Tag Archives: book review

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.

Perilous Relations by Carole Epstein (1997) – BR00019 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

Barbara Simons, retired airline exec, has purchased a ride-along-with-the-police-for-a-night in an auction, and this is her night — after several hours of boredom, the police respond to a murder scene. By happenstance, it is someone that she knows: a former exec of the same airline has been murdered. Ever inquisitive, Barbara comforts the widow, talks to the deceased’s sister, goes to the wake and then to the funeral.

What I Liked

There are several elements in this book that make the story fly along faster than the previous book in the series (Perilous Friends). There are fewer sub-stories distracting from the main plot, and the streamlining makes for a more coherent story. The writing itself is better as well, and the new characters are fleshed out where appropriate. Most importantly, there is the reintroduction of romantic options for Barbara in terms of the handsome cop Greg, as well as a not-yet-defined relationship with a new male sidekick.

What I Didn’t Like

There isn’t anything big that I didn’t like in this book, just a couple of small things. First, the relationship-cliffhanger from the end of the last book is not a major part of this book, and is instead left sitting there in limbo for a good portion of this book (until pg. 121). One of the reasons I tracked this book down was the ending of the last book — I didn’t like the cliff-hanger aspect, but I had to know what happened (normally, my To-Be-Read pile is so big that I never take the time to search for a specific book). But her out-of-town BF had been coming to visit her in the last book for what she thought was going to be a big weekend with some important announcement or question, and I expected some sort of resolution here. It doesn’t happen. For this book, the ending is a little weaker than the rest of the story, and it all comes together a little too quickly for my tastes, but it is handled rather well except for a small problem of logistics in terms of the bad guy transporting a gun around Montreal (can’t say any more than that without giving away the ending). A little unrealistic, but not enough to affect the rating.

Disclosure

I was not personal friends with the author, but I did interact with her briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Best in the series.

Dying To Get Even by Judy Fitzwater (1999) – BR00017 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

Jennifer Marsh is back with her reporter boyfriend. This time, her elder friend Emmie Walker is in trouble: Jennifer finds her standing next to the dead body of Edgar Walker, with the murder weapon in her hand.

What I Liked

The rambling around by all of the characters is great. As usual, Jennifer’s writing group throw themselves in to help her investigate all the goings-on at Edgar’s Down Home Grill, complete with a special sauce that may be to-die-for.

What I Didn’t Like

The storyline jumps around a bit in time at the start. It might have read a lot better in normal linear fashion rather than the resulting stilted jumping. It’s only the first few chapters though, so it doesn’t overly hurt the story.

Disclosure

I am not personal friends with the author, but I have interacted with them briefly on social media.

The Bottom Line

Even better than the first in the series.