Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock

 Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock 305 pages

Bluff  is the story of former socialite (current poker player) Maud Warner.  When she was young and impressionable, she was taken in by celebrity accountant Burt Sklar.  Once she figured out that he was a fraud, her mother had already invested money with him and lost most of it (think Bernie Madoff).  One day she goes into The Four Seasons restaurant and tells the maitre d she is meeting Burt and his dining companion Sun Sunderland.  She draws a gun from her purse and shoots.  She hits Sun Sunderland since Burt Sklar uses him as a shield.  Did she hit the wrong man?  After this she goes into hiding with one of her poker buddies in Washington D.C.  I would summarize more, but might give away the twists.

Filled with plenty of twists and turns (and poker terminology), Bluff is a delightful caper mystery from beginning to end.  If you enjoy a lighter story with a twist, Bluff may be just what you are looking for.

 

A LETTER OF MARY

A LETTER OF MARY by Laurie R. King  (276 pages)

Audio book 10 audio discs (10 hr.)

Reviewed by Rae C.

https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1403776116

The third installment of the Mary Russell series.  She's been Mrs. Sherlock Holmes for two years now, and reminisces at one point that she has "known my husband for one third of my years."  (I think she is mid-twenties in this book.)  The Holmes get a visit from a woman that they met in Palestine, Dorothy Ruskin, and she has a document that will rock the foundations of the Church. Of course, Miss Ruskin dies under mysterious circumstances shortly after visiting the Holmes, and then the Holmes' house is ransacked.  And off they go solving another mystery!

I really enjoyed this more than the previous two!  It wasn't as fast paced, but having read Holy Blood, Holy Grail ages before Dan Brown's Davinci Code showed up, the title fascinated me. The case was filled with many Doyle-esque plot twists and suspects, with a very satisfying ending. And King's knowledge of theological history and archeology and the Ancient world is on full display.

Mary and Sherlock have become a very settled couple at this point, but there is still excitement between them. It also had so many tantalizing tidbits, for example: Mary bumping into a young student at Leeds that enjoys reading Anglo Saxon literature named Tolkien.  

I am so glad I started this as an audio book!  I love this narrator!  I actually prefer her voice in my head to my imagination, which is rare.  Recommended to anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes, Victorian and WW1 era fiction, and strong female characters.

Truly Devious

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, 420 pages

“Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game." Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.” This book was amazing.  I can’t wait for the next books to come out.  Teens who like mysteries, especially if they are creepy, need to read this.

A through N of the Alphabet series

Letters A through N by Sue Grafton, 4433 pages through 14 books.

So this month was almost entirely devoted to working my way through the Kinsey Millhone, better known as the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. The series as a whole follows the life of Kinsey who works as a private detective in Santa Teresa California. As she is quick to tell you in every book she has been married and divorced twice, graduated from the police academy, and is not one for rules and regulations.

I started reading this series while in looking for a cozy mystery series that would meet my criteria. That is the series had to be over ten books long, somewhat humorous and written well enough for me not to throw the book across the room. I had known about the “Alphabet” series for quite some time but I never really through about reading it until it was suggested by multiple reader advisory sites based on what I had read.

The Alphabet series certainly lived up to the recommendation. The characters are easily likeable, and there is a good mix of humor throughout. The books will not have you laughing in your chair but there are some good one liners that made me smile. If I had one critique to the series, it is the ending. In a good majority of the books the story is chugging right along to the final confrontation and ta da book over. I mean she does explain what happened afterwards in a short epilog, but there is hardly any details. For example in one of the books it technically ends with her being knocked out. In the epilog we learn that she awoke three days later in the hospital, bad guy dead, case solved. Technically that wraps up the plot but I would still like more details.

Despite that one short coming the series is still well worth the read, and I know I will continue reading them. Sadly at this blazing pace I will catch up to Grafton before she has time to finish Y and Z.  

A Fine Imitation

A Fine Imitation by Amber Bock    304 pages

One of the first things that captured my attention for A Fine Imitation is the cover. Whoever said you can’t judge a book by its cover was only half-wrong. The cover model invokes the novel’s main protagonist, Vera Longacre Bellington: glamorous, chic, period, and lonely.

Deep down, Vera has always been lonely. During her college years at Vassar College in 1913 and ten years later when she lives in New York City. I had the feeling that even as a child, an only child at that, that she was lonely. The novel alternates between 1913 and 1923.

Vera loves art and is studying it at Vassar. She befriends Bea Stillman from Atlanta. Bea is everything Vera is not. The two become fast friends as Bea pulls Vera into one adventure aft another. Only when the two get caught on one such adventure, Vera is pulled from the college (with only a semester until graduation) by her very formidable mother. Bea has secrets she is desperately trying to hide. Vera and Bea glimpse each other occasionally, but never speak or acknowledge each other’s presence.

Fast forward to 1923. Vera lives in the penthouse of the most luxurious apartment building in New York…and one that her husband, Arthur Bellington, built. Vera has everything money can buy: accept love. The couple is close with many of other wealthy couples living in the building.

I’m not sure really how it came to be, but the residents of the building decide they want a mural painted on the tiles in the basement’s Pool Room. A search is conducted, and soon Emil Hallern, a French painter, arrives. As an artist, he has several demands, like not allowing anyone in the room until the painting is complete.

Hallern never talks about himself, which leaves Vera suspicious. The harder she pushes the less he will disclose. Soon, the two are embroiled in a passionate affair, where secrets are revealed, secrets I never saw coming.

Bock’s debut novel, on the surface, reminds me of Melanie Benjamin’s latest title, The Swans of Fifth Avenue. It appears to be almost about nothing…about everyday life among the wealthy, but readers will find themselves knee-deep in human interactions and all that those involve. The title evokes the two parallel stories that run throughout the novel.

I received A Fine Imitation from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.

I give A Fine Imitation 5 out of 5 stars.

Ghost of the Mary Celeste

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin 306 pages

 Despite the title, the ship Mary Celeste is only plays a minor role in this novel set in the 19th Century.  Its role is more of how the mystery of the abandoned ship with it's missing crew affected the lives of supposedly unrelated people, Sallie Briggs, Phoebe Grant, Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualist Violet Petra.  Each section is almost an unrelated vignette and we skip among each person recounting a history and as the book progresses we start to see how loss has shaped each person's lives.

If you are expecting a solution to the mystery of the Mary Celeste you will be disappointed as the book offers no concrete solution and ends rather mysteriously and abruptly.  Instead you'll be enthralled by the lives and action of each of the main characters and the heartbreak of loss.