Mini-Reviews: Chutes & Adders, The Spellman Files, Caliban’s Hour

 Posted by Anastasia on December 20, 2010  No Responses »
Dec 202010
 
Share

226. Chutes and Adders by Barbara Block
Publication: Kensington Publishing Corp. (August 1, 1994), Hardcover, 296pp / ISBN 0821745336
Genre: Mystery
Rating: Bin it
Read: November 25-26, 2010
Source: Paperback Swap
Summary from Amazon:

Running a small pet shop that sells a variety of small animals, widow Robin Light becomes the chief suspect in a murder case when her partner is killed by a poisonous saw-backed viper that arrived in an unmarked package.

Review

I feel sort of weird for not liking this one more than I do, because it seems like it’d be right up my alley. Strong female protagonist, little to no romance, decent mystery, thrills and chills, and a theme that isn’t too stupid. However, while Robin herself was fully fleshed out and reasonably functional as a character, none of the other characters were. Robin had depth and layers, but all the rest of them acted like they were playing a role. Even the villain was playing a role, and the big “reveal” at the end with the true killer showing up and explaining their motivation for being a killer read like it was checking stuff off a list. Like, “captured protagonist and tied her to a chair.” Check! “Taunting her and throwing my cleverness in her face.” Check! “Setting up her death in such a way that she can escape at the last moment, a la James Bond.” Check!

Plus the dialogue really fell apart at the end. Continue reading »

Share
 Bin it, Buy it, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Old, Reviews

Review: Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare

 Posted by Anastasia on December 8, 2010  7 Responses »
Dec 082010
 
Share

220. Suicide Excepted by Cyril Hare Publication: HarperCollins (April 1991), originally published 1939, Paperback, 246pp / ISBN 0060806362
Genre: Mystery
Rating: Buy it
Read: November 19-21, 2010
Source: Freebie table at Bubonicon 2010
Summary from Amazon the back cover:

Disappointed with the accommodations, the meals, and the service at the country hotel of Pendlebury Old Hall, Inspector Mallett is looking forward to the end of his holiday. He must endure only one more trial: the hotel boor, whose family once owned the country house, sits down at Mallett’s table and unburdens himself. The next day the man is dead, an apparent suicide. The suspicious death interrupts Mallett’s rural reverie and inadvertently embroils him in family passions and murder.

Review

Picture of ME with my own personal copy, because apparently there aren’t any good pictures of it already online? Yay for laptops with cameras in them! (I have to buy a new digital camera before our trip to Disney World in January– my old one is completely dead now.)

I got my copy from the last Bubonicon; there was a bunch of free books and magazines and other swank on a table and I grabbed whatever I could stuff into my bag, including, obviously, Suicide Excepted! I didn’t even really pay attention to what it was really about– I sort of just skimmed the back, saw it was a mystery with a police detective, and shoved it into my bag before someone else grabbed it. I’m VERY bad with free things, although I will try to be better at BEA. I swear it! Continue reading »

Share
 Buy it, Crime, Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Reviews

Mini-Reviews: Medina Hill, Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, The Veiled Detective

 Posted by Anastasia on August 3, 2010  5 Responses »
Aug 032010
 
Share

139. Medina Hill by Trilby Kent
Publication: Tundra Books (October 13, 2009), Hardcover, 176pp / ISBN 0887768881
Genre: MG Fiction
Rating:
Read: June 27-28, 2010
Source: Library

Review

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It reminded me a bit of the books I used to read as a kid, the ones that tried to take big problems (social, familial, whatever) and break them up into small enough chunks so kids could digest them easier. I like that ambition in a book, and Medina Hill tries to tackle some very big issues like prejudice, illness, and personal courage. However…it just wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped it’d be. It was actually kind of boring.

The writing was good! I just wished Ms Kent had gone further with the plotline. Not to preach or shove anything down the reader’s throat, just to ramp up the tension and excitement, make it less of a sleepy book and more like a Jacqueline Woodson novel, I guess. (Not that I think anybody else could be J.W. except J.W. I just wanted Medina Hill to be more powerful overall.)

140. Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years, edited by Michael Kurland
Publication: Minotaur Books (November 4, 2004), Hardback, 400pp / ISBN 0312315139
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Rating:
Read: June 20-30, 2010
Source: Library

Review

I love the idea behind this book: “what did Sherlock Holmes do in the intervening years between his supposed death and his resurrection?” And the stories in the collection have some very interesting ideas, some of which was when Holmes went to America and bothered the detectives on that side of the pond. However, the crappy ones were very crappy, and it’s lucky I’ve forgotten about them now because otherwise I think I would have rated The Hidden Years even lower. Overall, it’s a mediocre collection, because the crap stories drag the whole thing down and not even the good stories entirely bring it back up again. Maybe get it from your library instead of buying it.

Stories I particularly liked: Carolyn Wheat’s “Water From the Moon,” which had a very interesting secondary police chief character that wasn’t bumbling and was, furthermore, Indian; Bill Pronzini’s “The Bughouse Caper,” which is a crossover with his Quincannon character and has some very funny scenes on how he thinks of Holmes (hint: not kindly); Caroline Bugge’s “The Strange Case of the Voodoo Priestess,” which is set in New Orleans and has a real feel for the area/time period.

141. The Veiled Detective by David Stuart Davies
Publication: Titan Books (November 17, 2009), Paperback, 256pp / ISBN 1848564902
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Rating:
Read: July 1-2, 2010
Source: Library

Review

No lie: I hated this book. I like the idea of turning everything on its head and assuming that Moriarty was controlling Holmes’ life from the very beginning, but the execution was weak and I hated the writing. Furthermore, it was boring. If I was re-rating this I’d seriously consider giving it only one bird instead of two, but I did like the way Holmes was presented in it and so I’m keeping it at two. But seriously. Did not like.

(Love that cover, though.)

Bookmark and Share

Share
 2/5, 3/5, Crime, Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Reviews, YA

Review: A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss

 Posted by Anastasia on April 21, 2010  No Responses »
Apr 212010
 
Share

99. A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss
Publication: Ballantine Books (January 30, 2001), Paperback, 480pp / ISBN 0804119120
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Rating:
Read: April 13-15, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Benjamin Weaver, a Jew and an ex-boxer, is an outsider in eighteenth-century London, tracking down debtors and felons for aristocratic clients. The son of a wealthy stock trader, he lives estranged from his family–until he is asked to investigate his father’s sudden death. Thus Weaver descends into the deceptive world of the English stock jobbers, gliding between coffee houses and gaming houses, drawing rooms and bordellos. The more Weaver uncovers, the darker the truth becomes, until he realizes that he is following too closely in his father’s footsteps–and they just might lead him to his own grave. An enthralling historical thriller, A Conspiracy of Paper will leave readers wondering just how much has changed in the stock market in the last three hundred years…

Review

I find a lot of good books wandering aimlessly around the library, and this one’s one of them! I had no idea who David Liss was or even really what this book was about– I only read the first sentence of the summary, and went from there. I think I’m only going to read the first sentence of every summary from now on, because I can’t help but think that I enjoy books a little bit more when I don’t know anything about them except maybe the genre and the title. Like, I’m not expecting things, you know? Ha.

Anyway, though A Conspiracy of Paper wasn’t as exciting as I’d thought it’d be, it was, indeed, very enthralling, and I pretty much zoomed through the better part of it before I realized just how unexciting it was. But is unexciting all that bad? There are some fights in it, after all, though they aren’t the focus of the story. And I actually kind of like that Benjamin didn’t resort to violence as much as he could have– he didn’t fall into the stereotype of a “man who talks with his fists.” Plus, however unexciting the book is, I don’t think anyone could dispute that the last fifty pages are pretty freakin’ exciting, what with all the running around, and the sword fights, and the fist fights, and the TWISTS. Yeah.

So despite being for the most part unexciting A Conspiracy of Paper was still very fun to read, and though I didn’t entirely understand the bit about how stocks worked (I tended to skim over the explanations) I really like Benjamin, both as just a regular person and as an early sort of detective. There are at least two other books by David Liss starring Benjamin and I definitely want to read them, even if 18th century England makes me want to simultaneously run away and tear my hair out. The horrible conditions in the jails alone made me want to cry– though I should mention that while Mr Liss’ descriptions of gruesome things are straightforward they aren’t over-the-top disgusting, like, I don’t know, some of Clive Barker’s books are.

Anyway, in conclusion: excellent book, totally deserves the Edgar Award it got for best first book, can’t wait to read the others, check it out if you like historical fiction and/or detective stories.

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Other reviews: Prettier Than Napoleon

Bookmark and Share

Share
 4/5, Crime, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Reviews

Review: The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes & The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Hugh Greene

 Posted by Anastasia on April 19, 2010  No Responses »
Apr 192010
 
Share

80. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Hugh Greene
Publication: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 28, 1972), Paperback, 332pp / ISBN 0140033114
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Rating:
Read: March 29-30, 2010
Source: Bought

Review

I don’t have too much to say about this, except that I was extremely happy to find a copy in the first place (at a library book sale!). My favorite sort of mysteries come from the interwar period, mostly, so reading more Victorian/Edwardian mysteries, especially by authors I’ve never heard about before, was great!

It’s a good collection, although of course some stories are better than others. I was surprised at how many anti-heroes there were, especially Arthur Morrison’s Dorrington stories. I hate Dorrington; he’s an absolute villain, and yet I couldn’t stop reading about him. Simon Carne, another baddie masquerading as a goodie, was at least gentlemanly. Dorrington…wasn’t. (And he was scary.) Excellent writing, there, I think. :D

Besides that, I was also really excited to find some stories by authors that I was trying to find last year, after reading Partners in Crime, wherein Tommy and Tuppence imitate famous detectives, most of which I’ve never heard of before. I could only find around two, and the rest were so out of print it was insane (and they weren’t available online, either). So I was very happy to discover that some of them were hiding in this collection.

If you’re interested in Victorian/Edwardian mysteries that aren’t Sherlock Holmes (or Raffles, etc) and can get your hands on this book, I’d do so. It’s certainly cheaper than trying to track down the original books and magazines!

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Also, apparently there was a TV show based on this book! See?

83. The Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Hugh Greene
Publication: Penguin (September 30, 1974), Paperback, 317pp / ISBN 0140038914
Genre: Mystery, Crime
Rating:
Read: April 1-3, 2010
Source: Bought

Review

This is the third book in the “rivals of Sherlock Holmes” series, and since I don’t have the second one (which is foreign rivals) I can’t talk about that, and so you’ll have to excuse me for skipping ahead to this one.

I can’t say I enjoyed this volume as much as I enjoyed the last. I think the stories weren’t as good, and while some of them were by the same authors as last time, with the same characters (including the hateful Dorrington), they just weren’t as good. I think partly it was because Mr Greene was running out of sources– Victorian mystery magazines and books were getting pretty pricey by then, if they survived at all, so I’m not surprised he exhausted most of his pool of detectives earlier on (he was using his own collection to create these books).

I’d only recommend getting this book if you’re one of those people who like having a complete set of something (in which case you’ll of course have to get the second volume as well) or you’re just really interested in early detective stories. Otherwise I’d say just stick to the first book, because it’s just better overall.

And

Get your own copy @ Amazon and support Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog!

Bookmark and Share

Share
 Crime, Fiction, Mystery/Detective, Reviews

Review: Heist Society by Ally Carter

 Posted by Anastasia on April 7, 2010  10 Responses »
Apr 072010
 
Share

53. Heist Society by Ally Carter (read by Angela Dawe)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (February 9, 2010), Audiobook / ISBN 1441826734
Genre: YA, Crime
Rating:
Read: February 26-March 2, 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre . . . to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria . . . to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own — scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster’s priceless art collection has been stolen and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled off this job, and Kat’s father isn’t just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it’s a spectacularly impossible job? She’s got two weeks, a teenage crew, and, hopefully, just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family’s (very crooked) history — and with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

Review

I’ve been putting off writing/posting this review because honestly, I’m a little afraid. I think the general consensus is that this is a great book, with excellent writing and characters and plot. And I happen to disagree. Like, a lot.

I really didn’t like this book. I listened to it as an audiobook and while I’m able to forgive a lot of things because, for some reason, audiobook format makes me feel more kindly towards the book in general, I wasn’t able to forgive Heist Society. It’s not as bad as some other books I’ve read, but it’s certainly somewhere down around the bottom on the scale of How Awesome is This Book.
Continue reading »

Share
 2/5, Crime, Fiction, Genius Kids, Reviews, YA

Review: Montmorency by Eleanor Updale

 Posted by Anastasia on November 21, 2009  No Responses »
Nov 212009
 
Share

232. Montmorency by Eleanor Updale

Publication: Orchard (April 1, 2004), Hardback, 240pp / ISBN 0439580358

Genre: Historical Fiction, Children’s/MG

Rating:

Challenges: Countdown 2010 (2004 #1)

Read: November 18, 2009

Source: Library

Review

I was caught without a book one afternoon this week and so I quickly grabbed this book off the library shelf to read on the way home. It’s not what I was expecting, and it’s not the best book I’ve ever read, but it’s not horrible, at least.

Summary from Amazon:

When a petty thief falls through a glass roof trying to escape from the police, what should have been the death of him marks the beginning of a whole new life. He soon becomes the most elusive burglar in Victorian London, adopting a dual existence as both a respectable, wealthy gentleman named Montmorency, and his degenerate servant Scarper.

From the first page Montmorency seemed spooky and interesting and slightly gross. I have a hard time with descriptions of Victorian (or before) doctoring, because most of it’s disgusting and highly unsanitary. (I’m a bit of a germaphobe.) So when it started off with a dude who’s being experimented on by a “doctor,” that really freaked me out. However, the book quickly moved on from that and gets into the crime stuff. I like crime stuff, you know, like Arsene Lupin kind of things, but this crime stuff was boring.

Much of the book is boring. The dialogue-to-exposition ratio is way too high, and while that may work in, like, a fairy tale– it doesn’t really work in a crime novel. There was no excitement. There was no tension, no thrills. There was a bit of humor but overall the whole thing was a bland cake frosted with lumpy gray frosting.

Also, the whole scheme Montmorency sets up (hitting places near sewer holes, doubling as two people) reeks of implausibility, and I couldn’t help but think that he’d get caught sooner or later. The fact that he doesn’t just makes me think it’s sloppy writing.

I didn’t particularly like Montmorency, but I find the idea of a criminal forcing his way into the aristocracy amusing, and I liked reading about him discovering opera and…Plato. I know it’s a trope but I like it anyway! And it worked really well, here; Montmorency, while not a super hardcore criminal, does evolve into a better person by the end of the book, though I’m not entirely sure it’s because of the influence of good clothes and fancy food.

Unless that is the whole point of the book, in which case. Woah. Okay, that’s a whole can of worms I don’t even want to open.

Anyway, basically: Montmorency is an okay book, but its main virtue is that it’s short. It’s not electric, it’s not entirely fun, and I’m not sure I would have read it all if I wasn’t desperate.

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound.

Other reviews: By Singing Light

Have you reviewed this book? Let me know and I’ll link to your review in this post!

Bookmark and Share

Share
 Crime, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Reviews, YA
 Older Entries