Middle Sister's August "Dog Days of Summer" Books

This month I decided to visit Edinburgh through my books, and both fictional trips were wildly successful and enjoyed very much.

A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin (Rebus book no.14)  I'd never read an Ian Rankin novel before, because I generally don't like police procedurals. Luckily I'm the kind of person who can force herself to do something because it's good for me, and so I decided to step outside my usual genres and try one. I'm so glad I gave a Rebus mystery a try. I loved it! The entire bool was excellent--well written, exciting, with a great pace, interesting, well-developed characters (even the secondary and tertiary characters), and enough backstory to not be lost even if the reader is starting on book 14. I felt a real sense of the underbelly of Edinburgh without it being so grim as to turn a noir  or police procedural newby off. There was just one formatting issue on Kindle (p.317, Claver-house hyphenated when not needed). Recommended highly.

Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalit Fox One of the best books I've read all year! I knew from "Arthur and George," broadcast on PBS several years ago and based on a book by the same name, that Arthur Conan Doyle had taken on some real life cases of police negligence. Margalit Fox details another case Doyle turned his expert Sherlockian eye on--the mysterious death of a wealthy and cantankerous Edinburgh spinster. Scrupulously researched, and written with the same wonderful flair for evocative narrative nonfiction that she evinced when she used to write for the New York Times. I enjoyed the book so much I was sad when it was over. Excellent and highly recommended to ystery lovers and true crime aficionados alike.

Bloodstains with Bronte by Katherine Bolger Hyde A middle-aged heroine living in the Pacific northwest has inherited her aunt's rambling house and decides to turn it into a write's retreat with rooms named after authors. What's not to love? A lot, it turns out. My concern is the main character. Emily is supposed to be an earthy, maternal, well-rounded individual. She came across as needy and immature and incredibly annoying. First, the author tells us over and over that she feels like Katie, the main murder suspect, is like a daughter to her, but they've only known each other a few months, and while Katie seems to respect and feel affectionately towards Emily, it is most definitely not a mother-daughter relationship. Emily's reaction to Luke's investigation of Katie is so resoundingly immature and naive and callous that I would have dumped her right then and there. Katie is found over the dead body, the murder weapon in her hand--of course the sheriff is going to investigate her. But Emily's reaction? "For a minute she wished she and Luke were sleeping together so she could deny him her bed as punishment." What the heck??? What kind of woman is this? Cold and judgmental describe her impression of everyone who doesn't meet her standards: the doctor is gruff and loud, so doesn't have a good bedside manner and therefore could not possibly be a good doctor. As for her former position at a small college, well, "the occasional student did commit suicide..." doesn't actually elicit any compassion from Emily. Then Emily willfully obstructs justice, lying to the sheriff and hiding information from him. Later, she decides that she needs to interview suspects just because she doesn't, I guess, think Luke would have done that or done it adequately--I'm not sure which was her motivation because by that point, I disliked Emily intensely. And this knitter was aghast by the piece Beanie was knitting--yellow yarn, followed by a section with deep purple tweed, then a section in green and black eyelash yarn, and then a section in fine pale blue mohair? My eyes, my eyes!! (Not to mention the difference in the yarn thicknesses would probably have  made the entire piece a shapeless blob).  Ms. Hyde is clearly not a knitter, and I think just threw this in because knitting is so popular these days and there are several knitting-centered mystery series. I could go on and on ("without a husband to support her through it all..." "even Emily's role as adoptive grandmother would have to be shared...") but I'll stop. Immature, whiny, self-righteous, judgmental. Nope, not reading another on in this series. And not recommended.

Death by the Sea by Kathleen Bridge Liz has fled her glamorous, successful life in New York City after a scandal that landed her on the front pages and returned to the hotel where she grew up to lick her wounds and restart her writing career. The hotel is inhabited by quirky long-term residents that we're supposed to find endearing (I didn't). The death of a wealthy and obnoxious visitor exposes secrets hidden by the other residents while allowing Liz to think about something other than herself and her past. Honestly, her whining about her past was starting to get on my nerves so I was glad when the author had her stop doing that as frequently as she did in the first part of the book. Ryan is another juvenile romantic lead (similar in that sense to Luke and Emily in the Hyde novel reviewed above)--she hates him and they bicker and then, without much reason and instantly over one page, she finds him very attractive and starts having romantic feelings for him and suddenly he's a hero, not a pest. Sheesh. Mystery authors, most of you are terrible at writing a realistic romance, so just don't. And the last ditch effort by the author to tie things together in the last chapter was very unsatisfying. Oh, and Liz, the main screen on your cell phone, that you were carrying, could function as a flashlight of sorts, and yes, librarians are usually at the front end of tech adoption because they have to be to help their patrons and because most of them are not blue-haired old ladies living in some book-lined tower. And Ms. Bridge, ever hear of doctor-patient confidentiality? Oh, and one more thing--the constant references to real pop culture, like 1970s television shows that Aunt Amelia supposedly worked on--I believe copyright violations could be going on here, so you might want to look into that or at the least, tone it down because it got annoying after a while.

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage (read by George K. Wilson) Fun, interesting, and wide-ranging look at the foods humanity has depended on, and how they (and their availability, their trade, etc.) have affected the course of human civilization and adaptation. The anthropologist in me loved the book. My only gripe is that I wasn't 100% enamored with the narrator. Nonetheless, highly recommended.