June Books

[writerlibrarian]

The Winter Duke by Louise Bergin
More like 2 1/2 stars. Some redeeming qualities in both the lead characters. Lydia is not this helpless little girl and John is not the usual aggressive rake. Both have some whimsy in them. But the plot is slim and paste on. I would have enjoyed more characters development instead of the thin plot. More on the social rules and how both of them didn't fit them and broke them instead of the who tried to kill him.







Sweet Death, Kind Death by Amanda Cross.
This was somewhat depressing. For many reasons, Kate is investigating the suicide of a professor known for her vocal belief that she would not suffer old age or delibetating sickness and would take her life instead.

Is it really a suicide or a cleverly disguised murder? Kate takes the task of finding out for the duo of biographers and the familly of the professor.
As always in Heilbrun's aka Cross mystery novel, the mystery is somewhat an accessory to the ideas and the philosophy. Here you have Kate stuck on a comittee for gender studies and her beloved husband in a mid-life crisis. This is more about how one face mid live, adulthood, old age and what it means to be a woman then about catching a murderer.

Depressing but well written. Also knowing that the author took her own life does make the whole philosophy displayed here a bit unnerving.





La patience de l'araignée (The Patience of the Spider) by Andrea Camilleri
I love this series. We rejoin Montalbano 2 weeks after the event of Rounding the Mark. On leave after being shot, Montalbano is dragged back to work after a young woman is kidnapped. Kidnapping in Sicily is a business, with its traditions and its rules.

Montalbano watches has time grows short and nothing is really what it seems. All the usual supporting characters are there, my favorite Catarella has a few good scenes, Livia is a big part of this novel. The romantic, domestic relationship between Livia and Montalbano comes to a breaking point. Nice touches of characters development, a portrait how to manipulate a community and as always description of food like you wouldn't believe.








.La lune de papier (The Paper Moon) by Andrea Camilleri.
An average Camilleri is still a pretty good book. In this one Montalbano faces two very smart women that both have a lot to hide. Catarella goes head to head with a computer, Mimi is the new favorite of the big boss and can't seem to get any sleep and we might have a new addition to the family of detectives in the next book.

This plot involves a shocking death, multiples accidental deaths caused by bad drugs and a titanic match of I'm getting one over you between two larger then life women.










Rashomon Gate by I. J. Parker
This is the second book featuring Sugawara Akitada, 11th century detective in Medieval Japan. Much like Van Gulik Judge Ti, Sugawara's case are inspired from stories of that time.

In this we find young Akitada, back in his ministry job and being bored. An old teacher of his asks for help in a blackmail scheme at his old university. Akitada finds himself at the center of three murders that will take the reader for an amazing ride.

I liked this mystery novel. I haven't read the first novel in this series, but I like that you do not need to read them in chronological order to enjoy the action, the historical background, the culture. One tiny thing, it has a very modern rythmn, the style is modern and it might annoy some readers didn't bother me at all.