Cleaning

Clearly losing interest in this blog...

But, The Bellwether Revivals, by Benjamin Wood (2012), had intriguing, memorable, and finely drawn characters (even the supporting players were fleshed out nicely), a captivating plot, and was well written.

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise, by Julia Stuart (2010), was entirely different, beyond being set in England, but also excellent. I suppose both also deal with loss and regret, too, I guess.

I've gotten entirely confused about which books in the Sebastian St. Cyr series I've read (and the blog is failing me - see, if you can, a bunch of complaints about that here and there in the blog), as is the fact they all kind of blend together. So I ended up picking up from the library (the BPL, not Widener) Where Serpents Sleep (2008), which I had totally already read before. Whoops. But it was good for reading while snuggled under the blankets on a dreary night. And I bet I said it the last time I read this book, but while the titular St. Cyr feels like a very familiar type, Harris has in her "new" (in this book) female lead, Hero Jarvis, a fresher character, although still not a super original one.  Hey - set in England too!

And also in England - four for four! - the latest (I think?) Inspector Lynley mystery, Believing the Lie (2012). This one came out right around the time last year I went to California, and I really wanted to get it, because these and the Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child Inspector Pendergast (or whatever the hell his name is) tomes always seem to pop up in airport bookstores and they're so perfect because they'll last even me through a long flight. But they're also so freaking expensive (not for books, I guess, but in general paying $25+ for a book I'll knock off once kind of offends me), so I didn't, and then kept forgetting to track it down. But I eventually got it from the BPL and enjoyed it. No work of great art, but George writes pretty well, at least given what else is out there in the same family. BUT. BUT. I wanted to smack the editor upside the head. While I am sure the phrase "it's just not on" is widely used in the U.K. or whatever, it was used constantly in this book. Like, in one part, it was used at least once on 4 consecutive pages. And coming from the mouths of police and civilians, grandparents and grandchildren, ennobled masters of industry and suicidal teens. Just...no. Someone should have done something about that. But (and in a good way), I appreciate that George does a good job with interweaving and balancing multiple story lines (I was especially happy to see that Havers' continues) and perspectives. She also took the interesting approach of showing us the death at the center of the mystery, and then letting the characters stumble through figuring out what happened (more or less).