THE ZIG ZAG GIRL by Elly Griffiths

September 15, 2015
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The smell at the Brighton train station led the police to find the head and legs of a woman packed in two cases. Shortly thereafter, Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens receives the body’s torso in a package addressed to him, using his recent World War II rank of Captain.

The body reminds Edgar of an old magic trick called the “Zig Zag Girl” perfected by Max Mephisto. The men served together in a special unit called the “Magic Men,” and Mephisto is still performing on the circuit but sees that times are changing.

Stephens gets Mephisto to help him investigate, and the time period is classic mystery era, pre-cell phones, computers or DNA, when murders were solved by face-to-face investigation and brilliant deduction.

Another death attributed to a magic trick amps up the tension, especially as Edgar realizes the Magic Men are being targeted. The setting of the shabby, post-war beach town during the 1950’s adds another layer to the story. This is a clever, original plot and the quirky characters bring it all to life in this well written mystery. Classic mystery fans will find this an enjoyable read.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

9/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE ZIG ZAG GIRL by Elly Griffiths.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 15, 2015).  ISBN 978-0544527942. 336p.

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THIS HEART OF MINE by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

September 11, 2015

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Chicago Stars Book 5

I don’t know why but I generally just don’t care for the covers of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ books, and this one is no exception. But I was looking for a fast read and I love her books and somehow missed this one so I went for it. Turns out this was her first hardcover book, although now it is available in paperback and eBook, which is how I read it.

The Chicago Stars are a fictional football team owned by Phoebe Calebow and run by her husband Dan. Phoebe inherited the team from her father and the rest of his 15 million dollar estate went to her younger sister Molly. After going on a shopping spree, Molly decided she didn’t like the life of the idle rich and gave away all her money, turning her hand to writing children’s books to make her living.

Molly is barely making ends meet but she’s happy until her publisher informs her they want some changes in her latest book due to political pressure. She decides to go off to the family cabin to console herself but is surprised to find Chicago Stars quarterback Kevin Tucker already there. Molly’s had a crush on him for a while and does something rather shocking, then has to live with the consequences. Molly is pregnant and Tucker, the son of a minister, does the obligatory thing and marries her.

Things don’t turn out as she planned but then what would the fun be in that. Kevin and Molly have a lot of ups and downs as they work towards an annulment and then a divorce, except that there has to be a happy ending and there is.

Phillips’ trademark humor is here as are her hot sex scenes, including some with a (gasp!) middle aged couple. I loved these characters and couldn’t help rooting for all of them. This is another charmer from the queen of contemporary romance. Now I have to go back and see if I missed any other books in this series!

9/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THIS HEART OF MINE by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Avon (February 5, 2002). ISBN 978-0380808083. 420p.

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MAKE ME by Lee Child

September 8, 2015
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Jack Reacher, Book 20

When I review a new Jack Reacher book, it often feels like I will run out of superlatives or lapse into another review that sounds much like the one before it. But really, it’s not my fault if Child keeps pumping out series books that get better every time – especially considering that he started out with a winner. A lot of series get stale or repetitive but somehow Child manages to not only keep things fresh, but bring fresh perspectives to a character that readers feel they already know so well.

Make Me is a bit darker than the previous books, but that darkness is offset by a romance. Yes, you read that correctly. Now read on.

As is his wont, Reacher is riding the rails, but gets off in a small Oklahoma town called Mother’s Rest because he is simply curious about the name. A woman sees him and scurries over, then realizes he is not the man she is seeking. Tom Cruise aside, his sheer size makes him easily discernible from most mortal men so that also arouses his curiosity.

But his curiosity is not to be slaked. While he asks around town for the meaning of the name, no one will tell him. Mother’s Rest is a tiny town miles from anything but wheat fields, and it just feels wrong to Reacher that no one seems to know.

The woman, Michelle Chang, is a bit more forthcoming. She is a private investigator who can’t find her partner. Reacher decides to help her look, and that leads them both into danger as well as into research into the Deep Web. Their search takes them to Illinois, Arizona and California, and their mutual attraction leads to the usual, only this time, with longer lasting results.

This is a dark and twisty story as only Lee Child can tell it, and I stayed up late into the night to finish it. Another winner from the master.

9/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

MAKE ME by Lee Child. Delacorte Press (September 8, 2015).  ISBN 978-0804178778. 416p.

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THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, ed. by Ellen Datlow

September 5, 2015
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Volume 7

Once again Ellen Datlow has culled through the past year’s mass of horror shorts and novellas to put together a collection of some of the best highlights for genre fans.

Datlow not only has great taste, but with these “best of” anthologies she’s essentially offering readers a snapshot of the year’s releases. The chosen tales are narrowed down from multi-author anthologies, single author collections, magazines, online publications, and any other place that might have featured horror shorts for the previous year. What’s more, Datlow also takes the time to list additional readings of note including shorts that didn’t quite make the cut (because there are such a plethora to have to choose from), genre novels, award winners, etc from the calendar year.

This year’s twenty-two tale selection runs the gamut of horror with tales inspired by Lovecraft (Brian Evenson’s “Past Reno” and Livia Llewellyn’s “Allochton” were both originally part of the Letters to Lovecraft anthology edited by Jesse Bullington), a sin eater (Genevieve Valentine’s “A Dweller in Amenty”), vengeance from beyond the grave (Laird Barron’s “The Worms Crawl In”), and of course a couple of tales of the apocalypse as well, just to mention a few.

Some of my own favorites this time around include Garth Nix’s “Shay Corsham Worsted” and Keris McDonald’s “The Coat Off His Back,” both of which center around some quite historic criminals, the abovementioned “Past Reno,” and Angela Slatter’s revenge tale “Winter Children.”

Here’s the full table of contents:

The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud

Winter Children by Angela Slatter

A Dweller in Amenty by Genevieve Valentine

Outside Heavenly by Rio Youers

Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix

Allochton by Livia Llewllyn

Chapter Six by Stephen Graham Jones

This is Not for You by Gemma Files

Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by Caitlin R. Kiernan

The Culvert by Dale Bailey

Past Reno by Brian Evenson

The Coat off His Back by Keris McDonald

The Worms Crawl In by Laird Barron

The Dog’s Home by Alison Littlewood

Tread Upon the Brittle Shell by Rhoads Brazos

Persistence of Vision by Orrin Grey

It Flows From the Mouth by Robert Shearman

Wingless Beasts by Lucy Taylor

Departures by Carole Johnstone

Ymir by John Langan

Plink by Kurt Dinan

Nigredo by Cody Goodfellow

 

9/15 Becky LeJeune

THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR 7, ed. by Ellen Datlow. Night Shade Books (August 18, 2015).  ISBN 978-1597808293.  368p.

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ABANDON by Blake Crouch

September 4, 2015
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Blake Crouch is noted for his many suspenseful novels and most recently Wayward Pines, which was made into a successful television series. Abandon is the name of a small midwestern town that saw its entire population suddenly disappear on Christmas day, 1893. No trace was ever found of any of these people and their houses were found with food on the tables, personal belonging in place, no messages left and no answers to what had happened.

A history professor in present times hires two guides and enlists the aid of his estranged journalist daughter to try and find out what did happen to the people of Abandon. They travel to the town and begin attempting to find answers.

Crouch sets up a scenario in which events are described back and forth between 1893 and the present day search. The reader is introduced to the two sets of characters, their motivations and finally what happened by rapidly changing the scene from one group to the other. The differences between the professor and his daughter, Abigail, are part and parcel of the novel with a logical making up between the two as the search goes on.

The book is suspenseful, but not otherworldly as was Wayward Pines. The plot development and the method of using both sets of events, 1893 and the present day, keeps the reader glued to the book and anxiously awaiting the next steps in both periods. Very well done.

9/15 Paul Lane

ABANDON by Blake Crouch. Thomas & Mercer; Reissue edition (September 1, 2015). ISBN: 978-1503946194. 529p.

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CHASING JUSTICE by H. Terrell Griffin

September 3, 2015
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Matt Royal is a retired attorney and self proclaimed beach bum, enjoying his comfortable life on Longboat Key off the west coast of Florida, except he comes out of retirement for each book – and this is the ninth – of the series.

This time the police chief’s wife, Abby Lester, is accused of murder. The best way to keep Abby out of jail would be to find the real killer, so Royal hires an investigator to help out. The evidence is shaky at best; a wine glass found bedside with Abbey’s fingerprints on it, and a series of emails, supposedly signed by Abby, sent to the victim, including one on his last day on earth threatening to kill him, except the emails weren’t sent from her computer, and her fingerprints are nowhere else in the apartment.

Royal’s detective girlfriend is working on a different murder case, but you don’t have to be a detective to realize these two murders are related somehow. Royal stumbles through the case, leaping over every hurdle thrown his way until the foregone conclusion. A comfortable, if not exciting read for legal thriller fans.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

9/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

CHASING JUSTICE by H. Terrell Griffin.  Oceanview Publishing (September 1, 2015).  ISBN 978-1608091416. 384p.

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THE UNYIELDING FUTURE by Brian O’Grady

September 2, 2015
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Brian O’Grady brings his readers into a world that introduces the concept of forces that act as Yang and Yin in the course of human events. They can prevent massacres, on the other hand arrange for murders and guide the actions of humans. These are not just abstract entities, but humans, long lived, 2 thousand year old humans that can interact with normal people if they so wish.

O’Grady puts a doctor and his family into the paths of two of these entities when they are part of a major accident and a seemingly old man arrives on the scene. In spite of what appears to be advanced age and consequent weakness this individual saves many lives and appears normal once the deed is accomplished.

The novel is both perplexing and enticing. What is the motivation of these people since there is more than one.  Are they truly the Yang and Yin of our world representing opposite reactions to events, or they are part of the same following similar patterns and drives. The answers are not so clear but do cause  thinking that might admit that such forces exist and influence events. A compelling read and certainly stimulating a desire to read more of Brian O’Grady’s books.

9/15 Paul Lane

THE UNYIELDING FUTURE by Brian O’Grady. Story Plant, The (September 8, 2015). ISBN: 978-1611882162. 350p.

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THE UNINVITED by Cat Winters

August 29, 2015
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Ivy has only just recovered from the flu, but when she hears that her father and brother have murdered a local German shop owner she knows she can’t stay in their house one moment longer. Ivy has always seen spirits – they’re harbingers of bad things to come – and the last thing she can take is seeing the ghost of the man her father murdered.

When she arrives in town, though, she finds that Buchanan has been hit hard by the war and Spanish flu. The hospital is bursting at the seams and turning away patients with the wrong background or address. Fear is a predominant feeling amongst the locals – fear of being called out for being unpatriotic, fear of getting sick, fear of losing one more loved one… Ivy knows that fear makes men like the one her father murdered prime targets but she still feels a responsibility to the dead man’s brother and is desperate to make amends. At the same time, Ivy is certain something awful is about to come to pass. Why else would she be seeing her dead brother at every turn?

Cat Winters makes her adult debut with The Uninvited. It’s historical fiction set in an imagined town that’s pretty wonderfully representative of the era: the undertone of sadness and dread and the overwhelming anxiety of the town certainly feels true to the time.

Imagine watching your brothers, classmates, and sometimes even fathers going off to fight a war against an enemy overseas. Imagine being told that your neighbors could be collaborating with that enemy. And now imagine that a truly deadly and virulent sickness is making its way through your town as well. This is Ivy’s reality and her only relief comes from music and a love that’s pretty much forbidden.

There’s more than a hint of the supernatural to this tale – Ivy does see ghosts, after all – but The Uninvited is somewhat less of a ghost story than I’d initially expected. It’s more a story about human nature and the terrible effects of war. The combination makes for an eerie and emotional read.

 

8/15 Becky LeJeune

THE UNINVITED by Cat Winters. William Morrow Paperbacks (August 11, 2015).  ISBN 978-0062347336.  368p.

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THE COINCIDENCE OF COCONUT CAKE by Amy E. Reichert

August 27, 2015
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One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail, the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romcom written by Nora & Delia Ephron that is set around NYC bookstores. Much as You’ve Got Mail was a love letter to New York City, Coconut Cake is a love letter to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Reichert did an amazing job – I want to go!  The Coincidence of Coconut Cake is the foodie equivalent of Mail, and that completely worked for me.

Lou is a talented chef who is sweating away trying to make a success of her small French restaurant, Luella’s, named after her beloved grandmother. She has a core group of regulars, and is just making ends meet. Her personal life is a little bit better; her fiancé is successful but not entirely supportive of her endeavors. And then everything falls apart.

Lou walks in on her fiancé with another woman and she dumps him. She’s off to work, heartbroken, humiliated and angry, not the best way to cook. She alienates most of her staff, and the food suffers terribly.

Of course this is the night that the new food critic in town visits the restaurant. Al is quite acerbic in his reviews and is building a nice following. One meal at Luella’s is all that he needs to eviscerate the restaurant, sounding the death knoll for the struggling restaurant.

Meanwhile, Lou and Al literally run into each other and she decides to show him around Milwaukee, a city he is sorry he landed in. By the time she’s through with him, he loves the city and Lou – but it takes a while before he realizes who she is and she finds out who he is. Fireworks ensue, but it is the journey that is so delicious.

This was a fast moving story with warm, likeable characters and a fun plot.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

 

THE COINCIDENCE OF COCONUT CAKE by Amy E. Reichert. Gallery Books (July 21, 2015).  ISBN 978-1501100710. 336p.

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WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT by Tessa Dare

August 26, 2015

WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT

Castles Ever After Series

This was such a fun read! I admit, I have a thing for Scots – at least Scots men in kilts – thank you, Diana Gabaldon. And I love Tessa Dare. So when I heard about this at ALA (the American Library Association annual conference) I knew I had to get my hands on it. And I was so glad I did.

The premise of the book was creative and original.  Madeline Gracechurch was supposed to be “coming out” but is so shy and awkward, not to mention smart in the science sort of way not heavily favored by the English gentry, she makes up a suitor, “Captain MacKenzie,”  sends him off to war, avoids English society and starts a correspondence with her imaginary lover.

Imagine her shock when years later Captain MacKenzie shows up at her door, ready to claim her for his wife. He’s been at sea, and all of her letters have landed in his lap. His lands have been taken by the British, and here is a convenient way to get something back for him and his men.

He convinces her to marry him or risk exposure and humiliation, and one thing leads to another and the oh so happy ending. But not before lots of angst, sex and a bit of history are thrown into the mix. I haven’t had this much fun reading a romance in a while, and I highly recommend it.

8/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

WHEN A SCOT TIES THE KNOT by Tessa Dare. Avon (August 25, 2015). ISBN 978-0062349026. 384p.

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