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Book Review: Trust No One

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Trust No One
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #5
by Linda Sue Park

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.

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. Meanwhile, the in the Cahills’ inner circle will be exposed.

I kinda don’t know where to begin with this review. The story really ramps up in this penultimate book, and yet at the same time, it’s still stagnant in some ways. The fact that my synopses for these books basically always have some version of “Amy and Dan continue doing Vesper One’s bidding to try to save the lives of their hostage loved ones…” means that there’s not a whole lot of variation in the plots. And what they’re doing for the Vespers is always stealing something that’s priceless or super heavily guarded or just missing from history. I will say, though, the historical treasure involved in this book was really interesting. I was curious enough to look it up online and learn more about it.

I mentioned before that this series is a bit darker than the original, and that is especially true when you consider the body count to this point. Not that no one died in the original series, but here it seems like a Cahill or Cahill ally dies every book. I’m not a huge fan of that, especially considering who some of the characters are that are dying, some that I really like. Some of the danger elements in this book seem a little forced and unnecessary, which is the main reason for my lower star rating. There are some explanations given in this book as well as some questions left open still for the final in the series. I have my own theories as well, including a counter theory to one made by Dan near the end of this book. Then the book ends on a major cliffhanger, and I have high hopes for the last book (while also being trepidatious, since it’s written by an author brand new to this series and has quite a few loose ends to tie up).

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Book Review: Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls

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Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls
The Baby-Sitters Club #2
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 4 / 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.

Claudia’s interactions with her sister and grandmother were my favorite parts of this story. I also liked that, though they were irrationally scared, the babysitters came up with protocols to address the potential of someone breaking into the house. They kept telling each other/themselves that they probably didn’t need to be worried about a thief who hadn’t harmed anyone, but at the age of 12, I can easily understand that fear would take over when they’re alone with little kids at night. In fact, I’m sure younger children reading this might be a bit freaked out by some of the night scenes in this book. Though I guessed the outcome of the phantom storyline (not sure if it was a pure guess or something I remembered from reading this when I was young), I’m sure most kids wouldn’t. However, I don’t particularly care for that outcome nor how Kristy responds to it.

Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. I wish I had thought to start reading this series to/with my daughter when she was around 8-10, because I think she would have enjoyed it, and we could have discussed the good and the bad of the books.

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Book Review: Al Capone Does My Homework

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Al Capone Does My Homework
Tales from Alcatraz #3
by Gennifer Choldenko

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade historical fiction

Thirteen-year-old Moose Flanagan’s life on Alcatraz we already a little odd, not to mention difficult, but when his father becomes assistant warden, he knows it’s up to him to watch his dad’s back. Then his apartment catches fire and his autistic sister is blamed, and Moose has his hands full trying to figure out who really set the fire.

I liked this book almost as much as the first in the series, which means I liked it a little more than the second. The kids on the island were a little more under control this time (they seemed to just go a little nutty in the previous book), and I really felt for poor Moose. He tends to take too much responsibility on his own shoulders, and there’s a lot to deal with here. Besides the fire, there’s another side mystery developing on the island, and I was caught up in both of these plots. I half-guessed one of the culprits, but there was more to it than I expected, and events transpired that I didn’t anticipate. 

One of the things I like about this book, and the series in general, is that it doesn’t pander to its younger audience. Stakes and consequences are high, and though the kids and teens on the island tend to get into things a little above their heads, it’s not unrealistic or eye-rolling like some books for this age group can be. I also appreciate that the author has first-hand experience with an autistic sibling, which makes Moose’s sister Natalie come across as authentic. I recommend this book for pre-teens and young teens, as well as any adults who enjoy younger-audience books.

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Book Review: Do the Bright Thing

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Do the Bright Thing
McGee and Me! #7
by Bill Myers

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian fiction

This story is a bit of a departure in the series, which generally involves Nicholas making some kind of bad decision(s) and having to own up to it or at least learn a lesson from it. Here, Nicholas mostly just goes through some normal-life decisions, albeit with McGee in his head analyzing those decisions. The repercussions and lesson-learning are all for Nicholas’s sister Sarah, whose sub-plot has a bit more of a severe outcome than is normal for this series. Though I didn’t enjoy the book overall as much as some of the others, at least we get a lot less of McGee’s super ego, which I’m thankful for. These books may not be easy to find anymore, but if you do have the chance to read this book or procure it for an 8-10-year-old child, I recommend it.

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Book Review: United as One

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United as One
Lorien Legacies #7
by Pittacus Lore

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi

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

The Mogodorians have been pushed back, if only slightly, and new human Garde are rising up. Does John have what it takes to lead a new generation against Setrakus Ra and take back the Earth once and for all?

Here at the end of the story, I have to stay that it did not differ too greatly from what I expected of it, though there certainly were some paths that I didn’t anticipate. I think, though, that most of those paths ended up not really leading anywhere particularly important. I feel like the author set up some things that just didn’t pan out in a satisfying way. I also think some of the characters that had larger roles in the previous books are shunted to the side, and only three characters really get to do much in this book. That probably means that the author let the cast list get a bit bloated, which I suppose would have been difficult to avoid, given the premise of this series, but the issue mostly comes when he can’t maintain it. And the climax…I don’t want to spoil anything, but I really anticipated more direct involvement by the original Garde.

On the other side of things, though, even if there weren’t any major twists or brilliant moments, the book still brings an overall satisfying confusion to a series that I mostly enjoyed. Battle fatigue understandably hits John, not to mention grief over the loss of a loved one (not that I was ever a huge fan of that relationship). Unfortunately, all of this makes parts of the book a little slow, but the weak ending doesn’t diminish my overall enjoyment of the series. I’d probably call it a 4-star series. I liked it enough to try out some of the side stories and at least consider the spin-off series. As for recommendations, fans of YA action stories, especially in the sci-fi genre, should definitely give this series a try.

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Book Review: The Murder at the Vicarage

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The Murder at the Vicarage
Miss Marple #1
by Agatha Christie
read by Richard E. Grant

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

After reading several Poirot mysteries, I thought I’d try out a Miss Marple. However, similar to the early Poirot novels that I didn’t care for before I started to really enjoy them, I felt this book was a bit bloated and slow. I don’t yet know if Miss Marple herself being such a side character, then swooping in to solve the murder, is normal for this series, but of course at the time, Christie might not have planned for her to be the star of a series of books. The investigation is conducted throughout the book by the vicar himself, in whose home the murder took place, at times working alongside a rather odious inspector. I didn’t mind his perspective and even liked his wife, despite his apparently negative feelings for her, shown to us right at the beginning of the book. Still, it’s a good thing I was listening to an audiobook, or it would have probably taken me forever to get through it, simply due to the plodding feel. The narrator took some getting used to, but he wasn’t at all bad. I will try another Miss Marple book or two in the future, but I’m going back to Poirot for now.

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Book Review: Under Lock & Skeleton Key

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Under Lock & Skeleton Key
Secret Staircase Mystery #1
by Gigi Pandian

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

When a terrible accident forces Tempest Raj to end her career as a stage magician and return home, she never expects her show business world to follow her home. But then her stage double’s dead body is discovered in the wall of a home that her father’s construction business is renovating, and the question on everyone’s mind is: was Tempest the intended target?

Between the stage magic angle and Tempest’s dad’s construction business specializing in installing secret rooms and passages into homes, I felt that this mystery would be right up my alley. Sadly, my high expectations were met with a mediocre, at times confusing, story and a mystery that, only 8 days after I finished it, I barely remember the final resolution to. There were a lot of characters, including Tempest’s eclectic and spread-out family, and I had a difficult time keeping everyone straight. 

I did like the many references and homages to classic mysteries, some of which I missed out on when I was younger but have read lots of recently (Holmes & Poirot, for example). I really liked the idea of the secret staircase construction company; it seems like the kind of company that would be awesome to work for, similar to working at an escape room company (which I did for a while). The stage magic aspect wasn’t a huge part of the story, though Tempest does a lot of…I guess dance moves, when she’s stressed or thinking or whatever, which are moves she used in her show, and there are some tricks performed both by her and a fellow magician friend of hers. Overall though, we’re mostly just told about the story she used to tell in her show and that she was really good at what she did.

I can say for sure that a lot of what fell flat for me in this book is personal preference or experience. I didn’t connect with Tempest or her large, somewhat intrusive family. I’m not super interested in the different dishes of food that are described in the book, which makes the abundance of them and the details about them a bit much for me. But if the different elements I mentioned throughout this review sound interesting to you and you enjoy mysteries, you might be the perfect audience for this book. Please do click the link below to check out the more favorable reviews, of which there are plenty!

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Book Review: Unleashed

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Unleashed
Andy Carpenter #11
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When an old friend of Sam Willis dies in a plane crash—a plane Sam was meant to be on with him but missed—the man’s widow is charged with his murder. Sam asks his friend, reluctant defense attorney Andy Carpenter to defend her, certain that the woman he once had a fling with himself couldn’t have done it.

This is another good addition to the series, with some twists and turns and just enough changes to the formula I’ve come to enjoy to keep it fresh. I got a kick out of Sam’s team of elderly Jewish computer students, chuckled at Marcus’s stoicism and Hike’s expert knowledge of poison, and felt indignant for Andy when his character was besmirched (more indignant than even he seemed to be). Andy’s snarky and self-deprecating humor that first drew me to the series is just as strong as ever.

The standard-fare conspiracy in this book is thankfully simple enough that there didn’t seem to be as many away-from-Andy POV sections as some of the previous ones have had. I was glad for that, because it means more Andy, but to be honest, I’d be okay with Rosenfelt throwing in some simpler mysteries now and then too, or at least conspiracies on a smaller scale. They don’t all have to involve high-profile targets and be nationally (or internationally) reaching. I don’t want this to sound like a complaint, though, because I did still enjoy this book as much as any of the others (or more, in some cases). I love this series and recommend the book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas.

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Book Review: Shatterproof

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Shatterproof
The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers #4
by Roland Smith

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.

First Berlin and then Timbuktu, 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. Meanwhile, the hostages are hatching a scheme of their own.

For as much as I’m enjoying this series, I’m glad it’s a little shorter than the original. I really thought that the premise set forth at the beginning of the series—Cahills and friends taken hostage and Dan and Amy given various tasks to ensure their safety—would be a launching point to a greater story, but it’s really just been the same premise all the way through. Though Dan and Amy have traveled all over, been in and out of trouble, and scrambled to keep up with Vesper One’s demands, the hostages’ plight has gotten a little stale. This book did shake things up a bit for them, but I would have preferred a little more.

I like the team of Amy, Dan, Atticus, and Jake. They complement each other well, and I’m intrigued to hear more about Atticus’s role in the whole Cahills and Vespers thing. I expected there to be more about the ring that Amy was entrusted with at the end of the original series by now, but apparently we’re saving a lot for the last 2 books in the series. As for Amy and her romances, I could do without most of it. The surprising thing (for me) is that I do actually like a couple of these guys for her…which means I care about which one she picks, if any. Oddly enough, the one I don’t really care about is the one that is currently her boyfriend. In fact, based on how this series has gone in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out he was a mole. I also have to say that these writers are not against having a bit of a body count, which has been surprising in a series for pre-teens. Still, I’m quite invested in these books and look forward to seeing how this plot arc turns out.

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Book Review: Three Act Tragedy

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Three Act Tragedy
Hercule Poirot #11
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This Poirot mystery was quite a departure from the previous ones, in that much of the investigating is done without Poirot around—at least the investigating that we get to see. Poirot comes in during the last 3rd or so of the book to throw a wrench into the ideas of the people who had taken it upon themselves to try to get to the bottom of the recent deaths. The story really kept me on my toes. In some ways, I feel like I’m starting to get a feel for Agatha Christie’s way of creating a mystery, which leads me to take more outlandish guesses as to the solution than I probably otherwise would. But since I don’t really ever guess at the motive, I don’t feel particularly vindicated if I end up being right. And I was only part right about the killer in this case anyway. I’ve begun to enjoy these stories a lot more than I did early in the series, and I still appreciate the narration by Hugh Fraser. And bonus, this book left me with a laugh right at the end.

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