Bargain Book Bonanza (29): Kindle Mysteries

Welcome to Bargain Book Bonanza!

DeLynne is hosting this week!

We all love a bargain, and books don't come any more basement-priced than free.  Here are three Kindle mysteries I picked up for nothing, nada, niente.  Remember, folks, if you don't have a Kindle you can read these books using your laptop or apps on other devices.

Archie's Been Framed manages to be farcical yet hard-boiled in the best James Bond tradition.  Amazing gadgetry, gastronomy, a bon-vivant lifestyle and murder are a wonderful combination.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Julius and his electronic side kick.  Knight Rider eat your  heart out, Archie is Julius' friend, assistant, secretary and nagger.  This is a series I'd actually pay to read.

The Noon God is a quick read from Donna Carrick, and I do recommend it.  The characters and investigation are a bit shallow, but that's understandable for the length of the book.  Carrick sucked me in and I was shocked when she revealed the murderer.  I'd really like to know if other readers were able to pick who-done-it better than me, and plan to read it again to see which clues I missed the first time through. 

It's as much a family saga as a mystery, with tragic characters struggling to overcome damage done by relatives (usually parents).  Not a cheerful book, but thought-provoking nonetheless. 
 

Dark Horse is great.  I've fallen for Jim Knighthorse even if he is narcissistic and talks to a bum who thinks he's God.   Actually, those traits endear him to me, and I was hooked by his story.  

Jim tries to prove his client, a high-achieving black high school student, didn't kill his white girlfriend.  The plot is tight and quick, and this book has everything a good mystery should.  Jim has a troubled past he's trying to resolve, and this is probably the grittiest of the three books reviewed here.  There are some moral dilemmas to ponder, too.   

Three good reads for free.  Actually my grandfather used to say nothing is free, and he would have pointed out that even a $0.00 Kindle book requires internet connection, a reading device, etc.  But this is as free as it gets, readers!

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BBB is a book haul linky party for bargain loving bookworms!

Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.

If you have a bargain book post, please link up and share. We love to brag on bargains!

Alice-Miranda At Sea!

Hey!

 So sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I finished reading Alice-Miranda At Sea, (awhile ago!) and found it was just fabulous. (As all Alice-Miranda books are.)

 The story is about a little girl named Alice-Miranda, and her aunt is getting married. And, of course, the wedding is on a private cruise boat that her other "aunt", Auntie Gee owns. (She isn't actually her aunt, but it's one of those special-connection things, Oh and her aunt is royal!) But there is a twist, there's a stow-away on the ship... Who? Well thats for you to find out!

This book is filled with lots of drama, mystery and intrigue. I recomend this for ages 8 to 12. 

Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child

Hello! Adele here!Remember the books that I wished for a couple of weeks ago?

Guess what?!  I went shopping and found both of the books: Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes and Alice-Miranda at Sea.

Of course, I bought them immediately and I've just finished reading Ruby Redfort.




Here is my review!

Ok,  the story line is that there is a girl, Ruby, from a wealthy family and her best friend is named Clancy Crew. 


Ruby is a code cracking genius, and when a suspicious butler, Hitch, comes along she has a "hunch" that he's not a butler. 

And, of course he's not. 

Hitch is an agent for a spy agency called "Spectrum". And when Ruby finds out why he's there , she gets an invitation to join Spectrum...

I won't spoil any more for you.

It is a fantastic book, with lots of mystery and intrigue.  I'm really into mysteries at the moment.

Ruby Redfort is perfect for 8 to 13 year olds. But, of course, whether you're 30 or 6, you can read it if you really want to.

I'm just about in the middle of Alice-Miranda at Sea, so I will review it soon.

Ok, gotta go read!

C:

Wishing For Books! By Adele, Our Newest Contributor!

Hello! I am Adele. I am 10 years old. You may have seen my guest review: English Roses by Madonna. I am extremely happy to become an official contributor!

 So, here is my first official Baja post.

I am soooooo excited at the moment!

My favourite author (or at least ONE of my favourites), Lauren Child, has a new book out!

You see, Clarice Bean is a book I am absolutely CRAZY about, and in the books Clarice is CRAZY about a book called Ruby Redfort. Clarice Bean has TV shows, badges and all sorts of things about Ruby Redfort.

Lauren Child FINALLY made a book of the book within the book! It's called, 'Ruby Redfort, Look Into My Eyes'.  I collect Lauren Child's books and I just have to have it!


Another one of my favourites is Alice Miranda by Jacqueline Harvey.

 I have all the books apart from that last one with the green cover. Its a new one and I'm trying to find it. 

So many books to buy!

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Are there any books you are wishing for?  Please share. And to see more wishlists, please visit these linky parties:

Wishlist Wednesday hosted by Pen to Paper
On My Wishlist hosted by Book Chick City (Saturday link-up)

Bargain Book Bonanza (6)

Welcome to the sixth edition of Bargain Book Bonanza!

BBB is a linky party to showcase all the great books (new, used, vintage, electronic, audio) that we book lovers score on sale.

Each Monday through Thursday, all book lovers are invited to carouse, make merry and revel with bargain book abandon!

Want to join the party? Just visit the Bargain Book Bonanza page for the particulars.

DeLynne is hosting this week!

Trips to the big city are rare for me, but even more special because they don't happen often. They involve a two hour train trip each way, which is a great opportunity to sit and read.

Last time I went I found I had nothing to read for the trip home, so whilst racing to the train I ducked into a book store.

Almost a year ago, Miss Shirley, an Off the Beaten Page reader on Heron Island, talked to me about Agatha Christie's complete short story collection. She said they were too short for her taste. I wasn't sure if the same would apply to Sir Doyle's collection, but decided to take a punt on them anyway.

I was really happy with my purchase. It cost $6.50, which is nothing to crow about when some of us are posting about free or 25 cent books. However, with the price of new books in Australia this is a bargain. And I got lots of enjoyment from it.

On the train I ran into some of my students, and was able to chat occasionally in between stories. It was also great by my bedside for weeks, where I would read one story before lights out.

This counts as a bargain in my book, but I have some even cheaper ones to post about someday soon.

Can't wait to see everyone's Bargain Book Bonanzas!

BBB is linking up to Mailbox Monday hosted this month by Passages to the Past.  Welcome Mailbox Monday visitors!  Are there bargains in your mailbox?  If so, you are invited to join Bargain Book Bonanza to show them off. The more bargains the merrier!  

Check

Good book? Check. 

Weekend in the country? Check, check.

Kiddos ocupados?

Check check check!

Ahhhh. Think I am ready to read.

When I go to North East Texas, I usually end up staying in the "cabin". It's a mobile home. But I have decided it shall henceforth be named, "THE CABIN".

And since I do not leave said cabin very often (snakes), I stock up on books to read from the library. 

I stay up late, read while babies are napping, and occasionally, when the weather is cool enough to keep the pythons and cobras away, but warm enough for me to soak in the sun...

...I take my books outside and lay down on a blanket near the pine trees.

I look forward to this weekend, because I don't have to do anything. No one calls or emails me (although they could) because they know I'm in "vacation mode". Therefore I am of no benefit to them!

Sometimes it is nice to be useless!

While I was there, I read two fun mysteries (I love light mysteries here...it's daaaarrrrk and spooooky).

Mini-reviews:


The first was the latest in a series by Donna Andrews.
 

Very funny. My favorite was the very first in the series (pictured), just because every character is so surprising. By the time you've read a few they are expected, although no less entertaining.

The amateur sleuth is an artist/blacksmith. She has a very large and involved family that keeps stumbling over bodies, and frustrates the local police.

The second book I read is also part of a series, by Barbara Allen.

In this series, the heroine is a recent divorcee.

She and her diabetic shih tzu move back in with her mother, 

and end up begrudgingly solving murders.

If you are looking for something light or humorous, give these a try!
You might just enjoy them!

Oh Dear! The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill

Well, after staying up way too late way too often, I was looking forward to crawling into bed early with a cozy, one of my favourite genres. From our library I had taken a punt on the new-to-me Jill Churchill's The Accidental Florist.


I was so disappointed. The details I thought would be significant, for example, the process of buying flowers in a shop across from the murder scene, never came to anything. You might think the cat on the cover had something to do with the resolution, like Lilian Jackson Braun's clever cat characters, but no.

I kept imagining the ways things might tie together, but in the end the murder was solved 'off camera' by someone else using only a suggestion by the protagonist.

All the events and details were just... details. The book really wasn't about the murder, rather it was about the protagonist adding on to her house and planning a wedding. It was cozy to the point of being claustrophobic.

Churchill has written at least 16 books in this series, so someone must like them. I suppose if you are a fan, each book is like an installment in a soap opera. Like catching up with old friends. But I am not a fan, so I was bored. I hate to be critical, but there you have it.

The Wrong Dog

I am a dog person, as I have written here, here, and, um….here. So it is no surprise that I would choose a doggy book as a gift for my dear mother in law. We always give her books, as anything you plug in confounds her and any toiletry item gathers dust, literally, in her bathroom.

A book, however, gets read, exclaimed over, handed back to you for perusal, then passed on to other family members. It might possibly be posted to the other side of the country to dear Aunty Pat. Not bad value, eh? Truly the gift that keeps on giving. So I always buy books that I would like to read, ones with general appeal for the whole family.

This Christmas we gave her, among other paperbacks, Carol Lea Benjamin's The Wrong Dog. It's about a murder, service dogs, cloning, and sleuthing, but mostly about dogs. It's only just come back to me, the long turn around due to other family members getting in first. I gobbled it up in one day, and really enjoyed it.

Biomedical ethics are, I find, interesting. Just because we know how to do something like cloning, does that mean we have the right to do it? Should rich people benefit from science while others can't? How do we investigate long term consequences quickly?

Ethics aside, I enjoyed the PI, Rachel, but didn't think she was as vividly drawn as other amateur sleuths I have read. Mind you, I am thinking of Stephanie Plum, and I have read LOTS of Stephanie Plum. She is almost more familiar to me than my husband! One slight disappointment I had in this book was that the murder victim was a really nice person, one I felt sorry for because he/she really hadn't met life's potential. I prefer a not-so-nice victim!

For that reason, and the sinister tone I felt with the some-one's-watching-me scenes, I am not sure if I would call this a cozy mystery. What is the definition, anyway?

The book was very sensitive to dogs, showing how to train them, how to treat them and how to feed them. It wasn't done in an instructional way, more as part of the plot, but my dogs, London and Paris, are sure to be even more pampered than before.

I recommend you read Carol Lea Benjamin. If you are a cat-, bird- or no-pet-person you will enjoy her books, too. After all, my mother in law did.

Who killed Bianca?

Book bath time is a luxury in my house. The stars have to align with kids in bed, kitchen tidied, everything organized for tomorrow, nothing important on TV, the right book and, most difficult of all, a clean tub.

About the book, I clearly cannot read someone else's, in case it gets water damaged, so loaners and library tomes are out. It must be a paperback—for some reason I just can't carry a hardback to the bath. And it must be easily enjoyable without being a permanent keeper. So, I am looking for a good, but disposable read. To date I have not damaged any book, but I just can't take that risk with a treasured tome.

A few nights ago the stars were right and I settled into a tub with the perfect paperback, Who Killed Bianca? I was hooked, and ended up staying until the water cooled and I risked hypothermia. I was awake until midnight and back into it (the book, not the tub) the next morning. I just had to know who killed Bianca.

Emma Darcy is the pen name of Australian couple Wendy and the late Frank Brennan. After his death Wendy continued to write on her own, branching out from the romance novels they had been known for. This novel is, obviously, about Bianca being bumped off, second in a series that started with Anne's assassination and continued with Camille carking it. In this story some other people get killed, but not alphabetically.

This is absolutely an Australian book: at times it even reads like a travel brochure, listing the names and detailed descriptions of landmarks, transportation, accommodation, shows and attractions. The bumping off takes place on the Ghan, a famous train trip through the Outback, and the suspects continue to tour the area, bumping into one another and bumping one another off. I found the exposition a bit exasperating at times, but couldn't stop reading. I really did want to know who killed Bianca, and was surprised enough in the end to make it all worthwhile.

The origins as a romance writer are evident in strings of sentences starting with variations of 'but' and 'however'. The air of mystery is supported by collections of questions such as the succession of, 'Had he seen her…? But why? What had distressed her..? Had a frustrated Bianca..? Did they share a past..?' This string occurred within a page, start to finish. It's a cheap way to build suspense, but I fell for it completely: I wasn't even aware of this clumsiness and the cold water until later. The book was even a finalist for the Ned Kelly Award for outstanding crime writing, so maybe I am just being critical.

If you are an Aussie reader your cover will look like the grey one I picked up in Big W, and UK or US readers will have the colourful version. I wonder why? But, no matter which cover you end up with, draw yourself a bath and head to the dry Outback without leaving the comfort of your own tub.

Not my finest moment: The Black Russian by Lenny Bartulin

Driving home at night is one of the highlights of my week. It's so quiet and dark: my headlights cut the night and no one asks me questions or whinges about my choice of radio. I feel cocooned and in control, knowing I could just keep driving if I liked, and go wherever I wanted. Of course I always end up at home, but I know there're possibilities when I'm alone and behind the wheel.

One night a few weeks ago I was listening to Mary Lou Stephens and her show Coast Nights. I love the blues, alternative and world music she plays, and usually I find her guests interesting. This particular night I heard her interview a poet turned author who was spuriking his latest book, a suspense novel. Like, I suspect, so many avid readers I harbor a secret, burning desire to earn a living writing, so I listened with interest. I let my thoughts wander and imagined being a poet these days. In between writing poems I'd go about my quotidian life, paying bills and running errands and supporting myself writing couplets and free verse. The mind boggles. I was excited by the interview and wanted to get his book. The problems started the next day.

Rocking up to the desk in my school library, I briefly described to my friend behind the counter what I was looking for. A book called The White Russian by a Sydney author named Luke B-something. She tapped into Google Books (I never knew such a thing existed, she's so smart!) and found nothing. We tried a couple of different permutations, but, again, nothing. I felt I was blazing new territory, looking for an author so new he wasn't even on Google. Concern set in, however, when I realized I wouldn't be able to read a book I couldn't find. I tried searching the radio station's site, but oddly found nothing. Other interviews were written up for that night, but not my mysterious author. I got no help from my book-y friends. Funny music from Twilight Zone began doodling in my head.

The exact route I took to find the book on the net is lost in my browser's history, but find it I did, eventually. It's a book called The Black Russian by a Sydney author named Lenny Bartulin. Take a moment to compare this with my original request at the library. Out of all the information I had to go on, only the city of the author's residence was correct. Since Sydney's current population hovers at about 4.4 million I hadn't narrowed the parameters by much. There are only about 22 million Australians, so I had eliminated roughly four fifths of the nation. Clearly research and short-term memory are not my strengths.

It took a while, but the search was worth it. Finally, I used my gift certificate to buy Bartulin's second book, The Black Russian, and was so pleased I did. The main character, Jack Susko, owns a second-hand book store in Sydney, and just got himself mixed up in a tricky situation involving guns, theft, a rare book, double crossing women and a $3.4 million Bible. This situation could never happen to me, of course, but I can imagine myself being confused or duped or struggling to pay the bills or browsing in Jack's little shop, dust motes in the sunshine. This book was a pleasure to read.

Bartulin punctuates the book with allusions and references to books great and obscure. It is the perfect read for bibliophiles. His characters are a bit like Evanovich's, only more literary. Jack is trying to give up smoking, blindly points to passages in randomly opened books, loves old vinyl records, is barely earning enough to keep his cat fed, and even considers getting in his car and driving away. He is trying to find his way through adulthood issues like career choices and romantic relationships.

I love Bartulin's turn of phrase, and his poetry background shows in his writing. There's a one liner here for everyone:

For the physiotherapist; 'The way he stood. Kind of oily-hipped.'

For the struggling small business owner; 'He was suddenly thinking about his financial situation. Zimbabwe had nothing on him.'

For the car mechanic; 'The black plastic side mirror hung limply from the door by a thin wire, like a small, gutted marsupial.'

For the gullible; 'He stepped out of the frame for a moment and looked. Yep, there he was. Piggy in the goddamn middle.'

For the fashionista; 'Nice shoes. Not sure if they go with the bloody ear, though. Everything goes with Manolo Blahnik.'

For the confused; 'He tried to read between the lines, but it was all Cyrillic.'

I loved the book: I loved the writing and the characters, and I can't wait to find the first Jack Susko book. Since my intellectual powers are well below his, it may take me a while.

The Stephanie Plum series

Janet Evanovich (http://evanovich.com/ ) is an absolute publishing juggernaut, with dozens of titles to her name. Her books are generally in a series of romances or mysteries. So, is her popularity deserved, or have her characters run their course?

I’ll confess to reading her Stephanie Plum series for years, literally laughing out loud at times. A few of my friends are hooked, as well. Evanovich’s most recent Plum novel is Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, and her next installment, due out in June, is titled Sizzling Sixteen. Notice a pattern?

Plum is a bumbling New Jersey bounty hunter, chasing people who fail to show up for their court appearances. The situations she gets herself into are hilarious and unbelievable, and her friends, family, coworkers and clients are over the top, at times caricatures.

Lula, for example is recently retired from the world’s oldest profession and works as a filing assistant and side kick for the bail bonds office. She is a plus sized woman of color who favors high heels and neon or animal print spandex a few sizes too small.

My favorite Lula quote?

“Fritos have a calming influence on a woman.”

And then there’s Ranger, a rich, sexy, mysterious Latino ex Special Forces who only wears black, smells sexy and kicks butt. Did I mention he’s sexy?

My favorite Ranger quote?

Stephanie had lost a fight with a garbage can when he said, “I don’t have a lot of domestic instincts, but I have a real strong urge to take you home and hose you down.”

But the man she’s occasionally committed to is Joe Morelli, a cop who’s know her since she was five.

My favorite Morelli quote?

“We don’t seem to be all that good at commitment, but I’d be happy to give up a couple closets in exchange for wild gorilla sex at least five days out of seven.”

Evanovich's character portrayals are keenly observed. So much so that this year a passage from the Plum series describing Stephanie's uncle was in the standard test given to all twelfth graders in our state. Poor pencil chewing, nervous high school students had to read the description and then write another scene with the wacky old man. I noticed the question because I was invigilating and picked up a spare copy of the exam to peruse as I paced the room. Told you I read compulsively.

I do still love reading the Stephanie Plum series after all these years. Yes, they are all kind of the same, and if I read the books too closely together I O.D. a bit on the wackiness, but they continue to surprise me at times. During a recent international flight my children were mortified by me laughing out loud while reading a Plum book. Shoulders heaving, face red and streaked with tears, I was just not the head of the family they wanted to sit next to in a plane or airport coffee shop.

However, a person’s sense of humor is a nebulous thing, and I was recently surprised a friend of mine didn’t like the books. We have, I thought, kindred warped, snappy views of the world and I was sure she’d be addicted just like me. She said, ‘When does it get funny? I kept thinking the next page would be funny. Yeah, I smiled, but it wasn’t really funny.’ I was astounded. It’s almost like all those laughs we’d shared in the past were a mistake or a fluke.

So, all I can say is, find a copy (it doesn’t matter which number you read first) and see what you think. Just don’t blame me if you embarrass your kids or damage a friendship.