Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 75

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

"Charlotte, did you send Jinx to get Ford, tell him the news? Or would you like me to run up to the old fishing hole and get him?" Mr. Zephyr said, when they came down after the final trip, hauling the last set of bookshelves.

"Oh, you'd better believe it," Gram said. "That boy wasn't in so much a hurry to get out of town that he'd overlook something like that." She chuckled and gestured with her tray of lemonade and fresh sugar cookies, out onto the porch. We all settled down. Doni curled up next to Gram on the three-seater swing with one of her new books.

"Get out of town?"

"Senior Prank Night." I took my usual spot on the steps with my back against the big support pillar Uncle Jinx had carved to look like dragons had wrapped around it. The other pillar had unicorns chasing each other around and around up to the top.

"Oh, joy." He shared grins with Mr. Carr. “Forgot about that.”

"What's Senior Prank Night?" Doni asked, and sprayed a few crumbs from her mouthful of sugar cookie.

It was kind of nice to see she was a normal little kid in some aspects.

We explained about the long-standing tradition in Neighborlee for graduating seniors, on the first Wednesday of June, to play some extravagant prank. Sort of to leave their mark on the town before they headed off into adulthood. If they survived. Some members of the police and fire departments, and teachers spent Senior Prank Night on patrol. They tried to head off any pranks that got out of control, and prevent expensive or long-term damage to people, places, and things.

Off the Bookshelf: FISHERS OF MENACE, by Wendy Heuvel

 

#1 in the Faith and Foils cozy mystery series

I "met" Wendy during a book launch class we were both taking online, and won this book through her promotion on Goodreads. Glad I did. This is a fun series with just the right balance of humor and tension.

The small river town of Banford, in Canada, is gearing up for the yearly fishing tournament. Cassie Bridgestone, our heroine (and I hope the heroine for the whole series?) is a landlord and runs an antiques store she took over from her grandmother, who raised her.  She has some wounds from a near-miss at the altar, so that makes her leery of men who show interest. Which makes things uncomfortable for her when her new tenant isn't the old man she anticipated, but handsome and young and giving off signs that he's interested in her.

But while Daniel appears to be lying to her on a number of details, he isn't the main mystery and challenge for Cassie. Not yet anyway. The town curmudgeon is found dead, drowned in the river. The local part-time cop (who does come across as an arrogant jerk more than a few times) determines it's murder, and decides that the guy who found the dead man is the murderer. Cassie decides Officer The-case-is-solved-gimme-my-donut isn't interested in finding out the truth, so she sets out to do so. And trips over people. And gets people angry with her. And chooses the wrong guilty party several times. And gets frustrated with herself. 

And learns a few things about herself, about her relationship with God, and finds a little bit of healing from her past, along the way. Enjoyable adventure, and very believable worldbuilding. I WANT to visit the town of Banford again.

So ... more please!

Dragonkids approved!
#dragonkids#cozymysteryseries#faithandfoilscozymysteryseries

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

"So they took care of you until your relatives showed up?" Mr. Zephyr said. His voice was so gentle, it made me want to cry. Doni nodded. She sniffled a little when I reached up to her in the front passenger seat and took hold of her hand. "How long was that?"

"About..." She frowned for a few seconds and the fingers on the hand I was holding twitched a little, so I guessed she was counting. "About seven weeks."

Mr. Zephyr growled something that sounded Chinese. It was a good guess he was cussing, like Granddad did sometimes. Doni's eyes got big. Then she giggled.

"Sorry about that." He shook his head and gave us both a crooked grin. Then he pulled into the driveway of our house, right behind the glossy black Lincoln that belonged to Mr. Carr.

The nice thing about Mr. Carr was that he wasn't afraid to do manual labor or get his hands or even his clothes dirty. Of course, there wasn't any dust on the furniture or books we hauled home from Divine's, but the possibility of it counted. Mr. Carr came outside in his light gray, three-piece summertime lawyer suit, and helped haul that furniture upstairs to Doni's room.

Before that, he bowed to Doni and shook her hand and said he was very pleased to meet her. Gram had told him the whole story already, so he didn't ask any questions. Instead, he talked about Mr. Zephyr's upcoming research trip, and offered to help find someone to rent the big old Zephyr farmhouse while they were away.

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

"Hey, Doni, how long after Aunt Lenore and Uncle Thad...well, after they had their accident--"

"There were a lot of government people and protective services people and lawyers." Her eyes got bigger and full of shadows, but there was no feeling in her voice. That was kind of scary.

Mr. Zephyr gave her that look I had seen him and Police Chief Tanner use when someone tried to snatch a little girl from the playground at the middle school back in March. The middle school was next to the high school, and I was trying out for the track team with Miss Lanie when it happened. Someone screamed. Miss Lanie vanished, like she flew from the running track to the playground. Then she was back, holding that little girl, who was so scared she didn't start crying until Miss Lanie told us what happened and sent someone to call school security. The kidnapper got away, though.

Suddenly there were people coming from every side of town. Police and teachers and Mr. Zephyr and Pastor Rocky. They got those sad, determined looks on their faces, just like he had now. Nobody ever said what happened, but there was a big time gap between when they caught up with the kidnapper on the edge of the Metroparks, and when he showed up at the police station.

That kind of look can be scary, but make you feel really safe, all at the same time.

Off the Bookshelf: THE ANSWER IS ... by Alex Trebek

 

Have you been watching Jeopardy! long enough that you feel like Alex Trebek is kind of a family friend?

So reading this book of reminiscences and thoughts and reflections is kind of like having a chat late in the evening, when everyone is a little tired and the conversation gets deep and personal, and it's safe to share because you trust the people around you to understand.

I liked the short chapters and lots of photos and fun or touching glimpses into his background. Here's a man who's secure enough, and honest enough, to admit gaffs and flaws and embarrassing moments. And share the things that mean the most to him.

Thanks! Here's to many more seasons of Jeopardy! and more answers and questions to amaze and amuse and stump us all. Pray for strength and comfort in the times of pain, and a miracle of healing and grace for our long-time friend.

The Dragonkids loved reading the book too!#dragonkids#readbooks

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

A funny little hitch socked me in the chest, when I looked at Doni and realized something. Aunt Lenore was dead, but in all the fuss of Doni showing up and getting her settled and being so furious on her behalf, that little fact had slipped right past us. Who was going to tell my mother that her sister was dead? Had anybody thought of that yet?

I felt about twenty years older all of a sudden, and tired. Tragedy sure created a lot of work and a lot of things to think about. Even if--maybe especially if?--that tragedy was four months old.

What was wrong with those Hallidays, that they couldn't be bothered to call and say, "Oh, by the way, your daughter is dead. We don't want her daughter. She's on her way"?

Doni turned and looked at me with those big, sad eyes, and I shuddered at a new thought: Maybe it wasn't that they didn't care about her. Maybe they hopedsomething nasty would happen to her. Then there would no one to claim whatever inheritance she had coming to her, so they could take it over.

Of course, that begged the question of just what these people had done to Doni in the four months since her parents died. Why had they held onto her all that time, and only now cut her loose?

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

"Yeah, really. Granddad lives in books. Gram was a librarian. That's how they met. He was stealing from the research section and she caught him. Wrestled him to the ground and... Let Gram tell you. She tells it a lot better. Or wait until Granddad gets home from his fishing trip, and he'll tell you and act it out."

"I love books." She pushed off with both feet and hit the control that got the moped's pitiful little motor humming again.

Right about then, pity for my long-misplaced cousin turned to active like. We had a couple things in common, besides being dumped on Gram by relatives who couldn't find any use for us.

"I had lots of books. Mom and Dad got tons of books everywhere we went and sent them home. We added a new room on our house to hold all the books. They wouldn't let me keep any. They sold every last one." The growling break in her voice when she said they gave me a good idea how Doni felt about the Hallidays.

Okay, maybe it was immature of me, but I liked her a little more, knowing she really despised them. It meant Doni was with us all the way. She wouldn't be calling her Halliday relatives, begging them to take her out of this weird little town any time soon.

Don't get me wrong. I despised them, too. Anybody who would take a kid's books away was the lowest of the low. But the anger put Doni more squarely with us and against them. And since I had so little in the way of family, I was a greedy kind of kid who wanted to hold onto the ones I had as tightly as I could.

Then I thought of something.

"You know, Aunt Lenore used to send crates of books to Gram all the time. Chances are good a lot of them were duplicates of the books your folks sent home."

Doni stopped her moped again and stared at me, her face glowing, her eyes shining like crystals, full of tears. I liked that feeling, of knowing I had made her feel that good, given her that kind of hope. I decided right then, I was going to be Doni's protector, as well as the big sister Gram asked me to be.

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Off the Bookshelf: SHADOWS IN DEATH, by JD Robb

 

The In Death series.

This time it's personal -- for the killer as well as for Dallas and Roarke.

The "shadow" is a professional killer who was Roarke's childhood nemesis. Roarke, being Roarke, has been keeping tabs on Cobbe because that's the smart thing to do. As long as Cobbe stays on his side of the Atlantic, Roarke is going to let sleeping mongrel slimebag dogs lie.

(Hey, don't mess with my Roarke and Dallas!)

But when Cobbe shows up at a crime scene Dallas is investigating, and Roarke happens to be there because the call interrupts an evening out, and Cobbe lets Roarke see him ... the gloves are off. The challenge has been made, and this time neither one is going to stop until Cobbe is caught, or he destroys everything precious to Roarke -- starting with the people most important to him.  Like, duh, who would be stupid arrogant enough to go after Eve Dallas? 

Just shows how rage and jealousy will cloud your thinking.

Another fast-paced hunt and battle for justice long-denied. Heh ... I already have the next in the series on order at the library ... too bad I have to wait until next year!

New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

More important than getting Doni away from the house while Gram took care of serious business was introducing Doni to Angela, the owner of Divine's Emporium. If there was something "broken" inside her, Angela would sense it first and get to work, and give us some clues about what to do to help her.

Granddad always said Angela was the heart of the town. I was always ready for another excuse to go to Divine's and look for treasures. Introducing Doni to one of my favorite places in town was just one more thing I could do to help her settle in and feel welcome. We had a line of credit at Divine's. There was always something new and wonderful to find there, and Gram never got mad when I brought home something. Other girls liked shoes and clothes and makeup. I liked the odd treasures and books and just digging in the back rooms and dreaming. Mostly dreaming that one of these days, a sleek new computer like no one had ever seen outside an electronics show would mysteriously appear on one of the shelves, and I could bring it home for a song.

It also helped that I was best friends with Bethany Miller, Angela's goddaughter. Since Bethany almost grew up there, when she wasn't at her dad's diner, I nearly grew up there, too.

"You like books?" I said, about the hundredth question I had asked since we took off across town on Uncle Jinx's ancient mopeds. The motors were quiet enough we could talk, and there was hardly any traffic because everybody was either in school or at work.

About then, I realized I had missed the Yearbook party. Not good. But on the plus side, I had missed a lot of boring end-of-the-year activities in my other classes. Some of our teachers gave us quizzes that didn't affect our grades at all, and they thought we didn't know it.

"Love books." A little spark of interest lit Doni's eyes, and I nearly fell off my moped in shock.

"Great. Angela has a huge book room. You can take anything you want. But show me what you pick, because we might already have it at home. Most of the rooms on the third floor are library."

"Really?" Doni put both feet down and the moped stopped short, whirring a little before the engine shut off. Her eyes were wide and she had color in her cheeks for the first time since her hot bath faded.

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New Release Sample: VIRTUALLY LONDON

 

Gram fussed over Doni. She called her Doni, which the fuzzy-headed, exhausted, brave little critter seemed to like. From the moment the family lawyer retrieved her from the authorities who had custody of her after the accident, she had been hearing "London," spoken with tones of disapproval and command. Later, when she had nightmares and talked in her sleep about those horrid months of hanging in limbo, I learned no one ever sent her out of the room before they talked about what a burden and bother she was.

The rest of the morning was spent in getting Doni settled in the room next to mine, digging through the attic and the cellar for some furniture, getting her a long soak in the old-fashioned claw-foot tub with orange-scented bath salts, and then filling her up with a huge breakfast feast. Gram was just like Mrs. Zephyr, and believed in healing through lots of good cooking.

Doni was pretty quiet the whole time we got her settled. Every once in a while, I looked over and saw her lip trembling a little, but she never cried, never whined, never said much of anything. She also never smiled, except when Gram hugged her and Uncle Jinx swore for three minutes straight after hearing how the Hallidays didn't even have the decency to deliver a nine-year-old when they relinquished custody of her. They sent her by plane, alone, and then she figured out how to take a bus from the airport. I think the fact that someone got really cussing hot furious on her behalf raised her self-esteem about fifty points.

After Doni's bath, Gram sent us to Divine's Emporium to do some shopping. She wanted Doni to decorate her new room to suit herself, and get more furniture than just a bed, a chest of drawers, and some shelves. Besides, wandering around Divine's would distract both of us while she and Uncle Jinx got to work on tying up all the legal details. Gram went to school with Mr. Carr of Carr, Cooper and Crenshaw, the big-wig law firm in town, so he was our family lawyer.

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