August 28th's Friday Post

Welcome to Friday!  It's time for a Friday Post, where I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

This week, my teasers for the first three will be coming from Murders in the Marquee by Dana Mentink.

This is the first in a new historical mystery series.  It's official release day is Tuesday, the 1st.  But I got an ARC, so I've already read it.

And here's how it begins:

Saul Niffler leaped out of the path of the Oldsmobile Runabout. The driver offered an apologetic honk on the bulb horn. From under the leather buggy top, his passenger, bonnet ribbons flying like sparrows, giggled as they sped by.

It might have helped that I already knew it was set in 1905, but somehow, that opening really put me in that time period.

Meanwhile, at 56% into the book, we find this quote:

She waved a piece of paper at them. “This is a breakthrough,” she said giddily. “It’s going to propel our case to its conclusion. I just know it.”

What is the clue?  Is it really important to the case?  Or is it a red herring?  I'll let you find out for yourself.

I completely enjoyed the book.  I hope you'll come back on Tuesday to see my full review.

Meanwhile, let's check in with this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question of the week is:

What grabs you and keeps you hooked in a book?

For me, it's a combination of things.  The first is great characters.  Characters I enjoy spending time with will make me look forward to returning to the pages of a book.  And will make me pick up the next in the series.  But I also want a story that is moving forward.  It's a tricky balance, but if you've got characters I love with a well constructed plot, I will escape into the book for hours on end.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Legally Blind Luck by James J. Cudney (Braxton Campus Mysteries #7)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Interesting plot that kept me engaged

Cons: Usual writing complaints

The Bottom Line:

A cursed talisman

Related to new murder?

Average entry

On the Trail of a Cursed Talisman

I haven’t been the biggest fan of the Braxton Campus Mysteries, but I’ve made it far enough I want to finish it.  After all, Legally Blind Luck is book seven, which means I now have one more book to go.

Our main character here is Kellan Ayrwick, who has moved back to his hometown in Pennsylvania.  His parents spent years working for Braxton College, and he’s now taken a job there as an associate professor.  His return home has coincided with a bunch of murders in the area, and Kellan has been involved in solving them.  Along the way, he’s started dating April Montague, the county sheriff.

The series has had some soap opera storylines along the way, and there are a lot of characters with so many interconnections it’s hard to keep them all straight.  There is a list of characters at the beginning, but even with that, it takes work to remember all the relationships.

As this book opens, summer is just starting, and in the break before Kellan starts to teach a summer course, he is helping with an exhibit of African artifacts that is setting up on campus temporarily.  However, moments before the official opening, Kellan stumbles on another dead body.  He’s also hearing about a talisman that might be cursed.  Is it on campus?  What does its legend have to do with the current murder?

Those who are reading the series might be wondering about the cliffhanger we got in the final pages of the previous book.  It isn’t too long before we find out what happened with that.  I’m not going to say more other than it does tie into this book.  I was rolling my eyes a bit when I realized that was going to be the case, but it mostly works.  I mean, it was still a bit too much to believe, but I’ll let that slide.  The soap opera of it all continues here, but I did mostly buy the climax when we got there.

The plot, as is often the case for this series, tries to do too much.  The author mostly pulls it off, but not without some long passages of exposition.  I admire the ambition, but I think the series would benefit from a little less of it.

I’ve complained in the past about how some of the characters interact, specifically how they treat Kellan.  That was toned down here, which was nice to see.  One of those characters had a minor roll, which helped.  The characters themselves could have been a little stronger, but that’s a result of the large cast.

One thing that didn’t change was the poor dialogue.  Even in the middle of a scene, we’d get some dialogue, then a summary of what the character said, then more dialogue.  Why?  This type of writing makes no sense to me and pushes me out of the scene.  Quite often, the entire (long) paragraph could have been the character talking and it wouldn’t have bothered me the way this approach does.

Also, some more attention to detail would have been nice.  I might have missed something, but I felt like the legend around the talisman changed part way through the book.  I’ll admit I didn’t go back to double check on that, so I could easily be wrong.  A few other inconsistencies bothered me as well.

Complaints aside, this wasn’t a bad book for the series.  But it has its issues for sure.  Those who have made it this far into the series will still want to read Legally Blind Luck.

Check out the rest of the Braxton Campus Mysteries.

TV Show Review: The Brady Bunch - Season 3

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Light, fun episodes

Cons: Only if you are looking for something serious

The Bottom Line:

Start with a road trip

Series continues to charm

Dated but still fun

“If Silence is Golden, This Must Be Worth a Fortune.”

I am now half way through the story, or at least the original story, of The Brady Bunch.  I guess technically, I crossed the half way point in season three.  If you’ve been enjoying the show so far, I’ve got great news – this season is more of the same.  Of course, if you don’t enjoy the show, that’s bad news for you.

The setup remains the same.  When Mike (Robert Reed) and Carol (Florence Henderson) get married, they each bring three kids to their second marriages.  This means that Mike’s three boys, Greg, Peter, and Bobby (Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland) and Carol’s three girls, Marcia, Jan, and Cindy (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen) suddenly have twice as many siblings.  Rounding out the cast (because we need one more character), we have Ann B. Davis as Alice, their live in house keeper.

Season three kicks off with an iconic road trip as the nine characters head off in a rented tent trailer to the Grand Canyon.  This three-part episode finds the Bradys trapped in a ghost town (by Jim Backus of Gilligan’s Island fame) and Bobby and Cindy lost at the bottom of the canyon.  While I know these episodes are well loved, I’m not the biggest fan of them.  They were more travel log than actual story, or at least they felt that way to me as I watched them again.  It also makes me wonder who I will feel when they go to Hawaii to start next season.

The good news is, the remaining 20 episodes this season were more like typical episodes of the show.  Among the most famous episodes from the season, Peter tries to develop a personality (leading him to mutter “Pork chops and applesauce”).  Jan, tired of being in the shadow of “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia,” tries out for the pom-pom squad.  Marcia promises to get Davy Jones to play for the school dance.  Cindy and Bobby set out to break the teeter totter record.  When Alice goes on vacation, her identical cousin Emma shows up with her drill sergeant ways.  And all the kids set out to record a song that Greg has written, only to learn that it might be “Time to Change” the song.

In earlier seasons, I’ve commented on the fact that each episode only has one storyline, with everyone getting involved in some way with whatever the story of the week is.  For the first time, we have a few sub-plots.  Most noticeably, the family is building a dunk tank in an early episode.  Of course, there are times that the two storylines merge, like when Greg gets a delivery job just as Bobby is upset about being small.  Only a hand full of episodes contain a subplot, but I thought it was interesting to note.

There’s nothing here that will change anyone’s mind about the show.  It’s still light entertainment.  And that includes the jokes, which aren’t as sharp as you’d prefer for a sitcom.  The conflicts are usually low stakes with a focus on the kids learning something at the end of the episode.  And yes, everyone is mostly well behaved and the situations is resolved happily at the end of the episode. 

But it works.  There’s a reason this show is still in pop culture almost 60 years later.  It’s comforting to imagine a world where everything works out each week.  The characters are good role models or, if misbehaving, learn something to improve their character.

And we are in peak 70’s here.  The use of slang is laughable at times, even for a show set back then.  Carol gets her iconic flip.  And the clothing styles are groovy.  It certainly was a memorable decade that way.

As I implied earlier, there are 23 episodes this season, down from the 24 we got in each of the first two seasons.  The DVD set I have preserves the episodes in their original full frame and mono sound.  The picture is a bit fuzzier than I remember them being in the first two seasons, but they are still watchable.

As I was watching, I discovered that music rights keep a few of the episodes from the season from being available for streaming.  I don’t remember seeing that with previous seasons, so I found this an interesting bit of trivia.  All the episodes are available on DVD, fortunately.

Season 3 of The Brady Bunch continues to charm and entertain.  The show isn’t for everyone, but if you find yourself craving comfort watching, you’ll enjoy it.

Book Review: Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr (Court of Mystery #10)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Interesting mystery as Jax’s story moves forward

Cons: Suspects could be sharper; ongoing storylines that bug me

The Bottom Line:

Other claim on throne?

Jax faces danger again

In this next chapter

Will an Old Secret Foil Jax’s Ascension?

As I continue to work my way through the Court of Mystery series, I’m really wondering where things are going.  Which, I guess, is the point of a series, right?  But we’ve developed several strong ongoing storylines, and Harrowed Heir was another chance to see just how complicated Jax’s life has become.

If you are new to the series, you really do need to start with The Ducal Detective, the first story to feature Duchess Jacqueline Arienta Xavier, Jax to her friends.  She is the leader of a kingdom in a fictional realm.  Over the course of the series, she’s found herself involved in quite a few murders and started trying to reform life for everyone in not only her kingdom but the surrounding kingdoms as well.  That’s not sitting well with everyone, and Jax is now leading a coalition facing war.

As this book opens, Jax is barely healed from the wounds she received in the previous book, but she is setting out to the Dutchy of Hestes to claim the vacant throne.  When she arrives, Jax learns that the nearby Academy has just unearth a centuries old document that indicates that Hestes’s throne might belong to another.  Naturally, she goes to investigate, but things get complicated quickly when she arrives.  Who is behind the chaos?  What does the document mean?

Again, I can’t emphasize enough the need to read this series in order.  There are spoilers, plus you need the full background to fully appreciate everything going on here.  This is more of a serialized story that I was expecting when I started the series.  Not that I’m complaining, but it makes jumping in here hard.

As usual, the beginning of the book starts us off with some catch up, but it doesn’t drag on too long before Jax is off on her new adventure.  It helps that the political drama is as important as the mystery these days, so when we spend time dealing with that, it doesn’t feel like it is slowing us down getting to the main mystery.  And that main mystery?  It was good and kept me guessing all the way to the end.

There’s a large cast of characters by this point in the series, but some of them are just regulated to off page activities or cameos.  As much as I would like to see more of these characters, they would just have slowed things down.  The series regulars we get are entertaining.  It took quite a while for the new characters, aka the suspects, to stand out to me, but they got there.

At this point, there are a couple of ongoing threads I’m not a fan of.  I’m being vague to avoid spoilers for the series.  I thought we’d put one to bed in the last book, but it is still very much alive here.  It really needs to be resolved at this point, and the longer it does on, the more frustrated I get.  Jax is developing a bit of a character flaw as well, and I’m curious to see where that is going to wind up.  I think it could make for some explosive scenes in a few books and some great character growth, but I’m not sure if that is what we are going to get or not.  In the meantime, I really do want to talk some sense into Jax.

Harrowed Heir will entertain fans of this saga as they travel with political and mysterious road with Jax.  I’ll be back soon to see what happens next.

Enjoy the rest of the Court of Mystery novels.

Movie Review: Saboteur

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good characters in an entertaining mystery

Cons: A few dated elements in the production

The Bottom Line:

Barry is accused

Goes on run to clear himself

Decent Hitchcock film

Trying to Clear His Name of Sabotage

It’s been a while since I watched any of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. I think I’ve seen his most well regarded at this point, so I picked one of the DVDs I own I hadn’t watched yet. I’m glad I did because I found Saboteur enjoyable. 

The movie was released in 1942 and introduces us to Barry Kane (Robert Cummings), a young man doing his part of the war effort by working at a Los Angeles based airplane factory. In the middle of one of his shifts, a fire breaks out and his best friend winds up dying as he tries to fight the fire. Worse yet, the police quickly determine that the fire wasn’t an accident and think that Barry was responsible. 

So Barry does the only thing he can in this situation - he goes on the run to try to find the man he thinks is responsible in order to clear his name. Along the way, he meets up with Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane), who doesn’t quite believe in his innocence. Can he figure out a way to bring the real saboteur to justice?

This is a classic Hitchcock innocent man story. Barry and Patricia wind up encountering several complications on their road trip to clear Barry’s name. Patricia’s loyalty switches, but all of these switches are believable based on what she’s just seen. This is definitely the kind of story you’ll only find in Hollywood. I mean, we meet circus performers at one point and the climax is over the top in a way only Hitchcock could pull off. 

There are a few times that the movie makes a leap and expects us to keep up. While I was able to do that, a line or two explaining what had happened off screen would have been nice. I have a feeling this is a case of dated story telling. 

Also dated was the acting. It is in keeping with the times but it was still a bit bigger than we are used to seeing these days. Nothing against the actors, who are all fine. As I said, it was the style of the day. 

Speaking of things like that, this is a black and white movie. 

Given all the talk these days about female characters, I couldn’t help but notice how Patricia came across. She starts out strongly of one opinion, but we see her struggle with that as the story goes along. The end of the movie is as much as result to her actions as it is Barry’s, and yet she was never doing anything that didn’t feel realistic for a woman. Both of them contribute significantly, and positively, to the resolution. It’s the result of their character growth over the course of the film. It’s so different from how characters fare in modern movies, and, frankly, it was refreshing. Okay, so their romance felt a little forced to me, but that’s a minor complaint overall. 

Those looking for some of Hitchcock’s thrills will be disappointed. This is more mystery than suspense although there are still a few moments that will draw you in. 

No, this isn’t the best movie Hitchcock ever made. But it is still entertaining. Sit down to watch Saboteur and you’ll find yourself entertained. 

August 23rd's Sunday/Monday Post

Time for this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  I'll be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

I've got the new part for my pump coming, but it hasn't arrived yet, so no paddle boarding for me this week.  (And yes, my paddle board is inflatable.)

On the one hand, it is too bad since we are back up to the upper 90's or low 100's.  We are right on that boarder, and different places are giving different temps.  So let's just say we are at 100.  That's what August is supposed to be.  And also when I want to be out on my paddle board.  Oh well.  Next week.

And I've been busy when I would normally go.  Thursday night, I went to see Beauty and the Beast.  The touring company is back in LA, and I went with a friend.  It was a great production.  We both loved it.  It's one of my favorite movies, so it would be hard for the play to miss.  I did notice they've taken a couple of songs out of the show.  Neither is a huge loss, especially the one they nixed from act 2.

Saturday, I headed to the beach.  That's one way to cool off from the heat.  I went with a friend, and we weren't lonely.  Plenty of people were there escaping the weather.  I need to go to the beach more often.  I'm about an hour away from several, so it's not like I have to travel far.

Pun-Official Holiday of the Week:

August 26 – Paw-lease go mutts with pup-lifting festivities for Dog Day!

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

Tuesday - Book Review: Two Truths and a Murder by Colleen Cambridge

Wednesday - TV Show Review: Dark Winds - Season 1

Thursday - Book Review: City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson

Friday - Friday Post featuring Harrowed Heir

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Saboteur

Tuesday - Book Review: Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr

Wednesday - TV Show Review: The Brady Bunch - Season 3

Thursday - Book Review: Legally Blind Luck by James J. Cudney

Friday - Friday Post featuring Murders in the Marquee

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

Thanks to a late breaking ARC, I have three books to tell you about this week.

The first is a pre-order that arrived a little late.  But that's okay.  The book is Murder at the Agency by Kylie Forsythe.  Kylie is a debut author, and I've been hearing some good things about it, so I'm looking forward to diving in.

And the late breaking ARC?  It's Death in Luxor by M.A. Monnin.  This is book four in her Intrepid Traveler Mysteries.  I've really enjoyed this series, so I'm looking forward to reading the latest installment.  It actually just came out, but I signed up for a spot in the blog tour happening in October, so I'll be reading it in a few weeks.

I also decided it was time for another audio book.  I'm back to Michael Connelly in my audio book rotation, specifically, The Dark Hours.  This one features his long running character Harry Bosch and the newer character Renee Ballard.

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I'm typing this, I've already started listening to The Dark Hours.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  My guess is I will wind up finishing it Sunday, but if not, I'll definitely finish it Monday.

I'm also currently half way through Probably Caws, the newest Meg Langslow Mystery from Donna Andrews.  It just came out at the beginning of the month, but I had other books I wanted to get through first.  I'm enjoying it as always.

I have a feeling I will be done with it before Monday.  So, when Monday rolls around, I will actually be reading Belinda Blake and the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Heather Day Gilbert.  This is book two in the Exotic Pet-Sitter Mysteries.  I just read the first one a couple of months ago.  Since it's just a three book series, I decided to try to finish it up this year.  We'll see if I can work book three in or not over the next few months.

Have a great week!

August 22nd's Weekly TV Thoughts

The list is a little short this week.  I didn't get to everything I would normally watch, but I'll catch them this coming week.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/16) – The character development here wasn’t quite as blatant this time around.  Yeah, it was still fairly obvious to figure out where the arc was going to go, but it wasn’t as in your face.  Or may I just like it because it was something different.  It is heart breaking to think of them having to stay single.  And I did like Robert when he was normal.  Maybe that’s why.  If I hadn’t liked the guy, maybe I wouldn’t care as much.  So kudos to the actor for bringing him to life so well.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro – Two days to teach a new dance to someone?  That seems impossible.  They don’t have deadlines like that on the main show.  I’m still very impressed with what the pros came up with.  I get that I’m not a judge, but it looked very good to me.

American Ninja Warrior – I’m glad Nick was okay.  I’m sure that cramp was painful, so I’m amazed he kept going.  Other than that, not sure I have too much else to comment on.  Lots of good races.  Hard to see James McGrath go home.  Very few of the old guard can keep up with these races now, it seems like.

The Quiz with Balls – They had some really tough questions in this episode.  There were several I had no clue about.  I was feeling pretty good about the questions in the bonus round, however, and knew the one that ended the game.  Curious if I could have made it to the end or not.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/17) – I really like it when the entire team gets to shine.  And they were having fun playing each other, although I couldn’t always track who was whom even by the performances.  Still, it was fun.  And again, didn’t feel like it was a heavy-handed character development.  Plus, we got to see Merlin again.  I was wondering when he was going to pop up.

The Challenge – Cara Maria, they are asking legitimate questions.  Do you want to be there?  Because, your performance so far says no.  I get you have history on the show.  But that doesn’t matter.  What you are doing this season is what matters.  Step up your game!  Having said that, I’m happy to see Blue full off a win.  Finally.  Will be interesting to see if that momentum can continue next week.

August 21st's Friday Post

It's Friday!  Time for this week's Friday Post, where I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first three will be coming from Harrowed Heir by Sarah E. Burr.

This is book 10 in her Court of Mystery series.  It's set in a fictional continent and politics is ramping up, adding to the mystery in each book.

Here's how this book begins:

A knock on the door interrupted Duchess Jacqueline Arienta Xavier’s trance, forcing her to look up from the stack of papers she’d been attempting to sort before her departure.

Meanwhile, we find ourselves in a bit of a fight at 56% into the ebook:

“Don’t think you can use my own words against me, husband.” Jax kept her voice even, but her gaze lanced Perry to his seat. “It is unbecoming to use my ideals to justify what you have done.“

I enjoyed this book.  My review will be up on Tuesday, so I hope you'll come back then to read it.

Meanwhile, let's move over to this week's Book Blogger Hop.  Here's this week's question:

Do you follow book trends and bestsellers, or do you prefer hunting down lesser-known titles?

The answer is yes.  I do read some best sellers; I'm reading two right now.  I don't follow trends to follow trends, but if something sounds fun, I'll pick it up.  But, like the book I'm highlighting this week, I also like to read the lesser known authors and put a spotlight on them.  Again, if the author or book catches my interest, I'll read it.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson (Counterfeit Lady #8)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters in a fun crossover

Cons: The plot needs a little more

The Bottom Line:

Characters meet up

Crossover fans will enjoy

Con still needs more stakes

This Crossover Delivers

When Victoria Thompson passed a couple of years ago, I was sad because I really enjoyed her books.  And I knew she was working on a story that would bring the characters from her two mystery series together for the first time.  So, when I found out her daughter, Ellen Thompson, was going to continue the series and was starting with the crossover book, you can bet I was preordering City of Promises as quickly as I could.

This is officially book eight in the Counterfeit Lady series.  For this book, it is 1920, and reformed conwoman Elizabeth Bates is expecting her first child.  Naturally, she and her husband, lawyer Gideon, are excited.  While Elizabeth hasn’t officially run a con since she and Gideon fell in love, she has still used her skills to help others.  And it’s about to happen again.

You see, these characters are about to meet the characters from the Gaslight Mysteries, which star Frank and Sarah Malloy.  That series started out in the 1890’s, but the last book ended in September 1901.  Which means, yes, they are twenty years older than the last time we saw them.  And, it means there are some series spoilers as Elizabeth and Gideon get to know these characters.  Of course, these are for books that have been out for a decade or more at this point, so is it really a spoiler?  We don’t get lots of details, so you can still enjoy this series even if you aren’t up to date.

Frank and Sarah approach Gideon since he is an estate attorney.  Their daughter, Catherine, has recently gotten engaged, and they fear her fiancé is just out to swindle her out of her trust fund, which she has recently gotten access to.  While there is nothing that Gideon can do legally to help protect the young woman, Elizabeth is quite willing to see what she can do.  Is Catherine under the sway of a conman?  Will the combined cast of characters be able to protect her?

Let’s get my complaint about the book out of the way, shall we?  It’s actually been my complaint for most of the books in this series.  The stories in this series aren’t interesting or complex enough to sustain the page counts.  I need more cat and mouse.  More chances to wonder if Elizabeth will pull things off.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a perfectly servable caper plot.  But another complication or two would make them more compelling.  Again, this has been a common complaint for the entire Counterfeit Lady series.  And it’s not a complaint I have about the Gaslight Mysteries.

Having said that, I did enjoy the story here.  I wanted to see exactly how things would play out, and I found a couple of the detours interesting.

But what I loved most about this book was seeing the characters from both series getting to interact.  No, we don’t see everyone from the Gaslight Mysteries, but we see enough of them to make it feel like a true crossover.  Every time someone new popped up and we got an update on how they are doing now, I was smiling.  This fan couldn’t get enough of the updates.  And I couldn’t get enough of the interactions between the characters, either.  I laughed several times at how everyone was getting along.  And yes, every character who appeared was involved; they weren’t just cameos.

All this is done without sacrificing the characters from this series.  Yes, we probably would have seen more of some of the supporting players in a regular novel in the series, but I never felt like they were being sidelined.  Most importantly, all of the characters from both series felt like themselves.

This isn’t supposed to be just a one off to wrap things up.  Ellen is planning to continue both of her mother’s series.  Based on this, I’d say we are in very good hands.

If you were a fan of Victoria Thompson’s books, don’t hesitate to pick up City of Promises.  If you haven’t read her yet, you have a lot of catching up to do.  But I promise, it will be worth it.

Check out the rest of the Counterfeit Lady Mysteries.  Or travel even further back in time with the Gaslight Mysteries.

TV Show Review: Dark Winds - Season 1

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Background and acting from the leads

Cons: Characters are completely different, plot is slow and poorly constructed

The Bottom Line:

Two brutal murders

Introduce characters that

Aren’t at all like books

“What Did She Say?”  “Nothing I Don’t Already Know.”

About the time that I started reading Tony Hillerman’s books, AMC created Dark Winds, a TV series with his characters.  I put off watching it for a while so I wouldn’t run across spoilers for books I hadn’t read yet, but I decided to dive into the first season recently.  For fans of the books, it’s going to be disappointing.

The show takes up back to 1971 and introduces us to Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), a lieutenant with the Navajo tribal police.  As the series kicks off, Deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) has just been transferred to Leaphorn’s station.  Rounding out the main officers at the station is Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten).  We are also introduced to Joe’s wife, Emma (Deanna Allison) a nurse at a nearby clinic.

Over the course of this first season, the trio of officers look into a case involving two Navajo who are murdered while a blind woman is sitting in the room and left alone.  Who could have done it?  Meanwhile, the FBI ask for help finding what happened to a helicopter used in a bank heist that vanished in the reservation.

This season is at least partially based on the third book in the series, Listening Woman, one of Joe’s solo cases.  It’s been a couple of years since I read it, but I don’t remember for sure what elements came from that book and what might have been borrowed from others.  I feel like a subplot involving Joe’s backstory might have been a different book, but don’t quote me on that.  I will say this, the show ignores the best part of the climax from the novel, which really disappointed me.

I’m nine books into the series, and at this point, Joe and Jim have just started working together, while Manuelito hasn’t been introduced yet.  So, I knew going in that some changes would need to be made.  And if those changes had been handled well, I would have been okay with them.  (At least, I’d like to think so.)  But what we got here felt like completely different characters.  Joe is much more open to Navajo religious practices while Jim is dismissive of them.  This is a complete flip of their characters.  Manuelito lives in a trailer, which Jim should be doing.  Of course, that would be hard with Jim’s secret.  At this point, why are you claiming to adapt these books?  Just create your own characters already.

Speaking of the Navajo religious practices, the novels have always treated them with respect, but also not had plot elements depend on them, which this show does.  Another element I didn’t like.

And, why is the series set in 1971?  I could get setting the series at some point in the past, but 1971 feels very specific.  The first book came out in 1970, and the only novel that Tony Hillerman published in 1971 wasn’t part of this series.  I could understand if they were honoring when the first book came out, but this way left me scratching my head.

There’s also some anti-White rhetoric to the show.  Now, I am not trying to say that Whites haven’t mistreated Native Americans over the centuries.  But this show seems to try to show that whenever they can, to the point that they introduce something into the first two episodes specifically to have another example.  A horrible, tragic, and evil example, yes, but what does it have to do with the rest of the season?

Finally, there’s Joe’s backstory.  Granted, he didn’t have much of one in the early novels, which were very focused on the mystery and nothing else.  But I don’t quite understand why they decided to give him the backstory they did here unless it’s to give him some tragedy to play.

I will give the leads this, all four of them are good with the material they have.  The other actors?  They are a bit more hit or miss.

And the plot of the show?  I found it slow.  The connections felt tenuous at best, and the various elements aren’t fully developed to really flesh things out.  The climax does work, but I just didn’t feel it was supported by what came before.  We get declarations more than detection most of the time, which is frustrating because the books are so well plotted.

The show is filmed in the Southwest, and the locations are beautiful.  It really captures the isolation of the reservation.

Season 1 is just six hour long episodes.  (Well, less than that without commercials.)

Since the other seasons are the same length, I am thinking I might continue on.  I am curious to see what they are going to do with these versions of the characters.  And maybe having my expectations low enough will help.  But I am not a fan of how season 1 of Dark Winds turned out.

Book Review: Two Truths and a Murder by Colleen Cambridge (Phyllida Bright Mysteries #5)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Solid characters and a compelling mystery…

Cons: …That takes a little bit to pull the reader in

The Bottom Line:

Witness to murder

But wrong sister is silenced

Hooked before the end

Truth: This is Another Good Mystery

I’ve set a rather heavy schedule of catching up on certain series earlier this year.  One of those was Colleen Cambridge’s Phyllida Bright series.  Now that I’ve read Two Truths and a Murder, I’m happy to say that I am up to date on the series…until the next book comes out in two months.

For those who haven’t discovered the series yet, Phyllida Bright is the housekeeper to Agatha Christie.  While the series is set in the undefined between the war period, Agatha is happily married to her second husband, and, based on the book she is writing, I’d say it’s the early part of the 1930’s.  Not that the exact year matters.

While the last book was set in London, Phyllida is back in the village of Listleigh, and happy to be home.  She is surprised when one of their neighbors comes to see her, insisting that Phyllida join a dinner party she is throwing as a guest.  She is hoping that Phyllida can help her solve a little mystery.

But this good dead finds Phyllida involved in a much larger mystery.  After dinner, Genevra, one of the other guests, insists the group plays the parlor game two truths and a lie.  And Genevra says that her “I’ve witnessed a murder” is true.  But it’s Genevra’s sister, Ethel, who doesn’t make it home from the party.  Was she the intended victim?  Or is Genevra is danger since the killer got the wrong sister?

The books in this series borrow set ups from Agatha’s books, and I was excited when I realized that this one was one of the few of her books I’ve read.  Of course, anyone familiar with Hallowe’en Party will spot differences in the set up and recognize that the plot goes off in a completely different direction pretty quickly.

I will say that I felt the book started out a little slowly.  But I did get hooked and was completely pulled into the story the further I got into the book.  We had some nice twists along the way, and the ending was completely logical when I got there.

The last book included a surprise in Phyllida’s life, and this book builds on what happened there well.  I’m liking where this series is taking Phyllida.  It’s not a major part of the book, but it is still nice to see things moving forward.  Of course, not everything has moved forward.  There’s one storyline I hope we see the end of next book.

But back to this story.  It’s filled with good characters, both returning and suspects.  They did a great job of keeping me guessing, and I enjoyed seeing all the returning characters again.  I really enjoy spending time with this group of characters.

As I hinted at earlier, those looking for a historical mystery with touches of real history in them will be disappointed.  But the details of the time period come to life for me, and I enjoyed my trip back almost 100 years.

Fans of Agatha Christie will especially enjoy this series.  But any fan of good mysteries will be glad they picked up Two Truths and a Murder.  And that’s no lie.

Enjoy the rest of the Phyllida Bright Mysteries.

Movie Review: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

Stars: 1 out of 5

Pros: Um…some moments of late 80’s cheesy fun

Cons: Abrupt ending makes me not willing to forgive the film’s many flaws

The Bottom Line:

A lecture on peace

Film filled with late 80’s cheese

Feel free to skip

“Why Are There No Air Travel Expenses For You, Kent?”

Oh, I’d heard it was bad.  But, in my quest to watch all of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, I still felt the need to watch Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.  Actually, I didn’t think it was a complete waste until we reached the end.  But then I started thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s bad.

This movie finds Clark Kent/Superman (Christopher Reeve) facing changes.  He’s selling his farm back in Smallville.  Meanwhile, The Daily Planet has been bought out by a publishing magnet (Sam Wanamaker) who focuses on tabloids.  The new publisher has put her daughter, Lacy (Mariel Hemingway) in charge of the paper, and she has a huge crush on Clark.  Meanwhile, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) is still madly in love with Superman, but she has become friends with Clark.

Things start to really get going when a young boy writes to Superman, asking him to do something about nuclear war.  Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison with the help of his nephew Lenny (Jon Cryer) and starts plotting his revenge on Superman.

The movie is cheesy in a way that the first two movies aren’t.  I won’t deny that.  But, somehow, it feels a bit more on purpose than the tone I called out in Superman III.  Gene Hackman, especially, is having fun really playing it up.  Granted, his Lex was never exactly a super grounded, menacing villain.  But his attempt to fight Superman this time around, Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow) does nothing for the film.  It’s almost painfully cheesy.  Still, I was willing to buy into it.

What I did have trouble swallowing was Superman’s sudden announcement that he’s going to rid the world of all their nuclear weapons.  Like that’s going to help at all.  People will just create new ones.  And, I guess what we were seeing was people going along with it as they shot them into space for him to collect?  That just seems odd as well.  I remember how big a concern nuclear war was in the 1980’s.  But this movie, instead of attempting to address it in a meaningful way, just falls back into wishful thinking.  Just proof that Hollywood using “entertainment” to lecture isn’t something new.

It was really hard to follow the world that these characters were living in, too.  Lois seemed to know Clark’s secret a few times.  And then, the next minute, she was as clueless as always.  Meanwhile, Lana Lang isn’t even mentioned despite the fact that she was supposed to be working at The Daily Planet at the end of the previous movie.

I’ve seen some complaints that the special effects are a step down from the first two films in the series.  I actually didn’t find that to be a problem.  My problem was, there are a ton more of them.  Superman fights Nuclear Man quite a bit in the second half of the film, with both of them flying in and out of the atmosphere.  There are entire sequences that are just them fighting.  All of that requires effects.  And the more effects there are, the worse it is going to look.  Not to mention, if you see the effects for 30 seconds vs. minutes on end.

I found the acting to be a bit uneven.  Clark and the crew at The Daily Planet were fine, and I bought their performances.  Lex Luthor and his cohort were over the top, really playing up the cheese.  Somehow, it worked for me.  I’d forgotten that Jon Cryer was in this movie as Lex’s nephew.  It’s fun since he would go on to turn in a fantastic performance as Lex in the recent Supergirl TV show on The CW.

Then there’s a scene where Superman and Clark are supposed to be on a double date.  It was a bit of mindless fun, but it went on far too long. 

Honestly, I was chalking some of this up to late 80’s cheese.  No, the movie wasn’t especially good, but when viewed through that lens, I was a little more willing to let it go.

Then we reach the ending, when the movie pretty much just stops.  I wish I were joking, but I’m not.  I’m unclear on how we permanently stopped Nuclear Man.  Not to mention how the person Superman rescued was even breathing in space.  I’m willing to buy Superman note needing to breathe, but a human?  Then, we get quick wrap ups to several storylines that make little sense and certainly weren’t set up by the earlier events of the film.  Not to mention how I found what lead to Superman’s recovery to be a cheap plot device even if it was set up early in the film.

A better ending would have let me chalk up the flaws with being a late 80’s movie.  But the rushed stop we get to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace makes me much less forgiving.  Yes, this pretty much is as bad as you’ve heard.  Don’t bother unless you feel the need to watch all of these movies.

August 16th's Sunday/Monday Post

Welcome to this week's Sunday/Monday Post.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

It's been a fairly quiet week around here.  Met my deadlines at work, which is always good.

It was cooler this week, which doesn't make me happy.  It's August!  It's supposed to be hot.  Our high on Wednesday was only 82!  That's autumn weather!!  But it's looking like we are going to hit the upper 90's this coming week.  That's more like it.

I went paddle boarding on Thursday this week, and I took a friend with me.  He borrowed a board from a friend of his.  The only downside was that I broke my pump's connector, so I'll need to buy a replacement.  Fortunately, it's just a part, not the whole thing.  Anyway, before and after the paddling, we hung out at his place for a bit.  Nice to spend time with his family.  We haven't hung out much in a few years.

Joke of the Week:

What does a clock do when it’s hungry?

It goes back four seconds.

(I know, I know, an oldie.)

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Jaws - The Revenge

Tuesday - Book Review: A Murderer's Guide to Mardi Gras by Ellen Byron

Wednesday - Ornament Review: Sandal the Sandman #5

Thursday - Book Review: Serving up the Truth by Debra Klein

Friday - Friday Post featuring City of Promises

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Sunday/Monday Post

Monday - Movie Review: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

Tuesday - Book Review: Two Truths and a Murder by Colleen Cambridge

Wednesday - TBD

Thursday - Book Review: City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson

Friday - Friday Post

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

I'm going to tell you about three books this week.

The first is an ARC.  Mrs. Claus and the Fatal Figgy Pudding is the seventh Mrs. Claus Mystery from Liz Ireland.  If you've been around here very long, you know I adore this series, so I can't wait to dive in.  I'll be doing that soon since the book comes out the end of September.

The other two are ebook deals I snagged this week.  And these books are both still on sale as I'm typing this Saturday afternoon.

The Midnight Taxi by Yosha Gunasekera is set in New York City with an immigrant taxi driver as the main character.  I'm not completely sure about it, but for $1.99, I was willing to take a chance.

I swear I bought Death and Croissants by Ian Moore at some point in the past.  But if I did, it wasn't on Amazon since they didn't tell me I'd bought it before.  So, when I saw that the book was on sale for $1.99, I snagged it.

What I'm Currently Reading:

I've barely started Murders in the Marquee by Dana Mentink.  I've been having a very lazy Saturday because I thought I would be further into it by now.  It's a historical mystery set in 1905 in San Francisco.  I'm looking forward to diving more into it.  The book itself comes out September 1st, and that's when I plan to review it, so I've got some time yet.

Have a great week!

August 15th's Weekly TV Thoughts

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/9) – As a lover of Peter Pan, I don’t like seeing him turn up as a villain.  Again.  But I get it.  I mean, when you think about who he is and what he does, he’s not exactly the good guy.  And I did love their take on the legends with the various parts every played.  All in all, a fun episode.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro – Okay, I can kind of see why they broke the “rules” last week, but this week’s rules were very clear.  I just don’t get why they didn’t create a wow moment.  I was kind of expecting it to be a double elimination since we’ve got just a few weeks before partners are announced for the new season, but I guess not.  I was expecting them to be teaching at some point, so we’ll see where things go next week.

American Ninja Warrior – I really wish they wouldn’t mess the three groups together like this in the finals.  It makes it hard to follow who is doing what and racing whom.  At least it does for me.  But there were some exciting races tonight.  And a few surprises.

The Quiz with Balls – Wow, both teams lost lots of players early on.  But they managed to hold on for a bit.  Been a while since we saw an entire team get eliminated.  While I didn’t know a lot of the answers early on, ironically, I did know the answer to the question that ended the bonus round.  (Although “Steamboat Willie” was released first, so it was a very trick question.)

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/10) – I’d seen the title of the episode, but it still took me a minute to figure out that the cooking show was part of the episode and not the previous show running late.  I figured a couple of things out early on, but not all the twists.  As much as I complain about things being predictable at times, I do like the characters and I have fun going along for the ride with them.

The Challenge – Nice to see Gray not come in first (although I am rooting for them), but hard to see Blue lose a player again.  Yes, I am rooting for the underdog, even though I am not really a fan of any of the players on the team.  The first challenge with the boats looked like lots of fun.  That is, if I weren’t needing to get it finished to beat others.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe – I’m not quite sure what the segment in the Matrix was supposed to be about.  I’m sure that is a clue to what is really going on somehow.  This stop was just okay.  I’ve liked the last two better.  It was funny because I was thinking we hadn’t seen Amy yet.  I have a feeling we won’t see the three who were building the machine until the end, so I was thinking Amy would be a logical next cameo.

Press Your Luck – Whammie wasn’t very active in the beginning.  And all three of them had impressive totals.  He made up for it in the bonus round.  The contestant really didn’t seem to be able to build up much of a bank at any point.  I wasn’t too surprised when he got eliminated.

Anna Pigeon – The acting felt a little better, at least from the leads.  Still not the best show out there, but I am curious where they are going with the villain of the season, so I’ll stick around for that.  The main plot didn’t go anywhere near where I thought it would during the opening.  I thought the kids were going to find a victim.  Rather dark and depressing.  I found the parts with the eagle ironic since the famous one here in So Cal just died, sadly.  I know this was filmed a while ago, but the timing worked out poorly.

August 14th's Friday Post

It's Friday!  Time to celebrate with this week's Friday Post.  I will be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first three will be coming from City of Promises by Victoria Thompson with Ellen Thompson.

This is officially book eight in the Counterfeit Lady series, but...well...let's just get to that first line.

Attorney Gideon Bates was looking forward to meeting his new client this morning. He knew Frank Malloy by reputation, but their paths had never crossed before.

Any fan of Victoria Thompson's series know what makes this special immediately.  Gideon Bates is from this series, but Frank Malloy is from the author's Gaslight Mysteries.  Yep, the book is a crossover, and I couldn't wait to dive into it.

Meanwhile, over on page 56, we find this:

"Sebastian sounds like he's perfect for you, thought," Elizabeth said. It wasn't entirely a lie. If he was an imposter, the person he was pretending to be did sound perfect for Catherine. But he couldn't keep up the charade forever.

Do we have an imposter?  I will leave it for you to find out.

My full review will be up next Thursday, but here's the teaser.  I enjoyed it.

Moving on to this week's Book Blogger Hop, here's the question:

Is there a book you keep coming back to, reading it more than once?

Not as much as I'd like; I have so many unread books calling my name.  But I do occasionally pick up a Trixie Belden book to revisit the characters.  And I enjoyed rereading Elizabeth George Speare's books last December.  And revisiting Mrs. Pollifax last spring was a treat.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Serving Up the Truth by Debra Klein (Amanda Knightly Mysteries #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Amanda and the rest of the cast, a good mystery

Cons: Writing a little rough at the beginning, mystery could have been a little stronger

The Bottom Line:

A bad customer

Freeing a family friend

Overall it’s fun

When a Frustrating Customer Gets Murdered

I recently had the good fortunate to win a copy of Serving Up the Truth, the first in a series from Debra Klein, from the Chicks on the Case blog.  It sounded like fun, so I bumped it up my To Be Read mountain range.  And I’m glad I did.

The book introduces us to Amanda Knightly, who lives with her young adult children and her husband in Oak Hills, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.  She works behind the deli counter of the local market, and she has earned a reputation for her excellent customer service.

Which is why the young lady frustrates her so much that afternoon.  She is arrogant and rude, taking her time despite the long line behind her before ultimately deciding to buy nothing.  Amanda does her best to shake it off, but she learns the next morning that the woman was murdered that night.  Then, one of her son’s close friends is arrested for the crime.  Amanda believes the young man is innocent, so she sets about trying to figure out what really happened.  Can she do it?

This book is a first novel, and the first couple of chapters show it.  I get it.  It’s really hard to introduce characters and relationships smoothly. The limited attempts at writing I’ve done have run into the same issue.  Fortunately, once the mystery gets going, things do smooth out.

I was pulled into the case pretty quickly.  Amanda found some solid suspects.  I did figure a couple of things out early on, but I was still entertained on my way to the logical climax.

So many cozies have similar set ups, so this one was refreshing.  Amanda is a happily married middle aged woman with two kids in their early to mid-twenties.  All of them are good characters, and we meet some other fun series regulars.  I’d definitely be interested in visiting them again.

I’m glad I prioritized reading Serving Up the Truth.  This is a debut that introduces us to a great town I hope we get to visit again.

Ornament Review: Sandal the Sandman #5 - A Christmas Trees of Shells - 2026 Hallmark Release

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Classy looking and creative final entry

Cons: A bit monochromatic; noticeable tilt

The Bottom Line:

Building a shell tree

As series comes to an end

Have warm memories

Sandal Sadly Says Goodbye with Another Tree

I wasn’t surprised when Hallmark announced that this year would be the last for the Sandal the Sandman ornament series.  While I have really enjoyed the series, it’s beach theme was going to be a hard sell for a lot of people.  But I do love the symmetry since it goes out with Sandal creating another tree.

As the name implies, the series has featured a beach twist on the classic Christmas character.  Instead of a snowman, we have a sandman.  Sandal wears a blue and white striped scarf (or is that a beach towel?) and a wide beach hat.  And he has beach friends.  In this case, Sandal is joined by a turtle.

The first year, Sandal was decorating a palm tree to get in the Christmas spirit.  This year, he’s creating a tree, but it’s out of beach shells.  It’s white and gold and in a traditional Christmas tree shape.  And he’s putting a star fish on the top.

The animals in this series have always been a bit cartoony, and that holds true of the turtle in this ornament.  It’s also one of the few splashes of color.  The ornament is very white between the sand and the majority of the shells being a silver color.

But I do like it.  It is very classy looking and such a fun twist on the traditional Christmas images.  As a Southern California resident, it’s these little touches that I’ve been enjoying for the entire series.  Again, I get that not everyone would like it, but I love it.

As always, the ornament features a nice flat base, so the ornament can be put out for display on any flat surface if you want to add it to a scene.  You’ll also find the 5 in a Christmas tree on the bottom.

The ornament does tip a little to the right, which isn’t a surprise given where the loop is.  I wonder why it wasn’t shifted a bit to the right to help balance things.  Maybe the hat brim isn’t as strong as I’m thinking it is.

I do wish this series had gotten to go on longer, but I’m glad that Hallmark tried something different with it.  Sandal’s fans will be happy with this last entry in the series.

Warm up with the rest of the Sandal the Sandman ornaments.

Book Review: A Murderer’s Guide to Mardi Gras by Ellen Byron (Vintage Cookbook Mysteries #5)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Characters, plenty of Mardi Gras atmosphere, and a great ending

Cons: While plenty happens, the mystery’s pacing could be better

The Bottom Line:

Join Mardi Gras krewe

Is it hiding a killer?

A fun mystery

Did Ricki Join a Krewe with a Killer?

Normally, I try to spread out books by authors, even favorite authors.  But when one of those favorite authors has two books in two series from two publishers coming out back-to-back, I easily make an exception.  So, I picked up A Murderer’s Guide to Mardi Gras just a couple of weeks after reading another book by Ellen Byron.

This is book five in the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries.  As you might have guessed from the title of the book, it is set in New Orleans.  It features Ricki James-Diaz who has recently moved to the city from Los Angeles and has opened a vintage cookbook and kitchenware store inside Bon Vee, one of the historic mansions in the city.  While you can jump in here and follow the story, there are some ongoing storylines you’ll enjoy more if you back up to the first book and read the series in order.

As this book kicks off, Mardi Gras season has hit the city.  It’s the first since Ricki moved, and she’s gotten caught up in the fever.  It helps that her boyfriend, celebrated chef Virgil Morel, is being named the king of the Krewe of Chew, so many of their friends from Bon Vee are jumping into this particular krewe.  Of course, that means more parties and events leading up to their actual parade than Ricki bargained for.

The captain of the krewe is an egotistical bully.  And those are his good qualities.  After leaving one of the events, Ricki and Virgil stumble upon his dead body.  The victim’s wife is the police’s prime suspect, but Ricki has become friends with the woman, and she doesn’t believe it.  The problem is, the number of suspects in the krewe are numerous.  Can Ricki figure out what really happened?

Let’s get my criticism of the book out of the way.  This is a prime example of a book where a lot happens, but the mystery’s pacing was off.  Now, hear me carefully, I was being entertained and I had lots of fun.  And I loved the climax when we reached it.  Things came together in a way that made perfect sense.

I knew only the bare minimum about Mardi Gras going into this book, but that wasn’t an issue at all.  Since Ricki is also a novice, she is learning right along with us.  I have a much greater appreciation for all the work that goes on behind the scenes for the many, many events that happen during the season now.  And yes, the story does continue to unfold around these events.  After all, the murder involves Ricki’s new krewe.

There’s a large cast of characters, so the list at the beginning of the book is helpful.  A few of the series characters take a back seat, but the ones who do get to take a front seat are plenty of fun.  We also meet some charming, quirky, and mysterious new suspects who are entertaining.

And the ongoing storylines I mentioned?  I liked how one in particular developed here.  I felt like Ricki especially got some chances to grow, and we saw another character in a new light as a result of what happens in this book.

A Murderer’s Guide to Mardi Gras is another entertaining cozy from Ellen Byron.  Whether you are new to Mardi Gras or an old hand, you’ll be glad you picked up this book.

Enjoy the rest of the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

I'm reviewing this book are part of a blog tour.  Check out the rest of the tour stops by visiting the tour's home page.

And don't miss the tour wide giveaway.