Sunday Salon: The End of Summer

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

I'v been enjoying the past few days' sunny but cooler weather and nights without air conditioners. The red maple in the back has turned from purple grey-green to a  rusty color, though it's not yet in its full fall foliage. The tomato vine is full of tomatoes of all sizes though it has stopped blossoming.  My exotic hot pepper plants have produced a few thick and elongated green peppers that I am waiting to pick. I think they need to turn from green to red to be ready for cooking.

The roses are cutting back on blooms, a few chrysanthemum plants are in bud, and the giant hibiscus plant is opening all  its final buds with energy and vigor before the cold really sets in. And I am getting ready for winter by putting away summer clothes and sheets and getting out the flannels.

Last week, I read a lot and posted a few reviews:

The Dog Who Knew Too Much, a mystery by Spencer Quinn
Death of the Mantis, a mystery by Michael Stanley
Betrayal of Trust by J.A. Jance; and The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman, crime fiction novels
Help! for Writers, a manual by Roy Peter Clark
Death on Tour, a mystery by Janice Hamrick

I am now reading, thanks to my random number generator, the 10th in my pile of books: Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegleman. Yes, I'm using an RNG to help me choose the next books to read! It has the authority to make me decide and settle on one book, otherwise I'd be still trying to make up my mind.

A lovely and surprise win in a book contest came from the author, Laura Joh Rowland,who sent The Ronin's Mistress, with a very nice handwritten note. I've read her books in the mystery series before. They are set in early 18thC Japan amd feature the Shogun's chief investigator, Sano Ichiro.

What have you been reading lately?

Book Review: Death on Tour, a Mystery by Janice Hamrick

Title: Death on Tour, a Mystery by Janice Hamrick
Publisher: Minotaur Books, April 26, 2011

I picked this up at the library because of the cover picture of the Sphinx and the pyramids in the background and not because of the figure of the Grim Reaper with his  scythe, although that let me know right off that the book was a mystery.

The book was a descriptive travel of Egypt for me, as I went on a tour with WorldPal, from the pyramids of Cairo, Giza, Abu Simel, Luxor, Karnak, the tombs of Tutankhamen, the Valley of the Kings, a cruise on the Nile. There is more travel information and overall descriptions of the pyramids than in Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile or even in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Mystery Series set in Egypt.

While you armchair travel, there is a murder mystery that plays out. Two murders on the tour, to be exact, and two attempts on the heroine, Jocelyn's life. Jocelyn and her cousin Kyla unwittingly become involved in the murder mystery when one in their tour group has a suspicious and fatal fall after climbing up on a rocky outcrop. Some one else is killed later in a bazaar shop, and Jocelyn is attacked in a pyramid and on board their ship on the Nile. The title Death on Tour is an apt one.

Very well written and plotted, I recommend the book to cozy readers and anyone interested in a murder mystery tour of Egypt along the Nile, with some romance mixed in.

Death on Tour won the 2010 Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur Books First Crime Novel Competition

Book Tour: Help! for Writers by Roy Peter Clark

This writer's manual is a good one for beginning writers and also for those who know about the writing process but who need a little nudging to get on their way.

Here's a taste of the book, tips on coping with writer's block ( from ch. 13):

Lower your standards at the beginning of the process. Raise them later.

Write for ten minutes as fast as you can - without stopping.

Tell the critical voice in your head to "shut up!"

If you are blocked in your usual writing place, try a new place.

The book takes you through seven steps of the writing process, (because writing is a process with a capital P). There are specific things you have to do at the beginning, the middle, and the end, such as finding a topic, getting focused, making a draft, and so on. The author lists the steps in the process, discussing them at length in eight sections: Get started/Get your act together/Find focus/Look for language/Build a draft/Assess you progress/Make it better

Each section is divided further into chapters and subsections that give tips for each step in the writing process. There are 210 writing tips in all.

I was particularly interested in writer's block and procrastination, in the section on Building a Draft. I like the down to earth, almost common sense approach to the subject. "Create a reliable, comfortable place to write." And, " Impose a deadline on yourself." Simple, but we all need reminders.

I found this a good manual to show writers the many things they can do to start, move forward, and get their writing done, and redone! It's easy to follow, and would you believe this...it's also fun to read!

Title: Help for Writers: 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces
Author: Roy Peter Clark
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (2011), Hardcover, 304 pages
Objective rating: 4/5

An Advanced Readers Copy of this book was provided by Anna Balasi of Little, Brown and Company for this book tour. My rating was not influenced by my receiving a complimentary copy for review.

Book Reviews: Betrayal of Trust; and The Most Dangerous Thing

Two detectives are called in when a snuff film is found on a young man's cell phone. The young man happens to be the step grandson of the Governor of Washingston State. The boy denies knowing anything about the film which shows the strangulation of a young girl, or who sent it to him. Detectives J.P. Beaumont and his partner and wife, Detective Mel Soames, are assigned to the case.

The story is about high school adolescents unsupervised by adults and others betrayed by the adults they trust. The book points out the dangers adolescents sometimes face, not only from adults, but also from each other.

Title: Betrayal of Trust by J.A. Jance
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published July 5th 2011 by William Morrow & Company
Objective rating: 4.5/5



A book with a similar overall theme is Laura's Lippman's The Most Dangerous Thing. Five adults were best friends growing up together. Now, Gordon, in his 40s, has died after crashing his car into a tree. Was it suicide or the result of drinking and speeding? The novel is written with flashbacks in every other chapter, to reveal what happened during their childhood and the consequences in adulthood. Slow to start off, the book nevertheless grabs you in the second half with its startling revelations about the adults and the children that they were.



Title: The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published September 1st 2011 by William Morrow (first published August 23rd 2011)
Objective rating: 4/5

These two books were sent to me by the publisher. My reviews and ratings are in no way influenced by my receiving complimentary copies.

Book Review: Pao, a Novel by Kerry Young

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

As I watch the ship sail away I realise that I would never leave Jamaica. Never. I was committed to her, for good or bad, rich or poor, in sickness and in health. (ch. 7)

Title: Pao: A Novel by Kerry Young
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; July 5, 2011
Source: personal copy

Publisher's description of PAO: As a young boy, Pao comes to Jamaica in the wake of the Chinese Civil War and rises to become the Godfather of Kingston's bustling Chinatown. Pao needs to take care of some dirty business, but he is no Don Corleone. The rackets he runs are small-time, and the protection he provides necessary, given the minority status of the Chinese in Jamaica. Pao, in fact, is a sensitive guy in a wise guy role that doesn't quite fit. Often mystified by all that he must take care of, Pao invariably turns to Sun Tzu's Art of War. The juxtaposition of the weighty, aphoristic words of the ancient Chinese sage, with the tricky criminal and romantic predicaments Pao must negotiate builds the basis of the novel's great charm.

A tale of post-colonial Jamaica from a unique and politically potent perspective, Pao moves from the last days of British rule through periods of unrest at social and economic inequality, through tides of change that will bring about Rastafarianism and the Back to Africa Movement. Pao is an utterly beguiling, unforgettable novel of race, class and creed, love and ambition, and a country in the throes of tumultuous change.

About the author: Kerry Young was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Chinese-African mother and a Chinese father-a businessman in Kingston's shadow economy who provided inspiration for Pao. Young moved to England in 1965 at the age of ten. She earned her MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University. This is her first novel. Formore information about Kerry, visit http://www.kerryyoung.co.uk/

Guest reviewer, Kathi Harris, has this review about the novel, Pao.
The book PAO by Kerry Young brought to mind fond memories of life in Jamaica. It is PAO'S story, told by him in a Jamaican voice. It is also a historical novel. Though I grew up in Jamaica, this book taught me quite a bit about the Chinese in Jamaica.

Pao arrives in Jamaica from China in the mid 1940s, with his mom and brother, after the Chinese civil war in which his father dies. Zhang is Pao's father's friend who came to Jamaica some time ago. Zhang is Godfather in Jamaica's Chinatown, and provides to Pao and his family, a place to stay and his protection.

Pao starts out as a kid just helping his uncle in his business.The fact that some of this business is illegal puts him on a path that leads to his becoming the biggest and baddest crime figure in Jamaica's Chinatown - Mathews lane. While on this journey Pao fathers three children from his wife and his long-time mistress. He tries to be a good father. He was a good provider.

Pao isn't such a bad guy, even though he eventually takes Zhang's place as Godfather in Jamaica's Chinatown. He is a strong enforcer of the rules in this organized criminality - almost like the Italian mob. But he is still a compassionate and caring man to his friends, family and people who need his help.

Kathi Harris is the author of the novel Medusa The Beginning. A part of her book is also set in Jamaica.

Book Review: Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

I enjoyed reading about the country of Botswana and the people of the Kalahari Desert, the Bushmen. I also found the main character, Detective Kubu, a person with an endearing personality who does his best as Assistant Superintendent of the police force while trying to please his wife, Joy, who prefers to have Kubu spend more time at home with her and their new baby.

When a park ranger, Monzo, is found killed in the desert with three Bushmen by his side, suspicion is immediately cast on the Bushmen, who are often discriminated against in Botswana. Detective Kubu makes no such assumptions, however, but pursues the case with care and detail. When another man is killed in the desert, a man from the nearby country of Namibia, Kubu has to travel there to further investigate, much to Joy's dismay. He also has to travel further into the Kalahari, where he almost dies from the heat and lack of water.

There is suspense and intrigue about the Bushmen, who call themselves the people of the Mantis, and about their sacred places in the desert. I found the book intriguing and would read the previous mysteries in the series.

Title: Death of the Mantis: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Original edition, September 6, 2011
Source: review copy from the publisher
Rating: 4/5
My rating of this book is in no way influenced by my receiving a complimentary copy for review.

For more information on the authors, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, and for a list of other reviews, visit Death of the Mantis Book Tour held by TLC Book Tours.

Book Review: The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn

My first book in the Chet and Bernie Mystery series, and it won't be my last. I couldn't believe that Spencer Quinn could pull off having a dog tell the entire story, and do it so well. Chet is the dog partner in the Chet and Bernie private investigative duo. Bernie is his owner and boss, an ex-military man who isn't slowed down much by a slight limp.

"Chet. Are you listening, buddy?"
Of course I was listening. Didn't I always listen to Bernie? I made myself listen even harder, and right away heard distant footsteps, on some level above.(ch. 18)

In their newest case, the two are asked to find a boy missing in the mountains during summer camp. They discover the body of a camp leader, shot in the head in an old abandoned mine. When they pursue leads, both the dog and his PI partner are imprisoned. How Chet escapes and later helps Bernie to escape to solve the kidnapping and bring the perps to justice is good storytelling, dog style, of course. I also liked the humor in the novel.

Publisher's description: The fourth in the New York Times bestselling mystery series featuring canine narrator Chet and his human companion Bernie. Combining suspense and intrigue with a wonderfully humorous take on the link between man and beast.  Spencer Quinn lives on Cape Cod with his dog, Audrey. He is currently working on the next Chet and Bernie novel.

Title: The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn
Publisher: Atria Books, September 6, 2011
Rating: 4.5/5
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

© Harvee Lau 2011