Grey Skies and Empty Book Shelves

Things were looking pretty bleak a few weeks ago; the skies were grey and the ground was covered with snow and ice. Worst of all, I was down to one book to read and there were no other novels around that caught my interest. Things are looking up now; the days are sunnier, things are melting, and some of my favorite novelists have released new titles!

Lisa Lutz has written another smile-inducing novel about the lunatic family of detectives, the Spellmans. In Revenge of the Spellmans, Izzy is hiding from her family in her brother's secret apartment, in danger of losing her bartending job, has a car that constantly goes missing, her sister Rae is accused of cheating on the PSATs, her brother David looks unkempt and is missing a lot of work, and Izzy's parents are pressuring her to commit to the family business.

Deanna Raybourn, who is a great favorite with many of the librarians, has written another novel about Lady Julia Grey, Silent on the Moor. The impulsive, strong willed Julia chases down the reclusive Brisbane and confronts him at his decrepit manor house on the isolated moor. My only complaint so far is the perfectly dreadful cover which makes it look like a frothy romance novel, rather than the dark Victorian mystery loaded with undercurrents and fascinating characters that it is really is.

Virgil Flowers is back in John Sandford's Heat Lightning. I have grown to vastly prefer the laconic, cool Flowers to the overblown ego of Sandford's other character, Lucas Davenport. This time Flowers is tracking down a killer who inserts a lemon into his victim's mouths, and has a connection to a disturbing incident during the Vietnam War. The audio book is terrific.

Last, but not least, is another entry in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series. These are some of the best audio books I have heard. The narrator is wonderful, the opening music sets the mood of the roaring twenties, Australia makes for a vivid backdrop, and the clever, unconventional Phryne Fisher is a joy to follow. In Murder in Montparnasse, Phryne must find out killed two of friend's of Bert and Cec, which leads to events that happened in Paris during the first World War, and some dark memories from Phryne's past.

Things are definitely looking up; Spring is coming and I have a nice comforting stack of books to plow through.