the Book Brothel

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Mass market, 355 pages, 1962

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’ve heard a lot about P.D. James but I’d never read anything of hers, so I pulled this one out of the basement when I was in the mood for a mystery.

Synopsis: Mrs. Maxie thinks she’s doing a good deed when she consents to let Sally, an unwed mother, into her home to work as a maid. But Sally isn’t exactly the grateful type - she’s sly and she’s increasingly forgetting her place, until it culminates in her announcing that Mrs. Maxie’s son, Stephen has asked her to marry him. But she’ll never get the chance, because that night someone in the household has decided if Sally can’t remember her place in the household, she deserves a new place - in an early grave. Shortly after her body is found, Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh shows up, ready to pry out the many secrets of the members of the Maxie family, their friends, and the rest of the household help.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market), 310 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: It looked like it would be fun in an Ocean’s Eleven kind of way.

Synopsis: It’s bad guy vs. bad guy vs. bad guy as groups of criminals plot to come away richer at the expense of the other bands of criminals. The story’s ‘likeable thief’ is John Dortmunder, who’s called in to do a heist for Arnie Albright at a very high percentage of the take. Arnie’s feeling generous because his target is Preston Fareweather, a rich jerk hiding out in an island resort to avoid being taken to the cleaners by his five furious ex-wives. While Fareweather is out of the country trying to avoid legal action, he’s left millions of dollars in valuables in his Manhattan penthouse, a tempting score that looks laughably easy for Dortmunder and his crew. But Dortmunder is distracted by the presence of some New Jersey mobsters looking to close down his favourite bar after milking it for all it’s worth, and it’s putting the heist in jeopardy. Nobody’s making any new friends as this large assortment of criminals all look to go home the winners.

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Kate Atkinson" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 304 pages, 2004

Rating: 10/10

Reason for Reading: I’ve been in love with Atkinson’s writing since I read her

first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Synopsis: Private investigator Jackson Brodie has three cases on his hands:

there’s Amelia and Julia, middle-aged sisters pushed by the death of their father and a

subsequent discovery to finally find out what happened to their sister Olivia, who was just

three when she vanished; a woman searching for her niece; and a devastated father still

hoping to track down his daughter’s killer a decade later. Can Brodie help close their open

wounds, or have the passing years taken away the possibility of redemption?

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market), 296 pages, 2004

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I wanted a mindless read, and was hoping a non-Stephanie Plum book would freshen up Evanovich’s writing.

Synopsis: Alexandra Barnaby, aka Barney, is living a normal, rather ho-hum existence in Baltimore when she gets a middle-of-the-night phone call from her brother, Wild Bill, saying he has to go away for a while. Before she can get an explanation, Barney hears a woman scream right before the line is cut off, so she decides to head down to Miami to bail her brother out of whatever trouble he’s gotten himself into now. But when she gets there, she discovers a boat is missing, a security guard has been murdered, and when she decides to check out Bill’s apartment she sees someone’s clearly beat her to the job. The missing boat’s owner, NASCAR driver Sam Hooker, insists on joining Barney, leaving her with two battles instead of one - to find Bill, and to fight off the constant advances of Hooker.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market), 312 pages, 2004

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: I’m addicted to Stephanie Plum, and maybe I don’t want to be cured.

Synopsis: The lovably disastrous bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is up the her usual good-intentions-bad-results mayhem, this time caused by her sidekick Lula accidentally interrupting a robbery. The thief turns out to be a very displeased gang member, and before long Stephanie finds that there’s a bounty on her head, but they have no interest in bringing her in alive…

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Mass-market, 370 pages, 2001

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: Coben seems to be a name that pops up frequently in the suspense/mystery genre, so I thought I’d give him a shot.

Synopsis: Eight years ago, Dr. David Beck’s wife was brutally murdered by a killer now sitting on death row for his crimes. Out of the blue, David gets an email containing information that only his wife would have known. Long-buried bodies are being uncovered, and new murders are being committed, but David is focused on the bizarre possibility that his wife might be alive. It seems impossible, but if it’s a cruel prank, it’s about to turn deadly…

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market), 348 pages, 2004

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I saw Codex while browsing through an Amazon Hot 100 List.

Synopsis: Edward Wozny is supposed to on a two-week vacation before he’s transfered from NYC to another investment banking firm in England, but at the request of an eccentric but ridiculously rich client, he finds himself cataloguing books. Something doesn’t quite add up, and he soon enlists a young female scholar to help him find a mysterious book that may or may not exist, and may have far-reaching consequences that someone wants to keep hidden…

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Mass market, 344 pages, 2004

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: Getting in my Evanovich fix while I wait to get my hands on Ten Big Ones.

Synopsis: Jamie Swift, editor of a small-town newspaper, discovers that a series of murders being committed seem to be linked to the personals section she’s recently started including in the paper. Helping with her amateur sleuthing is her love interest, Max Holt, a millionaire playboy-type who seems to blow in and out of town far too often to get involved in anything resembling a real relationship. This is the fourth book in the series.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in mass market), 321 pages, 1992

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: A recommendation over at BookCrazy.

Synopsis: Cliff Janeway is a tough-guy cop with an unexpected passion for collectible books. When a bookscout, Bobby Westfall, is found murdered, Janeway is positive it was the rich but violent Jackie Newton. But what could a thug have in common with book lovers? Janeway keeps digging for clues by himself, as the rest of the police force doesn’t see pursuing a murderer that targets drifters as a priority. Slowly, he is uncovering some sordid secrets in the world of book collecting…

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Mass market, 351 pages, 2002

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I needed a light mystery to break up some heavier reads, and this series seems to be pretty popular, so I thought I’d check it out.

Synopsis: Caterer Goldy Schulz accepts a job from an old classmate from college, Barry Dean, working an event for a new mall’s ‘elite shoppers’ evening. There seems to be a dark side to the elite shoppers, however - compulsions, mounting debts, revenge - and it seems someone is willing to kill to keep the darker side of their shopping habits a secret. Goldy and another member of her family seem to have found themselves in the way of a deadly shopping habit…

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