They Found Him Dead; Where There's Smoke; Greater Journey; Dead Over Heels; The Lying Game; Never Have I Ever

So I'm on a bit of a Georgette Heyer kick. There are worst things to read, that's for sure :) "They Found Him Dead" is one of her mysteries. First, Silas Kane turns up dead, and it looks like a simple accident. But after his heir is murdered and threats against the next heir are coming fast and furious, the police must conclude that someone is after the money. I actually had this one figured out before the ending, so yay me!!
"Where There's Smoke" by William B. Davis was a bit of a disappointment. Davis played the Cigarette Smoking Man on my all time favorite show "The X-Files". I liked the CSM character, too (of course, I really watched just for David Duchovney, yummy! But I digress). First off, he spent the first 2/3 of the book discussing Canadian and British theater in the 50s and 60s, which he was an important part of. He kept dropping all these names, talking about how awesome they are, and I have no clue who any of them are. So, that was boring. Then, once he *finally* gets to the "X-Files", all he does is trash everyone! He didn't like David or Gillian, thought they were unprofessional, and thought Chris Carter was a twit. He was embarrassed to be on a show that seemingly promoted paranormal beliefs over cold, hard science. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Oh well, it did put me in the mood to rewatch some of my favorite episodes!
"The Greater Journey" by David McCullough was an interesting look at how many Americans traveled to Paris in the 1800s to study art, medicine, music, and more, and how living and working abroad changed their ways of thinking. I was hoping he would get up to the point where Faulkner was living there, but alas he didn't. It was still interesting.
"Dead Over Heels" by Charlaine Harris is the fourth book in her Aurora Teagarden series. It wasn't quite as bad as the third one. Aurora is married now, and has a bodyguard because her husband is a bit shady. Her old nemesis, detective Jack Burns, is killed and his dead body is dropped out of a plane onto her backyard, setting off a chain of events that were highly improbable but didn't make me vomit in disgust.
And finally, a new series by Sara Shepard, author of the fabulous "Pretty Little Liars" series. I really do enjoy her books, they're much better than you'd think. I like the Lying Game series better than PLL already, because the girls, while still well off and spoiled, don't seem quite as obsessed as the girls in PLL. They don't brand name drop quite as much. In the first book we meet Emma Paxton through the eyes of a ghost, Sutton. Poor Sutton has no idea who she is or why she's suddenly attached to Emma, but we're all about to find out (Emma cannot see her, by the way). Emma is a foster care kid, about to turn 18, living in Nevada. Her foster brother, a real sleazeball, gets her in trouble with his mom, who asks her to leave after her birthday. Emma discovers a girl online in a weird snuff video that looks exactly like her, and wonders if they're related. She emails, and the girl responds that she was adopted, so she and Emma are probably sisters. She invites Emma to come out to Arizona, so, with nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to, Emma goes out to Arizona where she quickly discovers that the girl in the film is her twin sister, Sutton, who was murdered the day before Emma contacted her. Whoever responded must have had something to do with Sutton's murder and is using Emma to keep the crime covered up. With no other choice, Emma assumes Sutton's identity, and tries to fit in with her over the top friends, Charlotte and Madeline, and her sister, Laurel, who are all part of an exclusive club known as the Lying Game. They play pranks on each other that sometimes go way too far. Emma wonders if one of them might be responsible for Sutton's murder. With misdirection and suspicion coming right and left, it's impossible to know who might be guilty and who might be innocent, but it definitely looks like Emma is in danger.
In the second book "Never Have I Ever", Emma determines that none of the girls in the Lying Game were responsible for Sutton's murder, much to her (and ghost Sutton's) relief. However, two hangers on to the Lying Game, the Twitter Twins, Lili and Gaby, seem to be likely suspects after Emma finds out about the horrible pranks Sutton had pulled on them. By the end of the book, however, it looks like the twins are cleared and it might be someone else. Perhaps the return of the mysterious Thayer? All I know is, I can't wait until February for the third installment!!

Envious Casca; Three Bedrooms, One Corpse; Double Dexter

Another Georgette Heyer book, this one a locked room mystery "Envious Casca". It was very entertaining, and I actually had the murderer figured out but then decided no, it couldn't be and changed my mind. Uncle Joe has invited all the family out to his older brother Nathaniel's estate, Lexham Manor, for the Christmas holiday. Nathaniel is a crochetedy old fellow who doesn't really care for any of his family, including his brother Joe. When he turns up dead, stabbed in the back, in his room that was locked on the inside, the question isn't really so much who did it, since everyone had a motive, but rather how they accomplished the feat. The only other locked room mystery I remember reading is a Sherlock Holmes story, "The Speckled Band". I'm sure there have been others, I just don't remember. It was very neatly done, I enjoyed it.
The third book in Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden mysteries "Three Bedrooms, One Corpse" was sadly disappointing to me. I thought Harris had a great heroine going with Aurora: she was a spunky single librarian who loved to read about true crime. In the last book, Harris had Aurora inherit a large fortune, so Aurora quit her job and decided to see if she liked working in real estate, like her mother. Lame. Everyone knows librarians are much more fun than Realtors :) Anyway, while showing a house to a wealthy man, they find a corpse in one of the bedrooms and the hunt is on. And, much to my chagrin, Aurora falls for the older wealthy gentleman and they begin a passionate affair that ends with him proposing at the end of the book with an enormous diamond. Well, that's realistic.
Jeff Lindsay's latest Dexter story "Double Dexter", was great fun. It's just hard sometimes to separate the books from the show, and they're very different, so it was a bit jarring to read about Rita still being alive. But I'm glad she is, I like the Rita in the books better than the Rita on the show. So Dexter is out taking care of business one night when someone spies him at work. Dexter is determined to find out who saw him and take care of him before problems arise, but unfortunately his nemesis always seems to be one step ahead of him and is threatening to expose him, and he has the proof to do so. Dexter enlists his brother Brian's help, but Brian FUBARs the whole thing up and in the end Dexter takes care of it himself with some help from Astor.

Gallery of Regrettable Food; Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor; Bone to Pick

I discovered James Lileks' blog and to my delight we had his book at work: "The Gallery of Regrettable Food". The name says it all, and it had me rolling with laughter. Lileks has collected old cookbooks from the 50s and 60s, when everything was made in a mold or creamed, and culled some of the worst pictures out, adding hilarious captions. It was great fun.
"Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor" by Robert Kirkman is in novel form, about how Brian Blake became the Governor in the graphic novels. Apparently it's the first in a planned trilogy, so we'll see exactly how he became so evil.
"A Bone to Pick" by Charlaine Harris is her second Aurora Teagarden mystery. It was very short, but a light read. Aurora inherits a house and discovers a skull hidden. She doesn't believe the old owner of the house killed anyone, so she starts investigating to find out who it could have been and what might have happened to him.

11/22/63

Wow, the King is back and in a big, big way! Stephen King's latest brick of a book, "11/22/63" was magnificent (spoilers ahead!). Jake Epping is a recently divorced teacher in a small town in Maine. He's a nice guy, so when a local diner owner named Al asks him for a favor, Jake obliges. Turns out there is a hole, a bubble, in the pantry of Al's diner that allows him to travel back in time to September of 1958. Al has been doing this for years, going back to the same day in September, hanging around 1958 for a bit, buying ground beef at cut rate prices and returning to the present day only minutes after he left, no matter how long he stays in 1958. It seems as if the past resets every time he goes back through the hole. Al had the idea of going back and sticking around until 1963, and stopping Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. Unfortunately, Al gets very sick and is forced to return to 2011 before he gets the chance to take Oswald out, or even determine to his satisfaction that Oswald was working alone. He asks Jake to do it, and Jake agrees. Well, the past doesn't like to be messed with, and for very good reasons, and fights back against change, which Jake learns the hard way. Saving Kennedy really wasn't the focus of the book, although it was an interesting plot line. For some reason a lot of people in King's generation idolize Kennedy and seem to think if only he had lived, the world wouldn't be as messed up as it is. I highly doubt that. I'm far removed from the myth of Camelot, so it doesn't enchant me the same way it does the older folks. The very best part - Jake goes to Derry, Maine in September of 1958, right after the summer of "IT" and sees Richie and Bev!! That had to be the best part, I love those kids. "11/22/63" is right up there with "IT", "The Stand", and "Christine", in my book.

Artemis Fowl: the Atlantis Complex; Lizzie

Book seven of the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, "The Atlantis Complex", was good fun. Turnball Root is planning a prison break, and the fairies need Artemis to help save the world, only Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, which causes OCD and multiple personality disorder. General hilarity ensues with poor Captain Holly trying to hold things together while Artemis's sweeter side, Orion, makes an appearance, professing his undying love for her.
Frank Spiering's "Lizzie", about (what else?) the Lizzie Borden case, was...fanciful. It was an interesting theory, that Emma committed the murders, but really very thin on facts or reality.

Lizzie Didn't Do It!; Artemis Fowl: the Time Paradox; Real Murders

So, I got to tour the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts a few weeks ago when I was in New England. I've always been fascinated by that crime, and read everything I can get my hands on about it. I'll have a few more to write about in the upcoming weeks, but for now "Lizzie Didn't Do It!" by William Masterton was very interesting. He pointed out that even modern day forensics cannot pinpoint time of death any closer than three hours, based on temperature of the body and the stomach contents, yet for 100 years everyone has assumed that Abby Borden was murdered 1 1/2 to 2 hours before her husband, simply because that's what they decided at the time. What if, Masterton posits, Abby and Andrew were killed within a few minutes of each other, by an intruder? Andrew's body was discovered just a few minutes after he was killed by Lizzie, returning from the barn. She raises the cry of murder and no one thinks to look for Abigail for almost an hour, and when they do discover her in the guest bedroom she is colder, her blood is more congealed, than Andrew's because it took longer for them to discover her. It's not all that strange a theory, when you consider all the other possibilities that have been put forth in this fascinating unsolved murder case.
"Artemis Fowl: the Time Paradox" by Eoin Colfer is book 6 in the series, and Angelina Fowl is dying rapidly of a mysterious disease. Artemis calls in Holly and Demon No 1 to help, and they determine she has a deadly fairly disease that one gets from having magic used on them. The only known cure is brain fluid from a now extinct lemur. Artemis and Holly must travel back in time 8 years, to a time when a ten year old Artemis was capturing the last lemur to sell to raise funds to search for his missing father. The whole time travel thing was confusing, but it was fun to see older Artemis trying to outwit younger Artemis.
"Real Murders" by Charlaine Harris was a quick, fluffy read, one of those books you don't really need to devote your full attention to. Aurora Teagarden is a librarian in a small town and a member of the real murders club, a group that gets together to discuss true crime and historical murders. Then murders start happening in their own town, mimicking historical crimes, and members of the group are implicated when evidence is planted against them. Everyone is acting suspicious and no one knows who can be trusted any longer.

Perfect; Emily Climbs; Artemis Fowl: the Lost Colony; The Clique; Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Bag of Bones

Okay, I know I'm way behind but I have a very, very good excuse.
I WENT TO SEE STEPHEN KING'S HOUSE IN MAINE.

Yes, I know. Yes, I was that ridiculously excited. Anyway, it was an amazing trip but now I'm back and ready to get caught up.
"Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins was a companion to "Impulse". Connor's twin Cara is struggling with her sexuality, her boyfriend, Sean, doing steroids to earn a baseball scholarship, Kendra starving herself to become a model, all in the name of perfection. Hopkins point is that no one is perfect so you should love who you are. It was very powerful and I enjoyed it.
"Emily Climbs" by L. M. Montgomery is the sequel to "Emily of New Moon". Emily is off for three years of high school in Shrewsbery where she does quite well despite the restraint of her overbearing Aunt Ruth. It reminds me of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", where Delores Umbridge is so annoyingly unfair and frustrating. Emily handles it all much better than I would have, that's for sure! Now unfortunately none of my libraries have the third book, so I might have to buy it.
"Artemis Fowl: the Lost Colony" by Eoin Colfer is the fifth book in the series. Artemis is chasing time traveling demons and facing a nemesis like no other: a twelve year old girl who is just as intelligent and devious as he was at that age, plus she's pretty and Artemis is going into puberty. Oopsies.
"The Clique" by Lisi Harrison is the first book in her series of a group of spoiled junior high school girls. It really wasn't that good, to be honest. But it did while away a few hours on the plane out to New England.
"Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith was a reread. I suddenly felt the need to reread it. It was one of my favorite books as a young teenager, and it's still good. Francie Nolan is a poor girl growing up in turn of the 20th century Brooklyn. Her father is a drunk, her mother works herself nearly to death to keep the family fed and sheltered, and Francie escapes into a world of books. Boy, doesn't all that sound familiar!
And finally, "Bag of Bones" by Stephen King. I bought it back in 2002 and never read it. I'm sure I meant to, but I was going to school and working full time and never got around to it. I saw the ads for the upcoming miniseries and wanted to watch it, but I wanted to read the book first. I'm glad I did, I really enjoyed it. Mike Noonan is a writer who hasn't written anything since his wife, Jo, died suddenly four years earlier. He moves to their summer house, Sara Laughs, hoping for inspiration. He finds himself in the middle of a custody battle between a young woman struggling to keep her child against the baby's wealthy, powerful grandfather. Mike decides to help Mattie out, and becomes a target of the old man's wrath. Oh, and his house is most decidedly haunted. Very, very good, classic heart wrenching SK ending and all.