Category Archives: Lilypad-Library

Books, blurbs, and bullrushes

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs (2000) – BR00024 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

In this third installment in the Dr. Temperance Brennan series, there are biker gangs in Montreal, and they are killing each other. Most of it happens in Montreal, which is an improvement over the bopping around in previous books.

What I Liked

The story is interesting, and Reichs is still above average.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the characters are fast becoming clichés. And if you don’t figure out a sub-plot (spoiler alert!) about her love interest being a dirty cop, you need to take Mystery Fiction 101 again. Temperance also gets to play Mommy again, this time to a nephew, but it isn’t particularly exciting. More of a Scarpetta rip-off. Again, too, Reichs plays fast and loose with a couple of clues that make Brennan look like an idiot to any intelligent reader and really detracts from the story. The final ending is almost surreal, and reads more like a script for an action TV series than reliable fiction.

The Bottom Line

Not up to the standards of the first book.

The First Virtue by Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden (1999) – BR00023 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the final in the series of six Star Trek books dealing with an assault with biological weapons on the Federation. This book takes the reader back to the time of Picard as Captain of the Stargazer and adds Tuvok and Jack Crusher to the series. Picard is assigned diplomatic duties for a system on the verge of war. Working together with Tuvok and Crusher, they quickly realize that the war is being primed by someone, but they’re just not sure who. Tuvok and Crusher go undercover and they form the majority of the story.

What I Liked

Tuvok’s and Crusher’s undercover antics are interesting reading, and represent a solid addition to Tuvok’s background.

What I Didn’t Like

Crusher’s character is only superficially developed, as is the character of the man who eventually becomes the assailant for the other five books.

The Bottom Line

Not the best in the series.

Hearts and Bones by Margaret Lawrence (1997) – BR00022 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

Hannah Trevor is a midwife in 1786 colonial America. She has 3 dead children, a dead husband, and a live daughter whose unacknowledged / unclaimed father is a neighbour. Hannah is present when the authorities discover the raped and mutilated body of another village resident, who has left behind a letter accusing some members of the village elite of the crime, including Hannah’s former lover.

What I Liked

The plotting is well-done, if somewhat slow to get to the discovery of the body. So well-done in fact that this would be easily readable without the murder mystery (i.e., if it was just a historical novel about life in colonial America). And perhaps that is the highest compliment to be paid to this book — that it works well on different levels: a historical novel (the life of the midwife, the role of women), a mystery novel (who raped and killed the woman?), and, to some extent, a love story (the relationship between Hannah and Daniel, her child’s father).

What I Didn’t Like

I figured out the murder mystery far too early, and I spotted other murders long before they actually happened. Fortunately, the great writing carried me to the end anyways.

The Bottom Line

A great historical mystery.

Perish Twice by Robert B. Parker (2000) – BR00021 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

Sunny Randall is back, and she has a new part-time job as advisor to the love-lorn. Her first customer is Mary Lou Goddard, a prominent feminist (à la Rachel Wallace, from the Spenser series) who thinks she’s being stalked. When Sunny figures out who the stalker is, Goddard wants to drop it all and fires her. It doesn’t stop her from continuing to investigate, even though she has no client. The second customer is her sister — who hires her to catch the sister’s husband in the process of cheating. Which Sunny does, and then spends the rest of the book dealing with the dysfunctional sister. And the third and final customer is her normal confidant and best friend, Julie, who runs into marital problems in this book.

What I Liked

This is a first-rate mystery, with typical Parker twists and turns and links to criminal types. It provides a different spin on the normal Spenser series, while still staying within the same ballpark.

What I Didn’t Like

The storyline with the sister is hard to take because you just want to mentally slap her; which is okay because Sunny wants to slap her too, although I can’t figure out why she doesn’t. The third storyline with Julie is okay, but started to grate near the end.

The Bottom Line

Good story and first-rate mystery.

The Conquered by Dafydd ab Hugh (1999) – BR00020 (2001) – 🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the first of a 3-book series dealing with a time when Bajor takes over the station for a trial period of 60 days. Kai Winn is in command, and her past is revealed through a series of flashbacks to the Occupation and her actions to help the resistance. Worf, Sisko, O’Brien, Quark and Odo are stranded on a planet where all the citizens have advanced technology that has reduced them to a complete dependency relationship. Renegade Cardassians have invaded the planet and have no trouble picking off the inhabitants — all they have to do is cut the power to the technology. Dax and Bashir are also on the planet in a different environment.

What I Liked

Dax and Bashir’s trials and tribulations aren’t bad and there is an interesting interplay with some cadets.

What I Didn’t Like

Kai Winn’s character comes off far too “mature” for the period, and belies the changes when she actually reached power. Major Kira’s character is barely fleshed out, and mostly appears as a caricature of the real character on the series. None of the four stranded characters are worth reading about here, and are pale imitations of the real characters on the series.

The Bottom Line

Not bad but not great.