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The Story of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb

The Story of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb

I absolutely loved this book! It’s light and easy and just fun. It was brought up at book club many times and so I just had to grab it. I’m glad we didn’t do it for BC, I don’t think there is a whole lot to discuss, pure pleasure read.

Hallie James has believed all her life that her mother perished in a house fire. She receives a letter from an attorney stating the death of a Madelin Crane, along with a letter from Madeline Crane stating that Hallie is her daughter and she has believed for 30 years that Hallie and her father were dead. This sends Hallie’s world into a tail spin as she tries to discover why her father would have lied to her all of these years. Her life is further complicated as she returns to the island in which she was born and raised and begins to uncover the mysteries and tragedies of her family and her ancestors.

In all the book is a wonderful ghost story, rich with mystery and family ancestry. The setting is fantastic, an island off the Great Lakes where the mode of transportation for the last 100 plus hears has been foot, bike or horse drawn carriages. Much of the book includes accounts in story teller format which really adds to the mystery and ancestry of the island and the main characters family.

Highly recommend!

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Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn

Dark Enquiry by Deanna Raybourn

This is the fifth in a series and of course it’s a series I absolutely fell in love with from the start. If you like late Victorian England murder mystery / romance then this is your cuppa. Dark Enquiry follows our favorite couple Julia and Brisbane as they have returned from their honeymoon (as you can read in Dark Road to Darjeerling, #4) and are setting up their household in London. They quickly involve themselves in a blackmailing / murder plot that draws more than one of Julia’s eccentric family members into the heart of the matter.

Though this mystery plot wasn’t quite as sinister and exciting as some of Raybourn’s other plots the story line is still fantastic. A great mix of mystery, romance and hilarity, Dark Enquiry will not disappoint fans of the Lady Julia series by any means!

Raybourn is one of my favorite authors. She captures her characters well and I find myself tearing up and laughing out loud throughout her books. DO NOT judge a book by its cover though. In my opinion this book and Silent on the Moor have terrible book jackets – they are both reminiscent of of 1980′s costumes of Victorian England, ick. So just push past that.

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Defend and Betray by Anne Perry, William Monk Series

Defend and Betray by Anne Perry – #3 in the William Monk Series

In an earlier post I told you I would be testing the waters of Anne Perry and her mammoth Victorian Mystery series. Well out of the two series I have to say I think the William Monk series has a bit more depth and bite than the Pitt series. I will say however, that the first half of each one I have read has been a bit dry (the case in both series),  but about halfway through they start heating up, by the time I was 3/4th’s the way through I was to the point where I couldn’t put them down.

So far out of all three I have to vote Defend and Betray as my favorite. The story opens with the murder of General Thaddeus Carlyon, his wife Alexandra quickly admits to the crime but won’t give anyone the real reason for her actions. She awaits trial maintaining her reason was jealousy over a possible affair.  For the time period we are talking about I felt the revealed reason to the crime was pretty shocking and the way it all comes out is definitely nail biting. Also in this book more and more of Monk’s elusive past comes to light which is very exciting. The relationship with he and Hester really haven’t heated up too much by this point but you can see it coming, namely in his reaction to realizing she’s interested in Rathborn a local barrister (our version of a courtroom attorney) that has assisted in each of their mysteries.

I found a dealer on Half.com that has loads of Anne Perry books, so I went ahead and ordered the rest of this series ($36 well spent, love cheap books). So we’ll see how far I get.

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A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Last night my book club met to discuss our latest and greatest, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. And unlike our last meeting, the opinions on this one were mixed. Overall I think even if you don’t love it you will find it interesting. That’s the phrase that kept popping up, it was “interesting”.

We were pretty split on whether we felt it was a true Pulitzer Prize winner, I myself don’t get it. Which is precisely why I don’t pick books based on awards. Rather like some of the movies that get picked for Emmy’s – and I’m thinking wait did you all see the same movie I did because the movie I saw didn’t deserve my $10 much less an industry award (Black Swan).

Anyway, I was a bit conflicted on my feelings on this book as well. Each chapter is a different character, one member created a flow chart to keep up with all the different characters. We were all envious of her chart. I really liked it at first, but about 50 pages from the end I felt my engine stalling. It was just too disconnected for me, some characters were never to be seen again and others popped up so much later in the book that I couldn’t remember who they were or what their back story was or what their future story was since this is the back story.

Occasionally the author would throw in a future glimpse of a character’s life which I really liked, as in “she would later go on to join a cult where they only ate raw eggs“. But she didn’t do this throughout the book, only a few times in the beginning, it was like she forgot she was doing this and left the idea behind.

Overall it was a short read, and an easy read but a bit hard to follow. I’m glad we picked it for book club as it was a fun one to discuss since no one could say they 100% followed each characters story with success. Had you been a fly on the wall you would have heard a lot of “are you sure that was Rob?” “No that wasn’t Drew that was Benny” “That wasn’t Lou’s daughter that was Lulu, I swear” “Wait, I thought her dad died…no he was the movie star, La Doll just told LuLu he was dead”.

Fun Stuff!

Next month we’re reading, The Book Thief which has been on my shelf for over two years. Really looking forward to that one.

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The Birth House by Ami McKay

The Birth House by Ami McKay

I am a member of an awesome book club where we typically always pick great books. I missed a week so I missed the discussion around why this book was picked. I looked it up and read the synopsis and thought, really? Why in the world did they want to read this, it doesn’t sound good at all. The book received rave reviews which made me a bit curious. Needless to say I couldn’t get too excited over it and it failed to make my must read list.

Flash forward a couple of weeks to book club. It was the first time I ever remember ALL 15 women loving a book. And the discussion around it went from hysterical commentary on home remedy birth control and birthing to thought proviking discussions on women’s rights. So I grabbed the book from one of the ladies determined to read it and see what it was all about.

I loved it! Absolutely loved it! It’s about a girl (Dora Rare) who is the only female in a family of 6 boys. She’s training with the local mid wife to be a mid wife herself. Now we’re talking Nova Scotia 1916, and area that wouldn’t receive electricity in homes till the mid 40′s. For the most part this is an old shipping and farming community where at home births are the norm. In comes Dr. Thomas determined to bring modern birthing centers to the area. Quickly lines are drawn and conflict arises. But the bigger story here are the relationships between Dora and Miss B, her teacher, and the community of Nova Scotia. Dora, like most girls, dreams of love, family and happiness. But through the traditional routes she’ll find only disappointment and hurt.

The Birth House is a quick read simply because it’s a story that is easy to follow and a narrative style that is similar to a story teller. It’s highly enjoyable in my opinion and rich in character development.

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Anne Perry Series

Currently I am wading through two mother of all mother series. Imagine my surprise and elation (man how long have I been waiting to use “elation” in a sentence) when I stumbled upon two period piece series, both Victorian mystery series?!

Now the first one, Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series, currently numbers up to 26 books – yes friends TWENTY SIX!! And the other series, The Monk series, currently numbers at 15. Needless to say I have some reading to do. I don’t feel like I can give an accurate review of either series yet as I’ve only read the first two of each one. I will say the relationships are quite different in each series and the writing is a bit more dense in the Monk series. Which let’s be honest, I’m glad given there is still the possibility that these could be formula novels, let’s hope not of course.

Did you know I detest formula novels?

The Pitt series began in 1979, Inspector Pitt is one of those fun loving disheveled characters that’s easy to like. The Monk series began in the early 90′s, William Monk is more of a brooding darker force characters. That series begins with him having amnesia and having to relearn his job and who he is without anyone knowing his demise. So far both female characters have a lot in common and easily remind me of each other, but like I said I’ve barely skimmed the surface of these series so jury’s still out on that.

So far I’m really looking forward to delving into both series, so that’s a good sign. Reviews to come when I have a few more under my belt.

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