MR. TEA AND THE TRAVELING TEACUP (Leslie Matthews Stansfield)

Two thumbs up to author Leslie!  I understand that Leslie has a deal for at least a couple of more of these Madeline's Tea House mysteries, and I am looking forward to the next installment.  This is her first foray into mysteries (her last published work, I believe, was an Images of America book on Windsor Locks, where we both live), and while I could suggest a couple of small refinements (fewer references to flatulence, perhaps!), I thought that overall the novel was well worth reading, the characters appealing, and the story well thought out.

The Sutter sisters, Terry, a forty-year-old single art teacher, and Karen, a recently divorced accountant, have moved back to their childhood home in Maine after the death of their mother, Madeline.  Mom's sister Rose, and her husband, Uncle Henry, are energetic, nurturing septuagenarians who happen to live next door, as do the Dindles, a mother and daughter who are old friends of the Sutter family.  The sisters have transformed the house into a charming tea room that has become very popular in the community.  The mystery here revolves not around a recent murder, but rather mysterious poltergeist-like occurrences in the tea room that might be connected to the years-ago shooting death of the dysfunctional son of a prominent family, the mysterious disappearance of two elderly sisters, or a series of unsolved bank robberies in Connecticut.  When tea cups start flying off the shelf in the middle of the night, Terry and Karen are, to say the least, freaked out.  With the help of friends (especially police officer Greg, Terry's high school crush), the sisters try to get to the bottom of what is happening in their tea house.  Along the way they acquire an intriguingly perceptive macaw named Mr. Tea, who is reputed to be psychic.  I have to admit that I was not looking forward to the macaw when I first came across this book, but Mr. Tea turned out to be a wonderful and entertaining addition to the cast of characters.  The ending was, perhaps, a bit too easy, but overall I really enjoyed Mr. Tea and the Traveling Teacup and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, light mystery.  When the characters stay with you after you have read the last page and you want to know more about what happens to them, you know that it was a book worth reading.  I can't wait for the further adventures of Terry, Karen, and Mr. Tea!

ANOTHER WOMAN (Penny Vincenzi)

Most of the action in Vincenzi's 1994 novel takes place over the course of 24 hours, revealing all sorts of intriguing liasons and family secrets along the way.  The story opens on beautiful Cressida Forrest's much anticipated wedding day.  She is seemingly looking forward to her marriage to Oliver Bergin, a handsome young doctor from a very wealthy and controlling family, but as the big day dawns her sister Harriet discovers that Cressida has mysteriously disappeared, taking her wedding dress with her and apparently leaving no clue as to her intentions.  What I found most interesting about "Another Woman" is the layer upon layer of intertwined relationships, infidelities, and disfunctions among the various characters that are slowly exposed as the search for Cressida progresses.  These families have some really BIG issues!

I did have a problem keeping track of all of the characters most of the way through the novel, so I would recommend making some notes at the start.  Gynecologist James Forrest and his uninteresting wife, Maggie, are parents to twenty-something Harriet, a successful clothing designer on the verge of bankruptcy, and bride Cressida, the golden girl who is loved by everyone for her goodness and beauty.  Alistair and his wife Susie, who is also James' true love and longtime paramour, are the parents of 4 children, including Rufus, who bears a noticable resemblance to James.  Susie is currently going through a health-related crisis and Rufus is in love with super model Ottoline Mills, who shares a hidden connection with James.  Mungo, friend to Rufus and Oliver, is the son of James' best friend Theo, a five-times married millionaire (his current wife is called Sasha) with close connections to both Harriet and Cressida.  Mungo is in love with an older single mother named Alice.  Merlin is a quirky octogenarian, a close family friend who has travled the world, sometimes taking young Harriet on his exotic adventures.  Janine is French and is a close family friend, Cressida's goddmother, and an investor in Harriet's failing business.  I think that covers most of the major characters!

"Another Woman" will definitely hold your interest from beginning to end (509 pages!) as the web of secrets surrounding James' and Susie's families begins to unravel.  The end is not unsatisfying, but, honestly, Vincenzi could have kept on writing a bit more.  I'd love find out what happens to the younger generation.  I would also like to know more definitively what the title means.  I believe that it refers to Cressida and the fact that she is not what she appears to be.  She is, in fact, a completely different woman from what everyone who knew her believed her to be.

MAIGRET AND THE FORTUNETELLER (George Simenon)

I understand the appeal of Maigret.  He is very like Brunetti and Gamache, with a touch of Adrian Monk thrown in: intuitive, detail-oriented, and not afraid to flout authority if need be.  He is happily married to an understanding woman and works for and with people who sometimes tend to get in the way of the investigation rather than furthering it.

I had a very difficult time following the characters in this novel, partly because there were so very many of them and partly because I spent a lot of time wondering how to pronounce things (it's Meh-Gray, by the way), like "Le Cloaguen."  Because this novel was published in 1944 the modern reader is treated to a glimpse of the life and values of the past, including public pay phones, psychiatrists who make house calls to evaluate the sanity of murder suspects, and young women who do not live with older, adoptive brothers because it is not considered proper.  As for the mystery, the murder of a fortune teller while a man is mysteriously locked in the next room with no key, it is intriguing and the eventual solution makes sense.  I think that familiarity with the series would have made reading this one a bit more enjoyable!

EVERY SECRET THING (Susanna Kearsley)

I'm actually reading this one on my Nook.  I really prefer paper books with real pages though, because the Nook makes me feel too removed from the story, for some reason, plus every time I went back to the story it was on the wrong page!  Since this particular book was not available in print in the United States, however, I'm glad to have had the opportunity to acquire it electronically.

As usual, Kearsley melds the past and the present into an intriguing story, this one a thriller.  The main character, Katie Murray, is a Canadian reporter on assignment at a trial in London.  She is approached on the street by Arthur Deacon, an elderly man who has a story to tell her and comments mysteriously that she has her grandmother's eyes.  Just after their meeting Arthur is run down in the street and killed, and on her return home to Canada, Katie talks to her grandmother, Amelia (known as Georgie) about the encounter with Arthur and discovers that he and Georgie share a mysterious past relationship. When her grandmother is shot sniper-style in her home Katie narrowly escapes injury herself and begins to realize that someone doesn't want the secrets of the past revealed and is willing to go to any length, even murder, to prevent that happening.  So begins Katie's nightmare of trying to elude potential killers while working to discover who she can trust and what secrets are driving her pursuers.  Kearsley takes us from Canada to Portugal to England, and back again, alternating between the present and World War II, giving us an inside look into British and American intelligence activities during the war.  This one will make your heart beat faster with every page!  If you have a Kindle or Nook, consider this one!

CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN (Jeanne Ray)

Jeanne Ray has written a book that should be required reading for women around the world.  Calling Invisible Women will resonate loudly with almost any woman, from shy teenage girls and distracted young mothers to devoted wives and retired career women.  Nearly all of us, even those of us with happy relationships and fulfilling careers, know what it feels like to be invisible, to be minimized, to have our most loving and caring actions taken for granted and our needs overlooked time and time again because we are always there to clean up the mess and catch our loved ones if they happen to fall.

Clovis Hobart is shocked to wake up one day invisible and shocked even more when she realizes that her family doesn't notice.  She continues to cook breakfast and take care of the dry cleaning, discovering that no one takes the time to REALLY look at her.  After scaring the wits out of her best (and visible) friend, Gilda, who DOES notice that she is gone, Clovis makes an appointment with her doctor to discuss her condition and is shocked when even HE doesn't notice that he is examining an invisible woman.  When she finds a notice in the paper about a support group for invisible women she joins and discovers that she is not alone and that her invisibility is probably the result of interactions between 3 drugs sold by Dexter-White, a major drug manufacturer that refuses to acknowledge a problem with their best-selling medications.  Clovis also discovers that invisibility can be both fun and rewarding as she sheds her clothing and embarks on a series of both small and super-hero-like adventures in the name of improving  the world.

Clovis is lucky.  She has supportive friends, a husband and family who truly love her, and the imagination and drive to make the most of her "condition."  This novel is both hilarious and heartbreaking.  I wish I could say what Hilma Wolitzer says about it, but she already has, so I'll just quote her:" Jeanne Ray is truly wise and funny about family, friendship, and love--about the ways in which we see (and don't see) each other."  I agree completely.  I identified with this book and I think that most of the women I know would, too!

SISTERS (Patricia MacDonald)

If you are looking for a good, traditional (i.e. no vampires, extreme gore, or high-tech effects) suspense novel with a touch of romance, stop right here!  Patricia MacDonald has been one of my favorite authors for a few years and I am never disappointed.  In Sisters the author introduces us to Alex Woods, a young woman returning to the Boston area to prepare her childhood home for sale after the untimely death of her parents in an auto accident.  Alex is shocked to learn from her mother's lawyer (via a letter to be given to her in the event of her mother's death) that she has an older half-sister, most probably the result of a doomed high school romance between her mother, Cathy, and a boy she was tutoring.  The baby was given up for adoption by Alex's mother long before her parents met and no one, apparently not even Cathy's brother Brian or her husband, Alex's father, knew about the baby.  Alex decides to look for her sibling despite the closed adoption records and is rewarded with the news that her sister, Dory Colson, is alive and currently serving 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the brutal murder of her sister Lauren, the natural daughter of her adoptive parents.  When Alex, after much soul-searching, finally arranges to meet her half-sister, she begins to wonder about Dory's conviction and discovers that her interest in seeking the truth is NOT welcomed by Dory's family despite evidence that Dory may have been coerced into a guilty plea.

It took me 2 days to read Sisters.   At just 216 pages, it's a great weekend book and I would recommend it highly.  Check out Patricia MacDonald's other novels as well.  You'll love them!