Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Books #7 - #9,52 Books in 52 Weeks

More Anne Perrys and Anne Rivers Siddons

I've been keeping up with the reading, but not the blogging, so decided to go ahead and list the last three all at once.  Maybe I can get back on track by next Sunday!

Book #7: Long Spoon Lane, by Anne Perry


"In New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry's newest (2005) novel, featuring Victorian-era sleuth Thomas Pitt, London is a city besieged by anarchists.  After a violent gun battle between rioters and police, a chase culminates in narrow, cobbled Long Spoon Lane, where Magnus Landsborough, the young son of Lord Sheridan Landsborough, is shot to death.  Two anarchists are arrested, and they provide conflicting evidence about Landsborough's death: whether he was the victim of an accident or murder, and whether he was a hostage of the anarchist or an anarchists himself."


Book #8: A Christmas Homecoming, by Anne Perry (2011)


Charlotte Pitt's mother, Caroline, travels with her young husband, Joshua Fielding, and his theatrical troupe to Yorkshire to produce a stage adaptation of Dracula by the daughter of millionaire Charles Netheridge during the Christmas holiday.  Only because of Netheridge's financial backing for their spring tour does the troupe keep at the production, after the first disastrous read-through of the script.  A brooding evil makes itself felt at the lonely hilltop mansion.  Instead of the theatrical triumph that Netheridge desired for his daughter, there is murder - shocking and terrifying."

Several popular authors produce special Christmas stories each year, so Anne Perry is right in step with that trend.  The interesting thing about this book is that it features Charlotte (William Pitt's wife)'s mother.  She does refer to Charlotte and even mentions how she's picked up some "detective skills" from William - and her daughter Charlotte.

Book #9: Burnt Mountain, by Anne Rivers Siddons (2011)

"New York Times bestseller Anne River Siddons returns with a dramatic tale of love and betrayal within a wealthy Southern family.

Growing up, the only place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer camp - Camp Sherwood Forest in the North Carolina mountains. It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick Abrams, her first love....and first heartbreak."

While her mother doted on Thayer's older sister, Lily, Thayer depended on her father.  Sadly, he and his father were both killed in a car accident while she was still quite young. Luckily for Thayer, the wealthy widowed grandmother moved in with them after a time and what she could to help Thayer grow into a strong young woman.

I'll have to get another of this author's books!  It was such fun to read a "Southern" novel that got it right. I didn't grow up in the Atlanta area, but there were definite similarities. Definitely an author to get to know!






Monday, February 27, 2012

Happy Birthday, WTS!


Gone but not forgotten

1945 Photo

Happy Birthday, Wilson T. Sowder!
1910-2007


Monday, February 06, 2012

Book 6 - 52 Books in 52 Weeks

The Almost Moon
 Alice Sebold (2007)

If you read The Lovely Bones a few years ago, you'd surely want to read this one, just to see if Sebold's writing continues to make such compelling reading!

"For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children.  When she finally reaches her limit and crosses a terrible boundary, the world comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.  Unfolding over the course of a single day, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties within families, the wages of devotion, and the line between love and hate.  It is an unsettling, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

Alice Sebold is also the author of The Lovely Bones, a novel, and Lucky, a memoir.  She lives in California with her husband, novelist Glen David Gold.

Friday, February 03, 2012

52 Books in 52 Weeks - oh, so late this week!

The Twisted Root, by Anne Perry

"In a stunning feat of the imagination, Anne Perry encloses readers within the magic circle of her genius and brings to life the lost world of England's Victorian Age.  Hoofbeats clatter on cobblestones, gaslight glimmers through fog, and powerful men and women live the splendor and shame of that matchless era.  With The Twisted Root, Perry holds us rapt with a chilling story of love, betrayal, and consummate evil.  

Young Lucius Stourbridge pleads to private investigator William Monk for help in tracking down his runaway fiancee.  Miriam Gardner disappeared suddenly from a croquet party at the Bayswater mansion of her in-laws-to-be.  But on Hampstead Heath, Monk finds the coach in which Miriam had fled and, nearby, the murdered body of the coachman.  There is no trace of Miriam." 

With the help of nurse Hester Latterly, whom Monk has recently married, and barrister Oliver Rathbone the challenging mystery is finally solved!

If you enjoy Victorian detective stories, you'll enjoy reading Anne Perry. Along with the Hester and William Monk books, she also writes popular novels featuring Charlotte and Thomas Pitt.  In both series, the wives are instrumental in solving the cases.


This article (link below) I recently read from the NY Times online, about an officer who used his iPhone to catch a thief who'd stolen someone's iPhone, mentions "long-winded Victorian detective novel(s)" - pretty funny, I thought, as I was reading Anne Perry!


"As crime-solving tools go, it may not have the same pedigree as, say, the oversize magnifying glass. But with apologies to Sherlock Holmes, an iPhone — specifically, the iPhone 4 — proved quite useful in helping police officers track down a robber on Thursday in Manhattan.

And at a pace that may shock any reader of a long-winded Victorian detective novel, it was all wrapped up within a half-hour."

Looking forward to my next Victorian detective novel!