Just finished reading...

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny.

I was fortunate enough to receive this book through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. Although it arrived in July, I'm only reviewing it now because I wanted to read the previous books in the series (I'm anal that way), and I'm glad I did, as I was already familiar with the residents of Three Pines and the members of Inspector Gamache's investigative team.

This, the fifth book in the Armand Gamache/Three Pines series, begins with Olivier Brule's visit to someone only described as the Hermit, who lives in a cabin in the woods. The next morning, Olivier, owner of the bistro in Three Pines, and his partner Gabriel, who runs the Bed and Breakfast next door, are awakened by a phone call summoning them to the bistro.

There, they join friend and neighbour Myrna (owner of the local bookstore), who has seen someone lying inside the bistro. Upon entry, they discover that it is the dead body of a man with a head wound. The local Surete calls in the murder investigation squad of the Surete du Quebec, which happens to be led by Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, no stranger to the village of Three Pines.

Their investigation is complicated by the fact that the body has no form of identification, and no one in the village recognizes the dead man. Once again, Inspector Gamache and his crew set up their Situation Room in the old railway station, now the home of the Three Pines Volunteer Fire Department.

Reading this book was like visiting a place one hasn't been to for some time, and coming across old acquaintances. Woven through the murder story are threads about some of the other Three Pines residents: the artist Clara Morrow, preparing for her first solo exhibition, the poet Ruth Zardo and her duck Rosa. Ms. Penny is an astounding writer, and the people and places in Three Pines felt very real and familiar to me.

I've seen other reviews by people who couldn't put this book down once begun, but I found that I had to take breaks between every few chapters because of the emotional intensity of the story. Penny unflinchingly exposes all facets of her complex characters; we see the good and bad in almost every one of them. To me, the ending was a huge surprise, and I can hardly wait for the next book in the series to see if it really is an ending.

The Winners!

(Drum roll)
And the winners are:

Prime Time: Mack
Face Time: caryn

The winners of the three Prime Time totes are: Helen Kiker, Rhyanna and Shirley.

Rhyanna, Shirley and Caryn, I couldn't find your contact info; please email me (click on my profile at left) with your snail-mail addresses so I can get your prizes to you.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog, and a HUGE thank you to Hank for guesting!

Welcome to Hank Phillippi Ryan!

Award-winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan is currently on the air at Boston's NBC affiliate, where she's broken big stories for the past 24 years. Her stories have resulted in new laws, people sent to prison, homes removed from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in refunds and restitution for consumers.

From Blogger Pictures

Along with her 26 EMMYs, Hank’s won also won dozens of other journalism honors.

Her first mysteries, PRIME TIME (which won the prestigious Agatha Award for Best First Novel, was a double RITA nominee for Best First Book and Best Romantic Suspense Novel, and a Reviewers' Choice Award Winner) and FACE TIME ( a Book Sense Notable Book), were best sellers. They were both re-issued this summer from MIRA Books. Her newest book is AIR TIME (MIRA Sept. 2009) which is already an IMBA bestseller.Drive Time will be published in February 2010. Her website is http://www.hankphillippiryan.com


And now, here's HANK:


Why is there never hidden camera when you need one? Oh sure, I use one at my day job all the time. As an investigative reporter for a Boston televison staion, going undercover and wiring myself with a hidden camera is standard orating procedure. Do it all the time.

(And in my newest book, AIR TIME, my reporter alter-ego Charlotte McNally goes in disguise and carrying a hidden camera into the closed to the public parts of the Boston and Hartford airports--—and deep into the not-so-pretty world of counterfeit fashion and knock-off purses. And when you read it—feel free to imagine me doing the same thing. Been there—done that. Except of course, for that big life-or-death choice near the end. That’s all fiction. But I wonder if I would have made the right decision…)

Anyway! In my other life as a mystery author, I wish I could do the same when my books some out. I wish I could just park myself in the mystery (or sometimes romance) section, in disguise, and see who picks up my book. See who doesn’t. See what they do choose. And somehow, somehow, try to figure out why.

Every time I have a book signing at a store, I try to (surreptitiously, of course) discern what it is that makes readers turn into buyers. I watch them stroll down the aisles, past the rows and rows of covers—what do they look for? What stops them? Are they on a mission for a certain title? Are they drawn by a beautiful cover? Do they recognize a book they’ve seen advertised? Or gravitate to a certain author—and buy anything that person wrote?

Always, always, when they pick up a book, they then flip it over and look at the back cover copy.

I kind of cringe. In my books, I didn’t write the jacket copy. (And although most of them are great, there are parts of them I would , I admit, tweak a bit. Can I say to a shopper-—hey, that’s the only part of the book I didn’t write?) I wonder how other authors feel.
And you know how annoying it is when the back cover copy doesn’t match the book.

Say you’ve got an indecisive hero, surrounded by people he can’t decide whether to trust, feeling alone, missing his father, struggling to understand his role in a world he can’t escape. You got Hamlet. You also got Gilligan’s Island.

The jacket copy has to be the true essence—it’s what gets people in the front door of your world. Will readers grasp the fast-paced, high-stakes, suspenseful and romantic world of the Charlotte McNally mysteries when they read the back? Sometimes I wish I could chat with every reader in person!

When I’m in book-buyer mode,it different. I love that introductory moment, that audition moment at my local bookstore. The cover creaks a little, that nice ‘new book’ feel. The cover’s what attracts me first, of course.

Then I read the back, and I love to see a picture of the author. You all? Picture, yes? Or no? Do you look? Do you care?

Blurbs—I do look to see what other authors have said! Do
you?

Reviews? Definitely.

But it’s the inside jacket copy that gets me. Are there key words that mean probably yes? Many of them--Literate. Clever. Innovative. Mystery. It’s easier to think of the ‘no’ words: Cowboy. Bodice. Titillating. But hey, not always.

So. It would be fascinating to watch on surveillance camera, don’t you think? Watch what people pick up, what they read, what they discard and what they take home?

What makes you turn from shopper—to buyer?


In honor of my very first guest blogger, I am giving away one copy each of Hank's first two books, Prime Time and Face Time, and Hank has graciously offered three limited editon Prime Time tote bags.

All you have to do is leave a comment, and I'll pick 5 winners at random.

Coming Wednesday -- A Guest Blogger and Prizes!!

Hank Phillippi Ryan, author of the Charlotte McNally mysteries, will be guest-blogging here on Wednesday.

To celebrate my very first guest blogger, I'll be giving away one copy each of the first two books in the series, Prime Time and Face Time.

Hank has graciously added some limited edition Prime Time tote bags.

See you Wednesday!!

Just listened to...

Missing Mark by Julie Kramer.

Julie Kramer was kind enough to send me this audiobook to donate to my local library, which I'm happy to do now that I've listened to it.

The sequel to 2008's Stalking Susan has investigative reporter Riley Spartz trying desperately to find the right story for sweeps season. A newspaper ad for a never-worn wedding dress leads Riley to a search for a Mark Lefevre, who vanished just before his wedding. Did he get cold feet and run away, or has something more sinister happened?

When Mark's mother is found dead, an apparent suicide,a few days after Riley interviews her, Riley becomes more and more intrigued.

Getting in the way of her investigation is her producer's request that she search for a record-sized fish known as Big-Mouth Billy Bass, who has been kidnapped from an aquarium in the Mall of America. This second storyline is far-fetched, but does add some humour to the story.

I enjoyed listening to this, once I got used to Bernadette Dunne's tone of voice, which I found a little coy.

Just finished reading...

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny.

This is the fourth in the Inspector Armand Gamache/Three Pines mystery series. Inspector Gamache and his wife Reine Marie to a country inn not far from Three Pines to celebrate their anniversary, which falls on Canada Day.

They are sharing the Manoir Bellechasse with Irene Morrow Finney and her family of adult children, who are having their annual reunion. This year is very special, as Irene is honoring her late husband by erecting a huge statue of him. When the statue falls on Irene's daughter Julia, killing her, Inspector Gamache is ideally placed to investigate.

One of Mrs. Finney's children is our old friend Peter Morrow from Three Pines, unwillingly in attendance. He and his siblings, equally unhappy, all come under suspicion for killing Julia.

In this wonderful example of the classic country house mystery, we not only learn more about some of the residents of Three Pines, we discover some of M. Gamache's history.

Louise Penny is an amazing writer, and her books just beg to be read in one sitting, which is extremely difficult to do when one must get up and go to work in the morning.

Just finished reading...

Prime Time and Face Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Hank Phillippi Ryan was kind enough to send me a signed copy of Face Time (the second book in the Charlotte McNally series), which meant that I had to purchase a copy of Prime Time and read it first.

I enjoyed the first book so much that I had to read the second immediately, which is why I'm writing a joint review.

Prime Time introduces us to Charlotte "Charlie" McNally, an award-winning investigative reporter for Boston's (fictitious) Channel 3 news. In her mid-forties, Charlie worries that she's too old to be on camera and expects to be replaced by the Latest Young Thing at any moment, and goes to the office early to try to come up with a big story.

However, when the LYT doesn't appear to read a morning newsbreak, Charlie is asked to fill in, and one of the stories she teases captures her attention. The story is about a man named Bradley Foreman who was killed an a car accident. Foreman worked for a company called Aztratech, which is what alerts Charlie, and she considers it good luck when she is required to interview Foreman's widow in place of the missing LYT.

The widow, Melanie Foreman, tells Charlie about an email that her late husband had supposedly sent the reporter before his death. Charlie's pretty sure she didn't receive it, but checks again when she gets back to her desk, and finds one that was sent anonymously but had to be from Foreman.

Digging into the questions raised by the email provides Charlie with the Big Story she's been looking for, and her investigation leads her to an attractive professor named Josh Gelston, who immediately invites her to one of his drama class productions. At first Charlie is smitten, but some incidents occur that her suspicious self thinks are curious, and she backs off, while still hoping that he is genuine.

In Face Time, Charlie and her producer Franklin have to deal with hot-shot new news director Susannah Smith-Bagley, who is pushing them to get a scoop for sweeps month. She's a little distracted because her mother is in hospital, her best friend just found out she's pregnant, and her boyfriend wants her to vacation with him and his 9-year-old daughter, but she's sure she can handle all that AND look into the story of a woman who may have been wrongly imprisoned for the murder of her husband 3 years earlier. The investigation is hampered by the fact that Dorinda Sweeney, the convicted woman, refuses to see or speak with Charlie. As a result, Charlie and Franklin are forced to conduct their research in a very roundabout way, which ends up putting both of them in jeopardy.

Both books are gripping reads and I stayed up reading until my eyes couldn't stay open a few nights in a row. I'm looking forward to the third book in the series, Air Time, which was released September 1st, and which I don't have yet. But that's okay, because I really need to catch up on my sleep.