Mystery Books Challenge Book Review Number 6

The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
Hodder Paperback 2001
Website - Thursday Next

I have seen a few mentions of this character called Thursday Next, and wondered what a Literature Detective actually did. Now I know. I spotted 2 books in this series on display at the bookshop and stopped to have a look. They looked good, and were going cheap so I grabbed them, plus a third one, and have just now finished the first book in the series.

This series starts off in England in 1985. Actually its an alternative history where the Crimea war never ended. Russia and England are still fighting over who will own Yalta and the Crimean peninsula.


The Special Operations Network was begun to handle policing duties considered too unusual or hush-hush to leave to the regular forces. There are 30 departments in the Special Operatives Network, starting from SO-1 (the equivalent to the Internal Affairs where the SO themselves are kept under a watchful eye) down to the Mundane SO-30 which handles Neighbourly Disputes.

Anything below SO-20 is restricted - although it is common knowledge that Antiterrorism is SO-9 and ChronoGuard is S0-12. Anything higher than SO-20 is public knowledge and considered not secret. These departments include Art Crime (SO-24) and Literary Detectives (SO-27) AKA LiteraTec, the department that Thursday Next works for.

In this first book, Thursday Next works for LiteraTec in London, but after the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, 2 colleagues are killed because of an evil new enemy (named Archeron Hades). Thursday requests a transfer to the town of Swindon.

Upon her arrival in Swindon, Thursday has to deal with her family, her former boyfriend and the same arch enemy who kidnaps Thursdays Aunt & Uncle, steals the orginal manuscript of Jane Eyre and proceeds to rewrite the novel by removing Jane from the book. Every single copy of Jane Eyre immediately becomes nothing but a book with blank pages.

Thursday must go into the novel, find Mr Rochester and help restore the book to its former glory. Well almost it's former glory. In doing so she burns down Thornfield Hall, and helps Jane & Rochester to get married. And thereby creates a new ending. The orginal ending had Jane going off to India with her cousin St John Rivers. Once back in the real world, Thursday is greeted as a hero because everyone loves the new ending.


One of the reviews inside this book calls Fforde "this year's grown up J K Rowling". And yes, this book is sort of like the Harry Potter books, but using Time Travel instead of magic.

And thus we end up with time paradoxi. Where things and events become twisted and not making sense because of something that happened some place or some time else. There was a brief mention of the Second world war, but I'm not sure how exactly that could have happened against a long running war in the Black Sea that has been going on for well over 100 years.

Thursday's father is a ChronoGuard (SO-12). It was his job to keep the timeline straight and correct, but he seems to have changed something important, because he is now banished to another time, and can only drop into see Thursday for very quick 5 minute visits.

There are 4 books in this series, with a 5th book due out this year. I have 3 of the series, and cannot wait to read book number 2. But first I have a few others to read & review.

You need to be able to suspend reality and read this book with an open mind. If you can do that, you will enjoy this book for the ripping yarn that it is.

Thus endeth my Mystery Challenge.

Mystery Books Challenge Book Review Number 5

When Day Breaks
By Mary Jane Clark
Harper Collins June 2007
Website Mary Jane Clark

And another new mystery author bites the dust. This book was an ARC from Harpercollins. Published just this month (June 2007). Mary Jane is a writer and producer at CBS News' New York City headquarters, and has written 10 books. Check out her website.

Interestingly enough, I actually have never heard of Mary Jane Clark before. I have heard of Mary Higgins Clark. Even read a few of her books. But I never heard of Mary Jane Clark. Are they related? Check the FAQ. Are you related to Mary Higgins Clark? I was married to Mary's son.

I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed this book. Read it in 24 hours. I just could not put it down. It's the first in a new series that MJ is creating using 3 of the best known characters from her previous books. They call themselves the Sunrise Suspense Society. They all work at KEY News TV station and they have a knack for solving mysteries. I was very pleased to have caught this series at the beginning, rather than coming in part way through.

KEY News is the centre of these people's lives. There's the anchor Eliza Blake - a single mom with a 6 year old daughter. The producer Annabelle Murphy with a spouse and twin sons. The cameraman BJ, and lastly a new character, Dr Margo Gonzalez - a psychiatrist, who provides insight into why people do things and act the way they do.

Long time KEY morning anchor Constance Young is leaving the Station and moving to a competing network. The novel opens on the day of her last appearance on KEY to America - her top-rated Morning show. The Executive Producer Linus is furious that Constance is leaving. He has already tapped Constance's replacement. A young woman named Lauren Adams.

But the morning after Constance resigned from KEY news, she is found dead in her swimming pool. She didn't drown. Everyone who knew her, knew she was a strong swimmer.
How did she die?
Who killed her and why?
And did someone see the murder being committed?

Eliza, Annabelle and BJ work together to solve the mystery.

Mary Jane Clark works at CBS News in New York city. Her writing about a TV network, the atmosphere and the ambience are so authentic, it really comes across in the novel. Since I have never read any of MJ's previous books, I will be searching them out to read. And I will definitely be reading future books in this series.

PS This novel opens with an act that would definitely be rated as "Extreme Cruelty to Animals". Just be warned that the first chapter is shocking, but necessary.

Mystery Books Challenge Book Review Number 4

Stealing With Style
by Emyl Jenkins
Algonquin Books 2005
Website Emyl Jenkins

I grabbed this book off the sale table because the cover looked so gorgeous. And it was an Antiques mystery by a new (to me) author. I LOVE antique mysteries.

This is a Sterling Glass Mystery - and Sterling Glass really is her name. She is an experienced Antiques Appraiser living in Leemont, Virginia, and after a normal maybe even boring life as an appraiser, raising her kids, writing an antiques column for the newspaper and readjusting to life as a widow, she finally stumbles into a mystery.




When a valuable 1810 tea urn and a Georgian style diamond & pearl brooch are found at the local Salvation Army thrift shop, Sterling is called in, to determine where they came from. The trail eventually leads her to a gang of house sitters and roofers who "case the joint" of the rich homeowners and steal the valuables.

Along the way Sterling meets an ex-priest with whom she might be falling in love, a knowledgeable insurance agent, and a sleazy auctionhouse salesman. She also stumbles across some very valuable Art Deco figurines that are being stolen and sold for a quick buck.

To add to the ambience of the story, each chapter opens with a Question and Answer about Antiques, in the manner of Sterling's newspaper column. These Q&A's were very educational.

The Author is a well known Antiques Appraiser in real life and has written several books on the subject. This was her first novel. The excerpt at the back looked good for a second novel, but so far there is no second novel. Which is a great pity because this is one character I would REALLY love to read more of.

Unfortunately, when one does a search for Sterling Glass, one finds a company using that name located in Sterling, Virginia. I suspect Ms Jenkin's publishers did not do an adequate copyright search on the name, before publishing this novel. If the lead character's name has been changed slightly, there may well have been more books in this series. Which is a great pity because I LOVED this story.

DECIPHER - Book Review

The Chunkster Challenge.
The cover quote is right. This novel is SPELLBINDING. It's also long (over 500 pages) which is why I am entering this novel as my one and only entry into the 2007 Chunkster Challenge which ends next week.






The short version of this novel is that the world is about to end in 1 week.

The longer version is that the sun is a pulsar star and every 12,000 years it pulsates, thereby causing major geological upheaval on the planets. Atlantis was at the height of its civilisation the last time the sun pulsated, and it was destroyed. That's the origin of the Atlantis legend, and all the flood stories.

It has been 12,000 years since Atlantis was destroyed, and in 1 week, the sun will pulsate again.

The Samson Effect - Preview

The Samson Effect
By Tony Eldridge
Publisher - iUniverse
Date - July 2007
Website - Samson Effect

An ancient secret...
Evidence of a powerful substance lost nearly 3000 years ago...
Most believe it's a myth, but people are dying because some do not...


The Samson Effect has not actually been published yet, and I have read just the first three chapters. The action starts right from the very first page. I can't wait to read the whole book. It is set in the present and centers around characters who are searching for the ancient secret to Samson's strength.

Dr. Michael Sieff, an Israeli Biblical linguist, and Dr. Thomas Hamilton, an American Biblical archeologist, have spent over a year searching the archaeological record for a secret that leads them to the divided city of Hebron; divided between the Jews and the Palestinians. Somewhere in this ancient city lies the truth behind one of the greatest finds of antiquity: the lost power of the Samson Effect.

Clive Cussler (who writes the NUMA and Dirk Pitt novels) read the manuscript and he said The Samson Effect is a “first class thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure.”

This new author, Tony Eldridge, looks like he could be bringing Indiana Jones back to life.

Town House Book Review

TownHouse by Tish Cohen
HarperCollins
Published May 2007

I blogged about this author, a week or so ago, and have just now finished reading the book. It turns out that this is Tish Cohen's first adult novel. She has previously published one children's story as well.

Anyway, going by the cover, I would have stopped to take a look, checked out the back cover (about an agrophobic who cant leave the house) and quickly put this book back on the shelf. It is so not my usual type of book.




So when I receive it in the mail, I know I have to make a decent attempt to read it. Guess what. I read it all the way through in 7 hours straight. Stayed up until 2am. I actually shocked myself when I surfaced to check the time.

It was funny, thought provoking, and the language was definitely no holds barred. I found the style of writing to be very refreshing actually.

The story is about Jack, who has been an agrophobic since his son was a baby. He has lived in his house since he was born there - that was 36 years before. Jack's father died in this house. Jack still lives in the past. The house is still exactly like it was when his father died. Nothing major has been renovated or repaired since that day. We also learn about the people in Jack's life - his teenage son, his ex-wife, the shrink, the bank manager, the real estate agent, and the girl from next door.

Harlan is now seventeen and in his last year of high school. He has a secret he hides from his father. Jack's wife Penelope left some time previously and also has some news that she is reluctant to tell Jack. The bank manager fore-closes on the mortgage and Jack has just a few weeks to come up with the outstanding balance or the house will be sold. Lucie, the kid from next door, literally pushes into Jack's house and starts meeting him for breakfast every day before school. She knows how to make a great pot of coffee.

Slowly one step at a time, Jack is forced to start living outside his house. He also begins to learn just how much he has really missed. And he learns that he likes living in the present. He had wanted things to stay the same, because bad things were always happening. But eventually he learns that change is inevitable - and not always bad.

The language and grammar of one's inner mind is so different from every day speech when we have to be careful about what we say, how we say it and who we say it to. But our inner minds are so free to say what we think. Thats how this book is written. Everything that Jack says, does, sees and reads, ends up on the pages of this book. Profanity and all. Freedom of speech - which thankfully is still available in the inner mind. That is why I read it straight through.

If you do not like reading profanity, then I would suggest you do not read this novel.

Bon Voyage - Armchair Travellers Challenge

The challenge runs from July 1 through December 31 during which time you must read six books that fall under the ‘armchair traveling’ theme.
Fiction or non-fiction works are fine, and do not need to be specifically travel related, as long as the location is integral to the book - I’ll leave that to your discretion. Locations must be actual places that you could visit, so no Middle Earths or galaxies far, far away.
Books may be cross-posted to other challenges, but you cannot count any books read prior to July 1st.
Because I like to have a little wiggle room, you can opt to switch out books throughout the challenge. And yes, there will be prizes!


Yaaaay another cool challenge. I LOVE reading about other places.
Here are my 3 of my choices. I'll need to find another 3 to add.

C'est La Vie - Suzy Gershmann (Paris France)
Explorers House - Robert M. Poole (National Geographic Magazine - International)
The Hacienda - Lisa St Aubain de Teran
(Venezuela - overlap with The New Notions Challenge)