Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews

Murder With Puffins by Donna Andrews

September 2004
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (7/10)

After the chaos of the summer (weddings, peacocks and murder among other things, chronicled in Murder with Peacocks) Meg Langslow and her boyfriend Michael are desperate for some time and space to themselves. Meg suggests they go to the island of Monhegan off the coast of Maine, where her Aunt Phoebe has a summer cottage and Meg has an open invitation. There might not be any electricity and it is no longer exactly summer, but that should just help insure they get some peace and quiet.

Meg couldn't be more wrong. They arrive along with a coming hurricane to find the island swarming with bird watchers - and Meg's parents (back from their honeymoon in Europe), her brother Rod, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Phoebe's friend Mrs Fenniman. The cottage is already full and Michael ends up sharing a room with Rod while Meg gets the sofa. So much for a romantic getaway.

Things only get worse after Meg and Michael find themselves in a confrontation with local artist Victor Resnick, who take potshots at them when they stray onto his land. They soon discover no-one on Monhegan likes Resnick and he likes no-one in return. This includes Meg's parents, since her mother knew him when she spent summers on the island as a teenager and local gossip has it that Meg's father is intensely jealous of this.

Then the hurricane hits, the island is cut off, Meg's father and Aunt Phoebe go AWOL at the height of the storm and when Meg and Michael go looking for her father the next morning they find Resnick instead, face down in a tidal pool and quite, quite dead. Meg's father is immediately considered a suspect and when Meg and Michael find a draft of a horribly purple prosed biography of Resnick that implies he had an affair with Meg's mother when she was only fifteen, things look even worse.

Meg takes it upon herself to solve the case, clear her father and save her mother's reputation, all before the hurricane abates enough for the ferry to start running again and the mainland authorities can arrive.

Like its predecessor, this book was wonderfully fun to read. Meg is a great character, her family remains totally insane and Michael puts up with them all with great grace. Andrews has had much fun with the chapter titles, taking known titles and sayings and substituting "puffin" in there somewhere. Examples include "A Long Day's Journey into Puffin" and "Zen and the Art of Puffin Maintenance".

My main reservation is that as I approached the end, I began to feel that the focus on the book was much more on the detection than on the solution. Working out who did it suddenly seemed to take about thirty seconds, and any following confrontation with the murderer seemed anti-climatic, as if it was just a side issue. Indeed, the book didn't end there, since it was now more important for Meg and Michael to discover the author of the awful Resnick biography and find a way to hush up any potential scandal. All of which they manage of course, even if some of their methods are far from conventional.

That said, this is still a very fun book to read. I thoroughly enjoyed going along for the ride with Meg and Michael and I look forward to their further adventures.

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Sorcery and Cecelia (or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot) by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede

September 2004
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (7/10)

In a slightly alternative England just after the Napoleonic Wars, where magic and wizardry are real, two cousins start exchanging letters. Kate Talgarth has gone to London for the Season with her beautiful sister Georgina. Her cousin, Cecelia Rushton, remains at home in the country. Mysterious things soon start happening to both of them, starting with a strange woman trying to poison Kate with hot chocolate under the belief she is a man named Thomas - and they soon find themselves caught up in a series of strange, dangerous and magical events.

That's not much of a description compared to the other books I've reviewed, but this one is different. It grew from the authors playing the "letter game" and since the plot only developed between Wrede and Stevermer as the letters were exchanged, it does the same for the reader.

I really wasn't sure what I was going to think of this book when I started it. I had heard about it before and how it had grown out of "the letter game", where each author had taken one of the principal characters (Wrede is Cecelia and Stevermer is Kate) and written the letters in persona. Their one rule was that each writer must not reveal her idea of where the plot was going to the other. To a certain degree, this sounds like a brilliant idea. But it also reminded me of online fanfic round robins which I know from experience can go strange and dangerous places, developing terrible plot and logic holes as they go. These authors didn't even have an established universe they were playing in.

At first I was afraid my fears were being realised as I had trouble figuring out who was who and how all the characters were connected to each other. Whatever was going on also seemed rather confusing. However, the book soon took off as more pieces were revealed. I did find it a little frustrating that the two male leads - James and Thomas - were so darned secretive and unable to give any proper explanations. However, since those desired explanations hadn't been invented before the book began, it was inevitable that each author would be dropping hints for the other to pick up on. When the explanations did start coming, they all worked and the story concluded itself very nicely. I did see in the authors' note that they got together once they had decided to submit the book for publication and tidied up any few loose and/or shaky ends.

Kate and Cecy are fun characters, and the reader gets to know them better as the story progresses. However, I felt all the other character were sketched rather than drawn. I suppose part of that could be because we only see as much of them as the girls put in their letters. In the same way, the romances seemed a little forced. Both women found their man "odious" a long way through the book and then they were in love and getting married. It was there, but the progression wasn't as smooth as it might have been.

My grumble done, I still recommend the book. If, like me, you feel a little confused at first, stick with it. The story unfolds neatly and by half way I was reading every moment I could to find out how everything turned out. I will certainly be reading the sequel, which my friendly librarian has reserved for me. (Aren't I lucky, having a friendly bookstore owner and a friendly librarian, even if the former takes a lot of my money!)

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Police at the Funeral - Margery Allingham

Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham

September 2004
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (7/10)

On a Margery Allingham list I'm on, someone accidently posted a message that was meant to go to a different Allingham list - one for group reads of the Campion books. This seemed like an excellent idea and I nipped over and joined. They are still early in the series (this is the fourth book) so I jumped in with glee. I've read Police at the Funeral before, but on starting it, I couldn't remember exactly what happened or who "dunnit". In fact, as I kept reading, I still couldn't remember. While my terrible memory (made worse by all my years of CFS) is often a detriment, in this case it was a great advantage.

The story appears simple: an old friend of Campion's asks his to ease his fiance's fears about the disappearance of her uncle. However, the story gets murkier and nastier and more confusing with each passing page. The lost Uncle Andrew is part of a decidedly dysfunction family still living in the 1890's or so (the book is set in 1931) and run with an iron fist by Great Aunt Caroline who keeps her middle-aged children (William, Julia and Kitty) and nephew, Andrew, at home with her and treats them as if they were still in the nursery.

By the time Campion arrives in Cambridge, Uncle Andrew has been found dead. By the time he's been there a couple of days, Aunt Julia is dead under mysterious circumstances and Uncle William is under suspicion of murder. It is up to Campion to solve the mystery, save the family name and hopefully prevent any more deaths.

It is in this book that Allingham's writing becomes much deeper and more serious than it was in the earlier Campion books, which have a certain Boy's Own Adventure atmosphere to them. This novel, despite a strong and moody description of London at the very beginning, looks like it may be the same. Campion, lurking in a deliberately dramatic hidden meeting place and dressed in a Holmes-style deerstalker cap, waits to meet a young woman and soothe her worries with a performance as the "clever detective". But it is soon clear her troubles are real ones and Campion abandons his frivolity at the same moment he abandons the cap, becoming serious about the case. Despite his sometimes contradictory appearance, he is to remain so in his following adventures in print. Allingham's skill in description also comes to the fore, as the forbidding house in Socrates Close almost becomes a character in its own right - and a disturbing and dangerous character too.

As I said, I couldn't remember who the murderer was as I re-read Police at the Funeral. Up to the revelation I still didn't. I was both surprised and disappointed. The solution was clever, although the character's immediately assumption to why it had all been done did seem rather simplistic to me. However, I think that is just a difference in seventy year's perspective. We try to make some things more complicated these days.

This is a good book and I enjoyed spending time with Campion again. I am looking forward to re-reading Sweet Danger with the list. Yay, I'll get to meet Amanda all over again.

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Night Play - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon

August 2004
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (7/10)

Night Play is Sherrilyn Kenyon's latest "Dark-Hunter" book, although this time the hero is not a Dark-Hunter but a Were-Hunter.

Vane Kattalakis is a Lykos Were-Hunter; both a wolf and a man, born with a wolf's soul and destined to love with a man's. He's also in a lot of trouble. He's being hunted by just about everyone there is, and currently hiding out (as much as an alpha male such as he is likely to hide) at the Sanctuary Bar in New Orleans, a safe refuge for Weres of all clans and affiliations. His brother, Fang, is seriously injured after they were both betrayed and Vane's focus is to see to Fang's safety and healing.

He certainly isn't looking for a mate. He isn't even looking for a little short-term female attention.

Then he meets Bride McTierney. She's everything he's looked for in a woman; well-rounded, intelligent and loving. She's also sworn off men after being dumped - by FedEx - by her now ex-fiance. She certainly doesn't expect serious attention from a man as stunning as Vane. She prefers the wolf that has started hanging around her.

These two people are not exactly what fated lovers are supposed to be. For one thing, they aren't even the same species, which is about as big as barriers can get. Add to that the fact Vane is on the run as well as being caught up in a long-time family feud and romance doesn't seem to stand much of a chance. As for Bride, once she learns Vane's big secret and begins to understand the situation, she faces a world she never knew existed, new enemies and the possibility her children might be puppies.

Kenyon has created a detailed and complex mythology for her ever-expanding series. She's done a lot of work and this adds great depth to her books. However, it can also be very confusing and sometimes distracting for the reader. I have to admit that I still haven't got it all straight and I've even joined a discussion list to help me work it all out. Night Play harks back to the earlier books, without the machinations of gods, goddesses and great fates. I enjoyed it for exactly that reason. As much as it can be fun to work out all the hints and little revelations, sometimes it is nice just to sit back and devour a story. That's what I got to do this time.

Bride is a wonderful heroine and one I could relate to. For one thing, she's a little plump - and that's one of the things Vane loves about her. All of us "larger" women can relate to the power of that. She takes all the new things in her life well, but not automatically.

There is less angst in this book that some of the others - and certainly than there will be in the next one, which is Valerius's story - and that made it a lovely relaxing read while I was away from home.

[Copied across from Library Thing; 25 September 2012]

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A Fistful of Sky - Nini Kiriki Hoffman

A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

July 2004
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (7/10)

This is the first book by Hoffman that I've read. I saw it in my book catalogue and thought the blurb looked interesting. I checked with my helpful bookseller (sure to be often referred to in these reviews as my "dealer") who assured me it is was good, so I took the risk and ordered it. I'm very glad I did.

A Fistful of Sky introduces the reader to the LaZelle family, most especially Gypsum LaZelle, the middle of five siblings (the others named Opal, Jasper, Beryl and Flint) who is the narrator of the story. Around the time of puberty LaZelle's go through something called "transition", a nasty illness after which they have gained their share of power.

At the time the story opens, Gypsum is twenty and the "normal" member of the family. She has never transitioned and is trying to reconcile herself to a life without power. Then, while alone for the weekend she finally undergoes transition and survives to find herself a person of power after all.

But there's a catch. Late transitions tend to produce stronger, but darker powers. Gypsum finds herself with the power of curses. If she doesn't use it, it will canker inside her and slowly kill her, but who wants to curse people or things - especially when there tends to always be unfortunate side effects.

This is the story of Gypsum learning to use her power, and learn just who she is at the same time. She makes some mistakes along the way, including calling a creature who names herself Altria and whose own agendas are unknown. By the end of the book Altria is unmasked and Gypsum has found a solution (and a possible romance).

My primary complaint is that I didn't "get" the last chapter. I'm not sure if that was my fault or the fault of the author. I'm going to need to read that final chapter again after I've had a bit of a break away from the book. Since this is the explanation of how Gypsum finally tames her power, it is kind of important.

All the same, I happily recommend this book. The characters are well drawn, and the investigation of how one manages something so potentially dangerous as the need to regularly curse things is very interesting. Try it out; see what you think.

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