Lavender Blue Murder

Lavender Blue Murder is the 21st Indigo Teashop Mystery by Laura Childs.  I have read every book in this series and while several of the past books in the series did not inspire me, this installment of the series was superb. In fact, it was better than anything I have read by her in about the past ten years.

Summary: 

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party which means elevenses, gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone and suede. As gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.  His wife Meredith is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to spend the night. Theodosia wakes up at 2 am to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help.

Review:

I devoured the book. The writing was tight and may have been her best novel to date.  I don't remember Childs ever writing an opening without excessive amounts of background information on her characters or the City of Charleston.  Lavender Blue Murder was more like a straight mystery novel than a cozy. There was more graphic descriptions of the murder scene than usual and since the murder occurred in a different county, the law enforcement characters were new.  I liked this anomaly as the Bert Tidwell detective character has been overdone and he has never grown as a character throughout the 21 books. Another character, Timothy Neville, is shown to be hanging out with his gay lover. Neville has not been identified as gay before.  Another change was having the genteel Theodosia and Drayton participate in a hunting party. While at first this seemed out of character, I liked the change of scenery for them. In prior murder scenes they are always standersby to the murder. Here, they are actively participating in the exercise that caused the murder.

I was pleasantly surprised by Lavender Blue Murder. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Giant

I have been patiently waiting for Laura Morelli to publish another book since The Painter's Apprentice came out. Last week The Giant was published. It takes place in the early 1500s Florence and is about the lives of struggling fresco painter Jacopo Torni and his childhood friend Michelangelo Buonarotti. They are competing to be awarded a commission to create a sculpture out of a huge block of marble that has been lying in the courtyard of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore for a generation.

The publisher's summary:

"As a colossal statue takes shape in Renaissance Florence, the lives of a master sculptor and a struggling painter become stunningly intertwined. Fresco painter Jacopo Torni longs to make his mark in the world. But while his peers enjoy prestigious commissions, his meager painting jobs are all earmarked to pay down gambling debts. When Jacopo hears of a competition to create Florence's greatest sculpture, he pins all his hopes on a collaboration with boyhood companion, Michelangelo Buonarroti. But will the frustrated artist ever emerge from the shadow of his singularly gifted friend? Based on a true story."

Renaissance Florence is my favorite type of historical novel. I don't think that I have ever read one that I did not like.  The Giant is no exception. Author Morelli has written a novel rich in the artistry and architecture of Florence. As an artist myself, I am drawn to arty books. Morelli's take on the story is more realistic than that of other authors whom I have read given her descriptions of the setting, including the clothing, food, artisan guilds, and politics of the era that drove which artist was going to be favored by whoever was in power at the time.  I am certain that the author's Ph.D in art history helped her create a plot about the creation of Michelangelo's David. A statement from the author shows how her thought process about the sculpture moved her to ask questions that she could only answer with an intricate plot. She was fascinated with how it was made and unveiled to the public. After coming across a historical reference to Florentine fresco painter Jacopo Torni, Morelli decided to tell the story through his eyes. Torni, also known as L'Indaco, assisted Michelangelo with painting the Sistine Chapel.

The story is told through compelling characters. Jacopo's long-suffering sister Lucia and younger brother Francesco are loyal to him no matter what he does to not deserve it. His gambling buddies' ways to entangle him in card games seems authentic to the methods used today by those who ensnare others in addictions. Jacopo himself is shown as someone who gambles his life savings away almost daily in an effort to prove to himself that he is not a worthy artist nor a worthy person.

I absolutely loved The Giant and relished each page as I read through it.  5 out of 5 stars!

Book of the Month - May

My favorite book of the month is Seven Days by Alex Lake. It is a gripping psychological thriller with a great plot. Character Maggie has seven days to save her son Max before he turns 3-years-old. Maggie is dreading his birthday because she knows that she will lose him. Her previous 2 sons were taken from her on their third birthday by her captor who has imprisoned her in a basement for the past 12 years. The novel has an eerie atmosphere and along with its sense of urgency I was unable to put the book down.  I read it in one sitting.

The Man She Married

The Man She Married is a psychological thriller that takes place in England in the present year. Our heroine Alice meets Dominic Gill at his law firm where she is there to discuss a catering function that she has been hired to present. After a three month courtship they marry and Dominic moves in to her home which she previously purchased with cash. However, Dom has been avoiding her requests to finally meet his family at the wedding. Alice is confused by his attempts to put off their meeting but her starry eyes quickly forget about it. Three years later Alice is shocked when a police officer knocks on her door to let her know that her husband has died in a car accident. When she goes to the morgue to identify Dom, his estranged brother Simon promptly tells the police that the man in the coffin is not his brother Dominic. Alice is reluctant to admit that her Dominic is not in the coffin but hires a private detective to look into his background.

I loved this book. The twists were spectacular and were revealed as both Alice and Dominic told the story from their different points of view. It lent an eerie feeling to the book. I don't know why Alice couldn't see through Dom's deceptions. She clearly did not want to know if there was a problem in her marriage because any other woman would have been suspicious of him from the start. For a woman who owns her own business you would expect that she would not be the type of girl to fall for all the lies. Some of these instances required too much suspension of belief to be believable but it was the author's method of setting up the ending. The pace was fast, helping Alice determine the truth about Dom fairly quickly after his death.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Housekeeper

The Housekeeper is an exciting psychological thriller about a woman who seeks revenge against a former childhood friend who was responsible for her father's fall from grace ten years earlier.  Claire Peterson hates Hannah Wilson.  The new Mrs. Hannah Carter has married well and needs a new housekeeper to clean her mansion and take care of her four year old baby Mia. Claire assumes the name of Louise Martin and gets herself hired as the maid in the Carter household. From there Claire/Louise plots her revenge against Hannah in order to force Hannah into confessing that she lied about Claire's father and caused Claire's family to lose everything including the lives of both her parents.

With a title like "The Housekeeper" the reader knows that she will be a crazy stalker. Claire certainly seems to fit the bill with her kooky inner dialogue and actions. Hannah is a little off the wall herself and the back and forth between these two ladies keeps the reader wondering which one will come out on top. The ending was unexpected and made the plot a magnificent one. I think Claire had some mental issues unrelated to her family's downfall. It made her a fun character and I couldn't help but admire her even though she was the villain.

4 out of 5 stars.

Wrap Up of What's in a Name 2020 Challenge

The What's in a Name Challenge has 6 categories of elements that book titles must have included in them.  This year the categories were:

an ampersand

an antonym

4 letters or less

A given/first name

reference to children

one of the 4 natural elements: water, air, fire and earth

My book choices were: 

Sweet & Slow

Fasting Feasting

Saga

Sabina

The Stolen Girl

Rosewater and Soda Bread

My favorite book was Saga, a science fiction and fantasy graphic novel that was based on Star Wars.  The version of Saga that I read included comic strips 1 through 54, which is the entire Saga series to date.  I was hooked on the story from the first page and had a hard time putting it down. With 1,300 pages to read I did have to take a breather but I got it done in two days.

Sweet & Slow

When you look at the book cover for Sweet & Slow you expect a beverage cookbook. However, more than half of the recipes are for appetizers, dips, soups and desserts. Within the pages of this book you will find recipes for 8 hot chocolate beverages, 11 ciders, 6 teas, 7 coffees and 17 wine and alcohol recipes. All are made in a crockpot with cooking times that vary between one to seven hours.

The beverage recipes are in the back of the book, another anomaly for an advertised beverage book. Before buying this book I had never heard of baking a cake or pie in a crockpot. It's an ingenius idea and although I purchased the cookbook for beverage ideas it is impossible not to want to try at least some of these 150 dessert recipes. There are not only cake and pie recipes but also puddings, brownies, crisps and cookies.  I tried several recipes and my favorites were Fudgy Peanut Butter Cake, Lemon Lime Pudding, S'Mores Brownies and Vanilla Bean Caramel Custard.

The beverage recipes are not phenomenal but rather just OK. I made a few recipes from each category and liked only one tea, Cranberry Spice Tea, while 3 ciders caught my attention. They were Cherry Cider, Pomegranate Cider and Maple Bourbon Cider. In addition, the Caramel Hot Chocolate was tasty. I didn't like any of the coffee recipes.

Sweet & Slow is basically a dessert cookbook. The beverages that I liked were mainly ciders. Most people can find these in a general cookbook without the need for buying a "beverage" cookbook. I don't know why the book is advertised as such since only 50 of the total 350 recipes deal with beverages. If a reader is searching for beverage recipes it would be better to find a different book. If you want to make desserts in a crockpot then this book is for you. However, the book does not stand as a beverage cookbook.

3 out of 5 stars.