Novels Now

The Red Door by Charles Todd
Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery, Book 12

Pages: 344 pages
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Publisher: William Morrow
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

She stood in front of the cheval glass, the long mirror that Peter had given her on their second anniversary, and considered herself.

Reason for Reading: I’ve always wanted to read a book by this “author”. The reason for reading the book now though is that this was actually the very first book I received in 2010 to review and while I was putting my piles of review, won, tbr, etc. books onto my new bookcase I found it grouped with the wrong books so I rectified the situation by making it my next read.

Jumping in with book twelve in a mystery series has the potential to cause some problems. As to an ongoing personal story there was only a brief mention of that at the beginning and the end, plus some vague references to previous solved crimes which didn’t interfere with my reading at all. What did make the book hard for me to get into was the character of Ian Rutledge. By this time, he is a well established character and readers are presumed to know him already. Being new to this type of character did hinder my getting settled into the story, especially since Rutledge is unlike any other inspector I’ve come across. Set two years after the end of the Great War, Rutledge is a war veteran who secretly suffers from emotional effects of the war, shell shock, which is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder. In particular, he carries around with him, so to speak, one of his fallen soldiers, Hamish, who speaks to him in his head and Rutledge needs to physically be aware that there is space for him, though he will never look at him, they do have conversations and Hamish can be considered to be Rutledge’s partner as would be found in other books. This took some time for me to actually comprehend and now makes me want to start this series from the beginning.

The story itself is wonderful. A full cast of characters connected in one way or another makes the list of suspects large but finite. The writing spends much time on the characters lives, giving each individual a real and true representation. Rutledge is given two cases to work on. The first involves a lone widow whose husband never returned from the War, who is found murdered at her own front door. The second is of a wealthy man who mysteriously disappears from hospital. The man turns up safe after being away long enough to cause considerable worry but soon Rutledge has more than just one body on his hands. A very clever mystery. What I usually term a “thinking man’s” mystery. There are several secrets and mysteries along with the murder to solve and reveals come slowly and can change the reader’s whole take on things. I had fun having the satisfaction of figuring out some secrets and mysteries but never could hold on to the murderer. In the end I was surprised.

I really enjoyed this book. The time period is a perfect setting for British mysteries, invoking the charm of the the Golden Age writers, yet I wouldn’t call this a cozy. This is much more a psychological drama with a lot of insight into the after effects of war, in all sorts of ways throughout British society. A very satisfying read and one that I will be adding to my must read list. Though I’ll have to start at the beginning to get the full story on the intriguing Inspector Ian Rutledge.

The Silver Anklet by Mahtab Narsimhan

Tara Trilogy, Book Two

Pages: 263
Ages: 10+
First Published: Dec. 12, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

The patch of sunlight at the edge of the forest had an odd look; dirty yellow and striped.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Summary: Tara and her brother, Suraj, along with his friend, have gone to the local fair. There they befriend the Ferris wheel operator, an overweight yet very friendly boy and a performer who can dislocate all his joints to fit inside small containers along with his little sister helper, Sadia. While there, a scream rips through the fairgrounds and the girl, a fair person who can see as day in the night, who was looking after Sadia screams that Sadia was taken from her by a hyena into the jungle. Tara herself had earlier thought she had seen a hyena but shrugged it off as a trick of the sun as hyenas do not live in these parts. Men quickly start organizing a search party when Tara realizes that her brother and his friend are missing too and when a scrap of his shirt is found on a bush they know he was taken too. Thus the story is set up as Tara and her new found friends, along with a familiar face from book one take matters into their own hands and set off into the jungle to find the missing children only to find out that it is all a carefully orchestrated plan to lure Tara herself into the clutches of her evil nemesis, Zarku. Only this time her brother’s life may be the sacrifice to rid the world of this evil once and for all.

Comments: The second book in this trilogy jumps right into the action and does not let go until the very end. A very fast-paced plot-driven novel that kept me reading well into the night. The book is not quite so dark as the first in the series but is, even so, still dark with death and imagery. After the brief beginning in the fairgrounds, the entire story takes place within the jungle which serves to add a heavy, broody, stifling atmosphere throughout as the teens deal with the heat and humidity, mosquitoes and thirst. The plot itself is what I call the “race against time” theme where the characters set off to save someone and event after event happens until the final climax. Thus, there is not a lot of character development in the new characters introduced in this book. The heavy set boy and the night seeing girl were the most fully realized and I developed feelings for them. On the other hand the boy who’s sister was taken plays a more important role in the story, yet he felt flat to me and I didn’t connect with him. But otherwise, I really enjoyed the band of teens and the various personalities make for great dynamics within the group.

Tara, herself, is given the most powerful characteristics. Along with how we’ve come to know her from book one, she is a strong girl, with family loyalty and honour high in her values along with responsibility, fairness and a willingness to believe in others. Tara is faced with many dilemnas such as choosing between: the one or the many, a life of evil or death and sacrificing herself or losing time by going for help. Choosing the right thing is not easy nor is it always obvious.

One can’t help but write about a sequel and not compare it to the first and here I found that while “The Third Eye” was steeped in Hindu mythology, this book does not follow through with that though it is still present, just in a smaller degree. There is no mistaking though that the story takes place within a Hindu society as the culture is ever present throughout and this is one of the exciting things about this series, making it so different from the usual YA fantasy fare being written at the moment. There is even a glossary at the back for all the Hindi words used in the book. I wonder if I can get my sister to start calling me Didi?

The cover is also quite intriguing. I think it reflects the ethnic flavour of the story well and the picture reminds me of a simple henna drawing. While being the second in a series the story can hold up on its own. References are made to events in the first book but the story here is complete within itself having a beginning and an ending. I always appreciate when authors can make the second book of a trilogy a complete story of its own while continuing to be a part of the whole (no cliffhangers please!). Ms. Narsimhan does this very well by bringing this story to a conclusion and then giving readers a taste by setting up the direction the next book will take. The last few lines of the book left me with a gleeful chuckle and shiver as I look forward to the final ’showdown’ in the last book.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Shades of Grey, Book 1

Pages: 389
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It began with my father’s not wanting to see the Last Rabbit, and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.

Reason for Reading: I haven’t read Jasper Fforde before. I really want to but just never find the time to start his Thursday Next series so I jumped at the chance to get in at the beginning with a new series.

Summary: I don’t really feel capable of doing this justice but I’ll make an attempt. This is a satirical dystopian novel. Set 500 years in the future after Something Happened, this new world is ruled by a Colortocracy. People are born being able to see only one colour or perhaps a mixture of primary colours thus making greens, oranges, etc. Those at the top of the class system are Purples and those at the bottom are Greys, the working class who are colourless. Increasing one’s family’s colour heritage is of utmost importance and marriages are arranged to produce children who will climb further up the class system. It is here we find Eddie Russet, half promised to marry into the Oxblood family, who finds himself wearing a humility badge, sent to the Outer Fringes, a town called East Carmine, to conduct a chair census supposedly because of a prank he pulled but in reality because he asks too many questions and shows too much curiosity, a dangerous quality in this society. But it is in East Carmine that he realizes the banality of the heavily rule dependent government and the oppressiveness that is wrought upon society. He meets Jane, a Grey revolutionary, who he loves at first sight and while her ideas seem fanatical at first, the more he experiences the more he starts to agree with her.

Comments: This was a fabulous book. Fforde has created an utterly unique and fascinating dystopian society that is believable but is full of satirical comments that reflect upon our own society that one can take the story seriously and with tongue in cheek at the same time. I became immersed in this world from the first page, and while I’d never want to live there, I enjoyed every detail of it from government policies to recreation requirements. The characters are wonderful. Eddie and his group of friends each are distinctly real and flawed persons. The entire cast of characters is enormous and entirely eccentric from the librarian Mrs. Lapus Lazuli who has memorized the barcode of every book that has been removed from the library to the Apocryphal man, a 400 year old historian who everyone must pretend does not exist. The plot itself is a slow unraveling of Eddie coming to terms with the hidden reality of his society and the unsettling realization that the few must be sacrificed for the many. The story is quite dark and while I haven’t read any other Fforde books, from what I’ve read about the Thursday Next series, it would appear that this is a different move for the author. The themes and atmosphere are dark, there is a lot of satire making for plenty of humour but even the humour is dry and biting at times. There is so much going on within the pages of this book that I could simply go on and on about it. Suffice to say, I am utterly enamored with this world and its mythos and can’t wait for the next book.

The Jungle Vampire by David Sinden, Matthew Morgan & Guy Macdonald; illustrated by Jonny Duddle

An Awfully Beastly Business, Book 4

Pages: 204
Ages: 8+
First Published: Dec. 29, 2009
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

Late one night, on the outskirts of a grimy town, a man in a long fur coat hurried through the rain.

Reason for Reading: My son loves this series and this was the next one out. I read it aloud to him.

Summary: All the members of the RSPCB are off to the jungle and this time Ulf is invited along as he is in training to become an official member and his mission takes him in search of a legendary vampire. Unbeknownst to all, Baron Marackai is after the same treasure only he wants to kill the fabled beast and he is following them to take advantage of their smarts on finding this creature’s den.

Comments: Everything one has come to expect from this series is present in this latest addition. The authors keep the story fresh even though Baron Marackai is after Ulf and his friends in every book, Sinden, et al. find different ways of bringing the two parties together and we’ve come to enjoy waiting for that moment that the RSPCB finds out that Baron Marackai is behind their troubles. This particular book is an action packed story. Briefly starting at home they are off to the jungle very quickly, where they meet adventure after adventure. The whole team is included equally this time around with Ulf, Tiana, Orson and Dr. Fielding all sharing equal page time. Once the Baron reveals himself the pace is very quick and the exciting adventure turns into a wild race to the end. The only thing we missed was since the whole book took place away from Farraway Hall, our favourite character, Druce the gargoyle, only made a cameo appearance at the beginning and the end.

Lots of laughs were had by both of us and we are sad to have come to the last book in print to date. My son says he’d like to start from the beginning and read them all over again so maybe I’ll pass them on Dad, for bedtime reading. After doing a bit of research I see book 5 “Battle of the Zombies” will be released in June of this year (2010) in the UK, so according to the schedule that’s been established so far, I think we can expect it out here in North America in December. We will anxiously be waiting!

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Fallen series, Book 1

Pages: 452
Ages: 13+
First Published: Dec. 8, 2009
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape.

This review contains one obvious spoiler. If you intend to read this book and know absolutely nothing about it don’t continue but if you do know a bit about it, my one little spoiler is obvious even from the title of the book.

Reason for Reading: I love stories about angels.

Summary: Lucinda is sent to a reform school because of a terrible incident in which she was involved and her date was killed. Lucinda isn’t exactly a regular girl though; ever since she was little she has seen dark shadows that interact with her and scare her. She quickly learned as a child that she was the only one who saw them and has kept them secret but Lucinda wonders whether the shadows may have been responsible for her date’s death. Once she arrives at the school she immediately finds herself drawn to the darkly handsome Daniel. While he is attractive it’s not that which initially draws her to him, she feels as if they’ve met before, she has quirky deja vu moments when she’s with him. At first Daniel is aloof, downright rude even, but her persistence in following her feelings for him draws them together but Daniel is hiding a secret from her, something immense that will forever change her world.

Comments: I really enjoyed this book. Daniel and Lucinda are both enjoyable characters and their relationship makes a great romance. I’m the type of person who rolls my eyes through all the romance parts of these type of books but the author handles this aspect very well. The romance comes up in short paragraphs here and there and while Lucinda daydreams for a sentence or two, there is thankfully *no* over the top yearning drivel. I appreciate seeing a teen romance written at this level of quality.

My main problem with the story is that there is a prologue in which the reader is basically given the mystery surrounding Daniel and Lucinda’s life. If you haven’t guessed from the title, hints are frequently dropped and it doesn’t take much to realize that (here’s my little spoiler) Daniel is an angel. The reader is given more information than Lucinda and it does make her seem to be a bit of a dope that it takes her practically the whole book to figure out this “secret” along with the mystery the reader already knows from the prologue. However, there are other side stories and surprises left to be revealed that leave the story with an exciting plot.

I loved the angel mythos the author has worked into this book. It is fascinating and a very intriguing plotline. Much of her world is based on Biblical angelology, though Ms Kate has taken the more fantastical interpretations to run with and added her own spin on things as well. The pace of the book was a bit weak in parts with the excitements ebbing and flowing until the final rush towards a very exciting climax. Being book one in a series, the book does have a complete plot which is concluded, yet ends with the stage set for the next book.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Buckshaw Chronicles, Book 1

Pages: 292
First Published: April 2009
Genre: mystery, cozy, Gothic
Rating: 4.5/5

First sentence:

It was as black in the closet as old blood.

Reason for Reading: At first, the title grabbed me. Then I read the publisher’s summary and was very excited to read this mystery.
Comments: Flavia is an 11-year-old girl who lives in a run-down ancestral home in a tiny village in England with her Father, two sisters and a few servants. Flavia isn’t your ordinary 11yo, she has taken over an ancient chemistry studio in the house from a former ancestor and her whole world revolves around chemistry. Her speciality? Poisons. Early one morning Flavia stumbles upon a dead man lying in the cucumber patch and that is just the beginning of a series of events that Flvaia becomes involved in as she finds herself matching wits with the local Inspector who has her father under suspicion of the murder.

What an incredibly, deliciously, devilish mystery. This is like nothing I’ve read before. A pure joy to read. The characters were all entirely eccentric from the main protagonist down to the secondary and minor characters. The mystery is both what I would call a cozy and a Gothic mystery. It is a cozy in the sense that it is very Agatha Christie in presentation, lots of mental deduction going on and no gory details, plenty of suspects to choose from and each a nuisance in their own way. On the otherhand Bradley presents a very Gothic feel to his mystery with the old run down buildings and other old English settings, such as a school bell tower, Flavia’s macabre interest in poison and the equally devilishly (though not life-threatening) pranks that she and her sisters play on each other. Characters appear suddenly at windows and loom out of the fog. It really is just splendidly atmospheric writing but completely cozy for those who like their mysteries clean and intelligent rather than soaked in blood.

I only had one small problem and I can’t really say for sure whether it was the author or just myself. The novel’s narrator is an 11-year-old girl and I don’t think it was completely maintained throughout. I’m sure it is difficult to write an adult novel in a child’s voice and it is not something that one reads everyday. At times I often forgot it was a child telling the story until a word or phrase would bring it back to my mind; I also often forgot the narrator was a girl until she mentioned wearing a dress or such. This was something that irked me a little bit, but otherwise I am full of recommendations for this book. I think a wide variety of mystery fans are going to enjoy this book and there are already two further volumes in the series planned for future release! I think Flavia de Luce may just become a future British TV series as she is just that compelling; I’d love to see her come to life on the screen and can’t wait to read her next mystery!