Ricki Lake as 'Harry Haristeen' with Mrs. Murphy (cat) and Tucker (dog)
In this 29th book in the 'Mrs. Murphy' series, farmer/amateur sleuth Harry Haristeen investigates two murders, to the chagrin of her 'talking pets' - who fear for her safety. The animals are two cats - Mrs. Murphy and Pewter; the corgi - Tucker; and the half-grown Irish wolfhound - Pirate. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
The story, set in the town of Crozet, Virginia, ping pongs between the present (2019) and the time right after the Revolutionary War (1787).
In the present, Harry Haristeen and her best friend Susan Tucker are leading members of the Dorcas Guild, the women's group at Crozet's St. Luke's Lutheran Church.
The Dorcas Guild is planning several upcoming church events: a June 2nd homecoming that doubles as a surprise birthday party for 80-year-old Reverend Herbert Jones; a charity auction and dance; and a float - covered with a large model of St. Luke's church - for the July 4th parade.
The women's group is assisted by its brother organization, St. Peter's Guild, which contains Harry's husband Fair, Susan's husband Ned, and other men from St. Luke's.
To prepare for the homecoming revelries, the Dorcas Guild is landscaping St. Luke's grounds, recreating the original gardens as they appeared in 1787.
While Harry and her friends work they discuss a recently vandalized grave in the church cemetery, which was found to contain the skeleton of a woman on top of two long buried caskets.
Authorities determine that the woman, who was interred with expensive jewelry, was buried in the late 1700s, but her identity remains unknown. To add to the mystery, Harry discovers three more skeletons as she's puttering around St. Luke's grounds.
Harry and her friends wonder about the identity of the dead people, speculating that they may have been slaves from one of Crozet's historic plantations.
Crozet also has additional drama. A beer truck belonging to 'Bottoms Up' brewery - owned by Harry's friends Janice and Mags - is stolen; an abandoned still and a recent corpse are discovered above Harry's farm; and a lovely woman named Jeannie Cordle is murdered at St. Luke's charity auction.
The sheriff's department investigates the modern homicides, but Harry feels compelled to help out, and launches her own inquiries.
Harry's cats and dogs, who've saved her from perps in the past, discuss their concerns for her well-being. The pets and their animal friends also talk about history, politics, finances, church matters, etc. This is all highly amusing, and adds fun to the story.
The modern story is interspersed with events that occur in 1787, when the Holloways and Garths own plantations in Crozet. Mrs. Maureen Selisse Holloway, a vicious woman who owns the Big Rawly plantation, is furious about a missing necklace and earrings, which she thinks were stolen by a slave named Sheba.
Now two other Big Rawly slaves have run away, and Maureen hires slaves catchers to retrieve them. The cruel treatment of slaves by Maureen and the bounty hunters is horrible and shocking, and forms a dissonant note in a cozy mystery (in my opinion).
Ewing Garth owns Crozet's second plantation, named Cloverfields, and he and his married daughters are kinder slave owners than Maureen. Ewing is trying to get Maureen Holloway to allow her black stable manager to marry his black cook, and the negotiations are tricky.
Even though the Garths are gentler slave holders than Maureen, owning people - and controlling their lives - is clearly a despicable business.
As the story unfolds, a death that harks back to 1787 is solved, as are the recent killings. However, all this occurs in a rather offhand manner, with very little 'investigation.' Thus the book's billing as a cozy mystery is somewhat misleading.
The modern part of the story is mostly about the gardens of St. Luke's Lutheran Church - which are described in great detail - and the various church events. The historic part of the book is mostly about plantation life, slaves, and slave catchers. Thus the novel is much more fiction than mystery.
The author, activist Rita Mae Brown, has become more political in her recent fiction, and this book follows that trend. Still, the story is interesting, and would probably appeal to fans of gardening and historical fiction.
Author and activist Rita Mae Brown
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Rita Mae Brown), and the publisher (Bantam Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3 stars
In this 2nd book in the 'Detective by Day' series, private detective Dayna Anderson investigates when a Hollywood publicist is killed. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
In the first book in the series, called Hollywood Homicide, pretty black actress Dayna Anderson lost her job as the face of "Chubby's Chicken" commercials and needed a new source of income.
So - when money was offered for information about a hit-and-run killer - Dayna partnered up with private detective Aubrey S. Adams-Parker to investigate. Dayna eventually got a reward for calling the police hotline with a good tip, and a new PI was born.
Dayna now needs another big score to pay her bills and gets right on the job when Lyla Davis - a celebrity publicist for the Silver Sphere Organization - is shot and killed. A reward is offered for information leading to Lyla's killer, and Dayna means to get it.
Dayna soon becomes convinced Lyla's death was a hit, and makes it her business to find out who hired the killer. Initally, Dayna's attention is drawn to Silver Sphere employees and the clients they represent.
Dayna also looks into an anonymous gossip blogger called 'Anani Miss.'
Anani Miss exposes celebrity secrets, and has published a jaw-dropping teaser about a Silver Sphere client.....with promises to tell the whole story soon. Dayna is sure Anani Miss has an informant, and she's determined to discover who it is.
Dayna is certain her peripatetic investigation will eventually expose Lyla's murderer.
As Dayna is making her inquiries, she gets help from her partner Aubrey and her two best friends, Sienna - a fashionista who's semi-famous for her umpteen Instagram selfies;
And Emme - a computer nerd who's adept at hacking.
In the course of her inquiries, Dayna snoops around Silver Sphere; tries to discover the true identity of Anani Miss; uncovers a blackmail scheme; meets a Hollywood fixer; sneaks around a sensory deprivation tank; attends a swag giveaway party; and more.
While all this is going on, Silver Sphere is preparing its annual awards show, called Silver Sphere Awards. It so happens that Dayna's boyfriend - TV star Omari Grant - is nominated for best actor, and there's great excitement surrounding the event.
Omari's publicist Nina is doing her best to further her client's chances of winning. Thus, Nina drags Omari to innumerable promotional events and spreads the word that he's involved with a famous actress named Toni Abrams.
The fake 'Tomari' romance annoys Dayna no end, and her attempts to fix the problem cause all manner of trouble.
Meanwhile, Dayna's pursues her investigation into Lyla's death, and hits on one suspect after another. Determined to get the reward money, Dayna calls the police hotline every time she identifies a new 'killer.'
The constant calls lead to sarcastic comments from the person that answers the hotline, which is very amusing. In fact most of Dayna's antics are good for a laugh, and the entire novel is filled with humor.
On the downside, the story is over-complicated, there are too many similar characters, and Dayna's shenanigans get repetitive. These quibbles aren't deal-breakers though, and I enjoyed the book overall.
Rating: 3.5 stars
'The Andromeda Evolution' is the sequel to The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.
In The Andromeda Strain, set in 1967, the United States deploys a series of high-altitude unmanned craft to search for weaponizable microparticles in the upper atmosphere. One of the craft crashes to Earth in Piedmont, Arizona, and local residents open the capsule to have a look. The civilians inadvertently release a self-replicating, hexagonal microparticle, eventually named Andromeda Strain-1 (AS-1), that coagulates people's blood instantaneously.
Andromeda Strain-1 kills almost everyone in Piedmont, and threatens to spread far and wide before scientists contain it.
By then AS-1 has evolved into a new form, AS-2, that dissolves plastic polymers.
AS-2 wreaks havoc, since plastic polymers are part of innumerable devices, including most high-tech equipment. AS-2 escapes into the atmosphere and ravages international space programs that depend on polymers to reach orbit.
*****
As The Andromeda Evolution opens, it's 2017 and scientists have created work-arounds for polymers, so normal life has resumed and the International Space Station is up and running. Still, Project Eternal Vigilance, under the command of Air Force General Rand Stern, is on constant alert for new mischief from Andromeda microparticles.
Project Eternal Vigilance is rewarded when an alien structure appears in the Brazilian rain forest, close to where a Tiangong-1 Chinese space station slammed to Earth. Scientific analysis reveals that the rain forest structure has the same signature as Andromeda, and is rapidly growing out and up, so that a 'central tower' soon approaches a mile in height.
General Stern immediately activates Project Wildfire to study and assess the new phenomenon. Project Wildfire contains five of the smartest, best trained scientists in the world:
- Project Commander Nidhi Vedala, MD-PhD; specialization: nanotechnology; materials science.
- Lead Field Scientist Harold Odhiambo, PhD; specialization: xenogeology; geology; anthropology; biology; physical sciences.
- Field Scientist Peng Wu, People's Liberation Army Air Force Major; specialization: taikonaut; soldier; medical doctor; pathologist.
- Scientist James Stone, PhD; specialization: robotics....especially drones.
- Remote Scientist Sophie Kline, Ph.D - located on the International Space Station; specialization: nanorobotics, nanobiology, microgravity; research.
The specialists on the ground are sent into the Brazilian rain forest with native guides, while Kline observes and advises from above.
The mission experiences much danger, both from hazards in the rain forest, the alien structure, and double-dealing and secret-keeping from certain team members.
I don't want to give away surprises, so I'll just say the author describes all manner of new inventions and technologies, some of which aren't quite credible, but are fun to think about.
In addition, there's an intriguing discussion of John Samuel's 'Messenger Theory', which speculates that the most efficient way for an advanced civilization to communicate with another species would be to send a self-replicating microorganism out into space.
"In short, you devise an organism to carry your message. The organism would be self-replicating, cheap, and could be produced in fantastic numbers.....You could produce trillions of them, and send them off in all directions into space. They would be tough, hardy bugs, able to withstand the rigors of space, and they grow and duplicate and divide. Within [a short time] there would be countless numbers of these in the galaxy, speeding in all directions, waiting to contact life."
Of course, the particles might not be benign.....and could well have an agenda. 😳😡😱
In a small way, the book reminded me of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which is a masterpiece of science fiction (IMO). I think The Andromeda Evolution would appeal to fans of both soft and hard science fiction.
Rating: 3.5 stars
This parody is based on Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, a children's book for ages 3 and up.
In the story, Harold has a magic crayon that can create things in the real world. One night, Harold takes a walk and draws up a forest, a dragon, an ocean, a sailboat, a picnic, a hot-air balloon, a city, and more. Finally, Harold draws his own bed and goes to sleep. It's a charming and popular children's book.
*****
In "Donald and the Golden Crayon", President Trump has a magic crayon, and uses it to draw things that are important to him.
Among other things, Donald draws the best golf course ever; a wall to keep out people from shithole countries; a 'yuge'crowd of people that love him; a pipeline through the shithole reservation inhabited by Native Americans; a 'yuge' parade of soldiers he likes because they weren't captured; his own cozy room with a door that reads "Stable Genius"; and so on. (See the sample pages below.)
Like the Donald in real life, the Donald in the book is a xenophobic blowhard who's misogynistic; indifferent to the environment; enthralled with his golden shower (wink wink); infuriated by fake news; loyal to supporters who spout hate; unsympathetic to hurricane victims; clueless about healthcare; an avid Tweeter; and fond of the word Covfefe (a famous typo from one of Trump's tweets).
The book is very funny and portrays the President's personality in a nutshell, but it's definitely not for kids. I think the book would probably make an amusing gift for the right person. 😁
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (P. Shauers), and the publisher (Schiffer Publishing) for a copy of the book.
You can follow my reviews at: https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
Sample pages
In the middle of the night, Donald woke from his terrific sleep and cried out, "Covfefe."
Now that he was wide awake, Donald decided that he wanted to play golf. Using his amazing golden crayon, Donald drew a hill, and then another, and soon had a golf course.
It was the best golf course ever. Tremendous golf course.
The door led to a secret room. It had many beeping cybers and a huge nuclear button. The biggest nuclear button anywhere.
But what's the point of having nuclears if we can't use them, thought Donald.
He climbed out of the secret room and came out right into a Native American reservation. Another shithole. Sad.
He ran a pipeline made of beautiful steel, beautiful Russian steel, right through it. So much winning.
He filled the parade with soldiers that he liked because they weren't captured. He didn't have to march because a had a heel spur.
What loser invented crayons? Too weak. They break too easily. So sad.
After accomplishing so much, Donald was exhausted and went to sleep. As he drifted off he cried out, "Covfefe" once again.....
Rating: 4 stars
