Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean The year is 1805. Dido Kent, unmarried aunt, is summoned to Bellfield Hall by her niece, Catherine, to look into the disappearance of Catherine’s wealthy betrothed, Richard Montague. Soon after her arrival, a woman turns up dead in the shrubbery. Dido makes inquiries into both matters while getting to know the residents and her fellow … [Read more...] about Random Reads 2/17/23
Suspense
Two by Caroline B. Cooney
The Face on the Milk Carton The Face on the Milk Carton was first published in 1990, but though I actually was a young adult at the time, I was unaware of its existence. The basic plot is that lactose-intolerant Janie Johnson rebels one day at lunch and has some milk, only to see her own face on the carton alongside the name “Jennie Spring” and a 1-800 number for missing … [Read more...] about Two by Caroline B. Cooney
Random Reads 2/18/21
Are You in the House Alone? by Richard Peck Are You in the House Alone? came out in 1976 and though I totally could've read it when I was a teen—and thus still a member of its target audience—I never did. Gail Osburne is a sixteen-year-old high school junior and native New Yorker who's not at home in the quaint Connecticut village her family relocated to several years … [Read more...] about Random Reads 2/18/21
Random Reads 3/29/17
All hail the debut of a new recurring column of sorts, collecting reasonably short reviews of disparate books. A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George While A Banquet of Consequences is not the best Lynley and Havers mystery I have read, it’s still great heaping loads better than the last one (Just One Evil Act). In fact, in my review of the latter, I wrote “I wanted … [Read more...] about Random Reads 3/29/17
Shades of London, Books 1-3 by Maureen Johnson
The actual title of this post should be "Books 1-3 plus that novella that came out in 2014," but that was rather inelegant. The Name of the Star When Louisiana native Rory Deveaux’s professorial parents take a sabbatical in the UK, Rory jumps at the chance to attend boarding school in London. The early chapters of The Name of the Star depict her acclimation to life at … [Read more...] about Shades of London, Books 1-3 by Maureen Johnson