Catching up with Hannah Swensen and the Gang

Following characters through a series sometimes feels like trying to keep up with your distant friends' latest news. Some of the ongoing characters make you laugh. And some will amaze you with the changes in their character or their latest hobbies. But they feel like old pals that you want to spend some more time with. And when it comes down to it - that is the work of the talented skills of the author, who makes her readers enjoy these fictional friends.

Joanne Fluke who writes the Hannah Swensen mysteries series manages to keep her series fresh and full of life with her engaging characters. Hannah is still baking away at her bakery business, The Cookie Jar, and she is still the one most likely to find a dead body in her tiny town of Lake Eden, Minnesota.

In the Key Lime Pie Murder, she finds the dead body at the local county fair and has to waste a lovely Key Lime pie in her discovery. (Disclosure here - I love Key Lime pie and to have it fall to the ground! What a tragedy! What a waste! Sigh!) And she has to sleuth while being a judge for the various baked goods contests, supplying goodies for another booth and getting hooked into being a magician's assistant.

During the Carrot Cake Murder, she's just helping out a friend at one of the biggest family reunions in area. And she manages to find the prodigal relative who reappeared for the reunion, dead in the main building where the festivities are taking place. Talk about problems with the relatives. There are more than a few suspects here.

The latest outing for Hannah is the Cream Puff Murder. She's on a diet with a vengeance - she's trying to fit in a dress her mother ordered for her - and she finds the fitness instructor dead in the gym's jacuzzi. The instructor (a reoccurring character) had a lot of male fans but basically most of the females and wives in town did not care for her. But who took their threats to the next level? And how come most of the police force had to be taken off the case?

Amidst the sleuthing, comes the latest tidbits about Hannah's family, who help her hunt out the latest gossip on the deceased. And we get the updates on her love life (Will she ever make a decision between Norman and Mike? This last book may have a clue!) and her beloved fat cat Moishe. And then there are the recipes. One word. YUM! Can you tell that I like this series? A very good read.

Wicked Plants

Have you threatened to poison someone lately? Apparently it is easier to do than you think. (Not that I'm suggesting anything of course!) But in the book, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart, you can get a lot of information about dangerous plants and their nasty and lethal side effects.

Everything from Castor beans, Arrow poisons and deadly Nightshade is covered here. Stewart and her illustrators make the details very plain. This tree bark will kill you, this plant will try, and this one can be found in every backyard on your block. Hmmm. Maybe a plant identification session of your yard is in order. Stewart makes the seemingly dry topic interesting, informative and entertaining. This well written and researched book is a great resource your botany shelf. Perfect for those mystery writers who are trying to get rid of a character!

This book makes you want to heed what your mother used to say; "you do not know where that's been, don't put that in your mouth!" A very good read.

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: A Memoir

Confections of a Closet Master Baker: A Memoir by Gesine Bullock-Prado is not your typical foodie book. Going from Hollywood to a bakery in Vermont might not be the regular career path that everyone takes, but Gesine isn't everyone. She's Sandra Bullock's younger sister and was involved with her production company. But her passion is baking. And that is what kept rearing it's head in La La Land.

Rather then the stories of Hollywood, what I really loved about the book was her stories of growing up in Germany - her mother was an opera singer there, and staying with her relatives. And her German pastries! (Yum! I'm not a big baker - but even I'm encouraged to try some of the easier recipes in here.) When Gesine makes her transition to full time baker, she finds she feels closer to her deceased mother through her memories of baking with her.

I really like the reminiscing in this book and thinks Gesine tells her tale well. Now if I can just get her to send me a batch of macaroons... A good read.

Death Will Get You Sober

Sometimes a book will take you into a subculture that you have never really paid that much attention to before. And the reason for the non-attention may just be that it never touched your life or your family or was even brought to your notice. (We humans are really a self-absorbed group.) So Death Will Get You Sober by Elizabeth Zelvin is not your average mystery set in New York City. It's main character, Bruce, is a recovering alcoholic. We first meet him in the detox unit at the Bowery. He's just starting to get out of his latest bender. It takes him awhile to realize that the two deaths happened while he was there (one of which was his roommate who seemed "perfectly" fine) were not deaths by natural or in this case known chemical causes. The deaths were dismissed as the casualties of a lifetime of drinking. But were they really? And what about those other deaths of long time alcoholics at those other detox centers? Were these people just being written up as the latest statistic?

Zelvin (who is a practicing psychotherapist) has run a detox center. She knows of what she writes about and she does it with respect, and manages to bring a bit of humanity to both sides of the detox situation - both the workers who trying to get the alcoholics sober and the alcoholics themselves. There are no "bad guys/good guys" here. And who knew that there were so many AA meetings throughout NYC?

I really enjoyed the characters and founding myself rooting for Bruce as he struggled through his multiple AA meetings. His pals, Jimmy and Barbara are quirky couple: him with his obsession with computers and her trying not to be an enabler. I found Barbara's character very compelling because I felt that I knew people who were like her - one who never said no and never wanted to make a scene. I found myself by the end of this really nicely paced read, wondering what happened in next book to these people. And will Bruce make it being sober? Looking forward to the next one. A very good read.

The Naked Baron

I believe it is a testimony to an author's plotting skill, when one finds a romance that really has two storylines going on and it works. Sally MacKenzie in her book The Naked Baron, does it quite well, thank you very much. We are introduced right away to Grace and Dawson - the younger couple. She is unsure and feeling ungainly since she is a woman of size and stature in a group of petite debutants. Dawson is not a fan of petite twits and when Grace comes on the scene he feels that this is the one. The older couple, Grace's Aunt Kate who is newly widowed and Dawson's Uncle Alex - a bachleor - find themselves facing each other accross a ballroom after many years. Their previous relationship did not end well. Kate was forced to marry someone else, and Alex has never really recovered from it. It is obvious the attraction is still there.

Will Grace take a chance on Dawson? Will she even realize Aunt Kate has had a past love? (She's a bit overwhelmed with Dawson at the moment.) Will it be okay in the end? Join the fun with these lively and likeable characters. I've just discovered this author and I'm hoping to read some more of her work. A fun and frothy read.

Simenon's Maigret

Georges Simenon's classic mystery character is Chief Inspector Maigret. It's hard reviewing a "classic". Is it classic because it is timeless? (These stories are fairly timeless.) Or is it a classic because the author was in the right time and place in the fiction - in this case - mystery timeline?

I read two books featuring Maigret. The first was Maigret Goes Home. He goes back to solve a murder in the village where he grew up. Most of the locals do not remember him. But he remembers the murder victim - the Countess of the estate that he grew up on. Maigret's main detecting style is to ask a lot of questions and wait to see what shakes loose. And while he is waiting he watches village life slowly pass by.

The other book was Maigret and the Hotel Majestic. Set in a Paris luxury hotel, the setting is bustling and frantic. The guests come in, the help makes them comfortable and the process starts again. A bit of a bump is caused when one of those guests is found murdered in the kitchen staff's area. Why would this elegant lady be down there? Who was she really? And who knew her before she was so rich and important? It is a story of youthful loves, dreams and abandoning it all to reach more practical goals. Maigret is well known in this local, but finds himself digging into the pasts of guests and staff alike. Again, he asks all the questions and sees what rises to the surface.

I liked the second better book much better than the first. Once I finally figured out Maigret's style, I think I finally understood the author's pacing. Simenon has tried to make his books a representation of France as he had known it. The timeless cafes, coffees and cigarettes. He succeeded so well - that the Hotel book contains no clue as to when it was written - during the occupation of Paris in World War II. But that does not interfere with Maigret. Perhaps that is why he is a classic. A good read.