Viets creates well developed plots and smart protagonists with unique voices, including her tough, engaging landlady; Pete the parrot; Phil, Helen's handsome, silver haired, PI husband with the ponytail; and Thumbs, Helen's big, six-toed cat. (Disclaimer: I have a bias in favor of Thumbs because I am owned by a big six-toed tabby.) If you love a good mystery involving engaging, likable characters, you will love this book.
Print Length: 289 pages
Publisher: NAL (May 7, 2013)
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
This book was personal for Elaine Viets. That became clear shortly after I started reading it. Having read most of her other books, the grittiness, the despair, and the pain of the protagonist in "Brain Storm" seemed out of place in a Viets novel. Yet, these elements also make it one of her best books to-date.
In "The Forgotten Flapper," Laini Giles manages to infuse a tragic, somewhat fictionalized, biography with the magic of the Ziegfield Follies, the excitement of early Hollywood, and the whimsey of the "Topper" movies. Olive Thomas, the subject of the book, was the first "Baby Vamp," and the term "Flapper" came from her 1920 film, "The Flapper." After dying in 1920 from an accidental poisoning, Olive, apparently, has haunted the New Amsterdam Theater on Times Square. (According to the current director of the theater, Disney contractors encountered Olive often while refurbishing the theater in the 1990s.) The story of Olive's journey from a poor, Pennsylvania family to star of the Ziegfield Follies and then to silent movie star, is both painful and endearing. Olive was a talented actress who, at the age of 21, was already trying to get experience in directing and writing movies. Giles has managed to present Olive's life without the usual, annoying cliches found in a rags to poor, little rich girl story. She also has managed to strip away the fictional gloss of the Pickford family, including Jack Pickford, Olive's husband, and Mary Pickford, Olive's sister-in-law. It's hard to imagine a crueler, colder set of in-laws than Mary and her mother Charlotte as depicted in the "The Forgotten Flapper."
Did you ever want to time travel back to Hollywood in the 1930s? Do you inhale the films of Hollywood's Golden Age? Do you ever wonder what Hollywood was truly like at that time? If you can answer "yes" to at least one of these questions, then you must read Martin Turnbull's "The Garden On Sunset: A Novel of Golden-Era Hollywood (Hollywood's Garden of Allah Novels, Book One)."
In his second "Garden of Allah" novel, "The Trouble with Scarlett," Martin Turnbull takes us back to the late 1930s where our three friends, Kathryn, Marcus, and Gwendolyn are a little older, much wiser, and still living at Hollywood's Garden of Allah Hotel.
The fens or fenlands, with its low-lying villages and farms, is an ancient, tradition-steeped part of eastern England. When Amber burns out at her stressful PR job in London, she moves her life to Skylark Farm, an apple farm in the fenlands managed by her boyfriend, Jake, and his 70-something Aunt Annie. As Amber settles in with her new life and friends, we also meet the farm's other inhabitants, including Pip, the pudgy pony, and Patricia, a very broody old hen, who patiently sits on eggs waiting for little chicks to hatch, despite the fact that this is impossible since there is no rooster at the farm.
In "Paris Time Capsule," Ella Carey tells the intriguing story of a Parisian flat that was sealed for 70 years.
In "The House by the Lake," Ella Carey rolls out a story of a "schloss" or landed estate, in the former East Germany that was almost destroyed, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviet occupation, and that has been left to rot in a village that is also dying. In telling the story of this schloss, Carey focuses on 94 year old Max Albrecht and his granddaughter, Anna, living in 2010, San Francisco. After the story breaks about a time capsule flat in Paris, opened after 70 years of abandonment, Max asks Anna to do one favor for him. He has never spoken of his past, but he asks her to retrieve something for him hidden in the schloss, his family's ancestral home.
"Picture Miss Seeton" was first published in 1968, but the setting is not the swinging England one associates with the 1960s. Instead, the interaction between the characters, as well as Carvic's description of village life, could easily be placed at any time in the 1950's. As one who enjoys to time travel while reading, I found this to be one of the book's greatest attractions.
The year is sometime in the 1960s and Scotland Yard is stumped. There is a child murderer on the loose and the Yard has no clue as to who it is or why the children are being murdered. Detective Superintendent Delphick, known as "The Oracle," calls in Emily Seeton, ("MissEss"), a retired art instructor who helped him solve a series of murders in "Picture Miss Seeton," the first novel in this series.
B.J. Daniels has a unique gift. She weaves plots within plots within plots effortlessly. If this was any other author but Daniels, the layer upon layer of plots and characters would exhaust any reader trying to keep names, dates and subplots straight. Daniels, however, has the magic touch. Not only are her books not confusing, they are addictive for readers who love meaty plots with tons of intrigue--like me.
Michael Paul Smith and Gail K. Ellison recreate, in 1/24 scale (1/2 inch = 12 inches), midwest houses, streets and life from the 1920s onward, including Smith's own childhood home. Smith also provides instructions on how to build, how to create the right mood, and how to best photograph the scene. I am a miniatures collector and creator, and I have explored this world for most of my adult life. Elgin Park astounded me, it blew me away. This is a book to spend time with, to absorb one photo and one page at a time, and to keep around for years to come. I absolutely loved it!
