Who Can Resist the Annual Centenary College Book Sale?

As my knee healed, I decided I was able to attend the huge (80,000 items—books and record albums) book sale that is a fundraiser for Centenary College, the Methodist liberal arts college in our neighborhood.  Equipped with my cane and a rolling backpack, I swore I would stop shopping once my backpack was full.  In addition to  selecting books for me to read, I was hunting for inexpensive children’s literature and young adult books for our Little Free Library (LFL).  Well, it didn’t take long to fill up my backpack.  I completed my purchase before Ricky finished looking through the record albums, a first! 

I came home with a couple dozen books with a total cost under $25.  That's a bargain I couldn't resist.  About half the books were ones I planned to read before assigning them to our LFL, and half the books were for the children's shelf in our LFL.  I've already started reading the mysteries I purchased, but I selected books from other genre, too.

Murder in Murray Hill, by Victoria Thompson

Berkley Prime Crime, 2014

I’ve read others in this Gaslight Series and enjoy the characters and the setting in nineteenth century New York.  Midwife Sarah Brandt’s situation has changed in this book.  Her suitor Frank Malloy, a New York policeman, inherited money so they can now afford to get married.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is Frank is dismissed from his police position because all the other officers are too jealous and resentful to work with him.  Malloy was fired while he was in the middle of the investigation of a missing young woman. The woman's distraught father hires Malloy to pursue the case privately, not trusting the police to do a thorough job.  Malloy, with Sarah’s help, uncovers a serial sexual predator preying on homely and lonely women who seek husbands through Lonely Hearts newspaper ads.  The women that Malloy and Sarah rescue want vengeance and peace of mind in a society that tends to blame the victims.  Malloy must decide how justice will be served in this case.  

Not a Girl Detective, by Susan Kandel

Wm Morrow, 2005

Cece Caruso is a biographer researching the life of Carolyn Keene, the pseudonym for a pool of ghostwriters working for the Stratemeyer Publishing Syndicate who gave the world Nancy Drew books (plus a host of other series).  This publishing group churned out the popular Nancy Drew mystery series starting in 1930.  As a child, I loved Nancy Drew so I liked the premise of this mystery: a biographer researches the people behind the Nancy Drew series and, in turn, solves mysteries herself.  The plot rapidly becomes a hot mess though--it meanders all over.  The characters aren't engaging, and their actions don't make sense.  Descriptions of Cece's vintage clothes were fun, and I liked the facts about the original Nancy Drew books that were sprinkled throughout the book.  For example, the ghostwriter most responsible for depicting Nancy as a feisty heroine was Mildred A. Wirt Benson who penned 23 of the original 30 books.  I have the quasi-scholarly book, Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her, by Melanie Rehak on my library shelf.  I should have read it instead.

Death on Blackheath, by Anne Perry

Ballantine Books, 20014

The familiar cast of characters returns in Perry's novel set in London during the waning years of the Victorian era.  Thomas Pitt now is commander of law enforcement's Special Branch, which is concerned with protecting the security of the nation.  When a lady's maid is missing from an important scientist's household and mutilated bodies of young women turn up in the gravel pits nearby, Pitt must decide how this is connected to the scientist's household and if treason is involved.  Pitt's wife Charlotte, her sister Emily and husband Jack, Lady Vespasia and the former head of Special Branch, Victor Narraway all assist in resolving the case.  These recurring characters feel like old friends.  Many of Perry's books have an element of the macabre in them, and this one is no exception.  The motivation of the villain stretches believability, but all-in-all, I found reading this book to be a satisfying way to spend an evening.

While I love escapist reading, I also like to read books with more substance.  I've been reading  books about the Middle East found on my library shelves.  Each one has provided me with insights into current events in this troubled region.