A Flaw in the Blood - Standalone - Stephanie Barron
Andrea - DNF - Awful, horrible, will not finish it. Queen Victoria is so repellent as are all the characters. The story is awful. Can't stand all the italics. Corona - NR - Was very annoyed with how all the characters were full of themselves. Terrible book. LJ - Poor/NR - I am one of those who does not like historical figures used as major characters in mysteries. For that reason, I had not read Ms. Barron’s Jane Austin series, but bought this as I it had a different protagonist. What I didn’t realize is that the other major character is Queen Victoria. I found the conjecture interesting, but because it is fiction, I didn’t know what information to trust. The character of Victoria is unpleasant, which may have been true, but I found the alternating POVs, done without indication, distracting. Of our other two protagonists, there was very little character development. I would have much preferred the book had the information motivating the intent to kill Patrick and Georgiana been revealed through investigation and kept Victoria behind the scenes. I credit the author as, from the bibliography it is appears she did her research, however because I found the story unpleasant and one that strained credulity, I did skim a lot of it. It’s just was not to my taste.
Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish - 9th in series - Dorothy Gilman
Andrea - Ex - Loved it! She did question whether someone who had not read any of the previous books would get the character and her background (Those of us who had not read previous books assured Andrea that we did). The character is wonderful. Charlotte - Okay - Remembers reading it awhile and enjoyed it but wasn't that taken with it. She was please it was not a cozy. She thinks she'll try it again. Corona - Ex - She didn't have any problem understanding the history. It was easy to read with just enough suspense and had great characters. Corona loved the way Mrs. Pollifax loves. Linda S - G - This is probably my favorite of the Pollifax series, and it was fun to reread it. I read it ages ago, and all I remembered was that I liked it, and a throw away line Mrs. Pollifax has about the direction of U.S. foreign policy. There are certain inviolable rules in the world of Mrs. Pollifax: Kindness is ultimately rewarded; one's true nature is revealed by the small ways we (mis)treat one another; true love, adventure, and mastery of karate can be achieved in one's late sixties. It's not a particularly complex world, but it is a fun one to visit. LJ - G+ - I had not read Mrs. Pollifax before and was very pleasantly surprised. I expected the book to be fluffy and annoying. Instead, it was much more serious than expected. To compare Mrs. Pollifax to Ms. Marple would be doing both an injustice as they are very different. Mrs. Pollifax has the same intuitiveness, but also knows how to take care of herself. I loved the quote from “archie and mehitable”: “There’s a dance in the old dame yet, toujours gai, tourjours gai.” In addition to a very good story with an excellent sense o f place and plenty of suspense, Gilman provided a good history lesson and some basic philosophical reminders about what is important. I may just have to read more books in this series.
Betrayal - 10th in series - John Lescroart
Charlotte - - She has read the first 245 pages and stopped. She wanted to see what the rest of the group thought before deciding whether to finish the book. There is way too much setup to the story. Linda H - VG - I read Betrayal and liked it A LOT!! It was the only book I could find in the bookstore and I almost didn't get it because of the military aspect. BUT it turned out that I found the military part fascinating, as well as scary and disgusting. I had never read one of his books before but will read another! I also enjoyed the courtroom scenes and the characters themselves inspired hate or sadness. I really was annoyed with Evan for doing all that drinking with history of a head injury, but, never having been in that situation, hard to judge anyone. I really hated both Ron Nolan and Jack Allstrong! This book inspired strong emotions in me which is pretty unusual and I just couldn't stop reading. I was a bit frustrated by the ending - I did so want someone else to have killed Nolan and didn't really like the quick way it finished up at the end. BUT, a great book!! Linda S - VG - I think this was really well done, though it was not the escapist fun that I was hoping for in picking up a Lescroart. I wish there had been more of Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky in the book, as this was really a stand alone masquerading as a series book. However, the characters of National Guard reservist Evan Scholler, Private contractor Ron Nolan, and their mutual girlfriend Tara Wheatley are all quite well developed as characters and the plot is fascinating. I did think it was bogging down about two thirds of the way through, but maybe that was me just missing Abe and Dismas. I gobbled it up in one day, so I can't say it didn't engage me. LJ - G - Absolutely relevant to today and the Bush presidential years, this books deals, in harsh terms, with the war in Iraq, government security contractors and federal waste. Two-thirds of the book deals with those subjects, the relationship between the two men and it outcome. Only in the last third of the story does Dismas come fully into the story. I found it rather slow going to that point as I didn’t particularly care about the characters. However, once Dismas and Abe Glitsky joined the story, it picked up. This wasn’t my favorite Lescroart read, but it was still quite good.
Andrea - DNF - Awful, horrible, will not finish it. Queen Victoria is so repellent as are all the characters. The story is awful. Can't stand all the italics.
Corona - NR - Was very annoyed with how all the characters were full of themselves. Terrible book.
LJ - Poor/NR - I am one of those who does not like historical figures used as major characters in mysteries. For that reason, I had not read Ms. Barron’s Jane Austin series, but bought this as I it had a different protagonist. What I didn’t realize is that the other major character is Queen Victoria. I found the conjecture interesting, but because it is fiction, I didn’t know what information to trust. The character of Victoria is unpleasant, which may have been true, but I found the alternating POVs, done without indication, distracting. Of our other two protagonists, there was very little character development. I would have much preferred the book had the information motivating the intent to kill Patrick and Georgiana been revealed through investigation and kept Victoria behind the scenes. I credit the author as, from the bibliography it is appears she did her research, however because I found the story unpleasant and one that strained credulity, I did skim a lot of it. It’s just was not to my taste.
Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish - 9th in series - Dorothy Gilman
Andrea - Ex - Loved it! She did question whether someone who had not read any of the previous books would get the character and her background (Those of us who had not read previous books assured Andrea that we did). The character is wonderful.
Charlotte - Okay - Remembers reading it awhile and enjoyed it but wasn't that taken with it. She was please it was not a cozy. She thinks she'll try it again.
Corona - Ex - She didn't have any problem understanding the history. It was easy to read with just enough suspense and had great characters. Corona loved the way Mrs. Pollifax loves.
Linda S - G - This is probably my favorite of the Pollifax series, and it was fun to reread it. I read it ages ago, and all I remembered was that I liked it, and a throw away line Mrs. Pollifax has about the direction of U.S. foreign policy. There are certain inviolable rules in the world of Mrs. Pollifax: Kindness is ultimately rewarded; one's true nature is revealed by the small ways we (mis)treat one another; true love, adventure, and mastery of karate can be achieved in one's late sixties. It's not a particularly complex world, but it is a fun one to visit.
LJ - G+ - I had not read Mrs. Pollifax before and was very pleasantly surprised. I expected the book to be fluffy and annoying. Instead, it was much more serious than expected. To compare Mrs. Pollifax to Ms. Marple would be doing both an injustice as they are very different. Mrs. Pollifax has the same intuitiveness, but also knows how to take care of herself. I loved the quote from “archie and mehitable”: “There’s a dance in the old dame yet, toujours gai, tourjours gai.” In addition to a very good story with an excellent sense o f place and plenty of suspense, Gilman provided a good history lesson and some basic philosophical reminders about what is important. I may just have to read more books in this series.
Betrayal - 10th in series - John Lescroart
Charlotte - - She has read the first 245 pages and stopped. She wanted to see what the rest of the group thought before deciding whether to finish the book. There is way too much setup to the story.
Linda H - VG - I read Betrayal and liked it A LOT!! It was the only book I could find in the bookstore and I almost didn't get it because of the military aspect. BUT it turned out that I found the military part fascinating, as well as scary and disgusting. I had never read one of his books before but will read another! I also enjoyed the courtroom scenes and the characters themselves inspired hate or sadness. I really was annoyed with Evan for doing all that drinking with history of a head injury, but, never having been in that situation, hard to judge anyone. I really hated both Ron Nolan and Jack Allstrong! This book inspired strong emotions in me which is pretty unusual and I just couldn't stop reading. I was a bit frustrated by the ending - I did so want someone else to have killed Nolan and didn't really like the quick way it finished up at the end. BUT, a great book!!
Linda S - VG - I think this was really well done, though it was not the escapist fun that I was hoping for in picking up a Lescroart. I wish there had been more of Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky in the book, as this was really a stand alone masquerading as a series book. However, the characters of National Guard reservist Evan Scholler, Private contractor Ron Nolan, and their mutual girlfriend Tara Wheatley are all quite well developed as characters and the plot is fascinating. I did think it was bogging down about two thirds of the way through, but maybe that was me just missing Abe and Dismas. I gobbled it up in one day, so I can't say it didn't engage me.
LJ - G - Absolutely relevant to today and the Bush presidential years, this books deals, in harsh terms, with the war in Iraq, government security contractors and federal waste. Two-thirds of the book deals with those subjects, the relationship between the two men and it outcome. Only in the last third of the story does Dismas come fully into the story. I found it rather slow going to that point as I didn’t particularly care about the characters. However, once Dismas and Abe Glitsky joined the story, it picked up. This wasn’t my favorite Lescroart read, but it was still quite good.