If I've got to spent three hours a day commuting to a job that isn't mine, at least I can spend some of that time knitting.
One of these weeks, I may show you some knitting isn't a pair of socks. But there will probably always be books...
Daughters unto Devils
by Amy Lukavics is the scariest teen novel I've read in quite a while. Take all of the real life horrors that come along with life on the prairie in the 1800s...and then add demons to the mix. After the awful events of the previous winter, the Verner family has decided to leave their mountain home and start over in the prairie where they've been told that there are empty cabins for the taking. They do find a cabin large enough to be comfortable for their family of seven, but the interior is badly damaged and reeks of blood. Sixteen-year-old Amanda doesn't quite believe her father's explanation that someone must have butchered an animal inside, but she's more troubled by her hidden pregnancy and the endless cries of her baby sister. Whatever life on the prairie holds for her family, she believes that is has to be better than the winter they just survived. She's wrong. If you want to read something that will keep you up all night, I definitely recommend this one.---
Becca and Johnny are sure the car accident that killed their loved ones was no accident and they're determined to get revenge on the boy who caused it. If You Wrong Us
by Dawn Klehr is the story of how they go about it, combined with the backstory of the events that led to the accident. I kept getting confused about who did what and when. Sometimes I think it was deliberate misdirection by the author and sometimes it was just me.---
On her way to appear at a writer's conference, best-selling author Livvy Flynn rolls her convertible and awakens in the basement of a woman and her flute playing daughter. The Detour by S. A. Bodeen is Misery with an unlikable teenage protagonist. Livvy's captors refuse to release her until she apologizes for the wrongs she's committed, but she doesn't know what she could have done to them. It was hard to feel much sympathy for Livvy, who is spoiled and self-centered, but the book was fast paced and a good quick read, despite an obvious twist or two.
The publishers sent me ARCs. This post is linked to Patchwork Times, and Small Things.
opens with the two of them attending a haunted house on the college campus. Halloween is Sid's favorite time of year because he can get out of the house and roam freely in a costume that covers his bones. When a murder victim is found in the haunted house and the area is locked down, Sid and Georgia are separated, with Sid on the wrong side of the crime tape. I absolutely love this series. Georgia and Sid are a fun duo to read about and in all three books, the author has found clever ways for Sid to investigate the murders. (In the first book, he attends an Anime convention dressed as a Japanese death god. In the second one, his skull goes to school with Georgia's daughter, playing the part of Yorick in the drama club's latest play.)
by Jonathan R. Miller kept me turning pages late into the night. The story is told from the point of view of Jasmine, a seven-year-old who was returning home from a vacation to South Africa with her parents. Because the reader only sees things through Jasmine's eyes, I never had all of the details. There was trouble with the plane which forced it to land at an airport in Sierra Leone. Sick people forced their way onto the plane and, after it landed in the United States, forced their way out of quarantine and fled, seeking refuge in a shopping mall. Jasmine's mother has been shot and is relying on Jasmine to take care of them both. But those details aren't important. What matters is that the passengers of the plane have taken refuge on the second floor and the employees of the mall have barricaded themselves on the first floor. Jasmine belongs to neither group and is doing her best to survive by shuttling between them. The adults who do offer to help Jasmine and her mother want something in exchange. Emmanuel wants her to gather jewelry and electronics that he can sell after it's over. Christiana won't tell Jasmine what she wants. Not yet. The book reminded me of 
, another book that shows a mother through a child's eyes. Or maybe 
.
, the first in a new series by Cheryl Hollon, gave me a wonderful vicarious lesson in stained glass. That's the main reason I gravitate towards these crafty mysteries -- to read about a hobby I already enjoy or learn more about one I've never tried. I don't see stained glass in my future, not with the blood thinners and my clumsy fingers, but I'll be watching for the next Webb's Glass Shop Mystery. When Savannah goes home to arrange her father's funeral and sell his glass shop to his friend and assistant, Hugh, she expects to quickly return to her own career as a glass blower. Then Hugh is found dead in the shop, apparently of a heart attack and Savannah find a note her father wrote before his death, warning her that she's in danger herself. With a rival shop owner and an investment company both eager to buy the property, and coded messages her father left for her, which the police officer sent in response to her call refuses to investigate, Savannah is feeling pressured from all sides. I had a hunch who was behind the deaths, but the exact details of the mystery kept me guessing until the end.
by Kathleen Ernst and it's the 6th Chloe Elefson mystery. (I'm new to this series, but the Little House element of the plot led me to jump right in.) Hoping to confirm that an antique quilt was actually made by Laura Ingalls, Chloe carefully wraps it in archival tissue and takes it with her on a tour of historic sites related to the author. The quilt's owner has asked her to determine which of the sites the potentially priceless artifact should be donated to. Chloe knows about the Ingalls family from the books and finds herself surrounded by fans who only care about the books, fans who only care about the television series, and academics who question who actually wrote the books and if Pa Ingalls was as noble a man as she always believed. She's dismayed to realize that Laura's real life childhood wasn't the fairy-tale that she imagined after reading the books. The book is set in 1983 and provides a lot of interesting reminders about how different things were then, let alone in Laura's time. I highly recommend this one, especially if you're into Little House on the Prairie.
by Meera Lester is the first title in the Henny Penny Farmette mystery series. Beekeeper Abigail Mackenzie leaves a swarm of bees and her other farm chores to rush some jars of her honey to her favorite pastry chef, who won't tolerate a late delivery. When she discovers Jean-Louis lying dead in his own kitchen, Abigail calls the police and begins investigating the scene herself. Because Abigail is a former police officer herself and currently works as a private investigator, she knows how to solve a murder. I enjoyed the book, but I wish there'd been a little less focus on the police department and more on the farmette. The author's descriptions of the swarming bees were so well done I could practically hear them buzzing.
