Roses are Red

Roses Are Red is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep you up all night. I was a little scared after finishing the book because our protagonist was a trusting person who almost got killed by 2 of the closest people to her. Lydia's close calls with her husband and a girlfriend just shows that you shouldn't take everything people tell you at face value. Sometimes it's good to do a little research for your own peace of mind.

The publisher's summary:  

"Lydia Palmer seems to have it all - a thriving business, a beautiful house, a picture perfect husband and two wonderful kids.  But things are different behind closed doors - Lydia is desperately unhappy and wants a divorce. Then, shockingly, her husband Adam dies. When her grief eases, Lydia starts online dating and almost immediately meets Patrick. Handsome, successful, loving, he'll make the perfect second husband. But is Patrick too good to be true?  Can you really find prince charming online? These are questions Lydia is forced to ask when her world begins to collapse. First, the police say Adam may have been murdered.  Then her daughter turns against her, her business disintegrates... Lydia is convinced that someone is trying to destroy her happiness.  She's wrong.  They want so much more than that..."

To say that this was a gripping story is quite an understatement. The author had me guessing all along on how the novel would end. I was surprised by the ending but shouldn't have been.  It would have been easy to figure this one out but the author ended each chapter with a cliff hanger. It could have been story action, a twist and turn, or just a character's inner dialogue but it kept me reading. I just did not know how each twist was going to turn out. 

There is a moral to this story for women who are desperately seeking love. It is always best to discuss with friends and family your forays into online dating. There are always warnings but to get a nudge from someone who loves you is the best way to avoid disaster. 

A great read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Ice Blue

Ice Blue is the first book in Emma Jameson's Lord & Lady Hetheridge Mystery Series. The series takes place in Britain during the present era. I loved the book as it follows the police procedural formula perfectly, making it an easy read.

The publisher's summary:

"Anthony Hetheridge, ninth Baron of Wellegrave, Chief Superintendent for New Scotland Yard, never married, no children, no pets, no hobbies and not even an interesting vice, will turn sixty in three weeks. With the exception of his chosen career, too sordid for his blue-blooded family to condone, his life has been safe and predictable. But then he mets Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield-beautiful, willful, and nearly half his age. When Hetheridge saves the outspoken, impetuous young detective from getting the sack, siding with her against Scotland Yard's powerful male hierarchy, his cold, elegant balanced world spins out of control. Summoned to London's fashionable Belgravia to investigate the brutal murder of a financier, Hetheridge must catch the killer while coping with his growing attraction to Kate, the reappearance of an old flame, and the secret that emerges from his own past."

In the past I have said that I liked many of the books that I have reviewed on this blog. For most of them, I do not read anything else by the author due to time constraints. However, I loved Ice Blue so much that I have already ordered the rest of the books in the series. This book was so well written that it was a joy to read. 

When I began the book I thought that it was a cozy mystery. It is. What confused me was the rough British slang that the Scotland Yard investigators used when referring to sex or sexual orientation. You don't usually see that in a cozy but since the book is advertised as a cozy mystery, I accept that categorization. The dialogue seemed natural, given that Kate was the only female detective in a male dominated office. In addition, the novel was so British-centric that I thought that author Emma Jameson was British. She isn't. Ms. Jameson is American but loves all things English. 

Ice Blue is a winner! I recommend it to mystery fans. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Murder of Emma Brown

This short murder mystery is packed full with interesting twists and turns. Emma Brown's best friend is Charlotte Martin.  Charlotte drinks excessively, takes plenty of drugs and is a bad influence on Emma.  Emma has future plans of owning a business and refrains from pharmaceuticals as best as she can.  However, one night the two women go out partying in their hometown on Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada. Only one of them returns home. Major Crimes Division inspectors William Gagnon and Scarlett Gauthier have to find a killer.  Someone severely beat and strangled a woman to death with bare hands and a leather belt. At first they think that only a man could have committed the crime.  It would have taken someone strong to strangle Emma as hard as her wounds showed.  Scarlett believes that it could have been a woman though. They wonder whether a gang war had broken out as two young people were killed in a single night in town.  Friends and relatives turn on each other, battling it out on Facebook and blaming each other for Emma's death.

While it was obvious who killed Emma, it was interesting to read how the killer's memories of the day of the crime were revealed. The killer had blacked out and could not remember what happened that night.  Through reading social media posts about the party, the killer was able to recover some memories but not all of them.  The police felt that they knew who the guilty party was but were unable to obtain a confession. There was no character development here.  If there had been I am sure that this 205 page book would have been longer and with more mystery. It is strictly a whodunnit. 

3 out of 5 stars.

The Woman in the Green Dress

This story takes place in Australia and the time period alternates between the 1850s and 1919. After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards cannot wait for her new husband Hugh to return from the war. When word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a huge fortune.  Fleur does not want to accept the inheritance because they were not married very long but travels to his beloved home in Australia to search for his relatives who she believes deserves the fortune more than her.   She soon finds that she is the sole owner of a remote farm and a rundown curio shop full of preserved animals.  With the help of Kip, a repatriated soldier dealing with war wounds, Fleur finds herself unable to resist looking into Hugh's family's past. What she finds is a shocking story about a large opal and a woman in a green dress.  

I enjoyed the 1919 story much more than the 1850 story.  The latter seemed to drag on and on.  I did not see any connection with the former and found myself skipping pages.  As far as the woman in the green dress is concerned, there wasn't much said about her at all.  Perhaps a different title would have been best because my expectation while reading was to read about this particular woman. However, she did not have much to do with the plot. 

The Australian setting descriptions were elaborate.  I could feel like I was there myself and experience what the characters were experiencing.  It was amusing to think about a small town being larger and more developed than the eventual capital, Sydney.  The Australian landscape was in stark contrast to England where Fleur was living during the war.  As she sees more and more of Australia, Fleur remembers how Hugh described various cities and towns where he grew up.  As she travels within the country, the long commutes from one place to another contribute to the setting.  Fleur needs to travel 2 days to get from Sydney to Mogo Creek in New South Wales where her husband grew up, taking a train, a boat and walking on foot for hours in order to get there. 

Learning about the Australian landscape 100+ years ago was fun. Unfortunately, that was all that I liked about this novel.  2 out of 5 stars.

White Ivy

White Ivy is both a coming-of-age and coming to America story.  When I bought this book I knew it was about a Chinese family from the back cover blurb. The title is typical for a Chinese family saga.  However, I did not expect it to be about race and didn't figure that out until some point after the middle of the story. I was surprised to say the least. 

The story opens with some background information on the Ivy Lin character.  She was born in China and her parents  emigrated to America when she was two, leaving Ivy behind. Ivy was raised by her grandmother Meifeng who taught her to be clever by stealing. Stealing becomes second nature to her.  At the age of 5 her parents, Nan and Shen Lin, send for her and she moves to Boston. Ivy does not know them. They are strangers to her as is her newborn brother Austin. She does not get along with her parents and wishes to be with her grandmother in China.  Meifeng had been affectionate but her parents were distant. Ivy quickly learns English and becomes friends with Roux, a Romanian immigrant, and Gideon, a boy from a patrician New England family whose father is a senator.  However, she continues to steal. 

As Ivy grows she begins to receive party invitations from classmates. One weekend Gideon invites her to an overnight at his home. Ivy knows her mother would not approve and tells her parents she will be staying overnight at a girlfriend's house. The next morning when they find out she is at a boy's house, they go and pick her up, heavily embarrassing Ivy. In a few days her parents pack her up and send her back to China for the summer in order to learn to be Chinese.  Ivy spends the first 2 weeks with a cousin she never met but she loves being with. Sunrin Zhao is Western and loves to shop for expensive designer clothes. Ivy feels like she can be herself with Sunrin.  Ivy then is dropped off with her grandmother in a poor village where Ivy cannot stand to be. Ivy no longer likes living with her grandmother and is excited to travel home at the end of the summer. However, when her plane lands in Boston, her parents tell her that they moved to New Jersey. Ivy has to start over in a new city, losing all of her friends in Boston. 

When I figured out this novel was about race I was disappointed. We hear so much about race relations in the news. It's depressing. I want my reading material to be relaxing, nothing serious. I am looking for escape. While the story was well written this realization affected how I feel about it.  It seems the author is saying that stealing is a Chinese thing to do and winning at all costs is white. Ivy definitely wants to win and be successful in that white, patrician world.  She is what white Americans call a "model minority." I am sure there's much, much more the author intended but this is the main idea I got. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Raven Black

Ann Cleeves's Raven Black is a fantastic story.  Taking place on the main island of the Shetland Islands, it is the first book in her Shetland series.  It has also been produced as a TV drama for BBC1.  There are 5 other books in this series.

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow.  Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a vivid splash of color on the white ground with ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue to peck at the body. The locals on the island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. However, when Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez insists on opening out the investigation, a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbors nervously lock their doors, while a killer lives among them them.

The ice cold setting of Shetland is prominent to the story. Not only does the harsh weather hide most of the body, it also impedes the law enforcement investigation. Experts from other islands, as well as Scotland, cannot travel to the crime scene immediately. They must wait for weather conditions to safely allow them to fly in to the island. Thus, Catherine's body lies in the snow for more than a day. However, the snow and ice prohibit her deceased body from decaying. The Shetlands are only accessible via boat or plane.  They lie several hundred miles north of the Scotland coast.  

I really liked the Magnus Tait character.  He was a lonely person who seemed to be afraid of people but I thought he was lovable. Because he is a recluse, Tait was taunted by the children in their community.  The Jimmy Perez character had a good introduction as the protagonist.  However, without the kooky citizens in town this book would not be as great. They are essential for providing contrast to the serious minded Jimmy.  

The element of surprise in each twist and turn of the plot make this novel a thriller. The ending was also a surprise when the killer's identity is revealed. It was not anyone that I suspected.  5 out of 5 stars.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is Deepak Anappara's debut novel.  It concerns three friends who are searching for a missing classmate and is based on a real-life story.  The novel tells of children living in a slum in a fictional Indian city who are disappearing.

Nine-year-old Jai is upset that his best friend Bahadur has gone missing.  No one knew that Bahadur had gone missing until three weeks after he was last seen at home with his parents. His mother then contacted the police to find him.  Believing that Bahadur has run away from home, Jai gathers two other friends to help him find Bahadur. Pari and Faiz work with Jai and together they decide that a criminal called Quarter is their first suspect.  The threesome walk down market lanes, passing people, dogs, food stalls and tin-roofed houses all the way to the local train station, which is the end of the purple metro line where Jai's father works.  When the three kids are unable to find Quarter at his usual hangout, the Bhoot (ghost) Bazaar, they decide the next step is to interview the press-wallah's son Omvir.  However, Omvir is not home because he also is out searching for Bahadur.  The owner of Hakim's TV Repair Shop suggests that a djinn kidnapped Bahadur even though djinns rarely abduct children.  The trio go to the purple line train station and show passersby Bahadur's photo.  Jai uses the sleuthing skills he obtained from watching reality police shows on TV to conduct his investigation.  When other children start disappearing from their neighborhood, Jai, Pari and Faiz talk to the terrified parents and a couple of indifferent police officers all while discussing rumors of soul-snatching djinns. 

I had a hard time classifying this book in a genre. When I began reading it I thought it was a historical mystery. Later I realized it was not historical. What confused me was the level of impoverishment in Jai's basti (slum).  I couldn't imagine that type of poverty existed today. However, it does exist. In slums all over India 187 children disappear each day. This fact is what prompted the author to choose this subject for her novel. The next difficulty I had in determining the genre was that the book didn't read like a mystery. While Jai, Pari and Faiz were investigating the disappearance of their neighbors, they are kids and kids don't "investigate" the same way as amateur sleuths or detectives investigate. The point of view from which everything occurs is from nine year old Jai's eyes. In some respects it  seems like a children's book. How do I classify the book? As a novel. 

The slum setting is integral to the story. Part of this setting includes the names and faces of many characters, most of whom have nothing to do with the plot and some who are only mentioned once. The author is creating a scene for the reader to help us understand what a slum looks like; people living upon each other.  It is grim.  With the point of view being from a child, it was a little difficult to figure out who all the characters were because the kids gave everyone a nickname. Towards the end of the story we learn most of their real names but after 300 pages of identifying characters by a nickname this didn't make sense.

As the historical mystery that I expected, the book fell short. Knowing now what the genre actually is, I would say that this is a great book.  4 our of 5 stars.

A Yellow House

It took me quite awhile to become interested in A Yellow House.  I did not know what the book was about before I began reading and could not see any plot.  All I saw was a whiny child protagonist with no friends who hated her life. After realizing that the book was about migrant domestic workers I became more interested in the story.  I believe, however, that the first third of the book could have been paced more quickly.

The publisher's summary:

"Ten-year-old Singaporean Maya is lonely:  her grandmother is dead, her mother is focused on her career and her best friend has become a bully.  When Aunty M, a domestic worker from Indonesia, joins the family to take care of Maya and her baby sister, Maya is ready to hate her. Aunty M smiles a lot, but says little.  However, after Aunty M rescues a fellow maid living in the same building and beaten by her employer, Maya discovers a side of Singapore hitherto unknown to her.  She and Aunty M grow closer as they meet more and more women in need. What will happen when Mama finds out about Maya and Aunty M's growing involvement with the aunties?  Will Maya lose Aunty M too?  After all, Mama did say she hates busybodies. This poignant coming-of-age story, told in the voice of the inquisitive Maya, explores the plight of migrant domestic workers in Singapore and the relationships they form with the families they work for."

Women will enjoy reading this sisterhood novel.  Almost all of the characters are female. Maya's father is the only man in the book and his role is limited. Maya's interest in the domestic workers was a hard sell for me. At first, I thought she was only interested in their stories because she was bored and had nothing else to do. Later it becomes clear that she is beginning to form opinions about the world. 

I am unsure what to think about the writing. In the beginning of the story many characters are being introduced with no serious connection with Maya. There wasn't much plot movement but this is a character driven novel. Unfortunately, that was not evident to me until the midway point and it affected my view of the book.  I did, however, expect a mystery of some sort to be solved. There is no mystery here. The author's intention in writing this novel was to highlight the lives of the workers.  Her bio states that she grew up as an expat child in Asia with migrant domestic workers hired to take care of her.  She did not realize at the time that these women left their home countries to work for her family.  Later in life she asked why and in 2012 she joined a charity that supports these workers in Singapore.  The stories that she heard were the inspiration for this book.  

3 out of 5 stars.

Plaid and Plagiarism

Plaid and Plagiarism was a disconnect for me.  There were too many descriptive phrases per page instead of action. For instance, Obsessive Outlanders and Born Again Braveheart were one of 10 descriptions on a page.  "Janet and Christine made comforting bookends for the young women in between them." "You didn'task Rab why he rabbited off the harborwall." " I didn't want to ask about his Nessie boxers." "Ooh, is that one of those fancy instant-hot, instant-cold, instant ooh-la-la taps?"  "Let's put the unsavory bits to bed." What the heck do these descriptions mean? I guess the book was written for a UK audience as the author has used many words that only the British use.

Also, the run-up to the murder itself made no sense.  Our two main characters were searching someone's house because it had been trashed. The body was found elsewhere, in a shed, and I did not see the connection between spending 20 pages on searching the house and one sentence on the shed. In addition, when they were peeking into the windows of the house?  Why did they call the police for an emergency when they saw a person move inside the house?  Perhaps the person lived there. Afterward they entered the house to see if more than the kitchen was trashed. Why? This was not connected to the body in the shed and there didn't seem to be any reason why they could enter this house.

What is the book supposed to be about? The publisher's blurb refers to two friends opening a bookshop and they are going to be amateur sleuths solving a murder. Nothing else is written about the plot in the blurb and I can only assume that even the publisher doesn't see any plot action. 

It seems to me that this book is all setting descriptions and no plot. Perhaps the author was trying to set some groundwork for a new cozy mystery series. However, the book was too dull for me to even consider reading any future books in the series.

2021 Color Coded Reading Challenge Sign-Up

I did this challenge a year or so ago but not in 2020.  I am going to rejoin the challenge which is hosted by the My Readers Block blog.  The rules are as follows:

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

2.  Crossovers from other challenges are accepted.

3.  9 books must be read where the book title or book cover is blue, red, yellow, green, brown, black, white, any other color  such as purple, pink, orange, etc..., and a book title or book cover where a word or image implies a color such as polka dot, shadow, plaid, paint, etc...