Agatha Christie - The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)

This is the second mystery with Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen Brent (Bundle). Of all Christie's female characters, I like Bundle the most. Fun, feisty and daring - she's the most engaging youthful character in all of Christie's books.

A group of friends staying in the country set eight alarm clocks to wake up a chronically oversleeping friend... this sets in motion murder, conspiracy and a race for Bundle to find the seven dials and stop whatever dastardly plans they have for England.

Hilary Duff - Elixir (2010)

This is the first book in Duff's series Elixir.

The story begins with Clea Raymond on vacation in Paris. She's a photojournalist who's more comfortable behind the lens, than interacting with people. While looking at her pictures she notices the image of a young man, Sage, in every one. Sage starts to haunt Clea's dreams, like a ghost. But, on assignment in Rio, Clea finds Sage is very real and they're soulmates - destined to live out a tragic life together over and over again.

It was an interesting book (at least the idea behind it was), but I didn't like the ending. The second half of the book was a chase scene and then suddenly it could all be fixed by one action, destroyed by one betrayal - all in the last few pages. Quite irritating really, it left me thinking that the writer had multiple personalities and six of them had written this book. It just didn't run smoothly and two many doors were opened, but not explored. There was too much filler in the book and not enough depth. Sad since it began well. I really liked the opening description of Clea's panic attack, it felt so real. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there.

Meg Cabot - Missing You (2006)

This is the fifth and final book in Cabot's Missing series.

Years have passed and Jess is in New York with her friend Ruth, studying at Julliard and trying to forget the past. After stopping the True Americans Jess joined the FBI  and ended up in Afghanistan fighting a war. The trauma burnt out her abilities and she returned home, broken, lost and unable to find herself. Then the last person she wants to see turns up, her ex-boyfriend Rob Wilkins, and he wants her to do the one thing she can't, find his missing sister.

This was a great ending to the series. I loved seeing Jess all grown up and coming to terms with her abilities and her life. It was great seeing her brother Douglas striking out on his own after he'd spent most of the series ill too. All very satisfying as bittersweet endings go. The subject matter was dark, child pornography, but the new adult Jess dealt with it without blowing anything up (so disappointing, I love explosions!). Cabot had brought about full character development over the years, Jess went from a young angry girl to an adult who understands that violence doesn't solve anything.

Meg Cabot - Sanctuary (2002)

This is the fourth book in Cabot's Missing series.

It's Thanksgiving and Jess is busy trying to get out of dinner with her family so she can make it to her boyfriend Rob's house to eat with him and his mother. On her way home she's stopped by police who've found the body of her neighbour, covered in racist carvings, left dead in a field.

Jess had known he was missing, but she'd thought he was out with friends so she hadn't tried to 'see' where he was. Now she blames herself and when another boy goes missing Jess is determined to use her abilities to find him and put the racist murderers in gaol, even if it outs her to the FBI.

Another dark storyline, but well-written. Cabot finds solutions to the darkness and gives us the happy ending we rarely get in real life. It's difficult to write books like this for young adults without making them adult books, but Cabot manages it. I really like this series, there's so many great characters with simple lives that are so interesting. Jess may have psychic abilities thrust on her, but she's an ordinary girl in all other ways. The books are worth reading just to experience the interactions between Jess, her family, friends and the FBI.

Jennifer Archer - The Shadow Girl (2013)

Lily Winston has a voice in her head - it belongs to Iris. They've been together forever and now Iris is pushing Lily to find out the truth about their past. To solve the mystery of why they exist and how Lily can remember things that Iris did before she was ever born. Is Iris a ghost? Is Lily possessed?

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, so I can't really explain more than that. It was an interesting book and it raised a lot of questions in my mind. Mostly about whether souls exist or the mind just creates a personality? Also, is who we are a part of every cell in our body? What does this mean for organ transplants? The concept of the book is a worrying pit of questions without answers, but it's a future we're rapidly moving towards.

Ellery Adams - Peach Pies and Alibis (2013)

This is book two in the Charmed Pie Shoppe mystery series.

American writers really do love to "Americanise" the Arthurian myth. In this series the LeFaye women are direct descendants of the good Morgan LeFay, and their nasty counter-parts are from Queen Guinevere. Perhaps America is a mirror-verse of England?

Having grown up on the Arthurian myth, particularly via Susan Cooper and T.H. White, the book seemed really implausible. Why would all of the Arthurian characters ditch England for America? Particularly when one of the main aspects of the myth is how Arthur is the great hero for England's times of peril? (Although I think he missed the boat on World War II. Perhaps his supernatural alarm didn't go off?)

Anyways, ignore the myth and you do have a good book. The story is interesting, each of the LeFaye women has a specific gift. The lead character, Ella Mae, can bake pies that enchant people to do or feel what she wants them to. It borders on manipulation (or has crossed that border), but fortunately Ella Mae is a good encantress and she tries to help make people's lives better, even when she doesn't like them. This helps her solve mysteries and find murderers - although in this book Ella Mae has to do it before they all lose their powers. No pressure kid.

Sadie Jones - The Uninvited Guests (2012)

The book begins in early 1900s rural England at a house named Sterne. The Torrington-Shift family are close to losing the house financially and are spending the day wallowing in the despair of oh-who-will-save-us whilst preparing for eldest daughter Emerald's birthday.

That evening, just before the party begins, there's a train accident on a nearby line and the survivors are re-routed to Sterne until the railway can bus them on their way. The family are a fairly self-involved lot and don't cope very well with having to do the right thing towards fellow human beings. Especially when the survivors bring with them someone from their mother's disreputable past who shows the family the cruelty hiding in their shallow selves.

The book was well-written, but not to my taste. I found the storyline and characters repugnant. I know that it is very easy for people to behave that badly as long as the majority are in agreement - it's how mobs turn into mass-murderers. But, I don't want to read about it. The synopsis made me believe it was a ghost story, which it is. A ghost story with a fairly severe look at how wicked and heartless humans can be.

Rebecca Hale - Nine Lives Last Forever (2010) How to Moon a Cat (2011)

This is book two and three in the Cats and Curios Mystery series. I'm reviewing them together because I didn't like either very much and I don't think there's much difference between them.

The main problem I had with them, apart from the ludicrously slow moving storyline, is the point-of-view constantly jumping, even in the middle of a chapter. Not just to different people (there were nine in book 3), but to inanimate objects and animals too. It was incredibly confusing and off-putting. Honestly, if I hadn't already bought the books I wouldn't have bothered reading them.

I don't really understand how the author got from book one to these two books. Similar characters, but all a bit of a mess really in the storyline. What is going on gets so confusing because of the constant jumping of viewpoints. If you've never met a character (or tree, rock, statue, frog, cat...) before you're not going to understand that you're suddenly listening to what they're thinking.

I didn't find the characters engaging at all, we just spent too little time with them. The main protagonist could have been killed, along with her cats, and it wouldn't have made a difference to the story.

I won't be bothering with the next three books in the series and these three are off to Goodwill.

Agatha Christie - The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)

This is the second Christie novel featuring Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen 'Bundle' Brent. It's set four years after the Secret of Chimneys in the 1920s.

Bundle, now a young lady, stumbles on a mystery that began whilst Chimneys was leased for the past two years. What's the significance of the seven clocks? What did Gerry Wade mean by the Seven Dials? Who killed Ronny Devereaux and what does it all have to do with a formula for steel?

Bundle, in her usual exuberant manner, bumbles about, often finding clues by accident. Enlisting the help of Jimmy, Lorraine and Bill, they inflict themselves on the ever tolerant Superintendent Battle who also seems to be involved in the mystery.

I really enjoyed it, but I don't believe there is a Christie I haven't liked. What I really  would have loved is for Christie to have written more mysteries featuring Bundle, who is just such an engaging character, I wanted her story to go on and on.

Agatha Christie - The Secret of Chimneys (1925)

This is Christie's first book featuring Superintendent Battle.

Adventurer Anthony Cade agrees to deliver a manuscript to an English publisher for an old friend. To Cade, this seemed like a simple favour, only no-one wants the manuscript to be published. The resulting capers have Cade crashing a house-party at Chimneys, embroiled in the politics of Herzoslovakia, searching for a Royal murderer and finding the infamous Koh-i-Noor diamond.

The book was FUN! The characters were interesting and enaging. As a murder-mystery it wasn't in the normal thrill-dash-ride for the killer. It was a bit of a mad romp through the idiosyncrasies of politicians, fanatics and aristocracy. None of whom seem even slightly versed in day-to-day realities.

So bring on the full English breakfast (minus the kidneys) and enjoy the farce as Scotland Yard and the Sûreté try to solve a crime with the bumbling help of a cast of characters who think it is all a bit of a lark - as long as the drinks are never delayed by a dashed inconvenient murder.

Kelly Moore - Amber House (2012)

This is the first book in the Amber House series and was co-written with Moore's two daughters Tucker and Larkin Reed.

The premise of this book was interesting, a house that absorbed the echoes of the past that members of the family could see by touching items belonging to their ancestors. I liked the whole one-action-changes-everything idea. The theory that a relative's past choices could shift the course of future family is very real, but not often noticed in real life, except for people who are researching their ancestry.

I think if we knew enough of the past we could avoid a lot of today's problems. But, people choose to forget, and, as in this book, misfortunes keep perpetuating themselves - just like in the echoes that Sarah keeps seeing, and using, to repair her families unhappy past-present.

The alternative timeline was fun - who hasn't looked back and thought if-only-I-had-done-that-differently? This is a book that makes that if only come true.

Victoria Hamilton - Bran New Death (2013)

This is the first book in the Merry Muffin Mystery series and seems to be part of the penny-dreadful mystery books that are being conveyor-belted out these days. It's tolerable light reading, but don't expect a mystery in the realm of Christie or Sayers. These are fluffy books that you can spend a few hours consuming, non-taxing or thought provoking.

The protagonist Merry Wynter's life falls apart in New York, so she heads off to a house she recently inherited from her Uncle. Merry essentially runs away from home and only lets friends know she's gone once she finds herself alone and in trouble - like most kids. Happily her friends are very forgiving and they rush to her aid as she creates a new life in Autumn Vale and solves the mystery of her Uncle's murder.

The story wasn't unduly deep and the characters didn't draw me in. I didn't like any of them, I felt they were cardboard cut-outs. Surface development without substance which left me not overly interested in reading the next two books in the series.  I think an author with Hamilton's experience should have been able to write more realistic characters than this. The whole book felt tongue-in-cheek, right down to the character's names. Like the author was poking fun at the more ludicrous writers in the world - only she wasn't, and that's just a bit sad for literature.

Elizabeth Peters - The Hippopotamus Pool (1996)

This is the eighth book in the Amelia Peabody series. It is 1900 and the whole family is back in Egypt for this excavation season where they stumble upon a Royal Tomb in Thebes - mostly by following the thieves back to it. This has two parties after them, one to protect Queen Tetisheri and one to kill off the Emersons and loot her tomb.

It was a fun book, but I didn't like the ending. I thought that, after everything she has experienced, Amelia's character was incredibly stupid.

I was very happy to have Walter and Evelyn back in Egypt, but I didn't think their characters resolved out very well. Evelyn arrived in Egypt heart-broken and at some point everything was suddenly fine? Maybe that got lost in the editing.

So a few hiccups in this book, but it was still a good book in the series. Ramses and Nefret develop into teenagers and they're joined by another 'brother', David. I'm still quite fond of Ramses, he's interesting, but nice and not a bully like his father. I like Emerson, but his constant bullying and yelling at people gets tiring after a book or three.

Elizabeth Peters - The Last Camel Died at Noon (1991)

This is the sixth book in the Amelia Peabody series. This excavation season finds them in the Sudan, initially on a dig in Nubia, until they're enticed into hunting for a lost Meroitic city and a missing Englishman. They're without their usual network of Egyptian friends and loyal archaeological staff, which leaves them dependent on each other in a treacherous environment a long way from sanctuary.

The death of the camels made me sad, particularly when I found out they'd been poisoned. I understand the plot reasoning for it, but I think it all would have worked fine if every camel was stolen in the night by their guides. (I know most of you will say "but it's just a book animal, it's not real", but, honestly, I cannot see any reason for writing about raping women or children in books either. It disgusts me just as much. I wonder if it puts bad ideas into people's minds.)

Other than that, this was a good book. Ramses is developing as an interesting character, he's 10 years old here and becoming more of a handful for his parents. He seems to have the best characteristics of both of them. He's loquacious, curious, brave and intelligent with a odd affinity for felines of any type.

I really enjoy all the information on Ancient Egypt that Peters threads through her books. Peters brings it alive for me. I never enjoyed Ancient Egypt studies as a child, but since reading these books I've become interested in the excavations of the 1880s to the 1930s and how the Egyptians lived.

Elizabeth Peters - The Deeds of the Disturber (1988)

This is the fifth book in the Amelia Peabody series and is set in England in the Summer of 1896. The Emerson family have only just returned from an excavation season in Egypt when they're approached by a wastrel brother who wants to dump his children on Amelia and a journalist who has senationalised recent mummy-related deaths and wants the Emersons to solve the mystery (solely for his readers peace of mind).

Needless to say, Amelia, Emerson and Ramses cannot resist a mystery - even when Emerson pretends he can.

This was enjoyable. I liked being in England for a whole book. It was interesting to see the difference in their daily lives and the culture of the era. I also liked how much Peters entwines the growing consciousness of women and their rights, as they slowly evolve, into each book. Even Peabody, a devout suffragist, finds herself thinking in male inequality terms and has to challenge herself to think of women as equal and capable of doing whatever they want to do.

Elizabeth Peters - Lion in the Valley (1986)

This is book four in the Amelia Peabody series and the Emerson family is back in Egypt in 1896 to excavate at Dahshoor, where Amelia finally gets her pyramids. Unfortunately the Master Criminal Sethos is back, showering Amelia with gifts and trying to woo her from Emerson in his own underhanded ways. Who said romance was dead?

Along the way Amelia picks up a new set of disgruntled lovers to unite, saves her son Ramses from constant impending doom (usually brought about by his own precocious mind), keeps her husband Emerson from alienating all of Egypt and clears her friends of murder. All the normal run of happenings in an excavation season for Mrs. Amelia Peabody Emerson!

These books are fun and I am rapidly reading my way through them. They make 1890s Egypt sound so romantic and interesting - you don't have to deal with flies, heat, thirst or general travel illnesses. Armchair-book-travel is the best way to go!

Kerry Greenwood - Cooking the Books (2011)

This is the sixth book in the Corinna Chapman series.

I adore Corinna. She's not Goddess-perfect in any way and that makes her one of my favourite characters. Corinna is nice, practical, hard-working, affectionate, loyal, not self-involved, empathic, open-minded, understanding, happy with herself - she's all the things people should be if we lived in a better world. Corinna is all the things that would make a better world.

Corinna is a niche baker in Melbourne CBD who lives in a very eccentric building, Insula, filled with equally eccentric residents. Mysteries come her way and, with the help of her lover Daniel, Corinna sets out to solve them. In this book someone is pranking the lead star of a new television series and it's threatening to end the show. Dramas among the actors and crew mirror the melodrama on the soap and Corinna bakes her way through pettiness and intrigue to find lost children, a nasty prankster and stolen bonds.

Rhys Bowen - Queen of Hearts (2014)

This is the 8th book in Her Royal Spyness series. It takes Lady Georgiana Rannoch to America, accompanying her mother as she heads to Reno for a divorce. Georgie's beloved Darcy turns up on the trail of a jewel thief and they all end up in Hollywood, solving a murder, making a movie and drinking cocktails with the amorous Charlie Chaplin.

It was a fun book and I'm relieved to see Georgie and Darcy's relationship moving ahead. The whole will-they-won't-they in the previous books was annoying. I was hoping Darcy would get hit by a bus and Georgie would have a chance to fall in love with someone who loved and respected her, not just using her for her aristocracy connections.

Definitely read this series, the whole Darcy-Georgie thing is a small part of the fun and chaos that happens when she's solving mysteries or sent on 'errands' for the Queen. The only sad part is whenever Georgie has tea with the Queen - there's so many luscious cakes on the table, but etiquette says you may only eat what the Queen does, and she only eats a small slice of bread. So poor Georgie always leaves afternoon tea hungry. Take pity on the poor girl your majesty, please!

Jacklyn Brady - Arsenic and Old Cake (2012)

The premise behind Brady's 'Piece of Cake' mysteries is interesting, but the books themselves are without soul. They're the narration of someone dying, but you feel nothing. Honestly, they're stiffer than the corpse!

The story is Rita, the soon-to-be-ex-wife of victim #1, takes over his up-market bakery. They make cakes worth thousands of dollars for the elite and wealthy in New Orleans. So Rita has troubles with the staff, she falls over murders, insists on solving murders and is seeing two men but cannot decide between them. The basis of most mystery novels, right? But, in this novel, it's all 2D. I feel nothing for Rita or any of the characters. I thought that maybe it was just Brady's first book that was overly wooden, first books often are. So I kept reading, but this is book three and I should be feeling something for the cast of bakers by now - I'm not.

Everyone's problems are so textbook. Their reactions to things are pedestrian. "There's been a murder? Ohno, what in my house! *shrug* Now, who'd like a piece of cake?" It's like the author cannot write emotions. If the cast don't feel it, how am I going to feel it?

This is a mundane effort from Berkley's Prime Crime theme-based mysteries.

Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries (1923 - 1937)

I am addicted to Lord peter Wimsey mysteries. No matter what else I am reading I have one of Sayer's books on my nightstand for last-thing-before-sleep reading. Today it is 'Have His Carcase', which is amusing - because they don't. They've lost the body!

Wimsey is a fun lovable character. He's traumatised by the horrors of WW1 and it has brought out his sense of the absurd - or whimsey, which is also the family motto. It's how he seems to deal with everything, he's rarely serious and this often drives people to throttling him. I'm not sure it would be a Wimsey book if someone hadn't had a go at him, but he isn't bothered by it. Wimsey seems to accept it as just their way of dealing with his absurdity and the upsetting situations they're all currently in - being that he's generally throttled by one of the people suspected of murder, so far none of them have been the murderer. Just ordinary men at the end of their tether. I think it's how he finds the murderer too. Wimsey expects the murderer to be calm and to put up with more than average, so they're not suspected.

These novels are very much stuck in the era they were written in and it would probably make it difficult for a person without any knowledge of the 1920/30s to read them. Locations, attitudes, products, poetry, plays, stage actresses - they stop the books from having a timeless quality (like Agatha Christie's novels) and give them so much else. The way the stories make me look up words that the dictionary now tells me are archaic or names of people long forgotten is so much part of the allure of the novel. I feel involved in Wimsey's mysteries, much deeper than I would if I was reading a contemporary novel with nothing that I really needed to think about or explore.

Truly worth reading.