Eleven On Top - Janet Evanovich

    2005; 283 pages.  Book 11 (out of 31, soon to be 32) in the “Stephanie Plum” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime-Humor; Women Sleuths; Beach Read.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Stephanie Plum has quit her bounty hunting job!  She didn’t even give a two-weeks notice, she just walked in Cousin Vinnie’s bail bond office and turned in her handcuffs.

 

    Stephanie’s tired.  Tired of stalked by crazed killer, taunted by naked fat men, shot at, spat at, cussed at, and having her cars destroyed at an alarming rate.  She’s going to find a job with a lot less stress, a lot less violence, and hopefully a bit more pay.  It shouldn’t be too hard to find such a job, right?

 

    Right.  Well, her first new job was at a button factory, where she got fired on the first day for not showing up on time.  The second job was at Kan Klean, a dry-cleaning place and was similarly brief, due to Steph’s dispute with the owner.  The third job, at a fast-food called Cluck-in-a-Bucket, where employees are required to say “Have a clucky day” as customers depart, also canned her.  For burning down the place.

 

    Hmm.  Stephanie’s job history is turning into a nightmare.  I can’t wait to see how her fourth try at new employment turns out.

 

What’s To Like...

    Eleven On Top is the first book where Stephanie Plum isn’t working as a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie.  It was kinda neat to see her out on her own.  It’s not a spoiler to reveal that her friend and coworker Lula gets promoted to the vacant bounty hunter job, and it was fun to watch her step into Stephanie’s shoes.

 

    As usual for this series, the plotlines quickly multiply.  Steph finds herself being stalked by an unknown psychopath.  Four local, middle-aged men jump in their cars and simply disappear.  Stephanie’s sister Valerie is getting married and Steph’s been tabbed to be both the maid of honor and the music maestro—playing a cello solo.  The problem is she’s never played a cello in her life, but how hard can it be?  Last but not least, the Steph-Ranger-Morelli romance triangle continues to keep all three participants on edge.

 

    There is a plethora of characters to meet and greet; many new, many recurring.  Newly promoted Lula gets lots of ink; so do Grandmas Mazur and Bella.  The action starts right away as Stephanie finds notes and explosives presented to her by her stalker.

 

    The story is once again told in the first-person POV: Stephanie’s.  Eleven On Top was published in 2005, and some objects, such as phone books, landline phones, Tastykakes, and the Fosbury Flop, remind the readers of things which were once commonplace, whose glory days are long gone.

 

    The ending is exciting and twisty-yet-logical.  I knew a plot twist was coming, but it still surprised me (and Stephanie) how and when it unfolded.  The timing of some of the climactic events seemed a bit convenient, but hey, Stephanie has always had luck on her side.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 8,874 ratings and 983 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.17/5 based on 117,862 ratings and 2,539 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “You were different,” he said to Valerie.  “I mean, you had a reason for being a dope.  Well, not a dope actually.  I don’t mean to say you were a dope.  Okay, you might have been a little dopey.  No, wait, I don’t mean that either.  Not dopey or dope or any of those things.  Okay, okay, just a teensy bit dopey, but in a good way, right?  Dopey can be good.  Like dumb blond dopey.  No, I don’t mean that either.  I don’t know where that came from.  Did I say that?  I didn’t say that, did I?”  (pg. 90)

 

    “Now that I’m a bounty hunter I’ve got a lot of demands on my time.  I’ve got a real nasty case that I’m working on.  I should be out tracking this guy down right now, only I figured I could take a break from it and help you out.”

    “What kind of case is it?” Val asked.

    “He’s wanted for AR and PT,” Lula said.  “That’s bounty hunter shorthand for armed robbery and public tinkling.  He held up a liquor store and then took a leak in the domestic table wines section.”  (pg. 108)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Kindle version of Eleven On Top presently costs $9.99 at Amazon.  The other e-books in the series range in price from $5.99 to $9.99, with the exception of Book 30, Dirty Thirty, which is discounted to $2.99 for a limited time.

 

“I’m not a cakeaholic”. (. . .) “I only eat cake on special occasions.”  Like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday . . .  (pg. 204)

    The cussword frequency is moderate in Eleven On Top, I counted 15 instances in the first 10%, mostly of the milder ilk. Later on a couple f-bombs show up.  There were also four rolls-in-the-hay, with one being a tripleheader.  None of them were rendered in graphic terms.

 

    I can’t think of anything to quibble about.  I didn’t spot any typos.  There was no progress on Stephanie’s romantic quandary, but hey, do we really want those tense relationships to be resolved?

 

    Eleven On Top is a fast-paced, action-packed blend of humor and crime-solving, with just enough romance blended in to attract the female readers without scaring off the male readers.  So far, I’ve been reading the series in chronological order, and the next book, Twelve Sharp, is on my Kindle awaiting my attention.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  For those who keep count of these things:  *Total cars trashed* during Stephanie’s sleuthing: Two.  About average for her.

The Spellmans Strike Again - Lisa Lutz

    2010; 388 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 4 (out of 6) in “The Spellmans” series.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Humorous Crime Fiction; Dysfunctional Comedy.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Meet the Spellman family!  Mom, Dad, and their three children: 34-year-old David, 32-year-old Isabel (aka “Izzy”), and 17-year-old Rae (a high school senior).

 

    Collectively, they make up the entire workforce of a family company called "Spellman Investigations".  Want to know what’s in someone else’s trash?  As long s it’s bundled and in a trash container, the Spellman’s are happy to snare it and bring it to you.

 

    Family-wise, the Spellmans are known for “putting the ‘fun’ back into ‘dysfunctional’.  Weekly dinners are usually laden with sarcasm, and nobody’s lifestyle is above critique.  Maybe some sort of team-building exercise is in order.

 

    I’ve got it!  How about everyone’s mandatory attendance in a camping excursion!

 

What’s To Like...

    There are a slew of storylines in The Spellmans Strike Again, some of which involve sleuthing, but there are also plot threads focusing on family relationships.  Boyfriends and girlfriends of the three children are judged for worthiness; siblings may occasionally lock other siblings in rooms, and bizarrely, doorknobs keep disappearing all over the family house!

 

    The story is told from the first-person POV (Izzy’s), and there are a plethora of footnotes which sometimes refer back to earlier books in the series, and other times give some wry observations by Izzy.  They work flawlessly and are definitely worth your time.  There is also a Cast of Characters section in the back, giving brief bios of the main characters and which comes in handy if, like me, it has been a while since you read the previous book in the series.

 

    The book is divided into four parts consisting of 91 sections.  I wouldn’t call them “chapters”; they’re more like entries in a journal.  That may sound tedious, but it works charmingly.  I enjoyed the literary nod to Jeeves & Wooster, and was surprised to find I’ve been mispronouncing the Vietnamese cuisine, “pho”, for a long time.

 

    In amongst all the mayhem and humor, Lisa Lutz also examines a serious topic: DNA testing.  The Spellmans take on appeals for two cases involving people currently jailed.  The legal system was still grappling with the reliability of DNA analysis when this book was published (2010).  The author devotes a section in the back called “The Innocence Project” giving facts and figures as to how great an impact DNA testing has become in reopening criminal convictions.  Read it; you will be astounded.

 

    The ending is a bittersweet affair.  Spellman Investigations is successful in one of the reopened cases utilizing DNA analysis, but unsuccessful in the other.  Most of the plotlines are resolved and Izzy finds a boyfriend to replace the one she’s been referring to as ”Ex #12”.  We’ll address the “bitter” of the “bittersweet ending” in the next section.  It’s a quibble.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 634 ratings and 155 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.20/5 based on 13,442 ratings and 1,084 reviews.

 

Kindle Details…

    The Spellmans Strike Again currently sells for $13.99 at Amazon.  The other five books in the series are priced in the range of $13.99-$15.99, except for Book 3, Revenge of the Spellmans, which is only $3.49 right now.  Lisa Lutz has four other novels in e-book format; they range in price from $4.99 to $9.99.

 

Excerpts...

    “How can we work this out?” he asked.

    “My brother says I should start making friends my own age.”

    “Ouch,” the inspector replied with mock injury.

    “We’re not enemies,” I offered, thinking that was friendly enough.

    “I want to be more than enemies.”

    “Archenemies?  I suppose we could head in that direction.  But you’d have to do something pretty awful for us to drive down that road.”

    “I was thinking in the other direction,” Henry answered, not amused.  (loc. 335)

 

    “What happened here?” David asked.

    “Feng shui,” Mom replied.

    “Gesundheit,” I said.

    “That’s so unlike you both,” David said, eyeing them suspiciously.

    “We got a book,” said Mom.  “It’s important for the marriage to keep clutter out of the bedroom.  And the bed shouldn’t line up directly with the door and should be approachable from both sides.”

    David stared at the television set that was still stationed in front of the bed.

    “Don’t they tell you to get rid of the TV, too?”

    “We don’t have to do everything the book says,” Dad replied.  (loc. 3115)

 

“I heard you loud and clear the first five times you said that.”  (loc. 1997)

    The profanity level in The Spellmans Strike Again is about normal for this series; I counted 14 instances in the first half of the book, two of which were f-bombs.  Alcohol is consumed on a number of occasions, but I wouldn’t call it excessive.  There are a couple “adult situations”, but they are tastefully described.

 

    Despite the Spellmans being a bunch of Private Investigators, this is not primarily a whodunit mystery novel, and that’s also been true of the prior books in this series.  Indeed, Amazon’s blurbs do not use the word “Mystery” in their genre classifications for this book, so this shouldn't be a surprise.

 

    My only quibble (the “bitter” of the aforementioned “bittersweet ending”) is that one of the recurring characters dies at the close of the story.  The death does not impact the storyline in any way.  I’m not the sort of reader who gets upset when a favorite character is written out of a series (a common George R.R. Martin habit), but I just don’t see any point in doing this here.  Maybe I’ll find out in Book #5, Trail of the Spellmans.

 

    Overall, The Spellmans Strike Again is another solid entry in this series.  The wit and humor are plentiful, there is ample sleuthing, the cases are fascinating, and the family interactions are hilariously zany. The final two books are on my Kindle; my only quibble is that I don’t sense Lisa Lutz continuing the series.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  At one point Rae’s parents buy her a set of books titled “The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”.  This brought back childhood memories for me.  Those were on a family bookshelf when I was growing up, and I read them several times.

A Dead Red Gamble - R.P. Dahlke

    2018; 163 pages.  Book 6 (out of 7) in the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Crime Mystery; Arizona.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    Order in the court now, somebody shot young Judge Gavin Borrega!  In the courthouse!  In broad daylight!

 

    Where’s the security video?  Where were the court guards?  Heck, rumor has it the judge had even hired some private guards for added security.  Where were they?

 

    Maybe it was politically motivated.  It’s been said that Judge Borrega was being groomed for a run for the governor’s office.  Maybe it was some jilted lover.  Gavin was indeed a handsome fellow.  Maybe it was our hero, Private Investigator Lalla Bains.  She had a meeting scheduled with the judge at the same time as the murder took place.

 

    Hmmm.  Or maybe it had to do with those dozens of fluttering, squawking chickens which somebody dumped into the courthouse just before the shooting took place!  That couldn’t have been just a coincidence!

 

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Gamble is the sixth, and penultimate book in R.P. Dahlke’s Dead Red Mystery series.  It is set in Cochise County in southern Arizona, in the fictional town of Wishbone.

 

    The story's structure is the usual for this series.  Lalla and her PI partner (and cousin) Pearlie get drawn into investigating Borrega’s murder, albeit in an unofficial capacity.  Lalla’s husband, Caleb, is the police chief, and would rather his wife sit this case out.  That’s reasonable.  Her father, Noah Bains, is critically ill, which leads to the problem of who’s going watch Noah’s two foster children, Rocky and Jimmy.

 

    Naturally, the initial murder case rapidly gets more complex, with other killings, both past and present, coming into play.  There are other personal and professional issues as well.  Pearlie and her beau, Harley, are no longer on speaking terms, and neither will say why.  Lalla and Pearlie’s move into a new office, only to find it’s …erm… broomed.  And the cash-strapped Bains-&-Bains Detective Agency can receive a healthy bonus check if they can provide proof that an insurance client is faking an injury.  Hmm.  How do you go about proving that?

 

    That’s a lot of plot threads to deal with in ja novella-length book, but R.P. Dahlke manages to get them all tied up.  The story is told in the first-person POV (Lalla’s), and the chapters are relatively short (8½ pages average), with 19 of them covering the 163 pages.  A Dead Red Gamble is both a standalone tale and part of a series.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 326 ratings and 60 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.38*/5, based on 208 ratings and 30 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    I felt sorry for Allison.  I heard her smarts had landed her a co-anchor job on Channel Five.  Unfortunately, the station was following the growing Fox News practice of requiring female anchors to wear tight dresses and enough makeup to look like they were nightclubbing instead of reciting yesterday’s city council fights and today’s traffic jams.  Today, someone had decided that she could do without her glasses and things weren’t going too well for the poor girl.  (loc. 727)

 

    Since I promised to do Pearlie’s process serves while she went to Phoenix to get information on Judge Borrega’s stepfather, the senator, I got out her list and checked off the ones for which I’d need special props.

    What sounds really simple, hand a person a summons to court, write up a report and turn it into the court or the law firm, doesn’t always go well.  At least not for me.  Pearlie, with her big blue eyes, dimples and full-figured curves is a natural.  Women appreciate her gutsy attitude for the job, and men, well they usually drool, so process serving is easy for Pearlie.  (loc. 1423)

 

Kindle Details…

    At the moment, A Dead Red Gamble sells for $4.99 at Amazon.  The other six books in the series are all in the $3.99-$4.99 price range.  The author has three other e-books available, each priced at $4.99.

 

“You can’t hire a guy with Prosopagnosia.”  (loc. 1543)

    There’s only a small amount of profanity.  I noted just 6 instances in the first 25% of the book, five “hells” and one “damn”.  I don’t recall any “adult situations” in the story.

 

    The editing is good, and is mostly confined to punctuation issues: a missing comma here, a misplaced apostrophe there, etc.  There were a couple instances of hyphens inserted into compound words (example: news-people/newspeople), but I have a feeling those crept in during the conversion-to-digital stage.

 

    My biggest issue was with the ending,.  It felt rushed to me.  For most of the book Lalla noses around, coming up with a variety of possible suspects and motives.  That was good.  But instead of things building to an exciting climax, or Lalla using Sherlockian reasoning to peg the suspect, one of the characters simply reveals to her (and the reader) who killed who and why.  I found it disappointing.  I don’t recall the earlier books in the series having endings like this.

 

    Bottom line: if you primarily read cozy mysteries for the “cozy” human activities and not the “mystery” elements, you’ll enjoy A Dead Red Gamble, despite its brevity  However, the Mystery angle always takes precedence for me.

 

    6½ Stars.  Acronym Alert!!  The term “BOLO” popped up in the story, and without a translation.  My geezer brain tried various combinations, most of them involving “Buy One, L-Something, One”, none of which worked.  It turns out to be police-speak for “Be On the Lookout”.  Now you know.

Ten Big Ones - Janet Evanovich

   2004; 319 pages.  Book 10 (out of 31) in the “Stephanie Plum” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime-Humor; Women Sleuths; Beach Read.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    There’s a psycho running amok in Trenton, New Jersey.  He calls himself the “Red Devil” and has held up fourteen of the city’s deli-marts.  First he robs them, then as he exits, he tosses a Molotov cocktail into the store.  Instant conflagration.

 

    Stephanie Plum accidentally interrupted his routine during his latest heist.  He got a flat tire out of it; she got a burned-to-the-ground car.  But Stephanie caught a glimpse of his face and, though it wasn’t anyone she recognized, she’d know him if she saw him again.

 

    Which, of course happened a short time later.  Unfortunately, the Red Devil also recognized her, and understood the threat when Stephanie yelled, “Hey!  Wait a minute.  I want to talk to you.”  A chaotic chase ensued, with the Red Devil getting away.

 

    It’s kind of weird when a bounty hunter and a pyromaniac robber are both driving around Trenton, teach trying to spot the other.

 

What’s To Like...

    Unsurprisingly, the Red Devil/Stephanie plotline quickly becomes more tangled.  A local gang, the Slayers, gets involved.  Then a contract killer arrives from California with a list of people he’s being paid to dispose of, and Stephanie’s one of them.

 

    Stephanie’s personal life is getting more complicated as well.  Her sister Valerie, to whom she’s lent her apartment, still hasn’t gotten a place of her own, and Stephanie’s current living situation—shacking up with her cop boyfriend, Joe Morelli—is making her feel cramped.  Her subsequent housing solution stirs things up still further.

 

    The gangs, hitmen, psycho store-robbers, and relationship issues give this book a darker-than-normal tone for a Stephanie Plum novel.  Things turn even darker when Steph and friends decide to kidnap a baddie and beat some information out of him.

 

    Fortunately, Janet Evanovich balances all this with some lighter elements.  Mary Alice still thinks she’s a horse, Grandma Mazur and Lula provide comedic embarrassment, and a new character, Sally, shows up sporting something called a “swear band”.

 

    Everything builds to an exciting, over-the-top, and nail-biting ending.  Help arrives from an unexpected source just in the nick of time.  All the “Bounty Hunter” plot threads are tied up, and all the “Love Triangle” plot threads remain enticingly unresolved.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 7,994 ratings and 994 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.15/5 based on 105,382 ratings and 2,568 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “This wasn’t one of my better days,” I said to Morelli.  “My car was destroyed, I was involved in a shooting, and I just sat through a dinner from hell.”

    Morelli slung an arm around me.  “Dinner wasn’t that bad.”

    “My sister talked cuddle umpkins to Kloughn for two hours, my mother and grandmother cried every time someone mentioned the wedding, Mary Alice whinnied nonstop, and the baby threw up on you.”

    “Yeah, but aside from that. . .”

    “Not to mention, Grandma got completely snookered and passed out at the table.”

    “She was the smart one,” Morelli said.  (pg. 47)

 

    “And I suppose it’s okay for you to go after him?” I said to Morelli.

    “I’m a cop.  We go after criminals.  That’s why you called me, right?”

    “And I’m a fugitive apprehension agent.”

    “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Morelli said, “but you’re not a great apprehension agent.”

    “I get the job done.”

    “You’re a magnet for disaster.”  (pg. 180)

 

“I know a doughnut butt when I see one.”  (pg. 184)

    The profanity level in Ten Big Ones, was about normal.  I noted twenty cusswords in the first 10% of the book, which included a half-dozen f-bombs.  References to adult situations, adult toys, and anatomical organs show up later on.  This is the norm for this series.   And we won't even mention the charming transvestite character.

 

    As mentioned, the ending is exciting, but it also felt a bit hurried and too convenient.  That’s okay, though, there’s simply no way to portray a street gang in a light-hearted manner and still make them believably threatening.

 

    Ten Big Ones is another solid entry in the Stephanie Plum adventures.  If you’re looking for a series that’s funny, thrilling, heartwarming, romantic, quirky, and twisty, I highly recommend giving this bounty hunter a try.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  For those who keep count of these things:  Total cars trashed by Steph: One.  Total FTA’s rebooked by Steph: Seven.  Our protagonist is becoming an ace bounty hunter.

To The Nines - Janet Evanovich

   2003; 372 pages.  Book 9 (out of 30) in the “Stephanie Plum” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Crime-Humor; Women Sleuths; Beach Read.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Stephanie Plum and Lula have a new assignment.  Track down a missing FTA (“Failure To Appear”) kid named Samuel Singh and bring him in.

 

    This is a top-priority case.  So says Stephanie’s cousin Vinnie, who’s her boss and owner of Vincent Plum’s Bail Bonds.  It turns out Vinnie wrote something called a “visa bond” for Samuel, and if the missing-and-presumed-runaway fugitive can’t be found, Vinnie will lose a lot of money and credibility. Unsurprisingly, he’s very insistent that Singh be found immediately, if not sooner.

 

    Mrs. Apusenja and her daughter Nonnie feel the same way.  Samuel rents a room from the mom, and is betrothed to enter into an arranged marriage with the daughter.  Nobody walks out on something Mrs. Apusenja has arranged.

 

    Nonnie of course also wants her future husband found.  But funnily enough, she seems more concerned about her pet dog, “Boo”.  It seems the pup went missing from their yard the same day Samuel disappeared.

 

    Maybe they ran off together.

 

What’s To Like...

    To The Nines follows the standard plot structure for a Stephanie Plum novel, and that’s a plus, not a minus.  The simple catch-&-cuff task quickly gets more complex.  Various parties-of-interest drop dead, cold cases get warmer, and suspects pop up all over the place.  Stephanie starts receiving flowers from an admirer who wants to kill her, not romance her.  And as if Stephanie doesn't have enough to think about, the Ranger-Morelli-Plum love triangle is alive and cooking.

 

    The story is told in the first-person POV (Stephanie’s), and for the most part is set in the Trenton, New Jersey area, plus a quick trip out to Las Vegas by Steph and Lula, the expenses of which can happily can be written off as a trip and picked up by Vinnie,

 

    To The Nines was published in 2003, when 9/11 was a recent occurrence and the airports were struggling with security protocol.  Watching Lula’s misadventures with airport security was hilarious, but also brought back personal memories of business trips during that time.  To boot, Samuel Singh worked in a QC lab; that was my career as well.  Other “signs of the times” included Stephanie using AOL as her e-mail carrier, and Magic The Gathering being all the rage.

 

    There’s action aplenty and it starts right away.  We join Lula and Stephanie as they attempt to capture an FTA named Punky Balog, who has a unique way of showing his disdain for their presence.  Janet Evanovich’s trademark wit and humor is present in abundance, as are Stephanie’s musings about her complicated feelings for Joe Morelli and Ranger.  The mention of the I-40 Interstate resonated with me; I’ve driven it a couple of times over the last couple of years.  And the implication that Scottsdale, Arizona was an awful place to live and work made me chuckle; it's considered an upscale snowbird haven by the rest of us Phoenicians.

 

    Things close with a deadly cat-and-mouse game orchestrated by the baddie.  All turns out well, but… well, we'll talk more about that in a bit.  To The Nines is 372 pages long, covered by 15 chapters, with all the plotlines tied up by the end.  It is both a standalone story and part of a 30-book series, and is still “active”, with the 31^st installment due out this coming November.

 

And for us OCD folks who love to keep track of things:

    Number of FTA’s apprehended: 4

    Number of bodyguards worn out: 2

    Number of cars wrecked by Stephanie : Zero!

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 7,219 ratings and 842 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.16/5 based on 120,841 ratings and 2,415 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Maybe I’d get more cases if I had more hair.  A lot of people don’t like bald men.  Not that I’m bald, but it’s starting to get thin.”  He smoothed his hand over his few remaining strands of hair.  “You probably didn’t notice that it was thin, but I can tell when the light hits it just right.

    “You should try that chemical stuff you pour on your head,” Grandma said.  “My friend Lois Grizen uses it and she grew some hair.  Only problem was she used it at night and it rubbed off on her pillow and got on her face and now she has to shave twice a day.”  (loc. 1429)

 

    “She’s coming with a dish of my mother’s manicotti.  Have you ever tasted my mother’s manicotti?”

    “You sold me out for manicotti!”

    Morelli grinned and kissed me on the forehead.  “You can have some, too.  And by the way, your hair is cute.”

    I narrowed my eyes at him.  I wasn’t feeling cute.  In fact, I’d decided I didn’t like cute.  Cute wasn’t a word anyone would use to describe Morelli or Ranger.  Cute implied a degree of helplessness.  Kittens were cute.  (loc. 4053)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, To The Nines will run you a mere $2.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the e-books in the series are priced from $2.99 to $9.99.  Janet Evanovich has several other series for your reading pleasure, mostly in the Romance genre, and in the $6.99-$13.99 price range.

 

“I think I might have gotten married to an Elvis impersonator.”  (loc. 2451)

    There’s quite a bit of profanity in To The Nines, but that’s the norm for this series.  There’s a nice selection of cusswords, including eight f-bombs; plus there are a couple of tastefully done rolls-in-the-hay, and one reference to an oral act.

 

    I only spotted one typo: smokey/smoky; and even that one is more a question of the preferred spelling (smoky), rather than being out-and-out wrong.  Kudos to whoever did the editing.

 

    My main gripe is with the ending: it felt contrived, too convenient, and rushed.  It’s difficult to give details without them being spoilers, but here goes.  Two characters get abducted without any details given of how and when.  One of them supplies key information that enables Stephanie to survive the game.  Stephanie’s aiming in total darkness is remarkably accurate, and the cavalry arrives in an unbelievably short time.

 

    Still, the ending was suitably exciting and it got the job done: Good once again wins out against Evil.  Overall, To The Nines was a solid entry in this series, despite the rushed ending.  I enjoyed the book and am eager to read the next one in the series, Ten Big Ones.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  Late in the story, there is mention of peanut butter and olive sandwiches.  Stephanie makes them for supper with Joe Morelli, and it is implied that both of them enjoy such a meal.  El Yucko to the Extremo!

Still Life With Murder - P.B. Ryan

   2003; 296 pages.  Book 1 (out of 6) in the “Nell Sweeney Mysteries” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Historical Crime; Murder-Mystery; Women Sleuths.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

   The Good.  William Hewitt, one of the sons of Boston’s “upper crust” Hewitts, and reported as killed while attempting to escape the dreaded Andersonville POW camp four years ago, has just turned up alive in Boston!

 

    The Bad.  He’s been living under the assumed name “William Touchette”, and has just been arrested for murder.  Eyewitnesses confirmed his presence at the scene of the crime, kneeling over the corpse, knife in hand, and screaming at it about revenge.

 

    The Ugly.  William and his parents can’t stand each other.  His father is fully convinced of his son’s guilt and his mom wants to question Will about the incident.  William refuses to meet and talk with either one.  What can the Hewitts do?

 

    Maybe they should send their governess, Nell Sweeney, posing as some sort of spiritual guide, to visit “William Touchette” in jail.  She can at least ask him if he wants to retain a lawyer and/or get out on bail.

 

    Before they hang him.

 

What’s To Like...

    Still Life With Murder is set in the Boston area in the 1860s.  The prologue, which introduces us to Nell Sweeney and gives a backstory of how she came to be governess of little Gracie at the Hewitts’ manor, takes place in 1864; the rest of the book takes place in 1868.

 

    Although this is primarily a murder-mystery, I was impressed by the depth and detail paid to the historical aspect of the novel.  Things like women’s wear and house furnishings felt well researched.  So did, for that matter, the opium dens which play a prominent part of the storyline; including how they were laid out and the various gambling games they hosted, such as chuck-a-luck, rat’s night, and lansquenet, to keep the addicts entertained and spending even more money.

 

    There are some nice character studies in the story.  Nell, of course, gradually evolves into an amateur sleuth.  But that’s no easy task since Will Hewitt is a most uncooperative client – he refuses to confess or deny his guilt, and at times acts like he’d welcome the hangman’s noose.  The police detective is also non-stereotypical:  far from being bull-headed and resentful of Nell’s meddling, he shares information with her at times, and even occasionally invites her along on some of his inquiries.

 

    I enjoyed the smattering of French and Chinese phrases that were worked into the text, since I’ve taken some night classes in both.  Unfortunately, I drew a blank on the Chinese words (but maybe this was in the Cantonese dialect, not the Mandarin I studied), and I had to look up the context of the French phrase “Vous l’avez voulu, George Dandin”.

 

    The ending is satisfying, logical, with a bit of a twist to it that causes Nell, the police detective, and myself all to be slightly off in our theories as to who did the killing and why.  Will Hewitt rides off into the sunset (well, you knew he wasn't going to hang, right?) but I suspect he’ll become an important character in the series.  I have a felling that little Gracie will show up in the next book as well.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.2/5 based on 8,401 ratings and 1,523 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.91/5 based on 9,796 ratings and 958 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “The round head is because of the Caesarean.  She didn’t have to pass through the . . .”  Nell looked away, chastising herself for having made such a reference in polite conversation, especially with the likes of Viola Hewitt; what would Dr. Greaves say?

    Mrs. Hewitt chuckled.  “I’m afraid I’m not particularly easy to shock, Miss Sweeney.  Mr. Hewitt is of the opinion that I ought to be a bit more prone to swooning, but I never could quite get the knack.”  (loc. 301)

 

    “Let’s see if I understand this correctly.  Will is supposed to have killed this man because of an altercation over a woman.”

    Nell nodded.  “Kathleen Flynn, the owner’s daughter.”

    “Is she beautiful?”

    “I . . . she’s . . .”  Nell shrugged.  “I’m not really sure, from a man’s perspective.  Why?”

    “Will’s women are always magnificent.  And very sophisticated.  He liked them smart and a little dangerous.”

    “Kathleen is none of those things.  Although her father did compare her to his most vicious rat terrier.”  (loc. 3295)

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Gowsters (n., pl.) : violent or unmanageable persons; swaggering fellows  (alt. spelling)

Others: Merlin chair (n.), Stertorous (adj.).

 

Kindle Details…

    Still Life With Murder sells for $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other books in the series are priced at $4.99 apiece.  P.B. Ryan, who writes under the name of Patricia Ryan as well, also pens the Historical Romance series, Lords of Conquest, with its six books all going for $3.99 each.

 

“Hate to ruin your little theory, sweet pea, but dead men are even worse at payin’ off their debts than live ones.”  (loc. 3884)

    There’s not much to gripe about in Still Life With Murder.  The profanity is light, just seven instances in the first 25% of the book, and all but one of those were the relatively mild epithet “damn”.

 

    There were a couple of ethnic slurs later on, but those would be consistent with lingo of the times.  There are several visits to opium dens along the way, but frankly this book serves as a warning against the usage of that drug, not a glorification of it.

 

    The editing was good; I noted just two typos: lean-to’s/lean-tos and wretching/retching.  Kudos to whoever the copy editors were.

 

    That’s about it for the nitpicking.  I like it when the murder-mystery I’m reading is set in another time and another place, with just as much attention paid to getting the historical fiction right as to getting the murder-mystery coherent.  Still Life With Murder succeeded nicely in that regard.

 

    8 Stars.  In looking at the Amazon blurbs, it looks like the e-book versions of the books in this series all came out in 2010, and the paperback versions all came out in 2014.  I’m guessing that means this is a completed series.  For me, Still Life With Murder was a great way to get introduced to Nell Sweeney.

A Dead Red Miracle - R.P. Dahlke

   2015; 250 pages.  Book 5 (out of 7) in the “Dead Red Mystery” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Women Sleuths; Crime Mystery; Arizona.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Bosses can be scumbags sometimes.  Just ask the cousins Lalla and Pearlie Bains, who are working for PI Ron Barbour as interns so they can get their Private Investigator licenses.

 

    Barbour’s business has slacked off recently, which means Lalla and Pearlie’s slice of the income has shrunk to a meager sum.  Now they’ve just discovered their boss has been hiding cases, and dollars, from them.  What a scumbag!  They're so angry they could just kill him.

 

    Except that someone has beat them to the punch… er… slaying.  They drive out the Barbour's house to confront him, and catch a glimpse the body of their boss dead on the floor of his house just before the whole place goes up in smoke.  The police soon arrive on the scene, and try to find out who did what to Barbour.

 

    Say, how come they’re looking at Lalla and Pearlie so suspiciously?  It’s almost as if they think Lalla and Pearlie might have done it.

 

What’s To Like...

    A Dead Red Miracle is the fifth book the R.P. Dahlke’s entertaining Dead Red Mystery series.  Pearlie, Lalla, her husband Caleb, and Lalla’s dad Noah have recently relocated from the fertile fields of Fresno, California to the desert dryness of Sierra Vista in southern Arizona.

 

    As mentioned, Lalla and Pearlie are in the process of applying for their Private Investigator licenses, which requires some on-the-job training.  Their mentor/boss’s demise puts those plans in jeopardy.  But it also gives them an opportunity to do some serious sleuthing.

 

    The case rapidly become more complicated.  There are several more deaths to look into, various suspects and material witnesses to track down, and two youthful delinquents (the Garza brothers) to find suitable foster parents to take care of.  Things become so hectic that Lalla and Pearlie have to hire additional help.

 

The story is told from the first-person point-of-view, Lalla’s.  Snarky wit, mixed with friendly banter, abounds between our two protagonists as they try to determine the perpetrators.  There is a nice bit of Native American culture blended into the tale, although the genre listed in the Amazon blurb, Native American Literature, seems a bit of a stretch.

 

    Things build to a suitably exciting ending, with all of the various plot threads (I noted ten of them) getting tied up.  The killings are solved mostly by Lalla’s logical thinking along wiht some fortuitous circumstances.  The story closes with a short but catchy Epilogue involving two pairs of siblings.  The sisters Velma and Zelma give our heroes a neat little plot twist, and the resolution of the Garza brothers’ future will warm your heart.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 1,429 ratings and 303 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.14*/5, based on 709 ratings and 72 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I thought you enjoyed the company of your landlady.”

    “She wants me to become a vegetarian.”

    “Sounds like a good idea.  You are a heart patient, you know.”

    “I’m a secondhand vegetarian.  Cows eat grass, I eat the cows, and I’m going to continue to enjoy eating that way till I die, thank you very much.”  (loc. 1014)

 

    “If you can’t pay your rent, we have a spare couch.”

    “Ew-w-w.  I’m not that poor.”

    “Since we’re talking about men, how was your date with the trainer from the gym?”

    Pearlie’s mouth twitched.  “Just because a man has Genius printed on his T-shirt, doesn’t mean he is one.”

    I grinned.  “Not hunky enough to ignore his IQ, huh?”

    “Not if he was wrapped in bacon and came with his own trust fund.”  (loc. 1814)

 

Kindle Details…

    A Dead Red Miracle sells for $4.99 right now at Amazon.  The other six books in the series cost either $3.99 (first and last books) or $4.99 (the rest of them).  R.P. Dahlke has three other e-books available, ranging in price from $3.54 to $3.99.  Two are part of a romantic sailing mystery trilogy, the third, and most recent, is a paranormal mystery.

 

“Damian broke into your office again and you reward him with a job?”  “We’re short-handed.”  (loc. 1967)

    The cussing is pleasingly sparse, just five instances in the first 20%, plus one racial epithet later on.  I love it when an author doesn’t have to resort to excessive foul language to set a scene.

 

    My main gripe is my usual one for this series.  The editing is atrocious, and seemed to get worse as the book progressed.  The typos included: Ifinally/I finally; waived/waved, sixty’s/sixties, gapped/gasped, and the embarrassing Barber/Barbour; and Damion’s/Damian’s, just to name a few.  There were also occasional missing words and/or misplaced plurals, plus one continuity issue – referencing a person who wasn’t present.

 

    But if you don't let the errata bother you, you’ll find A Dead Red Miracle to be an engaging tale where character development is just as important as the whodunit aspect.  The book kept my interest throughout, which was also true of the first four books in this series.

 

    8 Stars.  At 250 pages, A Dead Red Miracle was still a novel of acceptable length, but Book 6, A Dead Red Gamble, drops off to 179 pages, and Book 7, A Dead Red Horse Thief, is a mere novella-length 119 pages.  That last book was published in 2019, so I’m assuming that means R.P. Dahlke is finished chronicling Lalla’s adventures.  If so, then I for one, am bummed.