"The Case of the Deadly Toy" by Erle Stanley Gardner finds Perry with a client who actually tells the whole truth right from the start. I think it's a first. Norda, the client, called off her engagement to the wealthy Mervin when she saw first hand how cruel he was. Mervin's ex-wife, Lorraine, asks Norda to help her win sole custody of their son, Robert. While Norda is staying with Lorraine and her new husband, Barton, Mervin is killed...and little Robert is the one holding the gun. There were some interesting twists in this one, and a great scene where Perry and Della pose as a married couple with a baby to trick a babysitter into spilling her secrets.
"Blood and Chocolate" by Annette Curtis Klause was written 11 years ago, but has been reissued and is being made into a movie, I understand. No doubt trying to cash in on "Twilight". I don't blame them; I would be, too. This one was about a teenage werewolf named Vivian who falls in love with a human boy, Aiden. She makes the mistake of telling him her secret, thinking that he would love her enough to understand. Wrong! It was pretty good, but it was no "Twilight". I find it hard not to compare, even though I know I shouldn't.
"Under the Beetle's Cellar" by Mary Willis Walker was great. For work I'm trying to read more books that people haven't necessarily heard about or read before, so I can use them in booktalks and reader's advisory recommendations. Walter, a Vietnam vet and a part time school bus driver, is kidnapped, along with 11 kids, by a crazy cult in Texas. While he and the kids struggle to survive while buried underground, on the outside Molly, a reporter who is the only person to have interviewed Samuel Mordecai, the cult leader, is working with law enforcement and negotiators to try to get the children out alive. It was taunt and suspenseful, and emotionally gripping. The ending did not disappoint.
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