Wacky and cozy-Take the Monkeys and Run by Karen Cantwell

                                                               

This was fun.  It won't change your world or give you new insights on life but it's fun.  The storyline revolves around a suburban mom who is very curious about strange happenings at what is supposed to be an empty house next door.  When she goes to investigate in the middle of the night, she finds monkeys all over her yard.  Interesting premise. 

Her husband has just left her and she's struggling to deal with that.  When the mob starts threatening her and she has to call an old boyfriend for help, the story takes some strange turns that are not quite what I was expecting.  I will some that some parts were exactly what I was suspecting like why her husband left but it did have a few twists.  The heroine isn't a particularly smart investigator.  She's a bit of a bumbler but I could relate to her on some levels. "Next to chocolate and peace on Earth, warm pajamas is what I wish for every birthday and Christmas.  Soft and warm matching fleece socks are another favorite".  Now this is a lady after my own heart. 

I hesitated to call it a cozy because some of the elements of the traditional cozy are missing.  There's no hobby or store or club that everything centers around. There's no central theme, it's more of just a straight mystery in some ways but the feel is cozy. Plenty of humor, plenty of amateur sleuths. They do some pretty amateurish things at times.  It almost has the feel of a wacky hi-jinks mystery but not quite.  Anyway, enough analysis.  It was fun, I liked it and I wouldn't hesitate to go back for more.

I received a copy of this from netgalley for review and I also got a copy as a Kindle freebie. So there, all the proper disclaimers.

More about Karen Cantwell

• Would I pay money for it? Yes
• Would I read more by this author? absolutely!
• Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes I would

Purchased as a Kindle freebie August 9, 2014

Going Nowhere Fast-A few too many wacky hi-jinks for me

Joe and Dottie Loudermilk are fortunate to be taking early retirement in their early 50's.  They bought an Airstream and hit the road for the Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately, their youngest and most disreputable son shows up just about the time they find a dead body in their bathroom?  Coincidence? Add some mobsters and a ticked-off football player and you're headed for a wild ride.

I suspect reviews of this mystery will vary widely because it is a very distinct genre that isn't going to appeal to everyone.  It doesn't appeal to me.  It is in the "wacky hi-jinks" field of mystery.  I love funny mysteries but this is much more of a slapstick mystery.  It is well written and if you like crazy capers, then you will like this one. 

There were two specific things that contributed to me just not feeling this one.  First, you couldn't solve the mystery yourself because you don't have all the evidence available.  Until they tell you whodunit, you can't know.  Second, the main characters are in their early 50's and continually talk about how old they are.  As a person in that age group, I don't feel old so the whole thing didn't ring true.  I should add a third thing, Joe Loudermilk is a retired policeman and yet blatantly disregards all police procedure.  Annoying.

I'm not saying his is not a bad book, just not a book for me. It's a short, easy read that will appeal to those who are into this genre.

More about Gar Anthony Haywood

• Would I pay money for it?No
• Would I read more by this author? I would try his other works not in this series
• Would I recommend this to a friend? No particularly but I wouldn't discourage them from reading it

Purchased as a Kindle freebie July 7, 2013

Rusty Nail-A graphically violent Jack Daniels

GRAPHIC VIOLENCE WARNING. Ok, you have been warned.  I was warned by the author (thanks Mr. Konrath, I really do appreciate it!) that this book has the most graphic violence in the series.  Having been warned, I was able to blip over sections where that violence occurred.  It was pretty easy to see them coming.  So why would I even read a book with stuff I don’t like in it?  Well, I really wanted to know what happens to Jack.  I was starting to get fairly invested in her after the first two books,  Whiskey Sour and Bloody Mary, and having been told that the violence decreases after this book, I wanted to keep up with her storyline.  

The first book involved Jack’s investigation into the Gingerbread Man.  He pops up again here and let me say that he is not someone you want to deal with more than once.  Jack is once more being personally targeted by a serial killer.  Her partner is having to deal with some health issues, her mom’s in a coma, her ex-boyfriend has a new girlfriend, life is not fun. 

As with the first two, there are excellent descriptions of police work.  I like hearing about some of the nitty-gritty of an investigation, the leg-work involved.  I don’t like cases being solved purely by intuition or a sudden revelation.  We see plenty of good detective skills here.  As with the first two, there is plenty of humor.  Great one-liners, good relationships between the characters.  Jack and her partner have a real warmth to their relationship that I enjoy.  For all the things that are wrong in her life, Jack has a great group of people that like and help her.   

Bottom line-if you don’t want the violence, avoid this book.  If you can jump over it and are interested in following Jack’s story, you’ll find this quite satisfying.  

More about J.A. Konrath 

Author's suggested order of reading

• Would I pay money for it?  Maybe not this particular one because I skipped some parts but yes, the others in the serious I would
• Would I read more by this author?  yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend? Not this particular one but I would recommend the others in the series to friends that like police procedurals

Purchased as a Kindle freebie March 30, 2013

 

My Man Jeeves-Simply ripping!

Hugh Laurie states the case admirably "The first thing you should know, and probably the last, too, is that PG Wodehouse is still the funniest writer ever to have put words on paper."  I couldn't agree more.

"I'm not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare-or, if not, it's some equally brainy lad-who says that it's always just when a chappie is feeling particularly top-hole and more than usually braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with a bit of lead piping..  There's no doubt the man's right." And so is our first introduction to Bertie Wooster.

Bertie Wooster seems destined to always have Fate sneaking up behind him with a lead pipe.  If anything can go wrong for him, it will. Overbearing relatives, friends that need rescuing, ties that don't match the suit he's wearing. Enter Jeeves, his gentleman's gentleman.  Calm, cool, and collected,  Jeeves is always able to get Bertie and his friends out of whatever scrape they have gotten into. And he's always able to make sure that Bertie is properly attired while doing it. Comis genius is the only description of what goes on in a Jeeves story.

This book, Wodehouse's earliest writings about Jeeves, is a set of short stories, several of them about Reggie Pepper, rather than Bertie.  The two characters are almost interchangeable except for the absence of Jeeves in the Pepper stories. Some of these stories were rewritten for later Jeeves books.

If you've never read P.G. Wodhouse before, his writing is almost hard to describe.  He's quintessentially British.  He's hilarious and there is plenty of slapstick humour but there is also lots of dry humour.  His vocabulary is different than anyone else I've ever read. His use of the slang of the time and his depiction of the idle upper class and the aristocracy before WWII are just fun! He's one of the five authors who's works I would take to a desert island with me. 

Some Wodehouse sites
Plumtopia (Plum was Wodehouse's nickname)
A celebration of P.G. Wodehouse
The Wodehouse Society
PG Wodehouse books-A site with some really excellent articles about Wodehouse

• Would I pay money for it?  Absolutely. I have bought many Wodehouse books.
• Would I read more by this author?  yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend? I've been recommending him to everyone I know for years

Purchased as a Kindle freebie December 29, 2012