"An Unmentionable Murder"
   By Kate Kingsbury
              A Manor House Mystery

2011 Book Review #97
 Summary on the Back Cover


In World War II England, the quiet village of Sitting Marsh is faced with food rations and fear for loved ones. But Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton, the house-rich, money-poor lady of the Manor House, stubbornly insists that life must go on.

 Sitting Marsh residents depend on Elizabeth to make sure things go smoothly which means everything from sorting out gossip to solving the occasional murder. In the thick of the Allied invasion, Elizabeth is sick with worry for Major Earl Monroe. To make matters worse, people and things keep going missing from the manor namely Martin, the elderly butler, and ladies knickers from the washing line.

Before Elizabeth can track either down, Clyde Morgan is found shot dead. Though few will miss bad-tempered Clyde, Elizabeth isn’t so sure when the police call it a suicide . . .

My Thoughts:  This is only the second book of Kingsbury’s that I have read.  I like the characters of this small village in England.  I like that the crime isn’t gory or spectacular!  It is a light mystery that lets the reader feel as though he or she is a part of this small town  and the people who live there during the war.  I found it hard to put down and read it all in one day!

"10th Anniversary"
By James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
                A Women's Murder Club Mystery
2011 Book Review #97

         BookList Review

The tenth entry in Patterson's Women's Murder Club series opens with the wedding of Sergeant Lindsay Boxer to her longtime love, Joe Molinari. Soon after exchanging vows with Joe, Lindsay is on the trail of a missing baby whose 15-year-old mother was found wandering the streets in the rain, dazed and disoriented. 
  

ADA Yuki Castellano is trying an important case that could make or break her career; it involves a wealthy doctor accused of fatally shooting her unfaithful husband in cold blood. Yuki is none too pleased when Lindsay looks into the case at the behest of the woman's attorney, but Yuki has a secret of her own: she's started dating Lindsay's boss.

Reporter Cindy Thomas is working on a story about several women who have been drugged and raped in the San Francisco area, but the big lead she uncovers threatens to make her a target. 

My Thoughts:  The Women's Murder Club series is my favorite of James Patterson’s books.  Some have been made into movies and I hope this one is too!  Loved it!

"Body of Evidence"  By Patricia Cornwell
A Forensic Dr. Kay Scarpetta Mystery

2011 Book Review #96

       Publishers Weekly Review

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the spunky and thoughtful chief medical examiner introduced in Cornwell's first novel, Postmortem , makes her second commanding appearance here.

Beryl Madison, a writer of historical romances, is grotesquely slashed to death in her Richmond, Va., home after returning from Key West, where she had fled, terrified by threats to her life.

Why Madison let the killer into her home is Scarpetta's first question; pursuing its answer involves her in the murder of another writer, reclusive Cary Harper, who was Madison's jealous mentor; the suicide of Harper's sister; the FBI investigation of Madison's crooked lawyer; and, along with bewildering threats to her own life, plenty of complex, satisfying forensic sleuthing.

Finding clues under a microscope, in the records of a psychiatric hospital, at a Key West restaurant and in a terrorist skyjacking, Scarpetta follows a trail of evidence…clues that would lead nowhere without her intelligence, compassion and imagination…to a powerful conclusion.

Cornwell handles her heroine's interactions with the local police and a former lover with authority to equal her technological expertise.

My Thoughts:  I love Cornwell’s books.  I love the characters and the plots.  This one is her second in the Scarpetta Series and an excellent read.

"JUDGMENT IN DEATH"
         By J.D. Robb

2011 Book Review #95
       Publishers Weekly Review  

The story opens in the upscale nightclub Purgatory, where Dallas discovers the brutally slain body of a fellow officer; another cop is murdered soon thereafter. Both men, it appears, were on the take, and both were connected to elusive criminal, Max Ricker.

 Dallas's investigation, which exposes crime and police corruption, puts both her reputation and life in danger. To make matters worse, Purgatory is owned by her own millionaire husband, Roarke.  He was a business associate of Ricker's before turning legitimate and the overlap of professional and personal lives adds extra fireworks to an already tempestuous marriage.

Robb's plotting is precise and fast paced, creating a satisfying mystery full of lively, credible twists. Secondary characters, a troubled female police captain, an Internal Affairs cop with a leftover crush on Dallas are as well-drawn as Dallas herself, a tough but endearing 21st-century woman.

Sexy, surprising and often funny power struggles between Dallas and Roarke are the tasty icing on this extremely well-made fictional "cake," which is just the right confection for lazy late-summer reading. 

My Thoughts:  I love Robb’s books but, must warn you.  The language is raw and there are sexual scenes involved.  If you don’t care for either of these, as I don’t, you can skip over them and never miss any of the mystery action!

"I HEARD THAT SONG BEFORE"
 By Mary Higgins Clark

                                   2011 Book Review #94
Publishers Weekly Review

At the start of bestseller Clark's riveting new novel of suspense, Kay Lansing recalls her first visit as a six-year-old to the Carrington estate in Englewood, N.J., where her father worked as a landscaper. Twenty-two years later, she returns to ask the present owner, Peter Carrington, if she can use the mansion for a fund-raiser.

The two fall madly in love, and after a whirlwind courtship, they marry despite the shadow of suspicion that hangs over Peter regarding the death of a neighbor's daughter two decades earlier and the drowning of his first wife four years before.

After an idyllic honeymoon, the couple return to New Jersey, where a magazine article has caused the police to reopen the cases. The subsequent discovery of two bodies buried on the estate causes even Kay to doubt her husband's innocence.

Clark deftly keeps the finger of guilt pointed in many directions until the surprising conclusion. 

My Thoughts:  This review doesn’t mention that Kay’s father is also missing .  Interesting concept.  I like Clark’s books, including this one.

“Carry On, Jeeves”  by P.G. Wodehouse

    (8 Complete Stories with Jeeves' Solutions)

2011 Book Review #93

Eight stories, in which Jeeves protects his hapless master from a slew of scandals and steers his bumbling boss through a thicket of American eccentrics in 1920s New York.

Whenever a problem arises in his own relationships or in the lives of his friends, Bertie Wooster is certain to have an ingeniously complex solution.

Luckily for Bertie and his friends, he also has his gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves, to straighten out the resulting chaos! 

My Thought:  HILARIOUS!  I suggest getting the audiobook.  It’s even funnier when someone else reads it to you!  If you need a laugh or 8…get this book!  It's in the library!  

“KILLING FLOOR”  By Lee Child

      The First Jack Reacher Novel

2011 Book Review #92

          Publishers Weekly Review

Although the tale is built around a coincidence as big as the author's talent, beautifully detailed action scenes and fascinating story about currency and counterfeiting enliven this taut and tough-minded first novel by British TV writer Child.

Out of sheer restlessness and ruthlessness, 36-year-old ex-military policeman Jack Reacher persuades a Greyhound bus driver to make an unscheduled stop in Margrave, the small Georgia town where Reacher's brother, a U.S. Treasury official, just happens to have been murdered a few hours earlier. Reacher doesn't know about his brother's death or suspect his presence in the town.

Indeed, when he's arrested in a local diner for being a conspicuously mysterious stranger, Reacher tells the detective who interviews him that he dropped off the bus to investigate the death of Blind Blake, a guitar player murdered in Margrave 60 years ago.

Downsized out of the military, Reacher has cutting-edge investigative and killing skills that come in handy the moment he learns of his brother's murder. This combination of events is so unbelievably convenient that it almost overwhelms the book's solid writing. The reader expects the other shoe to drop…for Reacher to be revealed as an undercover agent, or some such; but it never does.

Otherwise, Child writes with a hand as strong and steady as steel. Margrave is a wonderful creation, a seemingly picture- perfect community under the care of a mysterious foundation where the streets are always swept and the people who run the tiny local businesses get grants of $1000 a week to stay open.

Two scenes of brutal violence in a nearby prison are rendered with exquisite precision, as is a stalking murder inside the baggage area of the Atlanta airport, and the vast counterfeiting conspiracy that Reacher's brother was probing is wholly credible.

My Thoughts:  I agree with the review.  A lot of coincidence here, but I love Reacher’s character and since this was the first of that series, I’ll go with it!