Sandy Mitchell Pavick's Blog

The Woods by Harlan Coben -- A Reader's Review

Twenty years ago, four teenagers away at summer camps went into the woods at night. Two were discovered murdered and placed in shallow graves. The other two were never found. The incident changed the lives the families, the owner of the camp and his family, and the two teens that were also in the woods that night, seeking romance, not death.

Twenty Years Later

Today, those two teens are Paul Copeland, the Essex County (New Jersey) prosecutor, a widower, and the father of six-year-old Cara, and Lucy Gold, a never-married English professor at a nearby college. Copeland's sister is one of the missing teens and Lucy's father owned the camp where the murders occurred. They have never talked since that fateful night, but now new evidence has surfaced -- curiously at the same time to both Lucy and "Cope."

A Rape Trial

Copeland is in the middle of a high profile rape trial. Chamique Johnson, a 16-year old "exotic dancer," has accused two fraternity boys from wealthy families of raping her at a frat house party. "Cope" believes the girl, who has nothing to gain except justice by filing the charges. At first the case seems straight forward, but the defendants' high-priced legal team has some surprises for the prosecutor.

New Information

As Copeland tries to win justice for Chamique Johnson, he is visited by two Manhattan homicide detectives. It seems a murder victim was found with a stack of clippings and other information about the killings twenty years earlier. When "Cope" is asked to view the body, he thinks he may know who the victim is, but how can that be true after all of these years?

A Lost Love

As "Cope" and Lucy work to make sense of everything that's happening, they are forced to acknowledge the electricity that still exists between them. Will they be able to forget the intervening years or has the past become too big an obstacle for them?

The Woods has received mixed reviews in the major media, with many claiming that there are too many implausible situations in the plot. To me, the characters needed more definition. Coben does a lot more "telling" than "showing" about his main characters. However, I found the action to be compelling -- one of those novels that will keep you up well into the night. For that reason, I'd recommend picking it up -- especially as a beach or vacation read.

About Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben is the first mystery writer to win all three of the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards. Best known for his Myron Bolitar series, Coben is the author of 26 mystery novels, the most recent of which is Missing You, released in the US in 2014. Coben was born in Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Amherst College. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, a pediatrician, and their four children.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell -- A Reader's Review

I'm currently reading "The Bone Clocks," the latest David Mitchell novel, so I thought I'd share my review of his previous novel, "Cloud Atlas" that I originally published on Suite 101...

Cloud Atlas is a masterful series of six inter-related tales that span generations and continents to illustrate the basic human condition. Cloud Atlas is not a mystery in the traditional "who dunnit" sense. Rather it is a puzzle--a set of inter-related, cleverly-told stories that point out the similarities and inevitabilities of human nature. It's a brilliantly crafted novel, one that belongs in any serious reader's library.

Adam Ewing

The first tale is related in a set of journal entries by a 19th century California notary on his way home from a trek to the South Seas to find the beneficiary of a will. En route, he is marooned on an island for a week while his ship makes repairs and meets and befriends an English doctor as well as a native man.

Robert Frobisher

The tale of Robert Frobisher, ne'er-do-well musical student in the 1930s, is related in a set of letters from Frobisher to his friend Sixsmith. Frobisher, disowned by his family, expelled from the university, and hounded by creditors, decides to hide in Belgium for some months as the musical aide to an aging and ailing composer. His offer is accepted and he becomes intertwined with the household's customs and eccentricities.

Luisa Rey

"Half Lives: Luisa Rey" is structured as a pulp mystery. On the surface it is a tale of corporate greed, intrigue, and excess. Underneath, it reinforces the author's theme of the continuity and the inevitability of life. In this tale, set in 1980s California, we again meet Sixsmith from the previous chapter, who is now a well-regarded physicist in his 70s.

Timothy Cavendish

Fast-forwarding to present-day English, we meet Timothy Cavendish, a vanity book publisher, harassed by his ex-wife, relatives, and creditors. The story of his trials becomes the basis for a screenplay.

Sonmi-451

Moving into the future, David Mitchell takes up where George Orwell and Aldous Huxley left off. His future is one run by corporations, where clones (fabricants), such as Sonmi-451, are constructed to perform service jobs, where all-seeing "Eyes" which citizens from regular vantage points, and where each citizen has a spending quota to fill each month. It's a bleak world, but one not too difficult to imagine.

After the Apocalypse

The final scenario takes up to Mitchell's view of the world following a nuclear war. Societies, language, and skills are primitive and various pockets of survivors vie for the world's limited resources. It's an eerie look at what might be our future.

This clever novel is structured so that the reader samples each of these tales before learning of the ending. That strings from each story appear in the next is an intriguing way to tie them all together and to dismiss the differences of time and place.

Cloud Atlas was shortlisted for Britain's Booker Prize in 2004 and it's easy to see why it was selected. No word here is selected at random, even the created ones. All words add to the tone, the mood, and the ultimate story of this novel. It you haven't read Cloud Atlas, pick up a copy. It's that rare novel that entertains while imparting a profound message.

About David Mitchell

David Mitchell is a British writer, the author of six novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His most recent work, The Bone Clocks was just published in September, 2014. After years in Japan, he now lives in Cork, Ireland with his wife and two children. (David Mitchell is no relation to this reviewer.)

Make Ahead Bread by Donna Currie

I don't usually review cookbooks here, but this one is such a winner, I just had to share. Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Bake-It-When-You-Want-It Yeast Breads by Donna Currie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book could make a baker out of me! Just in time for the holidays, Donna Currie and Taunton Press have released this beautiful, fun-to-read primer on making yeast breads. Take it from someone who had given up trying to bake this type of bread; Ms. Currie makes the recipes easy to understand and follow. I tried the three cheese bread with Kalamata olives and can't wait to get started on the other 99 recipes.

However, you don't have to be a chef or a cooking enthusiast to enjoy this book, just a fan of good food. The color photographs will leave your mouth watering. This book is also a good resource for those looking for alternative to additive-laden grocery store breads.

(Disclosure: I received a complimentary ARC from the publisher.)

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Saturday by Ian McEwan--A Reader's Review

It is the ultimate test of a fiction writer to chronicle, in a novel, the events of a single day in one person's life. Virginia Woolf does it beautifully in her novel Mrs. Dalloway. So, too, does British, Booker prize-winning novelist, Ian McEwan, in his most recent work Saturday.

Beginning with his awakening before dawn with a vague feeling of foreboding Saturday takes the reader through the day of Henry Perowne, a middle-class, British neurosurgeon, husband, and father of two adult children.

We're given a glimpse into the ordinary (a chat with his son, a squash game, and his dinner preparation) and the extraordinary (a view from his bedroom window of an airliner's emergency descent over the rooftops of London, and a chance meeting with a mentally handicapped young man).

The gentle crescendo builds as we anticipate the family's late afternoon arrival at the Perowne's upscale London townhouse. Daughter Daisy, a poet, is back from school in Paris; father-in-law, Grammaticus, also a poet, is visiting from his self-imposed exile in France; son, Theo, is fresh from a blues guitar gig; and wife, Rosalind, a lawyer, is just out of court.

The day ends in conflict and a grave, moving, and hopeful resolution. This is a novel about human flaws and our struggle against them. Is Henry right in choosing the science of his profession over the art of his daughter and father-in-law? Is he right to "fix' patients brains when he can't "fix" their minds?

More introspective and cerebral than his previous novel, Atonement, Ian McEwan's Saturday is the right mix of self-discovery and current events. It is a novel that will leave you pondering the conflicts and resolutions of your own life.

"The Lost Empress" by Steve Robinson--A Reader's Review

The Lost Empress by Steve Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you enjoy historical fiction and mystery novels, this is a series to check out. "The Lost Empress" is the fourth in the Jefferson Tayte series by Steve Robinson. Tayte, an American genealogist who dabbles in crime solving, is drawn to England to see if a client's grandmother and a woman supposedly lost when the ocean liner, "The Empress of Ireland" sank in 1914 were the same woman.

The ship really existed and sank in the St. Lawrence River on its way from Quebec City to Liverpool on May 29, 1914. More than 1,000 people were killed in the accident, the largest maritime loss in Canada during peacetime.

Against this historical background, the fictional story emerges with plenty of history, manor houses and plot twists to keep the reader engrossed. I'll be seeking out the rest of the books in this series.

(Disclosure: I received a complimentary ARC via NetGalley.)

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Kindle Unlimited Update

Okay. I admit that I was a little skeptical when I decided to enroll in the Kindle Unlimited plan. I wondered if I'd be able to read enough to make the deal worthwhile. After the first 30 days, I can say that I'm totally sold on the program. In 30 days, I read 18 novels for "free" plus an uncounted number of non-fiction cookbooks, craft books and "how to save money" books. At $10/month, that's 55 cents per novel with instant access. Not too bad.

The intangible benefit is that I was able to discover a few new favorite authors that I probably wouldn't have tried at $5-$10 per e-book. Among my favorites novels were "The Art Forger" by B.A. Shapiro and "Death in Bordeaux" by Allan Massie. (Look for reviews of these two books soon.)  I haven't even started on the classic mysteries available on the program yet; I've been too busy with contemporary books.

I'll be sure to let you know what I discover next month.

Mission to Murder by Lynn Cahoon-- A Reader's Review

One of my favorite things about owning a Kindle (yes, I was a little late to the program) is that I am able to discover authors and books that aren't available in the local library or written up in the "New York Times" book review. That doesn't mean that they aren't well-written; they just have smaller marketing budgets. One such find was the "Tourist Trap" series by Lynn Cahoon. The second book in this series, "Mission to Murder," was just released on July 31st.

The Tourist Trap mysteries follow the adventures of Jill Gardner, a San Francisco stock broker turned small town bookseller. In the fictional California coastal town of South Cove, she manages to mix things up, getting involved with both the local business-to-business association, two murders and a local, very attractive police detective. She also just inherited a cottage-style house and the possible historic ruins of a California mission (hence the book's title.)

In the spirit of the "Murder She Wrote" series (with a little more spice) and in the style of Nancy Pickard and Carolyn Hart, Cahoon has penned two very readable cozy mysteries. The third installment in this series is due out in November. I'll be waiting.


(Note: the first book in this series, "Guidebook to Murder," is included in the Kindle Unlimited plan or just 99 cents if you're not a member.)

Does Kindle Unlimited Make Sense for Mystery Readers?

I finally decided to bite on the Kindle Unlimited (KU) deal this weekend, at least for the free 30 day trial. If you haven't heard, Amazon, via its Kindle platform, is offering a new program where the reader gets "unlimited" access to more than 600,000 titles plus thousands of audiobooks for $9.99 per month. The first 30 days are free.

How Kindle Unlimited works
Once you subscribe to KU, you are able to hold up to ten KU titles on your Kindle at one time. These can be of any genre, from mysteries to cookbooks. As soon as you release one, you're able to pick up another. When you subscription ends, you lose access to those titles (so you can't load up your Kindle during the free trial period.) You are automatically charged each month until you tell Amazon to cancel your subscription.

Popular mystery authors on Kindle Unlimited
When you start looking through the catalog, you'll find quite a few classic and popular contemporary mystery authors. Among them are:
Ed McBainJoanne FlukeLawrence SandersLisa JacksonIan Fleming (the James Bond books)Leslie Chartres ("The Saint" series)Dorothy SayersLeon UrisUmberto Eco ("The Name of the Rose" and others)Ruth RendellPatricia WentworthAdvantages to Kindle Unlimited
The chief advantage to KU, in my opinion, is the 24/7 access to a vast array of authors. With this plan, you can try something new without having to buy a book or return a book to the library. If you don't like it, you can just move on. It's also a good way for mystery lovers to read the classics that can't always be found at the local library.

The downside
The primary disadvantages to KU is the lack of current releases. (Most major publishers aren't willing to work with Amazon on KU pricing.) In addition, the search function is limited to searching by name or by the most popular titles within a specific category. Since there are more than 200,000 categorized as mysteries, browsing can be a little tricky and time-consuming.

Does it make sense?
Back to the original question: does subscribing to Kindle Unlimited make sense? The answer really depends on your reading habits. If you only enjoy the newest, latest releases, than no, you won't find what you're looking for on KU. Also, I'd say you have to read around 8-10 novels per month to really get your money's worth out of the program. Still, if you're an avid reader, KU offers a chance to read the classics and sample authors you might not have tried otherwise, all for $9.99/month and no late fees.

A Reader's Review: Lisey's Story by Stephen King

Lisey's Story is a joy to read. It's a mature, well-crafted novel by the master of all storytellers--Stephen King.

Lisey's Story (currently $8.54 on Kindle; $8.99 paperback) is a bit of a departure from King's earlier novels. It's much more subtle and speaks with the empathy of a middle-aged writer, something his earlier novels lack.

About Lisey
Lisey's Story tells the tale of Lisey (rhymes with CeCe) Landon, the forty-something widow of best-selling horror novelist, Scott Landon. The reader meets Lisey two years after her husband's death. She's finally decided to tackle the heart-wrenching and laborious project of cleaning her husband's study--his work room. As she sorts and reminisces, she is faced with a family crisis, she is threatened by a deranged fan of his husband's work, and she is forced to relive the mostly good of a 20-some year marriage.

In her searching, she finds what she could swear are clues left by Scott, clues that lead her to discover more than she ever knew about her husband's troubled childhood, his tortured imagination, and his love for her. At the end of the search is the last story he wrote--the one he wrote just for her: Lisey's Story. In finding that tale, her healing can really begin.

Is Scott Landon Really Stephen King?
The similarities between Scott Landon and Stephen King are unmistakable. Both are successful horror genre authors. Both live in Maine. Like Landon, King confessed in On Writing that he once struggled with alcohol. That King and his wife, author Tabitha King, have an enviable marriage is obvious. Although he states in the afterward that Tabitha isn't Lisey, King couldn't have written so tenderly and insightfully about Lisey's and Scott's marriage without having walked down that road himself.

King even pokes a little fun at his early success. Scott Landon became an overnight bestselling author with his horror fantasy Empty Devils, the only one of his novels Lisey doesn't like. Could Empty Devils really be Carrie?

One of the Best Novels of 2006 or any Year
I confess, although I've read much of Stephen King's work, I haven't really been a fan until recently. I've always found his flights of imagination a little too "out there" for my taste. With Lisey's Story, however, he's found a way to combine his fantasy world with touching human emotion. If it has a flaw, Lisey's Story relies a little too heavily on Scott Landon's made-up language. At times, you think that you might need a glossary. But, linguistics is not King's forte. He's a storyteller, and wow, what a story this is. Stalwart King fans will find enough fantasy to satisfy them, but they'll also find something new. Don't miss this novel.

Review: Cat Pay the Devil by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Talking tiger cat, Dulcie, can't wait for her human friend, Wilma, to get home. She's sure something awful has happened to her -- and she's right.

Cat Pay the Devil, one of the Joe Grey series, finds tomcat Joe and his friends, Dulcie and Kit, involved in chasing an escaped convict that they fear has abducted Dulcie's human, Wilma. Shortly after Wilma, a former federal agent, travels from their Molena Point, California home up to San Francisco to testify against Cage Jones, he man escapes.

Cage Jones

Jones has just one thing on his mind: retrieving his stolen fortune and finding his way to Mexico. Unfortunately, Jones is convinced that Wilma has found and taken his treasure. Since she is unaware of his escape (and has nothing to do with his stash of gold), she is an easy mark for him to kidnap while she is out shopping on her way back to Molena Point. When she doesn't return on time, Dulcie sounds the alarm.

Dulcie, Joe, and Kit to the Rescue

Very few humans in Molena Point know of the cats' ability to speak English and converse with humans -- and that's how they like it. However, when they find Wilma gone and her cottage ransacked, they are forced to call the police, even if it means discovery. The cats then organize a search that even includes the feral cats that live about the village. The ferals, who also speak English, are reluctant to interact with humans, but for Wilma and Dulcie they will make an exception. (The human/cat team saved many of the ferals from the pound in a recent mystery.) Eventually the cats know more than is safe to know and must find a way to alert the authorities, but fast.

Cat Pay the Devil is a fun, fast-paced cozy mystery. For new readers to the series, the concept of talking cats might seem a little too cute, but Ms. Murphy makes the cat characters likeable and enjoyable without being cloying. The plot contains enough twists to be intriguing and long-term fans of the series will enjoy catching up with their favorite characters. For fans of cat fiction, this novel is a winner.

About Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Shirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of more than a dozen mystery novels featuring Joe Grey and his friends. She has earned seven national Cat Writers' Association Awards for best novel of the year as well as several other honors. She and her husband live in Carmel, California with their two feline companions.

Shop for your own copy of Cat Pay the Devil on Amazon.com.