Category Archives: Lilypad Reviews

An umbrella parent for all the lilypad reviews.

McNally’s Caper by Lawrence Sanders (1994) – BR00295 (R2026) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 21 2026

Plot or Premise

Griswold Forsythe wants to know who is stealing valuables from around the family house.

What I Liked

Officially, Archy is there to catalog the books for insurance purposes. His real purpose — to catch a thief — is hidden. After you eliminate Griswold as a suspect, you have his wife Constance, daughter Geraldine, son and wife and granddaughter, a housekeeper, the housekeeper’s son, two maids, a chef, and a gardener. The fun is in finding out that each of them has at least one secret, sometimes several. The simple theft seems easy enough to solve, and then the stakes get raised with Griswold’s death. Was it the investigation into the thefts? Or something else…like money?

What I Didn’t Like

There is a mystery with a former polo player, some odd interactions within the family after a falling out, without much clear explanation of why the person is still around at first, and then even when revealed, it’s rather convoluted. The solution wasn’t particularly creative or interesting.

The Bottom Line

I would rather read some of the books he was cataloging

Newbie Werewolf by Sue Denver (2022) – BR00294 (R2026) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 20 2026

Plot or Premise

Sara Flores is living off the grid after a divorce, and gets to know an Indigenous neighbour who teaches her about wilderness and remote living. He seems like a pretty good friend until he performs a ritual one night as he’s dying and turns her into a werewolf without any warning or information.

What I Liked

The collection of eight shortstories gives the backstory of how Sara actually became a werewolf (no, she wasn’t bitten) and started figuring out how to use her newfound “gift” to help others.

I really liked “The Too-Smart Kid” who tried to get a job with some people who worked at a factory, only to accidentally trip over a drug operation. The “Werewolf at the Zoo” added some decent mythology to the story, with her communicating with a wolf. Similarly, “Werewolf Seeks Lupiti Wisdom” showed some of the backstory for the original werewolf and his links to his tribe.

The short novella, “Curiosity Kills”, was relatively fully fleshed out and had all the elements for a more fulsome story (her being “hired”, her getting involved, and her solving the case aggressively).

What I Didn’t Like

I felt the first story, “What Are Friends For”, was good but way too short. I would have liked to know more about her and Joe before the “hey-now-you’re-a-werewolf” moment, without those actual words telling her anything. But “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” (running in the woods) and Choices (psycho friend of a friend) are not even really stories, just short vignettes with some extra exposition. Finally, there is a pretty good basis for a longer story in “Why I Need To Stay Away from Texas”, but it ends really abruptly and very oddly, where she suddenly has almost ninja / special forces abilities, but continues to talk about her not having any actual training. It didn’t quite work for me.

The Bottom Line

A decent premise and a good origin story

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017) – BR00293 (R2026) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
January 18 2026

Plot or Premise

A security android has secretly hacked its governance module and is now autonomous. It continues to follow orders as if it is still being controlled by humans, while spending a lot of time bingeing serial entertainment (like episodes of TV space shows).

What I Liked

I had streamed the first season online, and so I had more of a sense of the characters than if I were starting to read cold. The story is much more streamlined here, which makes it fly along, and not too long. You still see the important interactions with the leader, the other SecUnits, and the ending.

What I Didn’t Like

Obviously, a multi-episode season can go far more into the various characters beyond the leader and the Murderbot itself, and so it did feel like it was a bit short in places. But other places where the show adds padding, the novella/short novel flies along better. There is very little about his previous experiences or his memory issues that are raised in the book, so you don’t get a sense of what he did before.

The Bottom Line

Fast-paced and a fast read

The Dying Hour by Rick Mofina (2005) – BR00292 (R2026) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 14 2026

Plot or Premise

A college student drives off suddenly into the night, never to be seen again, while her car is found abandoned at the side of the road. Did she meet someone? Walk off into the woods? Commit suicide?

What I Liked

The main part is Jason Wade, a reporter who starts to link her disappearance to a broader storyline and a psycho who preys on women. The story jumps around a bit, with him as a newbie reporter trying to win a coveted full reporter job, and it backfires on him. Then he pursues it further, at potential further cost to him.

What I Didn’t Like

There are a couple of “complications” as plot devices that don’t work for me. The boyfriend has some info that he holds back that would help improve the search, or at least inform the search, and while the reasons are explained, they’re not very believable. And the ending is a bit stretched with poor cell service and heroic efforts by individuals. Didn’t really work for me.

The Bottom Line

Only mildly thriller-ish

McNally’s Risk by Lawrence Sanders (1993) – BR00291 (R2026) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
January 13 2026

Plot or Premise

Archy is tasked with checking out a potential bride of a rich woman’s son. The beautiful and potential bride lives in a rented condo with her father, and not many know much about her other than her name: Theodosia.

What I Liked

Like all of Archy’s cases, what starts off simple frequently becomes more complicated. In this case, we have a confused relationship with the father, some lies that might lead to potential cons or swindles, strange backstories that are hard to confirm, and just for fun, several bodies that drop. Starting with people who seem to have run afoul or shown too much interest in Theo or her father. But they aren’t the only suspects, which is a good set of herrings to consider.

What I Didn’t Like

There’s a sub-plot with potential blackmail and Archy seems a little slow on the uptake for some of the potential cons. What is obvious to the reader takes Archy far too long to figure out, and no one else in the entire set of societal encounters notices either, yet the con isn’t that good. I liked the story, but the setup was relatively obvious from the first introduction.

The Bottom Line

Good plot with a couple of slow spots