A couple of books that couldn't have been more different, yet they were both really fun. First up: a Hard Case Crime by Scott Von Doviak called "Charlesgate Confidential". The novel flipped back and forth through time: 1946, 1986, and 2014. Back in 1946, the Charlesgate in Boston was a rundown former luxury hotel that was full of working girls and criminals. Danny T ran an illegal card game on the 8th floor, and one night it gets hit. Danny tracks down the guys that pulled the job and forces them to help him rob a nearby art museum. Jake and Shane help him do the job, then kill him and take off with the artwork. They hide the art at the Charlesgate, and then Shane is arrested before they can go back and retrieve it. Jake skips town for awhile but comes back to take the fall so his brother doesn't get the chair. In 1986, the Charlesgate is a dorm for Emerson College. Tommy lives there with his buddies and is writing a series for the school paper about the Charlesgate when he's approached by Shane, recently paroled with a doozy of a story about hidden artwork. And in 2014, the Charlesgate is a luxury condominium complex. The artwork was never found, so criminals are still after it. It was a super fun story with lots of great twists and turns.
It's no secret I love me some Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Marilla mentioned in the first book that she and Gilbert Blythe's father, John, were sweethearts when they were kids and much to Anne's (and mine, and Sarah McCoy's) dismay, she refuses to elaborate. This is Sarah's idea of what happened when Marilla was a young lady, and it was quite good. I thought she did a nice job of making Marilla interesting without straying too far from the foundation Montgomery laid. Marilla's mother died when she was thirteen, leaving her to care for Green Gables, her older brother Matthew and their father. Marilla took that responsibility very seriously, and despite being in love with John they quarrel and she breaks things off with him. It was a sweet story that made me cry in a few spots (and also made me want to reread the Anne series, but good grief, I seriously don't have time right now! I still haven't finished rereading Perry Mason!).
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