Sunday, April 9, 2017

Jade Dragon Mountain

I picked this book as a selection for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  It is the author's debut novel for a series featuring former Forbidden City librarian Li Du and takes place in China in the early 1700s.

Li Du has been recently exiled from China by the Emporer for being associated with traitors.  As he walks across China to leave the country he stops in Dayan near the Tibetan border where his cousin Tulishen is the magistrate.  Since the Emporer is expected to arrive in 6 days Tulishen has been planning to hold a festival for him where the Emporer is expected to show his subjects that he has control over the skies by predicting and producing an eclipse of the sun while he is there. While Li Du is there a Jesuit priest, astronomer Pieter van Dalen, suddenly dies.  The magistrate declares the death to be natural but there are signs that he has ignored indicating there was foul play. Tulishen does not want a murder investigation occurring near the time of the Emporer's arrival as it would upset the Emporer.  Li Du goes on his way but returns the next day asking his cousin if he can look into the priest's death. Tulishen gives him 5 days to come up with an answer before he has to leave again.

I loved this story.  There were interesting characters from Li Du and Tulishen to East India Company representative Nicholas Gray, Tulishen's consort Lady Chen, another Jesuit priest Brother Martin and assorted employees of the magistrate.  The historical aspect was well researched.  The author certainly knows her stuff.  Astronomy is prominent to the story and it added another interesting aspect to the plot.

This was an amazing read.  Highly recommended!


Friday, April 7, 2017

Pekoe Most Poison

I read Laura Child's latest tea shop mystery for the Craving the Cozies Reading Challenge.  It is the 18th installment of the tea shop mystery series and I have read every one of the books.  This is one of my favorite series.

In this installment of the series one of Charleston's wealthiest men, Beau Briggs, dies suddenly after drinking a cup of pekoe tea while at a rat tea party in his home.  Rat tea parties were prominent in Charleston in the mid 1900s and the waiters all wear rat headwear.  The main character, Theodosia Browning, owns the Indigo Tea Shop and is a guest at the event as is her tea master Drayton Connelly.  Her sleuthing begins immediately after Briggs collapses when she says that she thinks that the tea was poisoned.  With a reputation in the community for solving crimes Theodosia is asked by the victim's widow Doreen Briggs to look into his death.  So whodunit?  Was it the wife, the business partner, the neighbor or the publicist? Someone else?  You will have to read the book to find out.

One thing I like about Laura Childs' writing is that the crime occurs early in the story, usually in the first chapter. Some mystery novels don't have the crime committed until well into a third of the book.  I think that is a waste of paper. I want to know right away what crime needs to be solved so that the entire book is really about solving the crime.

The author also follows the cozy mystery formula perfectly.  What you get is a well crafted, fast paced story with several twists and turns and red herring or 2. This is must read for cozy lovers.



Exit Wounds

I have been looking forward to finding another Rutu Modan book ever since I read The Property.

In this graphic novel Koby Franco, a Tel Aviv cab driver, is contacted by a female soldier, Numi, who is looking for Koby's father Gabriel whom she believes was killed in a suicide bombing at a bus station cafeteria.  Gabriel was also her lover.  Together they follow clues and interview witnesses to the bombing to see if anyone knows whether Gabriel was in fact at the cafeteria at the time of the bombing.

The artwork consists of simply drawn characters with detailed background drawings of buildings.  I liked the use of bright colors.

This is a coming of age story with Koby trying to come to terms with his relationship with his father.  The mystery plot was well thought out and followed the pattern of a normal mystery novel with the usual 3 problems that a protagonist has to deal with in order to solve the mystery.

I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

The Hawaiian Quilt

I love Hawaiian quilts so when I saw this book on the shelf of my public library I had to check it out.  It is an Amish fiction novel but is more about Hawaii and its traditions than Amish traditions.  Die hard Amish fiction fans may not like this book as well as some others.  It is not about Hawaiian quilting either so it's title is a little off the mark.

Mandy Frey and 3 other girlfriends decide to take a cruise to Hawaii before deciding whether to join the Amish church.  Mandy leaves behind boyfriend Gideon whom she is considering marrying.  While visiting Maui Mandy and her friend Ellen miss getting back to the cruise ship before it leaves for another port.  They are stranded on Maui but get to know a couple who takes them in while their families come up with the funds to bring them home.  Mandy meets a boy there and is not sure whether she is fascinated with him or with the island vibe.

While I do not read romance fiction, I did enjoy this novel.  There was a lot of Hawaiiana to keep me captivated and the romance aspect intrigued me.   I may try some other Amish fiction books to see how I like them.







Monday, March 20, 2017

Coffin Road

I had already read Peter May's Enzo Files series when I saw this book at the library. I was hoping it would be another Enzo File novel but it was not.  It is better. Coffin Road is the best novel that I have read in a long time.  It had me spell bound and I could not put it down.

The story takes place on the Isle of Harris in Scotland's Outer Hebrides. The setting is central to the story.  The characters react to the flora and fauna of the scenery and the stormy weather patterns are part of the plot.  Since the author is a Scotsman he is an expert on the geography of this location.

The main character washes ashore on a beach on the Isle of Harris with amnesia. He has no idea who he is or why he is on the island.  He learns a few things about himself from other characters, including where he is living and eventually his name, but begins a search into his identity after finding a map of the island that leads to a path called Coffin Road. He feels led to this part of the island and begins his search there.

A rebellious teenager Karen Fleming stops attending school after her mother decides to let her boyfriend move in.  She feels her mother is betraying her father who has been dead for 2 years and determines to find out more about him.

Homicide detective George Gunn travels to a remote island to investigate the death of a man in an abandoned lighthouse where a century earlier 3 lighthouse keepers disappeared.

The stories of these 3 characters merge together in a tightly woven plot.  There is a lot of suspense in this book which turned out to be an eco-thriller.  I was not expecting the story to go there but it added an interesting aspect to the plot. An amazing read.  Highly recommended!




Sunday, March 19, 2017

The Shogun's Daughter


I read The Shogun's Daughter for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  It is the 17th installment of a series with samurai Sano Ichiro as sleuth.  This is the first book of the series that I have read and it works great as a stand alone novel.

Tsuruhime is the shogun's daughter and she has succumbed to smallpox.  The mystery is whether she died of natural causes or was murdered.  She was the only person who could have produced an heir for the shogun.  After her death the shogun is told that he has a son named Yoshisato that he never knew about from one of his concubines.  Sano is tasked with finding out who killed Tsuruhime and gets caught up in the politics of feudal Japan in the 1700s.  

I enjoyed this novel immensely.  I have never read any historical mysteries set in Japan and learned a lot about life in this place and era.  In the beginning I had some trouble getting used to the Japanese names and expected it to be a long read.  Since the dialogue was modern the read went pretty fast.  It seemed , however, that most of the plot was about political intrigue instead of being about the solving of a crime.   The political intrigue, while fascinating, made the book seem longer than it needed to be.  

All in all this was a great book and I look forward to reading the entire series.



Saturday, March 18, 2017

My Kind of Mystery 2017 Reading Challenge

I am joining this challenge which runs from February 1, 2017 through January 31, 2018.  There does not appear to be any rules for the challenge so I assume you can read any number of books in any sub-genre of the mystery genre.  I sort of like a challenge with no required number of books.  It makes me feel more relaxed knowing I don't have to push myself to read x number of books per month.