"Antiques are all we have" - Lovejoy

"Antiques are all we have.  They're all we can depend on and the only things mankind can look forward to.  They deserve protection."
              Lovejoy (Jonathan Gash)

Pearlhanger by Jonathan Gash begins with Lovejoy at a séance and ends up with him hunting for an almost mythical pearl antique.  Join him on a sweep of East Anglia looking for his precious antiques and secretly buying them.  Before too long Lovejoy is in trouble with several forgers, the police, and a dangerous collector of antiques. Of course, there is a woman involved who is forcing him to do her bidding; what would a Lovejoy mystery be without a woman? 

Disclaimer:  I know nothing about antiques at all.  I just love Lovejoy, the scoundrel! 

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

For once I am reading something current, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, a memoir by Rhoda Janzen.  When her husband leaves her for another man, Janzen goes home to reconnect with her family and her heritage.  This delightful and humorous book is the result.  Many times I found myself laughing out loud at her descriptions of her life, her marriage, or her childhood.  I highly recommend this book, after all, how can you go wrong when on the first page you read of a relative who named her withered arm "Stinky."

I Love Lovejoy

After the brutal murder of two of his acquaintances, Lovejoy is forced to submit to a plan to, of all things, steal Venice.  Once in Venice, Lovejoy skulks around the city trying to suss out the best way into the Palazzo Malcontento to learn where the forgeries are being produced and determine the principle players in this scam.  Once again, Lovejoy has too many women from which to choose, and one of those women may be a murderer.  Who can he trust?   In The Gondola Scam by Jonathan Gash, until the last pages, you will never know. 

A Cozy English Novel.

Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, is a nice relaxing read with a social conscience. Major Ernest Pettigrew begins a friendship with the local shopkeeper, Jasmina Ali, a woman of Pakistani heritage. Much to the dismay of his son and the people of his village of Edgecombe St. Mary, his friendship soon looks to be developing into something much stronger.

Meanwhile, there is the trouble between Abdul Wahid and Amina, Roger Pettigrew and everyone, the Major and his sister-in-law, a large building project that threatens village life, and a matched pair of prized shotguns. Join Major Pettigrew as he tries to come to terms with public opinion in Simonson’s first novel.

Slaves of Obsession

In Anne Perry's Slaves of Obsession, Monk is hired to discover who is blackmailing Daniel Alberton, a gun dealer. Meanwhile, both sides in the United States Civil War are trying to purchase guns from Alberton. When Merrit, Alberton's daughter; Lyman Breeland, the buyer for the North; and the guns all disappear at the same time that Alberton is found brutally murdered, Monk and Hester are sent to the United States to find Merrit and attempt to apprehend Breeland to stand trial for the murder.

When they return to London, Breeland and Merrit are both held for trial and Monk must determine if they are guilty. Does the blackmail attempt have anything to do with the murder? Did Breeland steal the guns or did he buy them, as he said he did? This exciting entry in the Monk series of mysteries includes scenes from both the US Civil War and underwater diving in the Thames.

Disappointment

I am very disappointed today.  We had a meeting that was to decide whether to allow a group to meet and when we arrived we found it was a done deal.  What is the point of a committee if all you do is say "yes?" I would have voted yes, I just wanted the opportunity.

The Candy Factory

Katharine Weber's True Confections is the story of one Alice Tatnall Ziplinsky's life in the world of Zip's Candies, a world she entered through her marriage.  Weber begins this novel with an affidavit by Alice that the following is "true and correct to the best of my knowledge."  Although we know fairly early on that Alice is known as an arsonist, we are teased with the details of that arson interspersed with life in a candy factory.  The teasing way she tells her story makes the reader yearn for more and read on. The story leaps from one event to another, skipping details, only to jump back to an earlier topic, thus tantalizing the reader the way a good chocolate bar might.

But all is not perfect about this book.  The author's detour into one character's escape from WWII Hungary to Madagascar is murky and confused at best.  The main character, who is narrating this escape admits to making things up, but that does not help.