Gina Parrish

Having read all of Dorothy Sayers's detective fiction, as well as the previous two posthumous sequels by Jill Paton Walsh, I entered into this expecting mild, easy entertainment. If nothing else, I keep reading these because I like the story and the characters already, though I wasn't overly impressed by either of the first two sequels. I'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I think it is the best one so far written by Jill Paton Walsh. The mystery was cohesive and the personal lives of the characters were mixed in well. I do wonder what Dorothy Sayers would say about some of her choices, but I like the license she took.

Another excellent addition to the Amelia Peabody series. I appreciated how this one had a very cleanly written plot, though it lacked some of the adventure and romance of the others. Perhaps the characters could have evolved a little more, too, though I am a fan of them acting like their usual selves. Overall, I enjoyed it and would rank it with the better ones of the series.

I have been reading all of Christie's mysteries chronologically, so at this point I am over 40 books in. It's a lot of the same and I question my decision to do this sometimes but I am too far in to go back now. I feel like an addict. But books like this one keep me going to the next.

I'm going to be honest–the other “nursery rhyme” mysteries I've read of hers haven't been her best. This one surprised me. It's the best Marple I've read so far. I think I have narrowed it down to the structure in which it is told. The outline of it feels almost flawless. But not only does she get the plot right, we also get a chance to empathize with the characters, particularly Miss Marple. Sometimes Christie can do more telling than showing (if you remember learning about that in writing class) but not with this one. The ending leaves you feeling particularly triumphant alongside Miss Marple.

Add this one to your list!

Cruising through all of Christie's mysteries chronologically, this one came as a pleasant surprise. Poirot is pulled into yet another case that just doesn't seem right and ends up staying in a small town full of “very nice people” who, in reality, aren't all that nice. This one is really more enjoyable for people who are already fans of Poirot and fans of Agatha Christie. The jokes are pointed and self-referential, making fun both of the detective and of the author. The mystery itself feels enjoyable because of the characters, and there are a lot of characters. But don't worry, all you have to remember is their age and hair color

The second book in this series was better than the first. It focused more on the mystery than on Maisie's backstory. I think this one, like the last one, was very cleanly written, which I appreciate. The biggest downfall for me is that Maisie's character does not seem flawed enough. She is like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. She even criticizes herself when experiencing perfectly normal feelings of anger and frustration, which makes you as a reader feel bad for feeling those things too. Overall, these books are like the very opposite of hard boiled mysteries, focused heavily on morality and a just world.

This was the last novel in my quest to read all of Christie's mysteries—novels and short stories—in chronological order. (Of course, I realized after that Sleeping Murder, which I read first, was published after this one. And that they both were written in the 1940's and put in a vault. So I guess I went by publication date.) It felt like the perfect bookend to my Agatha Christie journey.

CURTAIN takes place at Styles, an old country house now turned lodge which happens to be where her first novel takes place. It feels fitting in many ways. There is definitely a certain nostalgia running through after reading fifty-something Poirot books, this being his last. And of course, Hasting is narrating again, making it as fun and frustrating as ever (he really is short-shortsighted). One plus is that, despite knowing Christie's tricks like the back of my hand by now, she still managed to surprise me over and over again.

For those questioning if this is the book they want to read next, my suggestion would be to be more familiar with her other work first. Read The Mysterious Affair at Styles and her other major works first, if not the rest of the Poirot canon. Then you will definitely appreciate it more. I admired her tenacity with this one.

As far as mysteries go, this one was a bit hard to follow. The clues aren't laid out for you, as with most hard boiled mysteries I suppose, but it got repetitive. Here's how it goes: he has some cynical banter with his wife, drinks, comforts Dorothy, talks to the police, goes somewhere else, starts over again. I give it credit because the resolution was interesting and satisfying, though I don't feel I was given the tools to guess it on my own.

Update: This book was the basis of a very popular series of movies from the 1930s, more worth watching than reading the book.

It was maybe too indulgent in the violence and sex, and maybe too reliant on the conventions of the hard-boiled genre. On the other hand, what did I expect? It was nice to try a graphic novel as I am a relative novice.

I can see people liking this as the first of a series rather than a stand-alone, and I can see why they would rate it higher because of that, but OOF. There is just no way I can rate this higher than a three. Overall, I'm not sure I'm committed enough to go on with the series.

The Pros:

—The setting is well-described and you feel like you're in NYC in the 1920's

—The research has clearly been done well and thoroughly, as well as the copywriting. It's cleanly written and you learn something along the way.

—There's an interesting and diverse cast of characters... too many of them, but still.

The Cons:

—It's too long at 600 pages... by like 300 pages. Generally I could forgive that if the pages are spent building an intricate plot and in-depth characters, but NOPE! Literally after the climax of the book and the resolution of the plot, there's still 1/8 of the book to read...

—Most of the book is a set up for the next book (“The storm is coming!”). There are chapters upon chapters dedicated to characters who have no bearing on this book's plot, like Memphis and Theta and Henry and Mabel and Sam...shall I go on? They all pass each other like ships in the night and you think, at last, they must meet each other, have some connection, and it will all make sense to the plot, but NOPE! Any connections are superficial at best and drag the book out, no matter how much you like the characters.

—That said, with so many characters and unrelated subplots, the characters end up being kind of shallow and superficial. And the resolution of the plot feels somehow unimportant. How could finding a crazy supernatural serial killer feel unimportant? Because it's clear that the author would rather be focusing on other things, like whatever is about to happen in the next book.

—Lastly, how on earth is this book marketed to young adults? It's scary. And there are SO MANY adult themes it's actually kind of ridiculous. Here are a few of them: frightening imagery, violence, rape, domestic abuse, abortion, assisted suicide, child abuse, bodily mutilation, animal abuse, underage (or at least illegal) drinking, smoking, police corruption, complex ideology (eugenics, communism, religion, cults, secret societies, the occult)... If it were a faithful film depiction, it would be rated R, not PG 13.

While I think the third one is my favorite, this is a close second. It is a fitting end to a long journey.

I've read reviews that complain about the series's similarity to Lord of the Rings. I think the comparisons are most obvious in this book, and they are (sometimes annoyingly) apparent.

However, LOTR is one of the founding series of the genre and commonly draws on myth and fairytale. Therefore it has a lot in common with all fantasy. That said, there are some large differences (besides the dragons) between them. The one I appreciate most is how Paolini demonstrates a variety of perspectives throughout the series. Imagine how different LOTR would be if the Orcs, like the Urgals, had lives that mattered as much as humans' lives. There is not such an obvious difference between good and evil.

I have many comments about the end, but overall I get it and appreciate Paolini's choices as an author. I was sad for it to be over. On to the next great book...

PD James is a good mystery writer. She's not the best mystery writer, nor my favorite mystery writer, but there's no denying that she has both skill and talent.

This installment in the Adam Dalgliesh series takes place once again at a hospital (though this time a different kind of hospital) and involves a tad too much hospital administration for my taste. But the writing is strong and the mystery is well-plotted. There's plenty of misdirection to keep you on your toes and the action ramps up in the second half to keep the pages turning. Ultimately that's what I look for in a good mystery, so this one got a solid four stars from me.

The reason PD James is not up there with my favorite mystery writers is she tends to write in a more serious, misanthropic voice. I recently read a quote of hers that insisted that mystery writers should be taken as seriously as other writers and it struck me that she writes as if she's afraid someone might accuse her of writing cheap genre fiction. With some of the “cozies” I've seen out there I get where she is coming from, but some of the best mystery writers, like Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, write as if they don't care one way or the other who takes them seriously and I prefer that. I like to see some characters have an optimistic viewpoint on life and some characters that genuinely care for other people. It doesn't all have to be light, but it can't all be bitter either. That's why I prefer classic detective mysteries to the hard-boiled variety.

Anyway, I intend to keep going with the series until the end.

This one was hard for me to rate because James is such a talented writer and has a knack for plotting her mysteries well.

But when it came down to it, I found the first half of the book rather dry. Hospital administration is not one of my interests, and that's largely what the first half of this book consisted of, that and lots of characters and alibis that were difficult to keep track of.

The second half picked up and held my interest more. The suspects were put into scenes where they were much easier to keep track of and we got to know more of the interesting bits about the characters. The ending hit all the right notes for me and James should be applauded for her plotting.

That said, she has a rather cruel way of treating her characters that I find grating. For example, she described one woman as having a “stupid face” (seems harsh and childish) and others are constantly described as common, unintelligent, petty, etc. which makes the entire read feel cynical. No one has a good opinion of anyone else, and occasionally it feels slightly misogynistic.

Apparently she has a high view of doctors, though, as well as hospitals (not one I share, unfortunately) and she adheres to patient confidentiality, even with her fictional characters. I found that, in particular, extremely strange.

I enjoy this series but this one wasn't my favorite. It had a similar feel to the others but we didn't get to see the four main murder club characters interact as much. The subplots were fairly sad and the rest revolved around the drug world, which I think I'm getting a little tired of. I wish the author would have run with a plot about romance scams or other scams against the elderly, since often they are not individuals but large groups of people who operate them and it would've been appropriate for that group.

It's hard to rate any of these books as “bad” because they are all well-written and well-researched but this one had me frustrated in and out for most of the book.

First, it felt unnecessarily long, with some descriptions that seemed to go on and on considering they had little relevance to the plot. It's extremely difficult to explain the nature and purpose of art, but Winspear certainly tries over and over again. What a person can ascertain in an instant in witnessing a piece of art, she spends paragraphs upon paragraphs trying to explain.

Next, Maisie comes off as a self-righteous know-it-all about absolutely everything, more so than the last couple of books. Her thoughts and actions combine to depict her as a cold-hearted hypocrite, sitting in judgement of other people while claiming to be loving, honest, and objective.

It was especially frustrating with how she handles the situation with Andrew Dene, putting her work and her priorities over his. And in how she deals with art as a subject, on one hand saying that art reflects truth and meaning and changes people, and on the other calling it useless. Oh, and in how she handles Billy's family crisis. She tells him to take as much time as he needs, then thinks to herself that she hopes he will be into work the next day. Because one day is probably as much time as he needs, right?

I want to rate it at two stars, but the writing and plotting and researching really save this series. It's a tough call. Like others, I will probably come back to the series later on, as I have heard it gets better.

Best of the series so far with regard to plotting and character development. Still, I am going to take a break because, while I enjoy these books, they are very serious and morally righteous. In some ways, that is a refreshing change for detective stories, but I get tired of Maisie always, without question, taking the high road. I want to see her struggle to choose what's right sometimes. Also, I agree with others that her method of “psychology” (which relies mostly on new-age theories about intuition and feelings ((female stereotypes)), rather than science) irks me.

I wanted to like Get Shorty more than I did, but honestly it wasn't clever enough. The whole book is a comparison between the criminal world and Hollywood, with the conclusion that they are basically the same—full of lying, cheating, full of it and themselves, crooks.

That premise was okay with me, but the author went about it by making it self-reflexive (you know, meta). That would have been okay with me too if it wasn't so repetitive. It felt like most of it was different characters explaining the plot of the book I was reading to me over and over again.

And those characters? Meh. I liked Chili. He wasn't as stereotypical as he could have been. But all of the characters were more or less bland. I didn't care much about them or what happened to them. And none of them really stood out.

The writing style was good. I liked Elmore Leonard's sense of voice and the occasional humor injected in.

Overall, it was okay but didn't live up to the hype. Maybe I'll like the movie better. (Edit: I did like the movie better. It happens more than you'd think.)

I enjoy Jane Austen because her books are lighthearted yet compelling. Emma falls into that category but didn't soar as high as Pride and Prejudice as far as plot and characters go. It's a long read considering not all that much happens and Emma is not the most likeable character.

On my quest to read through all of Christie's mysteries chronologically, this one was a bit disappointing. If you want to give Agatha Christie a try but haven't read many of her books, go ahead and skip over this one.

For those interested in WHY, here are a few points:

1. I liked that, as a Miss Marple mystery, Miss Marple was present from the beginning. However, she lacks her usual acumen for deduction in this one. You can't follow her logical train of thought and wonder if there is one.

2. The reason for this, and why Christie gives very few clues, is that the solution is very easy to figure out. The only thing missing is motive, which you don't find out until the end, probably because she was afraid of the readers guessing it. But with the title of the book and the map... I guessed it immediately.

3. The character development is really lacking in this one. Every one of them seems to be a stereotype to take at face value. Gina is an untamable, flirtatious Italian young woman. Carrie Louise is an ethereal old woman who cannot face the realities of this world (not sure what that even means). Wally is the American boy with American values. Etc. What's worse, instead of demonstrating to us these qualities in the characters, she outright tells them to us over and over again. Not to mention, you know little to nothing about the man who gets murdered or why.

4. Since the book takes place entirely within the grounds of a rehab facility for juvenile boys, you get a lot of remarks about...what to do about them. Christie doesn't take a hard stance but she does take a soft one. There is a lot of sentiment about how “we should be helping the good boys and not the bad ones” and “bad boys will always be bad” and “crazy people should be locked away.” Plus, there seems to be a lot of skepticism about psychology and psychiatry. This makes sense just a few years after WWII, when ideas about mental health were changing. But I am not sure how I felt about how it was expressed in this book.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I almost gave up after the first chapter, because it felt like the author was trying really hard to get the reader to engage, or like she was desperate to be edgy to get published, even though the chapter didn't align in style with the rest of the book. I kept reading, hoping it would get better. And it did. Then it got worse again.

Pros:

—Great setting. I definitely found it engaging and atmospheric.

—I found the archeological parts fascinating, and wish they tied into the mystery more.

—I was invested in solving the mystery. I cared about the girls and their families, as well as about the people trying to bring them justice.

—The ending action sequence worked well. I only wish it came sooner.

Cons:

—The characters were all emotionally immature... none of them had strong morals or the ability to make healthy choices, which I found disappointing.

—The main character, Ruth, was oblivious, naive, and unsuspecting, showing little to no growth throughout the entire book. One of her cats gets murdered and it doesn't occur to her to close her cat flap to keep in her other cat, or to lock her doors and windows to prevent break-ins (there are literally two break-ins after that). She doesn't keep her part in the investigation secret and instead tells her friends and colleagues (the only people who could have committed the murder) everything. The actual identity of the murderer doesn't occur to her until someone points at the person and screams. I mean, come on. We, as readers, are 50 steps ahead of her, and all she cares about are the good old days and who is sleeping with who.

—The mystery does not deliver clues throughout, so basically there are only a few suspects (none of whom ever occur to Ruth) and my guess was correct all along. I couldn't stand the lack of critical thinking on Ruth's part... wasn't she supposed to be an intelligent, independent professor?

Overall, I am thinking I won't read the second one any time soon. But I didn't hate it.

This installment of the Amelia Peabody mystery series is enjoyable as usual. Lots of returning characters, action, suspense, and romance. The romance revolves around Ramses and Nefret now almost exclusively, as a young newlywed couple, which makes me miss getting more of Amelia and Emerson, even in their middle age.

One thing did rub me the wrong way... this book had a lot of “advice” for Ramses, trying to make him be more assertive. It particularly bothered me with Nefret, since there is a scene where she basically says that women like to be dominated and overpowered, even without their consent. It's weird because Ramses clearly isn't comfortable with it. It's not a feminist message to put across, and it comes through several times throughout the series. Consent is essential to a healthy relationship, no matter how rough you like things in the bedroom.

This is the third in the series and just as enjoyable as the first two. This time the mystery was less easy to guess, though I thought it was a little unnecessarily complicated. Ramses was an entertaining addition to the story.

The sixth installment of the Amelia Peabody series takes a slightly different turn. Instead of a murder mystery, this is an adventure story of escape and rescue from a hidden civilization. While it has all the fun characterization, romance, and action of the others, I thought this one had too much going on: too many threads to follow at any given point, too many people with their own interests to keep track of, and too many climaxes of the story. Because of all this, it did not feel as satisfying in the end as it should have. It was still a decent read, just not as cleanly written as the last one.

I really have been enjoying this series. When I started it, I told myself I would stop if the books started to feel gimmicky or like it was dragging on. But I am surprised to say I have liked the series more and more as I have gone on.

I was happy to have skipped ahead a few years between this one and the previous one, allowing the “children” to become much more interesting and self-reliant as characters.

The ending was darker in this one and the final page made me both nervous and excited for what is to come... hopefully she doesn't change her formula too much for the rest of the series, as some other reviewers have hinted at.

Fun, adventurous, well-written. I enjoyed reading this novel. I am still having trouble connecting it to the Vicky Bliss series but I enjoyed it all the same.

Not my favorite in the series. For most of it I thought I had it figured out but apparently I was wrong... I like how I ended it in my head better. The “Justin” character came out of nowhere, despite how many other places Peters could have gone with it. I think there were too many things happening in this one, too many “incidents”. And the characters all seemed cranky, mostly about the kids. I had little sympathy considering they have so many nannies to take care of them day and night in addition to the family. I kept thinking I wished Sennia could play a bigger part and have more affection from the family... they took her in like they took in Nefret but they really don't treat her like a daughter, in my opinion. Still, I am looking forward to the next one.