2014.....the year to read globally!!!

 

If you haven’t tried a reading challenge before, Kerrie’s Global Reading Challenge is excellent. It is a great way to push yourself to read books from other countries. I have found many enjoyable new-to-me authors as a result. You get to see other people’s reviews which helps you find new authors.

There are three levels of challenge:

Easy – one book from each of the seven continents

Medium – two books from each of the seven continents

Expert – three books from each of the seven continents

And in case you are wondering where on earth you will find authors or books from Antarctica, you can choose your own ´seventh´ setting, eg the sea, the space, a supernatural/paranormal world, history, the future – you name it.

Even if you don’t have a blog to do a review, you can play along with pen and paper. Enjoy!!!

 

 

Review: Naked Heat, Richard Castle (USA)

Title: Naked Heat
Author: Richard Castle
Publication: 201?/New York: Hyperion Books
ISBN #: 978-0-7868-9136-8
# of pages: 404
Discovered because I watch the TV show!
Read in paper format
Also available in e-book and audio
Link to author’s website: http://www.richardcastle.net/

Her morning call to a crime scene is not going well for Detective Nikki Heat. Her coffee lid broke in half, she then slammed on her brakes and spilled the coffee onto her lap, now she is staring at ……a coyote….in New York City. Not an auspicious start to her day.

But it gets worse when she is unsettled at the crime scene by none other than high-profile journalist and her ex-lover Jameson Rook. It was bad enough that his article on the NYPD turned into the “Nikki Heat” story, causing some dissension amongst her team. Now she is about to be saddled with him as a ride-along partner again. And the victim is a notorious gossip columnist so the list of possible murder suspects is bound to be lengthy.

This story is what I would describe as a great beach book – light, fluffy and fun, much like the TV show “Castle”. For show fans, it takes some effort to remember that this is not about the show but in fact the book Castle refers to writing while on the show. Jameson is of course Castle and Nikki is Kate Beckett. Her side kicks Esposito and Ryan are there as Ochoa and Raley, as is pathologist Lanie Parish (Lauren Parry). His mother and daughter are not. Guess you have to watch the show for this to make sense! But it is still a fun book for anyone. A plot with lots of twists and turns, and helpful contacts that only a high-powered journalist could reach out to.                            Rating: (°_°)      Worth reading

Notable sentence: “If a man is willing to ride with a corpse just to be with you, that’s more effort than you get from most.”

The author….well, that is a whole other story! According to the book cover and the website, it is Richard Castle. Of course, Richard Castle is really actor Nathan Fillion. So who is the real author? That remains a mystery. It is intriguing that Castle’s poker buddies on the show are real life mystery authors such as Michael Connelly. However, the evidence would seem to point to author Tom Straw as the actual writer. It’s fun to read the “in character” book acknowledgements and website though. This book is the second one in the Nikki Heat series. There is also a Derrick Storm series and several non-series books.

Women's Reading Challenge

NO this is not just a challenge for women who read :) but a focus on women authors.

Bev Hankins at My Reader's Block just did a post that alerted me to the Women's Reading Challenge at Valentina's website. The site is not just for mystery authors but since I've been "collecting" female mystery writers over the past year, that will be my focus. That said, I'm going to aim low and try the Baby Girl challenge.

My three favourite female murder mystery writers are Malla Nunn (South Africa), Kate Atkinson (England) and Liza Marklund (Sweden).

Review: Devil-Devil, Graeme Kent (Solomon Islands)

Title: Devil-Devil
Author: Graeme Kent
Publication: New York/Soho Press, Inc.
ISBN #: 978-1-616-95-060-6
# of pages: 281
Discovered while discussing global authors with a bookstore owner
Read in paper format
Also available in e-book format
 

Ben Kella is a very talented sergeant in the Solomon Islands Police Force but he often runs afoul of his British colonial bosses as he tries to balance his police duties with those of his role as aofia, hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of his people, the Lau. It doesn’t help to have Sister Conchita underfoot. The young American nun is on her first overseas posting and she too is trying to balance what her bosses expect with what she believes is right, while proving to the locals that she has what it takes to live there. When they meet over a half buried skeleton, the sparks start flying.

 Set in the Solomon Islands in 1960’s, a mere 15 years after World War II, the local people are still feeling the effects of that war and occupation by the Japanese, as well as itching for independence from British rule. The author does an excellent job of setting up the mystery while sharing the culture, history, and challenges of this remote part of the world. Kella is reminiscent of Tony Hillerman’s Navajo detective and traditional healer Jim Chee. The characters are well developed and realistic, and the conclusion is achieved in an effective and believable manner. I particularly enjoyed the personal aspects of Kella’s life, building his home in a unique manner that is in fact typical for his people….fascinating!

 

Rating: (^_°)    Intriguing

Notable sentence: “Later, when he owned too much land for one woman to maintain, he had taken a second wife.”

I had taken some time off from blogging but I enjoyed this book so much, I just had to write a review! And thanks again to Kerrie’s Global Reading Challenge!!! I would not have been asking about authors from unusual parts of the world without her challenge. In doing the challenge, I prefer to have the author to be from the country about which they are writing, versus just having researched or visited the country. Although Graeme Kent is British, he was head of BBC Schools broadcasting in the Solomon Islands for 8 years. This book is the first in the Kella and Conchita series, followed by “One Blood” and “Killman”. I look forward to reading the rest.

 

Teaser Tuesdays - Sept 3!!!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along with Teaser Tuesdays! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read(s)
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is my first "Teaser Tuesday" - thanks to Bev at My Reader's Block for her blog which reminded me about it.

Mine's from "Pago Pago Tango" by John Enright:

p. 57: "I never did like that place much - too many kids, gangbangers, guys on ice. But the music was good and usually you could dance and you never had to pay for your drinks."

Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley (Canada: British Columbia)

Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Author: Alan Bradley
Publication: 2009/Canada: Doubleday Canada
ISBN #: 978-0-385-66582-7
# of pages: 292
Discovered at mysteries in paradise
Read in paper format
Also available in e-book and audio formats
Link to author’s website: http://www.flaviadeluce.com/
 

A girl is tied up, gagged, and locked in a closet….by her older sisters. Such is our introduction to precocious eleven year old Flavia de Luce. She, Ophelia and Daphne wage a never-ending war of revenge and counter-revenge. The ace up Flavia’s sleeve is her in-depth knowledge of poisons and her well-equipped home chemistry lab and she sets to work with Ophelia’s lipstick to get even for the closet.

 Once done, Flavia heads for the kitchen where the housekeeper Mrs. Mullet is about to leave, after assuring Flavia’s father that lunch is ready.  As Mrs. Mullet opens the door, she shrieks on discovering a dead bird with a postage stamp impaled on its beak. But the reaction of Colonel de Luce is even stronger: he gasps, clutches at his throat and turns deadly pale.

This shakes Flavia profoundly; she has never seen her father so upset. She has difficulty falling asleep that evening and overhears angry voices in the middle of the night. She sneaks downstairs and spys her father arguing with a tall red haired man. Creeping back to bed before she gets caught, Flavia briefly falls asleep, only to wake up at dawn and find the red haired man dead in the vegetable patch. Could her father really be guilty of murder? Flavia sets out to discover the truth.

I had avoided this book for some time just because I didn’t like the title (still don’t). That was a mistake because this was a delightful book with a very different heroine. Flavia reminds me of Anne of Green Gables…with a twist: like Anne, precocious and curious to a fault, and (unlike Anne) vengeful, at least towards her sisters. It was great fun picturing her upstairs in her lab, rubbing her hands together and plotting poisonous plans. Her intrepid detecting gets her into some tight spots and although she seems quite grownup at times, her solutions for getting out of these spots come from a young girl’s mind. For once, the police officer is not incompetent, although perhaps at times, he is more tolerant of Flavia than many officers might be. I liked that the family is down on their luck, despite the big manor home, so Flavia isn’t just the rich little girl who everyone feels they have to help. And is there more to what happened to her mother Harriet? Can’t wait to read more of this series.                Rating: (^_°)       Intriguing

Although the story is set in 1950s England, the author was born in Ontario, worked in Saskatchewan and retired to British Columbia. Since he wrote the book in B.C., that is the province to which I have assigned it for the Canadian Book Challenge.  Bradley worked in media for many years, including a stint teaching Script Writing and Television Production. In addition to the (so far) six book Flavia series, he has written two other non-series books, one of which proposes that Sherlock Holmes was a woman (co-written with  Dr. William Sarjeant)…now added to my “To Be Read” pile!

Review: The Red House Mystery, A.A. Milne (England)

Title: The Red House Mystery
Author: A.A. Milne
Publication: 1922/UK: Methune
ISBN #: 978-0-09-952127-3
# of pages: ???
Discovered as a free book on my Kobo
Read in e-book format
Also available in paper format, audio CD, illustrated paperback, large print paperback
 

Pretty parlour-maid Audrey Stevens is having a bit of a gossip with her aunt, the cook-housekeeper, about their employer Mark Ablett and his black sheep brother Robert Ablett. None of the household had heard of this brother and now he was due any minute, back from Australia after more than 15 years’ absence. Robert soon arrives and Audrey shows him to the office. A few minutes later, she hears shots which she and the other staff quickly realize came from inside the house. They lock themselves together in a room just as someone starts banging on their door.

 

Help soon arrives in the form of Antony Gillingham. Gillingham got off the train here on a whim and when he learned his friend Bill Beverley was a guest at the Red House, he decided to visit him. He arrives to find a man pounding on a door. The man, Mark’s cousin and secretary-cum-companion, Matthew Cayley, is in a panic because he heard the shots too and can’t get into the office. He is worried about Mark’s safety so the two of them run outside to find another way to access the office. When they finally get into the room, they find Robert dead on the floor and Mark missing.

Shortly afterwards, the house guests – Bill Beverley (young man-around-town), Major Rumbold,  actress Ruth Norris, a painter’s widow Mrs. Calladine, and her daughter Betty – return from their golf game, closely followed by the police. Being curious and between jobs, Gillingham decides to investigate, with Bill acting as his “Dr. Watson”.

This is a classical British manor house mystery! Well-paced with good twists and turns, the book seems written with a light hand: by that, I mean, it has a humorous undertone, as if laughing at itself. The author specifically sets Gillingham and Beverley up as mirrors of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. At first, you wonder if Gillingham has the ability to detect; his jobs have consisted of a bit of this and that but not much of anything. He turns out to an excellent observer of both people and situations. The final scenes, especially Bill’s description, are quite suspenseful and the solution is very creative (although Raymond Chandler apparently felt it was implausible). It was a compelling book to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book ends with an inviting sentence that suggests a sequel but this is the only mystery book the author wrote.     Rating: (^_°)       Intriguing

This is written by THE A.A. Milne, the author more famously known for his Winnie the Pooh books. Why a mystery book? In his dedication, he explained: “To John Vine Milne My Dear Father, Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one. Here it is: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here.” A.A. M.    I wonder if his father enjoyed it – I certainly did!