After my holiday festivities, the highlight of Thanksgiving weekend for me was making one last visit to the library for this year, at least.
Since this season is going to be rather busy,along with the weather getting more comic book villain chilly(in the aftermath of the first snow storm of the year as we speak), I needed to pick up a couple of titles that could last me until January,due to renewals, and my choices fell into the historical fiction realm.
The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory takes us to the infamous Lady Jane Grey, whose father placed her on the English throne in order to block Catholic Princess Mary from claiming the crown. While Jane's fate was quickly sealed, we also get a look at what happened to her two sisters, Katherine and Mary, who felt they would be safe from the royal wrath of the new Queen.
However, as Katherine makes a secret marriage and her sister makes similar errors in judgement, it appears that all three siblings may be reunited sooner than expected in a rather tragic way. It's been awhile since I've read Gregory yet I do like her work and watching the Spanish Princess miniseries on Starz earlier this year(which has a Part Two set for 2020!) has whetted my bookish appetite considerably here:
My other selection was a Fiona Davis title, The Address. The residence in question is the Dakota hotel in Manhattan, well known in the best and unfortunately infamous sense of the term.
In 1884, Sara Smythe leaves London to take a job as a maid in the Dakota and becomes professionally and personally involved with Theo Camden, the architect of the place. Her connection to him goes from being somewhat respectable to outright scandalous, taking her to an end that she may not have deserved.
Her story is discovered in 1985 by Bailey, a recovering party girl putting her energy into remodeling the apartment in the Dakota that she inherited. As Bailey digs more into the past, she finds that Sara's secrets have an unexpected link to her present day life. Can this renovation of a former glory bring a bit of closure to Sara's sad tale and show Bailey a new path for her future?
I have heard good word of mouth about Davis' books and thought this one would be a great way to check her out, so to speak. I also like that part of the novel is set in the Gilded Age, giving the story a backstage pass to an Edith Wharton experience vibe:
Lucy Stone is our detective here, in the small Maine town of Tinker's Cove , and her part time job as reporter for the local paper brings her to a contentious town meeting where Native American activist Curt Nolan is angering opponents and allies of his cause alike.
When Curt is found dead at the local high school football game, there are way too many suspects to consider yet Lucy did promise one of his dear friends to look into the case. Between her sleuthing and Thanksgiving Day preparations, she has quite a lot on her plate but Lucy is determined to find a good solution for all concerned.
The small town setting of the story and Lucy's attempts to cope with the holiday hassles, such as her fresh from college son Toby dropping in with some uninvited guests, was comfortably charming to read. While this happens to be the seventh title in her Lucy Stone series, Meier makes a new reader like me feel right at home in her little corner of the world.
Although the mystery elements were nicely done, the main appeal of the book is Lucy dealing with her everyday life, adding a cozy old fashioned sitcom feel to the story( her husband's attitude at one point, however, is rather too old school for my taste!). I have no doubt that I will be tuning into this holiday themed mystery series again, sometime soon:
Well, this has certainly been a nice start to my winter holiday season and yes, my Christmas Spirit readathon is doing well,too, with having finished up A Cup of Holiday Fear and taking a piece of Christmas Cake Murder for my next literary serving.
I do like this time of year despite the increasing cold temperatures or because of them, perhaps? After all , it is more comfortable to read indoors than out during December, especially since gloves do tend to slow down your page turning indeed:
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