Recent Reading

63 this morning, humidity about 80%. We got out in the gardens early to avoid the heat this afternoon. No rain in sight but possible thunderstorms this week.

I have continued reading, a habit I re-discovered during the pandemic. I've always read a lot, of course, but fiction went by the wayside for me many years ago. Now I am enjoying it once again, and have been picking up books at thrift stores--anything that looks interesting is fair game. Here's some of what I've read lately:

Twisted Vines: a Shakespeare in the Vineyard Mystery by Carole Price. This was a library discard from Ohio. The author is from Ohio so I am sure it had a place on the shelves of most Ohio libraries. This is the first in a series of three books set in California in a combination vineyard/Shakespearean theatre location. Sounds odd, but the story explains how this came to be. The mystery is a good one, not easy to figure out, and descriptions of the area and the theatre are good too. A surprise legacy leads Cait Pepper from her job as a crime analyst in Ohio to the estate of an aunt she never knew she had, and drops Cait into a tangle of two possible murders: her aunt and her uncle. The writing isn't the best I've ever read, and there are things that made my eyebrows raise--a female law enforcement officer who lets people walk all over her? Not likely. The romance angle is pretty trite, and the love interest fella is on the unrealistic side, but most characters are well drawn. I'll read the next book, Sour Grapes, and see if it's better. I'd rate this one a 4 on a scale of 5; just lacking a little bit but for a first book, not bad. Published in 2012. 

Scandal in Fair Haven by Carolyn G. Hart. Another whodunit, but a prolific author. This was a fast read, with an okay story line and well-developed plot. The writing style bothered me--short, choppy sentences, with one sentence often being a whole paragraph. So there are lots of very short lines, lots of white space on the pages. And as seems to be par for the course these days, the protagonist is in danger at the end--just as in Twisted Vines, above. This seems to be a currently popular style, even on TV mystery shows. Set in Tennessee, the story revolves around another female main character whose vacation in a Smoky Mountains cabin is cut short by the arrival of her good friend's bloody and frantic nephew. The nephew has just found his wife murdered in their home, and then ran from the scene. Numerous characters make it a little difficult to keep track of who's who, but for a quick, light read, this wasn't bad.

Currently I'm reading The Companion by Ann Granger. Although Amazon reviewers seem to have a dim view of this book, I am enjoying all the period detail. The author has certainly done her homework in presenting 1864 London and the building of the St. Pancras train station. This detail interested me since my sisters and I stayed at King's Cross in 2019 and took the train from that same station. The story is another murder mystery--I seem to be on a kick lately--that begins when the unknown body of a young woman is found while houses are being demolished at the site of the soon-to-be train station. Eventually Elizabeth Martin, a young woman newly come to London to be companion to a well-to-do widow, is pulled into the quest to discover the truth of the young woman's death. I'm only a third of the way into the book so it's too soon to say if I'll really like it but so far so good. I'll have to pass this on to my sisters when I'm finished, as I am sure they'll enjoy the historical aspects too.

So, what are you reading? I'm about out of books so open to suggestions. Anything good you can recommend?

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