A tip from a friend clued me in to Fortune Favors the Dead, by Stephen Spotswood and some intriguing new characters! In 1942, in New York, a rather well known (and rather unorthodox) investigator Lillian Pentecost has just been saved by Willowjean Parker, in town (and working some extra hours) with a traveling circus. Ms. Pentecost has MS, which is slowing her down more than she cares to admit and she is looking for someone to assist her. It can't be just anyone, though, can it?! Three years later, they are on a case, a classic locked room mystery ... lots of family secrets and connections, a spiritualist who knows too much about too many, and, um, interesting butlers and researchers and so on. It should keep you reading far into the night!

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Canadian Reader suggested this book to me: Fatalities and Folios, by Ace Bookens. It's the first in the Poe Baxter Book series. Poe is about to start on her first assignment of a new job ... that of book finder! She will be working for her Uncle, who has a business searching out rare books and he is getting too old to travel. The book in question is in Scotland, and is a collection of ancient folk tales and lore, and it comes with a curse, or so the story goes. Any who owns the book sees monsters ... monsters in bodies of water ... any sort of water ... puddles, tubs, sinks .... and (of course) death often follows. Since this is her first job, her uncle has arranged for her to travel with another book finder, who just happens to be Poe's best friend. (Yes, Uncle Fritz did this on purpose)(!) A good mystery, good characters, some nice touches of humor ... all in all, not a bad start. :-)

It should come as no surprise, really, that the murders in Rotten to the Core, part of the Lady Hardcastle Mystery series by T E Kinsey, all have something to do with apples. It is summer, an unusually hot summer, which means an early harvest. Usually this is a good thing, until the bodies start appearing. It's a different means of death each one, but all the bodies have a clue, too. And then there's the Weryers ... an ancient order compete with ancient rituals, and a limited membership. Would people kill just to get in? Another fun romp with Lady Hardcastle and her 'maid' Florence. (I love these two characters, they are So NOT what they seem)!

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No One Notices the Boys is the second of the Baker Street Inquiry books by Michelle Birkby and it was an excellent read! Once again Mrs. Hudson and Mary Watson find themselves investigating cases that no one else is pursuing. Odd deaths on a hospital ward, and missing boys (rather sad, this one). Mrs. Hudson is sure she saw the patient in the next bed be smothered, but since it was night, and she was on medications even she wasn't 100% certain of what she saw. And the boys ... there were facilities to help homeless families, and girls ... but not boys, so when they go missing, who will notice? Or care? I'm hoping for more in this series.

To give them a rest from the murder they helped solve, Myrtle and Miss Judson (and the cat, Peony) have been sent to the English seaside for a break. They are guests of the owner of the railway, and the small seaside village they will be visiting. (Think pots of money). The daughter shows off an impressive tiara, filled with priceless jewels ... the lights go off ... it is stolen ... and then the woman, sent from the insurance company to be sure it has been secured properly and so forth (which it wasn't) is found dead. So ... this 'vacation' will be anything but a nice break! How to Get Away With Myrtle is the second in the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Again, a grand adventure, with great clues, and good characters. I stayed up late to finish it!

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Here's a nice little mystery, recommended by County Reader: Bells, Tails, & Murder, by Kathy Manos Penn. It's the first in her A Dickens and Christie Mystery series. In this case Dickens is a dog and Christie a cat ... and they talk to their human, Leta. Everyone else just hears the expected barks and meows, but Leta understands them, and can talk back to them. She and Dickens are out for a walk when they find the body ... and you know what happens next ... she (and the animals) have to help figure out the who and the why. :-)

I plucked a book I knew I'd like off my shelf after trying three, that's three, authors and mysteries that proved to be huge disappointments! I needed something fun! Beast Laid Plans was that, well, for the most part ... this one felt a bit more like it was trying to make a point than the others. A dragon has gone missing. The others have been told to lay low and stay away from their human friends as the country side seems to have gone nuts looking for magical creatures. A nearby town is making the most of this, but when the WI from Toot Hansell, (and some of the dragons, of course) investigate, most of the 'sightings' are fake, and, the village and surrounds feel eerily empty of anything magical. Part of the Beaufort Scales series by Kim M. Watt, it seemed like a more thoughtful read than the earlier books.

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 I am guilty of giving chickens far too little credit! Seems they can be clever, and charming, and abide by their own rules amongst the flock. Read all about this in How to Speak Chicken: Why Your Chickens Do What They Do & Say What They Say, by Melissa Caughey. The author spent a lot of time with her chickens (probably still does) and learned what their vocalizations mean ... there was even a special sound they made just for her!

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Here is a a wonderful story of a beautiful and wild country, enduring friendships, and horses! (Really, who could ask for more)? Wild Horses of the Summer Sun: a Memoir of Iceland, by Tory Bilski. The author traveled to Iceland, in the summer, for those long, long days of sunshine for many years, mostly to ride that special breed of horse, the Icelandic. Along the way she made friends who, even though lived far apart, helped each other through the ups and downs of life.

I do enjoy those quirky 'specialized' history books that focus in on one topic and follow it through history, and this one must be one quirkiest: A History of the World Through Body Parts: the Stories Behind the Organs, Appendages, Digits, and the Like Attached to (or Detached From) Famous Bodies, by Kathryn Petras & Ross Petras. Read all about noses and fingers, eyes, skulls, a brain ... and so on ... who they are from and why they made history. An interesting read.

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Santa's Little Yelpers is another in the Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt. Andy, a lawyer, keeps trying to retire, but cases keep popping up, cases that for various reasons, he takes on. This time it looks as if one of his employees at the Tara Foundation has committed murder. Thing is, he's recently been released for serving time for manslaughter, but he's always been sure he was framed. Is it happening again? And why? The investigation leads to all kinds of ... interesting information. These are fun reads, with nice 'doggy' touches.

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