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Día de los Muertos–Day of the Dead
Ajijic, Jalisco, México–2014
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard–town of Pelican tries to attract tourists
Murder in the Bayou Boneyard
by Ellen Byron
Although I do not usually favor Halloween themed mysteries, I had a good time with Murder in the Bayou Boneyard. Obviously set in Louisiana, Ellen Byron’s series takes the reader to the Crozat Plantation where the family works together to maintain their property by running a B & B.
A lot is going on in the little town of Pelican as the B & B’s in the area try to attract tourists with Pelican’s Spooky Past packages including a special mystery play, themed edible treats, crafts, and spa specials. Hopefully this will counteract the efforts of Gavin Grody who is buying up affordable housing and using them as tourist rentals.
There are so many plot threads! While all this is going on in the town, the Crozat’s distant cousins from Canada arrive bringing chaos and murder with them. Oil companies are making offers on the plantation land whose ownership may be in question. Don’t take any of the characters at face value; some are not who they seem to be, from the scary gardener to the amiable stage manager to the overacting thespian. There are multiple murders and other dangers along the way, but I promise that all the threads connect with a surprise ending.
My only disappointment was the minimal inclusion of Gopher, the Crozat family’s rescue basset hound in the story despite being featured prominently on the book’s cover. Byron makes up for neglecting Gopher by introducing Louie, a quite talkative parrot with a pivotal and humorous role.
I would like to extend my thanks to Netgalley and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #6 in the Cajun Country Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone. The author dumps you into the story with a prologue that may seem confusing, but will be made clear in the conclusion of the novel. Then she proceeds to provide some background even as the story begins.
2. The characters in the book are listed with relations and connections if the reader needs a reference.
3. The book includes 5 recipes with a Cajun twist.
Publication: September 8, 2020—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
“Sandy’s got me on this health kick. There should be a state law against making jambalaya with quinoa, whatever the heck that is.”
“He can be smug, overbearing, opinionated, lazy, a total slob—“ “And you’re with him why?” Sandy teared up. “Because he’s smart and funny and loves me more than anybody I’ve ever known.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Bo said, flummoxed. “That’s a whole lotta word salad, chère. You need to calm down. Take deep breaths.”
The Thursday Murder Club–new life in cold cases
The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman
Richard Osman’s first novel, The Thursday Murder Club, is a stellar mystery. Definitely not a thriller, the solving of a cold case or two gets mixed in with several current murders as four residents of a retirement community band together to solve crimes that have stumped law enforcement in the past.
The main characters stand out as individuals—Ron, a former trade union leader; Joyce, a retired nurse; Ibrahim, a psychiatrist occasionally still consulted by former patients; and the quite competent Elizabeth who has contacts all over the world from her secretive profession. All play into the sleuthing with their personal strengths and break down stereotypes of senior citizens who have given up on life. Elizabeth is the leader as the one with the best skills at recognizing motives and relationships, understanding how a crime might have been committed, and devising plans to reveal criminals. Everyone recognizes that if Elizabeth wants something to happen, a meeting perhaps, she can indeed make it happen.
Even the law enforcement, PC Donna De Freitas and her boss DCI Chris Hudson, find themselves manipulated into cooperating in the investigations by Elizabeth and the other seniors. Since the plot is complicated, there are many characters including a priest, some gangsters, real estate developers, a sheep herder, and a famous boxer. There are even more, and some careful reading is involved as minor characters can have a bigger role than you might anticipate. For example, one important character never says a word: look for Penny in the story. It is fascinating to watch the Thursday Murder Club pick at the threads of the various crimes until they unravel. There are some crimes that you don’t even realize occurred until they were solved. Now, that’s magical writing because there is nothing artificial about the way author Richard Osman makes it all come together.
The style of the writing is fantastic with lots of British humor to make you smile and a few absolutely laugh out loud scenes. Joyce records her views on the investigation and reflections on her personal life in a diary that we get to read; it is set off in bold print and interspersed with the other chapters which are written in the third person. None of the chapters are very long and some are less than a page making this many chaptered tome move quickly. The chapters change their focus from one crime and set of characters to another, and that also seems appropriate to the complexity of the plot. This is not a book with a lot of red herrings; it is replete with good solid clues. The reader is in for many surprises but discovers them as the characters do. With its intricate plot and characters with depth, The Thursday Murder Club gives you much to contemplate above and beyond the mystery itself. There are many ethical questions to ponder, but the author lays out the facts and leaves judgement up to the reader.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery, Humor
Notes: This award winning book has a sequel in the works: The Thursday Murder Club 2 is set for publication on September 16, 2021.
Publication: September 3, 2020—Viking
Memorable Lines:
It looks out over the bowling green, and then farther down to the visitors’ car park, the permits for which are rationed to such an extent that the Parking Committee is the single most powerful cabal within Coopers Chase.
I think that if I have a special skill, it is that I am often overlooked. Is that the word? Underestimated, perhaps?…So everyone calms down through me. Quiet, sensible Joyce. There is no more shouting and the problem is fixed, more often than not in a way that benefits me—something no one ever seems to notice.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to use your mobile telephone in here, Elizabeth,” says John. She gives a kindly shrug. “Well, imagine if we only ever did what we were supposed to, John.” “You have a point there, Elizabeth,” agrees John, and goes back to his book.
The Story of Arthur Truluv–kindness in action
The Story of Arthur Truluv
by Elizabeth Berg
I don’t know what I expected as I methodically started the next book in my queue. This one was labelled “Women’s Fiction” which I have learned covers a wide range of possibilities. As a book blogger, I rarely read the online summary again after I have made my selection of a book that I will read weeks or even months later. I never read other reviews until I have written my own. Those practices keep even my subconscious honest.
The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful, delicate surprise. A rather short book that rightfully flows from beginning to end with only double line spacing to mark changes or pauses in the storyline, it is best with no chapter breaks. By the end I had fallen in love with the main characters, the aging Arthur and the young Maddy who is covered with the sadness of being different in so many ways. I was immersed in their individual stories and their collective potential for happiness. They meet in a cemetery and quietly begin a friendship that crosses age barriers.
I am not generally an openly emotional person, but The Story of Arthur Truluv left me in tears, not of sorrow but of hope. Hope for the characters and for the future of real people who find themselves closed in by circumstances but trying to address life and death with hope, courage, and the gentleness that emanates from kindness.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Random House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Women’s Fiction
Notes: I don’t usually read books I review more than once. I think this book will start a new Kindle collection for me: “Revisit.”
Publication: November 21, 2017—Random House
Memorable Lines:
The bones of his face protrude; he’s gotten so skinny he could take a bath in a gun barrel.
But adults complicate everything. They are by nature complicators. They learned to make things harder than they need to be and they learned to talk way too much.
“But what we need are readers. Right? Where would writers be without readers?…See, that’s what I do. I am the audience. I am the witness. I am the great appreciator, that’s what I do and that’s all I want to do. I worked for a lot of years. I did a lot of things for a lot of years. Now, well, here I am in the rocking chair, and I don’t mind it, Lucille. I don’t feel useless. I feel lucky.”
education pathways 