DP54Cover - Deadly Pleasures

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Deadly Pleasures
about the matter. Nor is a co-worker happy to see the
rambunctious Timmy. It seems Karen had promised not to
bring him to work again.
Meg tracks down Karen’s residence, and finds no
trace of her. Caring for an active child is not what Meg had
planned, and she steps up her efforts to find Karen. She
finds out where Timmy’s father has been living, after he
lost his job.
Luckily, at least at first, Meg is able to enlist her
family in caring for turbo-charged Timmy. This may be
good practice for when Meg and Michael start their own
family, but worries about Karen are upsetting Meg’s peace
of mind.
During this, Meg is also concerned about her
Father and Brother, the birds she finds in her home, and
keeping track of Timmy’s beloved stuffed animal. Luckily,
our Meg is up to the challenge, and while the humor is low
key, it still makes for a fun read to be savored on a lazy
summer day.
CHRISTMAS IS MURDER by C.S. Challinor
(Midnight Ink, $13.95). Trade paperback, Second in the
Rex Graves series. Rating: B Barrister Rex Graves is
not having the relaxing vacation he had planned. Swanmere
Manor is owned by one of his mother’s friends, and Rex has
fond memories of the days he spent there in his youth. Now
the Manor is a hotel, mostly known to people by word of
mouth. His mom is visiting a sick friend, and his lady friend
is doing humanitarian work in Iraq, so he’s looking forward
to a quiet holiday. Sadly, the hotel is snowed in, and Rex
arrives via tennis racquet snowshoes.
There is an accidental death not long after Rex
arrives, an elderly man who was well liked by the other
residents. Sadly, it appears he may have been poisoned.
When another death occurs, a not so well liked literary
agent who falls down the steps to the cellar, Rex knows
he’s got to take action, as the police are not able to get
through the snow drifts. The characters are not all they
seem to be at first, and Rex must spend his vacation
sleuthing in this charming country house mystery.
If it weren’t for references to cell phones and the
war in Iraq, this book could almost have taken place in the
golden age of mysteries. I missed the first in the series, but
won’t miss the next one. I should also note that the author
is generously donating fifteen percent of her royalties to
Soldiers’ Angels and other charities that support those
wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
THE LAUGHTER OF DEAD KINGS by Elizabeth
Peters (Morrow,$25.95). Sixth in the Vicky Bliss
series. Rating: A- Vicky Bliss is a contented woman most
of the time. She has a great job working for a museum in
Munich, Germany. Her boss, Anton Schmidt, is a great
guy. She has a dog and cat to keep her happy at home,
and sometimes the company of John Tregarth, formerly
known as Sir John Smythe. John had been an international
antiquities thief, who has reformed. He’s now a legitimate
dealer, but law enforcement has a long memory, and
knows the statute of limitations.
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Vicky and John are contacted by an Egyptian
friend, Feisal. Feisal is in charge of a site in Egypt, a site
with the remains of the most famous mummy in the history
of Egypt, King Tut. The reason Feisal comes to Munich is
that those remains have been stolen, by a gang that
perfectly imitated the way authorities would have moved
them. Sadly, they are being held for ransom. Given John’s
past, he is a suspect.
John, Vicky, and Schmidt assure Feisal they will
assist him in recovering the remains, and that takes them
to various spots in Europe and Egypt. Given John’s past
connections, Vicky’s quick wits, and Schmidt’s lavish spending,
they have some success in figuring out what happened.
There is an interesting discovery of a link between
someone in this novel and the Peabody-Emerson series.
More than that, I won’t say. I will say that this is a wonderful
return to an old favorite character. There are references
to previous Vicky Bliss novels, and I wish I had the time to
read them before reading this. I hope the gap between this
book and the next in the series will be much shorter.
VODKA NEAT by Anna Blundy (St. Martin’s,
$24.95). Second in the Faith Zanetti series. Rating: B+
Faith Zanetti is a journalist for a UK paper, returning to
Russia after a breakdown covering the war in Iraq. As a
teenager, she married a man she met on a school trip to
Moscow. Dimitri was sort of a small time crook with ties to
the black market. Faith left Russia after she and Dimitri
discovered a horrific murder in an apartment near them.
A young couple is dead, the woman murdered by her
husband who then chopped off his leg and bled to death.
Sixteen years later, Faith is back, and hauled in by
the police to discuss the murder. It seems that Faith’s
incarcerated husband finally told prison officials Faith was
the murderer. When Faith goes to the prison to confront
him, she finds an old friend, Adrian, rather than Dimitri.
Adrian is an American who has been living in Russia for so
long using forged papers, it is impossible to prove who he
really is.
Faith and her off again on again lover, Eden
Jones, delve into the mystery of why Adrian is in prison
under another name. With another journalist, they travel
through the new Russia, with Faith’s vivid memories of
living through a time of shortages and hardship with the
sheer courage of youth. In an exciting ending, Faith comes
to grips with her past and her future.
I enjoyed this book, but was a bit disappointed to
discover it was not the first in the series. I put this a bit
higher on the mountain of books to be read and reviewed
as it was said to be humorous. I didn’t see the humor in the
book, but enjoyed it nonetheless.
UNEASY RELATIONS by Aaron Elkins (Berkley,
$23.95). Fifteenth in the Gideon Oliver series. Rating:
B+ Gideon Oliver is honored to be invited to a ceremony
on Gibraltar honoring the anniversary of the discovery of
Gibraltar Woman and Gibraltar Boy. When the skeleton of
the Homo Sapien woman sheltering a child who was part