en-US Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:56:44 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 779463
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gathers around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared devotedly for the flock, even reading them books every night. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George’s killer.

The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the “bad-boy�� black ram; Mopple the Whale, a Merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime, wild metaphysical speculations, and embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.
Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful new breed of detectives to the reader.]]> 341 Leonie Swann 038566379X Jenne 4 mystery 3.63 2005
author: Leonie Swann
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/12
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 456743
Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House

“I will assert that sailors are endowed with greater worth than any set of men in England.��

So muses Jane Austen as she stands in the buffeting wind of Southampton’s quay beside her brother Frank on a raw February morning. Frank, a post captain in the Royal Navy, is without a ship to command, and his best prospect is the Stella Maris , a fast frigate captained by his old friend Tom Seagrave.

“Lucky�� Tom �� so dubbed for his habit of besting enemy ships �� is presently in disgrace, charged with violating the Articles of War. Tom’s first lieutenant, Eustace Chessyre, has accused Seagrave of murder in the death of a French captain after the surrender of his ship.

Though Lucky Tom denies the charge, his dagger was found in the dead man’s chest. Now Seagrave faces court-martial and execution for a crime he swears he did not commit.

Frank, deeply grieved, is certain his friend will hang. But Jane reasons that either Seagrave or Chessyre is lying �� and that she and Frank have a duty to discover the truth.

The search for the captain’s honor carries them into the troubled heart of Seagrave’s family, through some of the seaport’s worst sinkholes, and at long last to Wool House, the barred brick structure that serves as gaol for French prisoners of war.

Risking contagion or worse, Jane agrees to nurse the murdered French captain’s imprisoned crew �� and elicits a debonair surgeon’s account of the Stella Maris ’s battle that appears to clear Tom Seagrave of all guilt.

When Eustace Chessyre is found murdered, the entire affair takes on the appearance of an insidious plot against Seagrave, who is charged with the crime. Could any of his naval colleagues wish him dead? In an era of turbulent intrigue and contested amour, could it be a case of cherchez la femme ... or a veiled political foe at work? And what of the sealed orders under which Seagrave embarked that fateful night in the Stella Maris? Death knocks again at Jane’s own door before the final knots in the killer’s net are completely untangled.

Always surprising, Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House is an intelligent and intriguing mystery that introduces Jane and her readers to “the naval set�� �� and charts a true course through the amateur sleuth’s most troubled waters yet.]]> 304 Stephanie Barron 0553107356 Jenne 3 audiobook, mystery 3.95 2001
author: Stephanie Barron
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/06/06
shelves: audiobook, mystery
review:

]]> 43267214 The mesmerizing adult debut from #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo.

Galaxy "Alex" Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world's most elite universities on a full ride. What's the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale's secret societies. These eight windowless "tombs" are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, ranging from Jodie Foster to George W. Bush. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more supernatural than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

NINTH HOUSE is the long-awaited adult debut by the beloved author of SHADOW AND BONE and CROOKED KINGDOM. Leigh Bardugo will take her place alongside Lev Grossman, Deborah Harkness, and Neil Gaiman as one of the finest practitioners of literary fantasy writing today.

Praise for Leigh Bardugo:
"A master of fantasy." -- The Huffington Post
"Utterly, extremely bewitching." --The Guardian
"The best magic universe since Harry Potter." --Bustle
This is what fantasy is for." --The New York Times Book Review
"[A] world that feels real enough to have its own passport stamp." --NPR
"The darker it gets for the good guys, the better." --Entertainment Weekly
"Sultry, sweeping and picturesque. . . . Impossible to put down." --USA Today
"There's a level of emotional and historical sophistication within Bardugo's original epic fantasy that sets it apart." --Vanity Fair]]> 17 Leigh Bardugo 1250238064 Jenne 5 audiobook, fantasy, mystery That being said, the book itself is super enjoyable. I was kind of ready to be mad at it for various reasons, like I didn't really want it to be a murder mystery, or the first in a series, or have upsetting scenes of sexual assault, but it handles all those things in such an organic way that I was completely won over.]]> 4.03 2019
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/15
date added: 2019/12/18
shelves: audiobook, fantasy, mystery
review:
So, back in high school I desperately wanted to go to Yale but I didn't get accepted... and this book made me feel a LOT better about that.
That being said, the book itself is super enjoyable. I was kind of ready to be mad at it for various reasons, like I didn't really want it to be a murder mystery, or the first in a series, or have upsetting scenes of sexual assault, but it handles all those things in such an organic way that I was completely won over.
]]> 29589074
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.

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.]]> 416 Maureen Johnson Jenne 2 mystery, ya 3.89 2018
author: Maureen Johnson
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2018/10/01
date added: 2018/10/02
shelves: mystery, ya
review:
I loved the super awesome boarding school, but I wasn’t that interested in the mystery and I haaaated the love interest guy, I found him so stressful and icky.
]]> 762423 ��
But she is not the only one fascinated by the flames. Someone else sees their power-and is obsessed not with conquering the fire but with controlling it, owning it, using it to exact vicious revenge…When Reena finally joins the arson unit, her strength and wits are constantly tested-although sometimes the job seems like a snap compared to her love life. But she can't always blame the men-after all, a soot-caked woman barking orders and smelling of smoke isn't the biggest turn-on in the world. Then she meets Bo Goodnight, who seems different. He's been trying to find Reena for years, and now that she is close enough to touch, he has no intention of letting go.
��
Nor does the man who has begun to haunt Reena's life-with taunting phone calls and a string of horrifying crimes. And as Reena tries desperately to trace the origins-of the calls, the fires, the hatred aimed in her direction-she will step into the worst inferno she has ever faced.
��
From the incomparable Nora Roberts, Blue Smoke is a tale of gut-level fear, human triumph, and the bonds that carry us through our darkest times.]]> 437 Nora Roberts 0399153063 Jenne 2
I was a little disturbed by the scene at the end where [spoilers removed] Was not expecting to find that or the word "cunt" in a Nora Roberts book!
Not that I'm against swearing in books, just found it surprising.]]> 4.00 2005
author: Nora Roberts
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2012/03/30
date added: 2017/10/26
shelves: fiftyfifty-me-2012, mystery, romance
review:
the one where she is an arson investigator and he is a carpenter!

I was a little disturbed by the scene at the end where [spoilers removed] Was not expecting to find that or the word "cunt" in a Nora Roberts book!
Not that I'm against swearing in books, just found it surprising.
]]> 18162353 An orchestral conductor has been found dead and Detective Inspector Jack Robinson needs the delightfully incisive and sophisticated Miss Fisher’s assistance to enter a world in which he is truly lost. Hugh Tregennis, not much liked by anyone, has been murdered in a most flamboyant mode by a killer with a point to prove. But how many killers is Phryne really stalking?
At the same time, the dark curls, disdainful air and the lavender eyes of mathematician and code-breaker Rupert Sheffield are taking Melbourne by storm. They’ve certainly taken the heart of Phryne’s old friend from the trenches of WWI, John Wilson. Phryne recognizes Sheffield as a man who attracts danger and is determined to protect John from harm.
Even with the faithful Dot, Mr. and Mrs. Butler, and all in her household ready to pull their weight, Phryne’s task is complex. While Mendelssohn’s Elijah, memories of the Great War, and the science of deduction ring in her head, Phryne’s past must also play its part as MI6 become involved in the tangled web of murders.]]> 365 Kerry Greenwood 1742379567 Jenne 3 mystery This one was doing a really excellent job for about the first half, but then detoured into some of the sappiest Holmes/Watson fanfic that I've ever read (and I've read some, believe me) plus a lot of what I assume are Ms. Greenwood's feelings about bad choir directors?
Still, it's just the sort of thing to read on the veranda with a shady hat and a tall G&T.
]]> 3.77 2013
author: Kerry Greenwood
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2017/06/15
date added: 2017/06/20
shelves: mystery
review:
There are VERY few series that I'm still reading at installment #20. For mysteries especially, it's a delicate balance for the author to give us enough fanservice (and I mean that in the best way possible--in this case it's lots of descriptions of fancy outfits and delicious meals and hot guys and so on) but still have an interesting-enough whodunit to be a framework for the fanservice.
This one was doing a really excellent job for about the first half, but then detoured into some of the sappiest Holmes/Watson fanfic that I've ever read (and I've read some, believe me) plus a lot of what I assume are Ms. Greenwood's feelings about bad choir directors?
Still, it's just the sort of thing to read on the veranda with a shady hat and a tall G&T.

]]> 25735012 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible �� and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them��

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]> 512 Robert Galbraith 0316349933 Jenne 2 mystery 4.18 2015
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2016/01/17
date added: 2016/02/12
shelves: mystery
review:
TBH I skimmed the last third...and then she ended it THERE?!
]]> 6387435 “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.��

To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story—of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school’s tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder—but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse��.

An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions—and a rich literary delight.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 8 Alan Bradley 0739384309 Jenne 4 mystery The reader, Jayne Entwistle, has this particular and delicious way of saying "Flaaaaaviahh de LUCE" that I kept repeating to myself at odd moments through the day, as if rolling a rather expensive caramel around in my mouth.]]> 3.79 2009
author: Alan Bradley
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2015/01/15
date added: 2015/01/22
shelves: mystery
review:
I don't think I would have liked this book as much if I hadn't listened to the audio version, which is absolutely the definition of the word charming. (A word that I'm afraid I use much too much...)
The reader, Jayne Entwistle, has this particular and delicious way of saying "Flaaaaaviahh de LUCE" that I kept repeating to myself at odd moments through the day, as if rolling a rather expensive caramel around in my mouth.
]]> 18214414 Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...]]> 464 Robert Galbraith 0316206873 Jenne 4
Side note: The made-up author's work reminded me a lot of this book I had to review once, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. You can decide for yourself if that's something you'd be into...]]> 4.02 2014
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2014/08/15
date added: 2014/12/25
shelves: mystery, arc, fifty-fifty-me-2014
review:
This one was a lot more pulled-together than the first one, and even though I didn't really care who did it--I almost never do, with mystery novels--I kind of miss the characters and I'm sad it's over.

Side note: The made-up author's work reminded me a lot of this book I had to review once, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. You can decide for yourself if that's something you'd be into...
]]> 19561924
Amory accompanies Gil to the Brightwell Hotel in an attempt to circumvent the marriage of his sister, Emmeline, to Rupert Howe, a disreputable ladies�� man. Amory sees in the situation a grim reflection of her own floundering marriage. There is more than her happiness at stake, however, when Rupert is murdered and Gil is arrested for the crime. Amory is determined to prove his innocence and find the real killer, despite attempted dissuasion from the disapproving police inspector on the case. Matters are further complicated by Milo’s unexpected arrival, and the two form an uneasy alliance as Amory enlists his reluctant aid in clearing Gil’s name. As the stakes grow higher and the line between friend and foe becomes less clear, Amory must decide where her heart lies and catch the killer before she, too, becomes a victim.

Murder at the Brightwell is a delicious mystery in which murder invades polite society and romance springs in unexpected places. Weaver has penned a debut in the tradition of Jacqueline Winspear.]]> 325 Ashley Weaver 125004636X Jenne 3 fifty-fifty-me-2014, mystery The third star is mostly for the main character's name, "Amory Ames," which is perfection. ]]> 3.75 2014
author: Ashley Weaver
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/11/29
date added: 2014/12/25
shelves: fifty-fifty-me-2014, mystery
review:
Fairly entertaining--like an Agatha Christie novel but missing the sharp characterization.
The third star is mostly for the main character's name, "Amory Ames," which is perfection.
]]> 7558193
When a former flame is one of the snakes she uncovers, Lucky is certain the woman’s death was no Sin City suicide. To top it all off, Lucky’s best friend, Teddie—Las Vegas’s finest female impersonator—presses to take their relationship to the next level. Leave it to Lucky to attract a man who looks better in a dress than she does.

Lucky must manage the Babylon’s outrageous festivities, solve the crime, and struggle to keep her life and libido from spinning out of control.]]> 352 Deborah Coonts 0765325438 Jenne 2 fifty-fifty-me-2014, mystery I did kind of like how her best friend/love interest is a straight drag queen. He was cool. ]]> 3.81 2010
author: Deborah Coonts
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2014/07/17
date added: 2014/07/17
shelves: fifty-fifty-me-2014, mystery
review:
The premise of this is sort of charming--a woman is a "fixer" at a fancy casino in Las Vegas--but it was just so HOKEY. Ugh.
I did kind of like how her best friend/love interest is a straight drag queen. He was cool.
]]> 527744 306 Agatha Christie 0425173909 Jenne 4 rereaders-book-club, mystery I've actually even read this one before, and I still couldn't figure out who did it! I looked at all the least likely suspects, even the butler, but it turned out it was someone I didn't even think about, someone in plain sight, someone obvious...but someone I never. even. considered.
Hats off.]]> 3.89 1953
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2014/06/23
date added: 2014/07/02
shelves: rereaders-book-club, mystery
review:
God, she is the MASTER of misdirection.
I've actually even read this one before, and I still couldn't figure out who did it! I looked at all the least likely suspects, even the butler, but it turned out it was someone I didn't even think about, someone in plain sight, someone obvious...but someone I never. even. considered.
Hats off.
]]> 15736511 348 Kerry Greenwood 1742372430 Jenne 4 mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2013 4.03 2012
author: Kerry Greenwood
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/29
date added: 2013/12/29
shelves: mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2013
review:
This one was especially plotty and a bit more serious than some!
]]> 7076706
Several years ago, she was the only survivor of a serial killer �� a madman who stalked and abducted young women, strangled them, and left them buried with a red scarf on their bodies. As authorities were closing in on the Red Scarf Killer, he shot and killed Fiona's cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona has found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. Yet all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He's the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon's house, and he's at his wit's end.

To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can't handle. Simon is another matter. A newcomer to Orcas, he's a rugged and intensely private artist, known for creating exquisite furniture. Simon never wanted a puppy, and he most definitely doesn't want a woman. Besides, the lanky redhead is not his type. But tell that to the laws of attraction.

As Fiona embarks on training Jaws and as Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona's life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channeled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands.

An unabridged recording in 15 parts (14 hours, 54 minutes).]]> 488 Nora Roberts 0399156577 Jenne 3 romance, mystery
HE: is an artistic but grumpy furniture maker! Who is just trying to get some work done!

WILL THEY: be able to catch the new serial killer? and define their relationship? and have sex on a table?

YES OF COURSE THEY WILL.]]> 4.13 2010
author: Nora Roberts
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/21
date added: 2013/12/22
shelves: romance, mystery
review:
SHE: is a tough but vulnerable search and rescue dog trainer! Who once escaped from a serial killer!

HE: is an artistic but grumpy furniture maker! Who is just trying to get some work done!

WILL THEY: be able to catch the new serial killer? and define their relationship? and have sex on a table?

YES OF COURSE THEY WILL.
]]> 7061 235 Alexander McCall Smith 1400034779 Jenne 4 3.81 1998
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/09/03
shelves: excellent-short-reads, mystery
review:

]]> 17262138 New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King, beloved for her acclaimed Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, leads readers into the vibrant and sensual Paris of the Jazz Age—and reveals the darkest secrets of its denizens.

Paris, France: September 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, the assignment is a private investigator’s dream—he’s getting paid to troll the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The American agent has a healthy appreciation for la vie de bohème, despite having worked for years at the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two year old from Boston who has been living in Paris, modeling and acting. Her family became alarmed when she stopped all communications, and Stuyvesant agreed to track her down. He wholly expects to find her in the arms of some up-and-coming artist, perhaps experimenting with the decadent lifestyle that is suddenly available on every rue and boulevard.
��
As Stuyvesant follows Philippa’s trail through the expatriate community of artists and writers, he finds that she is known to many of its famous—and infamous—inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Company’s Sylvia Beach to Ernest Hemingway to the Surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp, disturbing turn. At the Grand-Guignol, murder, insanity, and sexual perversion are all staged to shocking, brutal effect: depravity as art, savage human nature on stage.
��
Soon it becomes clear that one missing girl is a drop in the bucket. Here, amid the glittering lights of the cabarets, hides a monster whose artistic coup de grâce is to be rendered in blood. And Stuyvesant will have to descend into the darkest depths of perversion to find a killer . . . sifting through The Bones of Paris.]]> 412 Laurie R. King 0345531760 Jenne 3 3.48 2013
author: Laurie R. King
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/09/02
date added: 2013/09/02
shelves: arc, fiftyfifty-me-2013, mystery
review:
If you're into that whole Paris-in-the-20s thing, this is a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Maybe a little much with the name-dropping for me.
]]> 16160797 456 Robert Galbraith 0316206849 Jenne 3 mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2013 3.88 2013
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/08/18
date added: 2013/08/18
shelves: mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2013
review:
Pretty solidly entertaining! The writing's a little clumsy and people's names are overly weird, but if she writes another book about this guy I'll probably read it.
]]> 44230 329 Lindsey Davis 031235777X Jenne 2 fiftyfifty-me-2013, mystery 3.92 1989
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1989
rating: 2
read at: 2013/08/03
date added: 2013/08/03
shelves: fiftyfifty-me-2013, mystery
review:
I don't know, it was fine. It kind of carried me along but it felt like nothing actually happened. I'm still not quite sure who it was who did the thing to the person for the other thing/reason.
]]> 237209
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.]]> 429 Tana French 0670038601 Jenne 3 mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2012 3.75 2007
author: Tana French
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/26
date added: 2012/10/26
shelves: mystery, fiftyfifty-me-2012
review:
Oh my god this was so sad. I feel all cracked and broken.
]]> 9736930
So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.]]> 359 S.J. Watson 0062060554 Jenne 4 fiftyfifty-me-2012, mystery 3.90 2011
author: S.J. Watson
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/04
date added: 2012/04/04
shelves: fiftyfifty-me-2012, mystery
review:
gaaaaaah. this was super creepy, but in a good way.
]]> 85459
Meg Galloway, born and raised in Lunacy, is used to being alone. She was a young girl when her father disappeared, and she has learned to be independent, flying her small plane, living on the outskirts of town with just her huskies for company. After her New Year's kiss with the chief of police, she allows herself to give in to passion - while remaining determined to keep things as simple as possible. But there's something about Nate's sad eyes that gets under her skin and warms her frozen heart.

And now, things in Lunacy are heating up. Years ago, on one of the majestic mountains shadowing the town, a crime occurred that is unsolved to this day - and Nate suspects that a killer still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life - and the new love - that he has finally found for himself.]]> 637 Nora Roberts 0515139742 Jenne 2 mystery, romance 4.01 2004
author: Nora Roberts
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 2011/08/31
date added: 2011/09/01
shelves: mystery, romance
review:
I liked the Alaska setting, and interesting to have the male POV for a change, but I never got very invested in the romance part. and WHY ELSE am I reading it?
]]> 6388272
The Rev. Clare Fergusson wants to forget the things she saw as a combat helicopter pilot and concentrate on her relationship with Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne. MP Eric McCrea needs to control the explosive anger threatening his job as a police officer. Will Ellis, high school track star, faces the reality of life as a double amputee. Orthopedist Trip Stillman is denying the extent of his traumatic brain injury. And bookkeeper Tally McNabb wrestles with guilt over the in-country affair that may derail her marriage.

But coming home is harder than it looks. One vet will struggle with drugs and alcohol. One will lose his family and friends. One will die.

Since their first meeting, Russ and Clare's bond has been tried, torn, and forged by adversity. But when he rules the veteran's death a suicide, she violently rejects his verdict, drawing the surviving vets into an unorthodox investigation that threatens jobs, relationships, and her own future with Russ.
As the days cool and the nights grow longer, they will uncover a trail of deceit that runs from their tiny town to the upper ranks of the U.S. Army, and from the waters of the Millers Kill to the unforgiving streets of Baghdad.
One Was a Soldier is "a surefire winner" (Booklist) and "Outstanding" (Library Journal)--Julia Spencer-Fleming at her best.]]> 336 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312334893 Jenne 4 mystery Ouch, these poor people. 4.11 2011
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/18
date added: 2011/06/18
shelves: mystery
review:
Ouch, these poor people.
]]> 9535081 416 Kerry Greenwood 1590587987 Jenne 4 mystery It was just the perfect thing to read in the park on a sunny afternoon.]]> 4.08 2010
author: Kerry Greenwood
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/12
date added: 2011/03/22
shelves: mystery
review:
One of my favorites of the series so far. Lots of delicious food and fabulous outfits and rescuing people and other people getting their comeuppances. Plus Surrealists!
It was just the perfect thing to read in the park on a sunny afternoon.
]]> 7034
Precious is busier than usual at the detective agency when she discovers an intruder in her house on Zebra Drive—and perhaps even more baffling—a pumpkin on her porch. Her associate, Mma Makutsi, also has a full plate. She's taken up dance lessons, only to be partnered with a man with two left feet. And at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, where Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is already overburdened with work, one of his apprentices has run off with a wealthy older woman. But what finally rattles Mma Ramotswe’s normally unshakable composure is a visitor who forces her to confront a difficult secret from her past.]]> 257 Alexander McCall Smith 140007570X Jenne 3 mystery 4.06 2004
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/11/24
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 2191114 Millers Kill reaches the boiling point in this white-hot novel of love and suspense

People die. Marriages fail. In the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill, New York, however, life doesn’t stop for heartbreak. A brand-new officer in the police department, a breaking-and-entering, and trouble within his own family keep Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne busy enough to ignore the pain of losing his wife---and the woman he loves.

At St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, the Reverend Clare Fergusson is trying to keep her vestry, her bishop, and her National Guard superiors happy---all the while denying her own wounded soul.

When a Mexican farmhand stumbles over a Latino man killed with a single shot to the back of his head, Clare is sucked into the investigation through her involvement in the migrant community. The discovery of two more bodies executed in the same way ignites fears that a serial killer is loose in the close-knit community. While the sorrowful spring turns into a scorching summer, Russ is plagued by media hysteria, conflict within his department, and a series of baffling assaults.

As the violence strikes closer and closer to home, an untried officer is tested, a wary migrant worker is tempted, and two would-be lovers who thought they had lost everything must find a way to trust each other again---before it becomes forever, fatally, too late.

Julia Spencer-Fleming shows you can escape danger---but not desire---in her most suspenseful, passionate novel yet, I Shall Not Want.]]> 322 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312334877 Jenne 5 mystery
This was BY FAR the best one yet--what can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic, and especially a sucker for a bittersweet happy ending.

I also liked the Stephanie Plum reference--just what I was thinking.

ETA: I had to come back and say that I was thinking about it and the relationship in this series is basically the opposite of everything that drives me insane about the Stephenie Meyer books.
These people are adults, and have REAL reasons why they fall in love with each other, and REAL obstacles to being together, and actually behave in BELIEVABLE (and occasionally stupid) ways like REAL PEOPLE WOULD.
Sorry for the all caps; Stephenie just seems to bring it out in me. ]]> 4.17 2008
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2008/08/29
date added: 2008/08/29
shelves: mystery
review:
Well, I finally caught up to the latest book in the series, and I can't believe I'm going to have to wait (how long???) to find out what happens next.

This was BY FAR the best one yet--what can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic, and especially a sucker for a bittersweet happy ending.

I also liked the Stephanie Plum reference--just what I was thinking.

ETA: I had to come back and say that I was thinking about it and the relationship in this series is basically the opposite of everything that drives me insane about the Stephenie Meyer books.
These people are adults, and have REAL reasons why they fall in love with each other, and REAL obstacles to being together, and actually behave in BELIEVABLE (and occasionally stupid) ways like REAL PEOPLE WOULD.
Sorry for the all caps; Stephenie just seems to bring it out in me.
]]> 60279
Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne's first encounter with Clare Fergusson was in the hospital emergency room on a freezing December night. A newborn infant had been abandoned on the town's Episcopal church steps. If Russ had known that the church had a new priest, he certainly would never have guessed that it would be a woman. Not a woman like Clare. That night in the hospital was the beginning of an attraction so fierce, so forbidden, that the only thing that could keep them safe from compromising their every belief was distance---but in a small town like Millers Kill, distance is hard to find.
Russ Van Alstyne figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody's business but his own. Until a neighbor pays a friendly visit to Linda Van Alstyne ­and finds the woman's body, gruesomely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it's an open-and-shut case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the murder investigation he controls. To the townspeople, it's proof that the whispered gossip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hierarchy, it's a chance to control their wayward cleric once and for all.

Obsession. Lies. Nothing is as it seems in Millers Kill, where betrayal twists old friendships and evil waits inside quaint white clapboard farmhouses.]]> 322 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312312644 Jenne 4 mystery 4.10 2006
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/08/28
date added: 2008/08/29
shelves: mystery
review:
Oh, authors are cruel to their characters. I couldn't believe how she ended this one. But still, SO GOOD. I kept trying to read it any time I had a few seconds to wait somewhere.
]]> 60278 ��
Reverend Clare Fergusson gets an early morning phone call to join the Millers Kill search and rescue operation. As a former Army helicopter pilot trained in survival skills, she can't refuse the request—even though it's the day of the bishop's annual visit. Worse for Clare, the search operation will link her up with Russ Van Alstyne, the very married local police chief who is her greatest temptation. Now, as Clare and Russ race time to find Millie van der Hoeven, they soon discover the secrets of someone who is desperate to stop the sale...and a deadly madness waiting to destroy them all.
��

To Darkness and to Death is a��stunning mystery from award-winning author Julia Spencer-Fleming.]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312988877 Jenne 3 mystery 4.00 2005
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2008/08/22
date added: 2008/08/29
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 138097
Now decades later, someone else is missing in Miller's Kill, NY. This time it's the physician of the clinic that bears the Ketchem name. Suspicion falls on a volatile single mother with a grudge against the doctor, but Reverend Clare Fergusson isn't convinced. As Clare and Russ investigate, they discover that the doctor's disappearance is linked to a bloody trail going all the way back to the hardscrabble Prohibition era. As they draw ever closer to the truth, their attraction for each other grows increasingly more difficult to resist. And their search threatens to uncover secrets that snake from one generation to the next--and to someone who's ready to kill.

Julia Spencer-Fleming has created the most intriguing entry yet in her Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award-winning detective series, which "brings new airs and graces to the traditional small-town mystery" (New York Times Book Review).

Out of the Deep I Cry is a 2005 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel.]]> 399 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312988885 Jenne 4 mystery 4.11 2004
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2008/08/12
date added: 2008/08/12
shelves: mystery
review:
I think this was the best one so far. I liked the flashback parts (which usually I can't stand that sort of thing) and oh my gosh, we finally get a little Russ/Clare action. I almost died.
]]> 60281 ]]> 385 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312995431 Jenne 3 mystery 3.89 2003
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2008/08/01
date added: 2008/08/11
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 113002 a world of trouble, an attraction to each other--and murder...]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312986769 Jenne 4 mystery
I like this one for the characters--as usual I didn't really care whodunit. We have Clare, an Episcopal priest and former helicopter pilot, and Russ, a small-town sheriff.

Clare is kind of a badass, and kind of a softy, and kind of a harebrained idiot (would even she have gone off in the snow like that without telling anyone? really?). And Russ is kind of the same, except slightly more softy and slightly less badass and not very harebrained at all. And they're kind of perfect for each other except that Russ is inconveniently married.
Here's hoping his curtain-business-having wife runs off to Acapulco in the next book.]]> 3.89 2002
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2008/07/24
date added: 2008/07/27
shelves: mystery
review:
So for some reason I'm reading mysteries again, apparently.

I like this one for the characters--as usual I didn't really care whodunit. We have Clare, an Episcopal priest and former helicopter pilot, and Russ, a small-town sheriff.

Clare is kind of a badass, and kind of a softy, and kind of a harebrained idiot (would even she have gone off in the snow like that without telling anyone? really?). And Russ is kind of the same, except slightly more softy and slightly less badass and not very harebrained at all. And they're kind of perfect for each other except that Russ is inconveniently married.
Here's hoping his curtain-business-having wife runs off to Acapulco in the next book.
]]> 7036 here.

Life is never without its problems. Will Precious Ramotswe’s delightfully cunning and profoundly moral methods save the day? Find out in this, the fourth volume in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series featuring Botswana's first and only lady detective.

Now that The No. 1 Ladies�� Detective Agency (the only detective agency for ladies and others in Botswana) is established, its founder, Precious Ramotswe, can look upon her life with pride: she’s reached her late thirties ("the finest age to be"), has a house, two children, a good fiancé -- Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni -- and many satisfied customers. But life is never without its problems. It turns out that her adopted son is responsible for the dead hoopoe bird in the garden; her assistant, Mma Makutsi, wants a husband and needs help with her idea to open the Kalahari Typing School for Men; yet Mma Ramotswe’s sexist rival has no trouble opening his Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency across town. Will Precious Ramotswe’s delightfully cunning and profoundly moral methods save the day? Follow the continuing story of Botswana’s first lady detective in the irresistible The Kalahari Typing School for Men.]]> 210 Alexander McCall Smith Jenne 3 mystery 4.02 2002
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/03/13
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 7039 Librarian note: Older cover edition of 9780349116655.

In 1999 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency received two Booker Judges' Special Recommendations and was voted one of the ‘International Books of the Year and the Millennium' by the Times Literary Supplement.

Tears of the Giraffe takes us further into the life of the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, the owner and detective of Botswana's only Ladies' detective agency. Among her cases are wayward wives, unscrupulous maids and a challenge to resolve a mother's pain for her son, who is long lost on the African plains. Mma Ramotswe's own impending marriage to that most gentlemanly of men, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, the promotion of her secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective and new additions to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales.]]> 233 Alexander McCall Smith Jenne 3 mystery 3.98 2000
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/03/13
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 7041
Mma Ramotswe herself has weighty matters on her mind. She has been approached by a wealthy lady, whose fortune comes from successful hair-braiding salons, and has been asked to check up on several suitors. Are these men just interested in her money? This may be difficult to find out, but Mma Ramotswe is, of course, a very intuitive lady.]]> 198 Alexander McCall Smith 0375422188 Jenne 3 mystery 3.93 2003
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/03/13
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 7035 The third book in the multi-million copy bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series

The one with the boy who might have been raised by lions

Facing financial trouble, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is obliged to move into the same premises as Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. And on top of her domestic complications with her fiancé Mr J. L. B. Matekoni and his adopted children, Motholeli and Puso, Mma Ramotswe faces several challenging cases. These include some unattractive behaviour among the contestants in a beauty pageant, and the perplexing discovery of a boy running wild, who smells of lion...

'Charming, delightful, feel-good stuff' Daily Express
'Unalloyed pleasure' Sunday Telegraph
'Charming' Scotland on Sunday
'One of the most entrancing treats of many a year' Wall Street Journal]]> 227 Alexander McCall Smith 1400031362 Jenne 3 mystery 4.00 2001
author: Alexander McCall Smith
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2004/12/01
date added: 2007/03/13
shelves: mystery
review:

]]>