Review of "Summer at the Garden Café: Finfarran Peninsula # 2" by Felicity Hayes-McCoy

In this sequel to The Library at the Edge of the World, librarian Hanna Casey - who lives in the town of Lissberg on Ireland's Finfarran Peninsula - is happy with her refurbished cottage and the library's upgrades, but she still has personal concerns.



In this novel, we get a glimpse into Hanna's life now, and views into the lives of other residents of Lissberg. I'd recommend starting with the first book, to obtain a better understanding of the characters.

*****

Hanna Casey, head librarian of the Lissberg Library, is pleased with the institute's new display of the Carrick Psalter (Book of Psalms), a priceless, beautifully illustrated tome that was donated by a local resident. The Psalter, which is expected to draw tourists from far and wide, is showcased in a secure room that funnels visitors into a state-of-the-art gift shop, where patrons can purchase Psalter-related memorabilia.


Example of Psalter

To add to the pleasant ambiance, the library now boasts a Garden Café that abuts an aromatic herb garden.



It's been several years since Hanna divorced her cheating, ratfink husband Malcolm, and she's become friendly with a new man, architect Brian Morton.



Hanna is avoiding a serious relationship with Brian, however, because she's anxious about her 21-year-old daughter Jazz. Jazz is still jittery from a car accident six months ago, and is furious with her father - whose long-term cheating was just revealed to her.



While she finds her feet, Jazz - who used to be a flight attendant - is working at a Bed and Breakfast run by Susan and Gunther, a hard-working, ambitious young couple who also sell goat milk products online. Jazz is excellent with the couple's 6-year-old daughter, Holly, who likes Jazz's bedtime stories.

Jazz refuses to see her London-based father because of his past perfidy, but remains close to her mother and grandmothers.



As it happens, Jazz's paternal grandmother Louisa (a wealthy Englishwoman) is staying with her maternal grandmother Mary (an eccentric Irishwoman) and - unlikely as it seems - the gals are making it work.



All of Jazz's relatives have opinions about what she should do with her life, but Jazz doesn't want to hear any of it right now.

Another important character in the story is part-time library assistant Conor, who still works on his family farm.



Conor has been seeing Aideen, co-owner of the HaberDashery restaurant, and is completely smitten with her.



Aideen lacks confidence, though, and feels especially insecure when Conor hobnobs with his co-worker, a beautiful Pakistani student named Ameena. For her part, Ameena has little use for any Irish lads, most of whom are 'eejits' in her eyes. (I love that word. 😄)



In the course of the story we also meet Aideen's business partner/friend Brid - a fount of common sense; and Ameena's mother Saira, who dreads the day her beloved child will go off to university.

To round out the cast of major characters, Fury O'Shea -the opinionated builder/jack-of-all-trades who upgraded Hanna's cottage - makes an encore appearance. Fury is always accompanied by his dog 'the divil', and the two are quite the heroes this time around.



A high point of the novel for me is Hanna's discovery of the hidden diary of her great aunt Maggie, who writes about her brother Liam's participation in the 1920 war for Irish independence, and her own exile to England at the age of 17, for mysterious reasons. The diary entries forge a connection between past and present, and inspire Hanna to research her family history.

I also like to read about Hanna's new cottage, a cozy home where she can sleep and cook.....and relax on a bench overlooking the ocean, with a cuppa in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening.



As the story unfolds we observe the characters experience a gamut of feelings, including love; hate; friendship; diffidence; envy; snobbery; jealousy; longing; fulfillment; rejection; loss; and so on.....a microcosm of the real world.

I enjoyed the book, but found it to be slower and less compelling than the first book in the series, with too little action and insufficient drama. Still, I think readers who enjoy small town character studies will like the novel.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Murder in the Family (A True Crime Story)" by Burl Barer

This is a true crime story about a horrific multiple murder that occurred in Alaska.

On March 15, 1987 the bodies of Nancy Newman and her two daughters - Angie (3 years old) and Melissa (8 years old) were found in their Anchorage, Alaska apartment. The three females had been brutally murdered, and Nancy and Melissa had also been raped in a very disgusting fashion. Suspicion soon fell on Nancy's nephew - 23-year-old Kirby Anthoney - a rough customer who had a history of violent behavior.


Nancy Newman with her daughters Angie and Melissa

Anthoney was a drifter who was often down on his luck. At one point, being broke, Anthoney was taken in by John and Nancy Newman - his uncle and aunt. Even after moving out, Anthoney kept a key and felt free to drop by the Newman apartment to shower, eat, hang out, etc. The cops suspected that Anthoney - after being rejected by his girlfriend - vented on Nancy and her daughters.


Kirbey Anthoney

This book tells the story of Anthoney's arrest and trial. Most of the narrative is composed of interrogation and trial transcripts, interspersed with comments from the author. As the tale unfolds it becomes clear that Anthoney is a psychopath and pathological liar who easily called up fake emotions (crying, grief); twisted the facts; and fashioned 'alibi' stories.

Anthoney's excuses came to naught, however, because of the physical evidence connecting him to the crimes. Anthoney's trial was a long, difficult affair, with much wrangling between the capable prosecutor and excellent defense attorney - who worked hard on behalf of his client. There were competing experts, contradictory testimony, and much confusion - especially because DNA science was in its early stages at that time.

During the trial Anthoney didn't really help himself. He interrupted during other people's testimony and even took the stand - opening himself to rigorous cross-examination. On top of that, Anthoney gave his own closing argument - a rambling, three-hour-long diatribe. Anthoney seemed convinced that, using his 'gift of gab', he could explain away all the condemning evidence.

It's not clear why Anthoney would commit such monstrous acts, but being abused and neglected as a child might have been contributory factors. An in-depth analysis of Anthoney's criminal mind would make an interesting book, but would probably be impossible to write. Anthoney seems incapable of admitting to any wrongdoing or taking any responsibility for his actions, and wouldn't be likely to cooperate with a psychiatrist or author.

I'd recommend the book to fans of true crime as well as budding attorneys who plan to prosecute or defend homicide cases. They might get some good tips.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "How the Finch Stole Christmas: A Meg Langslow Mystery" by Donna Andrews

In this 22nd book in the 'Meg Langslow' series, Meg - who's a blacksmith, wife, mother, and amateur sleuth - helps save animals from an unscrupulous purveyor and assists in the pursuit of a killer. The book can be read as a standalone, though familiarity with the characters is a perk.



*****

It's almost Christmas in Caerphilly, Virginia and Meg Langslow is assisting her husband - actor and drama professor Michael Waterston - stage an elaborate production of 'A Christmas Carol.'



Michael hires Malcolm Haver, a television star from three decades ago, to play Scrooge - which turns out to be a mistake. Haver comes to rehearsals late; is always drunk; can't find his mark on the stage; complains about his costume; and so on. However, Haver has an ironclad contract and can't be fired.



In addition, Haver is an entitled and eccentric individual. He criticizes his 'terrible accommodations' at the Caerphilly Inn (which is really very nice); is rude and overbearing; and maneuvers to buy an exotic Gouldian finch, a group of which are being used for another Christmas festivity.


Gouldian finches

Meanwhile, almost everyone in Caerphilly is conspiring to keep Haver sober - by not selling him alcohol; searching his hotel room; monitoring his dressing room; confiscating his whiskey; and so on. Nevertheless, the wily actor keeps getting liquored up. In an attempt to deal with the problem Meg arranges for a sober companion to watch over the old thespian.

Before the sober companion arrives, however, Meg sees Haver sneaking away from the theater and follows the oblivious actor, hoping to discover who's selling him liquor.



Meg detects the identity of the enabler AND learns that the same person is harboring exotic animals and running a puppy mill.

The discovery of the illegal/mistreated animals leads to a dawn raid on the culprit's barn by law enforcement and animal lovers (especially Meg's relatives).



To add to the drama, a murder occurs and Malcolm Haver is suspected of the crime. This throws 'The Christmas Carol' into disarray, since the lead actor may be a no-show. Will the play go on? You'll have to read the book to find out.

Many favorite recurring characters are on hand, including: Meg's mother - the world's best 'fixer'; Meg's father - the medical examiner; Meg's grandfather - the zoo director and a committed animal activist; Meg's twin sons, Josh and Jamie, who have small parts in 'A Christmas Carol'; the Reverend Robyn Smith - who's trying to figure out what 'Weaseltide' is; Ekaterina Vorobyaninova - the owner of the Caerphilly Inn (and an excellent spy vis a vis the residents); and others.

I enjoyed the book, which is an amusing cozy mystery, and a pleasant read for the Christmas season.



Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Lessons From Lucy: The Simple Joys of an Old, Happy Dog" by Dave Barry

Humorist Dave Barry wrote a syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald for more than two decades and is the author of many amusing memoirs. In this book, Barry relates seven life lessons he learned from his beloved dog Lucy. The lessons are largely common sense, but the anecdotes from Barry's life provide a nice personal touch.


Dave Barry

The book is uneven, with some stories that are laugh out loud funny and some that are rather mundane.

*****

Barry has always been a 'dog person' and starts the book with amusing stories about his previous canines: Mistral, Earnest, and Zippy. About ten years ago, Barry's family adopted a new dog, Lucy, from a rescue agency, and Lucy proved to be beautiful inside and out. Lucy knows how to be happy, and that's the idea behind Barry's 'Lessons from Lucy.'


Dave Barry and Lucy

*****

Lesson 1: Make New Friends, And Keep The Ones You Have

Lucy greets almost everyone she meets, both people and dogs, with her tail wagging. Lucy loves everyone and therefore has loads of friends.

Barry on the other hand, has fallen out of touch with old friends and rarely makes new ones. So he's made a vow: "When I meet new people, I'm going to make an effort to not hide behind my humor barrier, not to use my age (70) as an excuse. I'm going to think about Lucy and be open to new friendships and stay in better touch with my old friends."



*****

Lesson 2: Have Some Fun

Lucy has fun all the time. She loves to play with her family, her toys, and other dogs.

Barry fears that he's stopped having fun now that he's older, and wants to remedy that by reviving his involvement with two organizations that he found enjoyable in the past: 'The World Famous Lawn Rangers' and the 'Rock Bottom Remainders.'

The World Famous Lawn Rangers are a marching unit that performs precision lawn mower-and-broom routines in parades (by precision, he means not even remotely precise). Each Ranger, wearing a cowboy hat, marches holding a broom in one hand and pushing a lawn mower with the other.

At the 'brooms up' command, the Rangers raise their brooms and either 'walk the dog' (run around in small circles turning the mowers 360 degrees).....



......or 'cross and toss' (switch places with other Rangers and toss their brooms to each other).



The Lawn Rangers have marched in parades all over the country, including the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and President Obama's inauguration parade. Dave hasn't marched with the Rangers in a while, but hopes to rejoin them soon.
______

The Rock Bottom Remainders are a rock band composed of authors. Some of the original members were Amy Tan, Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Roy Blount Jr., Barbara Kingsolver, and others.



The Rock Bottom Remainders - who perform at book-related or benefit events - were always terrible (musically speaking), and Roy Blount Jr. described their musical genre as 'hard listening.' However, the group developed a repertoire of onstage shtick and hijinks that was very entertaining. The band sometimes has 'guest musicians', and when Carl Hiaasen performed with the band he was so nervous that he brought his guitar teacher onstage with him. 😄



Dave hasn't played with the band recently, and is looking to remedy that.

*****

Lesson 3: Be Mindful: Pay AttentionTo The People You Love (Not Later, Right Now).

Lucy is always fully present in the moment. She doesn't second guess the past or fret about the future (she's a dog, after all). For instance, when the trash man comes to collect the garbage, Lucy strenuously objects (by barking).....but the instant the man is gone, Lucy forgets about him.

Barry, on the other hand, is often not 'in the moment.' Like many other people, Barry is constantly checking his phone or thinking about other things - even when he's with family and/or friends. He hopes to change that.



*****

Lesson 4: Let Go Of Your Anger, Unless It's About Something Really Important, Which It Almost Never Is.

Lucy doesn't hold on to anger. She gets mad sometimes: at the garbage man, the Goodyear blimp, and sometimes at dogs that (for some unknown reason) she decides are assholes. But as soon as the the cause of her anger is gone, Lucy is over it.

Barry gets angry much more often than Lucy, at lots of things, such as:
- People who sample too many flavors at the ice cream shop when there's a big line behind them. He sometimes thinks to himself: "If everyone else in line hated you as much as I do, your body would burst into flames from the hate rays being beamed at it."
- People who stop at a red light and immediately look down at their phone, not paying attention to when the light turns green again.
- People who repeatedly stand up at a sports event, so the spectators behind them can't see.
- People who litter.
- People who don't say thank you when you hold the door for them.
- And lots more.

Barry gets especially angry at Comcast customer service and tells a hilarious story about this. But, taking an example from Lucy, Barry is trying to let things go a little more.

*****

Lesson 5: Try Not To Judge People By Their Looks, And Don't Obsess Over Your Own.

Lucy doesn't judge other dogs by their appearance.

Unlike dogs, humans are obsessed with looks, a trait that's hard-wired into human biology. In prehistoric times - for reasons related to natural selection - women were attracted to men who could provide food and protection (that is, guys who were strong and aggressive) and men were attracted to women who were fertile (that is gals who looked attractive....which is indicative of good health).



In modern times, physical traits are less important for human survival but men and women are still attracted to a certain kind of look. Barry notes that he never resembled the man who - in caveman days - would have helped with the mastodon hunt. Instead, Dave always looked like the guy who would have stayed a safe distance away and cracked jokes. As a result, teenage Dave had a hard time attracting girls....especially the pretty girls he liked.

When Barry got older, he learned to appreciate qualities other than looks, like intelligence, sense of humor, honesty, wisdom, courage, generosity, etc. The moral is, you shouldn't judge people by their appearance. There are exceptions of course.....and you can be legitimately put off by folks who have a swastika tattooed on their forehead.



*****

Lesson 6: Don't Let Your Happiness Depend On Things; They Don't Make You Truly Happy, And You'll Never Have Enough Anyway.

Lucy doesn't worry about hurricanes....which tend to mess with our things. She doesn't get nervous because she doesn't know a storm is coming. 🐶

Humans, however, become frantic when a hurricane is approaching, and Barry tells a long story about this. I'll cite some brief excerpts.

Barry's family, which lives in Florida, sees a lot of big storms. One thing Barry and his wife do when a storm approaches is buy supplies, like food....."sandwich makings, canned soup, Spam, candy, chips....and enough granola bars and peanut-butter crackers to supply a cruise ship for six months at sea."






After the hurricane, when there's no electricity - and people are left without internet/phone/cable - the restoration of power becomes an all-consuming obsession. People "would sacrifice a goat if they thought it would bring their power back, and they had a goat." In large part, this is because people can't tolerate the loss of technological conveniences and diversions: computers, internet, big screen TVs, etc.

Barry writes about how happy he was when, in 1955, his family got their first television - even though it was tiny and had horrible reception.



Now, like many people, Barry has a ton of 'stuff'.....and it's not enough. He's always buying more.



Having learned simplicity from Lucy, Barry plans to divest himself of superfluous belongings.

*****

Lesson 7: Don't Lie Unless You Have A Really Good Reason, Which You Probably Don't.

Lucy and other dogs are honest to a fault. You always know when dogs have done a bad thing because they 'confess' by whimpering and looking guilty. Cats on the other hand, have no remorse and have the morals of Hannibal Lecter. Barry writes: "If you come home and find your cat inside your parakeet's cage, holding your dead parakeet in its jaws, your cat will be like 'Obviously this parakeet committed suicide'."

People are more like cats than dogs. They lie all the time. Sometimes folks tell little white lies - like when a six-year-old, watching a commercial, asks 'What is Viagra'; or a friend texts something meant to be funny and you text back LOL when you're really OMA (Only Mildly Amused).

But often, people tell serious untruths - especially politicians.

Barry believes it's almost always better to be honest with people. Act like Lucy, "if you mess up, fess up."



*****

At the end of the book Dave assesses the changes he's been trying to make in his life and his (self-assessed) grades for the seven lessons are: C, A, C+, B-, B-, B+, B.

Not too bad.

This isn't one of Dave Barry's best books (IMO) but it's still worth reading if you need a smile.



Thanks to Netgalley, Dave Barry, and Simon & Schuster for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Betrayal of Trust: A J.P. Beaumont Mystery" by J.A. Jance

In this 20th book in the 'J.P. Beaumont' series, Detective Beaumont investigates the death of a girl who was apparently the victim of a new fad. The book can be read as a standalone, but knowledge of the characters' background is a plus.

*****

When Governor Marsha Longmire of Washington finds a snuff film on her step-grandson Josh's cell phone she calls her old classmate, Detective J.P. Beaumont (Beau), to investigate.



The snuff film shows the death of a young girl during "the choking game", apparently a fad among some teens.

Beau and his wife Melissa, also a homicide detective, get on the case.



They question Josh, who purports to know nothing about the film. Josh is uneasy however, and further developments suggest he might know more than he admits. 😓



Beau and Melissa soon trace the dissemination of the film to 'Janie's House', a facility where poor or homeless teens can hang out, shower, wash their clothes, have access to computers and cell phones, and so on.



The detectives find that the Governor's family has a connection with the facility since Longmire's daughter - along with some of her private school classmates - volunteer there. They also discover that bullying emails found on Josh's computer were sent from Janie's House.

Additional deaths complicate the case, as does sabotage at Janie's House. With the involvement of the Governor's family the detectives need to tread carefully. Nevertheless, they skillfully navigate the investigation, and the case is resolved in a highly satisfactory manner. 👌

There's also a sub-plot in which Beau finds out more about his father (who died before he was born) and the Texas family he never knew. This helped round out Beau's history but didn't add much to the plot.



The book is well-written with believable characters and interesting twists. Good mystery, highly recommended. 💕

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Lucky Bastard: A Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure" by Deborah Coonts

In this 4th book in the 'Lucky O'Toole' series, the customer relations professional investigates a murder committed with a Jimmy Choo shoe. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

This mystery starts off with Lucky O’Toole, customer relations honcho for the Babylon Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, being called to the hotel's on-site car dealership. There a beautiful woman lies dead on top of a Ferrari, stabbed in the neck with a Jimmy Choo shoe. It turns out the woman participated in high stakes poker games at the hotel and just might have been cheating.



Lucky starts to look into the murder, enlisting the help of her friends, staff, and detective friend Romeo. Soon more people associated with high-stakes poker turn up dead - and as Lucky runs around investigating her own life may even be endangered.



The book has a good deal of humor, engaging characters, some romantic angst, and a nice touch of Las Vegas casino ambience.



Enjoyable light mystery. Recommended to fans of cozies.

Rating: 3 stars