A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny- Amazing Read!!!!

When Armand Gamache accepts the position as the new head of the training academy for the Sûreté du Québec , he has to decide who will be accepted into the new class of cadets. He agonizes over one applicant that the prior head had denied. This tattooed, pierced, and surly young lady has a connection to Gamache that she is unaware of.

While in Three Pines, Gamache becomes aware of an old map found in the walls of Gabi and Olivier‘s building that shows topographical information but also has symbols like a pyramid, a cow, and three pine trees.  The map is an oddity because Three Pines is not found on any other paper maps or even with a GPS.  So why was this map made?

At the academy, Gamache fires several teachers, keeps one who is definitely his enemy, and hires the man who betrayed him and all of his officers while in charge of the Sûreté. At the same time, he gives four cadets copies of the map and asks them to investigate it and discover the secrets behind it. One of the cadets is Amelia Choquet, the cadet that Gamache was conflicted about.

What I really enjoyed about this book is the way it addresses one of the loose ends from the big blow up in the Sûreté  in previous books.  The cadet Academy is the last piece of a nasty puzzle that had pieces all over the service and was poisoning it from the inside. By rooting out the poison at the beginning of all of the officer’s careers, Gamache is making a change in the entire force while finally rooting out the last of the bad eggs. When one of the bad eggs is murdered, Gamache has to work even harder to clean up the other baddies while solving the murder.

I also enjoyed the intertwining of the Three Pines map with the Academy goings on.  Introducing the new cadets but pairing them with older characters makes for an interesting blend of old and new. As always the quirky villagers add a touch of humor to a serious mystery but they are also part of a sad history that unfolds as the map’s origin gets uncovered.

Ms. Penny’s books are just so wonderful to read. I found myself reading this one until 2:30AM on a work night because I just could not stop reading it! There are so many little twists and turns but also familiar characters to revisit and new ones to wonder about.  This book is a wonderful mix of mystery, police procedural, and a down home with the family kind of vibe. 

The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot- One of my favorite series!

Another adventure in “the Death Dorm”!  Heather Wells, onetime pop princess, is now the head of Residential Services at Fischer Hall.  Fischer Hall has been the site of several murders and has acquired the nickname of “the Death Dorm”. Heather is juggling the arrangements for her long awaited wedding to Cooper Cartwright and the tribulations of coordinating the beginning of the school year at New York College. Students are usually running the other way trying not to get into Fischer. This year, Fischer is the dorm to be in this year because of the arrival of a Middle Eastern Crown Prince and that brings a whole other set of problems.  When a RA is found dead in her room, Heather finds herself in the middle of another murder case.

One of the things I love about this series is the sassy attitude Heather has about her job and the upper administration of the college.  Her coworkers are pretty funny for the most part and Heather’s boss, Lisa, is going through a personal crisis in addition to the latest dead body discovery in the dorm. All of the shenanigans pulled by Cooper’s twin sisters to make the wedding fun for Heather add to the mayhem and pluck Heather’s last nerve. I enjoy the give and take between Heather and Cooper and how he is able to keep her calm and focused on their wedding. His character is just such a nice influence but Cooper can be a toughie when needed- usually to defend Heather.

There are all kinds of subplots winding through this latest books and a few red herrings to keep it interesting. Readers of the entire series will enjoy this book and the culmination of Heather and Cooper’s romance.  Newer readers will find enough back story to enjoy the book without feeling lost.  I am looking forward to Heather and Cooper’s future adventures!

The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny

No outsiders are ever admitted to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. They grow vegetables, they tend chickens, they make chocolate. And they sing. Ironically, for a community that has taken a vow of silence, the monks have become world-famous for their glorious voices, raised in ancient chants whose effect on both singer and listener is so profound it is known as “the beautiful mystery.”

But when the renowned choir director is murdered, the lock on the monastery’s massive wooden door is drawn back to admit Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec. There they discover disquiet beneath the silence, discord in the apparent harmony. One of the brothers, in this life of prayer and contemplation, has been contemplating murder. As the peace of the monastery crumbles, Gamache is forced to confront some of his own demons, as well as those roaming the remote corridors. Before finding the killer, before restoring peace, the Chief must first consider the divine, the human, and the cracks in between.  ( synopis from www.louisepenny.com)

Publication date 8/28/12  Hardcover, Minotaur, 373 pages

If I could rate this book 10 stars I would. When I finished the last page, all I could think was that I can’t wait for another year to see what happens with the story.  When I first started reading the book and realized that it all takes place in a monastery with no Three Pines interaction, I wondered how the emotional pull in all of Ms. Penny’s books, would happen in this book.  No worries on that score!

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his second in command Jean-Guy Beauvior have been sent to the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups to investigate the murder of one of the monks.  The monastery is a closed one and the monks follow the vow of silence.  Hundreds of years before the monks fled France and the Inquisition and had supposedly disappeared as an order.  Two years prior to the murder, the monks had released a recording of them singing Gregorian chants and “blown their cover”.  No-one is allowed into the monastery and the resultant fame from the recording has caused dissention among the monks.  Gamache and Beauvior have to work through the stories of the men living in a closed environment and find the truth about the murder.  The isolation of the location and the certainty that the murderer is one of the monks adds to the eeriness of the situation.

The recurring theme of the book seems to me to be that the men who have come to live there regard it as their own slice of Eden.  They live for love of their God and the music.  They lead simple but fulfilled lives and the music recording meant to raise money for repairs and to maintain their way of life has actually introduced the serpent in the garden.  Gamache and Beauvior find a group living in harmony with a common bond but they  also find the cracks and need to find out what was the issue that led one of the monks to kill.  There is also an overlapping theme about the nature of the chants and the history of written music as it relates to Gregorian chants that is quite interesting.

Gamache and Beauvior have put the trauma of two years before behind them and are seemingly in a good place. Beauvior has become free of his addiction to pain killers and is secretly dating Gamache’s daughter Annie.  He is happy with his life. Gamache still carries the physical and emotional scars from that time as well  but he has made a sort of peace with it.  The two men are forced to re-evaluate their feelings when their own personal serpent arrives at the monastery and begins to spread his poison.  The ending of the book is heart wrenching and will leave the reader hungry for the next installment in the series.  Ms. Penny does a wonderful job of putting the reader into the minds of the characters so that their hurts become our hurts and we really care about what happens next. 

No Way to Kill a Lady (Blackbird Sisters # 8) by Nancy Martin

Nora Blackbird, the Bucks County ex-debutante with a haute couture wardrobe, a hot job as a glamorous society columnist and a stone cold bank account, might finally have her own life just right, but everyone around her is going down in flames. Her sister Libby seems destined to be the lead character in a tabloid sex scandal.  Her sister Emma is expecting a mysterious love child.  Her best friend, Lexie Paine, is serving time in the slammer.  And now her mobbed-up boyfriend, Mick Abruzzo—who might actually be her husband—is conducting clandestine capers from Blackbird Farm while under house arrest. What’s a good girl to do? 

Find a killer, that’s what!  Word arrives that the sisters’ great aunt, Madeleine Blackbird, has died in a volcanic eruption on an Indonesian island and left her fabulous country estate, worth millions, to the three of them.  But when the Blackbird sisters show up to claim their windfall, they find the house in a state of disheartening decay and all of Madeleine’s to-die-for treasures gone. Worse, the mansion has been hiding a grisly secret: the body of a woman who died there many years ago.  All the evidence points to a high society murder... ( Synopsis from B&N.com)

Hardcover, Penguin Books, 310 pages  Release date:8/7/12

In Nancy Martin’s long awaited eighth book in the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries, it looks like things are looking up for the sisters. Forced to live in genteel poverty since their parents absconded with their trust funds, news that they inherited their Aunt Madeleine’s estate seems the answer to their prayers. Life is complicated for the sister, Nora’s lover, Michael, is in jail, Emma is pregnant with no chance of marrying the father and Libby is ….well, Libby.

When they get to the site of the mansion, they discover that the house is a wreck, all of the valuables are missing and to top it off, they find skeletal remains in the elevator. Add to the mix a smarmy cousin, Sutherland, who might contest the will, and it’s obvious that this is not going to be the answer to the sister’s problems. There is some good news, Michael is released to the Blackbird farm on supervised home release but that means his thuggish entourage also will be on the premises. Michael has another surprise for her, but it’s a big surprise for him as well.

Nora works on finding out what happened to her aunt, clearing her aunt’s name after salacious rumors surface, and finding out what happened to all of the pilfered items from the house. Nora uses her job as a society columnist to get information about her aunt’s history and finding out who would have had access to the estate. Her aunt’s lecherous lawyer seems pretty suspicious and there are a few society matrons who were very jealous of Aunt Madeleine and would have been happy to see her gone.

I have always enjoyed this series because of all the different threads that run through every story. I love the insider look at mainline society and the descriptions of the vintage outfits Nora wears to events. The contrast between that life and the mob family connections of Michael’s has led to  problems in the relationship in the past but in this book they seem to be on a pretty even keel. Emma’s pregnancy is stressing her out physically and mentally and the off/on relationship with the father does not help.  Libby is convinced her toddler son is destined for athletic superstardom and is still on the prowl for anything in pants. Nora has a full plate of craziness to deal with and Michael is her anchor even with his problems. They are perfect together even though their life is still unsettled.

If you have been a fan of this series, you will love this book. The biggest problem will be waiting for the next one to come!

Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she's managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash celebrating The Icove Agenda, a film based on one of her famous cases. It's a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director's luxury building. Now she's at the center of a crime scene-and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster and step into the role she was born to play: cop. ( Synopsis from B&N.com)

Hardcover, Penguin, 400 pages 

Celebrity in Death is the latest book in the Eve Dallas series and it is almost contemplative compared to some of the earlier books. Eve is the subject of a vid that is being made based on Nadine Furst’s book about the Icove case.  A dinner has been planned with the cast members and their real life counterparts to celebrate the near completion of the movie. As usual, Eve is grumpy about getting dressed up and having to attend a fancy social function. All of that changes when one of the actors ends up dead and Eve and Peabody have to solve the murder.

The victim, K.T. Harris, was disliked by everyone who worked with her and even had a tussle with Eve during the dinner. She was playing Peabody in the vid and her resemblance causes Eve and the rest of the NYPSD staff some moments of unease. AS they dig deeper into her life and death, they discover that K.T. had lots of secrets and was doing her best to disrupt the lives of her co-workers by various methods such as blackmail and coercion. It seems to Eve and Peabody that everyone has a motive and with the majority of the suspects being actors it is going to be difficult to really find out what happened.

This book has less of the action that earlier books had but more introspection into Eve and Roarke’s lives. Peabody and McNab have their special moments as well. Eve is moving on from the events that happened in Texas and coming to some measure of peace.  Roarke still worries about Eve but looks back on his life and realizes how much balance Eve brought to him. Their relationship just keeps getting stronger and more loving.  There are thirty four books in this series and they only cover a little over two years which adds to the continuity of Eve’s relationships both personal and work related.  The overlying theme of this book is about choices and how making a certain choice at a particular time has caused events to happen in each of the lives of the characters in the book. This is also the means that Eve uses to finally solve the murder-looking at choices made and how that person’s life was affected by them. It all ties together and makes this a satisfying addition to the series

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich or Stephanie's wild ride!

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.
 
Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.
 
Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii.  And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated. ( synopsis from Amazon.com)

Bantam books, Hardcover, 320 pages

Ah Stephanie, could your life get any more messed up!  Our intrepid heroine finds herself on a plane flying home from Hawaii all alone. She sits next to a noisy guy who misses the connection and disappears. Later, at her mother's she finds a photo that isn't hers and tosses it in the trash. Everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii and there is a lot of speculation about the stripe of white flesh on her tanned ring finger.

As usual, Stephanie finds herself in the middle of a big mess with little to no understanding of why.  She has lots of bad dudes, good dudes, bad dudes posing as good dudes and the like chasing her around Trenton.  She and Lula go after some interesting FTA's which leads to more confusion and trouble for Stephanie. Joyce Barnhart makes a significant appearance and continues to be a major fly in the ointment. A good part of this story we have seen before in other incarnations but it still works.

I have to admit I did not have any laugh out loud moments but I did find the suspense level was kicked up a bit to compensate.  The never ending question of Ranger vs Morelli continues but I think there are some definite leanings in this book. Ms. Evanovich is not completely back to the hilarious early books but this one is an improvement on the lackluster numbers 14-16 books. 

RPL Notes: This book will be available on November 22, 2011 in the Adult New book section. The audio version will also be available around that time

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

A woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.
And an elegant and powerful businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the magus at the center of the web.
V: Victim. Violence. Vengeance.   ( synopsis from B&N.com)

Penguin Group (USA), Hardcover , 400pp

V is for Vengeance starts off with the story of a young man who meets a bad end at the hands of a loan shark and his brother. The book then moves to the present day of the book (1988) and starts off with Kinsey Milhone witnessing a shoplifting incident with two women.  One gets caught and the other literally drives over Kinsey in the parking lot making her escape.  Two days later, the woman who was arrested ends up dead in the same spot as the young man in the beginning of the book.  Kinsey is hired by the man who was engaged to the dead woman to find out what really happened because he does not believe she committed suicide. Kinsey is soon involved in uncovering a ring of professional thieves, a police conspiracy, blackmail, and a man with interesting family connections known as “Dante”. All the while she has an obnoxious reporter dogging her investigation and causing trouble.

Also weaving through the book is the story of an unhappy wife named Nora, who realizes her husband is cheating and takes steps to protect herself.  In the course of covering her bases financially, she meets Dante and begins an unlikely relationship with him. There is an interesting twist in the book that involves both of these people and ties into the modern day activities.

One of the things I enjoy about this series is the fact that it is set in the 80’s. Kinsey has to rely on research, hard work, and legwork to get her job done.  She has no internet or cell phone to do work for her.   I love it when she needs to get to a pay phone to call someone when she is out working on a case or making a carbon copy of something.  I find myself thinking “If she only had a ………”

Kinsey is a solitary person who has very few real relationships in her life.  She can only rely on herself this book reinforces that fact.  Her ex-boyfriend Cheney is working with a cop who hates Kinsey so she feels cut off from one of her resources. Her neighbor and best friend Henry is gone to visit an ailing relative so Kinsey doesn’t have him to run things by. She works and lives alone with the occasional acquaintance that comes into her life.  Her solitary nature is a running theme through all 22 books in the series and I felt she was particularly alone in this book.  It is a common theme for a male detective to be a “loner” but not so common for female sleuths.  It is possible the lack of people distracting her contributes to her strong intuition about cases and her excellent observation skills.

This book has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader interested. The continuity of the story from earlier books makes it enjoyable for long time readers but it can be enjoyed by a new reader as well. I wonder what we will all do when Ms. Grafton reaches the end of the alphabet!

RPL NOTE: This book will be available after 11-14-2011 in the Adult New Books section.  The audiobook will be available later in the month.

Three Day Town by Margaret Maron-Great blend of 2 mystery series!

Judge Deborah Knott and Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant are on a train to New York, finally on a honeymoon after a year of marriage. January in New York might not be the perfect time to visit, but they'll take it. The trip is a Christmas present from Dwight's sister-in-law, who arranged for them to stay in an Upper West Side apartment for one week. While in New York, Deborah has been asked to deliver a package to Lt. Sigrid Harald of the NYPD. Sigrid offers to swing by the apartment to pick up the box, but when they reach the apartment, they discover that it is missing and the doorman has been murdered. Despite their best efforts to enjoy a blissful getaway, Deborah and Dwight soon find that they've teamed up with Sigrid and her team to catch the killer before he strikes again. ( summary from B&N.com)

Grand Central Publishing,  Hardcover , 288pp

Three Day Town is the latest in Margaret Maron’s Judge Deborah Knott series.  Deborah and Dwight, her husband of about one year, are finally getting away for a mini-honeymoon in NYC.  As part of the trip, they are bringing a parcel to be delivered to the daughter of one of their friends. They are staying in an apartment owned by the wife of one of Deborah’s relatives. The first night there, they attend a party next door and come home to the body of the building’s superintendent in the apartment.

Now, the story gets interesting! The investigating police officer is Lt. Sigrid Harald, the protagonist from an earlier Maron series.  Ms. Harald is an acerbic, somewhat humorless detective with a past tragedy in her life.  She is also the granddaughter of Deborah and Dwight’s elderly friend who asked them to deliver the parcel.  The contents of the parcel are somewhat shocking and may be connected to the murder.  There are all kinds of interesting characters woven throughout this story.  Well to do society types, art lovers and artists, service workers in the co-op, and New York’s finest all play a part in this mystery.

One of the interesting things about this book was seeing Deborah work away from her home base.  She and Dwight contribute to the solution but not with much cooperation from Ms. Harald.  The taciturn detective’s character becomes more likeable as we learn more about her, but she is the opposite of Deborah’s open, earthy personality. I have to say that I decided to go back and read the older series after reading this book. I asked the author if future Harald books were planned and she said no but that there would be appearances in future Knott books.

This book has plenty of suspense and the characters are well done.  One of Ms. Maron’s strengths is the believability of her characters.  They add to the story and don’t distract the reader with useless red herrings. As usual, the interplay between Dwight and Deborah is wonderfully romantic even in the midst of a murder. I have to say that I will be glad to see them back home in the next book. I just love the family dynamics and the southern ambiance in these books.  Can’t wait for the next book in the series!!

RPL Note: This book will not be available in Adult New Mysteries until November 21, 2011

This series just gets better and better!

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”
But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light.  Where nothing is as it seems.  Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart.  And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light. ( Overview from B&N.com)

I had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Penney at author talk recently, and she is just as wonderful to listen to as her books are to read. Her latest book is the seventh in a series set in Canada, primarily in Quebec and the fictional town of Three Pines.

One of the best things about her books is the extraordinary character development. The murder is always central to the plot but the interactions of the people involved in the situation are just as important. In this book, the people of Three Pines are like old friends involved in a messy situation. The murder rips open the scabs on relationships that have been damaged.  Some will re-heal and some appear to be beyond repair.  Ms. Penny gives just enough back story that first time readers will have an enjoyable read, but the long time reader will get the subtle nuances of the book.

Clara and Peter have always had a complicated relationship and I have always had a lot of antipathy towards Peter’s character. In this book, he is his usual jealous self but we see some of the history behind that and I felt some sympathy for him. Poor Clara finally has her own art show and then the body of her childhood “frenemy” turns up in her garden and takes all of the sparkle out of the occasion. Ruth, the town’s crusty poet, is her usual nasty self but in an almost loveable way in some instances. Chief Inspector Gamache and his second in command Jean-Guy Beauvior have made it through a terrible shared experience with their relationship intact. Or have they?

Every new book in this series is a treasure. This book continues in that manner. As a reader, I could not put the book down and when it was done, I was ready for the next one. Being obsessive about reading books in a series in order, I would recommend reading the earlier books, starting with Still Life. However, if that is not possible, a new reader would still find this a great book to read.

RPL Notes: This book is available in the Adult New fiction section.  We will also have the audio version in the near future.  All of the earlier books in the series can be found in Adult Mysteries,

Free Goodies from ALA (American Library Association) Conference Part 1

I went to the ALA conference in New Orleans the last week of June and had a wonderful time. We stayed in the French Quarter,  which is amazing-unfortunately the 96 degree weather (with humidity =110) curtailed too much exploring. The conference was great and I enjoyed sessions on grantwriting, ebooks, planning library programs, and seeing the latest in library technology. The real fun came when I attended two panel discussions with some of my favorite authors.

The first panel was called The New Miss Marples and was moderated by Jane Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott mysteries, which all revolve around an antique appraiser from New Hampshire.
Panel members were: Elaine Viets ( Dead End Job and Mystery Shoppers Series), Nancy Martin ( Blackbird Sisters and Roxie Abruzzo Series), Rosemary Harris ( Dirty Business Mysteries) and Rhys Bowen ( Molly Murphy and Constable Evans Series).  All of these are authors that I own all of their books. They had a great discussion on cozy vs. hardcore mysteries and talked about their different points of view with the series they write. They also lamented that fact that their publishers seem to want to push them into writing darker mysteries which is not their inclination. It was an interesting hour and a half. After the panel discussion, the author gave away hardcover copies of their newest books and autographed them. Lucky me, I had held off buying three of the four books since I knew I was coming to ALA. Here's what my haul was:

 (Now If I could have gotten an advanced copy of  the new Blackbird Sister book from Nancy Martin, my life would have been complete....... ) Seriously, these are all excellent authors and their books are great reads. Our library has most of them, and if not, they can be requested from other libraries. Most of the earlier books in their series are out in paperback if you want to buy them.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I talk about the Romance Author Panel and my even bigger haul!

Louise Penny- Great Author-Wonderful Mystery Series

Having worked at the circulation desk in my library for 5 years, I have gotten used to chatting with patrons about books I have enjoyed. It is always a thrill for me when someone comes in and says to me " I read...... and really loved it".  Now that I have moved up the chain and have a "desk job", I don't get to chat as much with patrons but I still make recommendations when I can.  This blog started for that reason. One of my favorite writers is Louise Penny, author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Mysteries. She is also a favorite of many of my coworkers.

The series takes place for the most part, in a small town in the province of Quebec, Canada. Inspector Gamache works for the Surete du Quebec. He is an avid student of human behavior and appreciates the nuances of the small town. The books are full of information about Canadian life and the characters are perfectly written. We all anticipate each new book with baited breath in the library and fight over them when they come in.

I am a big audiobook fan and started listening to them as well as reading them. The reader, Ralph Cosham, is AMAZING. One of the more recent books was so well done that when I got to the end( sitting in my car in the library parking lot during lunch), I started to cry because the ending was so emotional. Mr. Cosham has a marvelous speaking voice and is both calming and scary at different times.

So..... if you want something new to read, I recommend that you get to your library or go to the bookstore and buy the first book in the series- Still Life. You will be hooked, I guarantee.

You can thank me later.....

Books in the series
1. Still Life
2. Fatal Grace/ Dead Cold in Canada
3. The Cruelest Month
4. A Rule Against Murder/ The Murder Stone
5. The Brutal Telling
6. Bury your Dead
7. A Trick of the Light ( Pub date 8-30-2011)

Two must have websites for fiction readers!

If you are like me and you read lots of books that are part of a series, I have two resources for you. I use both of these in the library. I absolutely HATE to read books in a series out of order so I refer to these all the time.
1. The first site  is Fantastic Fiction http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/. This is from the UK but they cover all of the major and even lesser known US authors.  You type in the author's name and you will get lists of their books by series in chronological order.  They also have the author's upcoming books. I especially like the list they include of authors who write similar style books.

2. The second site is Stop You're Killing Me http://stopyourekillingme.com/ . This is a mystery site. They also list authors books in chronological order with the upcoming one at the end. Each page is easy to print and bring to the library or bookstore to keep track of what you have read by a particular author. On the home page, they have a month by month list of upcoming books.  I subscribe to their email newsletter and it always has useful information such as award nominated mysteries or new authors.

Hope you find these sites helpful!