Wrap-Up of the 2021 Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge

12 books were required for the challenge, one for each month of the year.  I read 14 and 5 of the authors were new to me.

The Girls in the Snow by Stacy Green

Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark

Murder at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan

The Easter Sepulchre by Mel Starr

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Murder in Venice by Maria Luisa Minarelli

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem

The Fourth of July by Cami Checketts

Peaches and Schemes by Anna Gerard

The September Society by Charles Finch

The End of October by Lawrence Wright

Turkey Trot Murder by Leslie Meier

A Lancaster Family Christmas by Kate Lloyd

My Sister's Grave by Robert Deign

Favorite Book:  The September Society

Second Favorite Book:  Murder in Venice

Least Favorite Book:  The Fourth of July

A Lancaster Family Christmas

A Lancaster Family Christmas is a feel good holiday story about a Mennonite family and a city girl. Diana Manzella agrees to take an out of town trip with co-worker Betsy Yoder to visit the Yoder family in Lancaster County. Diana is an only child who comes from a family with distant parents.  She muses that her parents do not even know what subject she majored in during college. When Diana arrives in Amish Country she discovers that their world is completely different from her own on the Upper East Side of New York City. She isn't sure that she can make it through the weekend. However, Diana is fascinated by the huge homes and buggies but takes note that these families get along and have huge home cooked meals every day. This, too, is vastly different from her parent's household.  Diana also notices Betsy's brother Brett and his Amish friend Jesse.  She is attracted to both of them even though she knows nothing can come of a relationship with either of them because of their religious faith.

The food alone that Betsy's mother cooks will get you in the holiday spirit. It is hard to believe that there are women in the world who spend that much time in the kitchen. They seem to have limitless energy.  A Lancaster Family Christmas is a good book to start the holiday season with.  I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Turkey Trot Murder

The Turkey Trot Murder takes place in Tinker's Cove, Maine where the our protagonist, Lucy Stone lives. Lucy expects that the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday will be uneventful. However, while training for the annual turkey trot 5K Lucy sees a dead body frozen in Blueberry Pond. Alison Franklin, daughter of the wealthy Ed Franklin, struggled with opioid addiction after an injury a year prior. The police blame her death on an accidental overdose but Lucy, a reporter for the local paper, disagrees. Alison had it all, wealth, looks and education. While covering the funeral for the paper, Lucy is puzzled to see Ed Franklin bring his new, young and pregnant wife Mireille with him. Alison's mother, Eudora Clare, arrives at the funeral with her new husband covered in black gauze to outshine Mireille. As the residents of Tinker's Cove become uneasy over the third drug death in a year, Lucy investigates Alison's death for her paper. Soon, a new family moves into town to reopen a restaurant. The Rodriguezes are Hispanic and are opposed by the community who blames Mexicans for the drug epidemic.  Ed Franklin is the most vocal of them. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book but readers who are tired of hearing about the national divide over immigration will want to skip it. The author takes a Democratic point of view on immigration. There is much more to the story though. The mystery over Alison's death deepens when another resident is killed. We also have several opposing parties in the story.  Mireille versus Eudora, Ed versus Rey Rodgriguez and Lucy's daughter Zoe versus Matt Rodriguez. You don't know which of them will prevail. Turkey Trot Murder is the 24th Lucy Stone Mystery but I have only read 2 of them previously.  I thought that these cozies were too traditional for my taste but Turkey Trot has an intricate plot with tight writing.   I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars.

The End of October

The End of October is a medical thriller about a devastating virus that begins in Asia and soon thereafter goes global. This riveting story begins at in internment camp in Indonesia where forty seven people die from acute hemorrhagic fever. When microbiologist Henry Parsons travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization he suddenly learns that his driver is infected and is on his way to join millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Henry joins with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine all of the pilgrims in the holy city.  It doesn't work.  The deputy director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is a Russian immigrant who scrambles to mount a response to what she thinks may be an act of biowar. Some people believe that the virus was bioengineered by Putin because there are few cases of it in Russia. The Russian leader, of course, blames the Americans. As the disease travels throughout the U. S. it decimates the population and religious, scientific and governmental institutions are dismantled. 

Obviously, this  novel is timely.  It was published in April 2020 so I doubt that the author had any idea that we would be dealing with a pandemic when he wrote the story. It is interesting to note that the president in the novel wears orange pancake makeup and the vice president will not make any decisions without praying first. To add to this phenomenon the main character worries about the danger his family could face while camping in off grid sites in Grand Teton National Park.

The sense of emergency contributed to the fast pace.  The reader does not know what the virus is or how fast it will kill people. Henry goes through a mental checklist to help him identify the origin of the virus and when it was revealed in the last 3 pages, I was astonished. I was not expecting this ending. Given all of my newfound knowledge on pandemics, I knew where the plot was heading. It was still a fantastic read. 4 out of 5 stars.

The September Society

The September Society is a historical mystery that takes place in Oxford and London in Autumn 1866.  It is the second novel in a series that features amateur sleuth Charles Lenox. It was published in 2008. 

The publisher's summary:  

"In the small hours of the morning one fall day in 1866, a frantic widow visits detective Charles Lenox. Lady Annabelle's problem is simple: Her beloved son, George, has vanished from his room at Oxford. When Lenox visits his alma mater to investigate he discovers a series of bizarre clues, including a murdered cat and a card cryptically referring to The September Society. Then, just as Lenox realizes that the case may be deeper than it appears, a student dies, the victim of foul play."

This was light reading at its best. While light, the book had all the features of a perfectly plotted mystery. There were lots of twists as the resolution of the murder was slowly revealed. The whydunnit held most of the mystery than either the whodunnit or howdunnit. We really don't know what the September Society is until the last pages, which was a satisfying way to end the story. 

I liked the Oxford collegiate setting. I am not that familiar with Oxford and went back and forth between the story and a map of Oxford itself. If future books in the series take place here I will be reading all of them. I also liked the London setting in the Victorian era. While I am familiar with London today, it was good to read about it from another time period. Learning about these two places was an enjoyable part of the reading experience.

The September Society is the quintessential British fiction novel. Much of the action takes place in pubs and private gentleman clubs. Many of the characters belong to four or five gentleman clubs and each of them have a different character to them. The main character Charles Lenox is quirky, as we Americans call this type of character.  He bumbles when it comes to romance with the opposite sex and thinks way too much about what is the right thing to do. His language is more British English than American English. I enjoy a good British yarn!

The novel was pleasantly entertaining. I can honestly recommend it to Anglophiles and mystery lovers.  5 out of 5 stars.

Peaches and Schemes

Peaches and Schemes is the third book in the Georgia Bed and Breakfast Mysteries by Anna Gerard. This is a cozy mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Nina Fleet. The story takes place in Cymbeline, Georgia and opens with Nina taking a booth at the Veils and Vanities Bridal Expo in order to tap into the destination wedding market. This twice-yearly event is sponsored by the town's two wedding pros: Virgie Hamilton, the sixtysomething owner of Virgie's Formals, and Roxana Quarry, a Generation X event planner and Nina's new friend. Of course, everything goes wrong during the expo's fashion show when Roxana comes tumbling out of an oversized wedding cake apparently strangled to death by a scarf. Virgie is arrested for the crime after Nina gives a statement to the police about having overheard the woman accusing her partner of embezzlement. The situation becomes more tense when Nina's nemesis and tenant Harry Westcott tells Nina that her ex-husband is engaged to be married again. Believing that Virgie's only offense is her bad temper, Nina decides to begin an investigation into Roxana's murder. 

Peaches and Schemes is your traditional southern cozy and it provided a great escape for me on a lazy Saturday afternoon. While it is the third novel in the series, it is a standalone novel for those who are new to the series, such as myself. Some southern stories can be saccharine sweet but this one had so many twists and turns to taper the sweetness down a little bit. The plot was advanced on just about every page so there was some suspense too. The author wrote a little humor into her dialogue too which added to my enjoyment of the book.  The one thing that I didn't like was Nina telling others to pronounce her name as Nine-ah. I thought this was annoying and not something a southern belle should or would do. Other than that, Peaches and Schemes is the perfect cozy mystery. 

5 out of 5 stars.

The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was initially published in 2014 but my Amazon account states it was published this year.. Checketts is a new author for me. She usually writes Christian romance novels and this terrorist mystery was the first book she ever published. The story opens with eight parade floats exploding in Fourth of July parades across the U. S.  Agent Chris Harmer is tasked with finding the perpetrators before they strike again. However, his troubles are much more than terrorism. Chris falls in love with FBI analyst Alexis Osborne, a Christian woman. Chris has no real religious beliefs but finds it hard to resist seeing Alexis.

Let me start off by saying The Fourth of July was not my cup of tea. When I bought this book for my Kindle the book description only discussed terrorism. I was not aware that it was a Christian romance novel. I probably wouldn't have purchased it had I known. The terrorist part of the plot was well executed. The romance part seemed awkward. Alexis is a thirty-year-old woman but behaves like a middle schooler in her romantic life. It just didn't fit her character to be mean to a man she wanted to date while simultaneously hoping he would respond to her secret wishes and adore her. Alexis behaved this way throughout the story and it bothered me. How did she ever get a FBI job with her childish behaviors?

This one was a big miss for me. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Guest List

The Guest List is a novel about the wedding of Jules and Will on a remote Irish island. The festivities are taking place at The Folly, a restored fifteenth century building. All of the characters are in the bridal party. None of the actual guests are part of the plot. We have Aoife, the wedding planner, Johnno, the best man, Olivia, sister of the bride, Charlie, the man of honor for the bride, Charlie's wife Hannah, and ushers Duncan, Pete, Femi, and Angus.  The ushers met the groom whe they were in school at Treveyllen's. The story takes place on the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding and the night of the wedding. 

The story is told from several points of view. We hear from Jules, Will, Johnny, Aoife, Olivia and Hannah, who is Charlie's wife. All of these characters have secrets with another character. No one knows all of the secrets. How they are related becomes aware as each character tells their story. 

I tend to like novels with alternate stories but this one had too many. Usually there are only two alternate storylines. We have six here. It was difficult to follow but, more importantly, it was a little dull. The last thirty pages show how all of the character's lives intersect and there is  a shocking conclusion. However,getting there did not make much sense. There were so many main characters that none of them seemed appealing to me. I think the author had a difficult time with the plot because she showcased six people at the same level. 

Not my best read. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Marriage Clock

The Marriage Clock is a delightful modern day story about a South Indian American Muslim woman living in Los Angeles. Leila Abid is a 26 year old single woman who teaches high school English. Her parents are mortified that she has not gotten married yet and begin to search for a husband for her. Leila, though, wants to find a husband on her own.  She does not want an arranged marriage.

Leila discusses her predicament with close friends Tania, Annie, Liv and Hannah. Tania, a divorced Muslim, is the only friend who agrees with Leila that she should not accept an arranged marriage.  Tania had a bad experience with hers. Leila's other friends offer suggestions on how to find a man such as online and speed dating. With her parents setting up family dinners with prospects from her mother's portfolio, Leila agrees to an arranged marriage but only after she has had three months to do her own search. The marriage clock is ticking for Leila.

This story showcases Leila's internal musings over her self worth as a female.  Indian women are taught from birth their only value is from marrying well. A doctor or engineer is the preferred career for a prospective husband. Leila, though, grew up in Los Angeles and has American ideals concerning marriage. While she is a Muslim, her parents had a semi-traditional home. These two factors contribute to Leila's predicament.

I loved this novel and highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Murder in Venice

Murder in Venice is a historical mystery that takes place in Venice in 1752.  High magistrate Marco Pisani is tasked with investigating the grisly murder of a man found strangled in a dark alley. When two more bodies are discovered, it is clear there is a serial killer on the loose.  Helped in his investigation by lawyer Zen, daring gondolier Nani and the cunning Chiara Renier, Pisani is determined to uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again.  In order to find answers, he must move among the city's criminal underworld of spies, shady taverns and gambling halls.  When the innocence of the victims is called into question, the case is turned on its head.  For the first time in his career, the principled Pisani has to ask himself what is more important: following the letter of the law or pursuing justice?

I am so glad that this story is going to be a series. The Pisani, Nani and Chiara characters work well together and I would hate not to read about them in the future.  They are a marvelous team of investigators. The secondary characters were interesting as well.  The first person to be arrested for the murder is Tommaso Grassino, a/k/a Maso, and he is Chiara's apprentice.  He is quickly let go after the other murders occur. The first person to be killed, Marino Barbaro, is an impoverished noble who cannot stop gambling his money away.  His business dealings are suspicious and are subject to Pisani's investigation as well. Several other noble families were prominent in the story and it was interesting to read about their power, businesses and foibles.  The lives of their servants were also chronicled and the lack of influence of these characters revealed even more about the Venetian power structure.

The Venetian setting is charming.  If you have ever been to Venice you will recognize the street and place names.  You will also know how far it is for the characters to go from point A to point B.  The descriptions of the markets and foods served at parties always captivates me and I cannot get enough of novels set in Venice.  The grand palaces that the nobles lived in contrasted with the tenements that their servants resided in.  I was surprised to read that there were slum areas of this great city. It as always seemed golden to me.

Marco Pisani was methodical in his solving of the murders.  As an avogadro (magistrate) he was in charge of the investigation.  His gondolier Nani was meticulous in garnering information for Pisani.  Since he was not a noble, people felt more free to talk with him concerning what they knew about the suspects and their businesses.  Chiara did not become a part of this team until the latter third of the novel.  What she was able to reveal about the murders through clairvoyance was confirmed by Pisani as he carried on with his investigation. 

I loved this novel and cannot wait for installment #2 to be published.  Since the author is Italian, her books need to be translated into English and that takes time.  5 out of 5 stars.

My Sister's Grave

You've heard the writing advice "show don't tell."  In My Sister's Grave there is alot of telling. The first 20 pages were awkward to read and this telling continued throughout the book.  Once the plot got started though, it became much more interesting.

The publisher's summary:  

"Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister's disappearance and the murder trial that followed.  She doesn't believe that Edmund House - a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah's murder -is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers. hen Sarah's remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she's been seeking.  As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past - and open the door to deadly danger."

I had a hard time maintaining interest in this novel because of how the author wrote his narrative throughout it. Perhaps it would have read better if background information was revealed with dialogue. There is a definite fabulous plot here but this was just a big miss for me.  The setting should have helped me to stay interested as I love the Cascade Mountains.  However, the setting wasn't used to its maximum impact. Many book reviewers loved this novel and the author is a critically acclaimed writer. This is the first book of his that I have read and I am sorry to say that I just didn't like it.

2 out of 5 stars.

The Easter Sepulcre

I had already read three of Mel Starr's books in his Hugh de Singleton series before picking up this novel. Easter Sepulcher was fantastic as were the previous three books.  I really need to finish reading this series because I know that I will love them all.

Easter Sepulchre opens with several priest's clerks guarding the Easter Sepulcher, where the host and crucifix are stored between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. An Easter Sepulcher is a niche in the wall of a church where the host and a crucifix are placed on Good Friday and removed on Easter Sunday.  A velvet cloth is placed over it.  It is a privilege to keep watch over it so it is shocking when it is discovered that a priest's clerk named Odo has abandoned his post.  When the cover is removed on Easter Sunday in front of the congregation a dead man's body is there along with the host and crucifix.  It is Odo.  Surgeon Hugh de Singleton is called upon to investigate the death.  Hugh is also the bailiff to the powerful Lord Gilbert.

This story has alot of action.  There are thefts and more dead bodies piling up. Hugh organizes several all-night stakeouts in order to determine who the killer might be. The pace is quick which makes this a fast read. The characters are quite interesting, especially a homeless, mute holy man who lives in a run down cabin in the forest. At first he seems a little sketchy but it turns out that he has noticed much of what happens outside during the late hours when he goes out for walks.  Hugh's medical skills are interesting. Given that this story takes place in the medieval era, he uses poultices to draw out bacteria. The food consumed by the characters has a prominent place.  They are served meals such as sops in fennel, eels in bruit, peas and beans pottage, fraunt hemelle, dighted crab and leach lombard.  I am curious about what these meals taste like but would be afraid of tasting them if placed in front of me. The names of the foods certainly add to the medieval flavor of the novel. 

All in all, this book was a great read.  The fact that I read it yesterday, on Good Friday, added to my enjoyment.  5 out of 5 stars.

Midnight at Malabar House

This is the first book in a new historical crime fiction series that features Persis Wadia as India's first female detective.  It takes place in Bombay during 1949.

The publisher's summary:  

As India celebrates the arrival of a momentous new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia stands vigil in the basement of Malabar House, hone to the city's most unwanted unit of police officers.  Six months after joining the force shw remains India's first female police detective, mistrusted, sidelined and now consigned to the midnight shift.  And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriott, the country's most sensational case falls into her lap.

As 1950 dawns and India prepares to become the world's largest republic, Persis, accompanied by Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, finds herself investigating a case that is becoming more political by the second. Navigating a country and society in turmoil, Persis, smart, stubborn and untested in the crucible of male hostility that surrounds her, must find a way to solve the murder  - whatever the cost. 

The plot could have been interesting but the book seems to have been written as historical fiction instead of the historical crime mystery as it has been advertised.  There were more details concerning what people wore, where they lived and the history of Partition, than clues in the mystery of who committed the crime.  The pace was excruciatingly slow and I found myself skipping pages without missing anything important. Only the final thirty pages were written crisp as Persis began her big reveal of the killer.

Sadly dull. 2 out of 5 stars.

Piece of my Heart

 

Piece Of My Heart is the 65th book that Mary Higgins Clark has written and the 6th with co-author Alafair Burke.  Since Clark died one year ago I assume that this is her last novel.  I haven't heard about any unpublished manuscripts from her.  The last novel that she wrote on her own was Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry which was published in 2019.  I am going to miss her but all good things must come to an end.  She lived a great life and lived to a ripe 92 years of age.  

In Piece of My Heart TV producer Laurie Moran and her fiance Alex Buckley, criminal defense attorney and the former host of her investigative television show, are just days away from their August wedding when events take a dark turn.  While vacationing in the Hamptons with their family and friends, Alex's seven-year-old nephew Johnny vanishes from the beach while playing with Laurie's 10-year-old son Timmy.  The boys had been supervised by Laurie's babysitter and her girlfriend but an attractive lifeguard had caught their attention.  A search party begins and witnesses recall Johnny playing in the water and collecting sea shells behind a beach shack.  However, no one remembers seeing him after the morning.  As the sun sets, Johnny's skim board washes up to shore and everyone realizes that he could be dead.  When it appears that he was kidnapped, the question arises whether he was the actual target or was another boy the target. Laurie's father, a former NYPD officer, believes that the abduction could be related to a murder case that he handled eighteen years ago.  Laurie decides to do a show on that eighteen year old case and possibly connect it to Johnny's disappearance.

As you would expect from Mary Higgins Clark, this novel is suspense at its best.  Not only does each chapter end with suspense but so do the pages and paragraphs. I don't know anyone who can write suspense this well and it's a cliche to say that in her books there are lots of twists, turns and suspects to keep you reading. The characters were all compelling, even the villains.  The secondary characters had just as much prominence as the main characters, Laurie and Alex. Alex's brother and sister-in-law, Marcy and Andrew Buckley, were the parents of the missing child.  Laurie's father Leo Farley was also prominent as he was able to use his work in law enforcement to help Laurie investigate the crime. There were five additional characters who were possible villains and their backgrounds were fully developed by the authors.  On top of that there were three characters affiliated with the villains whose lives were interwoven into the story.  How all of these characters are connected is a mystery for the reader.

I am sad that this is my final review of Clark's novels.  Perhaps I should begin rereading them in the order of publication.  That would be fun and I know that I have only reviewed the last 10 of them so the reviews would be new.  5 out of 5 stars!

The Girls in the Snow

The Girls in the Snow is the first book in a new detective series featuring FBI agent Nikki Hunt as the detective.  The second book in the series will be published next month and I am looking forward to getting a copy of it as this novel was fantastic.  This tight psychological thriller begins in 1995 with Nikki coming home from a high school party and finding her murdered parents in their Stillwater, MN home. Fast forward 20 years and Nikki is a FBI agent who has been dispatched back to Stillwater to investigate the deaths of two girls.  There are two mysteries to be solved in the book. The first one is who killed the girls. The second mystery deals with whether the right person was convicted and jailed for killing Nikki's parents.

The Nikki Hunt character is mysterious and makes a great protagonist for a series. Her job as a detective in the FBI's Behavior Analysis Unit will make a great backdrop to the investigations that she will be involved with in the future.  In addition, being familiar with violent crime in her personal life is always going to be an issue for her. I expect that this family history is going to be a part of all the investigations that she heads in future books. 

The weather is the main setting in the novel. The ice cold temperatures in Minnesota during winter works well with finding two dead girls whose bodies were staged by the killer frozen in the snow. Winter is what comes to people's minds when they think of Minnesota so this was a bonus for the setting. 

Nikki's reunions with friends and neighbors help move the plot along.  For example, her former boyfriend John is a local police officer who is supposedly assisting her but there is a hint that he is hiding something. It seems that everyone in Stillwater is hiding something, which only adds to the suspense.

The advertisement for the book says that it is unputdownable. I agree with that assessment. I read it in one sitting. One Perfect Grave is the next book in the series. It will be published on February 25, 2021 and I have already pre-ordered a copy. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge Sign-Up

The Calendar of Crime Challenge is new to me.  I plan on joining the challenge next year.  It is hosted by the My Reader's Block blog.  The rules are:

1.  The challenge runs the calendar year from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021.

2.  12 books must be read.

3.  You don't have to do the months in their consecutive order. You can read December in July if you wish.

4.  Books from the mystery genre are only accepted.