Books for June 4th, 2013 are: THE RAINALDI QUARTET (AKA SLEEPER) (Mys- Castiglione/ Guastafeste-Italy-Contemp) – 1st in series – Paul Adam Rainaldi was a violin-maker and when he was discovered slumped over his workbench, murdered with one of his own chisels, both the police and his friends are at a loss to discover a motive. Then it comes to light that Rainaldi had believed he was on the track of an infamous Stradivari - twin to the one housed in the Asmolean Museum and subject to two hundred years of myth and rumour. With nothing else to go on his two close friends pick up the search from where he left off, and plunge headlong into a world where great musical instruments change hands for millions, where forgery is an art form and where murder is often a dealer's chosen method of negotiation.
Charlotte – VG+ - Really enjoyed it. Sometimes the descriptions were a bit long but she liked the description of the town and its history. Very interesting; very good plotting Christine – VG+ - Really liked the book. Enjoyed the friendship between the two characters. Liked learning the history of violins and luthiers. Corona - - Hasn’t finished it but knew right away she’d love it. She’s not too far into it, but is really enjoying the flavor and the setting. Linda F – VG – Really liked the characters, the plotting, the background of both the luthiers and the town. LJ – VG+ - Paul Adam has such a wonderful voice. It is so comfortable that, from the very beginning with a gathering of friends, you feel as though you are one of them. The characters are fully developed; you know their histories and their relationships to one another. “The Rainaldi Quartet” is a combination history and music lesson, but it is also a jigsaw puzzle and treasure hunt with an excellent resolution. Most of all, it is one great read!
Group Read Average: VG+
A CORPSE IN THE KORGO (Pol Proc-Inspector O-North Korea-Contemp) – 1st in series – James Church Sit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south. Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far, far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal and death. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decade's-old kidnappings and murders---and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos. This is a world where nothing works as it should, where the crimes of the past haunt the present, and where even the shadows are real.
Christine – DNF – She just couldn’t get into it. The characters were so cold. Linda S – Good – Appreciated reading it and the window it provided into North Korea with its menacing bureaucracy. She liked the protagonist and his relationship with his boss. In some ways, it was stereotypical noir, with the femme fatal, yet it some ways it reminded her of Colin Cotterill’s “The Coroner’s Lunch”, but not nearly as good. She might try reading another book in the series. LJ – DNF – I really wanted to like this book. I loved the idea of a story set in North Korea; somewhere about which we know so little. Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with it. I put it down on page 58 and never picked it up again. I may still try, however.
Group Read Average: Poor
CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (Ama Sleuth-Claire Dewitt-New Orleans-Cont) – 1st in series – Sara Gran The tattooed, pot-smoking Claire has just arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans, the city she's avoided since her mentor, Silette's student Constance Darling, was murdered there. Claire is investigating the disappearance of Vic Willing, a prosecutor known for winning convictions in a homicide- plagued city. Has an angry criminal enacted revenge on Vic? Or did he use the storm as a means to disappear? Claire follows the clues, finding old friends and making new enemies - foremost among them Andray Fairview, a young gang member who just might hold the key to the mystery.
Cindy – VG – Liked it but there were things that bugged her, particularly the continual appearance of the book “Detection”. She did like how the author pulled everything together at the end. She enjoyed the post-Katrina setting and seeing how people lived there. She really liked the characters. Corona – VG – Thought it was a bit over the top with the spiritual stuff and how very cool the character was. She did like how everything and everyone was taken care of at the end. Linda F – VG – She really loved it. She liked the uniqueness of the character—didn’t feel she was intended to be liked. She thought the book was insightful about post-Katrina New Orleans but didn’t think the case was particularly interesting. Linda S – Good – Liked the post-Katrina setting but felt conflicted about the character, especially how she interacted with the kid. Linda felt the character crossed the line morally. She found her interesting but didn’t like her particularly or admire her. However, she might read the next book in the series. LJ – Ex - Every now and then, an author comes along with a voice and style that it is almost impossible to describe, quantify, or explain. Claire is anything but your usual female detective. She’s not a comfortable protagonist. New Orleans is a city unlike any other yet, particularly in this time setting, she does not make any effort to romanticize it. It is ugly, violent, sad, desperate and very real. Remarkably, however, at the end we’re left with a sense of hope, both for the city and the characters. The story’s plot may not always be the easiest to follow, but it is so worth paying attention to every word and every clue and giving each page a bit of thought. That’s easy to do as it is thoroughly and completely engrossing. “Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead” is a remarkable book.
THE RAINALDI QUARTET (AKA SLEEPER) (Mys- Castiglione/ Guastafeste-Italy-Contemp) – 1st in series – Paul Adam
Rainaldi was a violin-maker and when he was discovered slumped over his workbench, murdered with one of his own chisels, both the police and his friends are at a loss to discover a motive. Then it comes to light that Rainaldi had believed he was on the track of an infamous Stradivari - twin to the one housed in the Asmolean Museum and subject to two hundred years of myth and rumour. With nothing else to go on his two close friends pick up the search from where he left off, and plunge headlong into a world where great musical instruments change hands for millions, where forgery is an art form and where murder is often a dealer's chosen method of negotiation.
Charlotte – VG+ - Really enjoyed it. Sometimes the descriptions were a bit long but she liked the description of the town and its history. Very interesting; very good plotting
Christine – VG+ - Really liked the book. Enjoyed the friendship between the two characters. Liked learning the history of violins and luthiers.
Corona - - Hasn’t finished it but knew right away she’d love it. She’s not too far into it, but is really enjoying the flavor and the setting.
Linda F – VG – Really liked the characters, the plotting, the background of both the luthiers and the town.
LJ – VG+ - Paul Adam has such a wonderful voice. It is so comfortable that, from the very beginning with a gathering of friends, you feel as though you are one of them. The characters are fully developed; you know their histories and their relationships to one another. “The Rainaldi Quartet” is a combination history and music lesson, but it is also a jigsaw puzzle and treasure hunt with an excellent resolution. Most of all, it is one great read!
Group Read Average: VG+
A CORPSE IN THE KORGO (Pol Proc-Inspector O-North Korea-Contemp) – 1st in series – James Church
Sit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south. Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far, far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal and death. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decade's-old kidnappings and murders---and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos. This is a world where nothing works as it should, where the crimes of the past haunt the present, and where even the shadows are real.
Christine – DNF – She just couldn’t get into it. The characters were so cold.
Linda S – Good – Appreciated reading it and the window it provided into North Korea with its menacing bureaucracy. She liked the protagonist and his relationship with his boss. In some ways, it was stereotypical noir, with the femme fatal, yet it some ways it reminded her of Colin Cotterill’s “The Coroner’s Lunch”, but not nearly as good. She might try reading another book in the series.
LJ – DNF – I really wanted to like this book. I loved the idea of a story set in North Korea; somewhere about which we know so little. Unfortunately I just couldn’t connect with it. I put it down on page 58 and never picked it up again. I may still try, however.
Group Read Average: Poor
CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (Ama Sleuth-Claire Dewitt-New Orleans-Cont) – 1st in series – Sara Gran
The tattooed, pot-smoking Claire has just arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans, the city she's avoided since her mentor, Silette's student Constance Darling, was murdered there. Claire is investigating the disappearance of Vic Willing, a prosecutor known for winning convictions in a homicide- plagued city. Has an angry criminal enacted revenge on Vic? Or did he use the storm as a means to disappear? Claire follows the clues, finding old friends and making new enemies - foremost among them Andray Fairview, a young gang member who just might hold the key to the mystery.
Cindy – VG – Liked it but there were things that bugged her, particularly the continual appearance of the book “Detection”. She did like how the author pulled everything together at the end. She enjoyed the post-Katrina setting and seeing how people lived there. She really liked the characters.
Corona – VG – Thought it was a bit over the top with the spiritual stuff and how very cool the character was. She did like how everything and everyone was taken care of at the end.
Linda F – VG – She really loved it. She liked the uniqueness of the character—didn’t feel she was intended to be liked. She thought the book was insightful about post-Katrina New Orleans but didn’t think the case was particularly interesting.
Linda S – Good – Liked the post-Katrina setting but felt conflicted about the character, especially how she interacted with the kid. Linda felt the character crossed the line morally. She found her interesting but didn’t like her particularly or admire her. However, she might read the next book in the series.
LJ – Ex - Every now and then, an author comes along with a voice and style that it is almost impossible to describe, quantify, or explain. Claire is anything but your usual female detective. She’s not a comfortable protagonist. New Orleans is a city unlike any other yet, particularly in this time setting, she does not make any effort to romanticize it. It is ugly, violent, sad, desperate and very real. Remarkably, however, at the end we’re left with a sense of hope, both for the city and the characters. The story’s plot may not always be the easiest to follow, but it is so worth paying attention to every word and every clue and giving each page a bit of thought. That’s easy to do as it is thoroughly and completely engrossing. “Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead” is a remarkable book.
Group Read Average: VG