A Very Unique Murder Mystery

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:27:00 GMT

I was very much looking forward to reading Heads You Lose, a murder mystery by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. Lisa Lutz's Spellman series is one of my absolute favorite series of books and I was sure this new book would be wonderful even though it wouldn't feature the Spellman family. I wasn't wrong but I wasn't really right either.

Let me tell you about the format of Heads You Lose. There is an editor's note and a few more pages of reading before you get to the title page. Don't skip these or you'll be a bit out of the loop before you hit page one. From there it gets more unique. Lisa Lutz wrote the odd numbered chapters and David Hayward wrote the even numbered chapters. Notes between the authors are featured throughout but mostly between chapters. These notes were distracting at first but eventually they became the best part of the book.

The mystery itself wasn't very thrilling. I honestly got bored with it about half way through, even as more bodies were turning up in the small California town were brother and sister Paul and Lacey Hansen live and work. There were some good characters but they weren't enough to keep me interested when the awkward plot let me down. I did finish the book but I didn't really like the resolution and mostly felt relieved to be done with the book. My overall feeling about the book is that it's just okay; different but not quite special.

There's word that there will be fifth Spellman book next year and I'm still looking forward to it. David Hayward hasn't written other novels but I believe he could write a good one. I just don't think this collaboration worked out very well.

The book's website: http://headsyoulose.com/

Lisa Lutz's website: http://lisalutz.com/

The Weed That Binds the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:56:00 GMT

Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce is my favorite new sleuth. I loved the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009), so much that I think I have driven my friends and co-workers crazy talking about it. But I think a lot of them have read it and feel the same way. I found the book as an advanced reader’s copy and picked it up because of the cover and the title. I am happy I did. When I learned that the next in the six-book Flavia series was coming out, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag (2010), in March of 2010 – I started searching for an advanced reader’s copy. A co-worker brought one back from a library event, not knowing that I was searching, and gave it to me.

Flavia de Luce is a brilliant eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and poisons in particular. She is as brilliant as Sherlock Holmes and as observant and down-to-earth as Miss Marple. Riding the English countryside on her beloved bicycle, Gladys, Flavia solves murders. In Weed, she is faced with two deaths but are they murders?

Set in 1950, a famous BBC puppeteer and his assistant have a vehicle breakdown in Bishop’s Lacy. Rupert Porson puts on a show in the church hall to help pay for the repairs and he is electrocuted during the second show. Who did it? Did the assistant do it? Did the vicar’s wife? What’s it to do with the other death years before?

We can rely on Flavia to find out! While dealing with her insufferable older sisters, a distant father, and a crazy tyrannical aunt come to visit, Flavia will work with the trusty Dogger to solve this mystery. Dogger is a “family retainer” with a shell-shocked past that drops gems of wisdom and mysterious information. I loved the introduction of the quirky spinster aunt, I’ve a feeling she will be around in the next books.

Watch for this book to be put out on the shelves of EVPL in March, but in meantime pick up The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie now and read it. Sweetness is available to read or to listen to on either cd or download. My advanced reader’s copy is making the rounds of the Library staff now, who knows when I will get it back…

Books Blog : murder mysteries

A Very Unique Murder Mystery

The Weed That Binds the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley