Book Review: Due or Die (Library Lovers Mystery) by Jenn McKinlay

I love libraries, books, and dogs, so I did like Due or Die, the second in the mystery series featuring library director Lindsey Norris of Briar Creek, Connecticut.

Lindsey has to deal with an envious and cantankerous library assistant while she tries to solve the murder of the husband of the newly elected president of the Friends of the Library. Carrie Rushton's husband has been shot and Carrie is the first suspect. Lindsey wonders if Bill Sint has anything to do with it, as Bill is the outgoing president of the Friends and extremely upset about being replaced by Carrie.

As a nice subplot, a new character is introduced in the series. Heathcliff, a young dog, becomes Lindsey's new best friend and companion after being found abandoned and callously stuffed in the library's book chute. With the help of her admirer Sully and friend Nancy, Lindsey solves the murder even though she risks her life doing it. She is almost run over while biking home on the snowy roads and escapes freezing to death after being locked in an unheated storehouse.

Comments: I liked the book, got through it in record time as it was well written and easy to read. I found it had a lot of padding though, so I was able to skip through it without missing the key ingredients or the subplots in the story. I gave it a 3.5/5 as a good mystery read.

Title: Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley; March 6, 2012
I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Feature Memoir: My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman

Title: My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman, with Alan Light
Hardcover: 400 pages; William Morrow
Publication: May 1, 2012

Book description: For the first time, rock icon Gregg Allman, one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, tells the story of his career, opening up about his long struggle with substance abuse, the tragic death of his brother and life in one of rock music's most legendary bands.

Capturing the Allman Brothers' ongoing resurgence, the book includes over one hundred photos from throughout the band’s history and offers a glimpse inside one of the most popular and notorious bands in the history of rock music.

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy of this book.

Featured Book: Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders by Gyles Brandreth

I peered closely at the ring. "This is where I need Holmes's magnifying glass," I said.

"Or Wilde's eagle eye," my friend countered. "Do you not see a shape in the scratch marks?"

Screwing up my eyes, I saw something. "The outline of a key?" I suggested.
(ch. 2)


Title:Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders: A Mystery 
Paperback: 368 pages; Touchstone
Publication date: May 8, 2012

Book description: Oscar Wilde returns in the historical mystery series, featuring Wilde as the detective aided by his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1892 Arthur Conan Doyle, exhausted by his creation Sherlock Holmes, retires to the spa at Bad Homburg. The first person he encounters is Oscar Wilde, and when the two friends make a series of macabre discoveries amongst the fan mail Conan Doyle has brought to answer - a severed finger, a lock of hair and finally an entire severed hand - the game is once more afoot.

The trail leads to Rome, to the very heart of the Vatican. Pope Pius IX has just died. These are uncertain times. To uncover the mystery, Oscar and Conan Doyle must penetrate the innermost circle of the Church - seven men who have a very great deal to lose. (Goodreads)

Author Gyles Brandreth is a well known BBC broadcaster, theatre producer, novelist, biographer. He has written books on Britain’s royal family and a diary of his years as a member of Parliament.

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary review copy of this book.

The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

'You were the opener. You have an ex-quisite voice, my dear.'

Aurora found herself standing, and almost curtsying. Bah! She stood straight. (ch. 2)

Title: The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Hutchinson (February 1, 2012)

Book description:
"The Little Shadows" tells the story of three sisters making their way in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. Setting off to make their fortune as a singing act after the untimely death of their father, the girls, Aurora, Clover and Bella, are overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama. The girls begin with little besides youth and hope but evolve into artists as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters - charming charlatans, unpredictable eccentrics, and some who seem ordinary but have magical gifts. Marina Endicott reveals how the art of vaudeville - In all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow - echoes the art of life itself. (amazon)

Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book for feature/review.

Book Review - The Scarlet Pepper by Dorothy St. James

Though I found the White House gardener Casey Calhoun a little off centered when it comes to solving mysteries, she clearly is a dedicated gardener in this cozy series, devoted to excellence in tending the vegetables in the First Lady's organic garden.

Casey thinks she has discovered the killers of two reporters in the White House Press Corps. She then tries to find out who is sabotaging the vegetables in the White House garden, and soon discovers the secrets of a female reporter who narrowly escapes death in a hit and run. Casey tries to put all the facts together, putting her own life in danger.

Far from being the crafty sleuth, however, Casey seems to fall into the solution to the crimes by accident.

An enjoyable cozy if you don't mind being exasperated with the main character at times. I enjoyed reading about the White House garden itself, the Secret Service personnel, and the press corps, assuming that the details are true to life - their duties, methods of work, volunteers at the White House, etc.

Title: The Scarlet Pepper by Dorothy St. James
Published: April 3, 2012 by Berkley
Series: A White House Gardener Mystery #2
Genre: cozy, mystery
Objective rating: 4/5

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Click on Greensleeves to hear Zen Garden Music.

Sunday Salon: Memoirs and Fiction

I posted only four book reviews last week, but it was a good week for me as I normally finish about two reviews. A variety of genres:


Another Piece of My Heart aka
 The Patchwork Marriage

Pilgrimage to the End of the World by Conrad Rudolph, a travel memoir about a thousand mile trip from southern France to Santiago de Compostela, the famous pilgrimage site in Spain.

Lucky Child by Loung Ung, a memoir about a childhood in war torn Cambodia and leaving a sister and two brothers behind to immigrate to the U.S.

The Scarlet Pepper by Dorothy St. James, a White House Gardener mystery.

A Patchwork Marriage by Jane Green, a contemporary novel about stepmothers and stepdaughters, and coming of age.

On my reading list are Broken Spirit, a mystery by Charles L. Fields, and
Dana Stabenow's Alaskan mystery, Restless in the Grave.

What have you been reading/blogging recently?

A Patchwork Marriage by Jane Green, a novel

Comments: An interesting story about a second marriage, a stepmother, a rebellious stepdaughter, and her coming of age. I had to admire the patience of Andi in dealing with her husband Ethan, an overly indulgent father of a rebellious teenage daughter Emily, who is often very rude to her stepmom. I wondered how I would handle such a situation if I were in Andi's place.

A good book of women's fiction with believable characters. Recommended.

Title: The Patchwork Marriage by Jane Green 
Published 2012 by Michael Joseph, Penguin paperback
Genre: contemporary women's fiction
Rating: 4/5

Goodreads description:  A story that explores the complications of a woman marrying into a ready-made family, and the true meaning of motherhood. Andi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty-seven, she's finally found him. Ethan--divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia--is a devoted father and even better husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls like they were her own. But in Emily’s eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father’s love, and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. (from the description of the same book published as Another Piece of My Heart,  March 13, 2012 by St. Martins Press)

Thanks to Penguin for a complimentary review copy of The Patchwork Marriage.