[Authors, please don’t query.  These are generally reviews for books that I buy for R&R—if I like them, I’ll review them here…maybe.  If you want your book reviewed, query Bookpleasures.com—that site has many reviewers, including me.]

Magic Mirror (Georgia Lee Maxwell #1).  Michaela Thompson, author (booksBnimble, 2013).  This ebook proves a point that’s often made: when you discover an old book it can be a refreshing new read for the discoverer.  Ms. Thompson originally published the paper version of this book in 1988.  I don’t know anything about booksBnimble, but apparently they reissue old pbooks in ebook format.  I count myself lucky to have come across it.

The easiest way to write a mystery is to write it in the first person.  The reader can then discover all the clues right along with the “detective,” in this case Southern transplant to Paris Georgia Lee Maxwell, and no one is tempted to go into some other character’s point of view where spoilers can lurk.  I consider this mystery a precursor of cozies, but it has the average book length.  There are no serious themes entwined with the plot beyond the usual human ones of greed and obsession.  Misdirects abound, Georgia Lee is something like a bumbling Miss Marple, and the reader is taken on rides around Paris that show the charm of the city on the Seine and a few of the snotty Parisians who inhabit it.

You never find out whether the mirror, a circular and polished piece of obsidian once belonging to Nostradamus, is for real, but you won’t care.  This is a fine mystery by a fine writer.  For those readers wanting something in the Mary Higgins Clark tradition, download a copy.  For those writers who want to learn how to write things in that tradition, download a copy.  And, for those who want to do neither one, you’ll still find it an entertaining read.  (Perfectly edited, this book is appropriate for everyone.)

Misunderstood: Six People, Three Incidents, One Courtroom.  Gail Matelson, author.  A judge is about to retire.  Does blind justice become blinder in his courtroom?  As we age, we begin to worry about retirement.  Some go kicking and screaming into that Golden Age; others can’t wait to walk out of that day-job.  This is partly a study of that quandary with a psychological flavor.

It’s also about three crime cases this one judge has to handle before he retires.  I found it to be a well-written and entertaining story.  My first complaint has to do with not knowing how Judge Brendan’s retirement turns out.  That’s a bit of a cliffhanger.  Maybe I’m supposed to imagine my own ending?  (By the way, Brendan is a first name, at least among the Irish.)  My second complaint is that some edits are needed, maybe a high percentage for such a short work, but they’re nothing you can’t figure out.

Is this a long story or a novella?  It’s all semantics, of course, and this little ebook has some clever things going on.  I’m not a fan of charging $0.99 for one story, but a lot of authors do it (I give away free short stories right on this site).  The whole apres-writing task is a lot of work for just one story, after all—copy editing, cover art, PR and marketing, you name it.  Different strokes for different folks I guess—I have to respect that.  Whether free or $0.99, this is a fun read that will stir up a bit of thought.  (Probably for adult readers but just for the situations.)

Murder at the Rocks (A Fitzjohn Mystery).  Jill Paterson, author (J. Henderson, 2011).  I’m sure I reviewed #1 in this series (maybe just on Amazon?)—it’s good too, but this one is better.  Sydney has a wee bit of English flavor, especially in old dapper Detective Chief Inspector Fitzjohn; change a few place names and you might as well be in London, but you’re in Australia.  Nicholas Harford spent a year in Ecuador (he’s a geologist, near as I can figure) to avoid the presence of a father; neither father nor son understood one another.  When he returns he finds his father has died.  He inherits everything from the father, though, which incenses his uncle Laurence Harford because Nicholas now owns controlling shares in the family jewelry store.  When the uncle is found dead in the back of the store, Nicholas is considered a person of interest by Fitzjohn and his team.

This is classic mystery writing.  The author is a bit repetitive with Fitzjohn et al as they plod along interviewing people involved in the case—every meeting has them taking out their warrant cards (creds).  It’s slow going without much action, but there are enough misdirects and glimpses including the seamier sides of human nature.  I learned that Vietnam affected the Aussies too, for example.  Not very much is predictable, so I reveled in that.  Nicholas isn’t developed all that much, but Fitzjohn is an interesting character, sometimes more interested in his orchids than the case.

There’s a bit of police intrigue too.  Fitzjohn’s immediate superior is about to retire, so he doesn’t want to rock the boat and makes Fitzjohn take some heat that should have come the superior’s way.  The big cheese, Grieg, is, as Fitzjohn, tells an underling, “a bastard of a man,” a rare epitaph from the detective who is usually the epitome of refined good taste.

A few edits have remained in an otherwise very polished text.  Harford becomes Hartford in one instance, and those ubiquitous single quote marks to signal dialogue often appear in weird and confusing places and aren’t closed sometimes.  These are nitpicks, though, because the writing is sterling.  Fitzjohn is a wee bit like a 21^st century of Poirot but a lot more fun.  (Except for the quote already mentioned and some of the juicy twists, this book is appropriate for any age level.)

In libris libertas….     

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