Tag Archives: paperback

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.

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.

The Black Shore by Greg Cox (1997) – BR00011 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
February 18 2001

Plot or Premise

Janeway and her crew are in desperate need of shore leave…and they receive an invitation from an uncharted planet to visit and enjoy the paradise nature of the lands. All is not necessarily as it seems, including the citizens’ treatment of their pets, the Neffaler, which seem surprisingly intelligent, almost sentient.

What I Liked

Good descriptive prose, with lots of little sub-stories — Kes’ pre-occupation and disturbing telepathic forces, Paris’ involvement with the daughter of the leader, and Torres’ desire to find the source of some dilithium signatures.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-stories don’t come together as well as they could, so the overall story is long and rather confusing at times. Many of the characters seem “off” from their TV version, perhaps reflecting the author’s preoccupation with the characters’ lives early in the series’ history. Lots of descriptions are heavy on the visual, which would be impressive if it was a TV episode rather than a book, but it doesn’t work as well here. The ending is rather fragmented, focusing on three different groups’ actions at the same time.

The Bottom Line

Would have worked better as an episode than a book.