THE BOHEMIAN HIGHWAY (Myst-Claire DeWitt-San Francisco-Contemp) – 2nd in series – Sara Gran Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt's ex-boyfriend, is a popular musician in the San Francisco scene. When he's found dead in his apartment, his cherished guitars missing, the police are convinced it's a simple robbery, but Claire knows nothing is ever simple. With the help of her new assistant Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul's fate in her other cases - especially a long-ago missing girl in a gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: "The detective won't know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart."�
Charlotte – Good – She’s about half-way through and is enjoying it. There are three mysteries and the jumping between them was a bit distracting but she’s become used to it. There is too much focus on drugs. Linda F. – Poor – She was disappointed. She really liked the mysticism but there has been much less than in the first book. She found the plot very slow moving and would have abandoned it had she not liked the first book so much. The only element of Claire from book one, was the craziness and the drugs. LJ – Okay - Sara Gran has such a wonderful, original voice and often writes passages that make you stop and think. She is very good at expressing small truths. When Claire refers to past cases, it is almost as an aside and assuring you that it is fine that you don’t know the details. That said, it is very helpful to have read the actual first book in this series. Told in first person, this is very much a character-driven book. However, Claire is far from being a paragon of virtue. She excels in vices; legal and illegal. Description and sense of place are also among Gran’s strengths, even if she does get a bit Map-Quest-y at times. Unfortunately, what is also lacking is the mystery. It is there, but it seems the clues were not. “…Bohemian Highway” sadly lacks the charm, humor and magic of Ms. Gran’s first book. I found myself more annoyed by Claire, than entranced by her.
Group Rating Average - Okay
JOYLAND (Myst-Devin Jones-North Carolina-1973) – Standalone-Stephen King Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
Linda F. – Good – She really liked the characterization and the relationships between the characters. She very much enjoyed the carnival milieu a lot. Unfortunately, she wasn’t that interested in the mystery.
Group Rating Average - Good
THE TRUTH OF ALL THINGS (Gothic Myst-Deputy Marshall Archie Lean-Portland, ME, 1892) – 1st in series - Kieran Shields When Deputy Marshal Archie Lean is called in to investigate a prostitute's murder in Portland, Maine, he's surprised to find the body laid out like a pentagram and pinned to the earth with a pitchfork. He's even more surprised to learn that this death by "sticking" is a traditional method of killing a witch. Baffled by the ritualized murder scene, Lean secretly enlists the help of historian Helen Prescott and brilliant criminalist Perceval Grey. Although skeptical of one another's methods, together the detectives pursue the killer's trail through postmortems and opium dens, into the spiritualist societies and lunatic asylums of gothic New England. Before the killer closes in on his final victim, they must decipher the secret pattern to these murders--a pattern hidden within the dark history of the Salem witch trials.
LJR – DNF - This had all the elements that would normally have appealed to me; historical, police procedural, Maine, witch trials. Unfortunately, I found it a slog to read. Of course, the very small print did not help that, but that’s the fault of the publisher, not the author. Still, had I been engrossed in the story, I would have persevered. Instead, I found it just didn’t hold my interest. The main characters of Lean and Grey were too clearly fashioned after Watson and Holmes. Most distracting was that the speech had no reflection of the period; it seemed much too modern. As for setting, it is an area I know well. However, beyond a map-quest tour of the area, there wasn’t an evocative feel provided.
THE BOHEMIAN HIGHWAY (Myst-Claire DeWitt-San Francisco-Contemp) – 2nd in series – Sara Gran
Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt's ex-boyfriend, is a popular musician in the San Francisco scene. When he's found dead in his apartment, his cherished guitars missing, the police are convinced it's a simple robbery, but Claire knows nothing is ever simple. With the help of her new assistant Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul's fate in her other cases - especially a long-ago missing girl in a gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: "The detective won't know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart."�
Charlotte – Good – She’s about half-way through and is enjoying it. There are three mysteries and the jumping between them was a bit distracting but she’s become used to it. There is too much focus on drugs.
Linda F. – Poor – She was disappointed. She really liked the mysticism but there has been much less than in the first book. She found the plot very slow moving and would have abandoned it had she not liked the first book so much. The only element of Claire from book one, was the craziness and the drugs.
LJ – Okay - Sara Gran has such a wonderful, original voice and often writes passages that make you stop and think. She is very good at expressing small truths. When Claire refers to past cases, it is almost as an aside and assuring you that it is fine that you don’t know the details. That said, it is very helpful to have read the actual first book in this series. Told in first person, this is very much a character-driven book. However, Claire is far from being a paragon of virtue. She excels in vices; legal and illegal. Description and sense of place are also among Gran’s strengths, even if she does get a bit Map-Quest-y at times. Unfortunately, what is also lacking is the mystery. It is there, but it seems the clues were not. “…Bohemian Highway” sadly lacks the charm, humor and magic of Ms. Gran’s first book. I found myself more annoyed by Claire, than entranced by her.
Group Rating Average - Okay
JOYLAND (Myst-Devin Jones-North Carolina-1973) – Standalone-Stephen King
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
Linda F. – Good – She really liked the characterization and the relationships between the characters. She very much enjoyed the carnival milieu a lot. Unfortunately, she wasn’t that interested in the mystery.
Group Rating Average - Good
THE TRUTH OF ALL THINGS (Gothic Myst-Deputy Marshall Archie Lean-Portland, ME, 1892) – 1st in series - Kieran Shields
When Deputy Marshal Archie Lean is called in to investigate a prostitute's murder in Portland, Maine, he's surprised to find the body laid out like a pentagram and pinned to the earth with a pitchfork. He's even more surprised to learn that this death by "sticking" is a traditional method of killing a witch. Baffled by the ritualized murder scene, Lean secretly enlists the help of historian Helen Prescott and brilliant criminalist Perceval Grey. Although skeptical of one another's methods, together the detectives pursue the killer's trail through postmortems and opium dens, into the spiritualist societies and lunatic asylums of gothic New England. Before the killer closes in on his final victim, they must decipher the secret pattern to these murders--a pattern hidden within the dark history of the Salem witch trials.
LJR – DNF - This had all the elements that would normally have appealed to me; historical, police procedural, Maine, witch trials. Unfortunately, I found it a slog to read. Of course, the very small print did not help that, but that’s the fault of the publisher, not the author. Still, had I been engrossed in the story, I would have persevered. Instead, I found it just didn’t hold my interest. The main characters of Lean and Grey were too clearly fashioned after Watson and Holmes. Most distracting was that the speech had no reflection of the period; it seemed much too modern. As for setting, it is an area I know well. However, beyond a map-quest tour of the area, there wasn’t an evocative feel provided.
Group Rating Average - DNF