The Neighbors by Carol Smith

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

The striking, sprawling Victorian building dominates the fashionable London street.  During one lonely Christmas season, Kensington Court welcomes a new resident: Kate Ashenberry, in flight from an uncaring family and a broken love affair. 

In the dark hallways Kate will meet an odd assortment of neighbors: irrepressible Ronnie and Rowena Barclay-Davenport; high-stepping Miles Burdett and his ambitious wife, Claudia; exotic Eleni Papadopoulos from across the hall; acid-tongued dowager Mrs. Adelaide Potter; eligible heartthrob Gregory Hansen; and free-spirited actress Connie Boyle.  Some encounters will blossom into friendships; other will grow more menacing than a brush with a stranger ever could be. 

One potential neighbor has escaped Kate's acquaintance, for journalist Guy Bartlett had tumbled to his death shortly before her arrival.  Some tenants say his mysterious five-story fall a continent away was the most exciting story to touch their lives in years.  But after Kate moves in, more residents of Kensington Court die, each more horribly than the last... and each bafflingly murdered behind a door locked securely from the inside.  Trust between neighbors evaporates.  Kate fears her name is climbing higher on the killer's list of victims.  And always, across the courtyard at one rear window, a lone, unmarked watcher stands vigil.  
As a kid, watching the old black and white movies, I fell in love with apartment buildings like Kensington Court.  They are sprawling buildings, taken up entire city blocks, and are filled with all sorts of interesting people.  Of course, because I fell in love with this grand buildings though movies, I also knew to expect one or two things; either various residents in the building would be killed in a series of murders that seems impossible to solve, or one of them would end up giving birth to the Antichrist.  I figured I had nothing to lose in either situation, so I was already to move to a big city, and move right on it.  Then life happened, I live in a mid-sized city with no grand apartment buildings, and even if I did, I seriously doubt I could afford to live there.

Until I move to London or New York, which would require winning the lottery, I'm going to have to make due with old movies and well written mystery books.  I bought, and read, The Neighbors years ago, preblogging days, and it was all about the location.  Here was another chance to live in one of those grand buildings, even if it was only in my imagination.  And by the end of the book, did I not only want to live there, I wanted to take up an entire floor, all to myself.  Since quite a few of the tenants were dead by then, I'm almost betting I could have gotten a pretty good price on the space.  I think it was watching The Mad Miss Manton with Barbara Stanwyck the other night, that put me in the mood to give this one a read once again.

This is one of those books, that would not work in another location.  It's the size of the building that allows this story to unfold as it does.  It gives the characters the illusion of wide open spaces, but as the body count rises, the insular nature of the building allows the author to ratchet up the tension, filling the building, and the book, with a miasma of fear.

I'll be honest, Kate by herself would bore me to tears. Don't get me wrong, I like her, and think she would be a pretty cool neighbor, but I need the rest of characters to truly bring her to life.  These are the kinds of characters I've always envisioned living in one of these buildings, and they didn't let me down here.  They are such an eclectic, well written bunch, that there wasn't one I didn't have fun with on the page.  Even the nasty, bitter, gossiping hadrian of the group, was interesting enough to keep my attention.  Hell for that matter, the murderer among them had me fooled.  I would have gladly gone along with any plan they came up with, just thankful that they wanted to hang out with me.

And I almost forgot, the peeping tom referred to in the synopsis, is not the killer. I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying that, simply because had the peeping tom been the killer, that would have been way too obvious.  He is connected to Kate though, and while I find the connection and the peeping tom's involvement in the story to be a little contrived, by the time the book is over, I'm so ready for Kate to have her HEA, that I overlook the huge coincidences that were involved, and go with the flow

Challenges: A-Z Mystery

Home Work by Kaje Harper

Synopsis From Publisher:

Coming together as a family was supposed to make life happy-ever-after for Mac and Tony, but their two uprooted kids, demanding jobs, and a less than gay-friendly world don't seem to have gotten the message. 

Mac and Tony thought the hard part was over. They're together openly as a couple, sharing a home and building a life with their two children. It's what they dreamed of. But daughter Anna struggles with the changes, Ben is haunted by old secrets, Mac's job in Homicide still demands too much of his time, and Tony is caught in the middle. It's going to take everything these men can give to create a viable balance between home and work.  Especially when the outside world seems determined to throw obstacles in their way. 

If you couldn't tell by now, I absolutely love this series, and I'm pretty sure I will never get enough of Mac and Tony. Home Work is the third book in the series, and it seems to be the most emotional of them so far.  They are trying to figure out the dynamics of having a new family, with two kids who aren't used to sharing, but love each other, and their new family.  Add in the everyday complications that all couples face; trying to find time to spend together, setting individual responsibilities, juggling work and home, and the millions of everyday life events, and you have two men who truly love each other, trying to figure it all out.

Midway through the book, the four of them take an amazing step in order to bring their family together.  It's one of the more emotional scenes in the book, and I'll admit to a sniffle or two.  I love Tony, but it's Mac that truly shines here.  He has been alone most of his life, and he didn't have the best home life growing up, so for him to finally have a family of his own is amazing.  There is so much love between Mac and Tony, and between them and the kids, that they are quickly becoming my favorite couple of all time.  I would put them up against the iconic legends of coupledom, both on page and screen, and I have a feeling they would come out near the top of that list.

This is still a mystery book, and the one featured here is as twisted and deliciously convoluted as they come. A young man is found dead, frozen to the bridge his body dumped on, left out like so much garbage.  Needless to say Mac has his work cut out for him on this one, and it's pretty apparent that he is going to have to sift through a lot of lies and misdirection to get to the truth.  In the end, it's a case that almost costs Mac everything, including his own life, and it leaves him  and Tony with a whole new set of challenges.

The way the two of them together to face it head on, is about as emotional as it gets.  Seeing Mac, one of the strongest characters around, come to terms with what happens to him, so shortly after the happiest day of his life, almost broke my heart. In this back third of the book, the author really shows off her writing skills, and allows the characters to grow as one.

Since I've been rambling on about how great I think Mac and Tony are, and I'm grateful if any of you are still reading this review after plowing through my flowery language, I'll let you in on one last bit of information.  This book has to have one of the coldest, most calculating villains I've come across in a while, and I absolutely love it.

Challenges: Men In Uniform

My New Found Addiction to Trivia Crack

I don't know about the rest of you, but within the last week, I've become addicted to Trivia Crack.  I kept seeing some of my Facebook friends playing it, but I try to avoid Facebook games, otherwise they become a huge time suck for me.  I can't even begin to tell you how much of my life was wasted playing Farmville, Castleville, Frontierville, Zoo World, and all the rest of the games, I got tricked into playing. 

Eventually I caved, and instead of playing on Facebook, I downloaded the app to my NOOK.   And the rest, they say, is history.  I can't stop playing it, and when I'm not playing against a friend, I'm rating user questions, just to keep my useless trivia skills razor sharp.  In my crazed addiction, I've even submitted twenty questions for community approval, I'm still waiting to see if any of them make it into the game.

Until then, I thought I would put the twenty questions I've come up with, and see if you guys, without cheating, can answer them.

Geography

The island of Gibraltar is a territory of which nation?

     Italy
     Great Britian
     France
     Spain

In what state does the Mississippi River start in?

     Wisconsin
     Mississippi
     Minnesota
     Iowa

Science 

What is the smallest species of antelope?

     Dik-Dik
     Oribi
     Royal
     Steenbok

What animal is also known as a wapiti?

     Deer
     Moose
     Elk
     Caribou

What is the symbol of Curium on the Periodic Table?

     Cm
     Cu
     Cr
     Ci

Art

Which of the following is not a shade of green?

     Chartreuse
     Myrtle
     Ultramarine
     Kelly

What was the name of the prophetic rabbit in the classic book, Watership Down by Richard Adams?

     Silver
     Dandelion
     Fiver
     Hazel

Perry Mason is a creation of which American mystery writer?

     Richard Castle
     Ellery Queen
     Ryan David Jahn
     Erle Stanley Gardner

Who was the subject of Marie Tussaud's first wax sculpture?

     Benjamin Franklin
     Voltaire
     Horatio Nelson
     Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Who wrote The Circular Staircase?

     Agatha Christie
     Mary Higgins Clark
     Mary Roberts Rinehart
     Jessica Fletcher

Who Wrote And Then There Were None?

     Patricia Wentworth
     Agatha Christie
     Mary Roberts Rinehart
     Erle Stanley Gardner

Sports

The 1928 Winter Olympic Games were held where?

     Squaw Valley
     Innsbruck
     Albertville
     St. Moritz

What was the first professional baseball team Daryl Strawberry played for?

     New York Yankees
     New York Mets
     Los Angeles Dodgers
     San Francisco Giants

Entertainment

In the 1966 TV Christmas special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, who is the voice actor that sings "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"?

     Thurl Ravenscroft
     Hal Smith
     Dallas McKennon
     Boris Karloff

In what year did Elijah Bond release the first commercially made ouija board?

     1934
     1890
     1817
     1952

Who played Zorro in the Walt Disney produced TV show?

     Van Williams
     Dennis Morgan
     Mario Lopez
     Guy Williams

Who played opposite Cary Grant in, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House?

     Ruth Hussey
     Bea Arthur
     Myrna Loy
     Rosalind Russell

What is not the name of a Thin Man movie?

     The Thin Man Goes Home
     The Thin Man Takes a Ride
     After the Thin Man
     Song of the Thin Man

History

The Spanish Flu pandemic that killed around 50 million people world wide, happened in what year?

     1879
     1903
     1942
     1918

What was the name of the American Great Lakes freighter that was sunk by a storm on Lake Superior, on November 10th, 1975?

     The SS Superior City
     The SS Edmund Fitzgerald
     The SS Monarch
     The SS Samuel Mather

Favorite Fictional Character --- Fred Flintstone

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a cartoon junkie.  I find no shame in this, nor do I think it's something that leaves me open to ridicule.  I'm addicted to cartoons, and I'm not afraid to admit it.

There is a small caveat to my addiction, it can't be a cartoon that was made after I was in my teens.  For whatever reason, almost all cartoons since the mid 1990s are sloppy.  I'm not sure if it's because they have gone to digital animation instead of hand drawn, their horrible story lines, or a combination of the two.; but I can't handle the way cartons look anymore.  They aren't entertaining by any stretch of the imagination, and that's a damn shame.  I wish today's kids had the cartoon that I grew up with.  Even more than that, I wish they had the cartoons that my mom grew up with, including The Flintstones.

No matter how much Fred Flintstone bloviates, yelled, pushes his chest out, or stomps his humongous feet, his heart is always in the right place.  Fred is the quintessential blue collar family man caught up in taking care of his family.  He is loud, aggressive, and just a tad bit bossy, but behind his obnoxious exterior, is a man who truly loves his family,

Everything he is, everything he is about, everything he does is centered on giving his family a better life. He works his ass off at the quarry, takes the odd job around town, and is constantly trying to scheme his way into the moneyed elite.  He has a heart of gold, and not matter how much he may irritate people, he is the first in line to lend them a helping hand. 

I grew up with a father that was like Fred in a superficial way, but unlike him in more ways than one.  My dad was loud, obnoxious, pushed his chest out, and unlike Fred, threw a punch more often than not.  What he wasn't was a man who was willing to put his family first, and do what needed to be done to take care of them.  Who my dad was, is why I love Fred as much as I do.  I wanted a father, who despite what was on the exterior, was a man who put his wife and kids first.  I wanted a dad who did what it took to make sure we were safe and loved.  I'm not sure I wanted a prehistoric caveman who yelled "Yabba Dabba Doo" all the time, but I'm pretty sure that if I had, my father would still be around.

The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook edited by Kate White (Password Clue)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Hard-boiled breakfasts, thrilling entrees, cozy desserts, and more - this illustrated cookbook features over 100 recipes from legendary mystery authors.  Whether your're planning a sinister dinner party or simply looking to whip up some comfort food, you'll find plenty to savor in this cunning collection.  Full-color photography is featured throughout, along with mischievous sidebars revealing the links between food and foul play. 


Let's think about this one for just a second.  How on earth would I be able to pass on this one.  The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook contains two of my favorite things in the world, mysteries and food.  It's a no-brainer, and I would have deserved to be victim number one, had I not jumped at the chance to get my hands on this one.

When I got it in the mail, and I'm not exaggerating this, I skipped all the way from the mailbox to my front door.  I was that damn excited.  Now it took me a few days to have the time to start trying out some of the recipes, but once I did, I have to admit to being a little impressed.  These aren't examples of complicated, high cuisine.  For the most part, the recipes are fairly simple, easy to follow, and it's the kind of food we all love to eat.

I'm not a huge breakfast eater, but I know it's the most important meal of the day, so I try to get by the best that I can.  I'm really not an egg fan, so the fact I was willing to make an omelet should shock everyone I know, but when I saw who contributed it to the book, I had to go for it.  I think you guys know that I'm a huge fan of Ben H. Winters The Last Policeman trilogy, and thank the lord, he included Detective Palace's Three-Egg Omelet.  If you are a fan of the series, you will recognize Hank's customary breakfast.  It was super easy to make, and while I'm still not a huge fan of eggs, I'm willing to love anything attached to Hank Palace.

After I had perused the entire book, I decided to try out Brad Meltzer's Italian Chicken.  Again it was a dish with only 7 ingredients, two of them salt and pepper, and it was so easy to make.  There were only 5 steps to it, the first was to preheat an oven and spray a baking dish.  I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was.  I think sometimes we forget that simple is good, and that sometimes it's the best way to go.

And not to name drop, but here are some of the other authors who have contributed recipes of their own: Louise Penny, Mary Higgins Clark, Rhys Bowen, Kathy Reichs, Charles Todd, Jacqueline Winspear, Gillian Flynn, Sue Grafton (the peanut butter and pickle sandwich her main character loves so much), James Patterson, and tons more.  This will be one of those cookbooks I go back to over, and over, and over again.

Challenges: Password (America)

Switching Commenting Back to Disqus

I've decided to switch back to Disqus for commenting.  I tried it out a few years ago, and had quite a few problems with it, but as time has gone by, I've noticed that a lot of the issues I had, are no longer happening for other bloggers.  

The biggest reason I'm switching back is that it does make it easier to reply to every comment. I try to respond by email now, but with so many people not setting up their email address for Blogger, it's becoming a less frequent option for me.  I'm going to miss having the comments pull up in a separate window, as I do think that makes it easier, but I'll learn to live without it. 

Hopefully this transition will go smoother for me, than it did a few years ago.  I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.  

A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

Synopsis From TLC Book Tours Site:

Spring 1937.  In the four years since she left England, Maisie Dobbs has experienced love, contentment, stability - and the deepest tragedy a woman can endure.  Now, all she wants is the peace she believes she might find by returning to India.  But her sojourn in the hills of Darjeeling is cut short when her stepmother summons her home to England: her aging father, Frankie Dobbs, is not getting any younger. 

On a ship bound for England, Maisie realizes she isn't ready to return.  Against the wishes of the captain who warns her, "You'll be alone in a most dangerous place," she disembarks in Gibraltar.  Though she is on her own, Maisie is far from alone: the British garrison town is teeming with refugees fleeing a brutal civil war across the border in Spain.

And the danger is very real.  Days after Maisie's arrival, a photographer and member of Gibraltar's Sephardic Jewish community, Sebastian Babayoff, is murdered, and Maisie becomes entangled in the case, drawing the attention of the British Secret Service.  Under the suspicious eye of a British agent, Maisie is pulled deeper into political intrigue on "The Rock" - arguably Britain's most important strategic territory - and renews an uneasy acquaintance in the process.  At a crossroads between her past and her future, Maisie must choose a different direction, knowing that England is, for her, an equally dangerous place, but in quite a different way. 

Earlier this week I reviewed Leaving Everything Most Loved, the previous book in the Maisie Dobbs series.  In that review, I tried my damnedest to not let the fact I had already read this book, bleed into it.  For the most part, I think I did a pretty good job keeping them separate, and not letting this book color what I had to say on the previous.  I'm not going to rehash what I had to say, though I'm still having some of those same problems, only magnified about a bazillion times.

To be perfectly frank with you guys, this almost became a DNF on page nine.  When I was about half way through the page, I had to put the book down, and walk away for over an hour. Even then, I had to force myself to pick the book up and continue reading it.  Regardless of what happened to upset me so much, the fact I even contemplated not reading a Maisie Dobbs book is upsetting enough.

I've been debating how detailed I wanted to get with this review, and I think I've decided to go in a direction that will include spoilers, so please stop reading if you don't want to know some of the pertinent details. On a personal level, it will be impossible for me to review this book, and explain my reactions to it, without giving away some of the secrets.  And be warned, I may ramble for a while before I shut up.

As a long time fan of the series, I've been all for Maisie marrying James Compton, and finding true happiness in her life.  Part of the issues I had with the previous two books was in the way she kept going back and forth on what her feelings were for him, and what she wanted out of the relationship.  She has some serious  hangups when it comes to her personal relationships.  Between her childhood and her experiences in the war, I get where they come from, but enough is enough.   I've been wanting to shake her, and tell her to not only make a decision, but to make the right one. After everything she's been through, she deserved to be happy, and any idiot could tell that James made her happy.  She was just allowing her personal issues, and self doubts, to get in the way.  At the end of the Leaving Everything Most Loved, I had the impression that she was going to make the right decision, and finally agree to marry James.

On page seven of A Dangeorus Place, I got my wish. She finally agreed to marry him, and I couldn't have been happier. It was by telegram, but I was expecting that.  On page eight, through another letter, we learn that Maisie is pregnant with their first child.  Then on pages nine and ten, all hell breaks loose.  A little over a year after they were married, James is killed in a plane crash, and Maisie loses the baby.  The whole four years between the two books are told within fourteen pages, all within letters or news stories.

It's not even the loss of James and the baby that has me so upset, though I think James was a great character, and I would have liked to see them grow old together, but it's in the way it happens that pisses me off so much.  These characters deserved better than this.  It's all off page, told as more of a prologue to the book, rather than as part of the story.  It's callous in it's execution and it comes across, at least to me, that the author didn't really care for the character or their relationship anymore.  And instead of just letting her say no to the engagement, and allowing James to move on with his life, she killed him off is a rather offhanded way.  The other way I could read it, was with Maisie being in a happy place, contented with life, the author wasn't sure in which direction to take the character.  So instead of ending the series, or moving Maisie into a new chapter of her life, she chose to completely upend her life once again, and start the neuroses and inner conflict all over again.  Cause heaven forbid, we have a happy character.  After 11 damn books, the drama can end.

The other problem I had with this one, and a few of the others, is that it seems the author is moving Maisie more into the espionage realm, and less on the mystery side of things.  I'm not a huge fan of spy thrillers, regardless of who writes them, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue with the series if that is the direction they keep moving in.  It's repeated a few times in this book that once the Secret Service has you in their sights, they don't let you go.  I'm hoping they do let her go, and that Maisie gets back to doing what she does well, solving crimes.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the rest of the book.  I think the author did a great job in setting the scene, something she has always been really good at.  With the Spanish Civil War in full steam across the water, Gibraltar is sitting on the edge of a precipice, and anything is possible with that much tension swirling around the island.  She has populated the island with some intriguing characters, though I did find a few of them to be rather one dimensional, and the storytelling itself is as spot on as it's ever been.  Jacqueline Winspear is a great story teller, I just hope she starts taking better care of her characters.

By the end of the book, I wasn't ready to run out in traffic anymore, and I am willing to give the series one more chance.  I want the next book to get back to what the series used to be like.  Tone down some of the angst, stop making her so insecure and indecisive, and let her be happy for once in her life.  Bring Billy and Sandra back into the fold, their absence was notable in this book.  For that matter, bring her father and the senior Comptons back into the story, the lack of the regular supporting characters has been another issue for me.  Stop sliding Maisie into the spy game,  and let her reopen her detective agency.  Let Maisie be the Maisie we all fell in love with in the beginning of the series.

I don't want to say goodbye to Maisie, but I didn't want to say goodbye to Buffy Summers either.  That show lasted seven seasons, and in reality, it was time for it to be over.  The Maisie Dobbs books have now lasted through number eleven, and while I don't want to see her go, it might be her time as well.  I'm hoping that book twelve corrects some of the issues I, and a lot of other readers, have been having.  If not, maybe I'll just pretend the network pulled the plug.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book. Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.