Mastering the Art of French Murder

Mastering the Art of French Murder (Book 1 American in Paris series) by Colleen Cambridge   283 pages

When I first read the title of this new mystery series, I swear I could hear Julia Child’s real-life voice. I had no idea that the kitchen magician herself was going to be a secondary character in this new series. I was so delighted!

Set in the Paris of 1949, Tabitha Knight has come to the City of Lights from Detroit to find herself. She’s twenty-nine years old, recently broken her four-year engagement to Henry and has lost her job at the Willow Run Bomber Plant where she helped to build B-24 Liberator planes. She was a real Rosie the Riveter! And on top of all the that, the woman---her grandmother-- who helped raise her has died. She is lost and decides to go spend some time with her grandfather, who still lives in Pari with his best friend.

Tabitha made friends with Julia, who happens to live across the street and down the block. They became fast friends although Tabitha can barely boil an egg. Julia’s sister, Dort lives with the Childs’. Dort works for the American Club Theater, which performs at Theater Monceau. The cast and crew are often at Julia’s apartment after shows or rehearsals.

After one such evening, the body of one of the other theater employees, Therese, turns up brutally murdered----in the basement of the Childs’ apartment building. Tabitha was the last person to see her alive and is immediately a suspect.

Concerned that she will be arrested and impatient with police procedures, Tabitha begins her own investigation. And the bodies begin to pile up. I was surprised by so many bodies that dot the pages.

This first book in the series is simultaneously funny and creepy. The opening scene about the mayonnaise was a delight! I could hear Julia’s real-life voice booming from the pages. I also liked that she was the sidekick and not the main character. I did wonder if there were some gay undertones between Tabitha’s grandfather and his best friend, Oncle Rafe (Tabitha’s honorary uncle), but it doesn’t matter.

The descriptions of the food and wine were spot-on…not too much nor too little. I was salivating through the entire book. However, there is only one thing, no two things, missing: The recipes for the perfect roasted chicken and mayonnaise! “Mastering the Art of French Murder” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Publishing date April 2023

The Devil's Rooming House

The Devil's Rooming House: The True Story of America's Deadliest Female Serial Killer by M. William Phelps     303 pages

The Devil's Rooming House tells the story of Amy Archer-Gilligan, America's most prolific female serial killer. Through his study of first-hand documents and accounts of people close to Amy and who were part of the investigation that brought her to trial, M. William Phelps tells the story of Amy's life as the matron of one of the first homes for the elderly, where she most likely had a hand in killing at least 50 inmates.

Boy, was I excited to read this book. It's been on my to-read shelf for a while, but what first sparked my interest was the connection to "Arsenic and Old Lace," one of my favorite movie comedies. The stage play of the same name was loosely based on the life of Amy Archer-Gilligan, America's deadliest female serial killer.

And with that kind of title, you'd expect to be in for the read of your life - except, this book was quite difficult to get into. For one thing, it was slow to get going. Phelps takes a LOT of time setting up the scene, what the time was like in the early 1900s, a bit of Hartford, CT history. But it went on, and on. For a while I though it was just going to be about the excessive heat wave that killed hundreds in 1911. The first five or six chapters were devoted to it, with occasional mentions of the characters that would soon be coming into play.

I thought once the set up was finished, the story might then become engrossing. It didn't really. The majority of people might consider non-fiction to be boring. I have read many non-fiction titles that I found to be just as exciting and interesting as fictions, but this book would support the "boring" feeling about non-fiction. For such an interesting story, it was told in a very muddled way. The story took a long time to take shape, the facts weren't relayed in a very interesting or conversational tone, and much of the author's personal opinion of the subject (Amy, herself) really showed at the end.

All in all, I felt the book was a poorly handled written attempt to tell the story of one of America's most interesting female criminal figures. I'd much prefer to watch the very fictional, over the top "version" of the story through "Arsenic and Old Lace."

I would not recommend this book.

Death Note Manga Series

Death Note Volume 1-12 by Tsugumi Oba, (2418 pages/12 books)


The Death Note series follows a young man named Light who finds a notebook intentionally left there by a Shinigami (death god) named Ryuk. What makes this notebook so special is that it has the power to kill anyone whose name is written in it. Provided that you know the person's name and face. Supposedly this is to stop random people from being killed, but is more useful to the plot than anything else.

Once Light starts killing people, the Japanese police force form a task force to stop him. Leading this force is Light's own father. As the killings continue to ramp up a mysterious world renown detective named L joins the hunt. What follows is a very interesting game of cat and mouse, where the loser could very well end up dead.

This might be an overly simplistic summery of the series, as there is a lot that happens in the later books, but I tend to define spoilers in a very broad sense. This prevents me from going into too much detail.

I would define this manga series as a thriller with some action and horror elements. Unlike most manga I have come across most of the characters are college aged or higher. Though unless you did some research on the wiki you would think some of them, namely Misa, are high school age at best. I cannot say if I like this age range better, but it at least avoids some of the problems I have with ecchi manga.

I enjoyed the concept of being able to kill people by learning their names and knowing their faces. And if adapted into a world of superheroes, this would make an awesome super villain.

Ripper

Ripper by Isabel Allende,
478 Pages

 If you read the description the book is about a group of teenagers, led by Amanda Martin trying to solve a spate of murders in the San Francisco area through an internet quorum or game know as Ripper.  However it's not.  The story is more about Amanda's mother Indiana and her clients and boyfriends and past and the murders are incidental to the story.  But they are not. Because Indiana is targeted by the serial killer and only Amanda and her cohorts can solve the crime before she is killed.

Allende is a talented writer but her attempt at a mystery fails big time.  There are too many characters and character building chapters for the book to be considered a mystery and the plot plods so slowly you'll find yourself wishing the serial killer would hurry and put everyone out of their misery.