A fun cozy mystery...

 

Title & Author:  Mayhem at the Orient Express by Kylie Logan

Setting: South Bass Island (a small island twelve miles off the southern shore of Lake Erie)

First lines: If it weren't for Jerry Garcia peeing on my pansies, I never would have joined the League of Literary Ladies. No, not that Jerry Garcia! Jerry Garcia, Chandra Morrisey's cat.

The plot in brief:  Bea Cartwright and her two bickering neighbors, Kate and Chandra, can't seem to get along. Fed up with their arguing, the island's court magistrate sentences all three of them to join the library's book discussion group for one year. They reluctantly choose Murder on the Orient Express as their first book. When the owner of Orient Express, their favorite restaurant on the island, is murdered, they decide to emulate Hercule Poirot and investigate. Before they get very far, a sudden snowstorm knocks out power across the island, stranding everyone on the island, including the murderer. And all the main suspects are staying right there at Bea's bed and breakfast. 

My thoughts:  The humor, the combination of quirky island characters, and that snowy island setting are what I enjoyed most about this cozy mystery. Bea, Kate, Chandra, and Luella, the fourth member of their book club, aren't the best of investigators, but they did make me smile. And I liked the references to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and the unexpected twist at the end of the book. I actually don't read a lot of cozies, but I thought this one was a lot of fun.

Happy Reading!

Survive this!

Title & Author:  Ice Dogs by Terry Lynn Johnson
Genre:  YA Adventure
Setting:  Alaska

How it begins:  "All eight of my dogs are stretched in front of me in pairs along the gangline. they claw the ground in frustration as the loudspeaker blares. 'Here's team number five. Our hometown girl, fourteen-year-old Victoria Secord!'"

What happens next:  Victoria is still grieving the death of her father who taught her everything she knows about surviving in the Alaskan wilderness. Her dogs and mushing are what she loves most...and what help her survive her overwhelming grief. So when she gets a chance to acquire a new lead dog from a neighboring musher, she heads out cross-country with her sled and her dogs without telling anyone where she's going. Only she forgets to check the forecast. When a sudden March storm threatens, she debates about turning around and heading back home. But then she runs across a crashed snowmobile. The driver, Chris, is a teenager who's new to Alaska; he's hurt, and he's lost. As the storm worsens, it's up to Vicky and her dogs to keep them both alive...and somehow find their way back home.

My thoughts:  At 279 pages, Ice Dogs is a fun and fast-paced adventure. I read it in a day. Vicky's survival skills were impressive, but the Alaskan wild is unpredictable and dangerous. Finding food, staying warm, and protecting her dogs from wolves and moose takes everything Vicky's got. And Chris's lack of outdoor skills isn't exactly helping (especially when he accidentally burns up her only map). I have to admit, while I liked both these characters, Vicky's lead dog, Bean, was my favorite. I liked all the survival bits, too. Johnson's writing rings with authenticity, especially all the dog sledding parts, and her pacing never lets up.

Happy Reading!

Bookish thrills and chills...

Title:  1222 by Anne Holt
First line:  As it was only the train driver who died, you couldn't call it a disaster.
Summary from the blurb:  "A train on its way to the northern reaches of Norway derails during a massive blizzard, 1222 meters above sea level. The passengers abandon the train for a nearby hotel, centuries-old and practically empty, except for the staff. With plenty of food and shelter from the storm, the passengers think they are safe, until one of them is found dead the next morning."  Paralyzed by a bullet, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhemsen is among the rescued passengers. And when old instincts kick in, she can't help investigating her fellow passengers. But time is running out. "Trapped in her wheelchair, trapped by the storm, and now trapped with a killer, Hanne must fit the pieces of the puzzle together before the killer strikes again."

My thoughts:  It was the whole trapped-in-a-snowstorm setting that drew me to this Norwegian mystery. I blame my fascination with bookish blizzards on having read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder so many times as a child. And this locked-room murder mystery is a pretty good read. At times, especially when the murderer is revealed at the end, it reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel. Holt creates some great characters. although it took me several pages before I started to warm up to Hanne, who's a very distant and guarded woman. Adrian, a fifteen-year-old teenage runaway with a sullen disposition and a penchant for angry outbursts was my favorite character; he reluctantly helps Hanne with her investigation. My only real complaint is that for a supposed thriller, 1222 is actually a pretty slow read. I blame that on the first-person narrative. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting mystery, but I wouldn't call it a fast-paced page turner. Personally, I prefer the mysteries of Kristina Ohlsson and Yrsa Sigurdardottir to this one.

Happy Reading!