Tuesday Book Review

 

Four-star review of Bad Blood (Kate Shugak, #20) by Dana Stabanow

This book refers to other characters and incidents in this series but is really about the feud between two villages, one prosperous and the other fallen on hard times, and the deaths of three people. Kate, her half-wolf, half-dog companion, Mutt and her significant other, Park Ranger Jim travel to various places in their part of Alaska to determine who killed each of them. There’s a Romeo and Juliet-style romance involved along with bootlegging and drug dealing. The cliffhanger ending leaves quite a few questions unresolved. Stabenow’s writing is always excellent with great descriptions and character development.

 

 

Tuesday Book Review

 

Five-star review of The Queen of Thieves (The Moonwind series Book 2) by Johan Rundberg

 In this second book of the series, Mika is curious about the extended absences of three other children from the Stockholm orphanage where she’s lived her entire. Her investigation shows they’re working for a woman who performs in the squares. Mika suspects she trained the kids to be pickpockets who operate while she has the audiences attention. But it’s more complicated than that. Mika is a wonderful spunky character. It was good to see some of the others from the first book in the series. The mystery behind her own background and that of an infant delivered to the orphanage is woven into the story and provides additional motivation for Mika.

Tuesday Book Review

Five-star review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

This book provides brilliant insight into how the mind of its first person narrator works. Christopher John Francis Boone is a fifteen-year-old autistic boy who needs a concrete understanding of what goes on around him. He can’t deal with abstracts or intangibles. The teacher at his special school asked him to write a book about the death of a neighbor’s dog, Wellington, since Christopher discovered the skewered body of the standard poodle late one night. He uses the book to detail his investigation of the murder the way his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes might. When things get tough, rather than think about them, he does math puzzles in his head. He especially likes prime numbers and knows them up to 7057.

 Years before, Christopher’s father told him that his mother went into hospital and died from a heart attack. Since then, it was just Christopher and his father. And his pet rat. But as secrets are revealed, including who killed Wellington, Christopher must be brave enough to face some of his hardest tasks, including a solo trip on a crowded train and facing reality. His ability to cope with life increases throughout the story. A can’t-put-down book that left me feeling proud of him.