Peck & Peck

 Author Bonnie Garmus achieved fame when her first book Lessons in Chemistry was published.  The book was popular with book discussion groups and was on the best seller lists for many weeks.  Peck & Peck is her newest publication. 

This time Garmus follows a young protagonist, Batter Gray, as he grows up and dreams of a career as a poet. Batter Gray starts out life as a young boy who does not fit in with the other boys at school. His parents are always suggesting he find a more profitable career to pursue. We follow him through his college years, to New York City where he works at a copy shop, a diner and a Gap store folding tee shirts.

When he stumbles across the publishing company, Peck & Peck, producers of the legendary poetry journal, he feels that he will finally achieve his dream.  

Through a series of confusing yet mysterious encounters, Batter is fast becoming embroiled in the workplace infighting and controversies of the Peck family and the employees. All the characters in this novel are eccentric and quirky. There are many twists and turns and a plethora of characters.  There are many great lines to remember and the author does a good job of making a non poetry lover question their decision.  

Though I would not rate this novel as good as her first, it was a entertaining novel.

Three Bags Full

 Three Bags Full was published back in 2005 written by Leonie Swann. I bought it brand new in hardcover back then, but never got around to reading it.  To be truthful I did try once or twice to pick it up but it never really caught my attention to read through it. 

I loved the title and the concept of the sheep playing the detectives.  Recently I saw that it was made into a movie and I was determined to read the book before I saw the movie. So i picked it as book discussion selection and forced myself to pick it up and read through it.  I suppose you can tell at this point, that I have not really enjoyed this mystery novel. 

It is a clever idea to have the flock of sheep find the Shepard dead in the pasture and decide to play detectives and uncover his murderer.  The Shepard has treated the flock very kindly and has promised them a trip to Europe. He reads mystery novels to them, so that is how they have ideas about how to investigate. the writing is clever with many animal references.  This flock of sheep are very clever though some other sheep they meet in the story are not as smart. 

Leonie Swann has written another book in this series, which I will check out.  She has also written another series that feature elderly pensioners who live together and have a pet tortoise who assists in solving a crime.  I have reviewed it here.  I do believe I enjoyed that series more than this one.

I will watch the movie later on TV.  I have heard it has been changed quite a bit to make it a family movie. 

Hazel Says No

 I do not know how this book almost escaped my notice.  I am so glad it did not go unfound in the end. Hazel Says No is a very quick read but very intense.

Hazel is an incoming senior when her parents move from New York City to a small Maine college town. She is living with her brother who is starting middle school, her mother who is trying to find herself, and her father who has gotten the college professorship and head of the English department position he has been dreaming of.

Hazel was a star student in New York but trying to look on the bright side, this move to a small Maine rural community may give her an added edge when applying to colleges. Her dream school is Vasser and it looks like you are ranked higher if you are an A student coming from a lesser known High School than if you come from a New York City school. 

Hazel spends the summer hanging out at the town pool watching her brother, and reading as se awaits the beginning of her final year of high school. The school principal seems friendly when he sees her at the pool.  But things do not turn out well when he calls her into his office on the first day of school.

This is a story of how the things we say and do can quickly change the trajectory of not only our lives but the people around us. 

Starting with the family move to Maine and following through with how Hazel and each of her family members react to the meeting between school principal and Hazel that first day of the new school year. Each family member has a narrative that tells the story from their perspective.

Ransom

 Ransom written by Daniel Silva is the newest of the Gabriel Alon series. 

I will just say that for those who have been reading Daniel Silva's Gabriel Alon series all these years, you will enjoy the suspense, the convoluted storyline and characters, just like you always to do.  But I think it is getting more difficult to keep the series going as Silva tries to keep the mysteries current with modern politics.  

It is as always a fascinating read, keeping the reader turning pages to see how the plot will develop. Trying to imagine how current leaders are interacting and creating scenes of conflict between major nations in current times was disturbing and I do not want to think about someone reading Silva's book and use the ideas he has imagined here to play out real life politics tomorrow.  Very scary thought!!!

The Summer Guests

 I thought Tess Gerritsen hit it out of the park with the first book in this new series, The Spy Club.  She has only added depth with this new novel, The Summer Guests.  This is The Martini Club sereis, featuring Maggie Bird and her ex-CIA friends. 

Maggie has retired and moved to Purity, Maine to live out the rest of her life in obscurity along with a few other ex-operatives.  They gather together for a pot luck dinner with martinis under the cover of a book group. But when murder comes to Purity it is hard for them to stay away.

Jo Thibodeau is the new young acting police chief.  The cases that are presenting themselves are more than a small town police force is prepared to handle. So slowly Jo is getting comfortable accepting assistance from the Maggie and her friends.

This time a young girl has disappeared in her purple swimsuit with her goggles. She, and her mother, are visiting the summer home of her new step father and his family.  While everyone seems to have an alibi for the time of the disappearance, her mother will not sit by and wait for the police to find her daughter. An excellent swimmer it is hard to believe she may have drown in the lake behind the house.

 Jo is trying to go through proper channels and procedures to find the girl,  Maggie and her friends use their special talents to investigate and help find out how a crime committed years ago ties into the situation in current day.

The relationships between summer people and year round home owners is strained. There seem to many secrets that these long time residents know and will not share. These must be revealed before any answers will surface.

My Sister is Going to Kill Me

Nina Simon, it turns out, writes from experience. She has a sister and they did a Grand Canyon trip together. 

Definitely a fun book to read, especially if you have a sister! This was an entertaining mystery that covered a lot of ground.  Hiking down into the Grand Canyon, whitewater rafting and camping out under the stars. That is quite a trip for two sisters with very different interests. 

Then layered onto that is the mystery aspects of the story with a group of campers who are all connected to a lifestyle company that is about to launch a new innovative product.  This is a chance for the board of directors to bond with thee investors and announce the new product with an influencer along for the ride. 

When things get sticky and uncomfortable, the sisters start to bond and when the CEO of the company turns up dead, those sisters really try to patch their differences and work together. There are obstacles along te way to test them and a murderer to find.  All making for a fun storyline.

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel

 Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley is, I am sure, the first of many in the new Agatha Christie series by a new author.  Sophie Hannah has been the author, authorized by the Christie estate, to continue the Hercule Poirot series.  Now Lucy Foley is continuing the Miss Marple series.

I am not sure that I felt the true Christie ‘s Marple character or the same style of writing, but it was all close enough that it was a pleasure to read.  It was a great twisty mystery.  Though I felt along the way that the murderer was too obvious, in the end of course I was wrong  and the talented Foley managed to bring it all to closure in an unexpected way.

If you have followed and visited with Miss Marple in St Mary Mead, you will know her friend, Dolly Bantry.  Dolly has taken the advice of her new young assistant, Diana Glass and brought Jane Marple along for a delightful cold weather vacation in a luxury hotel at the top of a snow covered mountain.

Reading this novel told from the perspectives of Diana, along with a few of the other guests at the hotel that week, we learn of the death of a prominent politician and another unlucky guest.  The politician’s wife  shares her story, the famous actress is also a guest at the hotel and after the two murders, a man announces he a French policeman on vacation, but he is happy to investigate until the police arrive. 

Coincidences abound as the plot thickens and Miss Marple deploys her usual quiet, inquisitiveness as she listens and observes the surroundings.  Knitting always in her hands she appears to be just a simple old woman and is often underestimated.  

It was definitely a fun, intriguing mystery novel written by an experienced and excellent author of mystery.