Thumbs Up Tuesdays Four

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alphabet series, Anne Perry, Brunetti, Donna Leon, Kinsey Millhone, mysteries, mystery, Nancy Drew, reading, Sue Grafton, Trixie Belden, Victorian, writing

“Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.”

Sue Grafton

Can you beat that for an opening line?? That pace and writing style is what makes Sue Grafton, author of the Kinsey Millhone “alphabet series” this week’s “Thumbs Up Tuesdays Four.”

I can’t remember when I first picked up one of Grafton’s books, but I do know this: I was bitten by a bug whose itch hasn’t stopped since the letter A!

A is for Alibi is Grafton’s first novel in the series, and the most recent is W is for Wasted. I agree with National Public Radio, who said “…makes me wish there were more than 26 letters” in the alphabet. I’m already bemoaning the fact that when Z comes, it just might be all over!

What makes these books so worthwhile are the characters. Kinsey Millhone is the private investigator featured in every book. She’s determined and smart, cuts her own hair with a nail scissors, and has a crush on her 80-something landlord, Henry Pitts. I do, too! Henry is her rock, keeping Kinsey in line when she strays too far into sketchy territory during the course of her investigations, feeds her his homemade soup and bread, and generally looks after her.

Henry provides needed stability, because Kinsey is not above taking grey-area shortcuts to catch the deviants, which adds to her appeal. Grafton’s writing spills out like a ball of yarn, bopping along and unrolling at a pace that makes each chapter flow into the next, all culminating in very unpredictable endings.

by Sue Grafton

My favorite book in the series is T is for Trespass, featuring a sociopathic caregiver, Solana Rojas, who arrives to care for Gus, Kinsey’s elderly neighbor. Rojas is not what she seems, and Kinsey is the only one who feels the unsettling presence of the woman who shuts off Gus from the outside world in her attempt to steal everything he has.

I flipped pages faster than I could read, skimming along in a frantic haste to see who would win – Kinsey or Solana. It wasn’t pretty, either.

And that’s what makes Grafton so good – she digs into the dark side of human nature, dragging us just far enough along the path. Along with Kinsey, we get a little dirty and banged up, but we’re not down for the count – the good guys always win, but not easily.

My love of mysteries started when I found The Clue of the Leaning Chimney, #26 in the Nancy Drew mystery series. I collected Trixie Belden books in grade school (my favorite is #3, The Gatehouse Mystery) and my enjoyment for mysteries continues with Donna Leon’s “Brunetti” series and Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries.

I just wish there were more letters after Z…

In case you missed previous installments of Thumbs Up Tuesdays, here they are:

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

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Thumbs Up Tuesdays Three

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books, Donna Leon, favorite books, Guido Brunetti, Italy, mystery, series, Venice, writing

Since we went to Italy in 2011, I’ve continued studying and learning more about this wonderful country. Each of its 20 different regions boast its own heritage and culinary traditions, but my favorite by far was Veneto, home to Venice.

Canals wind through 118 small islands, connected by bridges, creating a sense of intrigue and possibility. Mystery writer Donna Leon lives here, and her “Commissario Guido Brunetti” series is a well-written doorway into Venetian life and habits. This series is my recommendation for Thumbs Up Tuesdays Three.

Our trip to Venice, Italy

Starting in 1992 with Death at La Fenice, Leon has written a total of 24 Brunetti mysteries, with the most recent, Falling in Love, due to be released in 2015.

I’ve been asked which Leon title is my favorite, and the answer is easy: all of them.

Don’t expect extreme action scenes or anything racy; rather, Leon gives a low-key series, written well, with a main character who progresses thoughtfully. Rarely does Brunetti treat anyone rudely; unless their behavior is beneath contempt, he displays remarkable self-control, especially in dealing with his arrogant boss, Vice-Questore Giuseppe Patta.

Beneath that exterior, he’s wily, willful, intelligent, and entirely likable – there are times when I want Brunetti to act obstinately, and Leon has him do this in a way that leaves me feeling vindicated for his sake.

Brunetti’s wife, Paola, provides another foil – outspoken, intelligent, and opinionated, she regularly voices her thoughts to Brunetti on politics, Patta, and her parents. Brunetti manages to listen, placate when necessary, and ignore her if he must.

Interestingly, not every story provides the cut-and-dried sense of justice that we Americans have come to expect in our mysteries. Sometimes “justice” simply withers away, and Brunetti is left with a sense that this particular mystery isn’t going to be solved the way he thought it would.

When Leon was asked about this, she said people in Italy have “no illusions” about justice. “They know all politicians are corrupt, they know that all institutions are corrupt, and they never pretend that they are anything but that. I find that very refreshing.”

And you don’t have to read the series in order – pick up Death at La Fenice and watch Leon excavate revenge with Venetian subtlety; turn the pages of Dressed for Death and see Brunetti’s humanity come through in the face of senseless violence.

If you’ve already read any of Leon’s books, share your opinion below – I’d love to hear what you think!

 

 

Feeling Nobbled? Breeze Over to Pemberley…

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Belmont Stakes, Colin Firth, history, horse racing, Jane Austen, Jess Witkins, Kentucky Derby, murder mystery, mystery, PD James, Preakness, Pride and Prejudice, reading, TBR Challenge

Fellow blogger Jess Witkins is participating in the 2014 TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Roof Beam Reader. The idea of the TBR Pile Challenge is basically to stack up 12 books you’ve always wanted to read, and take a year to read them. I’d have problems with that, in a good way. If a stack of 12 books was in front of me, I couldn’t parcel them out to last a year. I’d end up with hungry, suck-cheeked kids, wearing clothes from last week, a family neglected while I devoured my books.

Speaking of books, I just finished Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. The legendary British mystery author is a longtime favorite of mine, and this book is a continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with a murder thrown in for good measure.

Ahem, confession here. Cough…Squirm…Up until a few months ago, I couldn’t stand Pride and Prejudice. I tried to read it, I really did. But I couldn’t hack it and returned the book to the library, satisfied when I heard its echoing thump in the return bin. Why, you ask, couldn’t I hack it?

Marry the girl, already!! I thought when Darcy agonized over Elizabeth. Or don’t!! Either way, get off the fence and DO something, man! (And don’t even get me started on Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth’s overbearing, obnoxious mother. Yikes!)

Then my daughter had to read Pride and Prejudice for her high school English class, and asked for help deciphering the plot. Egads, I thought, feeling like I’d rather endure a root canal than a repeat of Mrs. Bennet trying to cajole and wheedle yet another soldier into marrying one of her daughters.

We ended up borrowing the PBS version of P&P from our neighbors. Honestly, I was prepared for my eyes to cross and glaze over, but you know what? I got hooked. Absolutely, totally hooked. What would Darcy do next? Why didn’t Elizabeth become putty in his wealthy hands? Questions swirled around in my head. 506 minutes on two discs? Not a problem for us! Full steam ahead, my daughter and I plowed through the miniseries in record time. And loved it.

I have many of P.D. James’s books in my collection, and when I saw Death Comes to Pemberley at the library, I snatched it up. Basically, Darcy (bless his heart, he finally married Elizabeth like we knew he would…) and Elizabeth are preparing for their annual autumn ball when Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, arrives at Pemberley, shrieking and sobbing because she thinks her husband has been murdered. He hasn’t, but it’s 1803, so there’s no NCIS or DNA to get Wickham off the hook. Wickham goes to trial, and Darcy worries that the men of the town have been so stirred up by events that an impartial jury is impossible. The lawyer he’s hired, Henry Alveston, discusses the juror situation with Darcy, saying things are so serious that questions regarding fairness, jurors who might be nobbled, and judges who could be bribed by the opposition to turn against Wickham make things dire. (p. 144)

Nobbled??  I put the book down for a minute. Nobbled? I never heard that word before, so I looked it up. Nobbled means “to convince by fraudulent methods; misrepresent or lie to,” or even “to drug or disable a race horse to prevent its winning a race.”

I’m also a big horse racing fan, and never miss the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, (this Saturday, people!) or the Belmont Stakes if I can help it, so it was fun to learn that nobble can be applied in several different circumstances.

California Chrome

So, since confession is good for the soul, I’m admitting that I might be willing to dig into Mansfield Park or Sense and Sensibility…just so long as I can find some cool words to share here.

…and no Mrs. Bennet to nobble things up…

Happy reading to anyone doing the 2014 TBR Challenge! And go California Chrome in this Saturday’s Preakness!

 

 

 

Neeps and Tatties

Tags

donuts, Dutch, grammar, health care, humor, Kinsey Millhone, mystery, neeps, recipes, Sue Grafton, tatties, vegetables

Deerstalker hat

I just finished reading “T is for Trespass,” my favorite book in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series, written by Sue Grafton.

In it, Gus, an elderly man, becomes increasingly incapacitated thanks to the “ministrations” of Solana, a woman posing as an illegal home care giver. Private investigator Kinsey Millhone attempts to gain access to Gus’s house, only to be thwarted by Solana.

In an unusual twist, Kinsey ends up grocery shopping for Solana and Gus, heading to the store with a list of ingredients she’s doubtful of finding.

Dizzied by the produce selection, Kinsey asks a clerk for a rutabaga; he hands her “a big gnarly vegetable like a bloated potato with a waxy skin and a few green leaves growing out one end.”

“You’ve heard of neeps and tatties?” the clerk asks. “That’s a neep; also called a swede. The Germans survived on those in the winter of 1916 to 1917.”

Neeps? Tatties? Turns out these names are shortcuts for rutabagas and potatoes, vegetables often served with haggis, a Scottish food traditionally made with sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, boiled in a sheep’s stomach.

A neep

The neep is actually a pretty versatile little bugger! It belongs to the family of root vegetables (think beets, carrots, radishes, etc.), popping up in the produce aisle during the fall and winter months.

Turns out they’re nutritious, with respectable amounts of thiamine and vitamin B6. And if you can’t stomach them in stew, try scrubbing your pots with them! The lowly neep will do all the work – all you have to do is chop it up and boil it in water in the offending pot and voila! one clean pot, coming right up.

Dutch oliebollen

It reminded me of those traditional dishes, the ones my friend calls “comfort peasant food.” My favorite is oliebollen, Dutch donuts deep fried and rolled in sugar. I spent part of last year’s Hollandfest walking around with a paper bag of these, relishing every morsel. Not many made it home, either.

I’d love to hear about your favorite strange vegetable or odd family recipe, so please, share them below.

Speaking of making it home, Kinsey’s plan to grocery shop for the home care giver falls flat. She returns to Gus’s home, climbs the porch steps with the groceries and knocks on the door.

“To thwart me, she accepted the plastic sack and change for the twenty, then thanked me without inviting me inside. How exasperating!” Kinsey exclaims. “Now I’d have to come up with a fresh excuse to get in.”

Neeps on one side of the door; Kinsey on the other. The neeps are but a small part of this excellent story, one that gripped me to the last page – kudos to Sue Grafton for another well-written mystery!