series

Book Review: A King’s Ransom

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A King’s Ransom
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #2
by Jude Watson

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Amy and Dan Cahill continue to jump through hoops for their enemy, Vesper One, trying to save the lives of their abducted friends and family members. This time, they’re given the impossible task of finding a map that’s been missing for decades.

The Cahills’ saga continues strong in this 2nd book in the sequel series. Amy and Dan are forced to make decisions beyond their years, and pick up some allies and enemies along the way. Some major developments happen in this book, more than I expected so early, though I have to remember this series is about half the length of the previous. I enjoyed the excitement in this book and the little hints at a greater hunt that the Vespers are on.

I feel like the different-author-per-book issues aren’t as noticeable so far in this series, which could be due to there being a lot more to look at and build off of. Plus, both of the authors so far have written at least one 39 Clues book already. Amy still struggles with nerves, yet it’s clear that her training has helped her overcome some of it. Dan, though he’s clearly more serious and troubled than he used to be, still has his goofy moments that are reminiscent of his younger self. I appreciate the growth seen in these two; it’s realistic for what they’ve been through. I recommend this book for young and old, anyone who enjoys mystery and adventure for a younger audience.

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Book Review: New Tricks

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New Tricks
Andy Carpenter #7
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When reluctant defense attorney Andy Carpenter is tasked with deciding who should take ownership of a special dog, he realizes that it won’t be simple. The dog’s original owner is dead, and one of the parties who want to be given ownership of the dog is soon accused of the murder. When other people involved with the dog seem to be in danger as well, Andy really has his work cut out for him.

Though Andy generally avoids taking on clients, he often comes across his clients in these books in a fairly basic way—they’re a neighbor, a friend of a friend, etc. This case is different, which is nice in a series that is overall formulaic. There are some other differences from the formula here as well, and a scary moment for Andy (which was less scary for me, since I’ve read several books later in the series). The case itself and the end to it felt a little weak to me, and then the final resolution seemed to come out of nowhere.

Despite the weaker endings, I still enjoyed this book as I have all of the series that I’ve read so far. I recommend the book (especially the audio—Grover Gardner makes Andy’s sarcasm and wit come to life) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas.

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Book Review: The Fall of Five

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The Fall of Five
Lorien Legacies #4
by Pittacus Lore

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with I Am Number Four.

Now that 5 out of 6 of the remaining Garde are together (plus one), it’s time to think about bringing the fight to the Mogodorians. While they inventory their chests and get some training in, the absent Five sends up a signal for them to come find him. Do they finally have what it takes to defeat the Mog leader? Or will they crash and burn?

This was my favorite book of the series so far. The dynamic of the different Garde who grew up with very different lifestyles, combined with the human element, provide an interesting backdrop to the action. The fight scenes didn’t make me resort to scanning like they have in the past (or maybe they were shorter/fewer). There are some epic, cheer-worthy moments early in the book, and then some intrigue and action later too. Though I did predict the climax to some degree, it still had me hooked.

Though I don’t particularly care about Sarah or Sarah and John’s relationship, I’m glad we’ve at least skirted the love triangle. There’s still an element of pairing everyone off, but it gets right to the edge of what would be annoying for me without quite going over. There is a capture-the-flag-type training scene that involves a lot of head hopping (since this series has changed POVs between 3 (or 4?) characters ever since book #2), and it was really confusing, but I think that’s mostly because the Kindle book doesn’t have the (slightly) different fonts for the different POVs. I didn’t always even realize we’d switched POV, especially if it happened at the end of a page, and would get lost, but the print book probably makes that a lot more clear. That’s a formatting thing that the publishers should definitely take into account, but not something I’m going to hold against the book. This book definitely left me wanting to know what happens next, and though #2 was a little shaky for me, I’ve enjoyed the series overall so far and look forward to continuing it.

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Book Review: The Mystery of the Blue Train

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The Mystery of the Blue Train
Hercule Poirot #6
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I know I haven’t been the biggest fan of this series so far, but this one felt even messier and a bit more convoluted to me. Lots of red herrings and potential suspects are trotted out, there are conversations that amount to nothing, and in the end, the solution is a lot simpler than all of that set-up made it seem like it would be. I actually found the story interesting when the different characters are being introduced and I’m trying to guess who is going to be found dead and who would be the culprit. But the second half or so seemed to slow way down, and that’s where the filler came in. 

What’s funny to me is that while I was listening to this audiobook (narrated very well by Hugh Fraser), I decided that here is where I would end my attempts to go through this series. But afterward, I decided to keep going for now. I think I’m still hoping something will suddenly click and I’ll see what everyone else sees in these books. We’ll see.

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Book Review: The Secret of Shadow Ranch

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The Secret of Shadow Ranch
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #5
by Carolyn Keene
read by Laura Linney

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic mystery

This book was the first in the series to bring up major ND video game memories for me. The game takes different turns, but the legend of the outlaw whose phantom horse is showing up and wreaking havoc are in the game. There’s a sub-plot in the book regarding a kidnapped man that I didn’t see a reason for—supposedly his kidnappers let him drawing pictures and then sold them in town. It ended up being a way to help Nancy and her friends begin to find answers to the main mystery, but it seemed pretty sloppy to me.

This series has already showcased Nancy as great at everything she does, but this book takes it a step further, when Nancy and her friends win every activity during a town festival. I suppose that during this time period, it seemed best to show the good guys as the best at everything, but it would certainly have been more realistic and taught kids more about real life if Nancy was 2nd-best now and then.

For a second time, a bloated plot was my biggest issue with the book. Linney still does a great job bringing Nancy to life, but I hope to enjoy the next one more.

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Book Review: The Medusa Plot

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The Medusa Plot
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #1
by Gordon Korman

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade mystery, adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Maze of Bones.

Two years after the events at the end of the main series, we pick up with Amy and Dan, trying to live a “normal” life. For Amy, this means dating a guy at school while secretly training in various disciplines at home. For Dan, this means the drudgery of normal school, but he’s also dealing with some internal distractions. When the Vespers make a move after 2 years of silence, it’s a big one. Now Dan and Amy are in a race against the clock to save some of their closest loved ones and some of their once-worst enemies.

This follow-up series to The 39 Clues starts off with a bang. Despite the hatred that these family members had for each other in the past, I think the ending of the main series was sufficient to pave the way for these young people working together now. And the fact that their parents aren’t necessarily on board with inner-Cahill-family friendship seems quite realistic as well. I particularly like that Sinead lives with Dan and Amy now and has established a com-center at their house. The way this generation of Clue hunters works together is nice to see.

Dan seems to have a sort of PTSD, where he’ll pull away from Amy and kind of recede into himself. She doesn’t know that he’s mentally working out how he can complete and use the serum that was destroyed (everywhere but in his memory) 2 years ago, so he can stop the Vespers. I really appreciate this aspect of the story and feel for these siblings who have already been through so much tragedy and just want to keep their loved ones safe.

I feel like, in some ways, the story has aged and matured past where it started. The original series could be read by as young as 10-11-year-old kids, but this series, so far, seems a bit darker and more mature than that. If kids sort of “grow up” with the series, though, and start this series after reading the first, at around 12-13, I could see it working. For my part as an adult reader, I enjoy the new, deeper elements to the plot and look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

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Book Review: Kristy’s Great Idea

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Kristy’s Great Idea
The Baby-Sitters Club #1
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

I enjoyed diving into the first book in the series and witnessing the birth of the Baby-Sitters Club anew. I struggle to actually envision these pre-teens as 12-year-olds though. My daughter is 14, and I can’t imagine her talking and acting like these characters do 2 years ago. Maybe that’s a difference in time periods, or maybe it was Martin’s attempt to make the plot plausible. On the other hand, Kristy acts very immature with her mom and mom’s boyfriend/fiancé, while most of the maturity is related to the girls’ babysitting abilities and experience, a nuance that might actually make sense after all. I look forward to the evolution of the club, which starts in this book and I know will continue in future books as the girls add more protocols and members.

I remember doing a small-scale version of this with my friend (we lived in the country, so it definitely didn’t work quite as well, but I did get one summer-long job out of it). I don’t remember if it was inspired by the series, though I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have influenced us to some degree, but I can say that I was not nearly as professional as these girls. I checked out the e-book on a whim while waiting until I had time to pick up a book I had on hold at the library, and I was sad that the e-book doesn’t have the distinct handwriting of the club members. I’ll definitely get physical copies as much as possible as I continue through the series. I don’t know how far I’ll get before stopping—maybe once I am past the books that I would have read due to outgrowing the books, or maybe further. Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. My guess is no, but maybe if your kids are interested in reading about a somewhat simpler time (it’s so weird to say that about my own childhood period, but it really is true—and I have now realized that this book came out 40 years ago, and now I feel really old) they’ll enjoy this book.

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Book Review: The More the Terrier

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The More the Terrier
Andy Carpenter #30
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When reluctant defense attorney Andy Carpenter is presented with a stray dog, he (or, more accurately, his son) recognizes it as a terrier his family once fostered. Upon returning the dog to his home, Andy discovers that its owner has been arrested for murder. The young man’s attorney doesn’t inspire confidence in Andy, so he decides to take over the case.

This installment in the series (which, like others with a Christmas-related name or cover, takes place near Christmastime, but isn’t really Christmas-y in nature) has all of the intrigue, drama, and wit that I’ve come to love from these books. The pressure that Andy feels when someone’s life is in his hands is high in this book, and I appreciate his sense of justice. His defense case felt a lot weaker and more muddled than normal, though it’s understandable, given what he had to work with. In the end, I was a little surprised by the way the case and investigations went, based on what I’m used to from this series, which tends to be formulaic (in a good way). Rosenfelt has a way of changing up the formula enough to keep the books from becoming mundane, but this was a little less clean in the end. I might even say that it’s been my least favorite in the series so far, but I still enjoyed it and am rating it 4 stars, so that should tell you how much I’ve loved the rest of the series (I’ve only read 1/3 of the series so far).

This series has become something of a comfort read for me. Or more accurately, a comfort listen, since, though I’ve enjoyed the books from the first one I read, once I started at the beginning with the audiobooks, it amplified my enjoyment a lot. Therefore, receiving an ARC of the audiobook was a real honor. I highly recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, and though there are some over-arcing storylines throughout the series, you don’t really need to start at the beginning (though I’d still recommend it).

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Publication date: October 15, 2024

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Book Review: Play Dead

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Play Dead
Andy Carpenter #6
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

After getting Yogi, a golden retriever, off death row, defense attorney Andy Carpenter sets out to prove the innocence of Yogi’s owner, Richard Evans, who has been convicted of murder. Since Richard supposedly killed Yogi at the same time as the human victim, Yogi’s very existence puts casts uncertainty on Richard’s guilt, and Andy is just the person to pursue that thread.

At one point, I thought the titles of these books were just random references to murder and/or dogs, and maybe some of them are. I’m starting to see connections between the title and the story in some of the books, though, which in this case led me to make some assumptions that the characters had less reason to make. Fortunately, it doesn’t bother me to correctly guess what’s going on in a book in this series, because the journey is still enjoyable, largely due to Andy’s interactions with both friend and foe alike. The series may be a bit formulaic, but this series is one of those cases when it’s done right. That’s partly due to Rosenfelt’s writing and partly due to the way he often circumvents the formula in some way, big or small. This time, it’s big.

I highly recommend this book for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, and though there are some over-arcing storylines throughout the series, you don’t really need to start at the beginning (though I’d still recommend it). Grover Gardner is the definitive voice of Andy Carpenter, bringing Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life, so if you’re an audiobook listener, I’d suggest trying that out for this series. 

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Book Review: A Thieving at Carlton House

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A Thieving at Carlton House
Of Cloaks & Daggers #1
by Erica Vetsch

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian historical mystery

When a costly set of jewels goes missing from the Prince Regent’s home, suspicion falls on two young servants that were placed there by Philippa Cashel, a former courtesan who now attempts to help other women in a similar position turn their lives around. Sir Bertrand Thorndike is ready to step out from under the shadow of his older brother and lead his own team of covert agents for the Crown, but his first assignment—recovering the stolen jewels—will prove to be much more complex than it appears.

Here Vetsch brings us another engaging story set in Regency England with a Christian worldview. The network of family, friends, and spies she has built in this world provides a perfect backdrop for a seemingly simple theft that gives Bertie Thorndike a run for his money. At the same time, Philippa is attempting to get a school off the ground for girls and women who want to escape their life on the streets, and she runs into obstacles and irritations that leave her questioning if she’s in over her head. Bertie has some development, but Philippa’s characterization arc is the highlight here, and we’re left with a hint of more to come for Bertie. I love the way Vetsch weaves themes of faith and forgiveness into the book without being preachy.

Erica Vetsch has created some of my favorite characters, large and small, so the fact that we get to continue seeing these characters makes me so happy. All good things must come to an end, but that doesn’t mean the end has to come quickly. I’m glad Vetsch has managed to buck the tradition of trilogies in this genre and keeps connecting the various trilogies to the same world. Yet at the same time, a new reader could start with this book and not be lost, since relevant things from the past are explained when/as needed. Of course, I would still recommend starting at the beginning for the full, rich experience, but diving in here is fine too. Either way, I highly recommend this book for fans of this genre and time period, whether you like romance or not, because there is some, but it’s not the focus of the book.

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