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

New Orleans Mourning-1991 Edgar Award Winner

New Orleans has always seemed to me to have an atmosphere all its own that feels foreign and exotic even though it’s part of the United States.  Julie Smith does a good job of recreating that atmosphere in New Orleans Mourning, the first book in the Skip Langdon series and the 1991 Edgar Award Winner.  

Skip Langdon grew up among the upper classes of New Orleans though she wasn’t exactly one of them.  Her parents were social climbers, her father being doctor to most of the New Orleans aristocracy.  Skip recently decided that being a cop was her career choice and she is a rookie, working the parade routes during Mardi Gras.  An old acquaintance of hers is Rex, King of the Carnival, and she happens to be in the right place to see him get shot, on his float, in the parade.  The murderer is dressed as Dolly Parton and happens to be on the balcony of an apartment whose owner she knows.  The death of Chauncey St. Amants gets Skip re-assigned from patrol to helping the detectives working on the murder because of her background with the upper-class family.  

There are things to love and things to dislike about this novel but it does have a very distinctive feel and it’s not hard to see why it won the Edgar and was nominated for an Anthony.  

I loved the plot line.  It’s multi-layered and complicated, but not confusing.  It draws you deeper and deeper in as you read.  You are seeing multiple points of view, lots of conflicting motivations, deep and genuine emotions and complicated characters. It’s a great picture of the old-money dysfunctional Southern family with deep, dark secrets hiding behind their place in society.  One can just about feel the heat and humidity and see the hanging moss and the lush greenery of the Deep South.  You can feel the silent servants moving in the background as the privileged go about entertaining each other as their social duties dictate.

What I dislike about this novel is the casual drug use that is pervasive.  That bothers me immensely and always diminishes my enjoyment of a book.  Some of the actions of characters that drive the plot are disturbing but without them there would be no story.  There would be plenty of story without the drug use.  

I had read books in the author’s. other series set in L.A. and while I enjoyed them, they didn’t begin to have the depth that New Orleans Mourning had for me. It’s not hard to see why this one received so much recognition.

Publishing company started by Julie Smith, booksBnimble.com

• Would I pay money for it? Yes
• Would I read more by this author? Definitely
  
• Would I recommend this to a friend? I know which friends would be bothered by the same things I am and would recommend to those who are not

Purchased as a Kindle freebie May 26, 2014

Murder on the High Seas-Interesting little novella with some glaring flaws

Murder on the High Seas is too short to be called a novel, the term “novella” suits it much better. It is a very quick read, under an hour for me.  It isn’t a ‘whodunit’ kind of mystery, there’s no murder to solve.  The title really isn’t representative of the story.  

There were things that I liked.  I did enjoy the main character being a caregiver because that is something I can relate to.  My mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s lives with us so I could really sympathize  with needing time to be free of responsibility and I think that was represented well.  The character was likeable and sensible most of the time.  The atmosphere aboard the ship felt real and that’s important to me.

There were things I didn’t like.  The story was so short that the relationships didn’t have time to develop naturally.  They felt rushed.  The main character seems to like or dislike people almost instantly which left very shallow at times.  She becomes rude with one character after a very brief acquaintance and one that I did not feel justified that rudeness.  Several of the characters were so stereotypical as to almost be caricatures. 

It felt like the first draft of a story that should have been expanded and filled out.  Given time for proper depth and proper character development, it could be quite interesting but in it’s current form, it’s just too short for the story it wants to tell.

More about Sara M. Barton

• Would I pay money for it? No
• Would I read more by this author?  I'd give her another try, yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend? probably not

Purchased as a Kindle freebie February 22, 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

 

The Boddy in the Snowbank-An entertaining little story

This publication shows how the changes in the publishing industry can promote new ways of telling stories and new ways for authors to get their work out to the public. This is a short story, 6 pages long, that began as a blog post from the 7criminalminds blog where they gave a writing prompt and different authors used it to create a short story. It's apparently always a freebie which would make sense at that length.  It is obviously a very quick read at 6 pages.  

The prompt was "The Clue characters are locked in a winter lodge. Mr. Boddy is found dead in a snowdrift with no visible signs of trauma. Who did it and how do you prove it using just the things in the lodge?” I don't know if the other blog posts were published for Kindle but if they were, I would read them.

I'm a huge fan of the game "Clue" so the characters were quite familiar to me but in a story as short as this there's no way to really develop them or give much backstory.  I found it an entertaining little read, reminiscent of the 1985 movie.

 

7criminalminds blog 

More about Jenna Bennett 

• Would I pay money for it?  No, too short
• Would I read more by this author?  yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend?  If they like to read short stories, which some people don't