Still trying to reach back to series I haven't read in a while while reading new titles in preparation for the book festival season.
Bran New Death by Victoria Hamilton While I had read other books in the series, I'd never read the first, so I was glad to finally read Merry wWinters backstory: the death of her husband Manuel, a little bit about her parents and the uncle she inherited Winter Castle from. I can't remember if she's like this in later books, but in this first one, Merry is kind of a little full of herself. When she finds out the parentage of a tertiary character she thinks "but none of that news was the kind of thing I could pass on at the moment, so I kept my mouth shut." Yes, keep your moth shut, Merry--you're a newcomer to the town and are having a hard time making friends. Spreading gossip would be a surefire way to make sure none of the like or trust you. And no, you should ever pass on that kind of information as it's none of your business. And unfortunately this book has some of what I hate most in a mystery: lazy writing. In order for the amateur detectives to find out critical information, the author has Merry and Bunny sneak into the construction office and just turn on a computer and, voila, private files right there to be read. Really, the computer is not password protected? Frankly, Merry's comment "and Dotty is dotty" is just so rude about an old woman who may be senile or have Alzheimers that I started to dislike Merry very much at that point. The book includes obvious editing mistakes, such as in Ch. 3 when Merry agrees to make 2 dozen muffins for old folks' home and in ch 6 is making 4 dozen to be delivered at the old folks' home. I want to like the series as it's set in upstate NY (a place I like), and has a great baseline of how Merry overcomes losing her career and starting over, remaking her inherited castle into a successful business, but I'm not sure I want to re-visit Winter Castle. I'd give this one a C.
Not Quite Dead Enough by Rex Stout Published in 1944, Not Quite Dead Enough is composed of two novellas, Not Quite Dead Enough and Booby Trap. Not Quite Dead Enough is unusual in that Archie, through whom we follow the Nero Wolfe stories, is in the Army and has not been working with Nero for a long time. He is enlisted by the Army to convince Nero to help the Army in a war effort. Archie is surprised to find, upon his return to the brownstone, that Nero and Theodore have been working out for a mysterious purpose Nero will not divulge. Immediately Archie is framed for the murder of a young woman in order to lure Nero back to work. Booby Trap is also set during WWII. An experimental grenade kills a colonel in his office, and Archie, who had left the grenade with the colonel, and Nero have to work through Army bureaucracy and stonewalling to find who killed the colonel in a story that blends a whodunnit with wartime intrigue.
In the Spirit of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge This is Book 4 in the American In Paris series, which follows the adventures of Tabitha Knight and her good friend Julia Child as post-war Paris. In this outing, we learn more about Tabitha's uncles' experiences in the war. Paris and its denizens are, several years after the defeat of the Germans, trying to move on and rebuild, but some secrets refuse to stay hidden. A well-written historical series.
Wendy Knits Lace by Wendy D. Johnson And a little more knitting content, following on last month's indulgent perusal of lovely pattern books. Wendy Knits Lace has a plethora of the lovely shawl patterns Wendy D. Johnson is known for, as well as socks and some designs appropriate for beginner lace knitters, such as a cowl, scarves, and some mittens and gloves.
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