Middle Sister's Mid-Month Review

Gentle Reader, you know how much I love the Seaside Knitters series by Sally Goldenbaum. You know how I would live to live in Sea Harbor and eat at Nell's on Friday night and attend the Thursday evening knitting dinners. I was so happy to hear there is a new title, A Twisted Skein, being published tomorrow, November 28, and I was delighted to be able to read an advanced reader's copy. Here are my thoughts.

One of the strengths of the series is that the view through which we approach the murder mystery changes with each book. Although all four protagonists help solve the mystery, who finds the body or knows the victim or is in the front lines varies. In this book, Birdie Favazza, the octogenarian member of the foursome, finds the body, and while all  four women uncover information that helps solve the mystery, she is at the center of this story. Birdie is my second favorite character, after Nell. It's so refreshing to have an 80-year-old woman play a central role, and she's such an active, energetic woman. Yes, she has aches and pains and has lost her husbands, but her optimism carries her through. She's a great role model.

The story is set in deep fall on Cape Ann, with blustery winds, early sunsets, steaming pots of chili, thick sweaters. Izzy is concentrating on a fashion show that is going to be held at her shop, and worrying about the timeline, the logistics, and if she should have trusted her former sales girls, twin sisters Jillian and Rose, and Lucky, the bar owner, to make the runway stage. But her worries about the show disappear when Birdie finds a fellow member of her birding group dead. Everyone liked Josh. Who could have killed him?

A tangential storyline follows Jillian and Rose, twin sisters we met many years ago when they worked in Izzy's shop with their aunt, Mae. They are now grown up, but the formerly close sisters are feuding as Rose tries to interfere with Jillian's romantic life. 

And I was delighted that a character who owns a tea room is introduced. Sea Harbor is now perfect: the Brandleys' bookstore, Izzy's yarn store, and now a tea room. And they have a birding group. As the world's worst but most enthusiastic birder, I thought as I read the cast of characters, "Well now, Ms. Goldenbaum has checked every box to make it the perfect holiday book for me." Truly Sea Harbor is now where I want to live. Retirement is 8 years away, and I've already started looking for a real Sea Harbor to move to. Suggestions welcome. No murders, please.

The atmosphere of the story is up to par with the rest of the series. The close relationships between Izzy, Nell, Birdie, and Cass is well developed, although Cass is not a major part of the mystery this time. But I was disappointed by two things, and spoiler alert here, Gentle Reader. Skip the next section if you don't want any reveals of anything at all.

We never are told how Josh is killed; he's found lying next to a stone wall but no mention is made of a head injury. The comment is made that he looks like he's sleeping. To me, that suggests that there is not a lot of blood, as you might expect if he had slipped and hit his head or been bashed in the head with a rock. Nor, when he murderer is revealed, are we told how they knew to find Josh at the campsite. 

 I kept searching on my Kindle for words like coroner and post-mortem, to see if I wasn't remembering a passage because I was so eager to visit Sea Harbor for a few nights. Just a few short paragraphs, even a couple of sentences, would clear these inconsistencies up.

I truly love Sea Harbor and the series. In fact, I'm re-reading them all in order right now, except for this new one. I still recommend the series and recommend this title, but because of this confusion, for me it's a weaker entry than most. 

Middle Sister's October Reads

October was a busy month, but I was able to spend vacation time visiting my favorite fictional town, Sea Harbor, and get more plane reading done while traveling to a conference. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Re-Creation by  C.L. Cook I don't like scary stories, but having grown up in the northeast, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a local classic. This cute re-telling makes all the characters cats, and has adorable illustrations. Short enough to read aloud to little ones before Halloween.

The Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen I had a bit of driving to do mid-month, so thanks to my local public library, I was able to listen to another audiobook of a classic mystery. The book begins after the death of Georg Khalkis, a Greek art dealer whose will appears to have disappeared after the funeral. After a fruitless search, the police, Inspector Queen, and Ellery decide that someone must have hidden it in the one place no one would search--the coffin. But they are not ready for what they find in the exhumation. Great read (or listen), with international intrigue, missing persons, a beautiful secretary who might be more than she seems, greedy relatives, and a late autumn setting in a New York full of gray skies and leaf-swirling windy days. I love reading classic mysteries, and this one, first published in 1932, is great.

Death Comes to Santa Fe by Amanda Allen (Santa Fe Revival Book 3) I love Santa Fe, and seeing a new-to-me series set in old Santa Fe of the early 1920s was a must-read. The author has clearly done a lot of research to make sure the basic underpinnings of the series are correct with re: who was mayor at the time, the history of the city, what it would have looked like then, etc. But I found the main character, Madeline Vaughn-Alwin, a little too much of something I can't articulate. The series really should be read in order, as there are allusions to recurring characters and what has happened to them in the previous books. It's not so bad that someone couldn't start in mid-stream, as I did, but perhaps I'd have liked the main character better if I'd seen her change or new her better. I still love the setting, but Madeline as a fledgling artist making her mark in a glitzy, roaring '20s Santa Fe just felt off to me somehow. The writing is solid, and as I said, the setting is one I love. (Net Galley)

Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum (Seaside Knitters 1) I've enjoyed the recent Sea Harbor books so much, I decided to go back and read the ones still in publication in order, even though I'd read several before. In Death by Cashmere, we are introduced to our four main characters: Nell, Izzy, Cass and Birdie. Izzy has just opened her yarn store in the small coastal town of Sea Harbor, and to help defray the costs of the mortgage on both the yarn store and her little cottage, she rents out the small apartment above the store that she used to live in. Angie Archer, her tenant, grew up in Sea Harbor, but was always a bit too ambitious for many in the town, which is why her her return too work in the Historical Society raised eyebrows. But Angie loves her work there, and has started dating Cass' brother Pete. Then she's found dead, and the heartbroken residents are further traumatized to learn she was murdered. Who on their sleepy little seaside town would want to kill one of their own? 

Patterns in the Sand by Sally Goldenbaum (Seaside Knitters 2) Patterns in the Sand takes place a year after Death by Cashmere, with the summer tourist season in full swing. Monthly evening art exhibits at the Canary Cove art galleries have become extremely popular, but there are undercurrents between the resident artists. These undercurrents swell to the surface when one of the artists is murdered, and secrets start bubbling to the surface. As always, Nell is my favorite of the four women around whom the series centers. Cass and Birdie, who'll emerge to center future stories, are present but not the strong characters they will become in future books. The book did need a little editing--I started tracking the changing colors of Birdies hair: first a smooth silver cap, then gray, than sticking white. As a middle aged woman whose hair is turning color, these are most definitely different colors!

Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry I enjoyed books 2 and 3 in this series, which I read from Net Galley this year, so much that I had to get book one to read how Tess and Gertrude wind up in Winthrop, WA. This story did not disappoint. We meet Tess and her daughter as they are moving into Tess' late grandfather's cabin fora month. Tess' divorce is just 6 months old, and with her ex-husband having decided to completely disappear from their daughter's life, she's hoping that some distance and new experiences might help Gertrude make her way through that terrible hurt. But her plans are upended when, while standing on the porch of the cabin near the lake, they suddenly are showered by human remains that were blown up by someone doing some fishing by dynamite. Add in big foot and mysterious sightings of exotic animals, and Ms. Berry has created her signature blend of farcical outlandishness with reasonable explanations wrapped up in real human drama. The one irritating part was Tess' mental wanderings into what her Detective Gonzales would say or do, and the the tracking of the book she was writing based on these experiences, but the author backs off of those in books 2 and 3. Hopefully, there will be a book 4.

Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! by Donna Andrews Faithful readers know that Meg Langslow is one of my favorite characters, and Donna Andrews one of my favorite authors. In this year's Christmas book, Meg gets drawn into a reality TV show when her mentor, Faulk, is injured on the set of a blacksmithing challenge that he's participating in. Despite her misgivings, Meg agrees to take Faulk's place. She discovers right away that things are not as they seem, that tension not he set is high, and that some contestants will do anything to advance their chances to win the challenge. There've been numerous reality-tv-inspired mysteries, and I've read several; this is one of the best. The challenge is locate in the mock castle Meg's friend Ragnor, ex-metalhead, has built in the Virginia countryside, and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of the castle in the book. Michael and the twins are present, as are Meg's parents, but unlike other books, we hardly see them or Rose or some of her other family members. And that makes the series string--the author knows we might get a little tired of the same supporting cast, and introducing new folks for Meg to interact with keeps her fresh and entertaining in our minds. That, and there are fewer than usual references to her engagement book that is usually brought up more times that I care for. I enjoyed the mystery, and while I had figure out the whodunnit buy about 3/4 of the way through, getting Meg there was well plotted and well written. As always, highly recommended. (Net Galley)