Books 105-107
Dead End by Kelly Brakenhoff
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Even though this is part of a mystery series it's not really a mystery. It's the prequel to the series, explaining why the protagonist Cassandra Sato left Hawai'i for Nebraska (i.e. in academia you can't often chose where you live because jobs are few and in between).
Cassandra wants to move up the administrative ladder and has been wondering what her next step is. Meanwhile at her university there is a tsunami watch that becomes a warning but no one above her will listen to her about the dangers. The whole plot is really in the blurb. As Dean of Students she has to get the students to safety but for some reason a group of them won't leave the dorms and she has to figure out why (that's the 'mystery').
It's a straight forward short story that I have to wonder was originally written as a newsletter freebie or something because there isn't much to it. It's okay but I'm not sure it gives much insight into the character and I didn't feel particularly interested. It doesn't really play that much of a role into why she leaves home except the last paragraph (i.e. plum job offer).
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The Crows by Anders Fager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The art in this was amazing and from the author/illustrator notes it started with the author seeing some sketches for this and wanted to do a collaboration. This graphic novella is unsettling and touches on real life traumas as well as the more supernatural. I would call this a 3.5 read. I didn't go for four because the ending was honestly anti-climatic and felt unfinished.
Kim has inherited their grandparent's house in very rural Sweden. In fact most of the town seems to be a ghost town. The house doesn't even have plumbing (has an outhouse) and is covered in cryptic notes. As Kim tries to decide what to do with the house, they are pulled back into their rough upbringing and why they haven't seen their grandparents in a long time.
Without ruining the slow reveals of these traumas we can leave it as its intergenerational (there is some ugly truths about Kim's parents for sure) and the cover art makes it obvious that Kim is biracial (part Asian) so there is definitely racism at play here (in way of a trigger warning).
The Crow-things in the woods, in the bar, around the house are interesting and as I said the art is really fantastic and atmospheric. I wish the ending had been stronger though.
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Four Leaf Cleaver by Maddie Day
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received this as an arc from Netgalley so thank you. This is no way influenced my review.
I have not read any of the others in this series (and might not have put my hat in the ring had I know it was 11 books in but that didn't seem to matter as it turned out. It was easy enough to catch up).
Robbie Jordan owns/cooks at her country store Pans & Pancakes and she has agreed to host an Irish Cook Off show for St. Patrick's day. She doesn't know much about the show or the host but figures it will be a nice publicity opportunity and her husband plans to cook in it.
The abrasive show host, Tara O'Hara, is killed before the show could go on. The list of suspects is long and varied from her ex-husband who thought she took everything from him, Liam Walsh, another competitor who claimed she stole his recipes, Jaden her belittled personal assistant, Vin the camera woman, even Nicky the brewer supplying the Irish stout they have to use. Heck even Abe, Robbie's husband, had a bad turn with this woman years ago in the navy.
I thought the mystery was good and it has the right combo of amateur sleuth and friendly investigators. The characters were good. I enjoyed her relationship with her stepson. The ending was a little blah though. I felt a little let down by it.
The other thing that got on my nerves was Robbie's desire to have Abe's baby because it went on and on and on, how they've been having sex all year and nothing but had NO deeper exploration of infertility and the trauma it causes made all the worse by suddenly everyone she knows being pregnant (you can imagine how this thread turned out).
I would read more of this series because over all this was a fun mystery.
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