Murder Mystery with Edgar Allan Poe 🐦‍⬛ and a Blah Romance 💔

 

    This week I read another excellent recommendation from a daughter, The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. It is a historical murder mystery centering around West Point in 1831. Retired New York constable Gus Landor has relocated to the Highlands for his failing health. He is called upon to solve a gruesome murder at West Point Academy, but he needs help from an insider. One presents himself--Cadet Poe, that would be Edgar Allen Poe. I gave this book five stars on  Goodreads because it is a masterful mystery. It captures the language and metaphors of the time. When Poe speaks or writes, it is with florid expressions and exactingly careful word choices that feel like his writing. I haven't read anything else by Bayard, but I'm curious if this is his imitation of Poe's voice or an extension of his own. Did he say to chatGPT, create a mystery in the voice of Edgar Allen Poe narrated by a grizzled former police officer set in 1831? I don't think so because it has an original voice and plot. It is dark, suspenseful, and gothically creepy. I admire what Bayard has crafted. I'm not alone. This novel won the Edgar Award in 2007. 

I think the book revolves around themes of death, revenge, poetry, and melodrama. It can be weighted down by its own words at times, but it has a rousing finish. 

🖌️📚🔵👀🔍

    Emily Hendry's newest story Happy Place sounded appealing. I had read one of her previous books, Book Lovers (https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Book+Lovers), and enjoyed it. Happy Place was disappointing. I found the characters uninspired. It starts with three college roommates, Harriet, Sidney, and Samatha, who bonded over their childhood hurts. From this inner circle, it grows to include their significant others who vacation yearly at a beach house in Maine. The house is being sold. They have spent a decade vacationing together, but this is their final summer. Everyone has secrets they're not telling, especially Harriet and her ex-financé, Wyn. They haven't told their best friends they've broken up. To make this final week perfect for everyone--but them--they decide to keep their split a secret and "act" like they're still together. Henry works hard on the atmosphere of Knott's Harbor, Maine, but the characters never animate, and the premise falls flat. There are some steamy encounters between Harriet and Wyn, but it feels gratuitous without the connection to back it up. 

☀️🌊⛱️ 💔❤️‍🩹❤️

A Week of Sci-Fi! 🛸👽🌵🤖🫖

 

    This week I got to read some of my favorite sci-fi authors. First was Connie Willis's newest book, The Road to Roswell. What I like about Willis is she writes stories that good-heartedly poke fun at things that people either disdain or are highly invested in, like time travel and clairvoyance. This one addresses alien conspiracy theories. Willis weaves several tropes together--road trip, romantic comedy, and The Code of the West --and creates a cohesive story stocked with zany characters. She must have spent COVID lockdown watching Alien and Cowboy movies because both are an intricate part of communicating with the tumbleweed alien that abducted her. It is a bit kitsch, but it's well-done kitsch.

👽🛸👽🛸🏜️🌵

    A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers is the second in her Monk and Robot series. It is short, but it doesn't feel brief, I think because the main characters Sibling Dex, a tea monk, and Mosscap, a robot on a quest, change and grow throughout the book. In the past, robots awakened (which I take to mean gained sentience) leading to a split with humans They haven't interacted for many years until Dex and Mosscap met in the forest. In this book, the two of them travel together and become deeper friends. I didn't understand the title until almost the end of the book, but it is a lovely metaphor. Even though I would characterize this as a gentle book, it wrestles with thorny themes like identity, family, purpose, and change.  I don't know if other Robot and Monk books are planned, but I hope so. Here is my review of the first book:  https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Becky+Chambers

🫖🍵🤖🦾🦿🌲

Tom Hanks, Bears, and Two Mysteries 🎞️ 🐻🔎🔍

 

 I like Tom Hanks because I'm not a monster. His novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is fun and informative. My involvement in movies is I've watched many from my couch. Tom Hanks's novel is a worthwhile read, but I find myself asking, would this have gotten published if the author wasn't Tom Hanks? Maybe not. The writing can be clunky; lots of description that doesn't further the plot, many simplistically rendered characters to keep track of. Though Hanks does try, his characters are either good guys or bad guys without much nuance or development. The book could have benefitted from multiple storylines and more tension. However, it was heartwarming. The good guys triumph, and the bad guys get their just desserts.

🍿🎥🎬🎞️📽️

  My daughter asked me to read Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, General Editor. It was written by seven Christian women to address what our culture teaches about spirituality and thought trends. Something I've seen depicted is wealthy people are evil, and that is discussed in a chapter on Marxism. The book is well-researched, and the women are passionate about defending Christianity and safeguarding their children. The format is designed for a study or class with questions and action points. The book proposes teaching a "spit and chew" method of evaluating cultural messages--keep the pearls, spit out the swine. Talking with our kids about world views of the things they consume is a great idea. 

  I found the book's voice somewhat uneven as it jumped from author to author. The writing of one would be playful and jokey, and another would be deadly serious. Mama Bear would be a great book to read and discuss with others, but reading it on my own was a bit of a slog.

    One of the contributors is Alisa Childers. I reviewed her book, Another Gospel, here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Alisa+Childers  

🐻🧸🧸🐻

Sophomore effort, good continuation,

  Robert Thorogood's book Death Comes to Marlow is a good follow-up to his first effort. His characters are fleshed out with interesting backstories and problems. He keeps the tension throughout the book and even folds a crossword plotline. If you liked the first, you'll enjoy the second. 

Here is my review of the first book: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Robert+

🦆😵🕵️‍♀️

Third in the series, madcap fun, 

  My murder mystery book club is reading the first in the series by Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan is Killing It (review here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Finlay+Donovan) for July, but I've been reading her latest book, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun. Cosimano's writing reminds me of Janet Evanovich, with crazy characters and madcap adventures. Finlay is a reluctant mystery solver propelled by circumstances, which adds to the insanity. 

🔎🔫🔍

A Typical Week of Mystery and Fantasy 🧩🧞‍♂️

 

    The River of Silver by S. A. Chakraborty is related to The Daevabad Trilogy. This book contains chapters that didn't make it into the orignal and contains more back story or further adventures. I found the Daevabad Trilogy books  a sumptuous feast and The River of Silver to be a leftover crumbs. It less satisfying than the trilogy, but it you love the characters, and I do, some is better than none. 

Here are my reviews of the The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Daevabad 

🧞‍♀️🧞🧞‍♂️

    Robert Thorogood's cozy murder mystery The Marlow Murder Club feels like a cousin of The Thursday Murder Club in that it is British and exceedingly entertaining. It features four women, each from a different generation, coming together to solve a series of murders in their town of Marlow. Thorogood combines the women's skills and speciality knowledge to catch the murderer. One is a dog walker who knows where everyone lives and is connected socially. Another is a young vicar's wife who is internet savvy and highly organized. A young female detective challenged to "figure it out" on a shrinking budget gives access to the forensic and background information. The ringleader is a 70-year-old eccentric who has a job setting crossword puzzles and has a masterful mind for mystery and odd clues. It is the first book of the series, and I'm looking forward to reading more. It is pleasantly diverting.

🧩🔍🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🇬🇧🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️🔎🧩