This is the fourth book in the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade series by JJ Cook. The story centers around fire chief Stella Griffin, some ghosts and a hooch war. By the way, that’s hooch as in moonshine, not any of the other terms you might be thinking of (money, female private parts, a loose woman, a scuzzy man or half of a K-9/cop duo). There’s also some stereotypical small town stuff (romance or the lack thereof, family issues, politics, misogyny and food) to round out […]
Who gives a Helvetica
Clare Henry lives in Star City and works at a typewriter repair shop called The Rescued Word. She also repairs books and sells stationery (pens, animal note cards separated by region , yellow No.2 pencils and some fancy paper that can be personalized by Clare’s niece, Marion). An old family friend/regular customer, Mirabelle asks Clare to repair an old typewriter, but before Clare can fix it, some random guy comes in and demands the typewriter. Clare says no, calls the cops and random guy splits. […]
Guilty, no pleasure
It was an accident that I started reading “The Salaryman’s Wife” and ultimately not a happy one. My Goodreads queue includes a book called “The Pearl Diver,” and I searched for it on my library’s website to borrow digitally. What came up was the 8th book in a mystery series and without looking at the author’s name, I thought “damnit, my bad, better start at the beginning…” Damnit, my bad, indeed. This whole thing was such a monumental waste of time. The tropes are tedious. […]
The sea will tell, if it can get a word in edgewise
Vincent Bugliosi sure did think a lot of himself. And he had every right to–he’s the guy who put Charles Manson away. He won almost every case he tried, whether as prosecutor or defense attorney. He wrote Helter Skelter, a fantastic book that enthralled and terrified me in equal measure. And the Sea Will Tell, however, is a bit of a different story. Covering the Palmyra murders case, the book starts off promisingly enough with the tale of two couples sailing separately to the distant island of Palmyra, both hoping […]