Not mysteries about the space before Christmas. Just mysteries I read before my Christmas Pon Farr started.
I picked a couple of these up at Heterotopia, the new bookstore on Woodburn in Walnut Hills. Nor sure where I got the others, but I’ll give them all back to Alicia when I’m done with this review – I want to make sure she stays in the neighborhood and in business!
Killer Pancake by Diane Mott Davidson: I think she’s the author who originally started the recipe craze in mysteries. Now there are untold cooks and bakers and caterers all over the mysteries shelves. And mostly it’s a good idea. The hero of this book is Goldy, who owns Goldilocks’ Catering is totally superhuman. She can drive several hundred miles around Denver in a day, go to 3 events, get threatened in many ways and hurt in some, and go home to cook up a storm for her family – or just for herself. There is a real feeling that the author keeps track, and throws in danger or a wreck or a basin of bleach thrown over folk every 3.5 pages. Too much already, though I quite like Goldy.
Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich: Janet Evanovich has such an ear, and such a deft touch with humor. And for incredible situations that roll on hilariously. She’s also also putting Stephanie Plum, her heroine in the series, into romantic situations where sex almost happens – but seldom does. Her Risky/Wicked Business series is the same except for out of this world protagonists. Stephanie’s sidekick Lula is the source of a lot of the fun in this one – and the fact that her boss, Vinnie, is having offices blown up and other assorted troubles. Janet is habit forming.
Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen: the blurb on the cover says hysterically funny. It is definitely not that – but it is quirky, not to say weird, extremely clever and woven into a whole by many strands of lives in a hurricane. A smart guy who knows people well.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: I think this might have been Charlaine’s first vampire book – and it’s a vampire mystery, now of course a successful HBO series. I like her writing, I like her perceptions, I like the way she makes her character become real and grow in front of your eyes. The hot vampire boyfriend and the shapeshifter don’t hurt, either.