Stacking the Shelves #3

 

I am anxiously awaiting the publication of books from 2 of my favorite authors: Cleo Coyle and S. D. Sykes. Coyle's next book, Honey Roasted, won't be published until December so I have a long wait. Sykes, who writes historical mysteries, will publish in August The Good Death.

Honey Roasted is the 19th coffeehouse mystery by husband and wife team Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. They write under the pen name Cleo Coyle. The series takes place around a fictional coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The couple also co-author the Haunted Bookshop series, which was originally published under the pen name Alice Kimberly.  I haven't read the Haunted Bookshop series yet but have read every book in the coffeehouse series. This series is probably my favorite series of all time.  Pre-orders for Honey Roasted will begin in a month.  This story opens with Clare Cosi trying to find a romantic, and affordable, destination for her honeymoon. While she searches for a destination, Clare creates a new coffee that will be unveiled at her wedding:  Honey Cinnamon Latte.  An amazing honey was sourced for the drink by her mother-in-law's friend Bea Hastings.  One night, Bea is found dead at the coffeehouse, and this is the mystery to be solved in the novel.  

The Good Death is the 5th Somershill Manor mystery.  These mysteries take place in England in the 1300s, featuring Oswald de Lacy, Lord of Somershill Manor, as the sleuth.  In this installment of the series, Oswald will make a devastating confession to his dying mother concerning the death of a novice monk at Kintham Abbey.  Vowing to find the killer, Oswald's beloved tutor insists that they stay inside due to the approaching plague.  However, Oswald leaves the manor to investigate and finds that there were several women who disappeared.  They were from impoverished families who had no political influence and nobody seemed to care that they were missing. As Oswald closes in on the killer he finds himself in a situation where he either has to kill or be killed. 

So, there are many books to look forward to this year.  These two are just a highlight of things to come.

In a Dark, Dark Wood

Mystery novelist Leonora  Shaw lives a solitary but comfortable life in London.  One day while checking her email she finds an invitation to a hen weekend for Clare Cavendish, a friend from childhood whom she hasn't spoken to or seen for ten years.  After some urging by a mutual friend, Nora reluctantly agrees to go and finds herself at a mysterious house with a group of near-strangers, deep in the forest far from the city.  Quickly, old rivalries and new relationships bubble to the surface and the weekend turns violent, leaving Nora battered and bruised in a hospital bed.  As she struggles to reconstruct the sequence of events that brought her there, secrets emerge about her past and her present that force her to question everything she knows about herself and everyone she has ever loved.

While I was aware of what a hendo, or hen weekend, is before reading the book, it probably would have been helpful to American readers to have this British term defined in the beginning of the story.  You basically know from the start that inviting your fiancé's ex-girlfriend to your hendo will not have a good outcome.  However, the advertisement of this book as a psychological thriller falls short. It just wasn't suspenseful and during the first half of the book there were a few boring sequences.  I was not engaged until the latter third of the plot.  

The assumed wooded setting, taken from the title, is not the true setting.  Most of the events take place in a house owned by a relative of one of the characters.  While the house is located in the woods, all of the action takes place inside.  The plot is revealed through dialogue, both inner and spoken, from the characters.  Speaking of the characters, only one was interesting to me and she was a foil for the main characters.  All in all, this was an OK book, nothing to write home about.

3 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.

Women Discoverers

 

This small comic book contains the biographies of 30 female scientists. A few of these biographies are merely written in paragraphs while five are done in 20+ page comic strip panels.  The ladies that are featured in the book are:

• Marie Curie (Poland, France) Physics/Chemistry
• Francoise Barre Sinoussee (France) Biology
• Donna Theo Strickland (Canada) Physics
• Dorothy Vaughn (USA) Mathematics/Computing
• Ada Lovelace (Britain) Mathematics/Computing
• Emilei du Chatelet (France) Mathematics
• Emmy Noether (Germany) Mathematics
• Grace Adele-Williams (Niger) Mathematics
• Hedy Lamaar (Hungary/USA) Engineering
• Katherine Johnson (USA) Mathematics
• Marthe Gaetier (France) Pediatrics
• Maryam Mirzakhani (Iran/USA) Mathematics
• Rosalind Franklin (UK) Physics/Biology
• Sophie Germain (France) Mathematics/Physics
• Irene Joliot-Currie (France) Physics/Chemistry
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (UK) Astrophysics
• Mae Jemison (USA) Medicine/Space Exploration
• Stephanie Kwolek (USA) Chemistry
• Grace Murray Hopper (USA) Computing
• Xie Ye (China) Chemistry

I found the book informative.  Many of these ladies I had not heard of before. Rosalind Franklin stood out in my mind as there is a medical school in my city that bears her name.  I thought Hedy Lamar was an actress.  While she did begin her career in acting she moved into science during WWII. Also, I was not aware that Marie Curie was born in Poland.  She moved to France to study at the Sorbonne and stayed there both as a teacher and a researcher.  

To say that the book will be inspiring for young girls is a given.  Most of these women grew up in societies that did not allow women to work, let alone get an education and a job.  Their trials when they were young can only give hope to today's young girls, who also have personal or family objections to overcome.

A great read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Royal City

I just finished Royal City Volumes 1 through 3.  The comic was written by Jeff Lemire and published in 2017 and 2018.  The comic is about a troubled family, the Pike family, and the town they live in.  The City of Royal City, a once thriving factory town, is slowly disappearing as residents flee for other neighborhoods where they can find jobs.  The comic is a continuation of Lemire's Essex County comic.  

Patrick Pike, a fading literary star, reluctantly returns to his home town after his father suffers a stroke.  He becomes drawn into the dramas of his two adult siblings, his mother, and his browbeaten father, all of whom are still haunted by the death of the youngest brother Tommy.  This family saga covers a span of thirty years.  

I hated for the story to end.  I loved all of the characters and felt like a was a member of the Pike family too.  It would be awesome of the author picked up this story and continued it.  Although this is a comic, the character development and intensity of each family member's reaction to the death of Tommy at age 14 could easily have been written as a fiction novel.  The looseness of the comic format has not hindered Lemire.  The story has a definite beginning, middle and end.  I also liked that the artwork was done in color.  Black and white comics just don't grab my attention.

5 out of 5 stars.

Can't Wait Wednesday #4

I am so glad that March has arrived.  I have been anxiously awaiting fashion designer Jenny Packham's book "How to Make a Dress - Adventures in the Art of Style."  It will be published tomorrow, March 4, 2021.  Packham is a British designer known for her couture bridal dresses.  She has dressed celebrities and royalty since 1988 and works from her London home.  I understand that this book will delve into her search for creative inspiration and show readers her studio.  Instead of being a sewing book, How to Make a Dress is about Packham's design process, how she sketches and selects fabrics.

Stacking the Shelves 2

Earlier in the week I ordered off of Ebay a copy of the Sarawak Sketchbook by watercolor artist A. Kasim Abas.  I have 29 sketchbooks by various artists and Sarawak is the last one that I needed to complete my collection.  It has been difficult to find as the artist is from Malaysia. These watercolorists travel to well known cities and spend time there painting famous buildings and landscaping. The books can serve as travelogues as well as artist books. They are all published on watercolor paper to enhance the artwork.

Sarawak is located on the island of Borneo, which is part of Malaysia.  It is Malaysia's largest state and home to a multitude of ethnic groups with colorful material cultures.  It's unique history as the land of the "white rajahs" means that it architecture is varied in styles. Grand colonial edifices stand next to longhouses and modern buildings.  The artist has handwritten notes for each drawing/painting that explain what he has depicted.  I assume that there will be introductory chapters on Sarawak's history as this is information that has always been in these types of books.

Delays in postal service are awful lately.  The seller has said that I may not receive the book until April 1.  Six weeks is a long time to wait but I just have to have this book.  I will be patient.