31 BOND STREET (Ellen Horan)

Horan manages to combine all of the elements of a good mystery with excellent historical detail.  In January,1857 Dr. Harvey Burdell is found dead in his room, his throat slashed from side to side and his torso riddled with stab wounds.  His housekeeper / fiancé, Emma Cunningham, is the prime suspect and, despite lack of any solid evidence, she is arrested for the crime.  Attorney Henry Clinton, at the cost of his successful law practice, agrees to take the case and defend Emma, whom he believes to be innocent of the crime.

What sets Horan's novel apart from your typical mystery is the texture.  She skillfully weaves together several storylines, all related to the murder, in such a way that the reader, although privy to knowledge and motives that Clinton and Cunningham are not, is still in the dark about how the crime was committed until the very end.  The historical details are wonderful.  The legal system in pre-Civil War New York is frightening, but Henry Clinton, based on a real person, rivals the best fictional attorneys with his dedication and willingness to possibly ruin his career in his quest for justice.  Everything in this novel is fascinating because, despite the passing of 150 years, the role of the media, human nature, and the greed that drives humans to abuse and kill are all the same now as they were back then.  I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good historical or an intriguing mystery, or both!

HEARTS ON A STRING (Kris Radish)

Hearts on a String is  novel of sisterhood.  Five disparate, troubled women meet by chance in a Tampa airport restroom  and end up sharing a luxury hotel room when all flights are cancelled due to a giant storm.  As far as female bonding goes, I would recommend some of the others books that I have read, like Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons (Lorna Landvik),  before this particular novel.  It was not bad by any means, but something was off for me.  That doesn't mean that you as a reader would feel the same.  Holly (a shy hairdresser with psychic tendencies), Nan (a troubled business woman with a foundering marriage), Cathy (a sexy exceutive), Patti (a lounge singer), and Margo (a nurturing mother) are all unique and interesting characters, but they are a little too glib and their situation seems a little forced, not quite comfortable or natural.  I could be that Radish manages expertly to communicate the stress and anxiety of the women's situation through her writing, but I think I would rather watch the story unfold from the sidelines rather than feeling the angst of the characters so closely.  There are some interesting surprises as the secrets and problems of the women are revealed and the book did hold my interest.  I just had trouble feeling love for this book.

PATTERNS IN THE SAND (Sally Goldenbaum)

Knitting fiction is very popular nowadays and reading a knitting mystery is a fun way to spend a relaxing summer evening.  Patterns in the Sand is set in an art colony in Sea Harbor, MA.  The mystery action begins when fiber artist Willow Adams is found in the display window of Izzy Chambers' knitting shop, not dead, but asleep! When popular artist Aiden Peabody is poisoned Willow is a suspect, especially when it is discovered that she is the sole beneficiary of his will.  When yet another suspicious death occurs Izzy and her knitting group are determined to discover what's going on.  Goldenbaum does an excellent job of interspersing clues and suspects throughout the story without giving away the plot and several surprises in the latter part of the book make this a mystery worth reading.  This is the second in a series.

ROSES (Leila Meacham)

Roses is an old-fashioned family saga covering more than a century in the lives of the Toliver, Wawruck, and DuMont familes of Howbutker, Texas.  The younger sons of these three wealthy and prominent eastern families make their way west to seek their fortunes during the 1800's, eventually deciding to settle on an area of land that came to be know as Howbutker, a variation of "how about here?"  All decide to continue in the tradition of their families back home, establishing successful businesses in Howbutker:  the Tolivers in cotton, the Wawrucks in lumber, and the DuMonts in retail.  By the early 20th century the familes are firmly established as leaders of commerce and society in Texas.  The focus of this saga is on Mary Toliver, the love of her life, Percy Wawruck, and sweet, patient Ollie DuMont, who also loves Mary.  As in every family saga worth its salt, bad choices are made, love goes awry, tragedies strike, and history repeats itself over and over again.

Although I enjoyed Roses, I did not find it to be a satisfying read.  How can a love be true when it is so carelessly thrown aside for a greater love, the land?  I guess in some respects you could compare Meacham's saga to Edna Ferber's Giant or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, but Mary is much more capable and independent than Scarlett and should have know better, been able to foresee the consequences of her actions.  They do share the ability to use men to further their own ambitions and I guess this trait is what turned me off to the novel as a whole.  I would say go ahead and read it if you like family sagas.  This one has all of the elements necessary to a good saga.  I just couldn't get over the poor decisions, but without them I guess there would not have been a story!

SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (Alan Bradley)

Everyone has favorites that they return to over and over again: the restaurant with the best burgers ever, that song that reminds them of the senior prom, or the author that keeps getting better and better with each new novel.  Every once in a while something new and different comes along, something that unexpectedly appeals to your sense of whimsey or makes you look at life a bit differently, and you find yourself falling in love yet again! 

Chances are that an 11-year-old girl detective with a rich fantasy life and a brain for chemistry sounds like a great reading choice for a middle-schooler, but not for a fully developed adult bibliophile.  Wrong!  Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce is wonderful!  In her dealings with her two obnoxious older sisters, boy-obsessed Ophelia and bookish Daphne, she is self-possessed and wildly imaginitive.  For example, in her fully equipped chemistry lab, once the domain of great uncle Tar, she infuses Ophelia's favorite lipstick with poison ivy then waits patiently for symptoms to manifest themselves.  How many of us with sisters wish we had the skill and gumption to have done something like this?

When Flavia discovers a nearly-dead man in the family cucumber patch, the Latin word "vale" whispered in his dying breath, she embarks on her first murder investigation.  Her widowed father, a philatelist and acquaintence of the victim, is the prime suspect, and Flavia uses every resource at her disposal to solve the crime, displaying powers of deduction, scientific knowledge, and attention to detail rivaling those of the great Sherlock Holmes.  There are no "boring" interludes in this wonderful mystery;  it will hold your interest from beginning to end.  I am looking forward to reading the next installment very soon!

KNIT, PURL, DIE (Anne Canadeo)

The Black Sheep knitters are at it again!  Maggie Messina, owner of the Black Sheep knitting shop, has invited old friend Gloria Sterling, a wealthy, fifty-something beauty recently married to a much younger man, to join the knitting group that includes graphic artist Lucy, realtor Suzanne, psychologist Dana, and student Phoebe.  The women are delighted to see Gloria's newfound marital bliss with Jamie Barnett, a struggling artist who is completely besotted with his bride.  The group is nearly as devastated as Jamie when Gloria drowns  in her swimming pool one night while Jamie is in Bosoton arranging a gallery showing of his artwork.  The police believe that Gloria's death was an accident, the sad result of too many painkillers and too much wine.  The Black Sheep knitters are not convinced.  To whom did the second wine glass found by Suzanne belong?  Why did Gloria sound so upbeat on the phone just before her death if she was despondent?  Why was her favorite deck chair on the other side of the pool when she died?  What about her real estate holdings?  Read this charming cozy and find out!