Author: Book Girl

Murder Among the Pyramids

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Murder Among the Pyramids by Sara Rosett

A new historical mystery series from Rosett is always welcome news. I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla Digital, with excellent narrating by Elizabeth Klett. Rosett researched 1930s Egypt, lady explorers, and more to creating the first Lady Traveler in Egypt mystery, featuring Blix Windway and Hildy Honeyworth. Blix was introduced in the 6th High Society Lady Detective series, Murder on a Midnight Clear. The author intends to continue the earlier series.

Blix is a resourceful young woman, traveling the world, taking photos, and delivering lectures to women’s groups. Often, she works as a lady’s companion to fund her travels. Arriving in France after a rough channel crossing, Blix needs to find a new patron to cover her travel past Paris. In Paris, Blix and her new traveling companion, Hildy Honeyworth, participate in an exciting road race in Paris.

They travel on to Marseilles, Alexandria, and then to Cairo, Egypt. There is a death in a tent near the pyramids, and an Egyptian diary and expensive jewelry go missing. When society gossips start whispering that Hildy is a suspect, Blix investigates. With the help of reporter Mr. Denby and the scornful Mr. Heathcliff, who works with but not for the police, Blix finds many clues, and almost gets caught up in a street riot. Egypt of the 1930s is vividly described, and Blix is a very appealing amateur detective. I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, which is wonderful historical armchair travel. I look forward to Blix and Hildy’s next adventure, on a trip down the Nile.

Brenda

The Teller of Small Fortunes

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The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

This is a delightful first novel that’s an Indie Next and a Library Reads pick. I love the book cover, which features a wagon, an Asian woman in a cloak, a cup of tea, and a cat. The book is recommended by other cozy fantasy writers, including Sangu Mandanna, Sarah Beth Durst, and Rebecca Thorne.

Tao is Shinaran, but grew up in Eshtara in her stepfather’s house. She once told a major fortune, but has resolved to tell only small fortunes. Small fortunes usually concern the near future and are about everyday happenings. She travels between villages with her mule, Laohu, telling fortunes by reading tea leaves, palms, or a set of Shinaran stones. When a large tree blocks the road, she meets Mash and Silt. Mash is a large ex-mercenary and poet while Silt is a reformed thief. A small fortune told for Mash has a huge effect, and the trio decide to travel together. Mash has been looking for his missing daughter for months.

Then apprentice baker Kina joins the found family. Kina’s pastries usually taste delicious but don’t look very appealing. She is happy to join them on the road, and they soon acquire another wagon and horse, along with a cat. The group encounters a troll and a phoenix on their travels. Tao finally sees her mother after a long separation, as well as her stepfather, and learns more about Eshtara’s Guild of Mages. This is a lovely tale that is heartwarming, a little sad, and occasionally funny. I enjoyed this story about a young woman who didn’t fit in anywhere finding her path and her people. Another book in the same world but with new characters is expected next year.

Brenda

What Time the Sexton’s Spade doth Rust

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What Time the Sexton’s Spade doth Rust by Alan Bradley

After a five-year wait, another Flavia de Luce mystery is most welcome. Flavia is a young teen in early 1950s England, a skilled chemist, and an amateur sleuth. Her clever younger cousin Undine has come to live in the large family house in Bishop’s Lacey, and constantly shadows Flavia. Flavia’s sister Daffy is still there, but oldest sister Ophelia is now married. Dogger and Mrs. Mullett look after the three girls and the house since their father’s death. Flavia and Dogger have long chats in the greenhouse.

Mrs. Mullett has also started cooking meals for Major Greyleigh, her long ago sweetheart. When he is found dead, she is suspected of cooking him poisonous mushrooms for breakfast. While sleuthing, Flavia uncovers a huge family secret and learns that Mrs. M also knows. Does Dogger? British intelligence is operating nearby and it looks like Flavia, Dogger, and also cousin Undine will have more fiendishly clever cases to solve in the future, to the delight of Flavia’s many fans.

Brenda

Alliance Unbound

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Alliance Unbound: The Hinder Stars II

Published five years after Alliance Rising, science fiction novel Alliance Unbound is well worth the wait for Cherryh’s many fans. Increasingly hard to put down, this story about trade in interstellar space both delights and thrills. Three main characters narrate: Senior captain JR Neihart of the Large FTL family ship Finity’s End, young Jen Neihart, an up-and-coming member of Finity’s Security team, and her sweetheart, Navigator Ross Monahan of smaller family ship Galway. One of the real delights is an arboretum on the wealthy station Pell. Jen escorts the nine Monahans currently traveling on Finity’s End, and it’s great to see Pell and the arboretum through their eyes. Their visit to Pell also provides clues to a mystery, sending the ship to visit remote, closed-down space stations. Naturally, they find all the excitement a reader could want at one of the stations, with Ross and Jen having significant roles.

Ross can sense the binary stars at the stations they visit, as can Finity’s chief navigator. Alliances are forming among the merchanters and the space stations, but what Finity’s crew encounters could challenge the whole Alliance. A subplot is about waiting for news about Galway, testing out a possible FTL route to Sol, currently visited only by sublight cargo ships, while also dealing with armed intruders.

I love Cherryh’s Foreigner series, but this book is a close second. I will likely reread Alliance Rising while waiting for book 3. These books are an excellent entry point into the Hugo award-winning Alliance-Union universe.

Brenda

Maria

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Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran

Fran, an aspiring writer, works for Oscar Hammerstein in 1959. He is completing the final songs for a new Broadway show, The Sound of Music, starring Mary Martin. Maria von Trapp, unhappy with the script, comes to New York City to request some changes. Fran is sent to take her to lunch and they end up meeting several times. Maria doesn’t like how her late husband Georg is portrayed as a stern parent and thinks that the whole second half of the show is pure fiction. Also, Liesl is really Rupert. Maria was the stricter parent, after being raised by her grandmother in her aunt and uncle’s home. Maria’s father was a musician, who gave her a guitar.

Fran’s story as a working girl in 1959 New York is also quite interesting, as is her romantic life. Maria shares highlights of her life story with Fran, who gets to know Maria and her youngest daughter, and takes detailed notes for Oscar, who is ill. The last song he writes for the show is “Edelweiss,” not actually an Austrian folk song. The real-life stories of Maria and the von Trapp family make for a compelling read, and should appeal to readers of biographical fiction or fans of The Sound of Music.

Brenda

A Walk in the Park

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A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

Fedarko, inspired by a book his dad gave him, thought he’d explore the Grand Canyon by river. Interning with a river tour company, he only became skilled enough to row a supply raft which hauled trash. He learned to love writing about the canyon and other wilderness areas, traveling with National Geographic photographer Pete McBride.

At McBride’s suggestion, they embarked on an end-to-end traverse inside the Grand Canyon from east to west, in several different expeditions. For their first section, an experienced group of canyon explorers welcomes them for 12 days—they don’t even last a full week. Their backpacks are way too heavy and disorganized and they didn’t prepare for all the off-trail walking, hiking, climbing, or rappelling among the many layers of rock. Daily, there is the challenge of reaching a safe camping spot before dark, in case of flash floods, and always being on the lookout for the next source of water, however tiny. Then there’s the need to consume massive amounts of calories and taking care of their feet.

Through the generosity of more experienced hikers, Kevin and Pete prepared for their next venture into the canyon, with the support of still others caching their resupply buckets and driving them to and from the canyon’s rim. Gradually they make their way west, with breaks to plan the next hike or for Kevin to visit his ailing father. This story is told with much more depth than many other real-life adventures, including lots of the history and prehistory of the canyon and the people who lived there and the artifacts they left. They met with members of the Navajo and Havasupai tribes, and Fedarko relates both sides of the recent influx of thousands of tourists from Las Vegas visiting the western Grand Canyon by helicopter.

The stunning beauty of the inner canyon is well described, making readers understand the appeal of this often extremely hot and always challenging journey, which made a huge impact on the author. Peter McBride has published a book of Grand Canyon photographs and there is a National Geographic documentary about their journey, Into the Grand Canyon, neither of which I’ve seen, yet. Many photographs by McBride are included in A Walk in the Park. This is a memorable and enjoyable read for those who enjoy armchair travel or real-life adventure tales.

Brenda

Moonbound

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Moonbound by Robin Sloan

This science fiction novel has wizards, dragons, talking beavers, and swords of destiny. It’s also set on Earth, but 11,000 years in the future. If you, like me, enjoy genre-bending tales, you may enjoy the wild ride with young Ariel de la Sauvage and an unseen Chronicler. Dragons (who may actually be robots) live on the Moon and have enclosed Earth in a sort of bubble. Part of the bubble is torn when Durga comes to Earth in stasis, aboard a small spacecraft.

As young Ariel journeys across a far future version of the British Isles along with robot Clovis, Durga, beaver Agassiz and others, he also visits a town dedicated to recycling and remaking and a virtual memory café. Ariel has a lot to learn and has numerous adventures. I enjoyed this very imaginative tale from the author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.

Brenda

The Christmas You Found Me

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The Christmas You Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler

This is not your typical light and fluffy Christmas romance. It’s very heartfelt holiday novel, even a bit of a tearjerker, and very hard to put down. The author has been through some loss and her writing here is richer and deeper than her popular Moose Springs, Alaska trilogy, beginning with The Tourist Attraction.

In northern Idaho, recently divorced rancher Sienna Naples is embarrassed when her friend Jess places an ad in the local paper: Husband for Hire, with excellent medical benefits. She kept her family’s large ranch in the mountains in the divorce, but has only a mule, a horse, two donkeys and her older dog Barley to care for a herd of 63 cattle. She can certainly use help on the ranch, but not another husband. Then Jess says they’ve sent an applicant to meet her at the local coffee shop. When Sienna meets Montanan Guy, he’s most interested in the medical benefits the ad mentioned, as his little girl, Emma, has some serious health issues. When Sienna meets the adorable 4-year-old Emma, and her dog Barley falls hard for her, she is stunned to find herself offering a marriage of convenience.

Guy does chores on the ranch when not working construction in town. Christmas is a big deal in Caney Falls, and he’s helping build an enormous walk-through snow globe. The three of them have a magical time enjoying it, though Emma wants to be just like the other kids.

Sienna’s ex, Micah, will be no reader’s favorite character, but he’s a surprisingly complex one. Micah even helps out when Sienna’s elderly father, who has dementia, takes a turn for the worse. This slow-burn romance is joyful, briefly funny, heartwarming, and occasionally achingly sad. I found this to be a compelling and memorable read. Robyn Carr is a good readalike.

Brenda

A Letter to the Luminous Deep

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A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

This is a wondrous and strange story told in letters, journal entries, the equivalent of email, poems, and archives. It reads like historical fantasy, but it might not be. Most people live on or under the sea, with an archipelago of islands the only land around. Two of our characters, Sophy and her sister E. grew up in the Deep House, the only residence built deep underwater, designed by their mother, an architect. E. has anxiety and rarely leaves home. She is affronted when her artist brother arrives unannounced with his fiancée to study a structure that has appeared nearby. E. corresponds with Scholar Henery. Later Henery’s brother Vyell also corresponds with Sophy.

This marine world is described beautifully, as are scientific explorations on and far beneath the surfaces. Most of the characters are scholars, and descriptions of their colleagues and academic departments delight. Emails are known as automated posts. The language is a bit flowery, as of another era, though women are equal with men in academia and gay marriage is common. There are hints of a calamity and plenty of excitement, along with mystery, humor and some gentle romance. Book Two of The Sunken Archive is planned.

Brenda

Forget Me Never

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Forget Me Never by Susan Wittig Albert

Incredibly, this is book 29 in the China Bayles Herbal Mysteries. Thyme of Death is the first book. China owns an herb shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, a fictional town in the hill country between Austin and San Antonio. A former lawyer in Houston, she’s now an amateur sleuth. Her spouse McQuaid is a PI, a former cop, and a professor of criminal justice. Ruby, her business partner, is a psychic. Their friend Sheila is the local police chief.

China investigates a recent hit-and-run death that might be connected to a 20-year-old arson case. Gardens, scenic landscapes, pets, delicious food, and time with her spouse make a charming frame for China’s cases. In this one, the suspected arsonist of twenty years ago may have faked his death in Mexico and may be living in or near Pecan Springs. Chapter headnotes describe herbs that may (or may not) help with memory issues. This is an interesting read and a clever mystery. China is still in top form, and I look forward to book 30.

Brenda