Vera Wong"s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

December 12, 2023

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong is a lady of a certain age who owns a failing tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. She adheres to a strict daily regimen of rising early and opening the shop, even though she has only one regular customer. This leaves her plenty of time to follow (read: stalk) her only son online. But one morning when she comes downstairs to open the tearoom, Vera finds a dead body on the tearoom floor.

Heartwarming cozy mystery. Vera is a nosy older woman who had advice for everyone, whether they want it or not. She's correct that 20 somethings tend to be self-focused and dramatic - I base that statement on the 20 somethings in my own family. Very enjoyable.

San Francisco's Chinatown

Making It So by Patrick Stewart

December 8, 2023

Making It So by Patrick Stewart

Legendary actor Sir Patrick Stewart writes about his long acting career as well as his personal life. This is a wonderful memoir, one of the best that I read in 2023. While he takes his craft seriously, he doesn't take himself too seriously and tells wonderful anecdotes about his life and career. Patrick Stewart has been one of my secret crushes since I saw him as Sejanus in the BBC production of I, Claudius in the 1970s (my other secret crush for the last 40 years is Joe Montana, the star quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers). I was never that much of a Star Trek fan (I know - gasp!) but I saw enough of ST: TNG to be familiar with the characters and the storyline.

Lots of great pictures. He is very honest about losing his hair by the time he was 20, his love affairs and marriages, and his relationships with other actors and directors. Highly recommended to fans of Star Trek or Sir Patrick's other work.

Patrick Stewart as Sejanus in I, Claudius

The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer

December 6, 2023

The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer

In Paris in 1944, an artist paints a portrait of his wife over a Van Gogh painting, hiding the original work from the Nazis. Over 75 years later, the picture resurfaces in upstate New York, where a woman named Alex Verde buys it at an antique store. When they discover the hidden Van Gogh, Alex and her boyfriend Luke Perrone, an artist and art history professor, can't figure out how the painting got there. They enlist the help of an INTERPOL agent and follow him to Amsterdam, where the police and INTERPOL are trying to catch a major dealer in stolen art looted by the Nazis.

I didn't enjoy this book that much because it's more of an espionage novel than a book about art theft, and I can never figure out what's going on in spy books. Everyone has a code name, everyone is spying on everyone else and double-crossing them. The reader gets quite the tour of Amsterdam, complete with a visit to the Anne Frank House, plus we get a lecture on looted Nazi artwork. Some of the main characters appeared in Santlofer's previous novel The Last Mona Lisa. Overall, just meh.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Amsterdam

Set for Life by Andrew Ewell

December 4, 2023

Set for Life by Andrew Ewell

A nameless creative writing professor who is on a deadline to get something (anything, really) published has major writer's block. He is a failure at writing, at teaching, at being a husband, at life in general. His wife is a successful novelist and she encourages him at every turn. In typical male midlife crisis fashion, he begins an affair with one of his wife's friends, thinking that this is the answer to all of his problems. When his now-estranged wife publishes another novel with a character based on him, his envy knows no bounds and he feels he is entitled to some kind of compensation. After he manages to implode his entire life, he retreats to Florida where his parents (who he has always looked down on as failures) own a small beachside hotel.

All of the characters in this novel are unlikeable, with the exception of Carlos, the visiting writer. The main character is immature and a complete snob - everyone and everything is beneath him, and he feels that success should be just handed to him rather than having to work for it. It's always someone else's fault. Also, the main character drinks WAY too much, in fact many of the characters drink almost constantly. It's fairly obvious that he is depressed and everyone knows it but him, and several of the characters try to throw him a lifeline (including the department chair, who he despises, who not only doesn't press charges after the main character almost burns down his office, but he tries to help him find a new job). The writing is good, there is some dark humor, and it's a quick read - like a train wreck, you can't look away. I sincerely hope this novel isn't autobiographical.

Is it just me or does anyone else think this is a really boring cover?

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

December 1, 2023

Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

After being informed of her sister's death while on an Arctic voyage on the ship Makepeace, Maude Horton demands answers about what happened to Constance. The ship was supposed to be searching for an Arctic explorer who went missing with his ship, but Maude discovers that there was another purpose for the voyage. Meanwhile, Edison Stowe, the Makepeace's scientific officer, is deeply in debt and concocts a scheme to make a great deal of money by capitalizing on the Victorian fascination with murder and executions.

This is a well-researched historical novel about revenge, but the plot moves slowly. Much of the book is spent setting up the final scenes and a lot of time is spent explaining little-known aspects of Victorian life. It reminded me of The Square of Sevens in that way. Learning about the Victorian fascination with executions and that there actually were excursions to watch executions outside London was quite interesting. There are some gaps, since we don't find out what happened to a number of the characters or the fate of the rubies that Stowe was after. Sensitive readers should be aware that there are a number of scenes of animal cruelty. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

In the Victorian age, executions were a source of public entertainment

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

November 30, 2023

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz is having his first play produced in London's West End theatre district. It's a crime comedy (think Deathtrap) set in a psychiatric hospital. Although it has a good cast and did well outside of London, on opening night, the Times theatre critic pans the play. The next morning, she is stabbed to death at her home. The police arrest Anthony because his fingerprints were on the weapon, a souvenir dagger. After his detective friend Hawthorne bails him out of jail, they have 48 hours to figure out who killed the critic.

This is the fourth book in Horowitz's Hawthorne mystery series, in which the author himself is a character. This one has a definite Agatha Christie vibe: there are interviews with the suspects which reveal a surprising number of people who had a motive, seemingly irrelevant clues and information, and a final grand reveal at the end with all of the suspects gathered together. These are fun literary mysteries with Horowitz playing Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes. Recommended for readers who enjoy clever mysteries.

London's West End theatre district, where much of the action is set

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

November 29, 2023

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

In 1972, just before Hurricane Agnes sweeps through, the Pennsylvania State Police find a skeleton at the bottom of an old well in the Chicken Hill district of Pottstown, PA. They question Malachi, an old Jewish man who lives near the site and has lived in the area since the 1930s, because some Jewish artefacts are found with the bones, but he claims to know nothing about it. After the hurricane destroys most of the neighborhood, Malachi is gone and the police never learn who the skeleton is.

Loved the author's two previous novels The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong, and I greatly enjoyed this novel as well. Set between the two world wars, the story focuses on the residents of the Chicken Hill neighborhood, a low-income area populated mainly by Jews and African Americans but with a recent influx of Italian immigrants, and how they manage to co-exist and interact, helping each other out. The story reads almost like a collection of short stories, where a character is the main actor in one story, but may be a peripheral character in another (think Olive Kitteredge). It's the neighborhood of Chicken Hill that is the connecting factor that brings them all together. Some readers have complained about the large number of characters, but that didn't bother me at all. Be advised, the mystery of the skeleton plays very little part in the story (although you do find out at the end who it is) - I had a good idea about halfway through. One of the best books of 2023. Highly recommended for readers of literary fiction.

Pottstown, PA - I couldn't find a good picture of Chicken Hill, although there are some online archives