Mystery Crime Books

The Melanie Travis series has been fun to follow and enlightening with regard to the details of the "show dog" world - from a "real" person's perspective (Melanie)with the bonus of fun mysteries. This book was fine for what it offered, but was not one of the more challenging mysteries in the series. It did update the reader on the lives of the main character and her family - and added a twist to info. on the dog world - creating and advertising a "new" dog food (not obviously an interesting pursuit, but essential to this plot). I think the author had a good time writing this book and offered an easy read - for dog and mystery lovers.

The true appeal here was dog-related. All the dog information was fascinating and her descriptions of her herd of Poodles (particularly Faith) were priceless.

Unfortunately I question the mode of murder. At the risk of spoiling the plot, I wonder why someone would push Larry down the stairs while he was holding the (hopefully) winning dog - and risk injuring said winning dog (particularly considering who the murderer is finally revealed to be and why she considered Yoda the winner). And if he wasn't holding the dog when pushed, then why didn't the murderer pick up Yoda after doing the pushing? I just couldn't make it work in my mind. (As an aside, I noticed the gender of the dog kept changing throughout the book - first referred to as she, then he, then she again.)

And the constant references to pregnancy were just grating on my nerves. How Melanie could put up w/ the constant intrusions into her privacy (and her uterus is about as private as it gets!!) is just unbelievable. Good grief. If someone hounded a friend or sister like that I'd hope they'd reply with, "If you're so determined to have another child in this family, why don't YOU adopt one? I'll gladly supply you with a letter of reference." Hopefully once this kid gets born, all such intrusive references will be a part of the past.

This was my first exposure to her work. I'm looking forward to further novels full of dog stories.

Each of the Melanie Travis books takes you to her delightful life in Greenwich. The author quickly gets the reader involved in the world of dog shows and sleuthing.

Unfortunately, the books are such quick reads that you are left out in the cold again, and craving the next in her series.

Hurry up and write more, Ms. Berenson.

Everybody needs to laugh and everybody needs to think and this book makes you pee your pants laughing while trying to solve a mystery.
My hats off to Ms Berenson for making me turn the pages of this book faster than the last 4 books that I've recently read.
I highly recommend any of the entertaining Melanie Travis Mysteries.
My sincere hope is that the author is working on the next installment as I type this!

Melanie Travers can't quite bear to disappoint her son when he enters her poodle in a pet food competition and she becomes a finalist, but she doesn't really want to win. Which makes her completely unlike the other finalists. Every one of them seems intent on winning at any cost. When one of the contestants (the owner, not the pet) falls to his death on the stairs of the pet food company, Melanie finds herself in the familiar position of having to investigate what might be an accident but certainly looks like--murder.

Investigating crime is far from Melanie's major job, however. Although school may be out for the summer, she's still getting adjusted to her recent marriage, putting up with relatives urging her to start producing more children, showing her standard poodle at dog shows, and jumping through the many hoops that the contest judges have set up.

Author Laurien Berenson continues her Melanie Travis series with another look into the world of dog shows, and the unusual and colorful people who make these shows their life. These characters, especially Melanie, her aunt Peg, and gay groomer Terry bring the story to life and keep the reader interested as Melanie puts herself in dangerous situations to discover exactly what happened to the unpleasant Larry--and whether she just might be the next to fall victim.

The 9th book in the series, this book features Barbara Havers doing some investigation independent from Thomas Lynley.

While Barbara has had some time off from the "routine" of police work, she has become friends with the daughter of her new Pakistani neighbor. Soon her neighbors are off to the seaside on vacation mixed with family business. Shortly, Barbara learns that the business is murder. Barbara goes to the coast where she is asked by her old "mate", the head of police in the small seaside town, to help solve the murder, she finds that there are subtle undercurrents pulling the investigation in different directions. Was the murder motivated by love, jealousy, resentment, greed?

I found this book intriguing, complex and challenging. Although I prefer reading Elizabeth George's books in order, this book also works as a stand-alone. However, if you start with this one, I can almost guarantee that you will want to read her others.

This is one of Elizabeth George's best novels, and I've read all of them. She takes on a tricky subject here, race relations between Indian/Pakistani immigrants and the white residents of small-town England, and is able to show how they play out not only in terms of the civilian population but also within the police establishment. And she does all this in the context of a Lynley-Havers mystery that will keep you guessing until the end!

I won't give away the ending for those who haven't read it, but I will say that you NEED to read this book to understand fully the novels that come after it, as Barbara Havers suffers the consequences of her actions at the end of this one for quite a long time....

I plowed through this with my boots on. By the middle of the book it was interesting but not an easy read. That would have been ok, except by the time I waded through 600+ pages, I find she just zips up the book. There should have been even more pages! After all this, we are left with unanswered questions. If there is a sequel, I won't bother.

Ths is my first Elizabeth George novel and won't be my last. The author is a very talented author and there was great character development. I will admit that I was somewhat disappointed in the ending as there were a lot of loose ends which were not tied up. I am HOPING there will be a sequel to this nvel so I can find out how everything turned out with her wonderful characters.

I love Elizabeth George and her characters never cease to amaze me. The plot can be quite macabre and a lot of the scenes seem so real, it's scary. Great stuff to read!

I want to like these books, but in all honesty, find them to be only intermittently entertaining. They're not BAD, for me they are just slow and the occasional factual mistake a little irritating. Another reviewer remarked that nowadays CeCe would not have had to go to Sweden for a sex change operation. A factual error that I found relates to rabies shots for people who have been bitten by potential rabid animals -- no, they are not administered in the stomach these days, they go in the arm like other shots. These are small mistakes, I know, but the pulled me out of the story. Also, I don't "get" Sarah Booth's fixation on Coleman the sheriff; it feels much less compelling than her other romantic options.

Tough, modern Southern woman, Sarah Booth Delaney doesn't let her hearbreak over Sheriff Coleman Peters slow her down as she sets out to find the murderer of a faith healer's handicapped child. Setting aside her own problems, Sarah Booth and her assistant, Tinkie (and friends) travel to the Big Easy to unravel the murder mystery. Set in the cool autumn months of late October, its a refreshing, easy read for a hot summer day!

Please, Carolyn, let us know what you think about religion. I didn't quite get it in this book. Also, please give us your take on morality. Having your main character hop from bed to bed while really lusting after a married man whose wife is supposedly pregnant (I don't believe it for a moment.) My guess is that will be revealed in some later book as a ploy to get the husband to stick with her instead of running off with Sarah Booth.

The ex-slave ghost is insulting and annoying. The incest in the book is beyond belief. The idea that a U.S. senator could be married to a transsexual and the public not know about it is ridiculous.

There is no mystery to this series. Worse yet, the main character falls into the answer and does very little to figure out the crime. Seems like the writer wants a vehicle to explore sexuality rather than to be a mystery writer.

Want to read some good mystery series with a strong female character? Try Erlene Fowler's Benni series. Want a funny mystery series with likeable and believable characters? Try Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series.

I bought this series (through Bones to Pick) on the strength of the first two books - it has gone downhill. I will read the next book (as I already purchased it) but no more after. I just can't like the characters with the exception of Tinkie. I'll guess that the author will eventually destroy her character too. It certainly looks like her marriage will be gone - the author is painting her husband Oscar with a black brush starting in this book.

Carolyn Haines once again takes her readers on yet another ride through the wonderful Mississippi Delta and shows us there is more to being a dectective than solving a "who done it." Sarah Booth's colorful entourage of friends, CeCe and Tinkie assist Sarah as she searches the French Quarter of New Orleans for the murderer of a spiritual healer's handicapped child. In addition to solvng other people's problems Sarah has to deal with her own stress and desire in the form of Sheriff Coleman Peters (her unrequited love interest) and Hamilton Garrett (the man who just won't stay in Zinnia).
A great story with lots of twists and turns. I can't wait for the next mystery in Sarah Booth Delaney's life. Will she go with Hamilton Garrett or will she stay in Zinnia? Will Coleman finally come to his senses? Whatever the outcome, it's always a comfort to know that Sarah Booth will route out the badguy and save the day!

I've been a huge fan of Carolyn Haines since the beginning of this delightful series, but I'm starting to lose patience with her main character. Part of it may be because I knew the "who-dun-it" and "why" fairly early on in this book, and therefore I needed the main characters to keep me interested. Also, the lack of the author's usual humor allowed me to see more of the main character's weaknesses, which may have tainted my opinion. Sarah Booth Delaney is a good friend and a good detective, but she also is a miserable woman wallowing in the past. She keeps her history wrapped around her like a cloak to avoid doing anything productive with her life. She might as well go lie down in the family plot and get it over with; the past is where she is most comfortable.

Still, one sour experience will not stop me from anticipating the next Mississippi Delta novel.

This is the best trade of 100 bullets I have read, easily. Definitely recommended. More on The Trust, Graves, the younger generation, and some possibles. It is the history between The Trust, and Graves, and who they are, and who the various younger characters that we have been introduced to are, that is the interesting part. Here you learn a lot more about that, and how they relate to each other.

Brian Azzarello, 100 Bullets: A Foregone Tomorrow (Vertigo, 2002)

100 Bullets, Azzarello's take on noir, offers its fourth incarnation up before us. The bulk of the book continues on with the Trust storyline, which is decent. What's really going to blow you away-- and set you up for volume five-- is one story. It's short, but it's worth the price of admission on its own. Graves goes to the hospital to deliver his hundred bullets to someone. As he's on his way out, he meets a man to whom he gave the same offer decades before, and the two of them reminisce about the consequences of their actions. It's an amazing piece, with an even more amazing twist. Even if the Trust storyline isn't doing anything for you, this one you want. *** ?

I'm not a big fan of Azz and Risso's 100 Bullets series. I think it's a wonderful concept, but their execution, concetrating on this boring Minute Man/Trust conspiricy, is a snoozefest. Until this volume.

With the thinly veiled Joe Dimaggio/Marliyn Monroe story in this volume, Azz and Risso finally tap the potentional of the concept. Forget the rest of this volume, it, like the rest of the series, is slightly above average conspiricy stuff the occasional character study tossed in. The Dimaggio/Monroe story is a masterpiece and worth the price of admission alone.

I always figured comic books were either for kids or for adults and took themselves way too seriously. Then one day, I was reading a respectable magazine and found an article about comic books. It was then when I realized that I hadn't ever actually read a comic book. So I went down to my local comic book store and bought a few comic books, or "graphic novels" as it seems comic book junkies prefer to call them. The first couple were boring and stupid, but one of them caught my eye. It was 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call, and it was quite good, so I returned to the comic book store and purchased a few more. To my surprise, what started out as a simple story about revenge quickly evolved into a hardboiled tale of crime and corruption with beautiful artwork and great writing. I was hooked! This book is absolutely phenomonal. Buy today, you won't regret it.

The Peabody-Emerson clan is preparing to return to Egypt for the winter season of digging. WWI is making travel difficult and causing the local Egyptian political situation to be even more unstable than usual. Further adding to their difficulties is their complicated and ever expanding household. This season the entourage will include Radcliffe, Amelia, their son Ramses, and his wife Nefret, Sennia (who they adopted in FALCON WHO GUARDS THE PORTAL), her cat, Horus and even the family butler, Gargery. The only thing they will not have to worry about is the Master Criminal who figured so largely in their earlier adventures. Shortly after his true identity was revealed he died in a most heroic manner - or did he?

After they safely arrive in Egypt though, it becomes all too apparent that Emerson will once again be denied his quiet season of peaceful digging. As their former reis Abdullah used to remark "another year another body" and this year proved to be no exception. Bodies, mysterious intrigues and even the dreaded (to Emerson at least) starred crossed lovers appear.

If you have no idea who any of these people are begin at the beginning of this delightful series, with CROCODILE ON THE SANDBANK and continue through in order. The overall story arc of this series (AMELIA PEABODY) is much more of a factor than in most mystery series. The mystery/suspense aspect of this series is much less than in many mysteries. The real attraction here is the continuing story of the family itself as it is told from Amelia's own eccentric point of view. Fans of the series will delight to read about Ramses' and Nefret's married life, the continuing banter between Amelia and her beloved Emerson as they are once again being outwitted by a precocious child and will particularly love running into other characters from previous adventures.

I have enjoyed this whole series and it keeps going strong with Lord of the Silent.

Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels) used to know how to write a great, scary mystery. Now she needs to hang it up.

This was the first of Ms. Peters' books that I read. Maybe if I had had the background of the other books, I would have found it more interesting. As it was, I kept thinking "Get on with it already". There were too many exceprts about Nefret and her hubby and then it would switch back to Peabody and Emerson, and it rarely went back to the murder. When it did, there were so many characters and so many nicknames for characters that I was totally confused and often had to go back in the book to see who was who. The setting in this book and Peabody's wit kept me reading, though.

I was thoroughly disappointed while reading Lord of Silent, as the overall action and suspense was kept almost at a minimum.

It seems almost as if Peters went on a long tangent about the Emerson's family life, writing a lot of filler to go along with the main plot. Until the last forty pages or so, I struggled to get through the book because there was no suspense at all. No cliff-hangers or anything of the sort.

Ramses and Nefret, though darling, only thickened the struggle. I don't think that all the interaction between them was really necessary; perhaps Peters wanted to throw in some romance, but is wasn't working.

Lord of the Silent is a sheer failure of Peters's story-telling skills, as in many of her other books her talent proves to be quite brilliant. Save your money and buy a different Peters's book.

This was the first book I have read by Baldacci and he has really drawn me in! I've recently read through all of the booys by John Grisham and Dan Brown and I've been looking for a new author to read. After this book, I have found one. This book was captavating. I found myself staying up late to read it, and trying to get in a page or two as I brushed my teeth in the morning. I highly recommend this book.

I have read many of Baldacci's books, and from reviews "The Winner" stood out as one that I should read next. Others have discussed the story itself, so I will not add anything to their good comments. When I first began the book, it seemed slow and not very interesting. A sad desperate woman with a baby trying to make ends meet with a looser boyfriend, the father of her daughter. But I stuck with it, mainly because of the reviews and other Baldacci books. After several chapters the book picked up and rewarded my patience. From that point on the story went full steam ahead until the very end. I could hardly put it down. Put it at the top of your Baldacci list, you will not be sorry.

I loved the premise of this book... a lottery scam which would empower persons to live a 'fabulous' life. However, the book's protagonist was extremely irritating. Her betrayal and backstabbing of the antagonist in the book was very irritating and I found that I couldn't care less what happened to her. In fact, I was rooting ' for the bad guy '.

Otherwise, the book was a fast and enjoyable read.

It's one of those books you get hooked on right away. My sister won't read anything unless it reaches out and holds her captive right from the beginning. This did.

If your wondering which of the many excellent Baldacci books to read first. The winner is his best.

1)The Winner
2)Absolute Power
3)Camel Club trilogy
4)Total Control
5)Last man standing
6)Simple Truth
7)Saving Faith

Read em in that order.

Carlo Lucarelli taps into the deep well of Italian cynicism for this continuing saga of Commissario De Luca, the last honest cop in the country, as the parties of the Left and Right duke it out in an apparently meaningless contest for power. Against that political backdrop, Lucarelli spins a credible murder mystery that centers on the "honest prostitutes" working the city of Bologna.

Italy in 1948 was a tough neighborhood for anyone trying to get on with a normal life after many years of the Fascist regime and five years of the war. Lucarelli is terrific at giving the reader a realistic look at the environment of the time.

"Via Delle Oche" is the third book in this series now in translation and print by Europa Editions. "Carte Blanche" and "The Damned Season" chronicle earlier adventures of the indefatigable Commissario De Luca and are well worth reading.

This is a well written snapshot of the struggle in post war Italy between the communists, the church and secular moderates and right wing.
Very little character development goes on. I would recommend this to Italophiles. As a mystery it is ok not great.

Via Delle Oche, the third novel in the De Luca trilogy from Carlo Lucarelli finds Commisario De Luca back in Bologna. It's April 1948, and although De Luca has survived the downfall of Mussolini's government, he's now demoted to Special Sub Commisario assigned to the vice squad.

While prostitution is legal (and remained so until 1958), it is an industry regulated and policed by the state, and this is where De Luca comes in. One of his jobs is to ensure that the bordellos follow the rules, and this includes the mandatory turnover of the staff every 15 days. Harassing prostitutes, checking licenses and paperwork is hardly glamorous work, and it's in this degrading position that De Luca once again becomes involved in solving murders.

The novel begins with De Luca's first day on the job, and he has a reunion of sorts with an old acquaintance, Pugliese. Pugliese notes that both men have "made it through," while others have not been so fortunate. De Luca is not a political creature, and he always views himself as a policeman first and foremost--regardless of which political party his boss may belong to. But in spite of the fact that De Luca has largely managed to evade the stain of Mussolini's government, these are still dangerous times. While the war is over, there are many changes afoot. With Mussolini gone, there's a strong possibility of the country swinging away from the right with the election of a communist government, but there are also extremely powerful forces determined to ensure that the communists lose and that the Christian Democrats take power.

Against this backdrop of unsettling political times De Luca begins to investigate the death of Ermes Ricciotti, an employee in one of the bordellos on Via Delle Oche. While Ricciotti's death has been staged to appear a suicide, De Luca knows immediately that this was murder. But what's so puzzling is that De Luca's superiors insist that the case is closed.

Soon more corpses appear, and they are all the corpses of communists. Warned off the case, De Luca faces sexual temptation in the form of a luscious prostitute, but those who attempt to bribe and alternately threaten De Luca from his pursuit of the killer don't know what they are dealing with. Quiet, contemplative, and above all stubborn, De Luca's chronic dyspepsia always returns and becomes the physical manifestation of his conscience as he struggles with a case. And while it may be in De Luca's self-interest to keep quiet, he really can't stop himself from his dogged determination to solve the crimes.

Once again Lucarelli presents De Luca as an individual caught up in the disturbing background of political events, and once again while De Luca feels that politics have little to do with police work, the volatile political situation in Italy is responsible for the quagmire he faces. The fascist dictatorship of Mussolini is gone, but there are powerful, subtle forces at work that will ensure that the communists do not take power. As Italy's politics are effectively poisoned for the next several decades, the seeds of collusion between the corrupt Italian government and organized crime are sown. The cold war looms, and paramilitary organizations will seem to dissolve only to resurface under new names. Operation Gladio, internal subversive operations and the subsequent Strategy of Tension all lie ahead in Italy's clandestine systems, but at this time, on election eve of 1948 most Italians still labour under the illusion that they have choices and can vote for democratic change. Italy will suffer through decades of subterfuge, but in 1948 power was seized; it's just that people didn't know it. And De Luca, who doesn't really care which political party the murderers or their victims belong to, simply wants to solve crimes.

Lucarelli's marvelous introduction explains how he met a policeman who had served forty years--from 1941-1981, surviving regime changes and sweeping political upheavals during the course of his career. Obviously this meeting served as the inspiration for the unforgettable character of De Luca--a mild mannered man who just wants to do his job. Recreating a crucial, explosive time in Italy's history, Lucarelli successfully captures time and place in Via Delle Oche--a spectacular conclusion to this marvelous trilogy.

Capstick's pithy and humerous writings, on the one hand, are enough to make you howl with laughter and, in the next instance, scare the heck out of most sane readers. Rate his book a fiver.

I got this for my husband for his birthday because he lived for 5 years in Africa as a child and his father used to hunt big game, so he loves reading books like this, and he said this one was an outstanding read.

Reading books by authors like Capstick is a very good alternative to reading fiction. When you are reading fiction, however scary, thrilling and realistic it may be, at the back of your mind you know that it is fiction. Some of it may not even be plausible. When you are reading true adventure, it is then that you can realise the closeness of death to life, you can identify with the characters more closely, and you can feel their fear of something as primeval and primitive as claws, fangs and horns. You can also feel their elation at escaping injury.
This book is not meant only for hunters and any one reading it will learn something new on practically every second page.On the whole I did not like it as much as much as "death in the long grass". Still, the book has its chilling moments. It also has its share of dark humor. The author does not defend hunting and "cropping" of elephants as much as he does in death in the long grass.
Halfway through the chapter on leopards, I lost touch with what the author was trying to say.

Originally published in 1983, this book describes big game hunting in Africa. After a brief introduction, each subsequent chapter contains details and anecdotes about hunting each of the Big Five game animals of Africa (Cape Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard, and Lion). In particular, this book is largely about the dangers of hunting each of the Big Five. All I can say is that being a safari guide/hunter must be an incredible life. I purchased this after reading Hemingway's `Green Hills of Africa' and Robert Ruark's `Robert Ruark's Africa' and was not disappointed. There isn't really a single narrative through this book, it is written in a more of a conversational style, almost as if you are sitting with Capstick in camp in the evening after a day of hunting and he is recounting various tales, `urban legands', and historical anecdotes about hunting each of the big five over a Scotch whiskey. If you don't know who he was, Peter Capstick was a hunter, guide, and prolific author who passed away in 1996. Capstick writes about a much later era than Ruark or Hemingway, things have clearly changed. There are more people about (farming, grazing animals, etc.), and the game is heavily controlled by the national authorities. Overall this is a very good, if not uniquely outstanding, read. Capstick writes with an easy prose, and the pages just sail by. After working through this book, you're quite likely to get the urge to pack up a few of your shootin' irons and buy an airline ticket to Nairobi (I know I did!). I give it only four stars though as much of the ground covered by Capstick has been well tread by others (e.g. everyone seems to feel the need to give their opinion about which of the big five is the most dangerous). I also liked Ruark's writing style more, and there was something more romantic and dangerous about safari hunting in Ruark's era (this is no fault of PC though) - they really were out in Indian territory. The more modern safari isn't quite so wild. In any case, if you love the outdoors, hunting, and testing your mettle against some of the world most dangerous game (or at least reading about it!), I would highly recommend this book. A little different than hunting white-tailed deer!

Many other reviewers have characterized "Death in the Dark Continent" very, very well. It is a bit more graphic than Capstick's earlier "Death in the Long Grass", but not much.
But you definitely do NOT have to be a hunter to thoroughly enjoy Capstick. I think, though, there are a lot of non-hunters who simply haven't discovered how good Capstick really is at "grabbing you, making you sweat blood, and not releasing you until you've died three times, passed Elvis and Hoffa twice, and are coming around for heart attack number 4. Capstick is not just " a hunter with a typewriter". He is Hannibal Lecter mixed with Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King multiplied by Norman Bates and home-schooled by JAWS. If you thought Amityville and Elm Street were scary, you were wrong. Peter Capstick will show you Scary in "Death in the Dark Continent". If you thought "The Pit and the Pendulum" was mind-wrecking, you were wrong. "Mind-wrecking" starts on page 152 of Death in the Silent Places. Read it early in the day.

If you haven't read any other Agatha Raisin stories, go back and start with Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. You'll be sure to like that book and your appreciation of this one will be greater if you start with Quiche.

In Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Wembley, Agatha and her handsome next-door neighbor, James Lacey, went undercover and lived together as man and wife to track down a brutal murderer. Agatha naturally hoped the propinquity would give James ideas, but he was notably unromantic throughout . . . except in the end when he proposed to Agatha and she accepted his proposal.

But you may remember from Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death that Agatha was separated and not divorced from her husband, Jimmy Raisin, when she moved to Carsely in the English Cotswolds. Since she had told everyone that, naturally people asked her about her plans to marry James. Concerned that a delay might cause James Lacey to change his mind, Agatha tells one and all that Jimmy had died of drink. But that's only her fond hope. She plans a low-key wedding that won't attract any attention.

But Roy Silver, a former employee from her old PR agency, moves into the information breach by hiring a detective to find Jimmy after Agatha rebuffs Roy's attempts to get her back into PR. The detective finds Jimmy, Roy tells him about the wedding, and Jimmy heads for Carsely on the wedding day.

The wedding doesn't happen, and Agatha barely escapes being charged with attempted bigamy. James Lacey is outraged at Agatha and takes off. Thoroughly annoyed with Jimmy Raisin, when Agatha next encounters him she slaps him hard and pushes him into a ditch. An hour later, the police charged her with Jimmy's murder.

From there, Agatha finds herself interested in clearing her name, regaining the affections of James Lacey, and regaining her cottage (which she had sold in anticipation of the marriage to James.

In the process, Agatha finds out what being married to James might have been like and discovers it's not all good news. The pursuit of James' affections is complicated by someone who seems to be interested in killing Agatha. Others find themselves as risk after Agatha and James visit them. Does Agatha have a death touch?

If this book hadn't had such a strong first chapter, I would have rated it at three stars. Much of the book is taken up with the emotional reticence of James Lacey, a subject that doesn't interest me all that much.

The mystery of who did the murders is fairly easy to solve and doesn't provide enough of a counterbalance to the James Lacey-Agatha Raisin romantic complications.

But if you are committed to the Agatha Raisin series, you can't skip this book: You won't be able to fully appreciate Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist, the next book in the series.

I love Agatha Raisin. I think that the first three books in this series are remarkably well done. But maybe I read the first five books too quickly and this is one just became glaringly the same as the others. Instead of growing as a character Agatha is becoming a stereotype. Not only that but the other once glorious town folk are becoming more backdrops. Backdrops to what is another question... for what made the first few books great were not the mysteries but the characters themselves. Now it seems that Beaton is trying to force Raisin into the land of James Bond and spy craft.

I will just put it that I was pretty disappointed by this book and feel like the three star review might be a little generous on my part. Only the fact that Beaton wrote such brilliant books (that are mocked here) lends itself to garnering a higher review in my book.

Having started from the beginning of this series at a late date, I have to say that this is one of the best to this point. The situations were more realistic than some of the earlier episodes and usually written with a good blend of humor and real emotions.
Agatha's dream is finally coming true: she is marrying James Lacey. Needless to say, things in Agatha's life cannot go smoothly. Her thought-to-be-dead husband shows up demanding money and then ends up dead. James, furious with Agatha, refuses to consider returning to where their relationship was but the two of the must work together to solve the murder as they are both prime suspects.
A fun book to read, particularly in regards to some new revelations regarding Agatha's childhood and family history. Looking forward to the next in the series.

When we last left Agatha she was planning for her marriage to the dapper James Lacey, the man of her dreams. Sometimes dreams have a way of becoming nightmares however and for poor Agatha this nightmare couldn't have been worse. Agatha you see has a terrible tendency to try to deceive both Lacey and the rest of the people of Carsely and although she never gets away with it she just keeps on trying.

In this instance she makes the assumption that the husband she left many years ago but had never divorced had certainly managed to drink himself to death by this time. She assures everyone that she is a widow and actually makes it to the alter before the not so dead Jimmy Raisin shows up and halts the wedding. The very proper Mr. Lacey is of course completely disgusted with Agatha and she is sure that she has lost him forever. On the bright side however, she is soon an actual widow after someone murders Jimmy but the bad news is that she is naturally the chief suspect.

To complicate Agatha's life even more, she has sold her cottage to a rather unpleasant woman who refuses to even discuss selling the place back to Agatha. Having calmed down a bit, Lacey tells Agatha that she can stay with him until she finds a place to stay and since he is a suspect also the two former lovers once again begin to work together on the case of the dead Raisin.

As usual, Agatha is feisty and outspoken and neither her nor Lacey have great sleuthing skills but they get the job done. The rest of the characters are again superb and the author has done a fine job of making the little town of Carsely seem not only real but also like a place where the reader would enjoy living. I even felt sorry for Agatha's friend Bill Wong as he chased puppy like after a lady cop who was working the Raisin case. Beaton's writing style is just simply superb.

That said, I must admit that this is not the best book in the series and the mystery is just a little too easy for the reader to solve. Even so, this is a fun read and no fan of warm fuzzy mysteries should pass this book or this series up.

AGATHA RAISIN AND THE MURDEROUS MARRIAGE begins with Agatha preparing to marry James Lacey, the man of her dreams. Agatha was married when she was very young and since her first husband had not been heard from in years, she preferred to think that he must have died from his alcoholic life style. Unfortunately, Jimmy Raisin was not dead, and showed up at the beginning of Agatha's wedding to James Lacey.

Poor Agatha is humiliated and James is furious with her. Her life is in turmoil. She had already sold her cottage and had started moving her belongings into the house she was to share with James. He agrees to let her stay with him, but tells her that he no longer wants to marry her, ever. When Jimmy Raisin is found murdered, the police suspect Agatha or James. The disgruntled couple form somewhat of a truce and agree to do their own investigating into Jimmy's death. As the story continues, several of Jimmy's associates are also murdered and the search for the killer becomes more complex for Agatha and James. M.C. Beaton does a good job of tying up the story and keeping her readers interested in the perils of Agatha Raisin.

This is the fifth story in the Agatha Raisin mysteries. I highly recommend the entire series.

One of the best things about what I seem to be doing (reading a lot of crime novels in an attempt to determine where my books are going to be placed within the wider pantheon of crime literature) is that there is just so much out there. Some of these writers, like Block, are so big, they transcend the genre. That is, I knew the name "Lawrence Block" before I even picked up the very first Hard Case Crime story ever published, Block's Grifter's Game. Since then, I have learned that Block is most famous for two creations, Bernie Rhodenbarr (AKA "The Bulgar") and the Matt Scudder novels. Being a stickler for reading these series characters from the beginning, I recently found the first books from each of these series. Don't know why but I read Scudder first.

We meet Scudder, where else, in a bar, sitting opposite a client. Scudder is not a licensed PI; instead, he does 'favors' for people. And, in the best tradition of old-school PI novels, Block gets right to the point. A bereaved father wants Scudder to learn about and report on the last days of his daughter's life. Specifically, he blames himself for not reaching out to her and he wants to know if what the papers have printed about her--that she's a prostitute--are true. Scudder agrees and takes the man's money.

The first thing that jarred me about this character--and immediately gave him depth--was that Scudder tithed 10% of his fee. Crime fiction that I am familiar with tends to be somewhat secular. I know there are PI series out there with priests and whatnot; I just haven't read them. And for a PI, down on his luck, divorced, with two boys he seems not to know what to do with, semi-alcoholic, who lives in a hotel, to give up 10% of his hard-earned cash is something remarkable. And he does it more than once. It's one of the neatest aspects of Scudder, that he knows there is a God and that he, Scudder, strayed though he is, is one of the sheep.

On the cover of nearly every copy of a Block book, invariably, there is a quote about Block's prose. I got the one from Martin Cruz Smith who considers Block to be a direct descendant of James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett. I haven't read Cain yet...but he's dead on with the Hammett reference. Block uses nice and tidy prose. There is no fat. My copy of the novel is 186 pages and seventeen chapters. But, considering Chapter 17 is only three pages long, Block tells his entire story in sixteen chapters and 183 pages. My current novel is on chapter 18 and I'm on page 125. Boy, do I envy Block's writing. To cite the last sentence of the Martin Cruz Smith quote, "He's that good."

Again, not knowing anything about Scudder, the second jarring thing he did came after this sentence: "I went back to Armstrong's, but it was the wrong place for the mood I was in." There had not been hardly any violence in the novel up to that point (p. 127) and I honestly didn't see what was coming. It jarred me. In fact, I put a sticky note on that page so I could quickly return to that place in the book. I expected it to be important and it was. Going back to the tithing aspect of his character, I couldn't help but see an angelic--not the good kind--coming out in Scudder's actions.

In my ongoing education in crime literature to date, I have met a lot of one-time characters: Angel Dare, Swede Nelson, Joe Hope, Cay Morgan, Jack Stang. Even Nick and Nora Charles, in literature, are one-time characters. Matt Scudder is the first ongoing character to whom I have been introduced. I want to taste a lot of different writers before I settle down and plow through an entire series. It is going to take a act of will not to buy the second book in the Scudder series tomorrow. He is intriguing. He is deep. He is, to appropriate the above quote and apply it to Scudder, that good.(excerpted from scottdparker.blogspot.com)

I had read several of Lawrence Block's books and found the writing to be excellent, so I looked forward to reading the first (copyright 1976) of the Matt Scudder series. I was not disappointed. In Scudder, Block gives us a worn, lonely man, retired from the New York City police force, and finding consolation in alcohol. Gritty describes the man and the streets of New York that he haunts. Scudder picks up money doing investigative work, and this is the kernel of the story. Cale Hanniford hires Scudder to find why his daughter was murdered by the man that shared her apartment, a man that then hanged himself in his jail cell. As Scudder systematically peels away layer after layer of mystery surrounding the murder, we find that the crime was completely different from the initial picture. The slow, deliberate work of Scudder has a realistic feel that you don't get in many mysteries. Block is also a master at describing the streets and bars and characters in New York. The story should keep you fascinated to the end.

The first book in the Matthew Scudder series.

Prior to this first book, Scudder had been a married with kids decorated police officer (detective) for fifteen years. One night, while in a bar, Scudder stopped a robbery attempt. Unfortunately, one of his bullets hit a seven year old girl, and killed her. Scudder had retired from the police force immediately afterwards, even though he received a department commendation for the action. Scudder also is separated from his family (divorced from wife, barely sees the kids), and as much as possible, from the human race without becoming a hermit. All of this back-story occurred before this first book in the series, and Scudder has still not gotten over the death. Now Scudder does "favors" for people, though he stresses that he is not a licensed private investigator.

The book opens with a Mr. Cale Hanniford and Matthew Scudder in a bar. Hanniford wants to hire Scudder to investigate his daughter's life, though not necessarily her death. Mr. Hanniford had not had any real contact with his daughter Wendy over the past three years, and wants Scudder to fill in the details of her life. Mr. Hanniford isn't looking to find Wendy's killer, because the guy covered in blood found outside the apartment had already been caught, and had already committed suicide in jail (the roommate). Right around when Mr. Hanniford learned that his daughter was dead, the "killer" is caught and dies. He didn't have time to process his daughter dying, and get angry with the murderer. He just wants to find out about Wendy and her life. Scudder is aware of the case and agrees to look into Wendy's life.

The copy of the book that I have is a short 276 pages in paperback. The pace is relatively slow, though the action occurs over mere days. The action mostly takes place in NYC and Utica NY.

- Michael S. Briggs -

Block's Scudder series is serious business, though his characterizations are phenomenal in all his series. The other two: Burglar/Rhodenbarr and Tanner are much lighter, fun, less serious reading. This particular Scudder was his first. This is readily apparent to readers who have read many of the others in this series before reading this one. Some of the items might seem irrelevant, but are not in light of the books that follow. Scudder is an interesting character, an alcoholic ex-cop who is empathetically portrayed as a tragic hero type. He's all too human. Block also includes many memorable lines (which I add to my quote collection) such as: "Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid" on page 84. If this is your first Scudder book, please read on--they get much better.

If you're a fan of realistic, hard-boiled detective fiction, you've found a hew hero in Matthew Scudder. Scudder's character has all of the grit of Sam Spade, all of the finesse and cunning of Travis McGee, and all of the street smarts of Harry Bosch.

Block is perhaps the finest living writer of the series character in the mystery genre. His gift for dialog, characters, and credible plot lines are simply astounding. Block is really quite a discovery for those who appreciate a well crafted tale and read mysteries to steep themselves in a world where justice is always the ultimate outcome-regardless of the form it sometimes takes.

This title introduces the series character of Matthew Scudder. A former New York city police officer, Scudder has retired to a life of unlicensed private detection, where he will solve crimes as favors to newfound friends who return the favors with "gifts" of their choosing. Block's attention for detail grows with each passing episode in this series, and we watch Scudder as he develops as a detective, wrestles with chronic alcoholism, interacts with the underbelly of The Big Apple, and takes decisive-and sometimes questionable-action in the pursuit of the "solve."

This particular episode has Scudder hired by a father, who has recently lost his estranged daughter to a brutal murder. The likely suspect is incarcerated, but the father's quest is to learn *why* she was killed...not by whom. Scudder tackles the unusual assignment by means of a plodding determination and relentless pursuit of facts that reveals a credible story that invokes that most enjoyable of reading companions-the reader's own imagination.

_The Sins of the Fathers_ relies on few conventions in the genre outside of the bare minimum. It's as if Block, distrusting the currency, has coined his own, and Scudder represents one of the most wonderful discoveries for the avid mysery reader: a series character of pure gold. This first book is bound to sink the hook in deep, and that's a sweet trap for any reader to trigger. I unconditionally recommend Lawrence Block's Scudder series to anyone interested in mysteries or detective fiction. This is first-rate fiction, drafted by someone with a real genius for the written word.