Tag Archives: library

Shadowland by Jenny Carroll (2000) – BR00030 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 7 2004

Plot or Premise

Susannah is a mediator, a la the Sixth Sense, helping ghosts resolve their earthly problems so they can depart. She lived a life of school problems and adventure in New York, hung out with her visiting dead father’s ghost, and got in trouble with the law. Then Mom married a guy from California and they moved in with the new family — a new stepdad and three new stepbrothers. And her first day of school? She finds out that her school’s principal, a priest, is also a mediator. She’s not alone! Ever!

What I Liked

The introduction of a character who can physically interact with ghosts is great, and the introduction of Susannah to the ghost Jesse who has been haunting her new bedroom for the last 150 years is actually funny. There are lots of humourous bits as she moves into the new school and meets the resident bully — a rejected popular girl who committed suicide over a boy and who now wants to exact revenge on him.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the clichés used around the vengeful ghost are a bit much and the constant injuries to various people while the mediator skates through uninjured are rather exaggerated.

The Bottom Line

She sees dead people.

Note: Also published under the title I Love You To Death.

Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy (1984) – BR00039 (2003) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 9 2003

Plot or Premise

John Cuddy is asked by a grandmother to investigate the disappearance of her grandson, a prominent judge’s son…even though the judge doesn’t seem to want people looking for the boy. Cuddy goes looking anyway, even when a corrupt Sheriff tries to direct him away rather forcefully.

What I Liked

A huge cast of characters, with a couple of the series regulars just beginning to be fleshed out a little.

What I Didn’t Like

A few of the characters were one-dimensional, fifth business to the storyline – only there to pass along a vital clue, and it was usually pretty obvious that the author was trying to slip it by, since Cuddy himself doesn’t catch it.

The Bottom Line

A great story.

So Like Sleep by Jeremiah Healy (1987) – BR00038 (2003) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
October 9 2003

Plot or Premise

John Cuddy gets asked by a friend to look into what appears to be an open-and-shut case — a young impoverished black man tries to get ahead at university, dates a white co-ed, and then after she turns up dead, he confesses to the crime while holding the murder weapon. Everyone thinks he’s guilty, including him. But Cuddy finds a strange group of people involved — a whacked psychiatrist with strange ideas, an elderly fitness nut, a sports fan, seductive patients, and sundry lovers.

What I Liked

The main people were all well-characterized, although a few of them were a bit one-dimensional. Cuddy does a good job of detecting, pulling at a variety of strings until they unravel. Good backstories for some of the other series’ characters.

What I Didn’t Like

Some old characters show up, kind of predictable.

The Bottom Line

You’ll stay up late if you start reading this.

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.

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.