strange and random happenstance

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: January 21st, 2020
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Dr. Irene Fenton might have been onto something before her recent immolation. As the Ellingham expert and the author of Truly Devious: The Ellingham Murders her hunches shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt. She believed there was a codicil to Albert Ellingham's will that stipulated that whoever found his daughter Alice, alive or dead, would inherent a large fortune so long as they were not members of Ellingham Academy's school board or somehow involved in her disappearance. And while Call Me Charles, the head of Ellingham Academy, informs Stevie that the codicil does not exist let alone mention the sum of ten million dollars Stevie has to wonder; a codicil would account for the crime spree on campus and it's environs. Why else were Hayes Major, Ellie Walker, and Dr. Irene Fenton killed in freak accidents? No one who was alive when the crime was perpetrated back in the thirties is alive today. Even the likelihood of Alice being alive and well is slim to none. So it comes down to the oldest motive in the world, greed. Someone believes in the codicil and they are willing to kill for it. But Stevie's life is in free fall. Her possibly, maybe boyfriend David has gotten himself beaten up in an attempt to derail his father's presidential ambitions. Her friends are dead. And yet she can't waste any brainpower on anything that isn't the case. It is consuming her. Much as Ellingham Academy is about to be consumed by snow. This blizzard is a once in a century storm and while Ellingham Academy was built to withstand the rigors of a Vermont winter this one might be too much to handle. The school is being evacuated and, due to all the recent tragedies, it will not be welcoming the students back after the storm clears. Ellingham Academy is closing it's doors. But Stevie isn't going anywhere. The case is here so she has to be here. Which means she's staying behind. Which means all her friends along with Dr. Fenton's nephew Hunter are staying behind. They have a killer to catch, a mystery to solve, and a presidential campaign to derail. It might be a lot for anyone else, but for Stevie and her friends it's just another day at Ellingham Academy. It's time to gather the suspects and bring her best Agatha Christie game face. She's about to solve the crime of the century. And who knows, maybe get a codicil conquest...

While this does nicely tie together all the loose threads and captures all the red herrings that Maureen Johnson has tossed about over three books I can't help but feel this volume was a little too contrived. I mean, I know that this series is about a bunch of overachieving teens who solve true crimes and build Rube Goldberg machines for fun, so it's not exactly grounded in reality, but the whole convenience of the blizzard and their absurd hiding out to avoid detection leading up to the denouement felt more Scooby-Doo than Hercule Poirot. But now that I start to think about Scooby-Doo way more than I ever have before, isn't it basically the same setup of an Agatha Christie novel with the pulling off of the mask being the revealing of the culprit in just a cheesier manner? OK, I'm totally now spiraling and rethinking everything about my life with these thoughts, meaning, I've never felt closer to Stevie. I'm with you there girl. Let's spiral together. I mean, I'd accepted the Shakespearean nature of Scooby-Doo thanks to Eddie Izzard, but this is a whole new way of thinking. And maybe I just shouldn't dwell. Maybe I should embrace the Scooby-Doo quality and say that The Hand on the Wall felt a tad trite and that's what's getting me. Because a lot of this book really works and as someone who was watching Scooby-Doo since before she could walk despite never bothering to actually think about it's story structure Maureen Johnson did something unexpected. She surprised me. When I read murder mysteries I almost always figure it out. My mind is built for puzzles and I just put two and two together. Even when I don't figure it out when the killer is revealed I'm kind of like not surprised but accepting, like, oh, this makes sense so of course they are the killer. I knew from about two pages in that Albert Ellingham's right hand man George Marsh orchestrated the whole thing. It was obvious. And the reasoning behind this was I was sure that he was Alice's father and that he and Iris were having an affair. But here's where it got deliciously complicated. George was Alice's father. He just didn't know. What's more Iris wasn't Alice's mother. Flora Robinson was. Bait and switch and I love it! It also adds the wonderful twist that while Stevie figured out everything, down to Alice's parentage, she isn't eligible to get the reward from the codicil, which was real! Why? Because Alice's DNA doesn't match either Ellingham. Because, well, it wouldn't. Genius.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Albert Ellingham, Blizzard, Codicil, Deaths, Eddie Izzard, Ellingham Academy, Hercule Poirot, Last Will, Maureen Johnson, Scooby-Doo, Shakespearean, Stevie Bell, Summer School, The Hand on the Wall, Truly Devious

Away in a Manger: A Very Turnip Wedding Night by Lauren Willig
Published by: Amazon
Publication Date: July 25th, 2011
Format: Kindle, 14 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Turnip and Arabella are tra la la-ing their way to Parva Magna. They have just been married from Girdings, with the Dowager Duchess of Dovevale as witness no less, and Turnip is taking his hours old bride home. There's only one problem. It's started to snow. A lot. Then there was a fork in the road. They chose the wrong road. Things are looking bleak when they spot a barn. This wasn't the wedding night Turnip wanted for Arabella but at least she won't freeze to death. Especially as she's so industrious she uses all the warm bricks and blankets Turnip had enrobed her in for the ride to make a fire and a bed. And that's the worst part. Hay could technically be construed as a bed, or at least a bed in it's composite parts. Turnip wanted a real bed and a roaring fire for his bride's first time. He didn't want to have to keep running out of the barn and sticking his head in a snowbank just to bank the flames of his own desires. At the rate things are going he's going to actually have to freeze his limbs to keep them away from Arabella. But Arabella is also feeling the flames of desire. Turnip working up a sweat while chopping wood, eventually with the correct end of the ax, was almost more than she could bare. His shirt clinging to his well toned body has her ready for her wedding night, even if it is in a barn. Plus, Turnip has always had a thing for milkmaids, it seems almost destiny that a Christmas romance would end in a barn. Plus, the barn is so comfortable, who could object to them staying other than his sister Sally and his valet Gerkin?

The books in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation oeuvre have never shied away from having a little sexy sexy in them. In fact, Lauren herself has said that when writing her first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, she was under the delusion she was writing a romance, not historical fiction. So there's a little steamy, a little sexy sexy, in boats no less! As each of the succeeding volumes came out there where varying degrees of steam, some, like The Mischief of the Mistletoe, nary a naked body in sight. There was some steamy kissing, but fully clothed, drat those clothes, and a desk, and everything else that got in their way, including puddings. The Mischief of the Mistletoe with Turnip Fitzhugh has become my favorite book Lauren has written and it has easily made itself mandatory Christmas reading. Some people might say though we where denied the wedding night, being only given the "happily ever after." Well, at the RITA awards she had stuck a bargain to write Turnip's "Amorous Addendum" if she won. And she won. This chapter picks up after Turnip has hastily married Arabella before even leaving Girdings, he doesn't want her coming to her senses, and he valiantly heads forth into an oncoming blizzard. The blizzard that makes them lost and snowbound, but luckily there's a barn. And nice warm hay... And of course, pudding. You can imagine there's much sexy sexy, but Turnip being Turnip, there's prevarication and talking and much jumping into snowbanks and finally, she doth stop his mouth with a kiss. Despite the steam, this was nothing but sweet. Even if Sally would disagree. They ate the entire hamper of food that she was looking forward to! And Gerkin is despondent about Turnip's coat.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Very Turnip Wedding Night, Amorous Addendum, Arabella Dempsey, Away in a Manger, Barn, Blizzard, Christmas, Girdings, Lauren Willig, Pudding, Regency Romp, RITA, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, Turnip Fitzhugh

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: February 12th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Since their Oxford days a motley group of thirtysomethings have rung in the New Year together. Though this year they aren't all festive holiday joy as they arrive at the idyllic and isolated estate, Loch Corrin, in the Scottish Highlands. Mark's newish girlfriend Emma has arranged the trip for his college friends down to the very last detail. Of course, she couldn't control the weather, the fact that there is another group at the lodge, or all the secrets the group is concealing from one another. But this group has survived this long, what's one more New Year's Eve? Miranda has always been the leader of the group. The life of the party. But her supposedly perfect life is starting to careen out of control and her husband, Julien, has many secrets, only a few that she knows. She thinks a baby would solve everything. Boy is she wrong. Katie, who is a successful lawyer, has been putting her career ahead of her life for too long and while Miranda might think she's Katie's best friend, more and more she's been turning to Nick, who is there with his boyfriend Bo. As for Samira and Giles, they are so wrapped up with their newborn and the fact that they haven't slept since the birth that they barely notice they are on vacation. But when trapped together how long will fake bonhomie and champagne get you? How long can you reminiscence about the past? They have all changed over the intervening decade since they graduated college and not everyone is willing to accept the change. Not everyone is who they say they are. And what of the staff at Loch Corrin? Can they be trusted? Being trapped in the wilderness with your supposed best friends might be a nightmare, but trapped in the wilderness with strangers could be the most dangerous thing that could happen to this group. Trapped by the blizzard they have no way of escaping each other and one of them will die at the hands of another. But who will die and who will kill? Only the New Year will reveal all.

This is a book that pulls a bait and switch, in that your read the blurb, you see it compared to Tana French and Ruth Ware and Agatha Christie, you look at the cover, you think, country house in the Scottish highlands, a blizzard, a betrayal, and murder! YAS! I will read that! Instead you get a modern glass building with cabins for all the guests and no suspense at all. I figured out the killer in about two seconds because of the limited choice of narrators. It was like a vicious Peter's Friends, wherein you actually hope they all kill each other, mixed with that stupid Kevin Bacon house movie that got all those rave reviews, but it should be noted that this doesn't have the supernatural twist. It had no twist. Now I'm not saying that this couldn't have worked in the glass hunting lodge or with this cast of characters, I'm saying that it needed to be better written to work with the environment and suspects. Also it totally needed a different cover. I mean, seriously, did the designer even read the book or was it designed off the deceptive blurb? OK, I need to STOP bitching about the cover so let's concentrate on what annoyed me the most, and yes, I'm totally going to ignore the stupid secondary plot about what's going on at this resort because it doesn't even deserve a mention, what annoyed me was the choice in narrators. So we have four females told in first person and one male told in third person, which, yes, I'm groaning at the cliche of switching narration styles even as I type this. But the problem with this is it narrows the events from this motley cast of twelve or so characters to four. Because obviously the killer and the victim are among these four first person narrators. Why Lucy Foley would show her hand in such an obvious manner is beyond comprehension to me. What's more one of those narrators has no connection to the group, so she's immediately eliminated. So you can see why I think this is the biggest failing of the book. What's worse though is that every woman sounds the same. If each section didn't have the character's name at the start you would have no idea who was talking at you. The characters are just cardboard cutouts that all sound the same. Do yourself a favor and just steer clear of this party.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Blizzard, College Friends, Design Fail, First Person, Going Gothic, Lucy Foley, Murder, New Year's Eve, Peter's Friends, Ruth Ware, Scotland, Secrets, Tana French, The Hunting Party, Third Person

Bookstore: Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore

Location: Forest Park, Illinois

The Official Patter: "Centuries and Sleuths is a warm, inviting and well organized store where a customer can sit in a rocking chair while looking through books. A bust of Sherlock Holmes exclusively commissioned by Centuries and Sleuths owner Augie Aleksy graces the bookstore. From the day its doors opened, Centuries and Sleuths has been a destination for the discriminating reader, a meeting place for authors and readers and a place for intellectual discussion. And that’s all been a part of Aleksy’s master plan."

Why I Love Them: I don't know why it is, but whenever I think of the best independent bookstores I know they are almost always stores that specialize in mysteries... This could be because I spent years trailing behind my mom, a devoted mystery fanatic, whenever she went to the bookstore, and especially when she went to Booked for Murder (now Mystery to Me.) Couple that with the fact that Murder By The Book is easily my favorite bookstore I've never been too... and well, you can easily see how my bias came to exist. Enter Centuries and Sleuths. One of my favorite authors was on tour and was stopping by the this Midwestern mystery bookstore I had never heard of... needless to say, they have since made my list of favorite stores I've never been to... and hopefully soon they will upgrade to stores I have been to!

Best Buy: In fact, my best buy from Centuries and Sleuths was initially going to be a best buy purchased in person. Lisa Lutz's Spellman series is hands down one of my favorite book series out there. They are witty and clever and know just when it's right to go dark and just when it's right to throw in a Doctor Who joke. In other words, you can see why I was drawn to them. Well for the book tour for the fifth installment the closest to Madison Lisa was coming was Forest Park Illinois. Not that far a journey, but at the same time, trudging down to the flatland in March is always hazardous, because you never know what the weather will be like. Will it be freakishly warm, or a blizzard? A few years back when I went down in April I was in a blizzard, it wasn't fun. At all. So I decided, as much as I love Lisa, I'd already met her three times at this point so I could sit this tour out, and luckily her tour for the final Spellman book the next year came to Madison! But what was great is Centuries and Sleuths. I called them up saying I could no longer make the event which I had RSVP'd to and instead could they get it signed to me and ship it up north? The sign of a truly great bookstore is when they are accommodating. When they instantly understand that you have had a change in plans and are willing to go the extra mile to help their customers. This, more than anything, is why I want to make the pilgrimage there. I want to go and throw lots of money at them in exchange for books as a big thank you for helping me out when I needed it. And trust me, I needed a signed first edition of The Trail of the Spellmans bad.  

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blizzard, Booked for Murder, Centuries and Sleuths, Illinois, Lisa Lutz, Murder by the Book, Mysteries, Mystery to Me, Sherlock Holmes, Support Your Brick and Mortar, The Spellmans, The Trail of the Spellmans

These shades of grey, not being the amazing book by Jasper Fforde, but the shades of grey cast by the looming clouds pregnant with another freakin' blizzard! So, due to weather beyond my control, I will not get to go to the event in Skokie that I've been planning on attending for the last month or more and was really looking forward too... Now let's contemplate a lovely world where I could control the weather... ah, I'd never miss an event due to "natural disaster" again and blizzards would only fall when I'm behind on homework... Also here's hoping that my friend who is attempting to get to Chicago has a safe, if long and arduous trip, and that Jasper has safe flights, and that someone comes to the event, despite the horrid weather, so that he won't feel the Midwest deserted him, we're just stranded... unavoidably detained by wind and weather. Now of course me mentioning the weather seems completely ironic and slightly doom laden when we talked back in December... sigh. Also don't forget to enter my giveaway to win Jasper's newest book, Shades of Grey. I might not have gotten to see him this time around, but the book is a wonderful glimpse into a world he has created, so not too heartbreaking a loss. Also here's a little fun webvert that was created for the book.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:00 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Blizzard, Chicago, Jasper Fforde, Midwest, Shades of Grey, Skokie