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Breezing through.

We celebrated in Canada in October. Now our American neighbours and friends celebrate their Thanksgiving today, or this week. With so many of our new, old, and dear friends happening to be American: I am sending out a greeting on your special occasion. I wish you blessings, safety, health, and togetherness! Happy USA Thanksgiving to all of you, wherever you are in the world! We know this holiday is dear to you.

Here is a story. I needed this second novel for years to continue a series I have in near entirety. The tiny 224-page book was not worth shipping prices, unless it was super cheap. I kept watch in person. This summer I spotted it at a cottage bookshop but the owner refused to go lower than $4.50 and it had a pen-marked page. I held firm and declined. Lo & behold I found it in mint condition at a September sale!

This is fantastic! I could count on Velda Johnston to be great, having loved two earlier hardcovers. This is fun for seeing how she writes mysteries of modern times of its 1975 release. "The Late Mrs. Fonsell" and "Masquerade In Venice" were historical fiction. I breezed through 100 pages when I started and am eager about the resolution. Great gothic mystery authors excelled at writing bizarre, unique scenarios!

Fantastic! Enthralling! This is the kind of mysterious book I like to read! Most people would not notice this 1967 treasure, which does indeed contain a Grandfather's diary about a treasure. I predict five-star pleasure!

What I can't predict is who will win tonight's Grey Cup. All the best to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger cats! Both our cities have needed to win the Grey Cup since the 1990s!

I am enjoying this and it is unsurprising! One thing I verify these days is whether I am reading a bonafide gothic mystery authoress, or the pseudonym of men who flooded our market; thinking correctly that we would be less apt to buy our mystery heroines from men. However, Paul Hugo Little apparently had a breathtaking amount of famous pennames. If he is responsible for some of my favourites, I tip my hat to him.

A lovely birthday gift to read and snuggle into bed with in my birthday week! I celebrate the whole month! Besides finishing a book in progress, November for me is reading only what I like! :) The biggest mystery has been solved early, which is greatly satisfying. I guess the rest of the novel will be to answer the questions why and how.

A birthday present for me yesterday! My friends bought it for me in new hardcover! Because physical book buyers best afford their collections by buying second-hand and of course I do not receive freebies nor want e-books, new releases after 2010 are rare for me. I catch up with you years later, LOL! Well, what a thrill to now own several books from 2016 to 2019, while it is 2019! Your birthday girl, Carolyn! :)

I am going to enjoy the personal information on my profile today! Tomorrow, my age rises and I will have a whole new year of life to enjoy and be better and better! An improvement on this book will be nice. ;> I will finish it after our guests have left tonight and start my birthday with a much more favoured novel.

It takes 100 pages for this to resemble a mystery, never mind be one. One's birthday month is for better novels than this, so I shall try to get in reading during a busy cleaning day to get it out of the way. Onto snuggling up to something more enthralling and impressive tonight!

A "cozy mystery" that dumps in the "Godfather" wannabe horror of a murdered cat! Cats are my children and you do not add a death to a silly mystery, to demonstrate that a thug is dangerous. This novel will be lucky to receive more than 1 star entirely for this. We will see if it produced any other merits but thus far: each character including the poor neighbour's "Fluffy", is a cardboard cutout. Weak and boring.

I hope the remainder lifts in excitement. I would say that is has started out as boring as dirt but I am a gardener who loves soil.

This feels like a five-star read to me!

This is a special novel. I notice immediately that Anne Perry has approached it differently. She is allowing herself to colour in the personal sides of her story better than ever before, elaborating to 300 pages. I never fault that she is action-packed. However, sticking to main events and screeching to a halt as soon as the mysteries were solved, left readers who enjoyed them, wanting to read more. I love this.

Dear Anne Perry always weaves plausible reasons for Charlotte and her younger Sister, Emily to help her policeman husband, Thomas solve crimes in London. Now in this 1987 novel featuring 1887, perhaps deliberately by the clever authoress; just when you wonder how she keeps dreaming up plausibility, this mystery hits Emily's home. Rid of a cheating husband but not by her hand, Charlotte and Thomas must clear Emily.

My break from "cozy" mysteries to enjoy "standard mysteries" helps me enjoy them better, I'm sure but this sounds amateurish. It reads like a Nancy Drew story intending to craft itself for adults. Every time a character is introduced, we are told rather than shown a few paragraphs of how they look and where they live in Charleston society. Actually, any time there is dialogue, an influx of "told" details is added.

I seldom read "cozy mysteries" any more, preferring the serious but still non-violent tone of "standard mysteries". Examples: Louise Penny, Elizabeth George, Victoria Thompson, David Handler, Lyn Hamilton, Howard Engel, Eric Wright, Gail Bowen.

I own lots in Laura Childs' series and will continue giving them a chance. Having finished Karen White's "Return To Tradd Street", another Charleston setting is well-timed.