The Mystery Guest

 The Mystery Guest is the second in a maid novel series by Nina Prose.  Following the exploits of Molly Gray now the head maid at the Regency Grand, "a five star boutique hotel."

Once again Molly pushes her well stocked maid's trolley which she calls "a portable sanitation miracle", through the rooms as she brings them all back to clean order.  Molly knows she sees things differently and since her grandmother has passed on, she relies on her boy friend, Juan for giving her a clear perspective.

This time Molly gets involved in the murder of  J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, when he drops dead on the hotel's tea room floor.  In an effort to clear both her name and the name of  Lily, her new maid in training,  she steps in to assist in solving the mystery.  Molly may have more information about the case than she is letting on.  

She works once again with Detective Stark looking at and interviewing the multiple suspects.  Is it Serena the author's secretary, or Mr. Preston, her friend and the hotel's beloved doorman?  With a few misdirections Molly and Detective Stark will uncover the culprit and clean up the mess.

Hercule Poirot's Silent Night

 Hercule Poirot's Silent Night is written by Sophie Hannah.  But you would almost think it really was written by Dame Agatha Christie, herself.   The voices of Poirot and his trusty side kick Inspector Edward Catchpool are almost perfect.  Hannah has captured all of Poirot's eccentricities and his flamboyant manners.  Inspector Catchpool is a perfect foil with his reflective personality and doggedness.  Together they work well trying to get to the bottom of the mystery at hand.

This time they are summoned to thee crumbling mansion,  Frellingsloe House at Mundy-on-Sea.  This is the Laurier family house that has ben in the family for generations, but is now crumbling into the sea from erosion. The timing is fortuitous because the last patriarch of the family Arnold Laurier is dying of a terminal disease and wants to spend the last Christmas of his life in Frellingsloe House.  Then he will be moving into St Walstan’s Cottage Hospital to live out his last days.  

A murder has occurred in the room he will be occupying and Vivienne his wife is distraught that he wil be murdered also if he goes to the hospital.  Poirot and Catchpool are urged by Catchpool's mother to spend Christmas at Mundy-on-Sea and find the answer to the hospital murder and save Laurier's life. 

With any red herrings and misdirections working to confuse the reader Hannah does a powerful job of creating a entertaining mystery that creates tension and suspense as Catchpool tries to move the investigation along so that he can get home to London for Christmas and not celebrate with his mother at the country house.  

The Rye Bread Marriage; How I Found Happiness with a Partner I’ll Never Understand

 The Rye Bread Marriage is an interesting memoir written by Michaele Weissman.  This is the story of her courtship and marriage to John Melngailis.  Michaele describes him as a dashingly handsome Latvian refugee who loves rye bread.  She is an American Jewish young college student looking for adventure.  When they first meet, Michaele is not ready to get married and settle down.  Years later when John is now divorced from his first wife they meet again now ready to begin a life together.

This book tells the story of their marriage, of compromise and learning to adjust to another's behaviors and ideas.  How love if it is strong can keep a marriage together through the day to day disagreements and hurt.

Coming from different backgrounds Michaele works hard to learn about John's difficult Latvian childhood and learn to enjoy the rye bread that he is so passionate about.  They travel many times to Latvia, John returning to his childhood memories and Michaele to learn about the family he came from.  Finally they also travel to Lithuania to learn a little about her Jewish heritage.

This book shows how much we are shaped by our families and our childhood experiences.  They make us the person we are and have a strong impact on the relationships we have.  This is a very open look into the messiness of marriage, learning to tolerate and make concessions to stay in a relationship.

It is also about rye bread the difference between the original Russian bread and the American version.  It is learning to like the dense dark strong taste of a real rye bread.  The book leaves me feeling better about the messiness of my everyday life and also interesting in ordering some of the rye bread from Black Rooster Bakery, John's bakery where he has perfected the Latvian rye of his childhood.  I know my husband will love the taste, it will make him happy.  That is my goal.

The Book Thief

 The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak is an incredible story of life in Nazi Germany in 1939.

In a bold and unusual plot element the narrator of this novel is Death.  We learn the story of Liesel, a young girl being brought to Munich with her younger brother to be left with a foster family.  Her mother can no longer take care of her children and will be leaving them with a couple who will give them a better life.  On the train the brother is so sick he will not live to reach Munich and is buried along the way.

The sister Liesel experiences her first brush with death and book thievery. Left on her own, she encounters the hard life of adjusting to school, chores and living with new parents.  Her father, a painter,  is a kind man who she becomes close to.  Her mother is strict and a hard worker who washes the townspeople's clothes. 

This is a story of love, growth, and the realities of thee Holocaust. Liesel's family hides a Jewish man in thier home.  Liesel's father is against Nazism and refuses to join the party.  He is sympathetic to the Jewish people and suffers because of that. Liesel becomes the book thief in an effort to learn to read and to hold onto something that Hitler and his army are destroying.  This is a story of Nazi Germany from the point of view of a German family and their neighbors.  

This is an emotional story that still resonates today, in a troubled time.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil written by John Berendt was first published in 1994.  Interestingly I had just joined my first book group locally with a few women with small children.  We would meet late at night after the kids were asleep.  We were all sleep deprived and it was hard to read a book a month let alone understand and discuss it.

That was my excuse for not realizing that this book was supposed to be non fiction and not a novel. Though I remember not really understanding the plot at the time, it seems to have made a comeback now and is on many reading lists so when I was looking for a non fiction murder story for my group I added it to the list.

Though Berendt insists the book is non fiction he does mention that there are a few changes to the timeline to fit the facts he wants to emphasize. The story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute in Savanah Georgia.  Male prostitute, Danny Hansford was shot by his employer and possible lover, respected antiques dealer Jim Williams.  The book follows Berendt's time in Savannah before and during the murder trials, there were four trials, of Williams.  

The timeline of events is altered to add Berendt being in Georgia earlier in the sequence of events than he really was.  The book also is written to have the suspense and build up of a mystery novel.  It has been referred to as a nonfiction novel  in the press.  Berendt says he is the only fictional character in the book until he catches up with himself, meaning he adds himself to the beginning of the story when he was not there but hten later he is really a part of the timeline.

Once again I found it rambling and difficult to follow.  There is quite a big build up of getting to know the characters and the setting of Savannah and its society scene.  An interesting story that has increased the attention to Savannah and its tourist visitations.  

Fahrenheit 451

 A classic, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is also one of my banned books.  So I finally read the book for my book discussion group.  It actually is a great book, but I probably would not have appreciated it in High School so I am glad I read it now.

451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns.  Those small tidbits and how the book was written add to the enjoyment of the actual story in the novel.  This is a science fiction, dystopian novel that is usually not my favorite genre but this plot is incredible.

Ever since houses were built so they could not burn, the firefighters have been engaged to burn books.  They now sit in the fire house and wait for someone to discover a house hiding books.  They then go and burn the books and the house. The occupants are arrested.  it supposed to be the future, which Bradbury writing in 1953 thought would be 1994.  People are supposed to be happier if they have no stress and no individual thoughts of their own.  Everyone the same.  There are receivers in your ear with someone telling you what to do, there are large screens in walls of your home with "friends" talking to you all day.

You should not read and think individual thoughts.  When Montage a fireman starts to think on his own and question the system things go awry.  Bradbury wrote and reworked this incredible book in a few weeks on a rented typewriter in a library.  The narrative is so well written you just want to quote so many of his thoughts.  He was tremendously incitful about how people think.  Definitely a classic and should be read by everyone.  It is also especially relevant once again in today's political environment.

Pink Lemonade Cake Murder

 I think I have read every one of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swenson's murder mysteries. It has been 23 years of reading these entertaining easy cozy stories with recipes mixed into the plot.  She started back in 2000 with The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and now I have just finished this, her newest though not yet last mystery, Pink Lemonade Cake Murder.

Back in the early days it was the new idea of writing a mystery detective who was in some way also a chef or baker.  The mystery was centered around the bake shop or the catering business and included recipes either throughout the book or at the end.  I was a young mother looking for fun new things to cook and it was fun to think about trying the recipes after I had solved the murder.

But now though I give credit to Joanne Fluke for continuing the series all these years, I think the mysteries themselves are getting a little too formulaic.  There were a few other authors who have disappeared who I also loved reading at the time. But to be honest I never really made any of the recipes because so many of them included large amounts of butter and cream and sugar at a time when we were all trying to cut back on those ingredients.

This time I found the actual mystery weak and forced.  I found the characters stale and old fashioned.  I know this takes place in Minnesota but I do not think the teenagers there and their parents are quite as rigid about social norms as the book stated.  The characater who is murdered seems to be killed because he was flirting with teen girls who rode on the back of his convertible car in bikini tops through the small town.  A little too unrealistic for me.

Then there are the recipes.  Maybe it is because these days I love to binge watch The Great British Baking Show, but all the recipes include many prepackaged products.  Recipes for cakes and cookies that use Kool-Aid and Cool Whip along with boxed cake mix.  I am not even tempted to want to make these desserts.

I will probably come back for the next installment of Hannah Swenson's life when the next novel comes out, just nto see if she ever gets married and who she picks..a 23 year romance with two men, Mike a police officer and Norman the town dentist, she has been able to keep them both interested and courting her all these years.