Heartstone by C. J. Sansom

Title:  Heartstone
Author:  C. J. Sansom
Pages:   634
Genre:  Historical Mystery
Series:  Shardlake, Book 5

Synopsis:  Summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis.

Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone; and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam.

The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, primed for battle in Portsmouth harbour: the Mary Rose...

Review:  I love these books.  Matthew Shardlake is such an interesting and likable character.  This was a great mystery.  I had no idea what had happened in either of the cases being investigated and when the answer was revealed, I was completely surprised.  I love when that happens!

The historical portions of these books are always very detailed and it's obvious that much time and research went into making them as realistic as possible.  How the common man lived in these times is horrendous and wartime is even worse.

Some of the previous stories were more exciting, but this one was very good.  I can't wait to get the next (and I'm afraid the last) book of this series.

Rating:  10 / 10

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Title:  Picnic at Hanging Rock
Author:  Joan Lindsay
Pages:  196
Genre:  Mystery
Series:  Stand Alone

Synopsis:  It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned.

Haunting, mysterious, and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling masterpiece of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca as a masterpiece of otherworldly intrigue.

Review:  I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel.  What I got was pure excellence.  This author's descriptions are wonderful.  The story reads like a dream.  You see the places, you care about the characters, and you wonder what really happened at Hanging Rock.

Even though it remains a mystery even after the book is done, I felt in no way cheated.  It was just too darn good of a story.  I'll be keeping this book.  I'm sure I'll read it again.  I'm so glad I read this!

Rating:  10 / 10

Revelation by C. J. Sansom

Title:  Revelation
Author:  C. J. Sansom
Pages:  550
Genre:  Historical Fiction / Mystery
Series:  Shardlake, Book 4

Synopsis:  In Revelation, Sansom’s newest book in the series, the year is 1543 and King Henry VIII is wooing Lady Catherine Parr, a woman sympathetic to reform, whom he wants for his sixth wife— much to the dismay of Archbishop Cranmer and the embattled Protestant faction at court. Meanwhile, Matthew Shardlake is working to defend a teenage boy, a religious fanatic who is being held in the infamous Bedlam hospital for the insane. When an old friend of Shardlake’s is murdered, he vows to bring the killer to justice. His search leads him back to Bedlam but also to Catherine Parr—and the dark prophecies of the Book of Revelation. As Bishop Bonner prepares to purge London of Protestants, Shardlake, with his assistant Jack Barak, uncovers a series of horrific murders that shake them all to the core.

Review:  These are some of the best historical fiction out there.  I believe I like this author as well as I do Sharon Penman and that is saying something.  Plus, his main character, Matthew Shardlake, is wonderful.  A lawyer by trade, Matthew finds himself embroiled in mysteries and politics (usually at the same time).

This story, mainly about the search for a serial killer, is chilling and full of adventure.  The descriptions of life in London in 1543 are realistic (and sometimes disgusting).  At the end, the Historical Note shows just how much research went into making this book as true to the times as possible.

I have one more Shardlake book to read and then there is another one I don't have.  After that, there seem to be no more coming.  I'll miss them.  This author has two other novels, both set in the 1940's, and perhaps I'll give them a try, but I won't love them like I've loved these books set in the early Renaissance in England.

Rating:  10 / 10

A Case of Need by Michael Crichton

Title:  A Case of Need
Author:  Michael Crichton (writing as Jeffery Hudson)
Pages:  416
Genre:  Medical Mystery / Thriller
Publisher:  Signet, 1968
Series:  Stand Alone

Synopsis: A Case of Need is Michael Crichton's award-winning debut novel, written shortly after he completed his medical internship. Set against the ever-building pressure and pace of a large Boston medical center, the tensions flare-and explode - when a surgical operation tragically ends in death, raising countless questions. Was it accidental malpractice? A violation of the Hippocratic oath? Or cold-blooded murder?

"There they are," Art said, "dying on the highways at the rate of about eighty a day. Everybody accepts it as a fact of life. So who's going to care about 14 women who die every day of abortions?"

Review:  Less than 24 hours to finish this book.  It was fabulous, impossible to put down.  Think John Grisham at his best, only about doctors instead of lawyers.

Set in the days when abortion was illegal in all but a very few states, a doctor is accused of doing an illegal abortion....and the patient died as a result.  Dr. John Berry, a pathologist and former police officer, must solve this mystery before his friend, Dr. Art Lee, is tried and sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

This is an inside view of hospitals at the time and the doctors who worked there.  There is so much information on the medical field and how doctors think, which made it very interesting.  It's also slam-packed with excitement and mystery.  I was so sure I knew who was to blame.....and I was wrong.  I loved this book!!

Michael Crichton proves again why he is one of my favorite authors with this one.  I'm not sure it was his first novel, although the synopsis says it is.  Still, it was one of his first and it was great!

Rating:  10 / 10

Sovereign by C. J. Sansom

Title:  Sovereign
Author:  C. J. Sansom
Pages:  660
Genre:  Historical Fiction / Mystery
Publisher:  Pan Books, 2007
Series:  Shardlake, Book 3

Synopsis:  Autumn, 1541.  King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to attend an extravagant submission by his rebellious subjects in York.

Already in the city are lawyer Matthew Shardlake and his assistant Jack Barak.  As well as legal work processing local petitions to the King, Shardlake has reluctantly undertaken a special mission for Archbishop Cranmer - to ensure the welfare of an important but dangerous conspirator who is to be returned to London for interrogation.

But the murder of a York glazier involves Shardlake in deeper mysteries, connected not only to the prisoner in York Castle but to the royal family itself.  And when Shardlake and Barak stumble upon a cache of secret documents which could threaten the Tudor throne, a chain of events unfolds that will lead to Shardlake facing the most terrifying fate of the age...

What is still true - astonishingly, in the twenty-first century - is that Queen Elizabeth II retains the title Henry VIII took for himself: Supreme Head of the Church of England, Defender of the Faith and - in theory at least - God's chosen representative in England.

Review:  This book was even better than the first two.  Thomas Cromwell is dead, executed by King Henry VIII.  Matthew Shardlake has been trying desperately, ever since the fiasco with the Greek Fire in the last book, to stay out of politics.  It's now the next year and Archbishop Cranmer has called on Shardlake to help keep an important prisoner alive.

In York, Shardlake's life is in danger at every turn.  The Northerners hate the Southerners who have come with the King on his Progress.  Shardlake has enemies now that his old benefactor Cromwell is gone.  And then he comes across papers that may document that the King is not the rightful heir to the throne.  At no point in the story did I realize who was after Shardlake.  I thought I knew, but I was far off base.  I love these stories and how the mystery stays a mystery until the bitter end.

York was even more pathetic and awful than London.  The prisoner Shardlake must keep alive was kept in such awful conditions that I cannot understand how anyone ever made it to trial (or to their execution).  At one point, Shardlake himself winds up in the Tower of London and the description of that scary and horrible place was enough to give me the shivers.  King Henry VIII is even worse 'in person' than I'd expected.

The Historical Note at the end of this novel was eye-opening and I was pleased to see how much of the background of this story was true, or at least as close to that as it can be.  The quote I chose from this book came from there and, after reading the novel, it chilled me.

Rating:  9.5 / 10

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Title:  Leaving Time
Author:  Jodi Picoult
Pages:  405
Genre:  Mystery
Publisher:  Ballantine, 2014
Series:  Stand Alone

Synopsis:  Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife, and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment . . . or worse. Still Jenna--now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief--steadfastly refuses to believe in her mother's desertion. So she decides to approach the two people who might still be able to help her find Alice: a disgraced psychic named Serenity Jones, and Virgil Stanhope, the cynical detective who first investigated her mother's disappearance and the death of one of her mother's co-workers. Together these three lonely souls will discover truths destined to forever change their lives. Deeply moving and suspenseful, Leaving Time is a radiant exploration of the enduring love between mothers and daughters.

...in spite of what Serenity's said -- in spite of what I had believed -- she's not a lousy psychic. She's a fucking great one.

Review:  This book kept me guessing until the very end.  I was so sure I knew what had happened to Jenna's mother.  It turns out, I was nowhere near the truth.  This book was written from several points of view, mostly using Jenna and Alice, and it was easy to get so caught up in the story that I'd forget whose part I was reading.

The characters were all great.  Jenna and her mother, Alice, and her father, Thomas, are at the center of the story.  But, Serenity, the psychic, and Virgil, the ex-police officer, were more important to the quest to find out what had happened ten years ago, when Alice vanished.

I loved the little bits of obscure information about elephants.  Learning about the way they interact, live and treat one another was an eye-opening experience for me.  Realizing how poorly this incredible animal is being treated made me angry and sad.

I was completely unprepared for the ending and found myself in tears.  This was a great novel, one of Ms. Picoult's better ones, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating:  9 / 10

Once Gone by Blake Pierce

Title:  Once Gone
Author:  Blake Pierce
Pages:  204
Genre:  Thriller
Publisher:  Author-Published E-Book, 2015
Series:  Riley Page Mystery, Book 1

Synopsis:  Women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this case: Special Agent Riley Paige.

Riley is on paid leave herself, recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined. In a frantic race against time, she finds herself pushed to her limit, her job on the line, her own family in danger, and her fragile psyche collapsing.

Yet once Riley Paige takes on a case, she will not quit. It obsesses her, leading her to the darkest corners of her own mind, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted. After a series of unexpected twists, her instincts lead her to a shocking climax that even Riley could not have imagined.

A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, ONCE GONE marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.

Review:  This was a really good first novel.  I stayed up far too late last night reading it.  Riley Paige and her partner, Bill Jeffreys, are both good characters.  The opening drags you right into the serial killer's playground and never lets you go after that.  I found one mistake, but it didn't take away from the story.

While I enjoyed the tale, I didn't enjoy the whole e-book experience all that much.  I've read a few e-books, but not many, and each time I miss the whole 'having a book in my hand' feeling.  Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and set in my ways, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to read too many more in this format.  It just isn't the same for me.

But, this is a darn good novel and well worth reading.  I notice the sequel is available in e-book format for a very reasonable price.  I'll probably give it a try down the road.

Rating:  6 / 10

Prince of Darkness by Sharon Kay Penman

Title:  Prince of Darkness
Author:  Sharon Kay Penman
Pages:  327
Genre:  Historical Fiction / Mystery
Publisher:  Berkley, 2006
Series:  Justin de Quincy, Book 4

Justin's hesitation was barely noticeable. "I serve at the queen's pleasure," he said.

Synopsis: Justin de Quincy hastens to Paris at the request of his former lover only to discover that she was acting on behalf of his nemesis, Prince John. The prince has been implicated in a plot to kill his brother, King Richard, and wants Justin to prove the incriminating document false.

Realizing that John's suspected treachery may also risk the welfare of the woman he serves, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Justin reluctantly agrees to help. But his investigation unravels a sinister conspiracy that might change the course of English history.

Review:  Ever since reading this author's 900+ page book The Sunne in Splendour years ago, I've known she was one of the foremost writers of historical fiction set in the Medieval period.  I read book three of this series way back in 2008 and was a little afraid I'd be lost.  But, these stories are so easy to get into and the characters so memorable, that I had no trouble at all.

Justin de Quincy is the 'Queen's man'.  The Queen being Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Her son, Richard the Lionheart, is the King of England (although he's being held for ransom).  Another of her sons, John, wants to be sitting on that same throne.  The conspiracy and mystery surrounding the false accusations against John and the murder of an innocent woman take Justin to well over a dozen places and into danger and intrigue at the highest levels.

My favorite part of reading Ms. Penman's work is knowing that the majority of the characters were real and the places existed as she describes them.  Her research alone must be incredibly time consuming.  I learn so much about this time period from her books and since I truly love this era, it's always a pleasure.  And she takes such care with her writing, it seems these people live and breathe and love on her pages.

Rating:  9.5 / 10

Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom

Title:  Dark Fire
Author:  C. J. Sansom
Pages:  503
Genre:  Mystery, Historical
Publisher:  Viking, 2004

Synopsis:  It is 1540, and Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend’s young niece who is charged with murder. Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieve—one that will ensnare him in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s feared vicar-general.

In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwell’s dangerous assignment to find a lost cache of "dark fire," a legendary weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henry’s disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake to save his position at court, which is rife with treasonous conspiracies.

Review:  Another delicious mystery starring Dr. Shardlake.  This one is set in London itself and surrounds a missing recipe for Greek Fire and a string of murders, with an equally important story about a young girl accused of a murder she did not commit.  If possible, the city is even more horrible and sad and disgusting than the monastery was.  The justice system seems so completely unfair and random, I'm surprised anyone survived the time period.  I had some inkling of who had framed Elizabeth and who was spying on our heroes, but for the most part I had no idea who was actually to blame for what.  Great stuff.

Dr. Shardlake has a new assistant, Barak, who is low-class, foul-mouthed and generally completely enjoyable.  I liked this book just as well as I did the last one, maybe even a bit more because of the addition of Barak.  The Moorish monk, Guy, from the last story, has become an apothecary in London and one of Dr. Shardlake's most trusted friends.  His dry wit and intelligent insights are another refreshing plus for this tale.

But, I think I'll stop now and read the other two another time.  Don't want to get too much of a good thing and get bored with it.

Rating:  8.5 / 10

Dissolution by C.J. Sansom

Title:  Dissolution
Author:  C. J. Sansom
Pages:  390
Genre:  Mystery, Historical
Publisher:  Viking, 2003

The Bible says God made man in his image but I think we make and remake him, in whatever image happens to suit our shifting needs.

Synopsis:  It is the winter of 1537 and England is divided into those faithful to the Catholic Church and those loyal to the King and the newly established Church of England. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar-general, crusades against the old Church with savage new laws, rigged trials, and a vast network of informers. Queen Anne Boleyn has been beheaded and monasteries are being dissolved-their treasures pillaged and their lands eyed greedily by courtiers and country gentry. But having put down one people's rebellion, Cromwell fears another might topple the realm. So, when one of his commissioners is murdered in the monastery at Scarnsea on the south coast of England, he enlists his fellow reformer, Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer renowned as "the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," to head the inquiry.

When Shardlake and his young clerk and protégé, Mark Poer, arrive at Scarnsea, the two are greeted with thinly veiled hostility and suspicion as their investigation quickly uncovers evidence of sexual misconduct, embezzlement, and treason. While the community of brothers is revealed to be far less pious than they would seem, Shardlake himself is shocked to discover truths about Cromwell that undermine his own beliefs and threaten to cost him his faith, and even his life. But when a novice is poisoned and a year-old corpse dredged up from a nearby pond, Shardlake must act quickly to prevent the killer from murdering again.

Review:  I have always been in love with the Middle Ages.  I love stories about the Black Plague, monasteries, kings, queens, Knights Templar, and King Arthur.  This book reminds me a little of the Eleanor of Aquitaine series by Sharon Kay Penman, but only because they, too, are mysteries set in the Medieval Period, although the Penman books are set about 400 years earlier.  I even had a few flashbacks to that old Sean Connery movie, The Name of the Rose, but mostly because it, too, was a mystery set in a monastery.

Dr. Shardlake is an unusual hero.  A lawyer, a hunchback, and stout believer in the Reformation, he is investigating a murder on behalf of Thomas Cromwell.  He is not always a completely likable man, but he is honest and honorable, if perhaps a little blind when it comes to seeing what his benefactor Cromwell is really like.

I was so sure I knew who'd done it.  Absolutely positive.  It had to be Prior Mortimus, who was so hateful and mean and obviously hiding something.  I was wrong.  I never would have guessed the answer to the chain of murders at the Monastery of St. Donatus the Ascendant of Scarnsea.  That in itself made the book good.  But, along with that, the story was well told and the descriptions of Medieval life are terribly, yet also beautifully, realistic.

I have three more of these books.  I'm not going to read them all at once.  I'd get burnt out.  But, I think I will read another one.  I'm not ready to wave farewell to Dr. Shardlake just yet.

Rating:  8 / 10

A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin

Title: A Murderous Procession
Author: Ariana Franklin
Format: PB
Pages: 374
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2011
ISBN-13:  978-0425238868 
Series: Mistress of the Art of Death, Book 4

Favorite Quote:  "D'ye ken that?  By all that's holy, it's the peeps.  The peeps.  I've come home."

Synopsis:  In 1176, King Henry II sends his daughter Joanna to Palermo to marry his cousin, the king of Sicily. Henry chooses Adelia Aguilar, his Mistress of the Art of Death, to travel with the princess and safeguard her health. But when people in the wedding procession are murdered, Adelia and Rowley must discover the killer's identity and whether he... more » is stalking the princess or Adelia herself.

Review:  I'm so sad.  This is the last book.  Maybe there will be a new one some day.  I really, really enjoyed this series.

Rating:  9 / 10

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

Title: Grave Goods
Author: Ariana Franklin
Format: PB
Pages: 529
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2010
ISBN-13:  978-0425232330 
Series: Mistress of the Art of Death, Book 3

Favorite Quotes:  Lord, how I hate Avalon.  To beautiful, too terrible.  Once and future kings -- you can keep them.

"Excalibur."  In his reverence, Roetger began to sob.  "What else?  Where else?  Are we not in Avalon?"

Synopsis:  Set in 1176, Franklin's excellent third Mistress of the Art of Death novel (after The Serpent's Tale) finds Adelia Aguilar, a qualified doctor from the School of Medicine in Salerno, in the holy town of Glastonbury, where Henry II has sent her to inspect two sets of bones rumored to be those of Arthur and Guinevere. — Henry is hoping that... more » an unequivocally dead Arthur will discourage the rebellious Welsh. The bones have been uncovered by the few monks, under the saintly Abbot Sigward, who remain after a terrible and mysterious fire devastated the town and abbey. Adelia's party includes her loyal Arabian attendant, Mansur, whose willingness to play the role of doctor allows Adelia to be his translator and practice the profession she loves; and Gyltha, Mansur's lover and the caretaker of Adelia's small daughter, Allie.

Review:  It just gets better and better.  This story is about trying to find whether a particular set of bones might belong to the long-dead King Arthur.  I loved it!

Rating:  10 / 10

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

Title: The Serpent's Tale
Author: Ariana Franklin
Format: PB
Pages: 382
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2009
ISBN-13:  978-0425225745 
Series: Mistress of the Art of Death, Book 2

Favorite Quote:  Oh, God, a stupid man - the most dangerous animal of them all.

Synopsis:  When King Henry II’s mistress is found poisoned, suspicion falls on his estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The king orders Adelia Aguilar, expert in the science of death, to investigate—and hopefully stave off civil war. A reluctant Adelia finds herself once again in the company of Rowley Picot, the new Bishop of St. Albans and her baby's father. Their discoveries into the crime are shocking -- and omens of greater danger to come.

Review:  These books really are an awful lot of fun.  Mystery and intrigue set in a time that I have always adored reading about.  Plenty of humor and excitement and I still couldn't figure out whodunit until the very ending.  I'm already starting the next one and cannot wait.  I believe I liked this one even more than the last.

Rating:  9 / 10

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Title:  Mistress of the Art of Death
Author:  Ariana Franklin
Format: PB
Pages: 400
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2008
ISBN-13:  978-0425219256 
Series: Mistress of the Art of Death, Book 1

Favorite Quote:  Henry Plantagenet, King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, hoisted himself up on the refectory table, letting his legs dangle, and looked around.

Synopsis:  A chilling, mesmerizing novel that combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the detail and drama of historical fiction. In medieval Cambridge, England, four children have been murdered. The crimes are immediately blamed on the town's Jewish community, taken as evidence that Jews sacrifice Christian children in blasphemous ceremoni... more »es. To save them from the rioting mob, the king places the Cambridge Jews under his protection and hides them in a castle fortress. King Henry I is no friend of the Jews-or anyone, really-but he is invested in their fate. Without the taxes received from Jewish merchants, his treasuries would go bankrupt. Hoping scientific investigation will exonerate the Jews, Henry calls on his cousin the King of Sicily-whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe-and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner. The Italian doctor chosen for the task is a young prodigy from the University of Salerno. But her name is Adelia-the king has been sent a mistress of the art of death. Adelia and her companions-Simon, a Jew, and Mansur, a Moor-travel to England to unravel the mystery of the Cambridge murders, which turn out to be the work of a serial killer, most likely one who has been on Crusade with the king. In a backward and superstitious country like England, Adelia must conceal her true identity as a doctor in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Along the way, she is assisted by Sir Rowley Picot, one of the king's tax collectors, a man with a personal stake in the investigation. Rowley may be a needed friend, or the fiend for whom they are searching. As Adelia's investigation takes her into Cambridge's shadowy river paths and behind the closed doors of its churches and nunneries, the hunt intensifies and the killer prepares to strike again . .

Review:  And another new author I simply love.  I've already begun book two.  While there is some expected things, what I never expected was the ending, when the real killer was revealed.  There are some parts that are a little too obvious and sweet, but all in all this is a fine novel.

Rating:  8.5 / 10

The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Title:  The Yellow Room
Author:  Mary Roberts Rinehart
Format:  PB
Pages:  350
Genre:  Mystery / Thriller
Publisher:  Kensington, 1996
ISBN-13:  978-1575661193
Series:  Stand Alone

Favorite Quote:  "More beautiful women than you have sobbed on it," he said.  "But to hell with them.  You're my girl now.  Or are you?"

Synopsis (PBS):  A corpse -- somewhat charred around the edges -- has been discovered in the linen closet of the Spencers' fabulous Maine retreat. No one has a clue as to who she is or how she got there. Certainly not Carol Spencer, who has just arrived to open up her isolated family house for the summer. — Unfortunately, Carol seems to be the prime suspect, ... more »judging from the questions the police are asking. She has one advantage over the police: she knows she didn't do it. But now the servants have disappeared, all the telephones have been removed, and, as night rapidly falls, a dangerous killer is closer than she thinks....

Review:  This book was very old-fashioned.  It takes place during WWII so I expect the author was trying to make things as they would be in that time.  I got a little tired of the women being told to sit down and stop being hysterical though.

It was a good enough mystery though.  I thought I knew who done it and I was wrong, so that was a surprise.  This was really just okay, but it was a really fast read.

Rating:  4.5 / 10