23-25 Tea Shop Mysteries

This winter break, I picked up more of Mom's books, this time the tea shop series. The heroine of this series is Theodosia Browning, who owns the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston. Theo is a little different from Carmela, the scrapbook protagonist. She's a never-married thirty-five-year-old with no living family. She comes off as a lot older than her age, is kind of buttoned-up, and has a seemingly chaste relationship with her boyfriend Jory Davis, who for some reason, is almost always referred to by his full name.

The language in these books is a bit flowery and the characters seem kind of old-fashioned. If there weren't references to text messages and email, I'd think they were set in the seventies or eighties. They're nice reads, though, and the characters are likeable, if kind of simple and unbelievably talented at whatever they do (except detecting). The descriptions of the teas and foods are great, and probably contributing to me overdoing it on baked goods this winter.

One big gripe I have is that Theo is a such a terrible investigator. She's always lying and hiding evidence from the police and totally misreading every clue she comes upon. If she was a bumbling amateur working with Tidwell, instead of at cross-purposes with him, I'd probably like the books better.

23. Shades of Earl Grey, by Laura Childs (2003)

During an engagement party for a well-to-do Charleston woman, niece of one of Theo's frenemies, at the Heritage Society's house, the greenhouse roof caves in, killing the groom-to-be. The heirloom engagement ring is missing, and doesn't turn up in the rubble. Theodosia decides to nose around and root out the killer, despite grumpy Detective Tidwell's warnings not to get involved. Soon, Theo realizes there's a cat burgler on the loose in Charleston, and the plot thickens!

24. Gunpowder Green, by Laura Childs (2002)

At a yacht club regatta, Oliver Dixon is killed when an antique starting pistol explodes. When it starts to look less like an accident and more like sabotage, Theo looks around for suspects. Is it Dixon's much younger wife of a mere few weeks? Ford Cantrell, whose family has been fueding with the Dixons for generations? A business rival? Of course Theo locks horns with Tidwell in her hunt for the killer.

25. Jasmine Moon Murder, by Laura Childs (2004)

The murder hits closer to home in this installment. During a "ghost crawl" in a historic cemetary, somebody murders Jory Davis's uncle Jasper. Theo literally stumbles over a hypodermic needle, the first clue about the cause of death. Jory begs Theo to look into the murder and figure out who killed his beloved uncle. A fox hunt, a second murder, and a really implausible motive round this one out.

22. Frill Kill

Frill Kill, by Laura Childs (2008)

I'm sure I've mentioned here before that when I visit my parents' house, I stay in a guest room stocked with plenty of paperback romances and mysteries I probably wouldn't otherwise choose for myself, but that I tend to really enjoy. For the past several months, my mom has been really into the Laura Childs scrapbooking and tea shop mystery series'. When I was here in October, I chose this scrappin' story because it takes place at Halloween.

This series centers on Carmela, the owner of Memory Mine, a scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Carmela has just reunited with her cheating scoundrel of a husband when she finds his uncle murdered. Of course, the amateur sleuth gets in the middle of the investigation and decides to ferret out the murderer. As in many mysteries aimed at women, Carmela's best friend Ava is the requisite gorgeous, sassy sidekick, and Carmela herself is beautiful and fashionable. The mystery itself is pretty typical, but the writing and characters were entertaining enough to make me decide Laura Childs' books are a good way to spend a few hours when I'm here with family.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson (2009)

Rick drove me up to Casper on his way to Newcastle for Thanksgiving 2009, and we met up with Nina at Wind City Books. He was looking for something to read, and ended up with this. He read the whole thing over the holiday weekend and gave it to me when we got back to Laramie. I'm glad he did.

Of course, over a year later it's old news, but I loved this book. Honestly, it took me a while to get into it, like four or five chapters, but once the story started unfolding I was hooked. There are probably too many storylines going on at once, but I liked the unfolding of everything happening gradually. Personally, I'm more interested in the Blomkvist character than that of Lisbeth Salander, but that's just me.

At this late date, I probably don't need to say much about the plot, though the mystery of the missing Harriet was pretty disturbing and creepy. I usually don't go for really gritty mysteries, and hate reading about violence against women, but it was nice to find a book that portrays it in a completely unglamorous way. TGTDT is top notch, even if it does have as many endings as the first Lord of the Rings book.

20. Double Cross

Double Cross, by James David Jordon (2009)

I didn't realize at first this was Christian fiction, a genre I don't generally read. That said, I appreciated that the narrative wasn't really preachy or sappy, and that the protagonist was kind of a doubter, a critical thinker (a quality I think is important for everybody). The protagonist, Taylor, is a secret service agent-turned private security provider. What I didn't like about her was her voice, which didn't ring true as a woman. I kept thinking of her as a man, and then would be jarred when references to her dating, looks, etc. came up again. I haven't had this problem with other women characters written my men, either.

The story was interesting enough--Taylor is trying to solve a suicide that might be murder and figure out who might have been blackmailing the victim. At the same time, the mother who abandoned her shows up and Taylor tries to reconnect with her and figure out what's happened in the twenty years since they were together. Still, I wasn't that engaged with any of the characters because I couldn't get a good sense of them. Their motivations weren't clear and it seemed like the author was doing a lot of telling and not a lot of showing.

It's not a terrible book, but not my cup of tea, either.

19.Fearless Fourteen

Fearless Fourteen, by Janet Evanovich

Sometimes, it's nice to read mindless candy. I picked this up at the grocery store in a weak moment when I was sick, then stayed in bed all day reading and eating Popsicles. Stephanie Plum mysteries are the perfect books for that.

I had forgotten where I left off in the series, so I might have skipped right over thirteen (or twelve). It doesn't really matter, though. I vaguely remember being dissatisfied with the last one I read, but I found Fearless Fourteen had just the right mix of trashy characters and wacky hijinks to entertain me when I was flat on my back.

16. The Big Dirt Nap

The Big Dirt Nap, by Rosemary Harris

This book's okay, but I wasn't that impressed. Paula Holliday is a gardener-journalist-detective, who has an assignment to write a story about a corpse flower at a local hotel. When her friend Lucy doesn't show up to meet here there and a guy she meets in the hotel bar ends up dead in the alley with a bullet between his eyes, Paula starts sleuthing around. The story has some interesting bits, like a subplot about Indian casinos, but still seemed to fall a little flat for me. Maybe I didn't like Paula enough to care about her.

9. Motif for Murder

Motif for Murder, by Laura Childs (2007)

Whenever I visit my parents, I raid their bookshelves. Mom's gotten into Laura Childs' scrapbooking and tea shop mystery series' lately. If you're not familiar with the scrapbooking series, it's set in New Orleans, post-Katrina. The scrappy (I can't resist) heroine is Carmela Bertrand, who in this book, is trying to reconcile with her husband Shamus, the scion of a wealthy family. Shamus is kidnapped, his uncle is murdered, and Carmela sets out to solve the crimes.

While this was kind of a typical amateur sleuth story, I liked the characters and the settting a lot. Usually, my taste in mysteries runs toward those set in Seattle, Sweden, or England, but I'm branching out a bit lately. I'd read more of these, probably when I next go see my parents.

28. The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell

The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell, by Lilian Jackson Braun

It's kind of sad to end the year on this book, but it's the last one I finished in 2008. I was done with Bridge of Sighs and was staying in the guest room at my parents' house. Its bookcase is stocked with my mom's romance novels and a few mysteries. Desperate for something to read, I chose this one.

Don't get me wrong, I've read this series before, and the books can be sort of charming in a really idealized, completely out-of-touch-with-reality sort of way. But this one is dumb. There's not really any mystery here, and Qwilleran doesn't do any detecting. The famous cats really don't even provide many wacky antics. We know what happened from almost the start, and there are no surprises to speak of. I'm not sure why the author even wrote it, besides the obvious profit to be gained from another installment of the series. Oh, well. It kept me occupied on a snow day.

21. Compulsion

Compulsion, by Jonathan Kellerman

I used to really like Jonathan Kellerman's books. I'll probably never forget Silent Partner, which creeped me out and fascinated me as a teenager. This one was an impulse purchase at the grocery store when I was sick and knew I would need something trashy and easy to read while staying home from work, since I don't have cable tv--no talk shows or soaps for me.

Alex Delaware, the psychiatrist protagonist, seems so boring and stiff as a main character. He seemed so irrelevant to the plot of this "mystery." The story starts with the gruesome stabbing of a retired teacher in a nice neighborhood, in full view of a neighbor. Delaware and his old friend, LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis, figure out who dunnit really early in the book, so it's more like they're chasing the guy as he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake.

Milo is a far more interesting character, and I think Kellerman should consider writing from his perspective. The shrink plus cop buddy formula used to work pretty well, but only when Dr. Delaware actually did some in-person analysis of people instead of vaguely diagnosing sociopathy from afar, as he did here. There was really very little psychology involoved in the story. Maybe the author is just getting stale, but this book was pretty dang boring. I considered not finishing it, but decided I had nothing better to do on my sickbed. Don't waste your time.

20. Unspoken

Unspoken, by Mari Jungstedt

Oh, hey. Turns out I did read another of Jungstedt's books. I'm going through my draft posts and reading notes and keep having to refresh my own memory of what I read this year.

I liked this book a little better than Unseen--I think the story was stronger. Again, Inspector Anders Knutas is investigating a murder. Reporter Johan Berg is also back in Gotland, and is still having an affair with Emma, whose best friend was the first victim in the earlier novel. See, I do remember some of the story. This time, there's a missing girl, a murdered photographer, and it's wintertime. The descriptions of the season really set the mood for the creepy mystery.

19. Unseen

Unseen, by Mari Jungstedt

I'm really behind on posting these, so some of my reading is kind of hazy. This summer I decided to expand my mystery horizons and try out some Swedish authors. This one is a debut novel by Mari Jungstedt, who worked as a journalist. It's not surprising that one of the main characters is a reporter from Stockholm, who comes out to Gotland to cover a gruesome murder.

I'm not sure why, but all the Swedish mysteries I've read so far have a really dispassionate tone. Maybe that's a function of the translation, but it's keeping me from really getting into the stories. I should really start studying Swedish again and try to read something simple in the original language, but it will take me a while to get to that point.

Anyway, Unseen follows the investigation of the murder, which is followed by two more deaths. The serial killer has a pretty cliched motive, and I figured out who did it too early to really enjoy the climax of the story. Still, it was a good story. I think Jungstedt is a good writer and I'll be on the lookout for her other stuff.

9. Bye Bye Love

Bye Bye Love, by Virginia Swift (2005)

This mystery is set in Laramie, where I live, so I was excited to read it. I wasn't familiar with the author or the series before this book, so I didn't really have any expectations. The heroine, "Mustang" Sally Adler is a professor at the University of Wyoming and singer in a local band. She's approached by a musical hero of hers and asked to look after his ex-wife, who lives outside of town. Of course, the ex-wife is murdered, and Sally goes to work to find out who killed her.

I like mysteries because they're entertaining and usually fairly quick, easy reads. I especially like ones set in places I know because it's fun to recognize the landscape of the story. The Laramie in this story didn't really feel like the town I'm still getting to know. I'm thinking that some of the bars and restaurants are renamed versions of real places, but I'm not sure. The mystery was pretty good, though. The victim was involved in an animal rights/environmental group, which was an interesting choice that build in good conflict with the hunting culture. Even though the local flavor wasn't quite what I was looking for, I'll probably check out more from this author.

8. Dead Dry

Dead Dry, by Sarah Andrews (2005)

My friend Mary Ann lent me a couple of mysteries set in the Mountain West. I've been meaning to start reading more stuff set here, so this was a good start. The protagonist of the Em Hansen series was born in Wyoming, educated as a geologist in Colorado, and works as a forensic geologist in Salt Lake City. So, we've got the MW pretty well covered.

I generally don't have a lot to say about mysteries, but I enjoyed this one. There was a lot of discussion of the unique land formations in this area, which was cool. The discussion of the impending drought really freaks me out, though, because it's so real. Before moving here, I never considered that people would actually live on land on which they couldn't drill a well. I know a few people who haul their own water, which seems insane to me. Then again, I now live on an unpaved road and I never thought that would happen, either.

The Em character is appealing, and so were her friends and colleagues. I'll probably try to read more from this series, especially if any of the books spend time in Wyoming.

33. Obsession

Obsession (Jonathan Kellerman, 2007)

Back in the day, I read all the Jonathan Kellerman I could get my grubby, teenaged hands on. They all blend together, and the only title I can actually remember is Silent Partner, because of the creepy twin angle and the graphic sex. Obsession is already blending into the rest of Kellerman's oeuvre, even though this is the first of his I've read in probably ten years. It all feels like a retread: implausible "mystery," waif-like patient with obsessive disorder, creepy psychopaths, hints of incest. I should have followed Nancy Pearl's 50 page rule and bailed on this, but it was a fast, brainless read that got me through a half-day home with an upset stomach. So I guess it was worth it.

20. Booked to Die

Booked to Die (John Dunning, 1992)

Cliff Janeway again, this time from the beginning. I liked getting to see Janeway when he was still a cop, and the book industry stuff was interesting. One quibble I have is that so much happened in the last ten pages that it got a little muddled. I was pretty tired by that point, as I read this one straight through last night, so it could have been me more than the narrative that was to blame. I'm definitely to blame for that train wreck of a sentence.

18. The Bookman's Wake

The Bookman's Wake (John Dunning, 1996)

I probably shouldn't have started with the second book in this series, but I guess I can go back to the beginning later. A colleague lent this to me because it's not only a mystery set in the Seattle area, but it's by a Denver author. The PNW and MW collide! I liked this a lot, too. Dunning, like most mystery writers I like, writes what he knows and it shows. He's a bookseller and so's his hero, Cliff Janeway. This story reminded me of Johnathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware mysteries a bit, in style more than theme. It's been a while since I read a 400+ page mystery, too. It seems like so many I read these days are half that length.

I'm sure I'll revisit Janeway again. Dunning has a great sense of just how far to take his readers into the intricacies of bookselling and collecting so they remain interested and don't get bogged down in tiny details irrelevant to the story. I dig that.

12. First Avenue

First Avenue (Lowen Clausen, 2000)

A colleague lent me this book after hearing I like Seattle mysteries. It's great. I was still a kid in Seattle in the 1980s, but I remember how gritty the 1st Ave area was back then. Clausen, who was a SPD cop himself, writes characters really well and captures the feeling of the rainy city,. A lot of the story takes place in cars or little businesses, giving the action an appropriately claustrophobic feeling. Officers Sam Wright and Kathleen Murphy are equally intriguing and not the typically emotionally damaged nior detectives, though Sam is necessarily a little mysterious. He also takes the lead in the story. All of the storylines--the murder, the lawyer girlfriend, the person from Sam's past--intersect a little implausibly, but the coincidences aren't so outrageous that it bothered me much. Now I have another author to follow.

10. Homicide My Own

Homicide My Own (Anne Argula, 2005)

I went to lunch with a colleague yesterday and, as tends to be the case among librarians, the conversation turned to books. We both read mysteries and were talking about what we like and don't like in a mystery. Neither of us are keen on supernatural elements and would prefer a good nior detective or fiesty female sleuth. It figures that of the two books I read last night, the second made me reevaluate my stance a little.

Homicide My Own follows a pair of Spokane cops to Salish Island to appprehend a bail-jumper. Quinn, the older, female half of the duo narrates the story. I wasn't prepared for Odd, her young, male partner to start channelling a long-dead island resident, but it worked. The two go about solving the cold case, and hijinks ensue. The books isn't perfect and Quinn uses some really irritating slang terms--maybe they're supposed to be Pennsylvanian, maybe they're just made up--and I can't completely fall in love with any character who doesn't like music, but I can truly say this is one of the most original mysteries I've ever encountered. It's offbeat, but not self-consciously so. In fact, I kept thinking it is surprisingly solid for a first book, but just discovered that it isn't: Anne Argula is a pseudonym.

9. Into the Inferno

Into the Inferno (Earl Emerson, 2003)

This is another stand-alone from Emerson. What made this stand out for me is that the mystery doesn't center around a fire, even though it centers around fire fighters. That's not to say there aren't some great fire scenes, of course. Without giving too much away, I will say that Jim Swope, a lieutenant in the North Bend Fire Department, uncovers a vast conspiracy. Six months after working a chain-reaction accident, four of the responders are dead or brain-dead and Swope finds out he likely has six days to live--and solve the mystery of what's killing the fire fighters. Into the Inferno had me hooked from page one and I read it straight through. Emerson has written about twenty books and, unlike some prolific mystery writers, hasn't started repeating himself.

8. Dying for a Blue Plate Special

Dying for a Blue Plate Special (Beth Kalikoff, 2005)

I'm rolling right along with the PNW mysteries. This one was written by a member of the University of Washington Tacoma faculty. I thought I'd read this when it came out a couple of years ago, but if I did I forgot the whole story. I have to love any story that's affectionate instead of snarky about Tacoma, a city I really like. I really hope Kalikoff writes more mysteries because this one blends two tropes I enjoy: the snarky amateur sleuths and parody of academic culture. This morning I had to read the last two chapters before work, even though that set me behind schedule by 30 minutes. Read this one.