Book Review - Ghost a la Mode by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Ghost a la Mode by Sue Ann Jaffarian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a plain out fun read. I was afraid it might be a little too Ghost Whispery, but it wasn’t. Emma is recently separated from her talk-show host husband and living with her parents in her childhood home. At the request of a friend, she attends a seance and discovers that she has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Well, at first, it’s the ghost of her great-great-great-grandmother. Later on she realizes she can see all ghosts.

Turns out Granny was murdered and has been waiting for a family member to help her. After a bit of denial about seeing ghosts, Emma decides she needs something to do (for lack of a better phrase) since with the end of her marriage and her daughter heading to college, home maker is probably not a good occupation going forward. So, she listens to Granny and sets out to Julian, CA, to see what she can find out.

This book has great characters, humor, a romance of sorts, and a little history (Julian is a real town). There are also two mysteries - Granny Apples murder and the present-day murder of a sleazy psychic in the Julian cemetery. Just so happens, Emma was one of the last people to see him alive. The mysteries themselves weren’t great and the motive was alluded to throughout, however, I didn’t figure out either of the killers. Even given that, I enjoyed the story, the characters and the settings and will definitely read other books in this series.

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Book Review - The God of the Hive

The God of the Hive: A novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall, this book was okay, though I was a bit disappointed. It picks up where The Language of Bees left off. It zig zags back and forth between Russell, Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, the villain, and one chapter devoted to a character introduced in Bees. As if this wasn’t enough, it suddenly went from the crimes of a religious leader turned madman to some type of spy story motive. Turns out the lunatic religious leader was just a side story and the true bad guy is actually after Mycroft. I never did really get why.

Add to this, when Russell learns some of Mycroft secrets, which really shouldn’t have been all that big of a surprise, she’s suddenly comes to look upon Mycroft as some sort of bad guy. Really? What did she think Intelligence involved? She’s a smarter girl than that.

The reintroduction of a character from one of the Conan Doyle stories was refreshing. The character of Goodman was somewhat fun. However, there were side stories everywhere, again way to much flying detail, tons of detail regarding disguises, and other elements that just seemed to drag out the story. Add to this that I actually figured out the story with Mycroft and you’re basically told who the bad guy is in the beginning (but we get less detail about him and his motives than we do for some of the other secondary characters) and this was not all that much of a mystery.

I truly enjoy this series and think it’s one of the best mystery series going. This lacked a lot of what I have enjoyed in the previous books, especially the interaction between Holmes and Russell. Overall, this is not one of the better books in the series. However, if you’ve read The Language of Bees, I’d definitely recommend this one to round out the story.

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Book Review - The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the ninth book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. While the previous book, Locked Rooms, focused on Mary’s past, this one circles around to Holmes' past. It introduces his son Damian (whose mother is Irene Adler), a man who has had his own share of problems and is maybe not of the same breed as Holmes, but not a bad guy either. In fact, a family man with a wife and daughter whom he is devoted to. He’s also an artist. We also get more of Mycroft in this book, which is a treat.

The mystery begins with the disappearance of Damian’s wife, Yolanda, and morphs into the hunt for a mad, would be cult leader. The story, while good, seemed a bit disjointed in the beginning. There’s a story line involving bees that I thought might play into the main story, but it didn’t. Not really. There were other events, found via perusal of the papers, that seemed strange to Russell, which did tie into the main mystery. Damian comes to Holmes for help in finding Yolanda and his daughter. Yolanda is known for her spiritual exploration and has taken trips in the past, but this time Damian doesn't know where she went. At first, Holmes helps Damian solo, but when Damian disappears, he and Russell team up, basically headquartering out of Mycroft's London townhouse.

The narrative jumped back and forth between Holmes and Russell, which is a little different from previous novels where we usually just get Russell’s viewpoint and Holmes’ movements and investigations as told to Russell. I didn’t mind it, though, and rather liked it. It was nice to not get Holmes movements second hand, so to speak. Holmes for obvious reasons doesn't really want to provide all details to the police which puts him somewhat on the opposite side of the police. In fact, the police are a bit contrary with Holmes, which seemed to go a bit against the original series, though this is set several years in the future.

I didn't care for Russell's almost derogatory comments about Watson (never have), but there were few of them. Russell has never held him in high regard as far his help to Holmes in the past and I've never really gotten that. Holmes relied on Watson quite a bit back in the day and knew he would would always come through.

There are a lot characters in this story, but the more I read, the more it all seemed to flow together. The pace picked as the book progressed, though I found the detail for the plane ride excruciating. I thought it would never end and really wished it would have sooner; it just went on for way longer than it needed too.

The end wasn’t really the end and that was a bit of disappointment. It was a set-up for the next book, The God of the Hive. This isn’t really a bad thing, just a teeny, tiny, little disappointment as there is no true resolution.

I enjoyed this book enough that I’m now reading The God of the Hive. I would definitely recommend this book for fans of the series. If your new to this series, I’d recommend starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.


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And, then a Hurricane!

Last Saturday Hurricane Irene blew her way through my town. Watching the news and hearing about the evacuations, especially those in my town made for a lively Friday afternoon. I was happy to find out that my apartment is not in a low lying area and I could stay, though I found out later that a friend and co-worker's house was and she stayed on a friend's couch.

Before the storm came, I made sure I did some grocery shopping and took care of things that I wouldn't be able to do over the weekend. I also did "storm" prep, which I'm not usually in the habit of doing. Batteries, water, food, etc. The most important, though, was getting my hair cut. A girl has to take care of the important stuff.

Saturday morning wasn't too bad, but I found myself watching the coverage on the local Fox station. I don't normally do that, but I was intrigued. I also found myself following Twitter feeds (love the Weather Channel and Weather Bug and I found some great local feeds to follow) for info on what was happening here and in the area. I was surprised that it didn't just drive me nuts. Alas, in the evening the winds did pick up as did the rain. The rain wasn't a problem, but that wind. Wow. It rattled the bedroom windows quite a bit, so I didn't really sleep a lot on Saturday night. I managed to get dinner, but the power flickered several times. After making it through all of Saturday and Saturday night and early Sunday, I lost power at 7:30 am Sunday morning.

By Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous and I was going stir crazy. Without power, I had no cable and my portable radio wasn't doing it's thing. I didn't realize how disconnected I would feel without some type of contact. I did do a bit on my cell phone, but I was trying to conserve since I didn't know when the power would come back and I'd be able to charge it. Finally, a friend and I headed for B&N to recharge our electronics and to some extent, to re-charge ourselves. We had sandwiches outside for dinner and just relaxed a bit.

I was one of the lucky ones in that I got power back early Sunday evening. My friend wasn't so lucky. She got power back Thursday. Fortunately, I was able to offer up my couch. Thank goodness we get along great! The apartment seemed a little empty after she left, but I know she's reveling in being back in own home. After all, who isn't happy to get back in their own house and sleep in their own bed? Even without a natural disaster, there's nothing quite like returning home from traveling and sleeping in one's own bed.

Watching the news and seeing the flooding in Vermont and New Jersey, I know that where I live, we got through it very well. While it's taken almost a week, just about everyone has power back. Life for us will get back to normal much quicker than those that are stranded or completely flooded out.

The weather this past week has been absolutely gorgeous -- and calm. Hard to believe that Hurricane Irene was only a week ago, though signs of her passing through can still be seen about town. Weather is strange sometimes.