Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore Uncle Edgar's Mystery ...

Down Under, a surfing, bungee-jumping, white-water-rafting Antipodean adventure awaits the five heroic sheep.
With only a very crooked fairy godmother to guide them, they set out to rescue Tuftella, the fairest ewe maiden of
them all, who is locked away in a tall tower surrounded by a moat full of monsters.
The Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters ($9.99): When a freak accident at the Copenhagen airport puts
Margaret Rosenberg's secretary in the hospital, Elizabeth Jones is delighted to abandon her vacation plans and fill
in. After all, Margaret is her favorite writer, famous for well-researched historical novels. Then Margaret disappears.
Is this another of the eccentric writer's escapades, as her handsome, stuffy son Christian thinks? Or has she been
kidnapped? A note demanding Margaret's bathrobe only adds to the confusion as Elizabeth and Christian try to
figure out what's going on. Peters has a lot of fun with one of her favorite themes - older characters refusing to be
stifled by younger companions - as the various plot twists unfold.
The Enola Holmes mysteries by Nancy Springer feature Sherlock and Mycroft's much younger sister ($6.99 each,
ages 8 and up according to the publisher, I'd say early teens and up, due to discussion of some of the grittier facts of
life in Victorian London). Enola has a very appealing combination of intelligence, practicality, and derring-do, and in
each case, the success of her investigation hinges on things she notices and understands that older male detectives
miss, and on her ability to decipher an encoded message. Also, the books are full of historical detail, particularly
about the rigors of life in the London slums, and the narrow confines of acceptable behavior for upper-class women.
In The Case of the Missing Marquess, when her mother disappears from their country home on her fourteenth
birthday, Enola sends word to her brothers in the city. But when they arrive, they mostly seem concerned with
forcing Enola to wear corsets and proper lady-like clothing, and packing her off to boarding school at the end of the
summer. Her mother left some coded messages and a great deal of hidden money for Enola, so since her brothers'
plans don't suit her at all, Enola decides to run away, and head for London. Along the way, she passes an estate
where a duke's young son has gone missing, kidnapped, his parents think, but Enola discovers signs that he has
run away. And she begins to realize she might make a career of finding things. In The Case of the Left-Handed
Lady, Enola has settled in London under an assumed name, become adept at the art of disguise (particularly
padding to make herself look older), and invented a fictitious male employer for her investigation business: Dr.
Ragostin, Scientific Perditorian. She undertakes to find a missing noblewoman, while being hunted herself by her
famous sleuth brother. The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets finds Enola using all her wits to outsmart a sinister villain
and save Dr. Watson's life. In The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, she must rescue her friend Lady Cecily from
being forced into a miserable marriage; but for her plan to succeed, she'll need some help from Sherlock. The Case
of the Cryptic Crinoline starts with the kidnapping of Enola's dear landlady; the clues lead her to Florence
Nightingale, and to a noble family willing to go to great lengths to conceal a scandal dating back to the Crimean War.
The Case of the Gypsy Good-Bye finds Enola searching for a missing Duquessa, a fragile beauty who
disappeared after unaccountably deciding to descend into the depths of the Baker Street Underground Station.
Meanwhile, Sherlock is once again searching for Enola, this time because he needs her help to decipher an
encrypted message from their mother.
Mystery Reviews
by Gerri Balter
You never know what secrets your neighbors are hiding. That's what Phyllis Newsom finds out in The Christmas
Cookie Killer by Livia J. Washburn ($7.99). Phyllis feels sorry for Mrs. Simmons, who can't come to the annual
Christmas cookie exchange because she is recovering from a broken hip, and brings her neighbor some cookies.
When Mrs. Simmons asks for the cookie cutter Phyllis used for her snowflake cookies, she goes back home to get it.
When she returns, Mrs. Simmons has been murdered. The killer is still in the house and knocks Phyllis unconscious.
She doesn't think she saw anything that will help the police. When Mrs. Simmons' grandson is arrested for the
crime, Phyllis doesn't believe he's guilty. She finds out that Mrs. Simmons wasn't the sweet old lady Phyllis thought
she was. Mrs. Simmons watched her neighbors. Maybe she saw something she shouldn't have. Could one of them
have killed her? And what happens when the killer realizes what Phyllis is doing?
A Night Too Dark by Dana Stabenow ($7.99) is filled with politics. Too many people have been dying under strange
circumstances. It seems to have something to do with the opening of the Suulutaq gold mine. Kate Shugak thinks
the mine is a good idea, jobs for people who need them and money for those who operate small businesses nearby.
But the number of deaths bothers her and Jim Chopin. There must be a reason, and they have to find it, no matter
who gets hurt in the process.
A year after the death of his wife, Cork O'Connor is trying to put his life back together as Vermilion Drift by William
Kent Krueger ($15.00) begins. He's been having strange nightmares about his father, as though he was responsible
for his father's death. He tries to forget them, to concentrate on his job as security consultant for an underground
mine that might become a site for nuclear waste storage. There are those who disagree with it becoming a storage