"Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear"

Sharon Dunn's "Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear" is apparently her second book in A Bargain Hunters Mystery series.  I thought I was reading the first book in the series until near the end of the book but I did wonder as she kept referring to a previous death.   Although the story is decent, it's not a mystery that has me begging to read more of the series.  I think I've mentioned in previous posts that I am not  fond of books that add  sex to their mysteries sort of as an afterthought -- It always makes me think the author has been asked to add it to sell more books.  That's not the case in Dunn's book but what she has running throughout her book is a "Christianity" theme where part of the goal of her characters is to see that the heroines are involved with men who are Christian and/or promoting Christianity among their friends and it just doesn't add to the story line for me.  Since this edition is a "Large Print Christian Mystery," I've made an assumption (perhaps erroneously) that all books in this series are in this vein.  Since I read mysteries for escapism and not to be preached to, I don't plan to pick up any more of Dunn's books to read.  I don't have enough time as it is to read all the good books I want to and/or keep up with some of my favorite authors.  However, I also never miss an opportunity to check out an author I haven't read before just in case I'll find a new author to follow.  pazt

"The Deadly Bride and 21 of The Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories!"

"The Deadly Bride and 21 of The Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories" is a collection of 22 crime and mystery stories by  the following authors:  James W. Hall, Nancy Pickard, Jeffery Deaver,  Sharan Newman, J. A. Jance, F. Paul Wilson, David Morrell, Rick Mofina, Marcia Talley, Mike MacLean, Wendy Hornsby, Stanley Cohen,  Robert S. Levinson, Neal Marks, Simon Brett, Sue Pike, Peter Tremayne, Jeremiah Healy, Kim Harrington, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Craig McDonald, and Anne Perry.   This type of book is one of my favorite for bedtime reading because I can finish a story without staying up all night reading a book that has me hooked.  I like stories with a twist at the end and there are several of those in this anthology.  Some of my favorites were Nancy Pickard's "There Is No Crime On Easter Island," Jeffery Deaver's "Born Bad," and Sharon Newman's "The Deadly Bride."   One with a unique spin and rather interesting premise was Simon Brett's "Cain Was Innocent."  Check out this anthology for some varied reading. pazt

"Lullaby Town"

"Lullaby Town" is the third book, I believe, in Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, Private Detective series.  Cole is hired by Peter Alan Nelsen, one of Hollywood's latest and greatest directors who has decided (after twelve years) that he wants to find his ex-wife so he can play father to his now 12-year-old son.  Cole questions his motives but Nelsen makes a case that seems to ring true for Cole and he sets out on what turns out not to be just an every day find a missing person case.  Peter's ex-wife, Karen, seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth and the usual methods of tracking her aren't working.  However, Cole gets a lucky break when questioning her last known landlady and ends up in a small town in Connecticut where Karen has changed her name and is now managing the town's bank.  Unfortunately, she's inadvertently gotten herself mixed up in the mafia and before Cole can tell Nelsen where his son is, he decides to try to get her out of this entanglement.  However, Nelsen has hired another private detective to follow Cole and he's good and isn't spotted by Cole until he's already revealed to Nelsen where his ex-wife and son are living.

When Nelson and his Hollywood bodyguards arrive, he thinks he can fix everything just because of who he is.  When that proves wrong and lives are threatened, it's Cole and Pike to the rescue with the help of a retired New York copy buddy turned author.  There's plenty of excitement and Cole and Pike have their hands full when dealing with the east coast mafia -- will they be able to successfully extricate Karen and her son from a bad situation or will it prove fatal for them?

Remind me not to start one of Crais' books late in the day because I have a tendency not to be able to put them down until I've finished the whole book which meant I was up until 3 a.m. finishing this one!  pazt

"The Savage Garden"

Although"The Savage Garden" is good and just as complex a novel as his others, my favorite Mark Mills novel has to be "House of the Hunted" followed by "Amagansett."  Mills novels are not series so each stands on its own and they don't need to be read in any particular order to make sense.

In "The Savage Garden" Adam Strickland, a Cambridge scholar, is asked by his professor to take on a special summer project.  He wants him to visit the famous Docci garden in Tuscany and write a paper about it.  His professor says he'll arrange a place for him to stay and Adam departs with his father's camera but without his father's blessing.  Adam's brother joins him for part of the summer and their time together reveals some family secrets.  Secrets seem to be the keyword for the summer because Adam also uncovers two murders from the past which may or may not endear him to the family he is visiting.  Will he be able to decipher the clues in the garden and on the family estate to help solve the murders?  Romance is also in the air but can it last when family secrets are uncovered?  Will Adam stay the carefree lackadaisacal student he was before the summer who was planning to follow in his father's footsteps (even though that's not the career path he would have chosen for himself)?  Mills is an excellent writer who weaves complex plots with surprises along the way...pazt

"Terror on Tuesday"

"Terror on Tuesday" is the second book in Ann Purser's Lois Meade mystery series.  Lois has moved her family to Long Farnden (the village that started her career as a house cleaner) and opened her own cleaning business called New Brooms.  Rather than doing all the cleaning herself she hires staff to assist her.  Detective Inspector Hunter Cowgill lets her know that he'd still like to enlist her help in his future cases -- something Lois isn't too keen on.  However, she gets pulled into his next two murder investigations after finding both bodies and discovering links to a friend as well as members of her staff.  Her family is put at risk again and her mother comes to stay to help out on the home front.  Although not quite as good (in my opinion) as the first book, it was worth the read and I'm looking forward to reading the third book in the series.  pazt 

"Doc Martin" - Series 2

"Doc Martin" - series 2 - starring Martin Clunes gives us a more in depth look into Doc's life and why he's the way he is.  When his parents arrive on the scene for a visit, it's easy to understand why he would prefer to spend time with his Aunt Joan!  In the meantime, Louisa's former boyfriend, Danny, an architect, returns to Portwen and appears ready to resume his relationship with Louisa which doesn't set too well with Doc but what can he do about it?  We also meet Louisa's father this season -- the man who raised her when her mother left.  He turns out to be a bit of a surprise and brings some trouble to town with him.  Romance is in the air, too, for the town policeman and the plumber's son.  Will anyone be able to sustain a relationship?  (Or, in the case of Doc, even be able to start one?)  Tune in and see....pazt

"Outliers" - What is success?

When our couple's book club chose "Outliers - The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell as our September book read, I wasn't sure I wanted to read the book.  However, when my husband and I were in Port Townsend, I found a paperback copy of the book in a small book store and began reading it while waiting in line for the ferry back to Edmonds.  Since my husband and I were both reading it, I was glad when the hardback copy I'd ordered from the local library arrived so I could give him the paperback copy to highlight as he pleased.  I read the book through before our meeting last night and he actually read it twice.

We had a spirited discussion at book club last night (that lasted 30-45 minutes longer than our normal sessions) with some divergent opinions about the book's content but no one disputed that the author has a formula for presenting the information with anecdotes and excerpts from published research that makes for an interesting read.  What we didn't discuss -- and I didn't think about it until we were driving home -- was something my husband and I had discussed - What is success?

Gladwell looks at success in terms of how well people do in school and professionally but is that your definition of success?  I would like to think that I define success in more personal terms and that it's not dependent on how well I did in school (although I have a master's degree) or how well I did in the work place.  Success to me lies in my 51 year marriage to the same man who is also my best friend.  Success is having a close relationship with my children and grandchildren and their spouses.  Success (for me) lies in personal relationships of all types and working to maintain them.  I don't think that type of success can be achieved by individuals focusing solely on their career -- or maybe I'm wrong?  How could you have time to build a relationship with your spouse and children if you spend an inordinate amount of time advancing your career?  How do you juggle both of those?

Having said that I have to admit that even I -- who believes personal relationships are a priority -- don't spend as much time as I would like getting together with friends and maintaining those relationships.  My spouse and my children/grandchildren take precedence then time at work (because I need some income) with maintaining friendships last.

In the book, Gladwell talks about "The Roseto Mystery" where Italians from the town of Roseto sailed to New York and eventually settled in Pennsylvania where they basically recreated their home town and its customs.  When a doctor studied these villages in the 1950's at a time when heart attacks were an epidemic in the U. S., he rarely found anyone under the age of 65 from Roseto with heart disease and even with those over 65 death from heart disease was about half that of the entire U.S.  When they began to look at the community, diet and exercise couldn't explain their findings nor could genetics or the location where they settled.  They finally decided the secret to their good health lie with the community itself and their interactions and close relationships.  There was no "separateness" - a lesson we could all use especially in this pre-election political environment!

Sadly, though, my husband just started another book that mentions that Roseto and this insulated community didn't survive.  As young people grew up, the community changed and lost its cohesiveness.  That change means they suffer all the same illnesses as the rest of the country at the same rates.

What does this say to me?  It tells me how important it is to create and sustain relationships for our physical and mental health as well as our social well-being.  Something my spouse read talks about how joining even one group or club can increase resistance to health problems.  I've read in the past how much longer people live who do volunteer work and how married men seem to live longer than unmarried men.  It suggests to me that relationships are important and sustaining positive ones throughout our life is a good thing.  It's not to say that you can't have positive relationships with co-workers but, if work is your whole life, how do you find time to develop those personal relationships outside work that enrich your life emotionally and impact your health positively?  Something to think about.....pazt    

"Eat Pray Love" - the Movie

I loved "Eat Pray Love" the book and the movie.  I saw the movie in the theater with my daughter then recently checked the movie out from the library so my husband and I could watch it together.  I thought I heard sighs from his side of the recliner when the movie started (my night to choose what we watched) but by the time it was over he was hooked.  Liz Gilbert did a great job writing about her personal journey through divorce/depression to finding a fuller life.  Julia Roberts plays a believable Gilbert in the movie as she eats her way through Italy, prays in India, and finds love again in Bali.  But...wait that's much more simplistic than it really is so why don't you check out the movie.....pazt

"Stalking The Angel"

"Stalking The Angel" is the second book in Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mystery series.  Cole is hired to find a rare Japanese manuscript that disappeared from his client's home yet the home  is well guarded and there are no obvious signs of a break in.  His client doesn't particularly like Cole's attitude and , when the client's daughter is kidnapped, he fires Cole for being incompetent.  However, Cole takes it personally that the girl was kidnapped right under his nose and refuses to let the case drop.  He sets out to find the girl without anyone paying the bills.  Where that leads him takes a surprising turn and the ending leaves him as well as the reader wondering who duped who.  I can't believe it took me so long to discover these mysteries -- definitely going to be looking for the next one in the series!  pazt

"Desert Lost"

Betty Webb's "Desert Lost" is another in her Lena Jones mystery series.  Webb has done her research as usual and where she has looked at polygamy and its affect on the women in a previous book in this series, this one looks at what often happens to the young boys in a polygamous society.  In order for plural marriage to work, there have to be fewer men so young men who have limited education and social or work skills are dumped onto the streets of large cities far from their childhood homes and left to fend for themselves.  Lena learns about this polygamy side effect while trying to solve the murder of a woman whose body she found while staking out a storage unit in Scottsdale.  In the meantime, she's supposed to be moving in with her boyfriend but solving murder takes precedence as usual and the relationship begins to suffer as a result.  Her second job (consulting for a Hollywood TV show) also demands her attention.  Will she be able to uncover the murderer, perform her second job, and juggle a romantic relationship as well as help some of these "lost boys?"  Oh, and did I forget to mention that one of Lena's former foster mothers has re-entered her life?  Betty Webb has written a complex, realistic tale fleshing out more of Lena's history and adding more depth to her character.  Don't miss this latest Lena Jones mystery!  pazt