Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers

So! Hannah challenged me to read this book ten years or so ago (every time we discuss this we make it seem much longer ago than it actually was :) and Ana loves the characters in this book as do many others and Dorothy Sayers was the closest thing there was to a female member of the Inklings (she was not one) so these are all reasons I've wanted to read this for awhile. I don't really have an excuse for why it took me so long, except the usual truth of my reading restlessness and being a mood reader, etc.

And when I first started it, I was unsure. Because the very beginning of this book is basically a judge outlining a case, I mean I like a bit more action than that. But I read on and was quickly charmed by the delightful humor. And I wanted to know how they were going to Harriet Vane free, etc.

Oh I should back up a bit, basically Harriet Vane is on trial for poisoning her ex-lover. There are some inconvenient details surrounding a murder a mystery she's planning to write and how he died and so! Lord Peter doesn't think she's guilty, though, and he's also quite smitten so he determines to prove her innocence.

Speaking of which, I was surprised that he basically marches into the jail and proposes? Like I wasn't expecting this to be a love at first sight sort of book AT ALL. Of course, Harriet has her reservations.

Anyway, my very favorite part of the book is the scene depicted on the cover I had. Miss Climpson gets assigned to do her own fair share of investigation and has to pretend to be a medium in order to get the information she needs. It is genius comedy let me tell you! A completely delightful and laugh out loud sequence and Miss Climpson's voice is so amusing. I loved it. (Pongo! ♥)

So...hmm. A couple of things:
*I liked that Lord Peter actually did very little actual investigating. The women did all his leg work for him, lol. And it was fun! I felt the tension and suspense in their scenes and was worried they'd get caught etc.
*I feel like everyone always raves about Harriet Vane but she was barely in this book and I really have no thoughts on her. I feel like she's the kind of character I could really like, but it's far too early to make any sorts of judgments. I totally get why she was annoyed with Boyes for testing her, though!
*Ana asked how contemporary I found the book...well, I'm not sure what that question means? Like on the one hand I had no problems reading it, I didn't feel distanced or anything from it because of the time period. I guess, in fact, I could have read it believing it to be historical fiction if I didn't know the difference. So..does that help? One thing I think about it, though, is that it kind of reminds me of what we call cozy mysteries today. Something about both the humor and the lack of gore. Thankfully, though, no puns on food words!
*The way Peter had to talk Parker into proposing to his sister reminded me of Pierre in War & Peace, IDK!
*I looked up some stuff about the book to help my memory (it's terrible) and it's interesting that the stuff about Harriet and Philip was actually sort of based on Dorothy Sayers life. Now I want to learn more about her.
*I read this with a friend and I think we had a question about how it seemed Boyes had been poisoned over a period of time, but Wimsey really only solved the final poisoning. So...was he not being poisoned all along? And lol that I can't even remember if that was the question we had exactly, but I figured you guys could help me out!

Overall, I really liked it and I look forward to reading more!

Mini Reviews: Mysteries! The She by Carol Plum-Ucci, Creep by Jennifer Hillier, and Evidence of Life by Barbara Taylor Sissel

I read The Body of Christopher Creed a few years ago and really liked it and proceeded to buy like every book by Carol Plum-Ucci. But as has been the case in my reading life for the past few years they sat on my shelf for a long while. Well, I'm trying to read through some of these books I still want to read that I've owned forever, so the other day I picked up The She.

And I liked it! It's about a kid, Evan, whose parents died in a terrible storm when he was but a wee thing. And he believes there's a monster out there in them waters called The She that takes the lives of sailors. But it's a legend! Or so he thinks until a similar experience happens to a classmate. A teacher asks him to talk to her and so he does and fun times ensue. He starts realizing that maybe there was more stuff surrounding his parents death than he originally thought and

I really like Carol Plum-Ucci's concept of mystery...she drags lots of stuff into it like faith and reason. In this book in particular the contrast is really starkly drawn, Evan is the character of faith and his brother is the character of reason--someone who has devoted his life to basically blocking out mystery. And...you know I like this in a mystery simply for the reason that in life most mysteries don't get solved. So often there's not a clue at the end of the yellow brick road that tells us what it was all about, why life ended up the way it did, why horrific and horrible things happen. We can sometimes know that Mr. Green did it in the conservatory with the lead pipe, but the whys aren't always so obvious....by which I mean all the steps that lead to such a fateful place. So...I don't know a mystery that acknowledges that there's still a lot of mystery in the horror is fine by me. So I really liked that about this book, this push and pull between what can be proved and what remains mysterious.

And I really love her characters, they just pop off the page for me. For a short book she manages to draw them convincingly, I enjoy spending time with them in this short part of their lives. I didn't like this book as much Christopher Creed, but I liked it a lot and need to finish the rest of the books I have by her! Pubbed by Harcourt Children's Books and I bought it.


This book was sent to me over a year ago for review...I KNOW THE SHAME. But when I went on a trip about a month ago, I thought it would be a good plane read. And it was! It's a pretty standard thriller like this...almost verges a bit on...indulging the side of people that might enjoy reading about violence like this and sexual violence even, but even so there were things I liked about it. It was pretty straightforward with the action, but not without its surprises. I almost want to talk about it in a bit more detail based on something I read on Gillian Flynn's site today, but alas.

There were some cute nice touches I liked--the main character Sheila Tao (oh yeah POC main character also a plus!) likes this mushroom swiss burger she likes and after she goes missing, her fiance discovers this restaurant and likes the burger, too! (you know without knowing she did) I just realized I didn't say what the books was about! It's about this professor who is a sex addict, but when she breaks off one of her illicit affairs to get married, the guy doesn't take it very well and becomes dangerous.

Anyway, this is reminding me I do want to read the sequel at some point! Lots of language and explicit sex in this one, though, guys. Published by Pocket Books. And oh look it's on sale for quite cheap right now! (affiliate link)

Evidence of Life was sent to me this year, so no guilt with this one having languished around for ages! It was a nice book! Abby's husband and daughter go missing in a hurricane and as she sets out to find them, she discovers that not everything might be what it seemed. This book felt a little thin on plot...I found myself skimming to get to the end, but the prose was pleasant enough and the mystery was enough to keep me reading. I really don't have much to say about this, but it would probably make a nice beach read! Pubbed by Mira!

The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones

The less time I have to read, the harder I find it to choose which books are worthy of the time. I think both in terms of wanting to read books that mean something and also sometimes remembering reading books is just for fun. Choosing which new releases are worth reading is even harder and I'm not too proud to say that I do look at endorsements* and blurbs when I'm pitched a book. (other things I consider --for those of you as nerdy as I am who love to discuss this-- are the publisher, editor, and/or agent.)

So when The Next Time You See Me was pitched to me as a book Gillian Flynn endorsed I was interested, but even more interested when I read all the names of people who liked this book. It sounded like a buzzy book so I agreed and when it arrived, I started it almost immediately. And it was a good choice. A really good choice.

The Next Time You See Me is one of those books that's about a woman who has disappeared and while that's the event everything in the story sort of circles around, it's really about so much more. It's told through multiple points of view, several different people in the town, some of them responsible for the disappearance, some of them related to the woman who has disappeared, some of them related to the event only in its aftermath. It's a small town and they don't take the disappearance of a woman who was already known for being a bit loose and careless that seriously at first. In fact, Susanna, Ronnie's sister, has to battle her own husband who refuses to takes her concerns seriously.

But like I said this book is really about something else. It's about being an outsider and it's about infatuation and it's about the isolation in us all. A Separate Peace pops up in the book repeatedly, Ronnie was reading it before she disappeared, Susanna teaches it to her high school students. It's a really great book to reference in the text, though, particularly Christopher's insight about it:

He thought, too, that the book wasn't about adolescent cruelty or peer pressure or any of those stupid catchphrases from after-school specials. Gene hadn't jostled that branch because he hated Finny or merely because he was jealous, and he hadn't jostled it thinking that Finny would fall and become a broken version of his once glorious self. He had done it because there was something about Finny that made him ache, something that he desired, and the desire terrified him, made him weak.

It's so ironic because Christopher is perceptive about this without being able to drawn his own conclusions about a treatment of a girl in the book. While I don't think the situations are exact parallels, they do have some resemblance since Christopher's dominant feelings with regards to Emily are fear/desire. And it confuses him because he's also repulsed by her and finds it easy to bully her. Their relationship...the way Emily creates a fantasy Christopher in her head that makes her capable of forgiving all of his horrible behavior to him, and his mixed feelings towards her is a fascinating element of the book.

But young odd teen girls aren't the only ones bullied in this book. Wyatt is an older man working a job he hates, intensely lonely, who also finds himself the subject of some younger practical jokers at his work. Despite his better judgment and an admonishment from a coworker, he still finds himself falling in with them. He explains it well at one point by saying that Sam had "a way of making his attention feel like a gift." (I loved this line so much because I know people like this, like when they pay attention to you it feels like the sun is shining on you.) Wyatt suffers a heart attack and is maybe given a second chance at love. But I liked how there were these connections between Emily, the young one being bullied, and Wyatt and the different ways their outsider status affected them.

The characters are all layered and interesting and I felt a lot of sympathy for them all. The writing is lovely and perceptive. This is the kind of crime novel I like best, the kind that has a small mystery but doesn't end in some climatic scene where the super sleuth is in dangerous peril...you find out what happened, and in finding out feel all the melancholy and sorrow of it. The epilogue was a stroke of genius, I felt all the sadness of what had happened settle in and I truly felt like I had been on a journey with these characters. So far it's one of my favorite books I've read this year and one I know I'll be happy to recommend and talk about for some time to come. I also want to read this author's previous short story collection. Recommended.

Other choice quotes:

"What I'm saying is that if you want people to care about you, you have to meet them halfway. I wish that being yourself was the answer, but, honey, it's not. I'm sorry. It's the truth. You have to act interested in other people, and you have to ask them questions about themselves, and "--she was weeping openly now--"you've got to be normal sometimes."
"I'm not normal," Emily said. She looked up finally, taking in her mother's damp, magnified eyes and sun-spotted neck. Her skin Emily noticed for the first time, was loose and slightly crinkled. Overripe.
"Baby normal's not who you are or how you're born." Her mother was smiling a little, calm again, as if Emily had made the only statement that she could have formulated a response to. "It's how you act. It's something you do on purpose."

Susanna remembered being thirteen and feelings sometimes that the books she read were more real to her and more valuable than the life she lived. She had read the things she loved most, such as Pride and Prejudice, over and over and over, until she knew whole paragraphs by heart, and she remembered her affection for Elizabeth and her passion for Darcy, how desperately she wished them real, how cruel it seemed to her that they weren't.

Rating: 4.75/5
Things You Might Want to Know: profanity
Source of Book: Review copy received from publisher
Publisher: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)

*one of the blurbs on this book admittedly made me wonder if the person had finished reading it because THAT's what they took from it? but lol to each their own I guess!

Review: According to Their Deeds by Paul Robertson

What an unexpected and delightful surprise this book turned out to be! This is the perfect example of why I'm glad I accept review copies, yes, even of books I'm not sure I would buy for myself. When I saw the information about this book, I thought it looked like a run of the mill thriller, but because I had never read the author before I decided to take the plunge.

According to Their Deeds opens at an auction house where rare book shopowner Charles Beale is trying to buy back some books from the estate of a recently deceased client. The auction is somewhat unusual in that many of the items are going for above value. Charles succeeds in getting the books, but when he inspects their condition, he discovers one has been mutilated. Inside the book are hidden many documents containing people's secrets. Unsure of what to do, Charles sets out on a quest to learn why these documents were in the book.

This is not a typical thriller, it's a bit more like a cozy mystery in pacing, complete with rich secondary characters and storylines. The bulk of the story is told through dialogue which I found to be absolutely refreshing, and the dialogue is often punny...but the reason I forgive this is because the characters were so charming and the puns were all about...books. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate at all to call this book a love letter to books. Any fan of the classics or rare books should enjoy this book for that aspect alone.

But more than that, According to Their Deeds examines human nature and explores philosophy. The question at the heart of the book is what should be valued more? Justice or Mercy? Between each chapter is a remembered philosophical conversation that took place between Charles and his deceased client. And Charles wrestles with this decision throughout the pages. He is a completely loveable character, tender hearted, devoted to his wife, and passionate about books. He carries a weight of guilt with him, and tries to help people and do things for them they don't deserve.

I just really really loved this book. When I finished, I went back to read the dedication. Paul Robertson dedicated this book to his dad. His first memory of his dad is of him reading. What a beautiful tribute.

Here are some of my favorite quotes about books and reading from the book:

"What do you read in these books?"
"Everything. Everything that there is. And there is always something new."
"In these books that are old?"
"Yes, especially. It is like being hungry and these are food. I am hungry to read these. And it is also like they are friends and I want to be with them and talk to them."
"That is what the people say about drugs."
"It is a little like that. But these aren't bad for you. And they're legal."

And when discussing A Separate Peace:

"Well then yes, I knew that if I picked that book and English major would realize what I was saying. So let me know if Gene did it on purpose or even what means, and we'll understand ourselves better for it. That's what books are supposed to do."
"Sometimes they explain us too well."

This book is published by Bethany House which is a Christian publisher. But I really don't think of this as typical Christian fiction. I think that this book appeals to everyone. The most overtly Christian thing is the dedication from the author! Please read this book if it sounds good to you, even if you don't typically like Christian fiction!

Rating: 4.75/5