Sunday Salon: The Heat Moves On

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I was able to turn off the air con in my bedroom at around two this morning and open the window to a nice flow of cool air. My 60 year old house doesn't have central air, as YET! But if this type of summer weather continues, we'll have to move the old house into the 21st century.

Several new books arrived, in addition to one I bought at the Borders' closing sale. Just one, so far and waiting for the discounts to deepen, though I'm sorry the bookstore chain has to go. An employee of the successful B&N store told me that Borders had internal management problems, in his opinion - top heavy and no internal communication. I'll bet it's gets even more complex than that

The newest arrivals were The Summer We Came to Life by Deborah Cloyed and a copy of The Taba Convention by Stephen W. Ayers, the first in the Jordan Kline series of thrillers.

Reviewed last week were In Search of the Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault and two cozies, two cozy mysteries, Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend and Till Death Do Us Bark by Judi McCoy.

I have a couple of books to read for upcoming TLC book tours, plus a few on my Kindle that I've promised authors to read and review. The summer is hot and busy with books to read!

What have you been doing/reading this past week?

Book Reviews: Tempest in the Tea Leaves; Till Death Do Us Bark

Title: Tempest in the Tea Leaves: A Fortune Teller Mystery by Kari Lee Townsend

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Berkley, August 2, 2011

Source: Publisher

Objective rating: 3.75/5

About: Sunny Meadows leaves her wealthy parents behind in Manhattan and heads upstate New York to finally find a life of her own as a fortune teller. She uses tea leaves to see the present and predict the future. Sunny finds an old Victorian mansion, supposedly haunted and therefore at a bargain price, and settles in with a white cat that suddenly appears in the mansion. When her first customer, the town librarian, visits and takes home some of Sunny's tea leaves, things start to go wrong. The librarian is found dead of poisoning, from drinking the tea she had made from Sunny's tea leaves. With the cat Monty, a cat with strange powers, looking on, and the town detective, Mitch, Sunny sets out to clear her name.

Comments: I liked the spunk of the main character Sunny, her zaniness and sense of  humor, which is also the sense of humor of the author, Kari Lee Townsend. In total, there is a likable character in the book -Sunny, a mystery to keep you guessing - the cat Monty, and a love interest in the person of the handsome but suspicious detective, Mitch. Add to that, adoring and protective but clueless parents, and you have a cozy that is entertaining and a nice summer read. This mystery is the first in the series.

Title: Till Death Do Us Bark: A Dog Walker Mystery  by Judi McCoy

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Signet

Publication date: August 2, 2011

Source: Publisher

Objective rating: 3/5 

About: Dog walker Ellie accompanies her best friend Viv to the wedding of Viv's sister in the upscale Hamptons. Among all the guests and their dogs, Ellie is recruited by at least one person who wants a dog walker back in the city. The relative peace doesn't last long, however, as the groom is found murdered outside the guest cottage, and the son of the cook and gardener is considered a suspect. Ellie, an amateur sleuth, who has helped solve murders in the past, is asked to solve the crime, to the dismay of Ellie's protective boyfriend back home.

Comments: I got a bit confused by the names and activities of all the guests and their accompanying dogs, but luckily the book soon focused in on the main characters in the mystery. This is the fifth in the series. I'm looking forward to reading the others.

Book Review: In Search of the Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault

Title: In Search of the Rose Notes: A Novel
Author: Emily Arsenault
Paperback: 384 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication date: July 26, 2011
Genre: fiction, mystery; Source: Publisher
Objective rating: 5/5

"Maybe her dreams were full of things we were too young to hear about. Or maybe Rose was a little like me. Maybe her dreams, too, were full of things she didn't want other people to understand." (ch. 2)

Summary: The story of two 11-year-old girls, Charlotte and Norah and their 16-year-old babysitter, Rose, takes us to Waverly, Conn. in the 1990s. Rose disappears one night after walking home from her babysitting job, and Nora is the last to see her alive, a fact that her classmates and young neighbors taunt her with over the years.

Sixteen years later, Nora, now a teacher in D.C., returns to Waverly to visit Charlotte and go over their memories of what happened so many years ago and to try to find out what really happened to Rose. They re-examine theirs and Rose's notes made during the time they made up stories, wrote down their dreams, and tried to predict the future using a set of fortune telling books that Charlotte had.

Gradually, more secrets are uncovered as Nora talks again to her former classmates and friends, piecing together more about Rose that she never knew, and remembering the haunted feelings that made her leave Waverly ten years ago.

Comments: This is a psychological novel as well as a mystery that delves into the minds and actions of preteens and teenagers, young people who act alone, afraid to confide in their unaware and sometimes unreliable elders, some of whom they also consider untrustworthy. A revealing book to read from this vantage point. And a very good story as well. I recommend it.

About the author: Emily Arsenault is author of The Broken Teaglass, a New York Times 2009 Notable Mystery. She lives in Massachusetts.

Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Alli, spellbound in horror, felt for her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth. She could not utter a word.

"What, no shock, no hysteria, not a tear shed?" Flatfood said with a voice like an ice floe.

Title: Blood Trust: (Jack McClure-Alli Carson Novels)
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Genre: political thriller
Publication: Forge Books (May 10, 2011)
Source: publisher

Product description:
Alli Carson has been through her own personal hell. With her father, the President of the United States, recently dead and her mother in a coma from a terrible accident, she has poured herself into her training to become one of the best FBI agents at the Fearington Institute. Her inspiration and solace comes from the one man with whom she has ever felt a kinship, National Security Adviser, Jack McClure. But when Alli becomes the prime suspect in a murder at Fearington, a wide ranging investigation is triggered, involving local homicide detectives, the secret service, the FBI itself, and Alli’s own uncle, the billionaire lobbyist Henry Carson. And yet nothing is what it seems.

What follows is a treacherous journey that leads Jack and Alli into a complex web of lies and deceit. Using Jack’s unique gifts to see the through the labyrinth of manipulation, their investigation leads them into the dark heart of the international slave trade, tied to a powerful Albanian crime lord whose ability and influence in global terrorism grows with each day.

Sunday Salon: Hot, hot, hot!

Welcome to the Sunday Salon. Click on the logo to join in!

I'm enjoying relatively cooler temperatures right now than back home, which will be 95 degrees tomorrow. I only hope my potted plants and flowers survive the heat onslaught.

Books I reviewed last week include
Killer Move, a psychological thriller by Michael Marshall,
County Line, a mystery by Bill Cameron, and
Overbite, a vampire thriller by Meg Cabot.

I've finished reading a couple of paperback cozies, one of which is Tempest in the Tea Leaves: A Fortune Teller Mystery by Kari Lee Townsend which I hope to review next week, and am planning to finish The Rules of the Tunnel by Ned Zeman for a TLC book tour in early August. I've ordered a copy of Pao by Kerry Young, which I should get in a few days.

My Kindle is filled with goodies which are both free downloads, amazon buys, and ebooks from authors. Am having a hard time pulling myself away from the print books with their gorgeous covers and picking up my Kindle. Anyone else having this problem?

My husband and I are listening to the audio book of The Postcard Killers, a thriller by James Patterson and Liza Marklund. It's pretty good so far!

What have you been reading? Keep cool, wherever you are!

Book Review: Overbite by Meg Cabot

Title: Overbite by Meg Cabot
Hardcover: 288 pages, Willliam Morrow
Publication date:  July 5, 2011
Source: Publisher
Objective rating: 4.5/5
 
Summary: The follow up to Insatiable is almost as good as the first book! Meena Harper has gotten over her ex-boyfriend, Lucien Anton­escu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But has she? She has been recruited by the Palatine Guard, a secret unit of the Vatican dedicated to hunting and destroying all vampires/demons. But Meena insists that Lucien, only part vampire because of his angelic human mother, still has the capacity to love. The rest of the vampire world is interested in Meena because they hope to tap into her ability to predict how everyone she meets will die.

Her partner in the Palatine Guard, Alaric Wulf, is not convinced, however, that Lucien is anything but pure evil. There are new threats from the vampire world, something unusual and more sinister that even Lucien doesn't know about. Father Henrique—aka Padre Caliente— has also been assigned to the case.

Meena tries to shield Lucien while she and Alaric hunt down these new and more vicious vampires that are unknown even to Lucien, the supposed head of all demons. Meena is torn between her growing attraction to Alaric and her lingering love for Lucien. The fight between the demon slayers and the new breed of vampires hunting both Meena and Lucien  comes to a head with a surprising twist.

Comments: Overbite is just as interesting and entertaining as the first book, Insatiable. I was hoping for a third in the series but it seems that may not happen, based on how the story ends. But read it for yourself and make that judgement!

Book Review: County Line by Bill Cameron

"What are you doing with Ruby Jane's phone?"
"It's complicated. Listen, I need to talk to you. Do you have a minute?"
"I can't hear you."
"Something's happened at Ruby Jane's apartment." (ch. 4)

Title: County Line by Bill Cameron
Hardcover: 300 pages
Publisher: Tyrus Books;
Publication date: NONE edition (June 21, 2011)
Genre: Thriller, mystery
Source: publisher
Objective rating: 4.5/5

Product Description: When the steadfast Ruby Jane Whittaker drops out of sight, dogged ex-cop Skin Kadash sets out to discover what drove the woman he loves to leave her life behind so suddenly and without explanation. The discovery of a dead man in her apartment followed by an attack from a mysterious stalker leads Skin first to California, then across the country on a desperate journey deep into Ruby Jane's haunted past—and toward an explosive confrontation which will determine if either has a future.

Comments: The flashbacks to Ruby Jane and her brother James' earlier lives worked well in this novel. The plot was interesting and unique and not at all predictable. I recommend it to all mystery readers as a good book to get into for good storytelling, writing, and plot. Ruby Jane is a compelling character and is the center of this novel. I'm looking forward to reading Cameron's previous books.

About the Author:
Bill Cameron lives with his wife and a menagerie of critters in Portland, Oregon. His stories have appeared in Spinetingler, Portland Noir, and the forthcoming First Thrills. He is a member of Friends of Mystery, International Thriller Writers, and Mystery Writers of America.