Knit of the Living Dead by Peggy Ehrhart I thought I'd spend the month reading things taking place in cool climes or other seasons. The Pamela Paterson series takes place in northern New Jersey, my old home. I'd read the first and enjoyed it enough that I thought I'd read the latest offering. Pamela is probably in her 40s, a widow with a daughter in college, and lives alone with her two cats, is a copy editor, and organizer of her local knit night. Sounds like me, so I'm exactly the reader the author and publisher want. She has a couple of very good friends who are also older, and they form the core of Knit and Nibble, the premise around the series. Knit of the Living Dead opens on Halloween, when fictional Arborville's civic Halloween party is ruined by murder. Unfortunately for this reader/knitter/middle-aged woman, the author's tendency to either cut and paste, or limited descriptive skills, began to irritate me so much that I started tracking how many times the same phrase was used. Tell me once that Pamela had decided after her wedding to use the china they were given. I love the idea of living beautifully on a budget and using your stuff. Once tells me all I need to know about Pamela--that she loves pretty things but has a practical streak and a romantic side. Do NOT tell me every single time Pamela has a cup of coffee that she uses her "wedding-china cup." And food is put on her "wedding-china plate." Would you like to know how many times that phrase was used in a book 271 pages long? Seventeen. Yes, 17. That means, on average, every 16 pages we read that description. We also read, in detail, multiple time, the exact same way she makes coffee with her carafe. Look, I love detail, and descriptive evocations of scenes are a delight to me, because I like to visualize what I'm reading as I'm reading. But badgering me with the same descriptions over and over just makes me start to dislike the book and character, when what I really dislike is the author's limited vocabulary. This book would have benefited greatly from a tight edit to weed that issue out, and tighten other aspects (she's an editor at a fiber magazine, but I don't need a treatise on every topic she's reading about. In fact, the author spends way too much time on certain unnecessary things--an entire long paragraph on what a ham and Swiss on rye sandwich looks like?) Also, does the author actually knit, or is she writing a description of knitting she's found elsewhere? Llama and alpaca wool was thriving in the real world knitting community prior to the pandemic, and Germaine could have easily found a shearer in NJ, especially if there were as many llama farms in the area as Jordan said there were. My friend with llamas has no trouble finding a shearer to come to her place once a year. And please, enough with the old-fashioned and not at all realistic stereotype of female professors as frumpy, allowing their hair to go gray and wearing shapeless clothes. Has Ms. Ehrhart been on a college campus lately? This former professor can attest that tattooed and pierced profs are as common as tattooed and pierced undergrads (and we're capable of and expected to clean our own coffee mugs in the faculty lounge). Oh, and at least in Essex and Passaic counties in NJ, where I and my family lived/still live and pretty much exactly where this story takes place, fallen leaves have to be bagged, not just piled at the curb, for municipal collection (a pile would just blow around, Ms. Ehrhart, and Pamela and her neighbors would be out there 24/7 doing nothing but raking leaves so as to avoid getting a ticket and fine from the city). Readers of this blog know how much I detest this attitude in my amateur detectives "But we could look into it too. Sometimes the police put people off, or they don't ask the right questions" (Nell). Yes, probably true, especially at the forefront in readers' minds in 2020, but I hate this supercilious attitude. Who asks if you eat doughnuts with a fork or fingers, and all landscapers speak Spanish (ugh), and the abstracts for each article Pamela reads for Fiber Craft are sometimes interesting but I feel sometimes they just take up valuable space (we get it, Pamela is an expert in everything)--my list could go on of things that need to be tempered or eliminated. The author wastes too much time on these details and not enough on making the mystery better--I knew who had done it as soon as the murderer's character was introduced. The other suspects were just not as suspectful or legitimate enough, and what happened with the anonymous letter? I really want to like Pamela and the series, but I would hate to visit her knit night, and her lifestyle is just too formal and stiff. Why did I spend so much time nitpicking? Because the editor should have done this. (NetGalley)
A Study In Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas I was torn by this book. I loved the premise--that Sherlock Holmes was based on a very clever woman who could not operate as a consulting detective in Victorian England because of the social mores of the time. I didn't care for the execution: I found Charlotte Holmes a bit insipid and her contrivance to escape her family's home wrong for someone who's supposed to be so clever. I was quite confused with the beginning half of the book, because it's not made clear until halfway through how Ashburton and Charlotte know each other. The revelation that they were friends as children, as such close friends, flies in the face of the overprotectiveness of her parents, which is hammered home again and again. I cannot see them allowing her the freedom and ability to form such a close friendship with a boy, even one fro a noble family. I did love Mrs. Watson as the widow of John Watson (even more that she was older than him and an actress) who finances Charlotte's career as Sherlock. In fact, I really liked Mrs. Watson and wished she'd been the main character. Warning: child sexual abuse figures in the story. Conan Doyle's Sherlock can be viewed as someone perhaps on the spectrum; Charlotte Holmes appears to have Asperger's syndrome and is unable to relate to even her own sister. And that makes her close friendship and romance with Ashburton the more illogical and disappointing and for this reader, annoying. She cannot express love for her sister and confidante, but she can experience such passion for Ashburton? I was amused by the physical difference to Sherlock--Charlotte is blonde and girly and ultra feminine and fond of flounces; I like that dichotomy between the two fictional characters. The author set up this character and let the reader think Charlotte's going to be independent and clever and make her own way; but in reality, she's financed by someone else (and id have been disappointed but since I like Mrs. Watson I'd have found this less troublesome), and only where she is because a man pulled strings to help her in just about every possible way. I wanted Charlotte to be smart enough to do this on her own, and she wasn't. Ugh. There are several books in the series that seem to build an each previous title; I will not be pursuing this series.
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye I admit it--I was in graduate school and I still watched Bill Nye the Science Guy on PBS. What a great show, and what a wonderful explanation of science to children, bounded by respect for their curiosity and intelligence. I knew Mr. Nye had taken on creationism, even debating their main proponent, and this book sprang directly from that experience. An absolutely delightful book, and I recommend you read it as I did, by listening to the audiobook, so you can hear Bill Nye make his own jokes and speak with all the passion he feels for science and all things scientific.
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein What a fun young adult book! Mr. Lemoncello creates the most popular video games, and Kyle loves all of them. Mr. Lemoncello expands and re-opens the town library, and organizes a real-life game for the kids to play while locked in the library over the weekend, without any adults. I wished I could be part of Kyle's team because that library sounds amazing (as does the AI technology in the library). Kyle and his friends successfully solve the mystery using clues found in books in the library stacks (hooray for the Dewey Decimal System, which is a star in the book), and it was great fun to see so many familiar and many new book titles peppered throughout the story.
Murder With Puffins by Donna Andrews I continued to read the Meg Langslow series in order, and this is the second in the long-running series. Meg and Michael are now a romantic couple, but the action takes place immediately after Murder With Peacocks. They decide to get away from the crazy summer they've just been through and spend some quiet, romantic time together in Meg's aunt's house in Maine. Unfortunately, so does her family, and unfortunately, someone gets murdered, and the main suspects are Meg's dad and aunt. The story takes places over just a few days, with a major hurricane threatening mayhem and destroying clues and serious birders running roughshod over the island and getting in the way. I remembered reading this one years ago, but luckily, not many of the details, so it was just as enjoyable. A little dated, since again, this takes place in pre-cell phone days, but this spin on a country house murder mystery is a fast, fun, well-written story with engaging characters. I'd be happy to be stuck on a small island with no electricity with the Langslow extended family circle.
Deader Homes and Gardens by Joan Hess I love Joan Hess' Maggody series, which is funny and full of quirky characters and odd incidents. I've never liked the Claire Malloy series as much, even though I wanted to. Claire is a single mom when the series starts, trying to make a go of an independent bookstore and rebuild her life with a typically sullen teenaged daughter. I hadn't read a title in the series in years, but it was never critical to have done so before, so when I saw this one (published in 2014), I thought "Let's see where Claire is these days." I wonder if Ms. Hess has grown tired of the character, because the book is sloppy in details and Claire is annoying and oblivious and I wound up hating her. Yes, hating her. And because of that I kept copious notes of everything that irritated me, and yes, I'm going to include them all here. Examples of sloppy details first: the tax assessor's assistant--how does she look the property up with incomplete information? Lots are listed by Township, Range, and Section, and the book mentions only Section and Township, and lists them incorrectly by the way (why yes, I did have to use TRS locational data in my former job almost every day). Why did I hate Claire: her obsession with the house is so far over the top that it leaves realistic behind almost immediately and makes Claire act in callow, illegal, inconsistent ways. And I call it an obsession because that's what it is. She lies to get it (she tells Terry Kennedy that her daughter is sick and needs to recuperate in the country and insists that is why Terry has to sell his house to her, spinning this lie after he's told her he's not interested in selling it). "Fine line between optimism and pessimism?" No, fine line between obsession and downright crazy. And since when is 48 hours too soon to report someone missing? Not in real life, only on TV. The snark she voices to Pandora when they first meet is completely uncalled for (think it, Claire, don't say it out loud), especially after the encounter is described by Ms. Hess as Claire politely declining to dance and politely asking if she can drive on by. Why I hated Claire Reason no. 2: Terry Kennedy agrees to travel from Florida to talk to Claire about the house, gets poisoned in front of her, and she is told by the police that they are not sure if he will survive and the very next day she tells her husband that all she cares about is moving into that house, and should they get a rental unity to store their stuff (without a lease, without a sale, and with the owner dying in the hospital). Not one word of concern for Terry. Real sympathetic, Claire. Then what does she do? Calls Terry's lawyer and says that "he told you he was going to lease the house to us" and tries to strongarm the lawyer into letting her have the house. Again, it's all about Claire, dying Terry be forgotten. When Billy, Terry's friend, finds out Terry's in the hospital and wants to visit him, Clair says "He's in a coma. There is no reason to breach hospital protocol" to visit him. But Claire can go enter Terry and Winston's house to look around, look for clues, and that's not a breach of any ethics or protocols at all. But woe betide her daughter, Caron, when the daughter breaks into the dead woman's house! That's illegal and you could wind up in jail! "The police have archaic rules about civilians interfering" she tells a 14-year-old. Nice way to adult, Claire. And there's more examples of do as Claire says, not as Claire does, because Claire advises Mattie to let the police handle things, the exact opposite of how Claire feels about her own 'investigations.' And what the heck is Claire doing when she threatens Charles that he had better talk to her by saying her husband Peter, the deputy sheriff, would listen to her and if they had to go to the police station then rumors would like like he had brought in for chid porn? Extortion, Claire? Claire just comes and goes from her dream house as if she already owns it, snoops through desks and furniture, all to solve the murder before her husband returns from a business trip. She doesn't own the house, she doesn't rent the house, the oner is dead, the owner's husband who inherited the house is now dead, there is a legal dispute over ownership of said house now, but she just trespasses and enters (breaking and entering, because she doesn't have a key). What made me laugh out loud was when Claire says that she's out of her comfort zone going to Angela's house to break in, yet she happily and without any concern enters Winston's (now Terry's) house many times, snoops through his stuff, etc. Difference? Claire wants Winston's house and Claire will happily do whatever she wants to get what she wants. Four times Claire is deep into investigating and in a potentially sticky situation and discovers that her cell phone battery is near empty (four times!). Claire must be incredibly incompetent after the first life-threatening, dead-cell-battery incident if she can't even plug the dang phone in the wall while she takes a shower. This takes place in 2014, not 1990 when cell phones were a lot less common. And then she blames technology for her cell phone battery not being charged when the reason it's not charged is because of Claire's stupidity not charging it. And finally, her relationship with Jorgenson, the policeman, is ridiculous--she does not respect him and yet he lets her get with anything she wants. He tells her to leave what is happening alone; she won't; he tells her to go to the tavern to meet him, she decides not to. And yet, he lets her sit in on Jorgenson's interrogation of Donny. What? A civilian just sitting in while the police question a suspect, and when Donny rightly questions this, Jorgenson says "well, it's hard to explain" is ridiculous. It's unprofessional on Jorgenson's part, and if Donny were the killer, would be the technicality that would get him off free and clear. Ynez, her daughter's best friend, whom she's known for years, has two wisdom teeth removed and "Claire felt obliged" to offer her a little sympathy. Obliged? Claire has to pretend to feel sympathy that this young woman, whom she has known for years, fed, driven places, had sleep over in her own home, is in pain? Another near rage-inducing moment: when Claire thinks "Trespassing was no more than a minor breach of etiquette." It's actually illegal where I live, but why quibble? The inconsistencies in Claire's behavior, her selfish disregard for anything other than getting that dream house because she wants it, her inability to be the role model for her daughter she should be (and claims to be), her inability to recognize that her actions could affect her husband's professional standing, her lack of compassion when Terry is poisoned, and the ease with which she gets over the one pang of guilt she feels when she realizes he would not have died if he had not come to town to talk to her--all this made me actively hate Claire. I think Ms. Hess may, too. You know, it's okay to just stop writing a series when your contract is over. Claire has married the wealthy, gorgeous man of her dreams--end the series and let her ride off into the sunset. Instead, I've come to actively and vehemently dislike a character I initially felt ambivalent towards.
Death in the Sound by Rhen Garland Every year or so, I try to read a paranormal or fantasy book, which are not my usual genres, to shake things up and get me out of my comfort zone. Death in the Sound sounded like it might be of interest to me, combining an historical period with an exotic locale, New Zealand. However, I wound up putting the book down about a quarter of the way through. I found the beginning to be very confusing--not the paranormal portion of the first chapter, but the subsequent introduction of character after character after character and their multiple points of view. Some of the dialogue left me confused, as if I'd walked into a conversation halfway through, and no one whispered a summary of what was going on to me. I also found it very hard to understand what the Versepellis is/are, their duality (over time and space?), and how they came to be here and now in the world of the book. I've decided that I can give up this self-imposed insistence on stretching my literary leanings every so often by picking up something so completely different. Reading to me is a pleasure, and 60 plus pages of confusion and feeling lost is not a pleasant experience. I defer any review of this book to others who enjoy paranormal and fantasy genres.
