Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes - I almost didn't finish this, it had so many words. "... the horror of these events was exacerbated by the inspissated gloom in which they were enveloped." Written in 1936, the story takes place in an English college, which causes me enough trouble in modern times. I had to Google a Proctor in order to figure out exactly what he was doing. Extremely convoluted ending. And yet I found the policeman intriguing enough that I might read another - one at least set in the '80's.
1 star
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The Reckoning by Jane Casey - someone is killing sex offenders and pedophiles and Maeve Kerrigan is put on the case. When the reason behind the killings is discovered, the story takes a very different turn. This is the second in the series.
4 stars
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The Garner Files: A Memoir by James Garner and Jon Winokur - not really a straight timeline memoir, but instead sections like childhood, Maverick, and golfing. He's not quite as easy going as he seems in his roles.
2 stars
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Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest For Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman - the title pretty much says it. The author spent a month with the tribe in New Guinea that supposedly knows the truth. I thought he put a little too much of himself in the story but he also seems to have documented everything extensively. Somewhat stomach churning.
3 stars
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The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport - this is not a study of the Russian Revolution or who was right and wrong but about the lives of the four sisters. Their parents were quite unusual for the time and their position in that they actually spent time with their children. And the press in the early 1900's seemed as irresponsible as now. Maybe a little too much quoting from letters and documents to get her point across by the author.
3 stars
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The Quick by Lauren Owen - my first vampire book and supposedly that's a spoiler. But I knew before I started reading so it's not that much of a secret. The story starts out very slow and is told from different viewpoints and in different styles. Rather exciting near the end, then a very (to me) anti-climatic last 50 pages. It was like this first time writer had a really good idea but didn't know how to end it.
3 stars
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Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh - a Lord Peter Wimsey started by Sayers and finished by Walsh. Peter and Harriet Vane are now married and the story contrasts their marriage with another couple. Disaster strikes and Peter investigates. I found the "witty" conversations very pretentious. I'll have to re-read an original to see if it's me or Walsh didn't quite get it right.
3 stars
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Good Talk, Dad: The Birds and the Bees...and Other Conversations We Forgot to Have by Bill Geist and Willie Geist - I'm not familiar with either of the authors tv shows but thought this might be an amusing book. And it was but with a little too much raw language for my taste. Mostly funny stories from Willie's childhood.
3 stars
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