Historical Fiction, 2 Cozies, a paranormal Cozy and Young Adult

That's what I have read or listened to in the past couple of weeks.

I still don't have much focus for whatever reason. But there are some hints of my normal showing through. Facebook party tonight for Krista Davis' latest book: The Diva Spices it Up. Tomorrow night, my genealogy club is having our monthly meeting via Zoom. Will see how that goes. I saw the libraries here may open up in the next couple of weeks, I think at reduced capacity, but I am excited to get back to some of my extracurricular activities.

What have I read this month...let's see.

Open House Heist by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson: Cozy. A series I like about Lily Sprayberry, realtor.



"You solve new murders and uncover old crimes,
but can you save someone from doing hard time?
To return what was lost, solve my riddle at all costs.
Travel back to ’83 and the murder of a girl from Forsyth County.

The note sat inside an empty lock box on the dining room table of Bramblett County realtor Lily Sprayberry’s open house listing. A lockbox that formerly contained an expensive coin collection she promised would remain safe.

Lily knows the person that wrote the note meant it for her and knows she needs to do what it says to get the coin collection back.

Determined to solve the thirty-six-year-old murder, Lily discovers the clues lead her to a possible killer she’d never suspect, someone near and dear to her heart."

Beating About the Bush: Agatha Raisin #30. I listened to this. Another hilarious Agatha adventure with her assistant Toni, Roy, Bill Wong and never ending trouble with romance. The narrator for this book, Penelope Keith, is excellent.

"When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.
The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?"

My Skull Possession by Lisa M. Miller: A Young Adult novel. I really liked it.

ReadersaredyingtogettheirhandsonacopyofMySkullPossession.Literally.

BrightonCorley'sordinaryteenagelifebecomesfarmorethrillingwhensheforgesafriendshipwithKateDorn,thecharmingnewgirlatschool.Togetherwithaneccentriccuriosityshopowner,theyembarkonajourneytodiscoverthetruthbehindthemysteriousbookresponsibleforparalyzingtheirtownwithfearandfascination.Witchcraft,haunteddolls,andstoriesofpossessionaresomeofthedarksecretstheyuncoverintheirsearchforanswers.

Asbooksalessoaranddeathtollsrise,BrightonwondersifMySkullPossessionistheresultofatwistedmarketingschemeorifithasaconnectiontosomethingmoresinister."Readers are dying to get their hands on a copy of My Skull Possession. Literally.

Brighton Corley's ordinary teenage life becomes far more thrilling when she forges a friendship with Kate Dorn, the charming new girl at school. Together with an eccentric curiosity shop owner, they embark on a journey to discover the truth behind the mysterious book responsible for paralyzing their town with fear and fascination. Witchcraft, haunted dolls, and stories of possession are some of the dark secrets they uncover in their search for answers.As book sales soar and death tolls rise, Brighton wonders if My Skull Possession is the result of a twisted marketing scheme or if it has a connection to something more sinister. As book sales soar and death tolls rise, Brighton wonders if My Skull Possession is the result of a twisted marketing scheme or if it has aa connection to something more sinister."

Pretty Little Fliers by Erin Johnson: Cozy Paranormal, Magic Market Mysteries #1: cute, fun first in a series. I won a copy on Audible of this book.

"She talks to the animals. But when they witness a murder, who will squawk first? Cursed and almost powerless, Jolene’s definitely down on her magical luck. Forced to disguise her taboo shifter abilities, she barely makes ends meet by working as a pretend pet psychic. So she eagerly says, “Oui,” to a job securing testimony from a parakeet that watched a woman’s fatal fall. Teaming up with a true blue police officer and his lie-sniffing German Shepherd, Jolene works hard to hunt down suspects. But with an after-hours affair, a disgruntled neighbor, and risqué photos all seemingly connected to the crime, untangling the truth is bound to get hairy. Can Jolene protect her cover and pluck out the clues before she falls from grace?

Pretty Little Fliers is the first book in the delightful Magic Market paranormal cozy mystery series. If you like charming characters, picturesque French settings, and spellbinding twists and turns, then you’ll love Erin Johnson’s pet-friendly tale."

Naked Truth: Or Equality, the Forbidden Fruit by Carrie Hayes. Historical fiction. Looks like a sequel is coming. Pretty interesting with pictures of the real characters in the story and newspaper articles from the events in the story. (some adult situations).

"From Washington Heights to Washington D.C. comes a true American Herstory. Filled with intrigue, lust, and betrayal, this is the fight for sexual equality. t starts with the seduction of the richest man in America. Next, they'll take New York City and the suffragist movement by storm, because together, Tennessee and Victoria are a force of nature. Boldly ambitious, they stop at nothing, brushing shoulders with Harriet Beecher Stowe and Susan B. Anthony, using enough chutzpah to make a lady blush. That is, until their backstabbing family takes them to court, and their carefully spun lives unravel, out in public and in the press.

Told from shifting points-of-view and using actual news reportage from the era, Naked Truth is a riveting inside look into the struggle for women’s rights after the Civil War." 

Whew! I guess I have read/listened to more books than I thought. Still feeling scattered...

As book sales soar and death tolls rise, Brighton wonders if My Skull Possession is the result of a twisted marketing scheme or if it has a connection to something more sinister.

Mysteries on PBS and Hallmark Movies and Mysteries

How are you doing? Week 4 of staying at home for us. Looks like we will start some loosening of the rules this week. Not so much for individual citizens but hospitals and businesses, so there is some hope.

There is a lot coming up on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. Yay!

Baptiste started last Sunday. You can catch it online or possibly a rerun before episode two Sunday April 19.

About: "While visiting his daughter’s family in Amsterdam, Julien Baptiste (The Missing‘s lead detective) gets drawn into the search for Englishman Edward Stratton’s missing niece…and before long, everything you think you understand about this mystery is upended!"

Episode one was very good. Made me think of Inspector Gamache.

Grantchester returns June 14. I really like this series. I am still not over Sidney Chambers (James Norton) running away. Geordie Keating (Robson Greene) is still there though along with Mrs. Maguire and Leonard. Love those characters. 

This season: "With God on his side and a motorcycle to ride, Grantchester’s crime-fighting clergyman Will Davenport teams up (voluntarily!) with Geordie Keating to solve a series of darker, grittier crimes than ever before…and face the challenges of celibacy head-on when journalist Ellie Harding enters the picture!"

Endeavor returns with three new episodes in 2020. Another favorite of mine. Date not given on the website yet.

This season: When we last saw Endeavour Morse at the end of Season 6, he was settling in at the station and the house that would become home to his character in the Inspector Morse series. But it doesn’t ensure happiness for our cerebral and solitary hero, who will face a series of enigmatic murders."

Van Der Valk: What? Who is this?

About: "Street-smart and unapologetic detective Piet Van Der Valk is an everyman of sorts, investigating high profile cases and gritty murders that immerse him and his team in contemporary Amsterdam’s fast-paced worlds of art, politics, addiction, mysticism, and fashion." 

Date to be announced.

Miss Scarlet and the Duke: Yet another new mystery series?

About: 

"When headstrong Eliza Scarlet is left penniless after the death of her father, she has two choices for financial security: marriage or her father’s private detective agency. But no matter how well she knows the tricks of his trade, the trade itself is deemed entirely inappropriate for a genteel lady of the 1880s. Enter “The Duke,” Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector William Wellington, a notorious drinker, gambler, womanizer…and a partner in running the agency and solving crime, all with a dash of will-they-won’t they energy, wit, and moxie!"

No air date yet. 

And look what I found. A Facebook group for Masterpiece Mystery. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/181143465905388/

Hallmark Mysteries and Movies:

Looks like only one more NEW mystery movie this month.

Matchmaker Mysteries: A Fatal Romance April 25th, 8 p.m. central

About: When a romance writer is murdered, matchmaker Angie Dove gets entangled in another case…and with Detective Kyle Cooper. Can they read between the lines to find the murderer? Stars Danica McKellar, Victor Webster, and Bruce Boxleitner.

I was going to share a couple of books I have read also but will save that for another day. 

Nordic Noir - mysteries set in Scandinavia

Well, I told myself I was going to do some of my weekly cleaning now but here I am, fooling around. I seem to do a lot of that these days.

This article was posted on a Facebook group I belong to and I found I had read several of the books mentioned or watched a television series. Some we read in our Mystery Book Club. We always have commented that the books set in that part of world are "cold", dark and the characters seem to have a lot of baggage. Well, this article confirms our observations.

I will post a couple of key points from the article, but then provide the link if you want to read the full article.

"Nordic Noir is a dark subset of the crime fiction genre. It is usually defined by some or all of the following:

Brutal crimes
Bleak settings
Tortured protaganist"

Some of the books mentioned are the Girl With Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson, The Snowman by Jo Nesbo, The Wallander series (which has brought a lot of tourism to Ystad for their walking tours of where the series took place) Roseanna by Martin Beck and a few others.

I thought it was a very interesting article and includes some great pictures.

Enjoy

https://www.lifeinnorway.net/nordic-noir/?fbclid=IwAR2gIzSDpq9hjf1jQHS3Gcdxk1v6ZJJZp9sT9KfDQIz8U1Y-iTLluNKQg-M

Mystery novels with...pandemics and or epidemics

I have been thinking about sharing some mysteries that take place during a pandemic or epidemic. I went back and forth about what people might think about that. I guess I am finally settling in and get ready to read one myself, so why not? I think I am at the point that reading a fictional book about these kinds of things, won't freak me out. Some are medical mysteries. I used to read a lot of those and some are traditional mysteries. One book is a historical non-fiction. 

When this corona thing started, my first thought was, "this is like a Robin Cook mystery. So let's start with him. I have read the books below. He has always been a favorite of mine.

About: "Murder and mystery reach epidemic proportions when a devastating plague sweeps the country. Dr. Marissa Blumenthal of the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control investigates--and soon uncovers the medical world's deadliest secret." (Goodreads)

About: "With his finger on the pulse of the latest medical technology, Robin Cook preys on our deepest fears with uncanny skill. Now, in his most provocative thriller to date, he explores a sudden outbreak of strange new symptoms that defy diagnosis. The cause is unknown—and unknowable—because it is unlike anything humankind has ever seen." (Goodreads)

About: When an unidentified, seemingly healthy young woman collapses suddenly on the New York City subway and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is an eerie reminder for veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton of the 1918 flu pandemic. Fearful of a repeat on the one hundredth anniversary of the nightmarish contagion, Jack autopsies the woman within hours of her demise and discovers some striking anomalies: first, that she has had a heart transplant, and second, that, against all odds, her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart.

Although the facts don't add up to influenza, Jack must race against the clock to identify the woman and determine what kind of virus could wreak such havoc--a task made more urgent when two other victims succumb to a similar rapid death. But nothing makes sense until his investigation leads him into the fascinating realm of CRISPR/CAS9, a gene-editing biotechnology that's captured the imagination of the medical community. . . and the attention of its most unethical members. Drawn into the dark underbelly of the organ transplant market, Jack will come face-to-face with a megalomaniacal businessman willing to risk human lives in order to conquer a lucrative new frontier in medicine--and if Jack's not careful, the next life lost might be his own. When an unidentified, seemingly healthy young woman collapses suddenly on the New York City subway and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is an eerie reminder for veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton of the 1918 flu pandemic. Fearful of a repeat on the one hundredth anniversary of the nightmarish contagion, Jack autopsies the woman within hours of her demise and discovers some striking anomalies: first, that she has had a heart transplant, and second, that, against all odds, her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart. Although the facts don't add up to influenza, Jack must race against the clock to identify the woman and determine what kind of virus could wreak such havoc--a task made more urgent when two other victims succumb to a similar rapid death. But nothing makes sense until his investigation leads him into the fascinating realm of CRISPR/CAS9, a gene-editing biotechnology that's captured the imagination of the medical community. . . and the attention of its most unethical members. Drawn into the dark underbelly of the organ transplant market, Jack will come face-to-face with a megalomaniacal businessman willing to risk human lives in order to conquer a lucrative new frontier in medicine--and if Jack's not careful, the next life lost might be his own." (Goodreads)

Another medical thriller- I have read this also.

About: "...In Chicago, a pregnant cafeteria worker suffering nothing more malevolent than flulike symptoms begins hemorrhaging from every part of her body. In Boston, a brilliant musician, her face disfigured by an unknown disease, rapidly descends into a lethal paranoia. In Belinda, West Virginia, a miner suddenly goes berserk, causing a cave-in that kills two of his co-workers. Finding the link between these events could prove FATAL. Five years ago, internist and emergency specialist Matt Rutledge returned to his West Virginia home to marry his high-school sweetheart and open a practice. He also had a score to settle. His father died while working for the Belinda Coal and Coke Company, and Matt swore to expose the mine's health and safety violations. When his beloved Ginny succumbed to an unusual cancer, his campaign became even more bitterly personal. Now Matt has identified two bizarre cases of what he has dubbed the Belinda Syndrome--caused, he is certain, by the mine's careless disposal of toxic chemicals. All he needs is proof. Meanwhile, two women, unknown to one another, are drawn inexorably to Belinda, into Matt's life--and into mortal danger. Massachusetts coroner Nikki Solari comes to attend the funeral of her roommate, killed violently on a Boston street. Ellen Kroft, a retired schoolteacher from Maryland, seeks the remorseless killer who has threatened to destroy her and her family.Three strangers--Rutledge, Solari, and Kroft--each hold one piece of a puzzle they must solve, and solve quickly. If they don't, it will be far more than just their own lives that are at risk." (Goodreads)

This is a traditional mystery. I read this last year and really liked it. Much of the information about the cholera epidemic is based in fact. Florence Nightingale is the main character. She was, of course a real person. The book is fiction but based on true events and her part in that.

About: "The London summer of 1854 is drawing to a close when a deadly outbreak of cholera grips the city. Florence Nightingale is back on the scene marshaling her nurses to help treat countless suffering patients at Middlesex Hospital as the disease tears through the Soho slums. But beyond the dangers of the disease, something even more evil is seeping through the ailing streets of London.
It begins with an attack on the carriage of Florence’s friend, Elizabeth Herbert, wife to Secretary at War Sidney Herbert. Florence survives, but her coachman does not. Within hours, Sidney’s valet stumbles into the hospital, mutters a few cryptic words about the attack, and promptly dies from cholera. Frantic that an assassin is stalking his wife, Sidney enlists Florence’s help, who accepts but has little to go on save for the valet’s last words and a curious set of dice in his jacket pocket. Soon, the suspects are piling up faster than cholera victims, as there seems to be no end to the number of people who bear a grudge against the Herbert household.
Now, Florence is in a race against time—not only to save the victims of a lethal disease, but to foil a murderer with a disturbingly sinister goal—in A Murderous Malady." (Goodreads)

This book is historical fiction. It was recommended by my friend Kay. My understanding is quite alot of research about the flu of 1918 was done for this book. I plan on starting this book, this week.

About: "World War I is raging in Europe, but as the deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 sweeps like a wildfire through Boynton, Oklahoma, Alafair Tucker is fighting her own war. Her daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter Kelley, have both come down with the flu, and Alafair has moved into town to care for them after quarantining her young children at their sister's farm. Boynton as a whole isolates itself like an old English plague village, discouraging anyone from coming into town and the residents from traveling outside. A new doctor applies science to treating the stricken, but Alafair applies all she knows about hygiene, nutrition, and old and trusted country remedies. Unable to aid her sons and sons-inlaw fighting overseas, this is danger she can combat. One autumn afternoon, screams coming from next door alert Alafair that Alice's neighbor, Nola Thomason, and her son Lewis have suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed. Yet there is something about the way the pair died that causes Alafair to suspect their deaths were due to poison rather than to influenza. The epidemic is so overwhelming that it is many days before the only doctor left in town can confirm Alafair's suspicions; neither Nola nor Lewis died of the flu. The only witness to their deaths, twelve-year-old Dorothy Thomason, a special friend of Alafair's daughter, Sophronia, is so traumatized that she is rendered mute. Were Nola and her son murdered, and if so, why? The usual motives for murder are greed, or jealousy, or hatred. Or could it be, as Alafair fears, that the Raven Mocker, the most dreaded of the Cherokee wizards or witches, the evil spirit who takes to the air in a fiery shape to rob the old, the sick, and the dying of their lives, is hunting victims and bringing misery to the innocent?" (Goodreads)

Science Fiction, Apocalyptic 

About: "Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. 
One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time—from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains—this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet." (Goodreads)

"Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven (Knopf) may have been published in 2014, but the storyline of the book resonates with the current pandemic taking place today. In the author's story, a famous Hollywood actor passes away after having a heart attack during a production of King Lear. The night proves to be the start of a chain reaction of frightening events as a fictional swine flu pandemic, dubbed the "Georgia Flu," impacts the world, killing the majority of the population. The tale soon moves back and forth in time, depicting life before and after the pandemic." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/8-pandemic-themed-books-read-coronavirus-1284738/item/pandemic-books-american-plague-1284927

This is a historical non-fiction book. It looks really interesting.

About: "Slave ships brought it to America as far back as 1648-and over the centuries, yellow fever epidemics plagued the United States. Carried along the mighty Mississippi River, it ravaged towns from New Orleans to St. Louis. New York City lost 2,000 lives in one year alone. It even forced the nation's capital to relocate from Philadelphia to Washington, DC.

"The American Plague" reveals the true story of yellow fever, recounting Memphis, Tennessee's near-destruction and resurrection from the epidemic-and the four men who changed medical history with their battle against an invisible foe that remains a threat to this very day". (Goodreads)

This has happened before and hopefully we have better tools to fight it. We will get through it but we have to be patient and diligent. Hang in there!