A Line To Kill

 Horowitz has done it once again!! 

There is nothing more entertaining to read than these Hawthorne and Horowitz mysteries. 

Writing himself into the mystery as the biographer of the detective is so clever. Sometimes it is hard to tell if maybe some of it is actually real.. Horowitz follows Hawthorne around taking notes as Hawthorne solves the crime. He is the funny Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes. You the reader are listening to the same clues and descriptions and trying to figure out the killer as they go along. Always a good clever twist...right under your nose.

This time Horowitz finds himself at a literary festival with Hawthorne thinking he will have the upper hand, showing Hawthorne how to meet the literary fans and how to handle himself in an interview.  
But once again Hawthorne seems to get the tables turned.  He is already comfortable with the environment on this English island and he seems to run into people from his past.  

When a murder occurs at a literary party on the island Hawthorne is right there to begin the investigation until the police can get there.  Of course Horowitz is right there beside him with pen and pad in hand to record all the facts.  But Horowitz is reluctant to begin another mystery novel featuring the detective.

In the end multiple, seemingly unsolvable, murders and a cast of suspects pulls them both into the fray and Horowitz is making lists of suspects and trying to figure out who it could be.  Is it the blind author with a physic sense? Is it the French poet ? Or maybe the chef who writes cookbooks?  So many authors with the timing and the motive... and of course there are quite a few distractions that can send you in a variety of directions.

Along with a very well disguised killer and a clever mystery there is also the wonderful funny and entertaining dialog.  Already looking forward to another great mystery novel by Anthony Horowitz.

American Baby

American Baby was thoroughly researched and written by Gabrielle Glaser.  The subtitle is A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption.  This book is an in depth look at the creation and development of the American adoption system.  

Glaser has set down the history of how adoption services were built around the embarrassment of young women who became pregnant in the 1950s and 60s at a time in our country when unwed motherhood was damaging to a family's reputation.

Taking advantage of the soldiers returning from World War II, coming home to marry and start a family, and the number of young wives who could not conceive, adoption services took advantage of the young girls who could not keep their babies.

In American Baby, Glaser follows the story of 16 year old, Margaret Erle, grew up in a strict Jewish family where discussions of sex education, and childbirth were taboo.  Her parents were Holocaust survivors who had big dreams of success for their daughter.  She fell in love with her high school sweetheart, George who was 17 at the time she became pregnant.  Both sets of parents were scandalized.  

Margaret was taken to Lakeview, a maternity hospital on Staten Island, NY, owned by the Louise Wise Agency, which in return for a fee would keep the young women fed and sheltered until she gave birth.  There she would be sequestered so no one would ever know about her indiscretion.

After she had delivered her son, Margaret was forced to sign papers giving him up for adoption.  Though she and George kept explaining that they wanted to get married and keep their child, their parents were all unsupportive.  They had no choice in the end and Margaret gave up her rights to her own son to the Louise Wise Adoption Agency.  The Louise Wise kept all the records of these transactions sealed.  Margaret never could find out what happened to her son and the Rosenbergs never knew the truth about their adopted child's past, or any family health issues that might affect David's health.

Glaser finds both Margaret Erle Katz and eventually her son, who goes by the name David Rosenberg so many years later.  She tells the story of how Margaret searched for her son for years.  The story of David Rosenberg's life and the obstacles of a closed, harsh adoption system.

This is a fascinating look at a system that was cold and unfeeling toward the women who were giving up their children and the children who were pawns in the business of babies.  Luckily over time the rules were challenged and now there are much better practices in place.

If you are adopted, are adopted parents or are looking for a child you put up for adoption this is an informative heart felt story.  For all of us it is an incredible story of a family separated and reconnected.

Three Hours in Paris

 This is a stand alone book by Cara Black.  Black takes us to Paris, France on the day Hitler comes to attend church there.  He only spends three hours in Paris.  

Around the truth. of that visit without anymore information than that Black builds a novel of suspense, spies and intrigue .  A young widow is set up to assassinate the Furher.  She was a marksman sharpshooter from America who found the love of her life in Paris.  He is in the Royal Navy and they have been assigned to the Orkney Islands.  When a German plane explodes a war ship the husband and their young chid are killed in a terrible accident as a result of the bombing Kate is ready to take revenge.

The plot revolves around her escape from the scene of the crime and how she is trying to get back to safety. The Germans are investigating and seem to be hot on her trail. 

The Invisible Woman

 The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck is an historical novel based on a true story.  Again a novel that reveals the life of a woman who defied the odds and showed how brave and determined a woman could be during the horrors of Word War II.

Based on the real life of Virginia Hall, who through out the book goes by Diane as her code name.  Though there are other names that people refer to by.  The Germans who have a price on her head call her one name, the French resistance fighters think of her as a hero and have a very different way of referring to her.

 Leaving the safety and comfort of the life of a Baltimore debutant, Virginia travels to Paris the city of her dreams.  She has just arrived, getting a job and making friends, when the Germans invade France.  Instead of returning to America and avoiding the war, Virginia jumps in with both feet .  She is recruited as an Allied spy and becomes the best at her job.  Traveling from safe house to safe house, communicating by radio messages and plotting drops for food and guns to arm the resistors hiding in the woods.  

They are preparing for D-Day.  Of course along the way there are the catastrophes that devastate Virginia and she wants to give up but she is driven to help the French and save France from the Nazis.  She dresses up as an elderly woman.  Putting grey dye in her hair, make up that sets lines and wrinkles on her face, and stuffs her clothes to appear heavier.  German soldiers ignore her on the streets and others laugh at her for trying to do things as an old woman.  She becomes invisible to those around her even though in reality her real face is on wanted signs and she is being hunted by the Nazis.

She keeps saying that she has outlived her time, that Vera her contact person told she had 6 days to live. But she will not give up until she has avenged the people who have assisted her who have died fighting the enemy.

It makes me wonder how invisible I am when I go somewhere now.  My grey, white hair and older body, do I fade.into the background for people walking down the street?

Flower of Darkness

In some ways this book, Flower of Darkness,  is quite different than de Rosnay ‘s previous novels.  Though some themes run through this book that are similar, this book is more futuristic. 

Clarissa is leaving her husband and looking for a new apartment. This in the Paris of some future time, when everything is automated. You do not have to lift more than a finger to get anything done. A virtual being takes care of you. Just ask it a request and your wish is granted. From cooking meals to answering your emails. Look in the bathroom mirror and your health is checked. But sometimes too much of a good thing can be just that or maybe even a bit more sinister.

Author Tatiana de Rosnay has taken her previous theme of finding out what took place a particular building and brought into the future.  In this novel Clarissa loves old buildings.  She can stand in a building and the walls seem to speak to her.  She can see or feel what happened there in the past.  Now she is moving into this futuristic new building where no one has lived before her.  She is trying to escape the past. She has left her husband for an unspeakable transgression that she cannot even bring herself to speak about.  She is starting over on her own.  But when things start to seem very odd, she reaches out to her granddaughter to help figure out what is happening in her building  and to her friends.  

This was quite a fascinating plot that keeps you  on your toes to try and figure out what is happening and stay up to date on the technology and sci-fi futuristic ideas that are happening here.  Definitely a future I hope never really comes to fruition . 

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

 The perfect time to read this light mystery, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder is not when you are hungry but after you have eaten and are relaxing for the afternoon.

Joanne Fluke has just shared her 27th mystery novel with us.  Not only is it amazing that she has come up with a new murder plot for Hannah Swenson who runs The Cookie Jar, coffee shop in Lake Eden, Minnesota along with her friend and with the help of her sisters, Andrea and Michelle.  They also are great at helping the local police solve murders.  Of course Andrea is married to the police detective, Michelle is dating his deputy and Hannah is sort of being courted by another detective on the force.  Hannah's other love interest is the town dentist, who also is always happy to assist in solving the current case.

This time it is the Mayor of the town who is not well loved and there are any number of suspects that would be happy to see him dead, including Andrea.  So Hannah is doubly interested in finding out what really happened to exonerate her sister.

The other amazing part of this series is that once again Fluke has included 27 recipes in the book, that Hannah and the others cook for each other throughout the story.  None of the recipes are repeated in all these novels.  That is quite a bit of cooking, testing and tasting.  They all always sound delicious but I must admit that I have never cooked any of them.  So many of them seem to have very high caloric levels.

These plots are no longer quite that unique, the dialog is not really snappy. So I guess what keeps me reading is that I know the characters so well that it is just like traveling to Lake Eden, sitting down for a visit with them and catching up on what's new.  

The Postscript Murders

 Elly Griffiths is on a roll with this new mystery series.  The first book in the series was The Stranger Diaries and now she has written book number two, The Postscript Murders.  

 This book has one of the best lines I have ever read in a murder mystery novel...

"That's how I know I am old, he thinks.  Because sometimes it does take him by surprise. He sees a wizened old man in the mirror and wonders whether a geriatric burglar has broken in."

I sometimes look in the mirror or at myself on the zoom screen and wonder that myself.  I will have to remember that line and use it myself one day.

The Detective Inspector of this series, Harbinder Kaur is an unusual personality for this protagonist. Harbinder,  a gay, Sikh woman working with her partner Neil, who is always getting on her nerves, make a entertaining duo as they are solving murders.  

In this novel we meet Natalka, an Ukraine caregiver at an elder care facility, who along with Benedict, an ex monk and Edwin, one of the residents of the facility play the amateur detectives when one of the other resident's death is suspicious.  This unusual cast of characters runs around trying to piece to together a wide variety of clues that will lead the reader on quite a wild ride. There are suspicious looking men with Russian accents following them.  There are old mystery novels that may have clues.  There is talk of World War II spies and innocent old ladies who sit around and make up murder schemes.

It all comes together for a entertaining mystery that keeps you trying to out the pieces together until the satisfying end.

I enjoyed this second novel even more than the first and look forward to getting to know Harbinder Kaur even more as Griffiths continues to develop this character and this series.