Never Tell

Never Tell (Detective D.D. Warren #10) by Lisa Gardner 416 pages

"A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. But his computer has been shot twelve times, and when the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun."

As you can see from the title information, this is the tenth book with homicide detective D.D. Warren --- so if you have read other books in this series, you know to expect Flora Dane, as well.  If you've never read a book in this series, you can still pick this up and enjoy it --- there's just some backstory that makes it easier to understand some of the details and plot

When D.D. arrives on the scene, she recognizes the wife as Evie Carter, a woman involved in a case from many years back when Evie's father was killed in an accidental shooting.  Now that Evie appears to have shot a computer and maybe her husband, was that incident from years ago truly an accident?  And what is Evie's husband's connection to Flora Dane?

It definitely makes it easier to explain if you have read the other books in the series, mostly because you have an understanding of D.D.'s background, Flora Dane's background, and how they are connected to each other.  This is a great story where the details are uncovered in layers, one at a time, so it's not easy to make any predictions on how to solve the mystery of the murder.  Like her other books, I feel Gardner excels at building a story quickly and combining it with interesting characters and a quick pace, so you can find yourself engrossed in the book . . . and maybe not realizing you've been sitting and reading as long as you have.

Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1)

Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny  293 pages

"Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montréal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a long-time resident of Three Pines, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more but Gamache smells something foul this holiday season…and is soon certain that Jane died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter."  (per Goodreads)

After years of doing Reader's Advisory and talking to people about what they're reading, it's taken me a really long time to get around to Louise Penny.  And I can't believe it took me this long!!

I don't tend to read a lot of mysteries, although I have certain mystery authors that I read every one of their books.  I really enjoyed this book and plan to work my way through the series. I appreciated that there was a sense of humor to parts of the book, and Penny has created a great character in Gamache (as well as some wonderful supporting characters in this story).  I liked that I wasn't sure about who had killed Jane Neal, or why, and this book's steady pace made for a really good read.

Death of an Honest Man

Death of an Honest Man by M.C. Beaton            AudioBook: 5 hours, 23 minutes       Hardback Book:  256 pages            

I love the writing of M. C. Beaton and Hamish Macbeth is one of my all-time favorite literary characters.   The books in this series are a joy to read or listen to.   The rich Scot brogue is one of my favorite dialects and Beaton captures the mellifluous enunciations perfectly on the page or the audio version.  Love it.   In this story, Sergeant Hamish Macbeth meets up with this horrendously rude chap that has recently moved into one of the small village’s on Hamish’s beat.    The man, Paul English says he is an honest man and speaks nothing but the truth to people.    What he speaks is rude comments, said to hurt people’s feelings with attacks on their self-esteem.    One elderly lady in the village of Cnothan, who lives with her twin sister, has the habit of always repeating the last few words her sister says like an echo.   When Paul English experiences this in the ladies’ company he tells Jessie Currie (the repeater) that she needed psychiatric help.    He accused Hamish of dying his hair (it is a fiery red and natural).   He told the minister his sermons were boring.   He chats up some of the local ladies to the point of letting them think he is in love with them but before they hed to the altar he does his best to convince them to sign a document giving all their worldly goods to him at their death.   The ladies in question have a nice nest egg socked away and when they didn’t jump to his request immediately he would say awful things to them and tear away whatever belief they had in their own self-worth.   In other words, Paul English was a total jerk.   He had an on-going relationship with both a nurse who was hot to trot and a lady minister simultaneously.    He vowed his deep affection for both then started pushing the document giving over access to all of their bank accounts and assets to him upon their marriage.  He was a really mean-spirited fellow just vicious in his “honest” comments to people.   Then one day – he turns up dead.     Every one in the village had motive and everyone in the town he came from prior.  So who is responsible for the death of an “honest” man?    Good mystery, great plot, but my very favorite part of the story is that after Hamish had taken his pet wild cat to a reserve so she could go back to living free in the wild, Sonsie reappears!   I love Hamish’s pets Luggs the Dog and Sonsie.    When he released her in the reserve, I missed her as much as he and Luggs did.     This series is such fun to read.  I highly recommend it to everyone, young, old or in-between.    The characters are so colorful and real they all but step out of the pages.   Well done, M.C. Beaton.

No Comfort for the Lost: A Mystery of Old San Francisco

No Comfort for the Lost: A Mystery of Old San Francisco by Nancy Herrimann  384 pages

This is the first novel in the “A Mystery of Old San Francisco.” Author Herrimann introduces readers to his two main protagonists. First is Crimea veteran Celia Davies. She came to the States with her husband, Patrick, who promptly signed onto to a sailing vessel and has disappeared.

Celia, a recent immigrant from Great Britain, feels for the Chinese immigrants who often live in squalor. She opens a free clinic for the prostitutes, funded by her late uncle. She lives in the uncle’s house with her half-Chinese niece and an opinionated housekeeper. I believe the housekeeper was designed as comedic relief, but it missed the point.

When one of her patients, and a women Celia considered a friend, is found dumped in the Bay, Celia vows to find justice for Li Sha. She works, often to his dismay and in opposition of, with Detective Nicholas Greaves. Celia is more often than not, getting in way and continues to find herself in dangerous situations that could prove fatal to both herself and Nick.

No Comfort the Lost takes place in 1867. Herrimann does an excellent job in providing atmospheric details without cluttering the book with unimportant information. For me, the book lacked tension. I never felt that Celia and her entourage were in any real danger. I also felt that many of the situations were the same, just located in a different part of the city.

I did like how Herriman tackled immigration---most of San Francisco hated the Chinese and were ready to revolt, burning Chinatown and sending the foreigners packing. Give readers a look at how foreigners were viewed a hundred and fifty plus years ago.

I give No Comfort the Lost 3 out of 5 stars.