Georgette Heyer: Detection Unlimited

• ISBN-13: 9781402218057
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
• Publication date: 9/7/2010
• Series: Inspector Hemingway Mysteries Series , #4
• Pages: 384

 Slumped on a seat under an oak tree is old Sampson Warrenby, with a bullet through his head.
 Everybody in the village is ready to tell Chief Inspector Hemingway who did it. Could the murderer have been the dead man's niece? Or perhaps it was the other town solicitor? The couple at the farm had a guilty secret - what was it? And why is it someone else actually wants to be the prime suspect?
 Add to this the fact that Warrenby was blackmailing someone, and Hemingway has his work cut out for him.
 
 Let's be clear about this title first, because it confused the hell out of me initially: it's called Detection Unlimited because basically every character in the novel is trying to solve the mysterious death of one Mr. Sampson Warrenby. And they all have their theories. Which leads to much hilarity (in my mind at least).
 Mr. Sampson Warrenby, much like a lot of other victims in English murder mysteries, was pretty universally hated, excepting his simpleton niece. Okay, she's not literally a simpleton, but she's just about as annoying as one. She's one of those people that conforms to what society expects and puts a rosy glow on her now-dead uncle. I suppose I have a lot of angst about her since she's obviously still bothering me.
 The mystery, then, lies in who actually had a motive aside from pure dislike, because if we went on that alone, the entire village would be on the suspect list. And they actually are. They lead a merry chase for our hardworking Inspector and his erstwhile companion, who does not have a working appreciation for the cleverness of our little hero.
 Some of the characters are fun and make up for the other busybodies, and the end is a twist that you probably would have seen coming if you'd thought about it enough. The real surprise, though, is more the method of murder than the actual culprit.
 Overall: B
 Not my favorite of Heyer's mysteries, but still a jolly romp nonetheless. And a few of the characters were quite enjoyable and took some of the sting out of the general nosy character of the village.

Laurell K. Hamilton: Divine Misdemeanors

• ISBN-13: 9780345495976
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 7/27/2010
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 384

 You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I'd left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever - even if they're magical.

 Merry has given up her throne in faerie, rightfully given to her by Goddess herself, in order to live with her many men and raise her babies in peace. But that's not really going to happen because this is Laurell K. Hamilton, first of all, and second, Merry is the only other available ruler for the Unseelie court and Andais has gone off her rocker, officially. So there are factions galore and everyone wants to kill Merry, maybe. Which we pretty much only get because Doyle still has spies at court.
 Now on to the actual "mystery" portion of the novel. We are, for the first time since like the third book,  back in the real world and working for the detective agency again. It's kind of nice to have an actual problem to solve instead of power politics. Namely, someone has been killing the supposedly immortal demi-fey/lesser fey and Merry is called in to give her expert opinion. Of course, she's followed by her massive entourage because she's pregnant and royal and famous and screw the paparazzi. Basically.
 Now we encounter my first complaint, that actually isn't a huge complaint, but enough to get mentioned - there are way too many characters floating around. Several times I found myself wondering if I'd seen that character before and in what context. She talked about them like we already knew them, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why. Also, since there are so many, it's hard to get any good characterization in. I especially miss Doyle and Frost having the foreground after book 4, I think it was. That, for me, was the best of these novels. We had that emotional breakdown from Doyle when he thought Mistral had been chosen as king to Merry's queen - and it was beautiful. There's not a lot of that going on anymore. There is a lot of emotional/sexual healing going on, though, since all of Merry's guards, which now include Cel's female ex-guards, have some serious mental scars from their abuse at court.
 Which brings me to point number 2: for whatever reason, Hamilton has become incredibly heavy-handed i with her development strategies. We'll be rolling merrily along, detecting, advising, etc. when HALT FOR MERRY'S REVELATION ABOUT A GUARD. We have these strange breaks to have a breakdown, or have some crazy powerful sex, or just to have one of the guards reveal a little more of their life story. There was one particular passage that screamed complete lack of fluidity, being that it jumped between the present investigation, to Merry's thoughts on something else, back to the investigation, and back to Merry's thoughts. Usually Hamilton's much more focused. I think it's a symptom of way too many characters to deal with.
 Other than these complaints (and the shockingly short appearance of Mistral) it was an interesting mystery, and sufficiently squick-y at the end. Although I do think Merry was a tad dense on this one - the clues added up a little faster than she realized.
 Overall: B
 The saving factor for this grade was the murder mystery. Otherwise, I felt like the developments in Merry's world were not coherent, connected, or especially well handled. And I miss the fathers of the babies being around more (yes, I said fathers - Doyle, Frost, Mistral, Sholto, Rhys, and Galen, I believe. Which handily solved the problem of me having too many favorites, and Hamilton as well, is my guess).

Georgette Heyer: Death in the Stocks

• ISBN-13: 9781402217975
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated
• Publication date: 10/1/2009
• Pages: 314

 A moonlit night, a sleeping village, and an unaccountable murder....
 In the dead of night, a man in evening dress is found murdered, locked in the stocks on the village green. Unfortunately for Superintendent Hannasyde, the deceased is Arnold Vereker, a man hated by nearly everyone, especially his odd and unhelpful family members. The Verekers are as eccentric as they are corrupt, and it will take all Hannasyde's skill at detection to determine who's telling the truth, and who is pointing him in the wrong direction. The question is: who in this family is clever enough to get away with murder? 

Georgette Heyer does it again. I don't think I've run across a Heyer novel that I don't like, although some occasionally stray into TMI territory. Not TMI in a bad way, just too detailed and a little boring. But she always pulls it out. What makes her detective/mystery novels so great are not necessarily the intricacy or originality of the plotlines, but rather that which always makes Heyer stand out - her great characters. She creates characters that are humorous and sympathetic, and she does not disappoint in this entry in her canon.
 When Arnold Vereker is murdered, suspicion turns to his immediate relatives and those close to them, a development they seem in no hurry to avert. Rather, Kenneth courts suspicion and seems to take great pleasure in foiling the police and seeing how far he can push them, while discussing how he would theoretically murder his half-brother with his sister, Antonia, the other half of the suspected Vereker pair.They continue to play this cat and mouse game to the dismay of their counsel, and cousin, Giles Carrington. As the story progresses, suspicion turns from one sibling to the other, then to their respective fiancés, and they continue to speculate on how they each could have committed the murder. Not that they did, of course. 
 It's almost amusing how ineffectual Hanasyde is in this novel. Normally he's right there, solving the cases, but this time he seems to just be sort of helplessly swept along by the force of Giles' investigation and the Vereker's personalities. You sort of feel sorry for him, really. The end is a little surprising, purely because you knew that the culprit was going to be one of the cast of characters as that is how Heyer operates - she doesn't pin the murder on a random passerby that isn't introduced to the novel until the final chapters. But that is all I will say on the matter. Scouts honor.
 Overall: A-
 The mystery wasn't there as much as it has been in previous books. The investigation seemed to loose its steam several times along the way, although the reader was suitably distracted by the developing relationships, so they didn't feel the loss of a cogent plot.

Christopher Moore: Bloodsucking Fiends

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416558497

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching back, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her.
 Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that's where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) his biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door...and proceeds to rock Tommy's life - and afterlife - in ways he never thought possible. 

 I was at first reluctant to read Christopher Moore. My friend was pushing me to read Lamb, insisting that it was funny and wonderful. I was still hesitant because I wasn't sure it wasn't going to be a scathing degradation of the Christian faith. I can appreciate humor with regard to theology, but I loathe ideological attacks based on nothing but scorn and disbelief. I'm not Buddhist, but I don't knock it. And that applies to everyone and all religions. Now that I've gotten my little rant out...I wasn't sure that Moore was going to be funny but respectful. I was extremely pleasantly surprised. But that's the subject of another review.
 The point of all that is this: Moore is a good author. He's funny and irreverent but not offensively so. Sometimes you're astonished at the things that come out of his brain, but since it's usually pretty funny you can't help but laugh at things like necrophilia. In Bloodsucking Fiends we're dealing with the newly dead, or the newly undead more like. Jody is attacked and turned into a vampire in the dead of night on her way home, and must learn to deal with her new...talents. Enter Tommy Flood, pen-name C. Thomas Flood, an aspiring writer from small town middle America whose father's greatest ambition for him is that he safely join the union. Hijinks ensue as they try to not be framed for murders they did not commit. This is made a little more difficult by Tommy's often stunning naivete.
 Moore is also great at creating a supporting cast that makes you laugh almost as much as the events of the novel. From the Emperor of the city (who appears to others as a mere bum) to the large, angry, gay detective who is determined to lock Tommy up for the murders despite his cute butt, no character is too small for a humor treatment. Well done, Mr. Moore. Touche.
 Overall: A
 Moore's dialogue and writing style is fairly elementary, but he obviously does well with the low-level literary value of his work. You read these books for pure pleasure and laughs, not for any life-changing epiphanies or mind-blowing prose. His characterization is stunning though, and he is not as raunchy as he becomes in his other books. There are times when he crosses into "That's just nasty" territory, but this book has few of those moments, and I greatly appreciate it. This one definitely falls into my top three Moore novels.