are.  The morning after Liam’s binge, his ex-lover Kerri is found murdered in a seedy hotel room, and his blood and his fingerprints are all over the room.  As a forensic detective with the Philadelphia Police Department, Liam is called to the scene to collect evidence.  Liam’s brother Sean Dwyer is a homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department.  He and his partner are on another case, pursuing a local black gangster named Cutter Washington, who they believe is responsible for the beating death of a local store owner.

Since both Liam and Sean knew the murdered girl, Sean convinces Liam that they shouldn't say they knew her right away, otherwise the detectives assigned to the case would zero in on them and not look for the real killer.  Liam agrees since he can't remember where he was the night before.  Sean and Liam decide to conduct their own investigation, trying to beat the clock before anyone finds out about their connection to the victim.  Liam claims nobody else knows about his connection to Kerri, but is that really true?

This was an entertaining mystery.  While it doesn't have an unreliable narrator since it's written in the third person and from several points of view, almost all of the characters are lying.  I had a good idea who murdered Kerri about 1/3 of the way through the book, but I kept reading to find out how it was done.  There are some flaws but mystery readers will enjoy it.  The cops don't come off very well, since most of them are doing some pretty shady things.