Carol Dickinson
2017-05-22 09:07:51 UTC
Just finished
Dr Nightingale Traps the Missing Lynx - Lydia Adamson - I've kind of lost interest in her as an author. The continuing characters are just too much. This was written 18 years ago, and still was better plotted than the modern mid-lists but I'm past those now. I had most of the mystery figured out about 100 pages in. I have a couple more of hers to read. But I'm not excited about getting to them.
The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star by Susan Wittig Albert. I am liking the series set in the 1930's. Lots of period detail and the plots are fun. I like the characters, all of them women who are starting to realize there is a new freedom for women blowing in the wind but not quite knowing what to do with it. I do hate the name Darling Dahlias though. Darling is the name of the town and the Dahlias are a garden group named after a lady named Dahlia. But could't she have picked something better. At least it is not devoted to gardening. Its just a club. They grow flowers and food but mostly the gossip and the protagonist investigates mysteries.
Bound for the Promised Land by Richard Markus - this has been in my TBR pile for years. Dunno why I ever picked it up. But it read like a Michner for a long time except it was a downer. Adam Cloud whose father abandoned the family to head for California gold fields decides after his mother's death to sell the farm and go join his father. The night before he sets off an unknown cousin Harry shows up so the head off together. They met Ishtar Baynes and her husband on the road to Nashville, very annoying people and never can get rid of them. Just after the cross the Mississippi they run into the 3 brothers Jennings, their wives and children a more totally unprepared group of migrants one could not find. All these folks stick to Adam. He then meets up with an old mountain man who shows him how to survive the journey. They cannot get shed of these people. They are 2 months late starting out. Much disaster befalls them. But by then I was almost through the book and decided to see how it ends. They story stops about the time the reach the eastern side of the mountains. Then suddenly its a year later, and Adam is in a good place, sort of. Last chapter, a lifetime later we find out the end of the story for the other annoying people. It felt like a let down and not the way a Michner would end. The mystery here is why I stuck with it for 500 pages.
Then I read "Poor Tom is Cold" #3 in Maureen Jennings Murdoch mystery series. This was written more or less in the same style of the first one which I liked but it wasn't plotted well. It is basically Murdochs investigation of the supposed suicide of a young constable. But it was written like a Columbo episode where the reader knows almost everything that Murdoch doesn't buts so disjointed even the reader can't figure out why the author is leaping about between storylines that don't seem to connect. Murdoch follows a lot of clues that lead nowhere, and doesn't find out the who, and why until the very last page. Not as thrilled with this one.
And today I start "Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See - sequel to Shanghai Girls. These are biographical about her family and not her mysteries, which are good. I will read anything by her so I'm hoping for more pleasure in the experience than the last 4.
Carol
Dr Nightingale Traps the Missing Lynx - Lydia Adamson - I've kind of lost interest in her as an author. The continuing characters are just too much. This was written 18 years ago, and still was better plotted than the modern mid-lists but I'm past those now. I had most of the mystery figured out about 100 pages in. I have a couple more of hers to read. But I'm not excited about getting to them.
The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star by Susan Wittig Albert. I am liking the series set in the 1930's. Lots of period detail and the plots are fun. I like the characters, all of them women who are starting to realize there is a new freedom for women blowing in the wind but not quite knowing what to do with it. I do hate the name Darling Dahlias though. Darling is the name of the town and the Dahlias are a garden group named after a lady named Dahlia. But could't she have picked something better. At least it is not devoted to gardening. Its just a club. They grow flowers and food but mostly the gossip and the protagonist investigates mysteries.
Bound for the Promised Land by Richard Markus - this has been in my TBR pile for years. Dunno why I ever picked it up. But it read like a Michner for a long time except it was a downer. Adam Cloud whose father abandoned the family to head for California gold fields decides after his mother's death to sell the farm and go join his father. The night before he sets off an unknown cousin Harry shows up so the head off together. They met Ishtar Baynes and her husband on the road to Nashville, very annoying people and never can get rid of them. Just after the cross the Mississippi they run into the 3 brothers Jennings, their wives and children a more totally unprepared group of migrants one could not find. All these folks stick to Adam. He then meets up with an old mountain man who shows him how to survive the journey. They cannot get shed of these people. They are 2 months late starting out. Much disaster befalls them. But by then I was almost through the book and decided to see how it ends. They story stops about the time the reach the eastern side of the mountains. Then suddenly its a year later, and Adam is in a good place, sort of. Last chapter, a lifetime later we find out the end of the story for the other annoying people. It felt like a let down and not the way a Michner would end. The mystery here is why I stuck with it for 500 pages.
Then I read "Poor Tom is Cold" #3 in Maureen Jennings Murdoch mystery series. This was written more or less in the same style of the first one which I liked but it wasn't plotted well. It is basically Murdochs investigation of the supposed suicide of a young constable. But it was written like a Columbo episode where the reader knows almost everything that Murdoch doesn't buts so disjointed even the reader can't figure out why the author is leaping about between storylines that don't seem to connect. Murdoch follows a lot of clues that lead nowhere, and doesn't find out the who, and why until the very last page. Not as thrilled with this one.
And today I start "Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See - sequel to Shanghai Girls. These are biographical about her family and not her mysteries, which are good. I will read anything by her so I'm hoping for more pleasure in the experience than the last 4.
Carol