THE SISTER by Poppy Adams

When Vivien Stone returns to her family’s crumbling mansion after a 50-year absence, her older sister Virginia believes she has an ulterior motive.

July 6, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  · Posted in: Debut Novel, Family Matters, Mystery/Suspense, United Kingdom

THE PIG COMES TO DINNER by Joseph Caldwell

The second installment of Joseph Caldwell’s pig trilogy, THE PIG COMES TO DINNER, might be better titled The Pig Becomes Dinner, a suggestion that shouldn’t spoil the ending. As those who have read the first book of the series know, these charming tales aren’t really about the pig at all. Her ultimate fate lies beside the point, and her lesbian mischievousness (that’s right) serves only to inch the plot forward for an entertaining cast of quirky characters – human characters.

June 25, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  · Posted in: Humorous, Ireland, Sleuths Series

THE ANGEL’S GAME by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It must be extremely difficult for an author to write a brilliant, literary bestseller and then have to deal with the expectations of a worldwide audience waiting for him/her to do as well, or even better, with the next novel. I congratulate Carlos Ruiz Zafon on his latest offering, THE ANGEL’S GAME, a superb work of fiction where magical realism meets gothic horror and romance.

June 15, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , ,  · Posted in: Literary, Mystery/Suspense, Spain, Speculative (Beyond Reality), World Lit, y Award Winning Author

YES, MY DARLING DAUGHTER by Margaret Leroy

In YES, MY DARLING DAUGHTER, Grace is a single mother living in London with her nearly 4-year old daughter, Sylvie. Sylvie is an interesting child. She has never once called her mother anything but “Grace” from the time that she started talking. She is completely phobic about getting any water on her face and she draws the same house over and over, claiming it to be “my house,” though the house looks nothing like the flat she and her mother live in. She says other weird things, such as accusing her best friend Lennie as being “not my Lennie.” And, she is very sad. Normal children are not sad.

June 10, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  · Posted in: Family Matters, Mystery/Suspense, Reading Guide, United Kingdom

THE LATE, LAMENTED MOLLY MARX by Sally Koslow

Thirty-five year-old Molly Divine Marx finds herself watching her own funeral. She thinks to herself, “I’m dead, but I have not lost my “joie de vivre.” Death is a new experience for our protagonist, so she is surprised to find she has the ability to observe life as it continues on without her. She watches the people she left behind and listens to their thoughts. Molly is in a place called the Duration.

June 9, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  · Posted in: Humorous, New York City, Reading Guide

SILENT ON THE MOOR by Deanna Raybourn

Deanna Raybourn’s SILENT OF THE MOOR, the third installment in her series featuring Lady Julia Grey, opens in London in 1888. Thirty-year old Julia is about to embark on a journey to visit the mysterious and mercurial inquiry agent, Nicholas Brisbane. The bad-tempered but very attractive Brisbane, who has gypsy blood and a mysterious past, pulls Julia towards him with one hand and drives her away with the other. What follows is a Gothic tale of long buried secrets, forbidden passion, and murder.

May 30, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , , , ,  · Posted in: 2009 Favorites, Facing History, Sleuths Series, United Kingdom