#50: Death Comes to Pemberley

James, P.D.: Death Comes to Pemberley. New York: Random House Inc., 2011. Print. 291 pages.

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SETTING: October 1803 to June 1804, primarily at Pemberley, the Darcys' home in Derbyshire, and also in London proper.

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SUMMARY: The night before the Darcys' annual October ball, Lydia Wickham, who is never an invited guest at the Darcys' home, pays them a surprise visit.  Distressed and hysterical, Lydia informs the company assembled at Pemberley, which includes Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Mr. Bingley, Georgiana, Colonel Fitzwilliam, and the young lawyer Henry Alveston, that her husband, George Wickham, has been murdered!  Thus begins the race to solve a mystery that isn't as it seems...  

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FAVORITE QUOTE: "Since guilt is more commonly felt by the innocent than by the culpable, the atmosphere was less of expectation than of anxiety." - Book 3, Chapter 6, page 132.

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In my last post I wrote about my intention of finding a really great book, something that would serve as both leisure reading and a brain exercise.  That didn't really go as planned.  While browsing for a book, thinking I'd go for a classic, I came across this novel, a sequel to my favorite novel of all time: Pride and Prejudice.  You can imagine my excitement!  It's like something resurfacing from the dead, similar to the excitement I experienced when I heard that The Hobbit was being made into a film.  What you thought would never come back, suddenly does.  And yes, I bought this book.  A very rare occurrence!

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Things I liked about this book:

1. It's a continuation of Pride and Prejudice!  When I first saw the book, I immediately knew that even if it sucked, I would still enjoy it for the sole reason that it uses the characters from my favorite novel (unless, of course, the author completely butchered it).  This book has been out for nearly four years, so I'm sure you're asking, '"if you're such a fan, how did you not know about this book before?"  A very good question.  I love P&P, as well as Austen's other novels, but not so much that I'm a part of the huge Jane Austen community that's out there.  Being a part of a group like that, although I think it must be a lot of fun, isn't really my style.  So apart from having read P&P a bunch of times, I haven't done much else with it.
2. It's written in the style of Jane Austen.  There's a word for this: "pastiche."  Learned something new!
3. The characters maintain their personalities.  This point made the book very enjoyable for me.  To see these characters brought back to life in such a smooth way was great.
4. The new characters created by the author.  They fit in with the P&P bunch very well.
5. Harry Alveston.  He's a great character with great character.
6. Elizabeth and Darcy's love.  So romantic!

Thing I didn't like about this book:

1. The plot.  It had a lot of potential, but, overall, I found it pretty boring.  True, the plot of P&P isn't anything crazy, but that story has a theme to it, and that is what I fell in love with.  This book, from my understanding, started out as a fanfiction piece by the author, and was then published as a novel.  I'm sure many fanfictions are complex, but this wasn't one of them.  I barely had to think while reading this novel.
2. The repetition from P&P.  The author uses a lot of novel time to regurgitate the main events from P&P.  It's unnecessary, in my opinion.  If someone was reading this book without having read P&P first, then yes, it is helpful, but even then it is still superfluous.
3. George Wickham.  This isn't an issue with the book, but I still don't like him.  I like him even less now than I did prior to reading this book, which is something I didn't think was possible.
4. The future of the Wickhams.  The author gave too easy a solution.  This point is vague, I know, but if I say more it'll ruin the ending.

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This book wasn't that great, but I certainly did enjoy it, solely because it's based off of P&P.  The author did a great job of staying true to the characters created by Austen, and added in her own characters very flawlessly.  I read a lot of reviews about this book and they were all glowing.  If these reviews were fueled by the excitement the readers felt at this being an attempt at continuing a beloved classic novel, then I understand where they were coming from.  Objectively speaking, though, this novel was very basic and in no way complex.  Another book that barely requires the reader to use their brain.  

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Recommend?  Yes.  Even though it wasn't anything great, I enjoyed reading it.  If you like P&P, this book will, at the very least, entertain you.

*I labeled it as "19th-century british lit" so this book will come up with my reviews of P&P.  It's obviously not 19th-century literature :P

#49: The Housewife Assassin's Handbook

Brown, Josie: The Housewife Assassin's Handbook. Signal Press Books, 2011. Ebook.

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SETTING: Hilldale, a community in Orange County, California.

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SUMMARY: Donna Stone is not only a trained assassin working for Acme Corporation, a black ops organization, but also a widow and the mother of three young children.  Her initial inspiration for joining the organization was to find the individual responsible for her husband's death, her husband who was also an assassin for Acme.  Little does she know that nothing is as it seems...

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FAVORITE QUOTE: "It's then that I realize that I know nothing about him.  Sure, he is a legend on the spook loops.  But we are all more than the sum parts of our missions." - Chapter 9.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

This is not the type of book I'll ever have on my "to read" list.  Ever.  But it is the type of book I will read when there's nothing else at hand and I DESPERATELY need something to read, for example to make the time pass on my flight home this winter break.  This book is free via iBooks, is a mystery novel, and seemed light hearted, so I figured I'd give it a go.  

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Things I liked about this book:

1. Donna Stone's awareness of her flaws.  The main character of the book does it all, but she is also very aware of her weaknesses.  I appreciate that the author of the book didn't create a perfect character, but rather someone who was "relatable."

Thing I didn't like about this book:

1. Poorly written.  There is very little complexity in this book.  It is an easy read, I'll give it that, but it's easy because it's written at a 5th grade reading level.  That would be perfectly acceptable, except for the fact that this a book written for adults.  To further clarify: I would say that The Hunger Games books were written at this level, and although I didn't enjoy that aspect of the books, I did acknowledge that the target audience was young adults.  This series is written for adults, and I would have liked the book much more if it read as such.
2. Poor character development.  The writer provides you with bits and pieces of each character in a haphazard fashion and expects that to count as satisfactory character development.  It is absolutely not.  Her characters are idiotic the majority of the time and often lack a clear train of thought.  If such assassins existed in real life, we would be in a great deal of trouble.
3. Predictable.  All the "twists" in the novel were easily predicted chapters before they actually took place.  The mystery aspect of this book can hardly be called that.

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This book was not very good, but since it made four hours of the journey home go by much quicker than it otherwise would have, it gets some points.  I almost started the second book in the series, but luckily the rest of the flight home was occupied by sleep.  But who knows, unless I'm a little more proactive and find a better book to read, the second in this series may be on the menu for my flight back at the end of winter break.  My brain is craving something that requires more thought though, so I'm going to put the effort in to finding an appropriate book.

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Recommend?  Nope.  Too many other books out there that are a better use of your time.  Unless of course you're looking for a "beach" read (i.e. something that requires you to use 0.5% of your brain...).

#48: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Christie, Agatha: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Project Gutenberg, 2008. Ebook.

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SETTING: Styles Manor in Essex County, England, north-east of London, during WWI.

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SUMMARY: Arthur Hastings, the narrator of this story, is invited to spend some time at Styles Manor by his good friend John Cavendish.  Within a day of his arrival, John's stepmother, who inherited the manor upon John's father's (her husband's) death, is found dead in her locked bedroom.  Enter the famous Belgian detective, Mr. Hercule Poirot, who brilliantly solves the mystery.

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FAVORITE QUOTE: "Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man.  He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity.  His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side.  His mustache was very stiff and military.  The neatness of his attire was almost incredible.  I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound." - Chapter 2.

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There's a huge possibility that I read this book once before.  The story felt new, but the title was familiar, and this is also the first Hercule Poirot book written by Christie.  It's quite possible that I read it so long ago that I forgot the story.  My forgetfulness regarding which books I have and haven't read was the main inspiration for starting this blog, so I guess from this point forward, I won't forget.  I picked that quote as my favorite because it is such a perfect description of Poirot, and a description that Christie fabulously maintains in all of her Poirot novels.  

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Things I liked about this book:

1. Poirot!  My favorite detective!  I love his style, both personal and professional.  Working with a person like that would be productive and constantly entertaining.
2. The culprits.  Just like the last Christie book I wrote about, I was again wrong about who did the deed.  
3. The romantic relationships in this novel.  They became one of the main themes, and it was a nice fit in a crime/mystery novel.  I usually find romance in a crime novel annoying, but not this time around.
4.  Incorporation of real life activities in the novel.  The story was written during WWI and, as Christie usually does, she incorporates that as the backdrop of this novel.

Thing I didn't like about this book:

1. The amount of time spent detailing different poisons that can be used to murder someone.  Seemed extraneous and unnecessary.

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I really enjoyed this book, as I usually do.  Agatha Christie has a formula that I enjoy, and she has yet to disappoint me.  Even when I branched out from the Poirot books, I was still satisfied. 

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Recommend?  Yes!

#47: The Secret Adversary

Christie, Agatha: The Secret Adversary. Project Gutenberg, 2008. Ebook.

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SETTING: London, England in the year 1919.

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SUMMARY: Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley are both bored, out of work, and dying for an adventure, especially after having experienced life as a soldier and a war hospital volunteer, respectively.  As fate would have it, they find themselves in the midst of a big mystery after Tuppence receives a strange job offer from an even stranger man.  Their curiosity in finding out who this man is eventually leads them into the service of the British intelligence, as they are on a hunt for this same man!

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FAVORITE QUOTE: "'What fun it will be,' responded Tuppence. 'Marriage is called all sorts of things, a haven, and a refuge, and a crowning glory, and a state of bondage, and lots more.  But do you know what I think it is?' 

'What?' 

'A sport!' 

'And a damned good sport too,' said Tommy." - Chapter 28.

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I finished reading this book at least a month ago, if not longer, but I haven't had time to write about it until now!  I realized today that I'd already forgotten quite a bit about this book, and if I didn't type down my thoughts now, I'd forget everything!  This entry is very sparse, but I did my best.  One of my hopes for 2015 is to read more, and hopefully with that, write about the books I read in a more timely fashion. 

On a different note, I downloaded this book onto my iPad via iBooks, and all I could find regarding publication information is what I have above.  I'm not even sure if this is the right way to cite this book, but oh well...

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Things I liked about this book:

1. Tommy and Tuppence!  I loved them in the last Agatha Christie book I read, and loved them again in this one.  This book provided me with their backstory, and I really appreciated that.  If I had to pick a favorite though out of the two, it would definitely be Tuppence.  She's such a strong and creative character!  But they are a fabulous team, and I'm sad that there are only four Tommy and Tuppence books.
2. Julius Hersheimmer and Jane Finn. I thought I wouldn't like them, each for their own reasons, but they surprised me in the end. 
3. Annette.  All I can say is... what?? A twist I didn't anticipate at all.  In retrospect, though, I probably should have...
4. The culprit.  I thought I had an idea of who it was, but I was completely wrong!  I've become better at identifying the culprit, especially in Agatha Christie's books, but I guess I'm not quite the expert I thought I was!
5. Where the treaty was hidden at the end.  The best hiding place oftentimes is right in front of your nose.

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As you can see, I don't have a dislikes section for this book.  As far as content is concerned, I didn't have any dislikes.  This is an easy, comfortable read, and if you're looking for anything grand or mind-blowing, you've reached for the wrong book.  

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Recommend?  Yes!

#46: N or M?

Christie, Agatha: N or M?. Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd., 1990. Print. 217 pages.
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SETTING: The hotel Sans Souci in the small seaside resort of Leahampton, England during World War II.
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SUMMARY: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford were once a star team for the British Intelligence, accidentally discovered after the First World War.  With the coming of World War II, the pair find themselves without any work, dying of boredom, until a chance mission gives them the opportunity to hunt down two German spies, only known by the code names "N" and "M."
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FAVORITE QUOTE: "'...The man who said explanations were a mistake was quite right.'" - Chapter 13, pages 188-189.
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If you've been following my blog, you know that I LOVE Agatha Christie novels.  I would only read Hercule Poirot's stories for the longest time, but once I exhausted all of them (or at least I think I have), I started on the rest of her novels.  Luckily, there are a lot, and I've learned to like her other detectives (of course not as much as Poirot :P).  This book is very short, but my free time has also been short, and it took me nearly a month and a half to finally finish it!
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Things I liked about this book:

1. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford.  They're great together!  I do favor Tuppence a little more; she's hilarious and really matter-of-fact about everything. 
2. The ease of keeping track of each character.  There are a lot of characters in this novel, as there should be in any good mystery novel, in my opinion, in order to successfully keep the reader guessing the culprit.  The characters in this book are described fully and in a satisfying manner, and if I ever lost track of one of them, it was my own fault.
3. Who "N" and "M" are.  It actually wasn't much of a surprise, and the reader figures out who N is about 3/4 of the way through the book.  But the way that these two characters disguise themselves as harmless Brits on vacation is very creative!
4. That the book was written during WWII.  It was published in 1941.  This point is one that I like about all of Christie's novels.  If the plot is during some major historical event, then it's very likely she wrote it as that event was happening.  It's pretty cool to think that what she wrote in this novel could very well have been happening in reality at the exact same time she was writing it.
5. Morse code via snoring.  Won't say more on that, but very clever!
6. Betty's fate.  It makes for a nice ending :)

Things I didn't like about this book:

1. The revelation of "N" and "M."  Going back to #3 above, it really wasn't a surprise who those two characters were.  I like mystery novels where there's a little more of a *gasp* factor. 

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Hercule Poirot books are still my absolute favorite, but I did enjoy this novel, and I have put the first Tommy and Tuppence novel written by Christie, The Secret Adversary, on my list!  Hopefully with the Christmas holiday rolling around soon, I'll be able to read it in a more timely fashion... 
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Recommend?  My answer for all of Agatha Christie's novels: YES!