The Hallowe’en Party October 3, 2009
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Holiday Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, Fiction, Halloween, Hercule Poroit, Mystery, The Halloween Party
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Here is my first in my Halloween Book reviews! It is the beginning of October and time to get into the Spooky Spirit. My first selection was The Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie. This book is perfect for those looking for a seasonal story that is neither scary, nor gory.
—3.5—
The Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie is one of the series of Hercule Poroit mysteries, one of her recurring detectives. It all begins with an old-fashioned, very quaint Halloween Party (of course), which ends with a young girl drowned while bobbing for apples. Poroit is called to assist in the investigation and solve the murder mystery. No one in town seemed particularly fond of the girl, and most called her a liar. So can her confession that she witnessed a murder be believed? If true, it seems a good motive for murder. In which case, the murderer must have been a member of the party who overheard her boast.
This mystery is quite dated, and so sometimes reads almost comically. And it was less than suspenseful through most of the book. But Christie does what she is good at, and provides some nice twists and great character development. This is a great Fall pick for those in the mood for a quaint mystery with a good ending.
3.5/5
The Body in the Library May 8, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, and then there were none, Cozy Mystery, Miss Marple, Sparkling Cyanide, The Body in the Library, The Man in the Brown Suit
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—3—
The Body in the Library is my least favorite Agatha Christie to date. Not to say it was bad, but her other books had a little more excitement, intrigue, and spunk to them. This book is one of the many Miss Marple mysteries, of which Miss Marple (obviously) is the sly, old-lady detective that uses her observational skills, and her awareness of human behavior, to solve a mystery that has the police stumped.
When a dead blonde is found in the library of a Mrs. Bantry, she calls on Miss Marple to find the murderer, and take the heat off her husband. Soon the investigation has led the pair to an fancy hotel, where the woman was a dancer and hostess. Everyone they find connected to the girl is somewhat suspicious, but only Miss Marple can figure out who the true murderer is.
I didn’t mind the old-fashioned feel of this mystery; it’s one of the aspects I like best about Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I suppose I just never felt any passion for the characters or the murder. I didn’t feel desperate to solve it myself, or care either way who the criminal was. Overall, there was too much gab and not enough intrigue, but all considering it was still a good mystery and I certainly did not guess the solution. I’ll have to try another Miss Marple mystery and see if I enjoy it more.
3/5
Try The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie if you enjoyed her other mysteries The Man in the Brown Suit, And Then There Were None, and Sparkling Cyanide.
Villa of Mysteries April 30, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: David Hewson, Season for the Dead, Villa of Mysteries
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—2.5—
Well, I wasn’t super impressed with the second in the Nic Costa series by David Hewson, The Villa of Mysteries. In this mystery, set again in Rome, a mother insists to the police that her 16-year old daughter has been abducted from a busy square. While the officers aren’t concerned, Nic Costa believes there’s a connection to a recently unearthed corpse currently being examined. Teresa Lupo, the head police pathologist, begins to find similarities between the two, including a mysterious tattoo. Lupo fears that the girl has been abducted to play a role in a strange ancient ritual, one involving disturbing sexual aspects and sometimes murder. Soon, a connection is found between this abduction, the ritual ceremony, and Rome’s organized crime ring. Nic and Teresa must work from both sides of the crime to save the innocent, if anyone involved actually is innocent.
I like the character Nic Costa a great deal. He is intelligent and caring, but not without his own demons. However, Costa’s role was much smaller in this novel than in Season for the Dead, the first in the series. More time was spent with his new partner, his boss, the leader of the Mob, or with the pathologist Lupo. I would have liked more time seeing the crime from Costa’s point of view, however, I think Lupo’s expanded role is because Hewson plans on making her a larger part of the rest of the series. I didn’t enjoy the large sections narrated by the Mob boss; I felt it dragged the story down, and made it more confusing. There were a lot of characters in the book, and it took a long time for any of them to progress to something new. I often felt like everything was at a standstill, which may have been intentional by Hewson, but it also made the book hard to pick up sometimes. My last complaint may seem silly, but I hated the length of the chapters. I suppose they were more like “sections” or “parts” (they were over 100 pages), but there were no good breaks within them. I felt it hurt the mystery’s flow and continuity, and the storyline got bogged down with it. Overall, the storyline was interesting, and the I enjoyed the pathological research from Teresa Lupo, but The Villa of Mysteries wasn’t as good as Season for the Dead due to it’s lack of flow and excitement. I think I will, however, continue reading this series by David Hewson.
2.5/5
Try The Villa of Mysteries by David Hewson if you liked the first in the Nic Costa series A Season for the Dead.
A Season for the Dead April 18, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: A Season for the Dead, David Hewson, Villa of Mysteries
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—3.5—
A confession. 200 pages. It took me 200 pages. I read 200 pages before I realized I had already read this book! First of all, what does that say about the book? Secondly, and more importantly, what does that say about me?! I’m losing it.
In David Hewson’s A Season for the Dead, Nic Costa is a young detective brought in to solve a series of murders in Italy meant to reflect the deaths of martyrs. While Professor Sara Farnese sits in a Vatican library, a former lover brings the skin of a man to her desk and then is killed by security. Now Nic must solve a series of crimes that seem to stem from this woman. Along the way, he himself becomes entranced with Sara, and therefore vulnerable to the serial murderer.
This is an entertaining police-procedural, full of suspicious characters, immoral religious leaders, and of course the religious-zealot serial killer. Nic Costa’s character is the one stabilizing force that keeps A Season for the Dead exciting, instead of veering off into the ridiculous. This is the first in the Nic Costa series by David Hewson, and I look forward to reading more of them. Although, perhaps I’ll only read these the one time though. It was a good book, but I don’t think good enough to read twice. Oops!
3.5/5
Silent in the Sanctuary March 6, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, and then there were none, Cozy Mystery, Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
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—4—
Silent in the Sanctuary is the fantastic sequel to Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. And like its predecessor, it was a great mystery! After her husband’s death and its subsequent investigation in the last novel, Lady Julia Grey escaped to Italy to rejuvinate herself. At Christmas her father requests that she and her brothers to return England. Upon arriving Julia realizes that the private detective, Nicholas Brisbane, has come to stay as well; she also finds that he is acquiring a title, and a wife. When a church Curate is found murdered in the house’s church sanctuary, Julia and Brisbane must once again solve a murder.
This mystery is full of many wonderful, quirky characters, and I think that this aspect is the best thing about the book. The women are all prim and proper — until we learn their secrets. And the men are lovesick, or stubborn, or dangerous, or all of the above! Everyone in the house is suspect, and the relationship between Julia and Brisbane is again deliciously frustrating.
My only complaint about this mystery is the compartive lack of action. There is more “thinking” and “deciding” than in the first, and sometimes I was waiting for the one big thing to happen.
While reading Silent in the Sanctuary I realized how similar the writing style was to Agatha Christie. It especially reminded me of And Then There Were None, another mystery in which each character is ruled out one by one, all the action occurs in one place, all the characters are trapped, and no one is above suspicion. Silent in the Sanctuary is in a way another example of a “Cozy” mystery, the genre which Agatha Christie perfected; an isolated setting, an aristocratic hero, a complex, deceptive crime, and a focus on characters and character development. This is a great mystery, and I look forward to more in the series!
4/5
Try Silent in the Sanctuary if you enjoyed the first in the series, Silent in the Grave, or if you like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
Silent in the Grave February 5, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave
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—4.5—
Silent in the Grave is the first mystery in the Lady Julia Grey series by Deanna Raybourn. In it, Julia’s husband dies suddenly of what’s believed to be a family heart defect. However, as she begins to cope with her widowhood a rogue detective Nicholas Brisbane implies that perhaps her husband’s death was not natural. Julia’s deceased husband had hired Brisbane when he began receiving threatening letters. Now, Julia and Brisbane team up to figure out the murder, although they don’t usually (or ever) see eye to eye. Julia discovers that her husband was not who she thought he was, and no members of her household are above suspicion.
This book is dark and suspenseful. I really enjoyed the dynamics between Julia and Brisbane. And I never even got close to figuring out the mystery. At over 500 pages, I was unsure if I wanted to start such a project. But once I began, I couldn’t put the book down, and read it in less than three days. I can’t wait to read the sequel!
4.5/5
The Man in the Brown Suit January 31, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, And Then Ther Were None, Man in the Brown Suit, Sparkling Cyanide
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—3.5—
The Man in the Brown Suit is the latest Agatha Christie I read. In this mystery, a young woman, Anne Beddingfeld, witnesses a strange death at a London train station. A doctor in a Brown Suit pronounces him the man dead. Anne then finds that the man’s death is linked to a nearby woman’s murder. Soon, she is following this adventure to South Africa, taking it upon herself to solve the crime. There is blackmail, diamonds, love, and disguises; I suppose all things that make a good mystery.
I enjoyed this book a lot, however I found the middle portion dragged a little. The story is told by Anne as she writes the book. She adds excerpts of another character’s journal to tell the portions of the story she was not witness to. I’m not sure if it was my favorite form of story-telling. The Man in the Brown Suit is a good mystery, and I love how everything comes together in the end, as Christie is known for. I think I just liked some of her others better.
3.5/5
Try Man in the Brown Suit if you enjoyed Agatha Christie’s other mysteries And Then Their Were None, and Sparkling Cyanide (both MITBS and SC feature the character Colonel Race).
The Art Thief January 15, 2008
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: Noah Charney, The Art Thief
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—2—
I often worry (mostly because I worry about everything, as those who know me can attest to) that I write too many positive reviews. Unlike a professional critic, I purposely pick books that I believe I will like, therefore, my reviews will generally be raves. But, I can worry less now, because Noah Charney’s The Art Thief was a really bad book.
Three seemingly unrelated art thefts occur, one in Rome, the next in Paris, and the last in London. Each case is undertaken by a different detective, and slowly it is seen that the robberies are not quite independent after all. Interesting premise right? I hoped…
Charney’s characters are pathetic and one-dimensional. I think he just wants to show us he can talk in French and Italian. So I spent much of the book frustrated with, what I could only assume was, the author trying to show us how witty he is. I could just picture him writing this, all smug and laughing to himself about his cleverness. (Is this too mean?) I just wanted him to speak in English, and make the characters more memorable. Often, I found myself looking back and wondering “now who is this again?” and “what city are we in now”? And often I just kept reading, because I didn’t really care. If you want to read about thieves, read The Book Thief, not The Art Thief, cause apparently the art isn’t worth stealing.
2/5
The Poe Shadow December 28, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: Edgar Allen Poe, Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club, The Poe Shadow
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—3.5—
Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow is a mystery surrounding the death of Edgar Allen Poe. Set in 1849 Baltimore, it follows Quentin Clark, a promising young lawyer about to marry his childhood sweetheart. When he passes a neglected burial and learns it is the funeral of his favorite poet, Poe, he becomes obsessed with finding the truth behind the artist’s death. At this time Poe is not a renowned author, and he is criticized for his intemperance and oddities. Clark searches for the man who inspired Poe’s sleuth, and brings back from France C. Auguste Dupin. A race ensues to find the truth, while Clark’s obsessions quickly cause him to lose everything he had before.
It took me forever to read this book although I enjoyed it, which was slightly maddening. It was smart, well researched, and entertaining. I loved the detective Dupin, he was very Holmesian, using amazing deductive powers to solve the unsolvable. In fact, in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet he compares Holmes to Dupin. However, the novel’s writing was often too wordy, and sometimes I felt Clark was silly to throw so much away to solve this mystery.
3.5/5
Try The Poe Shadow if you liked Matthew Pearl’s other literary-suspense novel The Dante Club.
Sparkling Cyanide November 21, 2007
Posted by sadiejean in Book Reviews, Mystery.Tags: agatha christie, Sparkling Cyanide
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—4—
I read another Agatha Christie! And, of course, it was really good. But guess what! I figured out who-did-it! Not how, but who. Sparkling Cyanide begins with the death of Rosemary Barton, a beautiful but empty woman dining at dinner with friends and family. Her poisoning by cyanide is ruled a suicide, but all those at dinner have a motive for killing her. Soon her husband suspects foul play, and an investigation ensues with twists and surprises. Who actually killed Rosemary, and are they responsible for another death too?
Everyone in this book was so suspicious! It was really a great group of characters. First instincts aren’t always right in this mystery, and the way everything wraps up neatly was really impressive. I think I liked the other Agatha Christie’s a bit more, but this was still a great book.
4/5
Try Sparkling Cyanide if you like Agatha Christie’s other mystery And Then There Were None.
