mystery

Book Review: Bark of Night

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Bark of Night
Andy Carpenter #19
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a dog whose owner was recently murdered is brought to a vet by a man who pays to have it euthanized, Andy Carpenter is suspicious. Someone has been arrested for the murder, and it wasn’t the man who brought a perfectly healthy dog to the vet to be put down. So he once again dusts off his defense attorney skills and assembles the team for another case.

This was a great installment in the series, with a little bit of a different take on the formula I always enjoy. The story this time is more focused on the investigation than the trial, allowing the different facets of the crime more room to breathe. It was a little complex, but it didn’t feel as convoluted as others have, and I think that’s because Rosenfelt expanded on it enough to keep that from happening. I always enjoy the inclusion of Andy’s team, and this time, we get to see the softer side of Marcus, which is fun. Overall, I felt like it was one of the stronger books in an overall great series! I especially recommend the audiobook, as Grover Gardner was clearly made to voice Andy Carpenter and brings his wit and sarcasm to life as wonderfully as ever.

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Book Review: Death on the Nile

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Death on the Nile
Hercule Poirot #18
by Agatha Christie
read by Kenneth Branagh

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I really enjoyed this Poirot novel; I think it was actually one of my favorites. Of course, part of that might be the fact that I actually pegged the bad guy for once. I may have come up with alternate theories a time or two, but that’s just because Christie still does well with the obfuscation. I even correctly guessed the why, but not exactly the how. I also really liked it when Poirot is involved from the start, rather than coming in halfway through the book. And when he has someone else to work with, even if it’s not Hastings. The setting in Egypt doesn’t really play into the story as much as one might think, since most of the story takes place on a boat, though that aspect does provide some interesting aspects to the plot and mystery. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Kenneth Branagh, which was unsurprisingly really good. I did struggle a little to understand his Poirot accent early on, but it seemed to even out as I went. Overall, this was a great addition to the series.

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Book Review: I Know What You Did Last Summer

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I Know What You Did Last Summer
by Lois Duncan

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA mystery

Is it a prank? Or something more? When Julie James finds the note addressed to her that says, “I know what you did last summer,” she thinks she knows exactly what it means. Someone has discovered the terrible event that occurred last summer that she and the three others she was with at the time agreed to cover up. And though the others try to convince her it’s unrelated, when the attacks start, it’s hard to believe it’s a coincidence.

If you’ve seen the movie, forget everything you know about it. This is not a horror/slasher story. It’s really more of a mystery, maybe even a thriller. I didn’t feel particularly thrilled, so I wouldn’t label it that myself, but that might be because I was distracted here or there, partly because of the movie. It came out when I was a teenager, right alongside Scream, and though I’m not really much of a horror fan, I did see both movies. And then a year later, Urban Legend. I’m pretty sure it all involved hanging out with friends. I was vaguely aware that this book wasn’t exactly the same as the movie, but I didn’t realize how different it was. (By the way, Lois Duncan was horrified by the movie.)

I tried to put aside my thoughts about the movie and start fresh for the book, once I realized how different it was, and that worked to a degree. But then there’s talk about making a phone call from a car, and I was distracted again. If the movie came out in the late 90s, when was the book written? Oh, 1978…then why do these teens have cell phones? Apparently this book was updated in 2010 to be more modern, which mostly includes the addition of cell phones, while some of the dialog still feels fairly dated to me. I wish I’d known in advance this was an updated version, as I might have tried to get my hands on an original instead. Of course, none of this review so far really talks about the story itself.

Overall, I have to admit to being fairly bored during this book (which is why I said above that I wasn’t particularly thrilled). There is a mystery involved in learning who is sending the notes and hunting Julia and her “friends,” and I’ll admit that I didn’t guess all of it. There’s a little bit of a twist, but getting there was just kind of…not terribly interesting. And at least half of the characters are just terrible. Maybe that’s on purpose, but if I’m supposed to feel any sympathy for Barry the misogynist, something went wrong. Still, it’s a quick read and overall not too full of sex, language, or even violence. So not a slasher novel. There are references to teen sex and drug use, but it’s not really overt. If you’re a fan of the movie, you might want to skip this unless you’re really interested in its origin. If you enjoy YA mysteries that are fairly short and slow, you might want to give this a try.

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Book Review: Deck the Hounds

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Deck the Hounds
Andy Carpenter #18
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a homeless man is attacked and his dog bites the attacker, the dog is quarantined and the man is heartbroken. Andy Carpenter’s family insist that he offer the man some help, since, after all, it’s Christmas! Things take a turn when the man is arrested for murder, putting reluctant defense attorney Andy in the position of having to decide whether to represent him or not.

This was a sort of middle-of-the-road read for me, in the context of the rest of the series. It didn’t stand out in any way as better or worse than average. Of course, since this series is a comfort read/listen for me, “average” is still plenty enjoyable. The ending seemed a little harder to follow than usual, and I kinda kept waiting for a little more to come out. There was one plot arc that seemed to be unrelated to the case, but I saw its connection coming pretty much the whole time, though not every detail. Of course, I have the benefit of knowing that this is a fictional story, so the author isn’t going to include something that won’t eventually factor into the main plot. Overall, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend starting the series here, I do recommend this book for fans of mysteries and court dramas. And if you’re an audiobook listener, definitely consider going that route for this book/series, since Grover Gardner is always great at bringing Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life.

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Book Review: The Hawthorne Legacy

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The Hawthorne Legacy
The Inheritance Games #2
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA mystery, romance

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous book in the series, The Inheritance Games.

Avery Grambs is still trying to understand why a complete stranger, Tobias Hawthorne, left her his vast fortune when he died, and a recent development has left her, and other members of the Hawthorne family, reeling. Never truly knowing who is friend and who is foe, Avery and at least some of the Hawthorne brothers attempt to unravel the mystery about the presumed-dead, long-lost Hawthorne son.

Like with the previous book, I kind of had to try to push aside my annoyance with the “romance” angle in this book. It’s based way too much on physical attraction for my preference, though I will at least say that there was a little deeper connection happening here than the previous. Still, Barnes’s idea of romance is not at all the same as mine, and some of her decisions on how she wrote that side of the story and then how things stood at the end made me scratch my head.

Fortunately, I was much more into the mystery side of this book than I was in the previous, at least for a while. Because Avery has already had time to get past the initial shock of the inheritance, meeting the family, and learning how crazy the house is, there’s more going on in the search for answers. But I should have been suspicious when major answers seemed to come way too early in the book. “What could the rest of the story be about?” I found myself wondering. Oh, if only I were less trusting…. One of my biggest grips about the plot of the previous book was that there weren’t really any solid answers about what I thought the main mystery was (why did the old man leave his fortune to Avery?). There was an answer, but it was weak and didn’t seem to be all of the story. I was much happier with how things started to pan out during this book…until Barnes basically undid everything she’d set up by the end. And this point, I don’t know if the “new” answer at the end of this book is any more the “real” answer than what we ended the last book with, or if the next book will start with Avery or one of the Hawthorne brothers unearthing a clue that starts them on the hunt to the real “real” answer. Maybe the intention here has always been for the mystery of the unknown heiress to stretch across the entire trilogy, but Barnes’s way of keeping that going is to pretend to give us an answer, then go, “Fooled you! That’s not the real answer; you have to keep going!” And I don’t particularly care for that kind of story. Subversion is one thing, but this is giving me mental whiplash.

I would definitely stop reading here, not remotely caring enough to see how Avery finishes her required year living in Hawthorne House, but my daughter, who loves this series, wants me to finish it out, so I will do it for her. It’s still difficult for me to recommend this book to anyone, but if you read my review and don’t feel that what bothered me would bother you and you’re interested in the story, you might consider trying it out yourself (it’s a continuing story, though, so you definitely need to start with the first one).

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Book Review: Dumb Witness

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Dumb Witness
Hercule Poirot #17
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This story was a bit different than the rest of the series so far, in that the death that starts it off is billed as natural. However, the dead woman had an accident not long before, chalked up to her tripping over the ball that her dog left at the top of the stairs, but something about that scenario leaves her suspicious of her family. She writes to Poirot, who doesn’t get her letter until it’s too late but is still compelled to investigate the original attempted murder. The large cast of suspects is standard fare, though, as is the path we go down with Poirot and Hastings on the way to the solution. And as is the fact that most of my many theories about whodunit and why turned out to be wrong. It was overall an average Poirot for me, not as slow as the early ones but not a stand-out either, except for Bob the dog (whose ball was blamed for his owner’s fall). Any time Poirot and Hastings are at the house and encounter Bob, Hastings tells us what the dog is likely thinking, and it’s hilarious, especially the way Hugh Fraser narrates it.

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Book Review: Rescued

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Rescued
Andy Carpenter #17
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a dead body is found inside a truck full of rescue dogs in a rest area parking lot, defense attorney Andy Carpenter gets a visit from the killer, except he says it was self-defense. But since the killer is the ex-fiancé of Andy’s wife Laurie, he’s not too keen to help him out…until Laurie asks nicely.

I always knew Andy was immature, but man does he hit a new low in this book. It’s totally in-character, but it’s my least favorite aspect of his character, so there’s that. On the other hand, the continuation of pod-Hike from the previous book is fun, as is the return of the Bubalah Brigade. The mystery surrounding the case sticks pretty closely to the formula Rosenfelt has used throughout the series, with enough deviations to keep it mostly fresh and as enjoyable as ever. Grover Gardner is always great at bringing Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life, and I recommend this book (especially the audiobook) for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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Book Review: Murder in the Mews

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Murder in the Mews
Hercule Poirot #16
by Agatha Christie
read by Nigel Hawthorne & Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

As I said in my review of the previous book of short stories from this series, there’s something to be said about the succinctness here. Oftentimes, what I dislike most about a Poirot novel is how bloated the plot feels, so it’s nice to get to the point a little more quickly. Though at least one of these stories felt too short, so there’s that. The story that I remember thinking was a little too short, though, is also the one that stood out to me the most. Though the ending seemed a little rushed, I liked the plot and the twist. Overall, I find that trying to guess at what’s going to surprise me at the end of a Poirot story (long or short) is what I enjoy most, and it takes less time to get there with these shorter stories. I was not a fan of the narrator of the first story, “Murder in the Mews,” which was Nigel Hawthorne, so it was a huge relief when it changed to Hugh Fraser, who has been my favorite narrator throughout this series, for the last three.

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Book Review: Collared

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Collared
Andy Carpenter #16
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a dog is brought to the Tara Foundation, it turns out to be a dog involved in a child abduction case, a dog presumed to be dead. The mother of the kidnapped child is a friend of defense attorney Andy Carpenter and his wife, and he reluctantly agrees to look into the situation, starting with the dog. But when he begins to believe that the man who has been convicted of killing the child may be innocent, Andy knows he may have grounds for appeal.

I’m definitely seeing a pattern, wherein the less section of 3rd-person narration showing us the more in-depth parts of the conspiracy involved in the plot there are, the more I enjoy the book. It’s not really surprising. I always prefer to stay with Andy and his crew anyway. I particularly enjoyed Hike in this book, surprisingly enough. I will say that I started to lose track of what was going on near the end, as the plot got a little too twisty for me to follow well while listening to the audiobook. I’m pretty sure I sussed it all out correctly by the end, but maybe it was a little more convoluted than it needed to be. Still, this book was a solid addition to the series. As always, Grover Gardner is the consummate Andy Carpenter, and I recommend this book for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia

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Murder in Mesopotamia
Hercule Poirot #14
by Agatha Christie
read by Anna Massey

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Not my favorite of the Poirot stories I’ve listened to so far. A lot of it is personal preference, though, like the jarring change in narrator, which probably wouldn’t have been an issue if I wasn’t listening to the audiobooks and used to male voices. The setting and background situation in the story, an archeological expedition in Iraq (or something like that), could have been interesting, but it was pretty meagerly used. The resolution to this story was a little bizarre and not very believable. And man, did it feel like it took a really long time for Poirot to actually appear in the story (though this isn’t the first one that I felt that way about). Overall, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to my favorites in the series so far.

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