Paint the Town Dead by Sybil Johnson

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    Rory Anderson is an IT consultant and artist who has recently returned to her childhood hometown to live. She is attending an art convention at the recently opened Akaw Resort.
     While attending an art class, one of Rory's friends, Jasmine, collapses and dies. The death is ruled an accidental overdose of her anti-narcolepsy medication, but Rory feels that someone deliberately poisoned Jasmine. She and her best friends Liz, begin to track down Jasmine's movements at the convention to try to piece together what actually happened. Along the way, they uncover several secrets that could have played a part in silencing Jasmine.
     This is the second book in this new series, but easily stands alone. There are enough plot twists and turns to keep the reader interested and guessing right up to the end. Prepare to do nothing else until the book is finished!
     A great post-holiday read with a cuppa tea and a comfy easy chair.

Martha and the quilters

     Gone But Knot Forgotten is the third in a cozy mystery series. I have not yet read the first two volumes, but I will. I am usually cautious with cozies; while I appreciate the less violent approach to mysteries, I find that too many cozies are formulaic and the characters are pretty flat. Neither of those are issues with Martha and her adventures.
     Martha and her friends, Lucy and Birdie, are long-time friends who spend Tuesday mornings quilting together. While very diverse women, their quilting draws them together. Martha, a middle-aged Jewish woman, has been made the executor of the will of a former high school friend. As she learns more about the circumstances of her friend's life and death, she becomes embroiled in trying to figure out who killed her friend. Lucy and Birdie become involved in the mystery, to their detriment and Lucy's husband's anger.
     Add in a Jewish biker friend for Martha, missing jewelry, antiques and art work, an old mystery of her friend's missing husband and his greedy siblings, and you have a boiling pot of intrigue. There is humor, spirituality, fear of relationships, and much more as Martha and her friends try to unravel what happened to Harriet. I give this book 4 stars out of five. And I will be reading the first two books in the series.
     

Episode 4 in the Blanche White Series

     Blanche is a middle-aged, black woman with strong opinions, a generous heart and a drive to find the truth. She reveals to us the pain and fear of living black in America. Barbara Neely has created an intelligent, complex main character in this series, and interesting secondary characters to populate her world.
     In Blanche Passes Go, issues of abuse, white supremacy, and class stereotypes are explored and turned on their ear. Blanche returns to her hometown of Farleigh, NC for the summer. She comes to help her best friend, Adele, with her new catering business, and, to feel out the possibility of returning to Farleigh permanently after her children go off to college. She doesn't expect to be confronting the fear and pain of a rape she experienced 10 years earlier, let alone the gold-digging fiance' of a former client, a murder, the neighbor children escaping the abuse of the father toward their mother, and the possibility of romance.
     I love this series, and I cheer for Blanche as she walks through the pain of her past in order to set herself free, and works tirelessly to bring justice for her former client and appropriate karma to her former rapist. I am saddened that most of the whites in Blanche's world are bigoted, self-serving scum. Blanche would never give me a second look as a possible friend, and, that saddens me. But having lived in an integrated neighborhood in Philadelphia for 18 years, I also understand the deep pain and injustice that leads minorities to protect themselves from constant abuse.
    While the Blanche White series is certainly in the "mystery" category, it is so much more. It is literature that explores the deep issues and experiences of blacks in America, of women in male dominates society, and in dignity and respect for poor, hard-working people. Each book can stand alone, but there is a richness in reading the books in order as Blanche grows and develops as a person. I give this book 5 stars. If you are a sensitive person, keep the Kleenex nearby.

The Competition by Marcia Clark: A "keep-you-guess-until-the-very-end" book

I received a free e-book copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review of the book. This review is my free and honest opinion.




This is the fourth book in the Rachael Knight series. I had not read any of the previous books, but I plan to now. I admit, I didn't read any of Marcia Clark's books because I thought she had done a very poor job of handling the OJ case. But her writing skills are very good, and she uses her legal knowledge to create excellent stories! I am now a fan.

Rachael Knight is an LA special trials prosecutor. She teams with her best friend, Bailey Keller, an LAPD detective, when a Columbine-style shooting takes place at a high school in a San Fernando Valley. This is a study in stereotyping, troubled youth, and what makes kids kill.

Very quickly Rachael and Bailey believe they have the suspects. In their search for them, and for hard evidence, things do not add up. Just when I thought they finally had a handle on the case, another twist would rear it's ugly head.

I could not put the book down. This is a great team of tough, intelligent women who struggle through trying to have close relationships, a fulfilling life, and a harder than nails career. If you like police and legal procedurals, you will love The Competition.

Debut of the Potting Shed Mysteries

The Garden Plot: If you like mysteries, gardening, England, romance and amatuer slueths, this book is for you. Written by Marty Wingate, she brings her vast experience of gardening, traveling and writing, into her first foray into mystery writing.
Pru Parker is a bi-national English-American gardener, raised in Texas and recently replanted to England. Her mother has recently died (the English half of her parents), and Pru has always wanted to live in England. She has given herself a year to find a full-time head-gardener job in England or return to her job in Texas.
Her year is winding down with no full-time prospect, when she is hired to beat back an over-grown garden in two days, in time for a garden party. Pru uncovers a small shed in the back corner of the garden, and a floor with a beautiful mosaic, looking similar to Roman tiles discovered all over the country. Has she discovered another Roman villa or garden deeply buried. Instead, she falls over a dead body, and the game is afoot.
Pru meets Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pierce. In her personal curiosity to understand what happened, she keeps crossing paths with the inspector to his alternating annoyance, amusement and concern.
This is an engaging first novel. The details of the historic gardens of England was fascinating. Pru's personal back-story was complicated but interesting. Pru was pretty naive for a 50's something woman, and occasionally acted in very stupid ways. But the overall story was interesting, filled with fun, quirky and sometimes crazy characters, beautiful surroundings, and a touch of romance. I suspect with all of Ms Wingate's gardening and writing experience, this series will grow with experience. I give it 4 stars out of five!

Wives of the Bomb

I received a review copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for publishing a review. I have no connection to the publisher or the author. This is my true perspective.

The Wives of Los Alamos: A Novel by TaraShea Nesbit

This is not so much a novel as it is a catalogue about the experiences and feelings and perspectives of the wives of the scientists that lived in secret isolation while they built the atomic bomb. I have a small personal interest since the pastor of my church in the early 70's was a graduate student who worked on this project. His PhD thesis was so highly classified that his review committee was not permitted to read it, and therefore, he never received his PhD.
The information is interesting, enlightening, and part of our national story that needs to be preserved. This book was not my cup of tea because it wasn't a narrative. It told a story in what felt like a fairly impersonal, at times choppy, manner. I would have preferred a more traditional novel. I am interested in character development more than a list of facts and feelings. Some are calling this book ground-breaking, and the use of the "collective we" perspective innovating. So I want to emphasize that my disappointment is not echoed by all previewers.
I kept thinking about how I would have felt if I had been in the wives' shoes. I love the southwest, but I have visited for 20 years before buying our retirement home in AZ. If I were in my mid-20's, with small children, and no friends or family near me, I would have found that very painful. Add the secrecy and the deprivation living conditions, I am sure I would have struggled to remain loyal to the project or my husband. No matter what your perspective on the creation of the atomic bomb, the sacrifices made by the scientists and families was strenuous and deserves attention.

Refreshing, Creative Teens; not just a young adult read.

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by  Kate Hattemer


I receive advance copies of books through NetGalley in order to write and share reviews of the books. I am not paid other than to receive the books, and I have no association with either the authors or the publishers.

I enjoyed the book very much. I am a sucker for anyone who stands up for what is "right", for stories of friendship, and for intelligent, creative young people. I was a bit put off initially by the three "beginnings" to the story, but as it progressed, I realized the creative approach to sharing background information. And the three endings provided a way to gather the threads together.
I loved the self-effacing Ethan, the intellectual geek Jackson, and the bold Elizabeth. I was very disappointed in Luke's changes, but that just demonstrated how invested I became with the characters. 
I loved the study of Ezra Pound's Cantos and the juxtaposition of the students' ContraCantos. The parallel was very powerful. And I was never taught half the information about punctuation and English form when I was in high school.
My only "hesitation" about promoting this book wholeheartedly is that I wonder how many teens are self-reflecting enough, intellectual enough, and have a broad enough vocabulary to enjoy this book. I know there are teens very much like the Vigilantes but are there enough to make this a best seller. And I doubt there are very many 12 year olds who would be able to "get into" this book.
Because of all the different layers in this story, many adults will thoroughly enjoy this book, and I hope it is marketed for adults as well as teens.